HELLO and welcome to the 303rd 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 Cheez-Balls!!! 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.
The Class of 2000 ‘Could Have Been Anything’, by Dan Levin for The New York Times, December 2019
An interactive feature looking at one graduating class in Minford, Ohio, “ground zero in the state’s fight against opiods” — lives lost, impacted, damaged, derailed.
Writing People of Color, by MariNaomi for Midnight Breakfast, November 2019
An artist of color talks to other artists of color about how they write POC as POC and where they think white people have gone wrong or done well in their own efforts towards inclusivity.
Big Calculator: How Texas Instruments Monopolized Math Class, by Maya Kosoff for Medium, November 2019
FASCINATING! Also fascinating? The comments! Lots of like, MATHEMATICIANS are weighing in as well as people from other countries. A great read two thumbs up!!
Toward an Applicable Theory of Just Not, by Rachel Kincaid for Autostraddle, December 2019
The year after my divorce I am tired in a way I could never have imagined before, but I can’t stop working. I spend my time between tasks thinking about how I can find more work; I’m deeply over frivolous problems and unnecessary interpersonal backbending and yet can’t stop seeking them out, desperate for more to solve, to fix. I ask for homework in therapy, frustrated when I’m not assigned books to read or dysfunctional coping mechanisms to research and am instead told to sit with my feelings. I should be relieved at finally completing a seemingly endless interstate separation and finally living independently, part of a network of people who love me; I am, and I also feel a kind of grief that’s bigger than my marriage or the end of it. Like many people who grew up the way I did — eldest daughter, child of an unstable parent, overachieving millennial, pick your poison — I had always believed that if I worked hard enough, did everything right, I could keep everything going, make everything work. I had spent so long being so committed to that edict I had never wanted to consider its inverse: If I stopped working, everything could fall apart. I have proven it true, in this instance; when I stopped doing the heavy lifting in my marriage, it collapsed. If I could lose that, what else can I lose? What else in my life is being held together only by my round-the-clock effort, gone the moment I relax my grip?
Chanel Miller On What Happened After Her Victim Statement Went Viral, by Chanel Miller for Buzzfeed, October 2019
An article about Buzzfeed’s editorial ideals led me to the letter (Massive trigger warning for sexual assault) that the survivor read to Brock Turner in court in 2016 and it made me cry on an airplane, leaving the airplane, and then in the backseat of a lyft to a hotel, I’m not sure why I’d not read it before. That led me here.
Gimme Shelter, by Wes Enzinna for Harper’s, December 2019
On trying to find a place to live in the Bay Area, and Ghost Ship, and gentrification and class mobility and the personality of neighborhoods.
Who Were the 2010s?, by various for New York Magazine, December 2019
A look back on the decade from those who helped shape it — like Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson to Kim Kardashian (who says some truly bananas things!) to Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti to Ta-Nehisi Coates on the “Obama Decade” and more!
False Idol, by Alex Morris for Rolling Stone, December 2019
How Trump won over the religious right — and the author’s family.
Candy Crush, by Madeline Leung Coleman for Real Life Mag, November 2019
Cheez-Balls: back by popular demand.
How to Be Healthy in Los Angeles, by Sara Benicasa for Medium, November 2019
Sometimes the brain, accustomed to years of chaos, creates more chaos to keep the pain party going. Unfamiliar with peace and quiet, the mind tries to kick up some shit. There can be an anxiety about getting healthier — what if it all goes away? What if I lose the progress I’ve made? What if this newer life is only temporary, and I can’t hang onto it?
I have a bunch of tabs open now. Thank you Riese
Thank you for bringing our attention to Rachel’s essay. I missed it the first time around and, well, holy shit. Powerful stuff.