Evidence of our own faces

It’s so sunny today that it’s stupid for being so cold, now late April in New England, still flirting with freezing temperatures. I saw snow yesterday. 

I don’t know if it’s the troubled weather (nor why I’m scene-setting with it for the second time in a row), but the writing’s been sluggish. This letter, behind schedule. The blog, behind schedule. The book, the other book… well, you get the idea.

In the interest of prompting spring—of moving something forward—here, at least, are some recent gems that other people have made.

• I’ve long been obsessed with Helena Fitzgerald’s Grief Bacon newsletter, and this week’s was no exception: “hoaders” is a remarkable essay on memory, love, and the role of Facebook in our lives, resonant for me as I struggle with how and why and whether I should on that malicious platform. “The internet has always been about love rather than death. Choosing love out of these two options sounds optimistic, but is in fact perhaps its most sinister quality. Too much memory, just like too much romance, feels like a hoarder’s house; the obligation to an unforgotten self is stifling, refusing movement and fresh air.” (Not every Grief Bacon is behind a paywall, but “hoarders” is; I highly recommend subscribing!)
   

• "The surveillance economy should die," David Dayen writes in “Ban Targeted Advertising,” and there are not strong enough words in this language for me to express my agreement. I'm constantly furious with marketing, disruptively furious, for everything from class warfare to privacy violations to a lack of basic human decency—and then the algorithms get involved. There's plenty of merit to Dayen's recommendation—it's not perfect, but it's a start. (Related—by which I mean, where I found that article in the first place—here's a post from Mark Hurst continuing coverage on the terribleness of Facebook.)
   

• This deeply important “conversation about Starbucks” happened between some of my favorite thinkers and writers: Jamelle Bouie, Gene Demby, Aisha Harris, and Tressie McMillan Cottom. Critical quote: “The idea that the end stage of anti-racism is that black people (and others!) have equal ability to shape society, including notions of what is public and who it is for, is basically foreign to a lot of people.” (Emphasis mine.)
   

• “Too Many Men” is a long-read on the single male populations of China and India that have resulted from a confluence of cultural, medical, and legislative practices. It’s compelling, and bolstered by fancy parallax graphics and sideways scrolling, but anemic: I want to see the consequences holistically, and through an ardently feminist lens. This is a story of how the patriarchy ruins men’s lives; I wish it would shout that.
   

• I admit, I haven’t yet made it through all six of my friend Corey Vilhauer’s brand-new posts on web content accessibility, but I’ve started, and I’m pumped. If you work on the web, you need to read this: clever, thorough, well-organized, and overflowing with clear considerations for making content available to everyone online.
   

• I’m still two episodes from the end of Kill la Kill, a 2013 series from animation studio Trigger (which you can watch on Netflix), but I’ll go ahead now and call this one of my favorite shows of all time. It’s bizarre and beautiful and sometimes challenging, as you might expect from a show about a teenager in a skimpy talking sailor suit trying to avenge her father’s death while overthrowing a fascist high school with half a pair of oversized scissors. It gets… it gets weirder from there, and it might be, quite literally, perfect.
   

• When I’m not watching anime, I’m obsessed with Big Dreams, Small Spaces, a British gardening show (also on Netflix). There’s nothing particularly special about this show (and its title could fit any of a dozen HGTV series), but it’s become my go-to weekend morning routine: make a pot of tea, snuggle with a dog, watch some people try to stuff a brick wall with ferns. The stakes are terrifically low, and the tone is so polite and supportive, and there are plants—so many wonderful plants. It’s an excellent antidote to 2018, and this awful, reluctant spring in particular.

Three different causes you might consider donating to this week:

• Hispanic Federation’s UNIDOS disaster recovery fund for Puerto Rico 

• A friend’s friend’s fundraiser to help with vet bills for an abandoned dog 

• Ms. P's odds are stacked against her on Small Can Be Big

Whatever you can do: thank you.