Editor’s Note: This week marks one year since I launched this newsletter, and I’d like to extend a tremendous thank you for reading and sharing. I hope it’s been a bright spot for you amidst the long days (and weeks and months) of the pandemic (and protests and recession and election year).
I’d like to up my game for you in year two, and have two favors to ask:
Would you email me with any feedback you have about the newsletter? I’m a one-woman show, and I’d be grateful for your thoughts (good, bad, and ugly).
Would you mind sharing TheNewsGal with the people in your life? If I’m any indication, readers know other readers. I’m convinced there are still a few out there who haven’t subscribed.
You’re the best.
Covid-19
(Emma Fishman, Bon Appétit)
I miss restaurants, so I opened my own … for a chipmunk. This is deeper than it appears, promise. (Bon Appétit, ~6 min.)
The Covid cruise ship and the Maine fishing town. As unique of a pandemic story as any I’ve read. (Down East, ~18 min.)
How one man became an assistant coach for a small Alaskan high school without ever leaving his California home. (Sports Illustrated, ~13 min.)
Home, bittersweet home: Can a single place squeeze in everything it takes to live a life? Spoiler alert: FFS, no. (Vox, ~11 min.)
A mother’s fight to save a Black, mentally ill 11-year-old boy in a time of a pandemic and rising racial unrest. Oh, my goodness, this story. (Washington Post, ~21 min.)
The surprising power of color to ease quarantine anxiety. I’m fascinated by this. (Art News, ~7 min.)
The best of the rest
(Kathleen Flynn, Reuters)
This is the backstory of the viral photo of a Black woman holding her son while waiting in line to vote. (BuzzFeed News, ~4 min.)
The news media isn’t biased against Trump. It’s biased for him. (Intelligencer, ~5 min.)
The kindness of strangers. A beautiful read about the lives — and recipes — of Holocaust survivors who fled Europe for Australia, where they continued cooking and baking the food they’d grown up with. (Griffith Review, ~12 min.)
Nigeria is murdering its citizens. There is a sense that the country could burn to the ground. Best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on what it’s like to live there right now. (New York Times, ~7 min.)
How top Trump acolytes Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie, fell in love while plotting to separate kids from their parents at the border. A truly terrific hate-read. (Vanity Fair, ~25 min.)
Like everyone else, I made some lifestyle changes during the pandemic. While others were perfecting their sourdough, I decided to stop being an ethical consumer. I can’t stop thinking about this one. (Atmos, ~19 min.)
The Supreme Court is helping Republicans rig elections. Adding more justices to the bench might be the only way to stop them. This isn’t the “pack the court” piece you think it is. (The Atlantic, ~27 min.)
How an aspiring poet in Brooklyn became a tool in a right-wing propaganda blitz linked to Falun Gong. You won’t be able to put this down, trust me. (Atavist, ~57 min.)
Novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge reflects on our cultural fixation with and celebration of firsts, asking: Who never got the chance to try? (Harper’s Bazaar, ~4 min.)
Shonda Rhimes is ready to “own her s***”: The game-changing showrunner on leaving ABC, “culture shock” at Netflix, and overcoming her fears. Yes, I still watch Grey’s Anatomy, but I swear this isn’t a total puff piece. (Hollywood Reporter, ~18 min.)
How America invented the white woman who just loves fall. A legit think piece! (Jezebel, ~14 min.)
Joe Biden and the possibility of a remarkable presidency. (New Yorker, ~5 min.)
If you read one thing this week
(Washington Post)
America in line: Long before Election Day, voters across the country
have been lining up to cast their ballots. We sent teams of reporters and photographers to six cities — Houston, Albuquerque, Chattanooga,
Sarasota, Atlanta and Columbus — to capture how people feel as they wait for their chance to be heard. What a cool way to tell this story. (Washington Post, ~20 min.)
If you know someone who’d like this, please send it their way, and encourage them to subscribe. For additional stories beyond the newsletter, follow TheNewsGal on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks for reading.
Kirsten