Links for May 14th
Pro athletes playing chess, celebrities not on Twitter, Anatomy of a Scandal, Dutch still life paintings
Hello, hope you had a good one. We’re having a very overcast spring on the east coast, aren’t we?
Links
First up, Sam Anderson — of the dreamy, philosophical profile of Kevin Durant — wrote about gaining and losing a bunch of weight during the pandemic; this piece is also quite philosophical about what the body is for and illness. As a friend said on Twitter, it’s both hilarious and heartbreaking. I personally was moved a bit by the way he wrestles with how you can change yourself but you’re still inescapably you, and charmed and delighted by the way he describes his enthusiasm for life. A great piece of writing!
In the winter, quarterbacks (specifically Joe Burrow) were playing chess in the Wall Street Journal; now, baseball players (specifically Manny Machado) are playing chess in the New York Times.
There’s absolutely zero way I was going to watch Anatomy of a Scandal, so I felt 100% fine reading this 100% great, hilarious piece about the last line of the show, and if you’ve seen the show or don’t care about seeing the show, I highly recommend.
Celebrities have largely disengaged from Twitter, because it’s a big trap / involves too much interaction with all aspects of human behavior / requires you to have a point of view, and the Washington Post did a great job of describing what it used to be like and what the platform is like now.
Sorry for all these Times links but this is another one of those close reads where you scroll through a piece of art — this one about Dutch still life — and is again quite compelling!
Here is a fact:
Here is someone holding an actual, wild raccoon at a Vandy-Arkansas baseball game.
Light book commentary
Very light.
A note on all this
Thanks for subscribing. Hope you enjoy. The goal here is just to offer up some links you may have missed, and maybe the occasional commentary on something in politics or a book I may have read that you, the reader, might enjoy. If you have thoughts on any of this, hit me up at katherinemillernyc@gmail.com or just tweet at me.