Welcome back to MIDC! Thanks so much for signing up, checking us out, and sticking around. If you’re reading this with the air conditioner blasting or the fan on high, it’s not just you - D.C. has reached 90 degrees for 20 days in a row.
So, what’s new in washington d.c.?
Want to show off that green thumb but don’t have a garden of your own? Cultivate the City, a D.C.-based urban farming social enterprise, offers volunteer opportunities every Saturday from 11 AM - 4 PM at its rooftop garden off of H St NE.
My favorite book of 2020 was hands down Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion by New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino. The book is a series of essays, but Vox summed it up well by noting that she uncovers “the great con of millennial life” and the infinite number of contradictions we all face in our daily lives. I’m generally not one to want to go to things by myself (working on overcoming that fear!), but I trekked alone to see her speak at Politics and Prose last fall and was so thankful I did - she’s eloquent, clever, and all-around engaging. Even if you haven’t read the book, it’s 100% still worth checking her out in a virtual conversation hosted by Sixth and I on Monday at 7 PM.
let’s talk food
Looking for a new bagel fix? There are two fun new options in the D.C. area. Pearl’s Bagels, a spot in Mt. Vernon across the street from the Convention Center, is the newest bagel place in town. Open Thursday to Sunday from 8 AM to 12 PM, Pearl’s Bagels is offering a straightforward menu of bagels, cream cheese, and lox. On the north side of the DMV, local instagram favorite Call Your Mother debuted a v cute pink trolley to serve their bagels daily in Bethesda near Suburban Hospital.
The Reach is the Kennedy Center’s brand new complex with plenty of outdoor spaces overlooking the Potomac River. Even newer is Victura Park at the REACH, a weekend pop-up wine garden and café, serving charcuterie boards, snacks, and drinks in a beautiful location.
what are we reading?
Anyone else remember complaining about their college student health centers? What I sort of assumed was a rite of passage unique to the Claremont Colleges turns out to be a nationwide issue. The Washington Post detailed the substandard and inconsistent care provided by student health centers across colleges in the United States in this engaging longform feature. Did you know that there are no national regulations on student health clinics? I sure didn’t. Did you know that Georgetown University falsely stated on their website that its student health center was accredited? Also no. Unsurprisingly, with the odds of COVID-19 going away by fall at practically zero and many college campuses still choosing to house residential students (while simultaneously pushing Congress to receive federal protection from potential COVID-19 related lawsuits), the inefficiencies and problematic care at many of these student health centers may face a much larger spotlight come fall.
On a lighter note, do you fondly remember the days of watching Bring It On, Mean Girls, Bend It Like Beckham and other teen girl movies at sleepovers? Wonder what happened to movies in that genre? Turns out studios generally stopped making these teenage girl-centric movies in the early 2010s in favor of other young adult franchises such as The Hunger Games and Twilight. The percentage of female screenwriters also topped out at a weak 14% in 2000, before reaching a new historic peak in 2019 at 19%. Anyway, here’s to hoping studios start hiring more women and making movies like Harriet the Spy again.
“I’m so overwhelmed with emotion,” a weeping Ms. Little said, as she stood on Main Street USA wearing Minnie Mouse ears. “The last few months have been so hard. We have just felt so defeated. Being here gives me the strength to go on.” As the quote suggests, the Happiest Place on Earth - Walt Disney World - reopened last Saturday. It might be easy to judge Ms. Little for her misplaced priorities in the midst of a pandemic as case numbers rise rapidly in Florida (and Disney’s dystopic video welcoming guests “home” doesn’t help assuage fears), but it’s also difficult to discount the cultural significance Disney World holds in many people’s hearts.
Quick links to other weekly #goodreads:
The Price of Gold- per The Washington Post, “For the Olympics, poor communities in host cities are regularly displaced. For the Rio 2016 games, one village’s resistance sparked a global question: Should they be abolished?”
Trump Is Donating Ventilators to Countries That Don’t Need or Can’t Use Them - per ProPublica, “Nearly 8,000 ventilators are destined for foreign countries as part of Trump’s plan to make the U.S. “king of ventilators.” But public health experts worry the machines are crowding out more urgently needed aid.”
I Was a Teenage Conspiracy Theorist - per The Atlantic, “The tragedy of conspiracism isn’t that it is the absence of thinking, but the misapplication of it. It’s a squandered lesson, and we all only have so much time in the classroom. I’m glad I began to think critically about power and wealth at a relatively young age, but I sure wish I’d taken a less circuitous route there. When I think of my misspent youth as a conspiracist, it’s the spending part that gets me: all those minutes being taught about the Illuminati when I could have been being taught about journalism, all those hours talking about jet fuel and steel beams when I could have been learning about something equally as interesting but real.”
what are we watching?
Ramy on Hulu. This sleeper comedy-drama stars Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef as an American-born Muslim to an Egyptian family. It’s a complicated and, at times, hilarious show about Ramy’s struggle to find himself as he feels pulled between multiple worlds. Most importantly though, it paints a human picture of Muslim life in America, a group of people so often stereotyped or overlooked, especially in American media. Ramy feels real, flawed, and yet, entirely watchable. Plus, it’s just a good show. It has a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes with reviewers calling it insightful, hilarious, and poignant.
Palm Springs, also on Hulu. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never been a die-hard Andy Samberg fan. Sometimes I found his SNL skits funny, sometimes I sat straight-faced through them. So, I didn’t go into Palm Springs, Andy Samberg’s newest feature firm, expecting to like it as much as I did. It’s a Groundhog’s Day-esque romantic comedy where Andy Samberg finds himself reliving the day of a loose acquaintance’s wedding over and over again. The Verge calls it “the perfect comedy for a world where nothing matters anymore” which is honestly a little dark, but not untrue.
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‘til next time -courtney
I enjoyed the flow and the english!
Loved it Mike Jenks