Bye, 2016 [#35]
Aloha from balmy Hawaii,
Thought I'd get one of these out before 2017 since I read a lot this week. Things really slowed down after a rushed start in Honolulu, chasing POTUS around with this band of merry journalists:
What I Read
The year in incredible photographs. 2016's best television. Pretty maps. Poems for a stressful season. The haunting, unmissable story of a soldier. The neuroscience of wanting versus liking. A book for the post-truth age. To challenge Donald Trump on the facts is to lose. The theory of sexism that helps explain Trumpism. North Carolina is no longer a fully-functioning democracy. The U.S. Democratic Party is a pile of rubble. But we really need to not be divided. 'No place for self pity, no room for fear.' The inventor of the beloved red Solo cup died. Women are drinking themselves to death. Creatives are unafraid of death. Of course, death comes with the package of life. 'Self-fulfillment' at NFL games, ew. And all these years later, I'm not settled on Ben or Noel.
My Work
I came to Hawaii for Obama's final summit with a global leader as president (it was with Japan's Shinzo Abe), and Abe's visit to offer condolences at Pearl Harbor. Here's the conversation about it on All Things Considered, the fuller radio piece for Morning Edition, and some behind-the-scenes photos on Elise Goes East. (I'll get around to doing a recap of the memorable reporting adventures of 2016 when I'm not unsure what day it is.)
What I Watched
If we've talked in the past few months, you know I've become obsessed with the threat of nuclear annihilation, which all started when I was at Hiroshima in May and later heard former Defense Secretary William Perry speak in Seoul. John Oliver has a good recap of the issue: "Let's not let our last words be, 'Whoops, oh shit.'"
If you haven't seen it, the political documentary Weiner ended up being not just gripping but important to the 2016 presidential race, "a depressing pile-up of the year's governing impulses."
For my Carrie Fisher tribute-viewing, I chose When Harry Met Sally, because c'mon, there are too many #gold non sequitirs and gags in there that have now become part of the vernacular. "Mr. Zero knew? Mr. Zero knew."
Anyway, it's about old friends,
Elise
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