Hi! I wrote this, about the unbelievable isolation of having babies in a pandemic, and postpartum depression, and the concept of matrescence, and other things I've thought about and felt over the past year.
" I’ll just learn their names, I told myself back in April. Somewhere out there, seven guys named Namjoon, Seokjin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook were laughing at me." This is a gorgeous dive into BTS fandom by
@lenikacruz
What's your peak celebrity experience while waiting tables? Mine was Christine Baranski coming in without makeup in a baseball cap asking for a table that night, being told we were fully booked by manager who didn't recognize her, and saying, " What if it's for Meryl Streep?"
Nothing, *nothing*, has negatively impacted my happiness, my health, my finances, my work, my prospects like having children. I love them boundlessly. I chose to have them and would do it again. But it has to be a choice. Without a choice women just aren’t equal human beings.
This was supposed to go up today as a semi-exclusive but then Amazon shipped copies early and then one pub broke the embargo and then everyone else did. BUT I worked hard on it and would love for you to read it (if you want to).
During World War II the Nazis stole one-fifth of all the artworks in Europe. This is a story I've been working on for a long time about why so much looted art taken from Jewish families was never returned.
"If two men brawled at a bar and one broke the other’s nose, it wouldn’t matter whether they came to the bar together ... Only when the victim is a woman and the crime is sexual can such personal details derail a prosecution."
It’s really cool how by day your brain is like “la la la work coffee food” and at night it’s all “you’re a professional humiliation why didn’t you go to the dentist you’ve definitely got gum disease everyone is going to die and leave you all alone”
@authorbjordan
Also found out I was having (boy-girl) twins in late 2019. The only response I liked was from a cab driver: “Boys are easier but girls are smarter.” (So far, neither is true.)
Please forgive this earnest tweet but I've been back in London for one year and my biggest takeaway is how brilliant the NHS is. Fewer delays than my doc in DC, easier to get appointments, really great doctors and nurses, amazing care. Not to mention that, you know, it's free.
Got the (expected) email from my hospital last night that partners can no longer come to scans, apts, or to accompany women in labor. People are dying alone and women are giving birth alone. If that doesn’t break your heart a bit I don’t know what does.
For my last piece before going on leave I wrote about watching Expecting Amy (which is magnificent) while 36 weeks pregnant with twins (which is wretched).
"Both the Grammys and Oscars versions of 'Shallow' bear Gaga’s great hallmarks. They force a reaction. They interrupt the flow. They imagine what would happen if people were allowed to act as intensely as they inwardly feel."
"Patio-furniture flames," "clip-art tattoos," and "a drum line dressed for a gay bar": This
@skornhaber
writeup of the halftime show is better than Maroon 5 deserves.
Obviously the big news is that
@Lin_Manuel
has a piece in the December issue that is out today but if you finish it and still feel like reading I have one too, on Margaret Atwood and the literature of witness
"The high-velocity bullet causes a swath of tissue damage that extends several inches from its path. It does not have to actually hit an artery to damage it and cause catastrophic bleeding. Exit wounds can be the size of an orange."
"Only one of the half-dozen officials I spoke to, who currently or have worked in the White House and on the Trump campaign, had read Carroll’s essay, and none agreed to go on the record with their comments."
The babies are four months old today! This is basically what it’s like. In the early days, when I wanted to quietly jump in the river, a lot of well-meaning people told me, “It doesn’t get better, it gets different.” (1)
@ivadixit
My first summer after moving to NY I got an internship at Vogue. When I asked my boss for TippEx my first week she looked aghast, fished around in her bag, and handed me a tampon.
This story absolutely blew me away. History, science, and most importantly, the devastating human cost—something any city resident can see in plain sight.
Going to tweet this anew; it did not make any year-end best lists but it did get me maybe 500+ emails from other new pandemic parents and made me feel much less alone! Happy holidays all.
I love my coworkers to death and I love The Atlantic and have never been more awed by the work everyone is doing under insane circumstances. There are no better people in journalism.
My sister has been working so hard for three years as a producer on Nautilus, throwing all her creativity and energy and care into a thrilling show that we might never see because ... Disney wants to lower its tax burden. Cool industry.
"These supporters will not change their minds because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of."
The babies are ten months today and we are all struggling. They're both teething, crying a lot in the night, extremely strong, and always trying to injure themselves any way they can. They are so sweet and funny and fun, but the broken nights are punishing.