TheNewsGal, Edition No. 104

What a week! These are the standouts.

All the things

• How Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became bigger than “Let It Go.” Fascinating. (Alex Janin, Wall Street Journal, ~9 min.)

• Everything You Need to Know About “Soup Mother.” Definitely didn’t need to know any of this, but again, I’m fascinated. (Chris Crowley, Grub Street, ~8 min.)

• Can He Build Back Better? Many liberals worry that the Democrats are doomed. But Biden can still rebound. If he can’t, we’re toast. (Michael Tomasky, New York Review of Books, ~24 min.)

• For Alaska’s winter birds, coping with the cold is a matter of survival. How do they do it? Craziness! (Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, ~5 min.)

• Revisiting the narrative with Picabo Street, 24 years later. Who knew? (Tim Layden, NBC News, ~9 min.)

• Jeopardy! Hasn’t Had A Player Like Amy Schneider: The most successful woman to compete on the show can finally celebrate her 40-day winning streak. And the money. As compelling as anything I read this week. (Shane O’Neill, New York Times, ~9 min.)

(Yves Bachmaan, GQ)

• The Rescue Artists Of The New Avalanche Age: The world’s most elite helicopter rescue team is more important than ever, as skiers and snowboarders venture farther in the backcountry and climate change makes mountain conditions more dangerous. Couldn’t put this down, wow. (Joshua Hammer, GQ, ~24 min.)

• Christina Ricci Knew The Spiky Roles Were Coming: The 41-year-old actress on Yellowjackets, child stardom, and what happened in between. I’m a fan. (Rachel Syme, New Yorker, ~20 min.)

• Searching for Susy Thunder: In the ’80s, Susan Headley ran with the best of them — phone phreakers, social engineers, and the most notorious computer hackers of the era. Then she disappeared. A landline telephone hacker, wow. (Claire L. Evans, The Verge, ~32 min.)

• Escape From QAnon: How Jan. 6 changed one person’s path. A rare good-news QAnon story. (Brandy Zadrony, NBC News, ~14 min.)

• On the insanity of being a Scrabble enthusiast. Straaange. (Oliver Roeder, LitHub, ~8 min.)

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If you read one thing this week

(Scott McIntyre, Washington Post)

• The Moral Calculations Of A Billionaire: After the best year in history to be among the super-rich, one of America’s 745 billionaires wonders: “What’s enough? What’s the answer?” Still thinking about this one several hours after reading. (Eli Saslow, Washington Post, ~14 min.)