Finding great stories, so you don't have to
Oh yes, friend, it's Sunday again, which means your latest fortnightly dose of randomness from me.
I've been feeling rather rudderless recently – one thing that's sustained me over the past couple of weeks is the rather excellent The Terror on iPlayer. First released in 2018, it's derived from the story of two 'lost ships' trying to navigate the Northwest Passage through the Arctic in 1845. It's quite dark and unnerving, has a brilliant cast and really sucks you in. Right on with the rest of the nonsense...
A lesson in friendship
This isn't a new article, but I've come back to it numerous times over the years and am surprised I've never shared it before now. The section that always stands out to me is this: "No matter what was going on in my life ... I never called my friends for help... I thought that made me strong. I can count on my hand the number of times I’ve ever called anyone and said something to the effect of: I really need you right now ... This has been one of my biggest shortcomings."
Broke vs poor
As Iesha Small encapsulates perfectly: "a person’s economic situation is more complicated than the current status of their bank balance."
BOOK OF THE FORTNIGHT
Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan
I've moved back to fiction this issue, and a delicious slice of Gothic literary horror. The story centres around the residents of the building 10 Luckenbooth Close in Edinburgh. It starts with the arrival of the devil's daughter, Jessie, there to bear a child for a wealthy couple, and proceeds majestically onwards. Fagan's writing is remarkably lyrical and evocative and I romped through this in short order. Worth a fiver of your English (or indeed Scottish) pounds if you buy it as an ebook.
Buy links*: UK Bookshop | Hive | Amazon
Will we ever get a clear idea about what we should eat?
A long read, but it gets to the heart of our ever-changing dilemma of what's good for us and what isn't: "Do eggs increase the risk of heart disease? Does coffee prevent dementia? Does red wine prevent cancer? There is not even a consensus on basic questions about proteins, fats and carbohydrates, the basic categories of nutrients discovered at the dawn of nutrition science in the 19th century." Worth your time.
The people who work from home... and have two jobs!
This is a bonkers phenomenon and result of the rise in remote working. Part of me feels as if it could only happen in a country like America, where corporations are often huge and soulless.
The underground engineers and architects of the ant world
II wasn't sure about this article to begin with – if I'm being honest, they bury the lede on this. About halfway down there are some pictures showing plastercasts of ant nests – and they are bonkers. Makes it worth the read.
60 years of Private Eye
This Press Gazette interview with Ian Hislop and Adam MacQueen about six decades of Private Eye is a lot of fun.
Meet the honky-tonk nun
I happened upon Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou a few years ago (courtesy of a BBC radio documentary) and was reminded of her brilliance via another newsletter this week. A 98-year-old, piano-playing nun sounds faintly ridiculous, but her music is rather wonderful (and indefinable).
How to make a Netflix-style doc about anything
If you've watched any Netflix documentary, you'll recognise just how brilliant and clever this video is.
Welcome back to the office
This video from KPMG Norway is clever and pretty funny... but I'm slightly on the fence about its undertones of 'stop mucking about at home and start doing some real work again'.
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