Something Good

1. 40 Year-Old Comedian Who Died From COVID-19 Texted Brother He Wished He Got Vaccinated. “Cabrera’s brother, Jino, told KTLA that the comedian texted him just two days before his death and admitted that he regretted not getting vaccinated. ‘I can’t breathe again,’ Cabrera’s text message to his brother Jino read. ‘I really regret not getting my vaccine, if I can do it all over again I would do it in a heartbeat to save my life. I’m fighting for my life here and I wish I have gotten vaccinated.'” In related news, How Do You Respond When an Anti-Vaxxer Dies of Covid? on The New York Times.

2. What You Don’t Know About Family Estrangement. “14 stories of mourning, beauty, and power.”

3. The Most Valuable Thing I Can Teach My Kid Is How to Be Lazy on The New York Times.

4. Know Your Rights from the ACLU. “Everyone has basic rights under the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws. Learn more here about what your rights are, how to exercise them, and what to do when your rights are violated.” May you never need this resource, kind and gentle reader.

5. My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life. on The New York Times. “Books can indeed be dangerous…They are not inert tools of pedagogy. They are mind-changing, world-changing. But those who seek to ban books are wrong no matter how dangerous books can be. Books are inseparable from ideas, and this is really what is at stake: the struggle over what a child, a reader and a society are allowed to think, to know and to question. A book can open doors and show the possibility of new experiences, even new identities and futures.” In related news, School Board in Tennessee Bans Teaching of Holocaust Novel ‘Maus’, also on The New York Times. “The board voted unanimously to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel from classrooms because it contained swear words, according to minutes from the meeting.”

6. Every Great Writer Is a Great Deceiver: Vladimir Nabokov’s Best Writing Advice.

7. Later Bloomer, “a captivating archive of lives well lived,” celebrating the artistic and creative achievements of people over age 40. I find this very inspiring. As long as you are still breathing, it really is NEVER too late.

8. Museums Challenge Folks To Recreate Famous Paintings At Home. “The Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California challenged art fans to recreate their favorite paintings using just 3 things lying around their house. The challenge inspired some of the most creative ideas and to be honest, some of these recreations are pretty spot on. Art inspires art, and these folks have a real talent for recreating famous paintings.” The examples here range from beautiful to hilarious.

9. Workers Share The Customer Interactions That ‘Haunt’ Them To This Day. After working 10 years in retail, I had my own to add, along with at least 20 others I didn’t post.

10. River Butcher: A Different Kind of Dude – Full Special (video). “River Butcher offers their thoughts on gender pronouns, people who put rubber testicles on their trucks, outrageously large fires, divorce and much more.” I’ve followed River for a long time, and this is some of their best.

11. Are you free, or are you just meeting expectations?: On fatness and autonomy. From Ijeoma Oluo.

12. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, revisit NPR’s stories from survivors. In related news, A family helped a Holocaust survivor escape death. Then they became his real family.

13. Redwood Forest in California Is Returned to Native Tribes on The New York Times. “Ownership of more than 500 acres of a forest in Mendocino County was returned to 10 sovereign tribes who will serve as guardians to ‘protect and heal’ the land.”

14. 50 years ago, ‘Zoom’ spoke to children about their real lives. I loved this show.

15. What Does It Mean to Be ‘Done With Covid’? on The New York Times. “The desperate desire to get back to normal is understandable. What’s odd is seeing the absence of normality as a political betrayal instead of an epidemiological curveball.” In related news, Experts Call The Pandemic A Collective Trauma. Why Don’t We Talk About It That Way? and Counting Covid-19 Cases Doesn’t Capture the Pandemic’s Impact on The New York Times Magazine, “There’s virtually no aspect of our lives that the pandemic hasn’t changed. We’re just starting to understand some of the data on public health.”

16. Recipe I want to try: Amish Cinnamon Bread.

17. Archeologists Unearth a Roman Glass Bowl Dating Back 2,000 Years in Pristine Condition. I wouldn’t have even thought this would be possible. How?!

18. Readers’ global wishes for 2022: More kindness, more nature … and kitties!

1. Thich Nhat Hanh, Monk, Zen Master and Activist, Dies at 95 on The New York Times. “A monk with global influence and an ally of Martin Luther King, he championed what he called ‘engaged Buddhism,’ applying its principles in pressing for peace.” In related news The Life of Thich Nhat Hanh on Lion’s Roar. “Lindsay Kyte tells the story of what is perhaps Thich Nhat Hanh’s greatest teaching — his courageous life.”

2. We asked how you are finding joy in the pandemic. Here are 12 surprising ideas.

3. 100 Millionaires And Billionaires Sign Open Letter Pleading For Higher Taxes. Yes, please. I’m not sure how anyone who cares about other people, wants to ease suffering, is even able to accumulate that kind of wealth, especially when helping feels SO much better than hoarding.

4. Animal shelters flooded with donations in honor of Betty White’s birthday. You know she would have loved this so much.

5. 20 Famous Writers on Being Rejected. Rejection isn’t a failure. It’s part of the process. Rejection also doesn’t necessarily mean what you submitted isn’t good. It might only mean it’s not the right fit for that particular spot. Try again.

6. The Rest Principle: On the Necessity of Recovery, in Fitness and Writing.

7. You’ve heard of Wordle — now get ready for Sweardle and Absurdle. In related news, Meet Lewdle – the dirty version of the viral word-guessing game Wordle, and Play This Autostraddle-Themed Spinoff of Wordle for a Good, Gay Time, and The Rot of Candy Crush and The Rest of Wordle.

8. The 3 things you learn after your mother dies.

9. Life, in Dog Years. “My father always pampered his pets. So when he fell ill and moved in with us, it was no surprise that his corgi came to rule our home. What I didn’t expect was for Trilby to care for me after Dad was gone.”

10. How you can help—or get help—after the Marshall Fire.

11. How to Reuse N95, KN95, and Other Disposable Masks. Also, in case you hadn’t seen this yet, The Postal Service is now taking orders for free COVID-19 test kits.

12. Losing a Father to the Mountains. “In a new documentary, ‘Torn,’ Max Lowe grapples with the death of his dad, and the presence of the man who replaced him.”

13. People Are Hiding That Their Unvaccinated Loved Ones Died of COVID. “It’s a classic control mechanism, like our knee-jerk desire to know if someone who died of lung cancer smoked, or if someone with liver disease drank: If so, we can believe they were responsible for their own fate, and because we’re making a different choice, that fate won’t befall us. But of course that belief comes at the price of blaming and even vilifying the deceased … As a result, survivors might sacrifice honesty in order to protect the loved one’s image, at potential cost to their own emotional needs.”

14. 22 tips for 2022: Get creative, even if you aren’t feeling inspired.

15. 11 Podcasts for Poetry Lovers. I think they forgot one: Poetry Unbound with Pádraig Ó Tuama.

16. With Somebody Somewhere, Comedian Bridget Everett Finally Gets Her Breakout Moment. “After years of stealing scenes as a foul-mouthed sidekick, in ‘Somebody Somewhere’ Everett finally has a vehicle that takes full advantage of her talents.”

17. Before Macro Photography, This Scientist Used to Illustrate His Microscopic Findings.

18. 40 Movies People Praise As Great But Too “Emotionally Traumatizing” To Be Watched Again. I think it says a lot about me that I’ve seen all of these (some more than once), except for Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, which I KNOW I couldn’t watch even one single time.

19. Aspiring Neurosurgeon to Have his Medical Illustrations Showing Black People Published. Representation absolutely matters.

20. Tender Embroidered Portraits by Ruth Miller Are Tinged with Expressive Colors. The amount of hours, effort, and patience it would take to finish just one of these is mind boggling.

21. How I Freed Up Time to Daydream on The New York Times.

22. What Is Love? A Tender and Poetic Illustrated Celebration of the Elemental Human Quest.

23. 42 Comfort Food Vegetarian Recipes.