Editor’s Note: TheNewsGal will be back in your inbox Jan. 10. Enjoy the holidays.
Covid-19
The world’s greatest. An emotional first-person account of what it’s been like on the front lines, treating patients, since the pandemic began. (Anna DeForest, Paris Review, ~10 min.)
How science beat the virus — and what it lost in the process. Top pandemic reporter Ed Yong ends the year on a high note. (Ed Yong, The Atlantic, ~28 min.)
Deadliest place in America: They shrugged off the pandemic, then their family and friends started dying. My god. (Trevor Hughes, USA Today, ~15 min.)
How the school reopening debate is tearing one of America’s most elite suburbs apart. Couldn’t put this down. (Noreen Malone, Slate, ~28 min.)
Drive-by burials and FaceTime farewells: Grief in the Covid era will weigh on the American psyche for years to come. Hadn’t even considered this. (Todd S. Purdum, Stat, ~8 min.)
The best of the rest
Murder in Malta: After a journalist was assassinated, her sons found clues in her unfinished work that cracked the case and brought down the government. Worth every minute. (Ben Taub, New Yorker, ~42 min.)
Abraham Lincoln, once a hero, is now a bad guy in some Bay Area education circles. Here’s something you don’t read every day … (Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, ~8 min.)
The short life and death of a “Toxic White Progressives” list. Holy schnikes. (Ruby Cramer, BuzzFeed News, ~14 min.)
Over the past two decades, eBird has become the go-to online platform for scientists and hobbyists alike to upload and share bird observations. But it has also transformed the process and etiquette of birding. Zero interest in birds, still loved this. (Jessie Williamson, Outside, ~14 min.)
For decades, director Nancy Meyers has been the foremost purveyor of onscreen hygge. Now she’s ready to retire it all. Oh, she’s a delightful interview. (Rachel Handler, Vulture, ~36 min.)
Does Thomas Chan belong in prison? At 19, he killed his father while high on drugs. His case is headed to the Canadian Supreme Court in one of the most polarizing legal challenges in a generation. This one’s a doozy. (Leah McLaren, Maclean’s, ~27 min.)
The obsessive life and mysterious death of the fisherman who discovered the Loch Ness Monster. Strangely compelling. (Paul Brown, Narratively, ~25 min.)
She stalked her daughter’s killers across Mexico, one by one: Armed with a handgun, a fake ID card and disguises, Miriam Rodríguez was a one-woman detective squad, defying a system where criminal impunity often prevails. Still can’t believe this is real. (Azam Ahmed, New York Times, ~26 min.)
For years, JaMarcus Crews tried to get a new kidney, but corporate healthcare stood in the way. He needed dialysis to stay alive, and he couldn’t miss a session, not even during a pandemic. Heartbreaking. (Lizze Presser, ProPublica, ~35 min.)
Why the dream kitchen always includes an island. Still want one. (Megan Reynolds, Jezebel, ~8 min.)
Something was wrong; my nightgown was in flames. When a body is reduced, all at once, to a crude dichotomy of hot and cold, what happens to your soul? Can’t stop thinking about this. (Virginia Heffernan, Wired, ~9 min.)
How real estate TV became a cruel joke. Truth. (Amil Niazi, The Walrus, ~6 min.)
If you read one thing this week
A Walt Disney World waitress struggles to hold on to her middle-class life amid a pandemic and catastrophic layoff. (Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, ~19 min.)
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Thanks for reading.
Kirsten