Sh-t Happened

Let's Talk About the Pandemic. Weekend Whats, Feel Good Friday.

Step into my office, stop doom-scrolling the news, and lie down on the couch for just a minute (or actually 50). You experienced a traumatic period in your life. As the trauma receded, the first thing you tried to do was to put the whole experience behind you. This repression seems like a good idea on paper, but doesn't always play out that well in the unconscious. Everything is not OK. You experienced a global pandemic that completely altered your view of health, safety, politics, and just how aggressively you could move to snag the last roll of toilet paper on the shelf. In The Atlantic (Gift Article), George Makari and Richard A. Friedman argue that there's a reason that America is in a funk. "Unemployment rates are lower than they’ve been in half a century and the stock market is sky-high, but poll after poll shows that voters are disgruntled. President Joe Biden’s approval rating has been hovering in the high 30s. Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives—a measure that usually dips in times of economic uncertainty—is at a near-record low, according to Gallup polling. And nearly half of Americans surveyed in January said they were worse off than three years prior." It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic. And consider our kids, who were stuck home from school, saw their adolescence interrupted, and whose parents could only answer the question, Is it gonna be OK?, with, Kid, I really don't know. "Four years ago, the country was brought to its knees by a world-historic disaster. COVID-19 hospitalized nearly 7 million Americans and killed more than a million; it’s still killing hundreds each week. It shut down schools and forced people into social isolation. Almost overnight, most of the country was thrown into a state of high anxiety—then, soon enough, grief and mourning. But the country has not come together to sufficiently acknowledge the tragedy it endured." (I'd love to hear more about how you feel about this, but our time is up.)

+ One way to process the most remarkable year in our lives (and to be reminded that just about everything my Holocaust-surviving dad predicted about Donald Trump came true) is by reading or listening to my book, Please Scream Inside Your Heart. (You might want to send a few copies to friends in swing states. Theirs are the memories that most urgently need jarring.)

2

My Baby She Wrote Me a Letter

"Yet as we adjust, her correspondence and ours — traveling hundreds of miles, as if from one era to another — is teaching us all more than we’d imagined. The gift of digital detox that we thought Australia was giving our daughter has also become a revelatory bequest for us — her American parents and her older brother. Something in the act of writing, sending and waiting days or weeks for a reply, and in the physical and social challenges experienced by our daughter at a distance, is changing all of our personal operating systems. Without the ever-present immediacy of digital connection, even just temporarily, can a family be rewired?" Damien Cave on what happened when his 13-year-old "left her phone behind for hiking, chores and study in the Australian wilderness. Our pen-and-paper correspondence is opening up an unexpected world." NYT (Gift Article): What We Gained (and Lost) When Our Daughter Unplugged for a School Year. (I'd love to get back into the practice of writing on paper. But at this point, my hand gets sore signing a check.)

3

Stop the Steal

"The vote to merge the blank check company with the Trump Media & Technology Group came during a special meeting of DWAC stockholders. The now-approved plan will allow Trump's company, which operates the Truth Social social media site, to take over DWAC's listing on the Nasdaq within days or weeks." Donald Trump is set for a $3 billion paper windfall. It may not solve his current cash crunch. Seriously, who would invest in this garbage? You get to put money into a shell company led by the world's most famous failing fraudster that includes a money hemorrhaging social network with only one prolific poster? I'd rather invest in something safer like Shohei Ohtani's interpreter.

+ Speaking of Trump's assets, his lawyers argued there was no way he could come up with the dough to pay his NY fraud fine. Yet, on the aforementioned Truth Social, Trump just claimed he has $500 million in cash. (One way or another, through shell company investments or pseudo-political donations, the the MAGA crowd is gonna end up footing the bill for this creep.)

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: The team behind Game of Thrones is back with a new series on Netflix call 3 Body Problem. I may not understand all the physics references, but it's got a great first episode and I'm looking forward to a weekend binge. (Which will help take my mind off my March Madness bracket. It turns out knowing nothing wasn't an ideal strategy after all.)

+ What to Watch: It's good period for good television as Shogun on Hulu is also excellent. It can be a little confusing at first, but it's easier to follow when you remember that the hot people are the good guys.

+ What to Read: "In a recent interview, Boyd recalled that she had assumed the letter was from a crazed fan and showed it to her husband, the Beatles guitarist George Harrison. Then she forgot about it — until a few hours later when the phone rang. It was Eric Clapton, the rock guitarist and one of Harrison’s friends." NYT (Gift Article): ‘Dear Layla’: Letters for Sale From a Rock Music Love Triangle.

5

Extra, Extra

Royal Rx: "Kate, the Princess of Wales, said Friday she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Her condition was disclosed in a video message recorded on Wednesday and broadcast Friday, coming after weeks of speculation on social media about her whereabouts and health since she was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery." (Maybe we just leave her alone for a while?) This announcement comes just weeks after Charles reported that he has cancer.

+ House of Cards: With hours to spare before shutdown (as per usual) the House approved a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills. MTG responded to the sanity by filing a motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson. And it's only gonna get crazier. "Speaker Mike Johnson is about to drop to a one-vote majority, as retiring Rep. Mike Gallagher has decided he will exit the House as soon as next month."

+ Ceasefire Held Hostage: "The dispute was over the U.S. insistence on linking the ceasefire call to a hostage deal and condemnation of Hamas, rather than the unconditional ceasefire resolution demanded by Russia and China." U.S. Gaza ceasefire resolution vetoed by China, Russia at UN Security Council.

+ Project Managers: "With contributions from former high-level Trump administration appointees and an advisory board that has grown to over 100 conservative organizations, proponents describe Project 2025 as the most sophisticated transition effort that has existed for conservatives. The initiative includes a manifesto devising a policy agenda for every department, numerous agencies and scores of offices throughout the federal government." Leonard Leo, Koch networks pour millions into groups prepping for potential second Trump administration.

+ You Talking to Me? "A couple of years ago, I get this call: ‘Come down to Tribeca. You and Bobby are gonna meet in his office and read three scenes over Zoom for Barry Levinson in L.A.,’ ' recalls Debra Messing of Will & Grace fame. She eventually landed the role as De Niro’s 1950s younger mob wife in Levinson’s upcoming film, Alto Knights. 'I went to town. I memorized and analyzed the s--- out of that script. So the day comes and I show up in period garb, with a Jackie-O updo and the red lipstick. Bob walks in wearing shorts and Crocs, takes one look at me and says, ‘Whaddya, going to a prom?’ Then we start. And three lines into the first scene, he starts to improvise. I’m like, Bob De Niro is improvising! What the f--- am I gonna do?'" The excellent, sesame-noodle loving writer Andrew Corsello on Robert De Niro at 80.

+ Gator Aid: "The owner of an alligator recently seized by conservation officers in New York is fighting for its return, saying the reptile he named Albert and has shared a home with for more than three decades is a gentle giant that's no danger to anyone." A New York man's pet alligator was seized after 30 years. Now, he wants Albert back.

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Feel Good Friday

"We asked the photojournalists of The Everyday Projects — a global community of photographers using images to challenge harmful stereotypes — to look through their archives for scenes that capture a sense of happiness and well-being, from small uplifting moments to big bursts of joy." NPR: Can a picture make you happy? We asked photographers and here's what they sent us.

+ Man 'recovering well' after pig kidney transplant.

+ Biden administration discharges another $6 billion in student debt for 78,000 public service workers.

+ Grumpy gran aged 75 is a global Fortnite gaming sensation.

+ MacKenzie Scott gave away a ton of money this quarter. Here's one story of a donation to one of my favorite orgs: 826 Valencia, where I served on the board until, after nine years, they tired of the puns. MacKenzie Scott charity shocks San Francisco nonprofit with $1M gift.

+ Constant bad news doing your head in? Why not read about the fish doorbell instead.

+ And what better way is there to head into the weekend than by celebrating 93 Years of Shatner.

Thanks,

Dave Pell, News Therapist

Of course a picture can make you happy!