Hello, hope your week went smoothly. Apparently I didn’t read that much this week that wasn’t related to vaccines or the NBA draft (despite not really coming into the NBA draft knowing or caring much about what would happen).
Links
Vaccines!! My abiding interest. This Washington Post reporter really traces the beginning to end of the Pfizer vaccine, and all the logistical maneuvers (like, Pfizer is building their own dry-ice factory). There’s a lot of sharp metaphors in that piece.
One of my colleagues did a very helpful/informative piece about what the vaccine news means for you and me, the average consumer, as in when we will get them and how it will work.
Obviously things are disastrous right now with the virus. That said, are patients saying they thought it was a hoax when they died, as one nurse said this week?
Off The Crown obviously, Maureen Dowd was posting screenshots of this piece of hers covering the royal visit in the 1980s (on which they visited a J.C. Penney in… Northern Virginia?). In terms of “entertaining” as an art, though, having the White House band learn "Night Fever" so John Travolta could dance with Princess Diana, who was seated with Mikhail Baryshnikov at a candle-lit dinner, because she loved dancing? Gotta hand it to Nancy Reagan there.
I remain very anti-worrying about a coup, and have enjoyed these two Twitter threads from Ben Dreyfuss on the designs of the political system and worries in general.
If you are a fan of Phoebe Bridgers or Metallica, she and Lars Ulrich talked at length.
Some light book commentary
In brief: Read Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (which I liked but didn’t love, but I think that’s my lack of some Midwestern/feminist/Calvinist sensibility, as a great many people are huge fans), and Conversations with Friends (which I expected for no real reason to dislike, but actually enjoyed, as I do have a realist/millennial sensibility).
In between, I opted for some Elizabeth Bowen, who really is one of the 20th century’s most underrated novelists. Heat of the Day the rare novel that is literary, actually sort of fits in a modernist context, and is kind of sexy (which is not a quality generally associated with the modernist novel, given how much of it is about people having mental breakdowns in the 1920s — it helps to make your book about trying to figure out if someone’s a Nazi spy while two people have an affair during the Blitz). The Death of the Heart might read slightly dated to the modern eye, because the 16-year-old seems more like a 12-year-old, but contains some excellent writing. Bowen was a real master of describing a vibe and efficiency. I picked up Friends and Relations, which apparently is sort of lesser Elizabeth Bowen, but who cares. Like any good book, it’s about two sisters getting married and a terrible secret that's both already known to you by the time you get there, but also damaging. But here’s a sample on the vibe and efficiency front:
[Janet] was to be an October bride: one could forecast chrysanthemums, a certain quality in the sunshine.
[Laurel] liked London better than she had expected, and carried (though Edward must never suspect this) a map of it in her handbag, also a guide to the buses.
It became clear [during the lunch] to Mrs. Thirdman and Mrs. Bowles, something must have occurred and still be occurring. Estrangement, friction? Was it Rodney, was it Edward? Marriage was always difficult. 'I hear Batts is delightful,' said Mrs. Bowles.
As someone says on the back of the book, there’s a hint of menace within the comedy.
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.