I read a lot. This is a selection of what I read the past week (2/9/2021 through 3/7/2021) that I think you should read, too.
Articles
*Matt Blitz’s Sleepytime Tea and the Little Known Religion Behind It for Food and Wine: ……….Well, that was certainly a ride.
*Adryan Corcione’s 4 Things You Should Stop Saying to Nonbinary People for Teen Vogue: A great mini-guide to some of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding nonbinary people and how to speak to them respectfully.
*Timothy Fitzgerald’s Please Stop Looking Down on Community Theatre for OnStage Blog: There really shouldn’t be a hierarchy in what is and is not “high” or “low” art, and that includes theatre. Community theatre offers great opportunities for hobbyists and aspiring professionals alike to better build and hone their talents. It doesn’t deserve any of the stigma. Community theatre is no less “serious” than the companies going up for Tony Awards; it’s just a different type of serious.
*Angie Franklin’s Ghosted by Allies: Why BIPOC Still Can’t Trust White People With Social Justice for The Bold Italic: Last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests raised an interest in elevating Black voices… which didn’t exactly come to fruition as the months went on. Social justice and inclusion shouldn’t be treated as trends. It’s a constant commitment to learning and doing better, and learning how to do right by others who’ve been marginalized and harmed by injustice and inequality.
*Ian Lecklitner’s Trekking through the Ingredients in Arby’s Meat Mountain for Mel Magazine: Part comedy, part genuinely insightful look at the myths and facts of the preservatives, emulsifiers, and other additives in our food. There’s a saying that if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it, but that isn’t always the case. Some of the additives are harmless. Some aren’t. It’s important to stay educated about the science behind our food so we make the most informed decisions.
*Jef Rouner’s Dear Yankees: Texas Does Not “Deserve” This for Houston Press: One of the more frustrating aspects of living in Texas is that, whenever we face down a natural disaster like Harvey, or COVID, or the freeze from a few weeks ago that knocked out our power grid, people from other states who claim to be progressive mock us for it. They say we deserve it because of our terrible state leadership, overlooking the decades of gerrymandering and voter suppression that continue pushing the worst kinds of people upward. We don’t. Nobody deserves what we’ve gone through. They also don’t realize that the people who suffer the most because of our governorship’s negligence and cruelty are the very people they claim they stand in solidarity with – the poor, people of color, the disabled, the homeless, etc. Saying the entire state should be denied aid because of the sins in Austin is the opposite of solidarity.
Comics
As always, my weeklies/weeklies-ish:
*Huda Fahmy’s Yes I’m Hot in This
*Phylecia Miller and Jules Rivera’s Hi, Phylecia!
*Taejoon Park’s Lookism
*Jules Rivera’s Mark Trail
*Linda Sejic’s Punderworld
*Jessi Sharon’s The Sea in You
*Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus
*Sensaga’s Ham and Mat
*Steenz’s Heart of the City
Books
All food history buffs need Jennifer 8 Lee’s The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food weaves together multiple stories about the origins of Chinese-American cuisine, including General Tso’s chicken, chop suey, and, of course, fortune cookies. She travels between both countries in search of history and the ways in which urbanism, immigration, politics, race, class, supply chains, marketing, crime, and other factors impacted the way Chinese food changed from the mainland to the new land. I’m about halfway through and absolutely adore Lee’s combination of intensive inquiry and friendly tone. She sprinkles her own experiences and relationship with Chinese food throughout, and dives into other aspects of the cultural history as well, such as the relationship between Chinese restaurants and Jewish families. Another storyline involves the 2005 Powerball winners who all scored big with fortune cookie numbers. So excited to finish!
See you next week, fellow bookish buffs!
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