Sharpen Your Pencils [#131]

As New York Magazine put it, "It really is as it appears: The worst people are dancing together on the lip of the volcano as the journalists fall into the caldera."

Tough start to the year. We face a real hollowing out of the American news industry, which had already been in steady decline for my entire adult life. Six or more years ago years ago, we were already citing a stat about how there were more newspaper jobs lost than coal mining jobs when adjusted for population, and now the numbers have fallen off a steep cliff. The absurdity of the LA Times owner meddling in AN ACTUAL dog-bites-man story really put a cherry on top of the shit sundae. But one bit of news business schadenfreude that cracked me up? A reporter who got fired when his employer found clips of his standup comedy online must be reinstated because ‘his jokes are funny,’ a third-party arbitrator has ruled.

Reading

The messed-up economics of getting into Ivy League schools. Elon Musk’s drug habits.The wild injuries that Rafa Nadal has endured. The mouse that kills itself having sex. The best awards season acceptance speeches, ranked. My book Flawless is ostensibly about the K-beauty industry, but really it’s a book about consent. The kids-in-Sephora craze has me asking: Can young people really consent to what they are putting on their bodies, especially when it’s unnecessary retinol?

Werk Werk Werk

Hosted KCRW’s Left Right and Center on Trump’s eligibility for the ballot, penned my annual year-in-review, and a quick list of books I read in 2023. Speaking of books, the longform option deal for Flawless is signed, meaning I’ve formally sold the feature film rights to the book!

In other entertainment world updates, Peacock’s NPR satire, In the Know, has premiered with Zach Woods, J. Smith Cameron and my cultural icon Mike Judge among the voice talent. I had a lot of fun visiting the writers room for the show, and was tickled to see NYMag Vulture ask Zach about it:

Watch and/or Listen

• May December renewed the discourse on Mary Kay Letourneau. Vox critic Aja Romano has done excellent analysis of this matter. And HOLY COW this interview with the late Letourneau and her ex-husband/victim is BANANAS. So chilling.

• American Fiction

• This adorable video of Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott taking a “How Well Do You Know Your Costar” quiz:

• This video, on why tennis players struggle to make a living, has a chart in it that now plays on a loop in my head anytime I watch professional sports.

One More Recommendation…

Sharpening pencils. I find this so satisfying. Sometimes I go searching the house for dull pencils so I can round up enough to hover over the kitchen sink, manually sharpening pencils for as long as possible, at least long enough to feel like I’ve reached a state of flow.

Now, over to you. What are you reading/watching/listening/doing that you want to share with the Hu’s Letter crew? Eager to hear from you, and take any questions. It’s finally AQUARIUS SEASON (aka the season of my birth) and I am psyched for an energy shift to shake us out of this media erosion ennui.

Later gator,

E