Smoke Screen

Are Cigarettes Cool Again?

It takes me roughly four hours a day to write this newsletter about the news. That leaves me twenty hours to binge television shows in order to take my mind off the news. You already have a pretty good idea of what I notice during the news portion of my day. But here’s something I’ve noticed on TV. Everyone is smoking. The cigarette may have surpassed the gun as Hollywood’s most popular prop. Maybe it makes it easier to get into character, maybe a cigarette serves as some sort of dramatic crutch, or maybe cigarettes just look cool again. Whatever it is, the smoking is not limited to dramatic limited series. It’s on social media as well. And there, the people doing the smoking are only playing themselves. “Whether you’re scrolling through social media or sifting through party inspiration online, you’ll find young stars like Addison Rae, Paul Mescal, Gracie Abrams, Hannah Einbinder, Rosalía, Doechii, Jeremy Allen White or Charli XCX holding a cigarette, oftentimes in a social setting. Regardless of how those images make it to the internet — they might be posted by the celebrities themselves or by outlets — the photos shape what’s cool and aspirational for stars’ impressionable teen and 20-something fans. Perhaps that’s why college students around the country are noticing smoke wafting around their campuses.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): Is Gen Z Romanticizing Cigarettes Again?

+ If you missed my election wrap up, I explained why Tuesday’s Dem sweep could be described as the McDonald’s election. And I’m not just talking about the ketchup-throwing Hamburglar. The Donald McDonald Election.

+ And I’d like to wish a happy 97th birthday to my favorite subscriber. She’s been here since the beginning, she has the highest open rate of any of you, and she’s drawn in many new subscribers from her community. You all benefit from her subscription, because she dramatically skews the NextDraft demographics upwards when it comes to smarts and ethics. She also provides the most useful feedback, such as, “David, the article you shared in the top spot today was really interesting. Maybe you should actually read it.” Happy Birthday, Mom!

2

Enemies in High Places

Drones have redefined modern warfare. But for the injured, they’ve made wait times for help and care reminiscent of the worst of World War I. C.J. Chivers with some incredible war reporting in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): A Harrowing Escape From the Drone-Infested Hellscape of Ukraine’s Front Lines. “His mission had been timed for a dark period between moonset and sunrise. The sky was black, silent and vast. But in less than three hours, daybreak would illuminate the meadow where he bled. Many more Russian drones would take flight. Aleksandr’s future distilled to a simple binary. If he could reach the woodlot by dawn, he might be pulled to safety and surgical care. If not, he’d almost certainly end up like countless other soldiers in this war: laying helpless on farmland until a predatory drone descended and an explosion tore him apart, his last wretched seconds recorded for social media’s 24-7 snuff-film deathstream.”

3

Teachable Moment

“Immigration officers arrested a teacher early Wednesday in Chicago after chasing her into the grounds of a private preschool and grabbing her as parents and students looked on ... Several parents said they were waiting to drop off their children around 7 a.m. at Rayito de Sol, a Spanish immersion day care and school, when they saw armed officers in black vests with the words ‘POLICE ICE’ run behind the woman and into the lobby of the building. Witnesses and school employees told The Washington Post that they thought the school was under attack and scrambled into rooms and vehicles outside in search of safety.” Is this going after the worst of the worst of the dangerous criminals who have supposedly invaded our country? Is this what we had in mind when we were told we’re going after all the bad hombres? Does this really make anyone feel safer? WaPo (Gift Article): Armed ICE officers chase teacher into preschool in Chicago.

+ If you don’t care about the bad optics or the bad ethics, what about the bad economics? “As ICE agents fan out to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, their enforcement actions are creating unease among both undocumented and documented workers on building sites across the U.S., deepening the already severe labor shortage, slowing the pace of construction and driving up costs, industry officials and contractors say.” ICE is sending a chill through the construction industry.

+ “A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday issued a sweeping injunction that puts more permanent restrictions on the use of force by immigration agents during ‘Operation Midway Blitz,’ saying top government officials lied in their testimony about threats that protesters posed and that their unlawful behavior on the streets ‘shows no signs of stopping.’” Chicago Tribune: The use of force shocks the conscience. (On the plus side, this implies there’s still a conscience.)

4

Beats the Pants Off Me

“Celebrities seem to have developed a pants allergy. Bella Hadid and Julia Fox have been running errands in their underpants. Bodysuits, oversize blazers worn as dresses, and sheer fabrics that reveal the lingerie underneath are all common sights. This widespread pantsless trend has given rise to a new sort of garment, more micro than micro-shorts, bulkier than lingerie: I call it the ‘fashion diaper.’” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Pantsless Trend Reaches Its Logical Conclusion. (This trend sure took a long time to catch on. Many of us who work on the Internet have been pantsless since like 1993.)

5

Extra, Extra

Taking Flights: There are rumors that Congress is getting closer to a deal to re-open the government. If a deal doesn’t take flight, you may not either. “America’s busiest airports, including those in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago, were set to face hundreds of flight cuts starting Friday due to the government shutdown, according to a list distributed to the airlines.” And any cuts to air traffic could drag into the Thanksgiving holiday.

+ Loud Speaker: “Ms. Pelosi, 85, was the nation’s first and only female House speaker, and she will have represented San Francisco in Congress for 39 years when she leaves office. She has served during an era of seismic change for American society and her own city, from the throes of the AIDS crisis to the legalization of gay marriage, and through the meteoric rise of the tech sector and the nation’s extreme polarization. She entered political office later in life and became a hero to Democrats for the way she wielded immense power to push Obamacare, climate change legislation and infrastructure programs through Congress.” NYT (Gift Article): Pelosi Plans to Retire in 2027 After 39 Years in Congress.

+ The Book of Job (losses): “Announced job cuts last month climbed by more than 153,000, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday, up 175% from the same month a year earlier and the highest October increase since 2003. Layoff announcements surpassed more than a million in first 10 months of this year, an increase of 65% compared to the same period last year.” Layoff announcements surged last month.

+ Sub Doms: “Jurors showed no appetite for the Justice Department’s case against ‘sandwich guy,’ the D.C. resident who chucked a Subway sandwich at the chest of a federal officer, finding him not guilty on Thursday after several hours of deliberations.” (If the guy who threw a sandwich was convicted, I would have tossed my cookies.)

+ Lose For Less: “Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk secured deals with the Trump administration to slash prices for their blockbuster weight-loss drugs in exchange for tariff relief and wider access for Medicare patients.”

+ Ball Manipulation: We’ve entered a new era of place kicking in the NFL. And the reason why comes down to the balls. The Dark Arts Behind the NFL’s Record-Shattering Kicking Season. “The NFL made a little-noticed change that gave teams access to the balls long before game day—and it has quickly ushered in a year of supercharged kicking.”

6

Bottom of the News

It “doesn’t necessarily mean having a country accent. Rather, it’s when someone adjusts their airway to be narrow in the back and wide in the front, so it makes a trumpet or megaphone shape, which increases the loudness of sounds at higher pitches in one’s voice. Singers use it to be heard over music. Children adopt it to taunt each other through the playground fray.” Want to Be Heard? Speak With Some Twang.

+ Paris has a lottery going for burial plots near Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde.