After a Valentine’s Day weekend that saw much of the country swept by extreme winter weather, Helena Fitzgerald’s recent essay “love and slush puddles” for her newsletter, griefbacon, struck a profound chord. Elsewhere in the Substack universe, “¡Hola Papi! columnist J.P. Brammer beautifully advises a letter writer who is mourning the more passionate, purposeful life they once dreamed of but lost touch with.
In other romantic news, while we missed this announcement a few weeks ago, we were excited to learn that a second season of Bridgerton is officially, not just rumored to be, in the works. This excitement is somewhat tempered by the knowledge that it will center around POME’S collective least favorite Bridgerton, Anthony.
In the wake of this second-most candy-filled holiday, we are SO excited for POME pal Victoria Grace Elliott, whose deliciously adorable comic book Yummy: A History of Desserts comes out later this year from Random House Graphic!
Do you know the difference between Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism? Aigner Loren Wilson breaks it down for the Tor blog, along with a very handy list of book recommendations in the Africanfuturist tradition.
If you have been taken aback by the new wave of allegations that surfaced against Bad Hollywood Men last week, we highly recommend The Hollywood Reporter’s heartening profile of Shelley Duvall, who has spent a long time healing — in the Texas Hill Country, to boot — after her famously traumatic experience filming The Shining.
If you are a regular listener of NPR’s All Things Considered, and have lamented the lack of “dinosaurs and other cool stuff” as things considered on the show, you have a new champion in an 8-year-old aspiring paleontologist who finally called the show out.
Last but certainly not least, congrats to the latest group of itinerant gig workers to unionize, the, uh… *checks notes*… social media influencers !!!
Until next week, stay warm and, if you can, get those TikTok health insurance benefits!