Things Do Not Seem Fine Edition [#47]

May 15, 2017

Annyeong from Seoul,

Living 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time has its perks, but lately it's mainly stressful. Every morning I wake up to a day's worth of baffling/shocking headlines. Obviously this past week was full of those "I'm burrowing back under the covers" mornings. (At some point I need to end maternity leave and go back to work, but that point is not now.) Anyway I've included plenty of non-Trump reads, along with a special holiday section.

Reading
What's happening in Venezuela is horrific. A deep dive on the Silk Road mastermind. How Houston became the most diverse city in America. The best satire of "winners and losers" political journalism I've ever read. An essential take on the Comey firing. A matrix to measure the weightiness of what's happening in the administration. How Trump's misuse of language affects us all. The woman suing Donald Trump for "loss of enjoyment of life" is not me, I swear. The vote on Trumpcare and its "monstrous cruelty." Advice from a therapist on how to stay sane these days. Benefits of taking the path of MORE resistance. A series on what it's like to be a teenage boy in 2017. Being a "cool girl" on Instagram cost her a great love. Open marriages are so in right now. Measuring feminism by happiness instead of equality? A karaoke machine for introverts.

Talking About...
Where to eat with wee ones in Seoul, for Harper's Bazaar Junior. The outcome of the South Korean presidential election this week, with the BBC.

Watching

The Handmaid's Tale, available on Hulu. If you've read the book it's fascinating to watch how it looks as a television series. But it's timely and engrossing even if you haven't read the Margaret Atwood classic.
Fleabag. It is EXACTLY the kind of pathos + filthy humor I love. (h/t @lfrayer)
Lovesick (formerly 'Scrotal Recall'). I am just blazing through these half-hour British comedies with only six episodes a season. This one is sweeter than Fleabag but just as funny.
Russia is thinking "in far more consequential terms" than the US when it comes to information power.(h/t @photomatt)
Samantha Bee's takedown of Ivanka Trump's book is so so so satisfying.

Favorite Links On Moms and Motherhood
As I did for Valentine's Day, I found my "motherhood" tags in Evernote to generate links on a timely topic. Not all of us have kids, but we all have moms, so these links are for everyone.

We're not so different from our own moms. "Because I'm so attached to her, I'm less attached to my own ego." The conundrum of combining being an artist and being a mother. Tina Fey's prayer for her daughter. On being a foreign correspondent and a mother. There's no real safety net for working mothers. The worrying puritanism of progressive parents. Mothers are keepers of bodies. Becoming a new father, slowly. Getting pregnant is neither punishment nor reward. The only baby book you'll need. Advice new moms gave me before I became one. The toll of pregnancy on a woman's body, in one comic. Celebrate nannies and the network of people who care for your child. We have to stop thinking of work-life balance as a woman's problem. Friend Kat remembers her late mom, by literally walking in her shoes. Thoughts on my back-to-back miscarriages. The black magic of being a mom, even for a moment. "I asked myself, 'What am I going to lose by having a child?' And so far the answer is nothing." Letting go gets even harder when the children grow up.

Hu's Letter?