My neck, my back
My links and my Substack
Omg, hi. I spent last week on the North Fork of Long Island — the sleepier and rural fork that’s north of The Hamptons and much less of a clusterfork, for now. City people are buying post-pandemic houses there (we rented), so you can still catch some silent-but-palpable resentment from locals at the farm stand, especially if you’re a pale mom in a leopard-print caftan and your phone cover says “Fuck Trump” all over it. Just a note of caution!
About that farm stand, tho. I am not farmer’s market person in the city. I would love to be that person but it’s a lot of work to trek to a specific place on a specific day of the week with a limited time frame, just to fill an obnoxious New Yorker tote bag with some lettuce. As a dedicated caftan wearer, I choose the comfort and convenience of ordering a Wegman’s delivery from my phone, making me very much part of the food waste problem reported once again here. (Short story: “Sell by” dates are a corporate scam.)
Here are some other scams I enjoyed(?) reading about this week:
The U.S. Military: “American Imperialism is imploding, and the blast is radiating inward.” Inside the Rash of Unexplained Deaths at Fort Hood.
The Cat Person story: Not the story itself, but the fact that Slate went ahead and published this “she stole my story” narrative when it’s really like one or two details between two women who dated the same guy. (Fiction is a scam btw, and all writers are vampires.) #AWAV
The Zoonotic Origin of COVID-19: I’m a total lab-leak believer now.
Positive Self-Talk: Instead, ask yourself, “Will I be less of a piece of shit today?” (It’s helped me marginally.)
Britney’s Conservatorship: Obvi.
And finally, the Indiana State judicial system. Big scam. I finally got watch the video “evidence” that got Tanika Stewart convicted and sentenced to 55 years in prison for murder. You can watch the video here. Spoiler alert: It’s literally nothing. You have to fast forward to the last three minutes, and then it’s slightly more than nothing, but enough for the prosecution to fabricate a convincing story for the jury, which was already rigged in a way.
We set up a new GoFundMe for Tanika’s legal fees and advocacy expenses here. If you want to stay updated on our efforts, just reply to this email telling me so and I’ll put you on a dedicated email list. (We’ll have lots more to share next week.)
‘Til then!