The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“I’m back inside
my head
where it’s safe”

— Ocean Vuong / “Dear Peter” / Time Is A Mother

“It’s always like that. Childhood makes us what we are.”

— Marcial Gala / The Black Cathedral

“The US was no longer number one. The ‘recyclable’ waste of other nations was shipped here instead. Migrants no longer rushed its borders. Countries had begun programs of de-Americanizing, severing ties with US companies and businesses, and levying fines and taxes in trade. Its most significant cultural artifacts, including the Constitution, the Declaration, were on loan to foreign museums, displayed in clumsily curated exhibitions that lumped them with British curios … how to raise a child in this time and place.”

— Ling Ma / “Tomorrow” / Bliss Montage

“I woke up and said
‘I have slept until now,’ and now
I have stopped sleeping altogether.”

— Laurence Wieder / “These Anemones, Their Song Is Made Up As They Float Along”

“Emissions from the motor sector could have fallen by more than 30% between 2010 and 2022 if vehicles had stayed the same size, a report has found.

Instead, the size of the average car ballooned as the trend for SUVs took off, meaning the global annual rate of energy intensity reductions – the fall in fuel used – of light-duty vehicles (LDV) averaged 4.2% between 2020 and 2022.”

— Helena Horton / “Motor emissions could have fallen by over 30% without SUV trend, report says” / The Guardian

“‘Bad to the Bone’ plays overhead and embarrasses
me. This is the worst first date ever, worse than the
sad man with the trashed Firebird in his backyard.”

— Julia Story / “‘Bad to the Bone’ plays overhead and embarrasses…”

“Earth’s vital signs are failing … Record emissions, ferocious fires, deadly droughts and the hottest year ever.”

— Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General / COP28 introductory remarks

What I’m Listening To:

“Police dem
Shoot you so young
Police dem
Shoot you so old
Police dem
Hard steel so cold
Police dem
Put in choke hold”

— Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramid / “Police Dem”