A public health announcement
I'm taking RFK Jr's job
Damn, get your flu shot, everyone. This is a PSA. I’ve spent this whole week completely unable to move, like I was hit by a truck. I think I would have actually preferred being hit by a truck. It hurt to take a shower, it hurt to sit upright in bed, everything was either too hot or too cold. It took me four whole days to stomach a meal with more than one food group. I cried watching the very silly new Christmas movie with Michelle Pfeiffer. I cried watching Sorry, Baby. (Not silly, very good, give Eva Victor an award!) I miss the world outside my apartment. Unfortunately during all of this, my phone stopped being able to charge, so my first foray into the world post-flu will have to be the Apple Store. According to the CDC about 60 percent of U.S. adults did not get the flu vaccine this year. I never want to be a statistic again.
Bad things always happen to me in December, which is my birthday month. This year I got my headphones stolen by coat check at a holiday party the day after my birthday and was fully gaslit by the hotel staff into believing I lost them. Last year on my birthday my Uber driver hit someone with their car, and two weeks later I got my heart broken by someone who behaved in such a gratuitously cruel way that thinking about the events of that day still sends my body into fight or flight mode. In 2022 my phone spontaneously combust while I was out dancing with some friends, I had to spend most of my birthday waiting around at the Apple Store, and then two days later I was rendered immobile by the flu—time is a flat circle!
I could drive myself crazy wondering what that means for my future, or what tone that sets for my 30s or what the universe is trying to tell me, but I am making peace with the idea that expecting patterns of a celestial nature to predict outcomes is actually a symptom of anxiety. The truth is that life is pretty random and sometimes things happen, and the only thing you can do about it is remember that when stuff happens it’s not really about you, and to try your best to be prepared. After a decade or more of flirting with astrology as a fun and harmless hobby, I’ve moved on, I think. It is very fun to identify strongly with being a Sagittarius sun and a Gemini moon and a Scorpio rising and all that, and of course I have felt seen and understood by generic magazine horoscopes in the past. It’s the same appeal as looking into a mirror. Who can’t get enough of self-perception? I think I’d like to spend the next decade looking at my face a little less.
I still believe in God, though. Maybe I’m still writing this newsletter at 40 I’ll announce that I’m an atheist by then.
Do you think the people who got caught smuggling NVIDIA chips to China bought them on eBay? I can’t believe that if I really wanted to, I could type my credit card information into eBay and buy an H200 and get it shipped to my house. I tried going through the motions just to see if there was a catch and there wasn’t. I even got a little holiday discount code! I just thought there would be more steps involved in buying a fairly advanced piece of hardware that was, until recently, banned from selling in China.
A lot of interesting things in this Politico poll measuring voter sentiment in Global North countries. An fascinating bit: Paris’ outgoing socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo has accomplished a lot in making the city more green and reduced traffic congestion and pollution, but hasn’t done much about affordability—a big theme in elections next year in the Western world. I like that the phrase “affordability crisis” is so popular now. Zohran’s power!
I am so happy for these kids rediscovering connection in the absence of phones!!! It’s still early, but I think you could say New York State’s phone ban is a very successful public health intervention. This piece only talked to students and teachers in NYC, but I would be interested in seeing reporting on how kids upstate feel about not having their phones in class.
Night Club 101 is selling one-year unlimited memberships. Individual ticket prices are typically between $10-20, so this works out financially if you commit to going to around 15-20 shows a year. I think this could become much more common at this price point in the next year, since members’ clubs for the wealthy have taken off but there is generally a limit to how many customers you can make money from in that stratosphere.
The rivers in Arctic Alaska are turning orange. Nothing to see here!
I am an airport lounge enjoyer, but this is going too far. I know I won’t convince a single boardroom in America but here is my plea: please stop trying to chase the whims of the richest people on planet Earth and make the normal lounges nice. Those rich people don’t even want to be flying commercial anyway!
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