Day: March 11, 2020

This week: Practice your phone sex / What can the 1918 flu teach us? / What “I can’t” really means / The role of podcasting in 2020 / Gardening in a world of extreme weather

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1. Get Ready to Have a Lot of Phone Sex
By Amanda Arnold | The Cut :: New York Magazine | March 2020
“I would suggest that we all charge our phones and ready our dry-ass hands that are likely cracked from vigorous washing. For those of us who feel too anxious to rub our naked bodies up against others, the time is nigh to get horny on the phone.”

2. Closed borders and ‘black weddings’: what the 1918 flu teaches us about coronavirus
By Laura Spinney | The Guardian | March 2020
“The influenza of 1918 killed up to 100 million people. What lessons does it offer for our current health crisis?”

3. We Went There: Brooklyn’s Annual Valley of the Dolly Partons
By Jadie Stillwell | Interview | March 2020
“This year’s six contestants lined up under big golden D-O-L-L-Y balloons to clear a number of substantial hurdles Parton has surely never had to face.”

4. Report: Neighbor steals skeleton over offensive gesture
Associated Press | March 2020
“A New Mexico woman is facing a larceny charge after authorities say she stole a neighbor’s anatomical skeleton model that allegedly was making an offensive gesture toward her.”

5. The Many Meanings of ‘I Can’t’
By Amanda Baker | Budding Scientist :: Scientific American | February 2020
“So much can hide behind those two little words”

6. The unspeakably brutal life of Harry Haft
By J. Bennett | OZY | February 2020
“Forced to fight fellow prisoners at Auschwitz for the amusement of Nazi officers, this boxer lived the rest of his life in a spiral of remorse, defeat and abuse.”

7. The 2016 Election Shaped Podcasting. Will Podcasts Shape the 2020 Election?
By Nicholas Quah | One Great Story :: Vulture | February 2020
“But while the 2016 presidential election cycle was consequential to podcasting, the impact going the other way around is less clear. Has podcasting become big enough to shape election politics?”

8. Extreme weather has gardeners looking for resilient plants
By Dean Fosdick | Associated Press | February 2020
Fiercer and more frequent natural disasters in recent years have many homeowners re-evaluating their landscaping. Many are restocking with trees and plants more resilient in the face of storms, fires and flooding.”

9. Mojo Magic
By Christian Wallace | Boomtown :: Texas Monthly | January 2020
“The Permian Basin is the birthplace of Friday Night Lights. But the historic oil boom threatens beloved high school football traditions.”

10. Mount Vesuvius eruption ‘turned victim’s brain to glass’
By Nicola Davis | The Guardian | January 2020
“Scientists discover vitrified remains caused by immense 520C heat of disaster in AD79”