Vol. 42 of Thursday Third Things ☕
Mirror microbes that could end humanity
For the newbies — welcome to The Third Thing! Every (most) Thursdays I send out a “Thursday Third Things” email full of things I’m reading, thinking about, listening to, watching, and sometimes buying. Enjoy!
I have a mere eight working hours left before a glorious two weeks off. I feel like a third-grader who had too many Christmas cookies on the last day of school before the holidays and is now running around the classroom, jumping over desks, putting the fear of god in the teacher, waiting for that last bell to ring.
I need a break. I need long mornings with nothing to do and so much tea to drink. I need piles of books and cozy fleece pants. I need bike rides in the desert foothills and ski runs in the mountains with nowhere to be afterward. I need time to play video games and disappear into other worlds.
I need good TV and even better movies. I need to not have to fix anything — systems, structures, organizations — for the 16 days straight of non-clockable hours. I just want a few short weeks to be in my own life, entirely unrelated to work. I want to be writer/poet/artist/mountain biker/tea sipper/horse rider Anja, not one-dimensional communications director Anja.
I’m back in Grand Junction and to follow up from last week, the pumpkin dumplings turned out spectacularly—so much so I’ve made them twice, the second a double batch. The cookies were amazing (and thank you to my friend MK for recommending adding an extra lemon’s worth of zest to the turmeric crinkles).
Short of holiday presents, I don’t have any answers about creating a gift economy in my little community, but I’m still thinking about it.
Saturday is the shortest day of the year (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) and I’ll be setting my intentions and resolutions for the lengthening days and sharing that out with paid subscribers. Maybe you’ll set a little intentions ritual too?
Cheers,
Anja
—Ilana Glazer appreciates how becoming a parent forced them to draw some lines (plus their new movie Babes was SO GOOD).
—If Sylvia Plath Wrote “Wild Geese” (I mean…holy shit)
—Images of Krampus—Saint Nick’s Dark Companion
—‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research (this one is truly a wild ride)
—The Age of Instagram Face (this one sent me down a rabbit hole Googling celebrity plastic surgery before and after photos and really creeped me out — we’re literally creating Instagram Faces!)
—OnlyFans, and the media’s parasociality vortex
—My Smartphone Was Ruining My Life. So I Quit.
—Billie Eilish: Tiny Desk Concert
—Ergopathology (BURNOUT) with Kandi Wiens
—XX Intro from Kate Simko and the London Electronic Orchestra
—Three Dimensions Deep: Amber Mark
—Lifeform by Jenny Slate: I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook. It will make you squeal with happiness.
