Hitchhiking, Weekend Whats, Feel Good Friday
“I rode with a stuntman who estimated he’d sustained 50 concussions. A few years later, in Utah, a young man said God told him to pick me up; the next morning, a mother coming off a night shift told me she regretted her disinterest in the Church. In Wyoming, an oil-field geologist steamed about his divorce after months alone in a trailer. ‘You’re the first person I’ve talked to,’ he said. The next year, around Tennessee, a bounty hunter argued to me that the Earth was flat, and a Mexican American man told me why he kept a ‘Make America great again’ hat on his dashboard: In his town, he said, not showing support for Donald Trump could lead to your mailbox getting smashed. Near Pennsylvania, a young salt-factory worker showed off hands so callused, he couldn’t use gloves without developing blisters. He dreamed of driving a truck to Kansas. The freedom of the road beckoned to us both.” Those are Andrew Fedorov’s hitchhiking recollections, not mine. The road generally only beckons me to drive away from social interactions; especially rapidly when those interactions are with people I don’t know. I’m fine with device-aided textual communications, but, these days, when it comes to the traditional in-person stuff, I’m all thumb-drives. But Fedorov’s reflections on how the waning popularity of hitchhiking has also mirrored a loss of something else in American culture is nothing to thumb your nose at. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Does Anyone Still Hitchhike? “‘Few transport experiences involve being repeatedly catapulted into other people’s lives with such intensity,’ Jonathan Purkis wrote in his 2022 book, Driving With Strangers. Studies have shown that conversations with new people make us happier. In a time when social connections with strangers are so often algorithmically regulated, the unexpected, serendipitous meetings from hitchhiking can be all the more powerful because they’re so much rarer.” (Whether through hitchhiking or some other means, hopefully those social interactions in our rearview mirrors are closer than they appear.)
Are We Having Fund Yet
Trump continues to deploy federal money as a weapon, even in cases where it’s unclear that he has the power to do so. Trump says he’s ending federal funding for NPR and PBS. They say he can’t. And in his latest salvo in an ongoing battle, Trump again threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status, saying, ‘It’s what they deserve!'” (Full disclosure: I went to Harvard for grad school, but I identify as a Cal Bear.)
+ Maybe Trump should put Marco Rubio in charge of collections. He seems to be in charge of everything else. It almost seems like this is all part of a DOGE plan to save government funds by giving Marco Rubio every job. “In addition to running the State Department, the onetime Trump critic-turned-ally is also serving as acting administrator for USAID, acting archivist, and now also Trump’s interim national security adviser.” (During dark times you have to look for the bright side. One day soon Marco Rubio is gonna get fired from all of these jobs at once.)
Serpentine Fire
“The video is just under two and a half minutes long. A slim man with close-cropped hair walks into a room, pulls a long black mamba — whose venom can kill within an hour — from a crate and allows it to bite his left arm. Immediately after, he lets a taipan from Papua New Guinea bite his right arm. ‘Thanks for watching,’ he calmly tells the camera, his left arm bleeding, and then exits.” But maybe we should be thanking him. This nearly two-decade hobby of his helped create a blood mix that contains antibodies that can neutralize the venom of many snakes. “More than 600 species of venomous snakes roam the earth, biting as many as 2.7 million people, killing about 120,000 people and maiming 400,000 others — numbers thought to be vast underestimates.” NYT (Gift Article): Universal Antivenom May Grow Out of Man Who Let Snakes Bite Him 200 Times. (Universal Antivenom is also a pretty great name for a band.)
Weekend Whats
What to Doc: When I was in high school, my room was a Led Zeppelin shrine. Sadly, there’s no documentation of that. So we’ll have to settle for the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, which is finally available to rent and stream.
+ What to Surf: I don’t surf. But I love surfing movies and documentaries. And there are now three seasons of the excellent HBO series, 100 Foot Wave.
+ What to Book: “Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.” I’m late to the party, but Fates and Furies is a great read.
Extra, Extra
Roll Tide: “Trump’s policies and the way he’s orienting his government combine as an assault on the Great Society legislation Johnson pushed through in the 1960s, including the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.” Trump turns civil rights upside down in ‘biggest rollback’ since Reconstruction. He’s doing this in between rolling back health care and environmental safeguards. WaPo: Senate overturns EPA rule on seven highly toxic air pollutants.
+ Buy AI: Visa and Mastercard unveil AI-powered shopping. “Artificial intelligence is not just infiltrating the startup world. Now credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are getting into the AI game. Visa announced on Wednesday ‘Intelligent Commerce,’ which it says enables AI ‘to find and buy.'” (I’ve set mine to match my actual shopping habits. It researches obsessively and never actually makes a purchase.)
+ Trial and Errors: “As months passed with no trial, no hearing, no updates and rare interactions with his lawyers, there were many times, alone and despairing in jail, when he wondered if anyone was listening. Then, in an extraordinary turn, the blame shifted onto the officers and the bulk of the case against Jordan was dropped. Now he was free.” A Mississippi man spent 940 days in jail waiting for a trial that never came.
+ Can’t Find a Fetterman: “John Fetterman insists he is in good health. But staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.” All By Himself. This is a really interesting article about health, depression, and the extreme impact of social media. (If it’s behind a paywall, try reader mode on your browser.)
+ Happy Ending: “For eight years running, Finland has topped the World Happiness Report — but what exactly does it measure?” NYT (Gift Article): My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth.’
+ Belichick Flick: “I should not be hearing about Bill Belichick right now. It’s late spring, which means that the Great American Hobgoblin should be sequestered in his film dungeon right now, fastidiously studying ancient football scrolls for the key to leading his UNC Tar Heels to a Fanatics Bowl win against Iowa State eight months from now. That’s the Bill Belichick that you and I are used to. It’s not the Belichick we love — no such iteration of the man exists — but it’s the one we can easily forget about this time of year, when football is dead asleep. Instead, the old man has decided to curse the eyes of a weary nation with imagery that leaves far too much to the imagination.” Drew Magary: What on earth is going on with Bill Belichick and his new girlfriend/publicist? (You can read this if you want. Me? I’m onto Cincinnati.)
+ Commode Rage: “According to the affidavit, Solometo told police that she was in a line of cars to turn left at a light and honked at a driver in front of her who did not move when the arrow was green.” And then things escalated. “I wanted to punch her in the face, but I pooped on her car instead.”
Feel Good Friday
“If you choose to commute by bike, there is a lot you might encounter on your morning ride – nice things like spring flowers … or not so nice things, like angry motorists. But on the last Friday of each month, in Portland, Oregon, you’ll also come across fresh-brewed coffee, doughnuts and other early morning treats.” ‘Breakfast on the Bridges’: a monthly Portland commuter tradition.
+ Playing hockey until you’re 80? Bay Area senior rec league’s oldest hangs up his skates.
+ Robert De Niro supports daughter Airyn as she comes out as trans. “I loved and supported Aaron as my son, and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter. I don’t know what the big deal is … I love all my children.” (Loving all of our children. What a concept.)
+ Legal veteran starts new firm to defend targets of Trump actions.
+ US economy beats expectations to add 177,000 jobs in April.
+ WaPo: The world’s tallest and shortest dogs met for a playdate.
+ We just had the most preposterous year of Aaron Judge.
+ How an abandoned couch changed a small village – in pictures.
