TheNewsGal, Edition No. 93

What a week! These are the standouts.

All the things

• Why I violated Texas’s extreme abortion ban. Good on him. (Alan Braid, Washington Post Opinions, ~6 min.)

• Six Rules That Will Define Our Second Pandemic Winter. The latest, clearest info. (Katherine J. Wu, Ed Yong, and Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, ~11 min.)

• The Astonishing Story Of Skip Alexander, The Golfer With The Bloody Hands: The champion and Ryder Cup team member had one message for doctors after a plane crash left him with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body: “Make it so I can grip a club again.” Holy schnikees. (Ward Clayton, Sports Illustrated, ~18 min.)

(Via LitHub)

• The Legacy Of Colin Kaepernick: On the first high school team to take a knee. How did I miss this story when it happened? (Dave Ziron, LitHub, ~14 min.)

• Our Constitutional Crisis Is Already Here. Crucial reading, especially if, like me, you’ve allowed yourself the luxury of a break from Trump-y topics. (Robert Kagan, Washington Post Opinions, ~22 min.)

• The Contested Swamps Of Robeson County: A behemoth natural-gas facility is the latest environmental challenge for one of North Carolina’s most diverse counties. But the debate over history, benefit, and protection is more complicated than it appears. Couldn’t put this down. (Barry Yeoman, The Assembly, ~27 min.)

• The unbelievable grimness of HermanCainAward, the subreddit that catalogs anti-Vaxxer COVID-19 deaths. Jeezuz. (Lili Loofbourow, Slate, ~8 min.)

(Chanell Stone for New York Times)

• “America’s Oldest Park Ranger” Is Only Her Latest Chapter: Betty Reid Soskin has fought to ensure that American history includes the stories that get overlooked. As she turns 100, few stories have been more remarkable than hers. If you’ve somehow missed this, get moving. (Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, ~10 min.)

• A Search For The Delivery Worker In A Viral Hurricane Ida Video: How hard could it be to find the person who pushed an electric bike through thigh-deep floodwaters? Excellent. (Eric Lach, New Yorker, ~11 min.)

• The Secrets Of The World’s Greatest Freediver. Not a lick of interest in freediving and this is thrilling. (Daniel Riley, GQ, ~31 min.)

• The Profound Beauty Of Firefly Tourism: Visitors to Appalachia are seeking out fireflies and finding solace in these dark times. Put off reading this for a couple weeks and I’m still regretting it. (Leigh Ann Henion, Washington Post Magazine, ~21 min.)

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If you read one thing this week

• Gabby Petito, online detectives, and the queasy places our true-crime obsessions have taken us. I just can’t with this case. (Delia Cai, Vanity Fair, ~6 min.)