HELLO and welcome to the 309th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can know more about Kinfolk!! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
I read so much about the coronavirus this month wow! Which meant reading The New York Times a lot.
Why an Idaho Ski Destination Has One of the Highest COVID-19 Rates In The Nation, by Michael Ames for The New Yorker, April 2020
These stories coming in about people who all shared space and time with each other with great enthusiasm before it was known that such activities were going to make us sick, and then the event got everybody sick — there’s something very uniquely sad about it.
How Kinfolk Magazine Defined the Millennial Aesthetic…and Unraveled Behind the Scenes, by Lisa Abend for Vanity Fair, March 2020
I did not know that it was founded by two couples, both Mormon (at the time) who met in college.
12 Fraught Hours with E.M.Ts in a City Under Seige, by Jan Hoffman for The New York Times, April 2020
Just, wow.
In Praise of a Boring, Normal Country, by Christoph Niemann for The New York Times, March 2020
Estonia! A country you might not know anything about, and this is a cute little trip with cartoons and history. I had fun!
The Stabbing in Morningside Park, by Lisa Miller for New York Magazine, March 16th
An 18-year old Barnard student at Barnard is murdered in Morningside Park and the conversation around it is so much bigger and goes in so many more directions than just the crime. I used to live in the neighborhood where this story takes place and it’s my favorite place I’ve ever lived.
Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?, by Wyatt Williams for The Believer, January 2020
How is it that literature has produced such a wealth of information about the sex lives of straight white men and yet so little about the abortions they have or have not paid for? How is it that when it comes to the stories that men have written about abortion, they are almost always unspeakably tragic?
How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk, by Ellen Gabler for The New York Times, January 2020
Brianna recommended this in the comments from the last time we were all here (five years ago) and it blew my mind and explained so much about why Walgreens wants to refill my prescriptions even when I don’t want them to!
The Accusations Were Lies. But Could We Prove It?, by Sarah Viren for The New York Times, March 2020
“When the university told my wife about the sexual-harassment complaints against her, we knew they weren’t true. We had no idea how strange the truth really was.”
The Night That Changed Basketball Forever, by Danilo Gallinari for The Player’s Tribune, April 2020
An Italian player for the Oklahoma City Thunder on the night his team’s game against the Utah Jazz was cancelled when Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
America’s Other Epidemic, by Beth Macy for The Atlantic, May 2020
Here’s a story about something terrible (the opioid crisis in rural Kentucky) that someone is trying to fix and actually getting somewhere, which was surprisingly nice to read!
YouTube Sensation. Progressive in a Purple District. Single Mom., by Rebecca Nelson for California Sunday, March 2020
KATIE PORTER!
Since I Became Symptomatic, by Leslie Jamison for The New York Review of Books, March 2020
Surprise, I love something else that Leslie Jamison wrote. This; on getting sick right after getting divorced. It’s not really long. It’s medium.
Being a single parent is like being a parent except you’re always alone. Being a single parent in quarantine is like being a parent except the inside of your mind has become an insane asylum echoing with the sound of your own voice reading the same picture books over and over again
I once went on a bus trip through Estonia. The food was surprisingly cheap
I, also, took buses through Estonia!
(and lots of boats since I was living in Finland at the time).
The food was surprisingly cheap – and they made the thickest pancakes I have ever seen.
mmmm maybe one day when we can go places again i will go to estonia
Beth Macy’s book, “Dopesick” – read it.
thank you for sharing the NYT article about chain pharmacies! here’s another one about their alarming lack of care. it was just published yesterday, a fairly long read but nothing crazy: https://www.propublica.org/article/pharmacy-workers-are-coming-down-with-covid-19-but-they-cant-afford-to-stop-working
I fuckin quit retail and I started working in specialty pharmacy for [major hospital] this week and I can’t decide which of these places I’m more likely to contract COVID-19. I’m frankly surprised I’ve avoided it so far. It has been a very, very strange time to transition into hospital pharmacy.
Omg that piece by Sarah Viren is a trip!! 😳 Holy shit! I’m so glad she and her wife got some answers, but so disappointed that it doesn’t feel like enough at the end and wow! how much this upended their lives.