Sunday Morning Reads 3/7/21
(OK so I screwed up the settings on the original post and it didn’t go out to everyone so let’s try this again)
It’s officially March 2021, which will serve as the kickoff to a year’s worth of “one year ago today” posts across social media. Fortunately, this March is already looking to be better than the last -- millions of vaccines have hit the streets and jabs are getting into arms at a rate of over 1 million a day. My hope is that by the end of the month we’ll start to see availability open up to the lower priority tiers and then we’ll really start seeing progress.
But until then, let’s do some reading
For those still following the Donald McNeil - NYT scandal, McNeil posted a four-part response on Medium to the allegations of racism levied against him. If you don’t want to read all four posts (or you’re trying to keep your blood pressure from spiking) Nancy Rommelmann sums them up for you.
Kat Rosenfield takes on the concept of accountability and how the Clubhouse Tattles who want to “hold people accountable” for their words are bastardizing it
Since the topic of the minimum wage is all the rage, Noah Smith has come up with an interesting concept; why not tie the minimum wage to local rent prices? The idea he puts forth has two policy aims -- by using rent as a proxy of cost of living for lower-income earners localities can better judge what the correct minimum wage should be and that by tying the minimum wage to rent prices, cities would be incentivized to allow more housing to be built.
In the context of explaining what happened to Britney Spears, Mara Wilson wrote a damning piece on how the public treats very young, famous women and the extreme demands we put on them
Have you been struggling to keep up with the Dr. Seuss controversy? Cathy Young gives an overview of the controversy and why it is part of a troubling trend of eliminating certain works from the public sphere. I may give my thoughts on this situation next week if time permits.
The sequel to Jordan Peterson’s smash hit “12 Rules for Life”, “Beyond Order - 12 More Rules for Life”, is now available; Helen Lewis reviews the new book and, more importantly, what happened to Peterson since the release of the first book. If ever there was a cautionary tale about the perils of internet fame and how it will eat you alive if you let it…
I hope this past week has been good to you, and here’s to hoping that we’re finally turning the corner on the COVID crisis.
Take care, and until next time