Happy weekend! I hope everyone is hanging in there, and if you have been impacted by this awful winter storm here in the US, I really really hope you have power and heat and are doing okay. If you’re looking for places to help, the New York Times has a good round-up, and of course we’re always interested in hearing suggestions in the comments. (I personally donated to AOC’s fundraiser and Austin Mutual Aid.) Also — I just saw a tweet reminding folks in Texas to turn off the autopay for their electrical bills, because the bills are going to be WILD (due to Texas not having electrical regulation) and you do not want $17,000 taken out of your account on autopay while this is being sorted out.

At Texas Monthly: One of Texas’s Busiest Plumbers Explains What To Do If Your Pipes Burst.

Royals Round-Up continues to be on hiatus, but everyone made it official today that Harry and Meghan are not coming back to work as full-time royals (this is not at all a surprise), and Prince Philip is in the hospital. And, of course, if you missed it over the long weekend, Harry and Meghan are expecting a new baby! (And, in late breaking news: Euj and Jack have introduced their baby. He’s very squashy and cute! I love the name.)

We rounded up some cute cardigans this week.

A great conversation between Roxane Gay and Monica Lewinsky about writing about trauma, at Vanity Fair.

Kathleen Hou’s excellent essay at The Cut about racism against Asian-Americans is well worth your time. Hate crimes and violence against Asians, especially the elderly, has spiked tremendously over the last year, and it’s horrifying. Here’s a piece about it in USA Today, featuring my congresswoman Judy Chu.

I am excited for this Josephine Baker biopic starring Ruth Negga. She is great casting! [Lainey]

This was SUCH an interesting interview with Howard Deutch, who directed Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink (and who is married to Lea Thompson). [Filmmaker]

This is a good read, at Vanity Fair: Was 1976 the Best Best-Picture Race Ever?

I found this extremely interesting: How to Stop Moths? A Historic Building Tries Bringing in Wasps. The wasps are invisible! [NYT]

This was an interesting take on Claudia Conway being featured on American Idol. [Lainey]

Dolly Parton continues to be the best: Dolly Parton doesn’t want Tennessee to erect her statue or put her on a pedestal [Celebitchy]

A really good essay by Maya Kosoff: I Hate Talking About The “Pandemic Wall”

Fascinating: Researchers looking for mRNA were ridiculed by colleagues. Luckily, that didn’t stop them. [Maclean’s]

In other YAY SCIENCE news: Highlights From NASA’s Successful Landing on Mars [NYT]

The LA Times reports: A negroni made Stanley Tucci a social media star. There’s more where that came from

This was an interesting piece about the fight for reproductive rights in Jamaica, where abortion is currently illegal.  [Reuters/Thomson Reuters Foundation]

Tom and Lorenzo did a feature on Indian label Manish Malhotra and it is SO pretty.

At Pajiba: The Problem with Sia and Her Use of Her Muse Maddie Ziegler

At UpRoxx: We Shed A Tear For The Demise Of The ‘Casually R’ Rated Action Movie

We were delighted to see The Heir Affair mentioned in this WaPo piece: Stop dismissing love stories. They’re exactly what we need to survive covid-19.

I’m very proud of Erin Walter, a friend of Heather’s and mine, who is both a Universal Unitarian minister AND the lead singer of a rock band, and enjoyed this article about her (at the Columbia Tribune) very much.

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