I’m so tired, friends. Same as you, same as everyone. I’m tired of the barrage of coronavirus news; tired of wishing health and safety for the recipient of every email I send; tired of feeling the thrill of digging into a non-coronavirus story, only to find a pandemic angle tucked deep in the 10th paragraph to yank me back to our collective endless, dismal reality.
Friends, family, and I are healthy and safe; my job is secure; I’m sheltering in place not with remote-learning kiddos, but my awesome parents. I’m content to stay home and read and walk the dog and bake through my feelings as long as public health experts recommend. But UGH.
Many of you who subscribe to The News Gal I know personally, and many more I do not. But I think of you all each week as I file stories away for the newsletter. Will they find this writing as smart or as compelling as I do? Will they find time for a slow-building-but-mind-blowing investigation that clocks in at 45+ minutes? Most importantly, and never more so than these past couple months: Will they appreciate stories that make them feel their feelings, sometimes for better but often for worse?
I’m reading a lot of obituaries, and I’m sad for us all. The loss is overwhelming. So I’m grateful to the reporters searching for stories of goodness among all the despair. I’m reading a lot of those, too, and clinging to them.
I hope the mix of pieces you find here each week is lifting you up, helping you feel connected, or just providing a welcome respite from pandemic exhaustion. That’s what they’re doing for me right now. Thanks for reading.
Covid-19 stories:
The pandemic has Joe Biden thinking bigger — and more progressive — than he’d ever imagined for his presidency. One look at his plans and FDR comes to mind ... (New York Magazine, ~30 min.)
The best piece I’ve read on Trump’s pitiful coronavirus meltdown. (Financial Times, ~19 min.)
Covid-19 is shining a harsh light on the American food system, and it’s a hot mess. Michael Pollan explains why. (New York Review of Books, ~12 min.)
Essential workers are exhausted workers, as one woman found when she tapped in for her father at their family’s Brooklyn grocery store. (New Yorker, ~10 min.)
An American college professor isolating unexpectedly in Uruguay reflects on changing borders in a changing world. I couldn’t put this one down. (Guernica, ~22 min.)
When it comes to lifting the lockdown, Canada’s nailing it. (The Walrus, ~27 min.)
How a fifth-generation, family-run funeral home in the Bronx has been forced to adapt to serve a community brought to its knees by coronavirus. (NYT Magazine, ~17 min., audio version available)
It was his first time in a food line. This is what it was like. (Washington Post, ~6 min.)
The title of this essay? “Fuck the bread. The bread is over.” Just read it. (Paris Review, ~8 min.)
We’re under lockdown during a pandemic. Bring back the TV tray. (Eater, ~4 min.)
The best of the rest:
Jason Alexander’s tribute to Jerry Stiller is perfect. I’m not crying, you’re crying. (New York Times, ~5 min.)
This thriller, about a hacker who saved the internet, gripped me out of the gate and wouldn’t let go. (Wired, ~62 min.)
If you read one thing about the horrific murder of Ahmaud Arbery, make it this. I can’t stop thinking about it. (Bitter Southerner, ~27 min.)
The good, the bad, and the ugly of mixing Instagram and motherhood. (Elle, ~14 min.)
Meet former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who, since joining Facebook, is credited with getting Mark Zuckerberg to — finally! — face his public. Fascinating. (Politico Magazine, ~27 min.)
A Baltimore drug-runner and a local cop have a long history with each other. But this story isn’t what you think. (HuffPost Highline, ~41 min.)
How Stevie Wonder “wrote the soundtrack for a fragile America.” (The Undefeated, ~9 min.)
If you know someone who’d like this, send it their way. You can find the online version (and subscribe) here. For additional stories beyond the newsletter, you can follow The News Gal on Twitter here, on Facebook here, on Pocket here, and on LinkedIn here. Questions, comments, concerns, and story suggestions are always welcome — just hit reply.