I have an essay on the thrill of idleness in the latest issue of The Gentlewoman, which is not online but is on newsstands now. It's funny that this is out in the world at a time when I am running all over the place on tour. My month of rest and relaxation feels like a lifetime ago.

I'm also on Bobby Finger's Netflix podcast, talking about the decidedly meh teen rom-com "Tall Girl" and our respective high-school height-related traumas. I discuss what I've learned from years of strangers commenting on my body: That you should only give a "compliment" to a stranger if it pertains to a choice they made that morning. 

The toll of "MeToo" on those who came forward. Brett Kavanaugh's Washington. Trump isn't Richard Nixon, he's Andrew Johnson. A chilling story about how ICE picks its targets in the surveillance age. It's Rachel Maddow's moment. Susan Sontag's queer life. The war on sex work. Hustlers and the anatomy of a scam. How the "power suit" lost its power. An oral history of Lilith Fair. The music of 2008, as heard in Hustlers. The rise of the "getting real" post on Instagram. The cult of rich-kid sports. The history of white supremacy and surfing. How employers make it impossible for their employees to breastfeed. Gender-neutral dolls are here. Who carries the mental load of planning dinner.

Become a paying member for just $5/year. I'd love your support. What are you missing? Click here to see what my pie charts are all about.

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October 1. The syllabus from Lynda Barry's comics-making class. Saada Bonaire, "You Could Be More As You Are."

What happens when you try to smear Elizabeth Warren as a cougar.

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Liana Finck's cartoons. She has a new book out!

This one is appropriate for my scattered month on the road:

I am big into celebrating birthdays, and not only the milestone years. Here's how you like to mark the passage of another year of your life:

• Watch the sunrise.
• Start the day by making myself a big stack of pancakes
• Take my coffee back to bed and open birthday cards. I’ve kept this tradition a few years running, but I’m going to start specifically requesting mailed birthday cards 
• Pay off my overdue library fines!
• Solo day at a spa bathhouse. Being naked with other ladies in a luxurious space always makes me feel part of a pantheon of goddesses, and helps me celebrate the body at any age.
• Be in charge of the music anywhere i go
• Go for a run with friends while wearing birthday hats. You’d be surprised at how many people cheerily shout “happy birthday” at you! I also highly recommend concluding your run at a local doughnut shop.
• A version of Tashlikh -- throwing small pieces of bread into water. It helps me let go of beliefs that no longer serve me.
• I'm too Gen-X to be an "astrology person" but I love reading all the "your year ahead" horoscopes on my birthday. I search for them in Google news to find the old-timey newspaper ones.
• I gather friends and have a dinner party wherein I get to ask all the me-centered questions I'd otherwise be too civil to ask. "Does this lipstick color really work?" Can you see the bags under my eyes?" It's like my own Truth or Dare game and it gets to be all about me and friends are somehow willing to be more honest.
• Golden Record Listening Party!
• Turn my phone off. I get to experience the day unhindered, and then turn my phone back on at night or the next day for a great ego boost.
• Stew in existential dread and crushing expectations not fulfilled.
• I like to wish for a tuna fish sandwich when I blow out my candles then go make a tuna fish sandwich. Then my wish comes true. It’s a trick I learned reading Calvin and Hobbes. Never fails to lift my mood.
• Watch a movie in which a character is the age I'm about to turn.
• I always take the day AFTER my birthday off. That way I get to be around people on my birthday, drinks as much wine as I want, and spend the next day recovering and responding to emails and texts.

If today happens to be your day, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Now stop checking your email and go do something fun. Or just enjoy being idle.

The last stop of our CYG tour is October 26 in Washington, D.C. Come see us!