Walking Alone, Weekend Whats
In the song Out In the Street, Bruce Springsteen sings, When I’m out in the street, oh oh oh oh oh, I walk the way I wanna walk. When I’m out in the street, oh oh oh oh oh, I talk the way I wanna talk. For most modern day Americans, walking the way they wanna walk means walking quickly and talking the way they wanna talk is limited to muttering under their breath. I’m no exception. On the rare occasion when a stranger tries to make conversation, I point to the Airpods in my ears and say, oh oh oh oh oh No. But such attempts at discourse are becoming less common. According to an interesting new study that applied AI to video footage, “American ambulators walked faster and schmoozed less than they used to. They seemed to be having fewer of the informal encounters that undergird civil society and strengthen urban economies.” Bloomberg City Lab (Gift Article): What Happened to Hanging Out on the Street? The researchers compared video data from three decades apart in locations across four cities. “At each site, pedestrians walked faster in 2010 than they had in 1980, by an average of 15%. Time spent lingering in public spaces declined by roughly half, and fewer people were forming groups. In general, walkers appeared more atomized and rushed in 2010 than they had a generation before.” Interestingly, the Springsteen song referenced above came out in 1980. In 2010, Bruce may have had different lyrics than, When I’m out in the street, girl, Well, I never feel alone, When I’m out in the street, girl, In the crowd I feel at home. I’m no songwriter, but for the updated version, the word iPhone would rhyme pretty well in there…
Stand Back, Stand By, Walk Free
“With their powerful patron and newfound freedom, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys stand poised to assert themselves as they never have before. Because they have no immediate reason to fear the Justice Department or the FBI, they have the latitude to move out from the shadows.” Franklin Foer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Who Will Stop the Militias Now? (For context, these groups are as happy this week as you are unhappy.)
+ Hanna Rosin in The Atlantic (Gift Article): January 6ers Got Out of Prison—And Came to My Neighborhood. “That’s the view of January 6 that follows naturally from the pardons: They were sham trials. It was actually a day of peace. Trump and his allies are likely to push this revised version of history for the next four years. House Speaker Mike Johnson has already announced that he will form a select subcommittee on January 6, ‘to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people.’ Here is the truth. Prosecuting January 6ers did not require delicate forensics. Tens of thousands of hours of video show rioters beating up police with whatever tools are at hand.”
+ Proud Boys leader thanks Trump for January 6 pardon and vows revenge. “The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted … Success is going to be retribution. We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.” (This week has already felt like 100 years.)
Sleeping Around
“In an age of relentless connectivity, sleep has become the ultimate luxury and spawned a new travel trend: sleep tourism, where sleep-deprived travellers are choosing their hotel on the basis of its pillow menu or booking themselves into away-from-it-all sleep retreats with tailored sleep-inducing activities.” Swede dreams: How Sweden is embracing its sleepy side. I don’t like to travel much so I’ve been taking sleep staycations; these involve my bed, a handful of Ativan, and to get things started, a large mallet.
Weekend Whats
What to Watch: What could be more timely the backstory of cartoonish villain who takes over a region? The Penguin on HBO starring Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti is really good, even if you’re not into the DC universe. It’s more of a mob show than anything.
+ What to Book: From the the jagged coastline of a remote Italian village to pitch meetings in modern day Hollywood, Jess Walter shows off his excellent writing skills in a novel Richard Russo called a literary masterpiece. Check out Beautiful Ruins. So good.
Extra, Extra
Iwo Fema: “While the president emphasized his desire to help North Carolina, a battleground state that’s voted for him in all of his presidential campaigns, he was much less generous toward California, where he plans to visit wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles later in the day.” Trump proposes ‘getting rid of FEMA’ while visiting North Carolina. (Maybe because it almost spells female?)
+ Trump Dump: “The Trump administration circulated photos Friday showing U.S. troops loading shackled detainees onto a military cargo plane, as the White House declared a start to the mass deportation campaign the president promised along the campaign trail.” (So far, the big difference in deportations is the use of military planes, not the numbers of people impacted.) WaPo: Trump immigration raids alarm cities, but ICE arrests fewer than in 2017. Newark mayor: ICE raided business without a warrant, detained U.S. citizens. In the latest pardon news, Trump pardons anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances. And Dana Milbank sums up the week in WaPo (Gift Article): Trump returns — and so does his astounding ignorance. “Trump soon moved on to demanding that California ‘turn the valve’ to allow more water to reach Los Angeles, where, he said, residents of Beverly Hills have been limited to 38 gallons of water per day. ‘When you’re a rich person, you like to take a shower. Thirty-eight gallons doesn’t last very long.’ There is no such ‘valve,’ and no such water restrictions in Beverly Hills.” (I heard if you take ivermectin, you don’t need showers at all…)
+ Block Chain: Wall of ice the size of Rhode Island heading toward penguin-packed island off Antarctica. It is a trillion ton slab of ice.
+ More Hostages to Be Released: “Hamas has named four hostages to be released on Saturday under the Gaza ceasefire deal.” (It’s unclear how many of the remaining hostages are alive.)
+ Sitting Ducks: “The highly infectious H5N1 strain has caused outbreaks across the country. Now, Long Island’s last duck farm must kill its entire flock and may go out of business, its owner said.” NYT (Gift Article): 100,000 Ducks to Be Killed After Bird Flu Strikes Long Island Farm.
+ Pedal to the Metal: “Runners completing a half marathon in Beijing later this year will do so with some unusual, metal competition at their sides. According to a press release from China’s Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, more than 12,000 human runners will square off against dozens of bipedal, humanoid robots.”
+ Johnsons: Don’t Die Tech Mogul Bryan Johnson Is in an Actual Penis-Measuring Contest—With His Teenage Son. “Bryan Johnson shared a pair of charts on X Wednesday comparing the duration and ‘quality’ of his nighttime erections compared to his son’s.” (My teenage son feels violated if I come downstairs without texting first.)
Feel Good Friday
WaPo (Gift Article): A grim prognosis, a gamble and one patient’s fight to defy cancer. “She’s in uncharted waters and proving everyone wrong in that she is still here.”
+ “Mark Andrews also received a wave of support from a surprising group of people: Bills Mafia, fans of the team that just defeated the Ravens.” Bills fans raise over $100K for diabetes research to support Ravens player who dropped crucial pass.
+ Solar-charging backpacks are helping children to read after dark.
+ Pizza driver gets $2 tip in snowstorm. Outcry leads to $30,000 more.
+ Trained dogs working inside hospitals help ease burnout among health care staff.
