First Word #10
Just used my last stress relief lavender tea packet....
Why do we work so long and so hard?
The Problem with Work // Kathi Weeks
From Maks. She is cooking!
After some etymological research, I have to concede that the word reception does not have any formal association with refreshments.
Scene report: Twombly // Greta Rainbow // DIRT
Call it what you want—a “ceasefire,” a “temporary truce,” or a “humanitarian pause.” For Palestinians in Gaza, it’s simultaneously a moment to breathe and nothing more than a mirage.
A Ceasefire Is Not Enough // Tariq Kenney-Shawa // The Baffler
It all starts with a photo on my timeline: a page of lightly stuccoed paper, uneven lines of text cascading across its surface like fault lines before an earthquake.
The dead man decided to try the running app.
Crown Heights North // Rivka Galchen // The New Yorker
From Jael
Andreas Malm’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline was published on January 5, 2021, the day before the storming of the Capitol. Back then, the physical memory of being on the streets during the George Floyd rebellion loomed much larger than the phantasm of Nancy Pelosi kneeling in kente cloth with a promise of police reform.
Malm and Mangione // Amna A. Akbar // n+1
There is something unstable at the most basic level about any space with too much capitalism happening in it. The air is all wrong, there's simultaneously too much in it and not enough of it.
The Future Is Too Easy // David Roth // Defector
𝕻𝖍𝖔𝖙𝖔 𝖇𝖞 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖊. 𝔱𝔦𝔱𝔩𝔢𝔡: “𝔪𝔞𝔵𝔦𝔪𝔦𝔷𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔪𝔶 𝔢𝔵𝔭𝔬𝔰𝔲𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔦𝔯𝔡 𝔣𝔩𝔲”
I’m not a particularly sentimental person. Some of my friends truly believe in a sanctity of objects, me not so much.
But this evening writing up the newsletter, as my hands warm up on the cup of tea, I’ve been tallying up things I’ve lost recently:
damson madder striped glove my bf bought me for christmas (lost this week, freaked out.)
orange REI water bottle I re-bought 3 times.
CBD salve with arnica — literally not sponsored but this has healing powers. I was using this nearly every day for a while and I’m realizing I lost it during my move.
diva cup — where is that diva! and let’s be honest the IUD could very well be lost as well but let’s hope she is in there.
many more water bottles and many rings. I live in fear of having a wedding ring because I would inevitably lose it.
[if you are my ex do not read this one] 1980’s Born In The USA Japan tour shirt from my ex’s uncle.
** my friend MAY have been wearing this when she was hit by a car and they had to cut the clothes off of her in the ER. I haven’t asked and probably will not but it’s actually feeling in my heart like this may be the answer. Also lost that night was my fav red carhartt jacket which I like to believe dampened her fall. < 3
hand-made sea glass charm fell into the subway grate last week.
iphone charger sometimes but computer charger NEVER.
neti pot is MIA.
I THOUGHT my Illinois driver’s license and debit card were lost before I boarded a flight to Peru this fall. I cancelled my card and finally got a NY driver’s license only to find my wallet under my bed when I moved a month later. The exact thing happened to my dear friend the same day. If something is lost CHECK UNDER THE BED!
Let me know about something you’ve lost — or unexpectedly found — below :)
As always, please also send me your favorite first lines of what you are reading (that can look like an article, a book, a subway ad)… whatever catches your eye! poamek at gmail dot com.
Good night,
PG