TheNewsGal, Edition No. 76
What a week! Here's what you missed.
All the things
The great Hawaiian pizza culture war: How pineapple broke the internet. This is important. (Will Coldwell, 1843, ~7 min.)
The Bombs of Eid. A Palestinian Australian, far from home, reflects on her extended family trapped in an endless war zone: “Lobna’s kids are now too big to fit under a kitchen sink but the bombs are still falling on Gaza.” (Samah Sabawi, Meanjin Quarterly, ~3 min.)
Ma’Khia Bryant’s journey through foster care ended with an officer’s bullet. Remember the teen who was shot by police as the Derek Chauvin verdict was coming in? (Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Ellen Barry and Will Wright, New York Times, ~15 min.)
The bells v. the boutique hotel: Whitechapel Bell Foundry dates to 1570, and is where Big Ben and the Liberty Bell were made. But it shut in 2017, and a fight for its future has been raging ever since. A perfect longread. (Hettie O’Brien, The Guardian, ~27 min.)
Their Lives on the Line: The meatpacking industry lobbied Trump to declare its workers “essential,” to keep up production in the pandemic. Unless they got sick — then they were expendable. Unconscionable and heartbreaking and I just can’t. (Alice Driver, New York Review of Books, ~10 min.)
Why you’re noticing flowers now more than ever. OK, so it’s not just me. (Eliza Brooke, The Goods, ~11 min.)
The First Rule of Bite Club? Talk About It. The odds of being attacked by a shark are less than one in 11 million, which makes it nearly impossible to find people to turn to when you become that one. Enter a support group of survivors called the Bite Club. Everything about this story is fascinating. (Haley Cohen Gilliland, Outside, ~21 min.)
Made of Earth: An excruciating hunt for an old adobe house in Santa Fe. (Gina Rae La Cerva, Believer, ~11 min.)
The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill. All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a teensy error with huge consequences. Inside the urgent mission to solve a mystery with crucial consequences for public health ... so good. (Megan Molteni, Wired, ~22 min.)
Doctor, Lawyer, Insurrectionist: The Radicalization of Simone Gold. I need to quit reading about Capitol insurrectionists, but this one’s a doozy. (Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones, ~29 min.)
“I seek a kind person”: The Guardian ad that saved my Jewish father from the Nazis. This story is incredible, as in I can’t believe it’s true. (Julian Borger, The Guardian, ~14 min.)
Out of Breath. Amidst lockdown in covid-ravaged India, a poet considers the very nature of breath. Stunning. (Tishani Doshi, Orion Magazine, ~8 min.)
If you read one thing this week
What my Korean father taught me about defending myself in America. Just the best essay. (Alexander Chee, GQ, ~17 min.)