What's IN/OUT this week

Today’s newsletter, in all of its glory, is dedicated to my dear friend Marko, who is celebrating a milestone birthday today. I don’t know if it’s in poor taste to broadcast a person’s age on the internet, but if my friendship with Marko has taught me anything, it’s to show more respect for the people you love.

Anyhow, he’s 50.

IN: Collecting book recommendations. I’ve been the proud recipient of many folks’ recs lately, which is fantastic for someone who has had neither the time nor the motivation to look up books herself. Feel free to drop some more in the comments! Please know: I have a strong preference for fiction and an even stronger resistance to fantasy. OUT: Reading. Not for me, to be clear. But I’m partway through Rose Horowitch’s Atlantic piece on the end of reading. It’s making me equal parts disturbed and equal parts motivated to crack that book/magazine/newsletter. It reminded me a lot of UCLA scholar Maryanne Wolf’s research on the relationship between reading and neuroscience: Specifically, how “deep reading” actually rewires our brains. This is a good podcast episode to listen to if you’re interested in learning a little more, you uneducated plebs.

IN: Foolishness, on an individual level. Sometimes it’s nice to pick up a little something that has no real purpose, just because you like it. For example: I went to an open house at a special effects studio where my friend Jessica works, and they were selling everything from mugs to comics to fake body parts. I picked up a wine bottle stopper that has a big toe on it, as well as a small framed nipple — complete with wiry little strands of hair. Now you know that I support the arts. OUT: Foolishness, on an organizational level. Being on the defeated end of a media outlet’s… I’ll call it downsizing, you find yourself face-to-face with some pretty head-scratching choices that were made by people cashing considerably larger paychecks than yourself. As I’ve had time to digest the changes, I find myself more and more detached from care. A fun thing they don’t teach you in journalism school is how time on the job slowly makes you dead inside — and not because of the work itself.

IN: A synopsis. Although I had it bookmarked for a while, I never got around to reading Brock Colyar’s piece for Curbed/New York magazine on the proliferation of standing in lines (btw, I can confirm that this is not unique to NYC). Lucky for me, folks have offered their own personal summaries and opinion. My favorite breakdown came by way of Caitlin Dewey:

This of course only makes me want to read the article more, but until then, I got a real rise out of making my own loosely informed opinions, based on someone else’s reading. OUT: Surveillance. I of course wrote about this on Wednesday, but I happened upon stickers (see below) on my walk with Dottie that same day. My favorite bullet point is that you should talk to your neighbors more. I’m not sure if this was the point they were making, but it would likely make you less suspect of everyone, AND it’s also a great way to make sure someone has eyes on your packages. And here is where I grow deeply sad over the fact that I was unusually close with the neighbors in my former building. I guess I’ll have to finally befriend the kid who plays xylophone on the second floor after all.

IN: Summer. It’s never too late to let the season really course through your veins. If it were winter and I was as overwhelmed with the final bits of my soon-to-end job, I would be hiding inside after I wrapped up the workday; I would be transitioning straight from office to couch. But I am fully embracing the natural excesses of summer and going straight from working to socializing. It feels great! Sleep will find us all when we need it. OUT: SCHOOL. Please! It is far too early to be posting back-to-school event fliers! Have a little respect for our nation’s children (me).

Tell me what you hated this week!