Valentine’s Day gifts to self

I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day, thanks to its indomitable color palette, embrace of kitsch, and overall message: Let someone know you care about them! While it might be a a little late to buy something for your Valentine (though I do have a list of last-minute Valentine's Day gift ideas for the discerning but procrastinating drugstore shopper if that’s where you are this year), it’s absolutely not too late to buy a little treat for yourself.

Here are some recs, based on things I’ve bought/loved recently.

Until We’re All Free sweatshirt

This is part of a fundraiser for Trans Lifeline, and proceeds “go directly toward life-saving commissary & bail funds for trans people in prison.” Available in four shirt styles and four colors, sizes S–4XL, ranging from $25–$35. Get it from Bonfire.

Leuchtturm1917 Smooth Colours notebook

Leuchtturm is finally — FINALLY — making my beloved dot grid notebook in beautiful pastels. Available in four colors, four page styles, and either hard or softcover. Get it for $21 from Leuchtturm or Amazon.

Cardinal patch

I received this cardinal as part of the bird patch monthly subscription, but you can buy it — and several other cute bird patches — individually. Get it from Bird Collective for $8.

Tussie Mussie

This game, which was designed by Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave, is based on the Victorian tradition of giving flowers to friends and romantic loves. There are only 18 cards, so it’s super portable (and easy to learn), and the cards themselves are so cute IRL. While it’s currently sold out (there’s a waiting list though!), it’s absolutely worth poking around Button Shy, which has a lot more of these extremely cute “wallet games.” (I also have Insurmountable, which is a one-player game — always nice to come across those.)

Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey

I am so excited that the author of my beloved Nature Fix is back with a new book! You can read an excerpt, and get a copy from Bookshop ($27.60) or Amazon ($21.05).

Knitter’s Hand Balm

This was actually one of my girlfriend’s Valentine’s gifts to me and I love it! The tube is just a little bigger than a tube of chapstick (perfect for a knitting bag or fanny pack) and the product itself is really good — non-greasy, with a no-fragrance version (along with several scented options). Get it from The Knitting Hole for $11. 💝

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Just Good Shit: 02.06.21

Hi and happy February! This week, I finished knitting this mallard duck (pattern from DotPebblesknits on Etsy), watched biathlon (extremely underrated Olympic sport imo), and listened to the newest Serial podcast (which I thought was very well done). Here’s what else I had going on…

Reading

Why Wishful Thinking on Covid Remains As Dangerous as Ever, The Nation.

The American sickness, Indignity.
I also paid $6 to subscribe to this newsletter/access this related article (about masking in schools), and it was extremely worth it.

Working parents with little kids: how can your coworkers help you?, Ask a Manager.

What Scares the World’s Most Daring Olympians, NYT.
Loved this package.

Fuck Noom, Lifehacker.

Why Spotify Will Win, Slate.

To Find the History of African American Women, Look to Their Handiwork, The Atlantic.
Related: I just bought this book.

Sex With An X: The Perils Of Performative Spelling, Autostraddle.

Glorified Electric Golf Carts For All, VICE.

One Good Thing: A soothing tabletop game about birds, Vox.

How the Sausage Gets Made: Inside Hollywood's Prosthetic Penis Craze, Thrillist.

Have a nice week! 🦆

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Just Good Shit: 01.30.22

Image: Kiyana Salkeld / Just Good Shit

Hello! Here’s what I was up to this week…

My shit

There’s a new ep of Oh, I Like That, and Sally and I were guests on Caroline Moss’s podcast Gee Thanks, Just Bought It.

Reading

When Omicron Isn’t So Mild, NYT. (gift link)

The Big-Name Journalists Who Are Trying to “Both Sides” Covid, The New Republic.

You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths: COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence, Leaving Evidence.
“Abled culture teaches abled people to be entitled. You are entitled to never have to learn anything about disability and ableism. You are entitled to get to move through the world, and through our movements, with little-to-no understanding or political analysis about disability, even as you pontificate about every other system of oppression and violence. Abled culture in our movements mean that we will say, ‘we must center those who are most impacted,’ all day every day, but then not include disabled, especially those who are high risk, in the center during a global pandemic. Abled entitlement means that you will still continue to plan your vacation abroad, even amidst the Delta surge; you will still post pictures from your giant family holiday gathering amidst the Omicron surge.”

We're All Trying to Find the Guy Policing Our Behavior, Alex Pareene.
“I find the tenor of discussion around Covid-19 restrictions genuinely bewildering. There basically aren’t any. The United States is powering through the Omicron wave with its usual enforced individualism. The hard restrictions on our activities are, for the most part, not mandated or enforced by the state, acting at the behest of liberals who refuse to go back to normal because they are addicted to panic and quarantine; the limits are imposed by the virus that isn’t going away.”

The Bogus Claim That School Closures Will Doom Democrats, The New Republic.

The New Face of “No Promo Homo” Laws, Slate.

‘Jeopardy!’ Hasn’t Had a Player Like Amy Schneider, NYT.

Watching

On an absolute impulse, I decided to check out the Saved by the Bell reboot on Peacock. I had super low expectations and was…delightfully surprised?! I have seen every episode of the original many, many times over, and my girlfriend had never seen it; we both really liked the reboot. All the references to the original feel more like Easter eggs than anything else, and it’s not overly nostalgic. (It’s also addressing race and class considerably better than And Just Like That…not that it’s so hard, but still.) And it’s just bizarro and silly and made us laugh out loud a bunch. A perfect little pick-me-up In These Times.

Cooking

We’re having a beany one: bean and cheese burritos, roasted tomato and white bean stew, and cheesy white bean and tomato bake (all from NYT Cooking).

Have a good night! ❄️

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Just Good Shit: 01.23.22

Hi, pals! This was a chill and cozy week, made better by the fact that it started with a Monday holiday. We made Parmesan chickpea soup (so easy), listened to JP Brammer’s audiobook (even better than the book, which I also loved), and watched the Beanie Mania documentary on HBO Max (absolutely delightful). I also got a ton of yarn and started working on my first big project of the year: a mallard duck!

Here’s what else I had going on…

Writing

• One year of knitting

Reading

The world has moved on from Colleyville. American Jews can’t., Vox.

When My Mom Got Covid, I Went Searching for Pfizer’s Pills, NYT. (gift link)

Will Omicron Leave Most of Us Immune?, The Atlantic.

In Arkansas, Trans Teens Await an Uncertain Future, NYT. (gift link)

How Politics Tested Ravelry and the Crafting Community, The New Yorker.
This article has an audio option, and I highly recommend listening vs. reading if you’re able to — it’s like a perfect, fascinating podcast episode. (Bonus: Pair with the new knitting episode of Normal Gossip.)

The secret MVP of sports? The port-a-potty, ESPN.

Will Heated Gloves Help Me Stay Warm This Winter?, Wirecutter.
As someone with Reynaud’s who is perpetually on the hunt for good gloves, this article felt meant for me personally.

Wordle’s Creator Thinks He Knows Why the Game Has Gone So Viral, Slate.

Have a good night! 🌬

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One year of knitting

Jan 2, 2021

This month marks my one-year anniversary of learning to knit, and it’s exciting to look back and see how far I’ve come. I love having hobbies, but knitting has definitely been one of the harder ones. It has a steep learning curve, so it’s easy to get discouraged and give up early on (or…at any point, really). It was even harder to learn to knit at home without any in-person instruction, which would have, I think, changed everything. That said, with enough trial and error, willingness to start over, and good old-fashioned practice (annoying, I know!), I’ve been able to finish several projects and can now confidently call myself a competent knitter.

Here’s everything I used to learn to knit, the projects I completed this year, my favorite tools, some tips I wish I’d known sooner, and my knitting goals for 2022.

How I learned to knit

My girlfriend and I both wanted to learn to knit, and she went first, with me a week or so behind her. We both used my friend Alanna’s book, How to Knit a Hat (also on Bookshop, but currently sold out), plus YouTube videos (which is something Alanna suggests doing in the book). Because my gf started before I did, I was able to get help from her, whereas she fully taught herself without anyone else to show her.

We both finished the hat and then moved on to other projects.

Completed knitting projects 2021

Novice sweater

Knitting a whole-ass sweater felt like a huge step up after just doing a hat, and yet…it was the perfect step up! On my first attempt, I misread a step fairly early on in the pattern (it involved the increases at the yoke, and where you should start measuring the overall length) and didn’t really see a way to undo it. So I just started over! I remember being super bummed at the time, but it taught me an important lesson: that it’s often way easier to just start over, and that projects almost always look considerably better the second time around, even if it’s just redoing a cast-on or a cuff.

I don’t remember everything I worked on right after this one, but I know I attempted a Wool & the Gang sweater (the pattern is definitely not that hard, but I think I had problems because my yarn wasn’t quite the right weight and I was going off script in other ways, which was a bad idea); at least one hat; and a second novice sweater holding three strands of yarn in three different colors. None of these worked out, which was honestly fine! I’ve found I’m more of a “knitting is a journey, not a destination” knitter, and it was helpful to just practice, to get better at reading patterns (one of the hardest parts of knitting tbh), and to get practice buying yarn and needles and making sense of how they felt in my hands.

Lucky dog sweater

The next project I (technically) completed was a dog sweater from Purl Soho. It was way, way harder than I expected, or than a dog sweater has any right to be. It involved a ton of short rows using the wrap-and-turn technique, which is annoying…but it turned out to be great, in a way, because it was a small project and the instructions were well-written compared to most patterns that utilize short rows. I also really liked the Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Thick and Quick yarn; this color is Coney Island, but I also bought it in Dreamcatcher, which I used on a bunch of the projects I didn’t finish around this time. It’s fairly inexpensive but feels nice in your hands, is super easy to knit with, and always a lot better than I expect it to.

I worked so hard on this sweater and all its fiddly little short rows, only to put it on Chuck and realize it didn’t fit quite right (it was too long in the neck). He made it very clear how much he hated wearing it, so I didn’t bother to fix it/redo it.

Junior novice sweater

After a longish break (vaccinated summer was…not the knitting zone), we got back into knitting again in August. I had a couple projects going around this time, but this is the first one I finished. And this one convinced me that the way to get better at knitting and actually finish projects (which helps you stay motivated) is to knit items for babies/children. This sweater, which I knit for my friend Julia’s daughter’s first birthday in October, utilizes literally the exact same techniques as the adult novice sweater, but it went so much faster. As part of the birthday gift, my gf knit the adult version for Julia so they had matching ones.

We used Berocco Ultra Alpaca Chunky yarn for both of these, a brand/weight that has become one of my favorites.

I actually knit this one from beginning to end twice! The first version, which I was thinking of as a prototype since I wasn’t going to be able to try it on the baby first, didn’t fit — the neck was too tight, and that wasn’t really something I could fix. So I just redid it and, again, didn’t regret that at all; it looked better the second time, and it was a quick enough project that I didn’t feel too precious about it, or like I’d wasted a ton of time.

This is the first project I knit swatches for; I learned that I knit very tight and need to make adjustments to patterns accordingly. It’s also the first project that I blocked, a step that I now love and swear by.

Bulky dog turtleneck sweater

This is another dog sweater that calls for a very fussy technique; in this case, it was the i-cord cast-on that took like a year off my life, and for no good reason — he’s a dog, he doesn’t need a fancy cast-on! But I’d prefer to learn on a dog sweater than a human sweater.

(BTW, this is that Lion Brand Wool Ease yarn again; this time, the color is Fairy.)

This entire sweater is supposed to be ribbed, but I decided to just do the neck ribbing and then knit the rest, and I’m glad I did. He doesn’t love the finished sweater, and ribbing the whole thing just…would not have been worth the extra time it would have taken.

Aftenstocking

At the beginning of 2021, my girlfriend and I made one resolution: To be able to knit these stockings by Christmastime. At the time, it felt impossible. Come fall, it felt….very doable, but then it turned out to be kind of a pain in the ass! I think it was because of how the pattern is written, the fact that you need very small circular needles to start, and the fact that using short rows to make a heel is just…an endeavor.

It took me so long to figure out the heel turn (I redid it at least four times, probably more?) and when I finally got it right and then finished the whole stocking, it looked…bad. Why was the toe SO STUMPY???

I still don’t know!! But through the miracle of blocking and then felting — which happened at midnight on Christmas Eve lolsob — the stocking actually ended up looking pretty good.

And with that, my first year of knitting came to an end! There was one more big sweater that I started in September that I thought I’d be able to finish by the end of the year. In the end, I got slowed down because I had to learn new techniques (like sewing on sleeves) and because of some annoying/avoidable mistakes (e.g., using the wrong size needles on the sleeves, which meant they were too small). I finally made it to the home stretch, but I’m having a terrible time picking up the stitches for the neckline, so I’ve set it aside and will go back to it later. I was sick of it and needed a break.

Tools

There are so, so many tools for knitters and it’s impossible to list all my favorites (and it’s so personal anyway), but there are a few that really made a difference this year:

Bags within bags

I swear by my Baggu baby bag + smaller individual zipper bags. Also, you won’t regret having tiny scissors and a tiny tape measure in your bag.

Plastic stitch markers

I think my girlfriend bought this case of colorful plastic stitch markers ($8.99 from Amazon) very early on in our knitting journey, and they are one of our most-used and most-loved items. I’ve tried some others in the time since, and honestly, the hot Cocoknits brass ones have nothing on these plastic ones. Truly an MVP.

A stitch counter

I finally bought myself a knitting counter this fall, and I don’t know what took me so long! (I was marking down a tally with a pencil and paper this whole time.) I really like the $9 metal one I have, and my girlfriend loves the $9 Clover one. (Hers makes the most satisfying sound every time she advances it.) I’ve also been experimenting with counting apps; sometimes you need to have two counters going at once, and an app is really helpful for that. I downloaded a bunch of different ones to try, and Count That Now is my favorite.

A knitting notebook

Another major “What took me so long?” addition to my life. More here.

A few tips I swear by

IG: @kiyanaknits

In no particular order, here are some of the things I wish I’d known/really understood as a beginner.

• You have to like the yarn you’re using! You definitely don’t need fancy yarn, especially when you’re starting out, but you should really like looking at it (because you’re going to be stuck with it for a while). If you’ve done a few rows and are asking yourself the whole time if you really like the color or are already regretting choosing it, just stop and start over with a different color.

• I have really never regretted starting something over when I realized I’ve made a mistake or something is looking loose/bad/etc. Pretty much everything looks better on a second pass. 

• If something isn’t looking good and you’re stressed about it, put it away for a while and come back to it. Most things look better with fresh eyes/once you’ve zoomed out and are looking at the entire project. And if they still look bad, well, see above tip about starting over.

• A lot of surface mistakes can be “fixed in post” — aka when you’re all done. For example, blocking solves a huge amount of problems (e.g., you’ve got some stitches that are looking a little funky), and underarm holes can easily be sewn together when you’re done.

• Knitting slower and reading the patterns slower would have solved like 75% of my knitting problems in the past year.

• My girlfriend and I store all of our knitting patterns in a shared Google Drive folder so we can easily find them/re-print them later. We both always work from a printed pattern, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to pull up the pattern on your phone when you’re in a store, or look up a specific instruction on your phone if the pattern is kind of out of reach.

• Most local knitting stores have some form of IRL classes/office hours/etc. where you can get personalized help and ask questions about your projects. (So, for example, if it had been safe to go IRL in December, I would have definitely done that for the stocking heel trouble I was having.)

• If you find a YouTube tutorial you really like, save it to a playlist! You’ll probably need to reference it again in the future, and not all YouTube tutorials are created equal.

• Take more notes than you think you’ll need to; you won’t remember things as well as you think you will, not even the things that are giving you a ton of grief.

• Yarn is a great souvenir! During the trips my girlfriend and I took this fall, we found yarn stores and picked out yarn as a special souvenir from the trip.

2022 knitting goals

IG: @kiyanaknits

Heading into the new year, here are my big knitting goals:

Learn to knit continental. I think this style of knitting will allow me to knit a lot faster and more comfortably. I’ve actually already started learning and it turned out to be…a lot easier than I expected? I think it’s also helping me adjust my tension/make up for the fact that I’m knitting too tight, which is something I really needed to correct, so I’m thrilled.

Knit with blocks of color. This is this year’s stocking goal, aka a goal my girlfriend and I both want to do. This might look like intarsia or a Fair Isle…we’ll see! For me, this is very much a Q4 goal.

Knit an object of some sort. I recently discovered the big world of knit animals, and realized there are tons of other non-clothing items one can knit (like Christmas decorations or vegetables). I think this is going to be something I really enjoy — it has the “you can complete a whole project faster” effect you get with kids’ clothes, but is more immediately useful to me personally. I actually impulse-knit a bird today, so technically I can already cross this goal off already, but I want to properly invest in it and get good enough at it to be able gift things (or at least decorate my Christmas tree).

Annnd that’s a wrap on my first year of knitting! I was going to say something here about how it’s been really good for my mental health, a nice alternative to looking my phone and a good thing to do when you’re feeling anxious… but the reality is that I regularly declare that I hate it, and my girlfriend and I reference this TikTok all the time when we’re knitting. So ya know… it has its moments. 🧶

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Just Good Shit: 01.16.22

Image: Kiyana Salkeld / Just Good Shit

Hi! Here’s what I’ve been up to this week…

Reading

Back To Normal Isn’t Enough, Defector.

What to do if you've got covid, Calm Covid.
Really enjoying this newsletter!

Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking, The Atlantic.

The Real Reason Americans Aren’t Isolating, The Atlantic.

One-Way Masking Works, The Atlantic.

The Agony of Parents With Kids Under 5, Slate.

I’m a Longtime Union Organizer. But I Had Never Seen Anything Like This., NYT. (gift link)

Kyrsten Sinema’s opposition to filibuster reform rests on a myth, Vox.

Hanya’s Boys, Vulture.

6 Ways Fitness Instructors Can Check Their Anti-Fat Bias, SELF.

A Survival Expert Breaks Down the Yellowjackets’ Best and Worst Decisions, Vulture.

Colors: Where did they go? An investigation., Vox.

A Rio Grande Valley Woman Just Broke the U.S. Record for Most Birds Spotted in a Year, Texas Monthly.

They bought a blender. Three weeks later, their cats continue to hold it hostage., Washington Post.

Watching & listening to

Yellowjackets. Drag Race Season 14. “For the Birds,” a very good Radiolab episode. (It really picks up in the second act.) The excellent Holly Madison episode of Power. And a segment from an old episode of Bitch Sesh, in which the hosts read aloud a series of dramatic and chaotic (real-life!) emails from a group of very intense parents planning a teacher appreciation luncheon. (It starts around 11:14 and ends at 36:00 and I’ve listened to it three times in the past week. I just put it on again.)

Have a good week! ✨

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Just Good Shit: 01.09.22

My girlfriend & Chuck having a cozy one

Hello and happy (?????) new year! I had a lovely holiday and then spent this week feeling really crappy due to cold/allergy-like symptoms that are not covid (according to one negative PCR and five negative rapid tests). I’m very bummed, as January is one of my favorite months and I feel very motivated to organize, decorate, and hunker down with some new hobbies. We had big plans to go to Prospect Park this weekend and look at birds, and instead I spent the weekend on the couch taking Sudafed.

Here’s what else I’ve had going on…

Writing

• You might get a breakthrough case of Covid-19 this winter. Here’s how to prepare.

• The best things I read in 2021

• My knitting notebook

Reading

America Quits the Fight Against Covid, The New Republic.

Who Gets the Blame When Schools Shut Down, The New Yorker.

Omicron Is Our Past Pandemic Mistakes on Fast-Forward, The Atlantic.

“If you're going to trust anyone to know the real cost of #COVID19 in terms of deaths, trust life insurance companies.”

Seriously, Upgrade Your Face Mask, NY Mag.
I really like the Harley N95, available from Bona Fide Mask (currently $45 for a box of 20).

Don’t Be Too Cavalier About Omicron — Long Covid Is Still a Real Risk, Rolling Stone.

How to Stay Safe if You’re Trapped in Your Car During a Snowstorm, NYT.

Shoe Obsession for the Ages: Prince’s Killer Collection of Custom Heels, Now on View, NYT.

The 2021 Audubon Photography Awards: Top 100, Audubon.

Entertainment

I’ve been watching Yellowjackets, How To with John Wilson, and Selling Tampa; knitting; watching Rajiv Surendra DIY videos on YouTube (start with his house tour); listening to Like a Virgin; and playing Parks (a Christmas gift from my gf — it’s so gentle and nice).

Have a good week! 🌨️

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My knitting notebook

One of the more useful things I did in the latter half of my first year of knitting was get a small notebook to dedicate to knitting projects. Knitting involves way more math and counting than I’d like it to, and I often found myself tallying counts on the printed pattern itself — which is fine, I guess, but not ideal, especially because my patterns tend to get really tattered while I’m working so they don’t serve as a great record of a project. I also wanted to better record details like the specific yarn and needles I was using and how long each project was taking me. So I finally got a little Rollbahn spiral notebook to keep in my knitting bag, and it’s changed my life.

I set up a table of contents on the first page, and have added page numbers to each subsequent page. Each project gets its own page (back and front). At the top of each project page, I write this:

Started:
Completed:
Yarn

Skeins:

Needles:

Below that, I write Notes: and then use the rest of the page to jot down anything that feels relevant; it might be the date I started a specific component (like a sleeve) or it might be a simple mistake or big source of frustration that I want to remember in case I redo the project later. (I’ve learned the hard way that I…will not remember these things as well as I think I will.) I’ve also been trying to note when I learn a new skill or technique — basically, instead of celebrating the total number of projects I do, I want to highlight all of the things I’m learning, even when I do a project that I don’t end up finishing or really liking.

It’s such a small, obvious thing but it’s been so helpful! 🧶

More journaling content that might be of interest: Starting a house journal, how to start and keep a journal during a pandemic (or any time of major upheaval), the Hobonichi Techo planner, and my book!

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The best things I read in 2021

Happy New Year’s Eve! If you’re planning a cozy night in — which I personally highly recommend — might I suggest reading (or re-reading) some really fantastic longreads from the past year?

Here are all of my faves from 2021, in no particular order:

The Only Strategy Left for Democrats, The Cut.
“Govern like you won, winners.” I think about this line…all the time.

The Road to Terfdom, Lux.

Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away, Bloomberg.

The Pain Was Unbearable. So Why Did Doctors Turn Her Away?, Wired.

The Murders Down the Hall, NY Mag.

As a Black Man in America, I Feel Death Looming Every Day, NYT.

Britney Spears Was Never in Control, The Cut.

Lab-grown meat is supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story., The Counter.

On the Internet, We’re Always Famous, The New Yorker.

I Canceled My Birthday Party Because of Omicron, The Atlantic.

How Coffin Flop’s Coffins Got Flopped, Vulture.

It Is Unconscionable That The Gay Community Has Ostracized Me Simply Because I Was Born A Cop, Defector.

And the thing I’m personally most proud of from 2021: Shantay, You Pay: Inside the Heavy Financial Burden of Going On ‘Drag Race’. 🎆

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Just Good Shit: 12.20.21

Hi! This week’s post is late because I was watching Season 2 of 12 Dates of Christmas on HBO Max, a reality TV dating show that also happens to be my new favorite Christmas movie. It’s really light and fun, provides so much ridiculous Christmas/winter eye candy, and is very gay! (The first episode is available on YouTube if you don’t have HBO Max.) Watching it offered a much-needed respite from the terrible news and absolutely rotten vibe of this week.

Here’s what else I have for you…

My shit

• You might get a breakthrough case of Covid-19 this winter. Here’s how to prepare.

• Making the Yuletide Extremely Gay feat. Aubrey Gordon (new podcast ep)

And a couple of things from the archives that might be useful at this exact moment: Guidance for safer vaxxed gatherings (from September, so please err on the side of even more cautious/conservative), how to tell your family you aren’t coming home for the holidays this year, and what to do if you think your cousins might give grandma COVID this holiday (if you’re once again arguing with family, this time about things like taking rapid tests or canceling entirely).

Reading

I Canceled My Birthday Party Because of Omicron, The Atlantic.
“It is easy to despair, but we cannot afford the luxury of nihilism. ... The infectious nature of a virus means that a tiny bad decision can cause exponential harm, but also that a tiny wise decision can do exponential good.” This whole essay is so good.

What if the Flu isn’t “just the Flu?”, The Air Letter.
This is a sobering read. (Also: Please get your flu shot!)

I’m Staying Home for the Holidays Again This Year. Here’s Why., Self.

Why Can’t America Get Rapid Tests Right?, Slate.

The Abortion I Didn’t Have, NYT.

Please Stop Saying ‘Happy Holidays’ When You Mean ‘Merry Christmas’, Hey Alma.

Retailers say thefts are at crisis level. The numbers say otherwise, LA Times.

A parent and daughter battle over an elaborate Lego creation, The Washington Post.
“I am trying to be encouraging here, but I am incensed that you’re going to war with her joy, security and well-being over carpet-cleaning.”

What worries me about making a family into a brand, Mothers Under the Influence.

Ask a Cardiologist: Should Carrie Have Called 911?, Vulture.

Have a cozy and safe one. 🛷

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