First Word #9
Creatures and features. Here are good first sentences for your horrible Wednesday.
Karen Tautges Malinak watches her herd of 20 goats from the kitchen window as she waits for her family to arrive.
Are You Lonely? Adopt a New Family on Facebook Today // Lexi Pandell // WIRED
As someone with a sometimes distant relationship to my family/mom who owns 20 goats… this piece is a doozy.
A little while back, I met a capybara, the world’s largest rodent, for a coffee-and-carrot date at a café in Tokyo.
How the Capybara Won My Heart—and Almost Everyone Else’s // Gary Shteyngart // The New Yorker
I Fell for The Giant Rodent Decades Ago is an incredible subhed… scanning Gary’s New Yorker contributions one gets a bit little jealous at the wide-ranging long reads he can produce: a martini tour of NYC or reporting on a “botched circumcision.” This weekend I saw this strange Oatly advertisement where the oat milk company is looking for fact-checkers and in turn slams Mark Zuckerberg. It got me really thinking, where are we writing about weird shit these days. (Once again, my email is open to you).
Quietly but unmistakably, the tampons, liners and pads reappeared in many of the men’s bathrooms at Meta’s offices.
With Tampons and Code, Silicon Valley Workers Quietly Protest Tech’s Rightward Shift // The New York Times
Trump, a mi no me gusta mucho viajar a los EEUU, es un poco aburridor, pero confieso que hay cosas meritorias, me gusta ir a los barrios negros de Washington, allí ví una lucha entera en la capital de los EEUU entre negros y latinos con barricadas, que me pareció una pendejada, porque deberían unirse. Confieso que me gusta Walt Withman y Paul Simon y Noam Chomsky y Miller
Confieso que Sacco y Vanzetti, que tienen mi sangre, en la historia de los EEUU, son memorables y les sigo. Los asesinaron por lideres obreros con la silla eléctrica, los fascistas qué están dentro de EEUU como dentro de mi país
X post from Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia
“Trump, I don't really like travelling to the US, it's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some things worth noting. I like going to the black neighbourhoods of Washington [D.C.], where I once witnessed an entire fight in the US capital between Black and Latino people with barricades—which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should unite. I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller. I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in U.S. history, and I follow them. They were executed as worker leaders in the electric chair by fascists, who are present in the U.S. just as they are in my country.” This is a good lede.
No literary form captures the pathologies of contemporary American work quite like the humble—honored, grateful, blessed—LinkedIn post.
The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic // Anna Wiener // The New Yorker
From Charlie.
In 2020, I couldn’t count the days I was able to function.
Cycle, the Sacred and the Doomed // Morgane Billuart // Inquires in Female Health Technologies
Picked up this book at Aeon Bookstore because it featured this meme and beautiful fonts. Feels relevant to read during a week where people on Twitter are debating whether it’s still feminist to get an IUD.
In the George Floyd uprising of 2020—the highest and most widespread period of revolt in living US memory—certain concepts surged up from the heaving streets and shimmered aloft for a remarkable moment, catching the eye.
After Accountability // Pinko Magazine
This is an intro to a newly republished book on the topic out through Haymarket. There’s a launch event for in a month from now that could be fun.
A few months before I accidentally embarked on a brief and unlikely career in electoral politics, I was wallpapering the dingy hallway where my cat’s litter box lives.
Manage a Political Campaign Just To Feel Something Again // Lydia Kiesling // The Cut
The vibes are undeniably awful so here’s just a quick list of what I’ve been enjoying/what I’m looking forward to sorted by time of day.
I’ve been going to a pilates class across the park at 7:30am sometimes and the sun is also up by then. Today I could bike without freezing my ass off or spinning out on the ice.
The coffeeshop also opens at 7:30am and actually has good pastries (tomato thyme scone today).
From this morning: “Are you supportive of these onesies” - Bernie Sanders
You can canvas for Zohran at noon on the weekends… who wants to go with me.
I have acupuncture at 4:30pm on Sunday and I literally cannot wait. I’ve been going every 2-3 weeks for nearly a year now and should really write something about how its changed my life.
The skies have been more pink at sunset and the sun is setting after 5pm.
I’m seeing my friend’s play at 7pm tonight.
It’s a good time of year to make sure you have a post-dinner obligation at least once during a weeknight, maybe you round out your movie viewing before the Oscars (Film Forum is showing No Other Land a ton starting on Friday) or go to some kind of talk or play a game collectively like backgammon or bunco or even go to a comedy show (plugging my own Jerry Springer show which is in two weeks).
I fell asleep reading Priestdaddy for the first time last night. I love past me for not reading good books because I get to read them in the future.
New episode of Severance at 3:00am for some reason.
Please send me first sentences you’ve enjoyed this week!
Yours,
PG