Last weekend I went to see Amy Poehler and Tina Fey perform a comedy show in Boston. It was very cool, and they’re quite funny, and I found myself having a little moment because 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation were such important parts of my early twenties. Somehow it was weird that there they were, in person, only a short distance away from me. They played a video at the beginning running through some highlights of their careers, and it was a real reminder that the two of them have been behind a lot of really great, funny stuff, but also one of them made a comment about having made shows in the early 2000s, and then I realized that it was kind of a long time ago. And that maybe, probably, they’re not going to do it again.

Before the show, we were waiting in a very long line outside the venue to get in, and a guy wandered by and asked what the line was for, and the man behind us told him, and he went, “Oh cool. Who are they?” And then the entire line could not believe that this man did not know who they were because we all overheard the conversation.

Also, one of my favorite bits on Parks is an episode where they all go on a hunting trip and Leslie is covering for someone who accidentally shot Ron by pretending she did it, and she lists out a bunch of girly excuses for the accident when she realizes the park ranger is obnoxiously sexist.

And the man starring in this scene with Leslie? Just got arrested for storming the capital. The times, they really have changed!

What I’m Reading Online

Someone resurfaced this eight year old talk that the CEO of PepsiCo did where she talked about the challenges of being a working mom and it’s a very funny, down-to-earth response about how hard it is.

Variety did these amazing actor pairing videos where they’re supposed to like, talk to each other about craft or something? But they somehow got Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo in a room to talk about Grey’s Anatomy with each other and a friend sent me this hilarious excerpt. Katherine Heigl is so funny. Let’s give her some more rom coms.

I have been slowly making my way through Reservation Dogs, the show about a group of misfit teens on a reservation. Devery Jacobs stars and writes for it and is just generally impressive? Also it’s adorable that she gives her young co-stars advice about finding accountants. People can play teenagers for a very long time in Hollywood.

Feel like I should warn readers that this is a snake video, so if you are squeamish about snakes, don’t click through, but if you can handle mild snake content it’s a cool video.

Bless this woman and her lawn art. And this is why it’s dressed like that.

I kept hearing about how the wildfire smoke that took over the east coast last week was related to climate change, but it’s possible it wasn’t, actually? And that it was just a total freak incident. But not NOT climate change, you know?

I read more about this news story and it was deeply unpleasant so I’m just going to share this one tweet and say this happened and if you want to learn more, the news is out there and it is Fucked. Up. It’s like a Coen brothers movie in real life, but I think even they would be like, eh, a little too creepy for me.

OK, let’s close this section on a lighter note. Please read this piece about how CNN hired a bunch of high schoolers to sprint out of the courtroom for the Trump trial in Miami to report the news because the court banned devices.

What I’m Reading in Print

I had this funny confluence in my reading material this week, which is to say I somehow read two books, both very good, about young queer women who are keeping very stressful secrets, and whose queer friend groups decide to buy a house together and try out communal living. Is this what the kids are doing these days? I ask this as though I do not live in a building entirely made up of my friends. Living in a building with your friends is great, it should be easier to make it happen after college.

The first book was Wild Things by Laura Kay, which I picked up because it got a rave review from Casey McQuiston, of Red, White & Royal Blue fame, in the NYT. Wild Things is about El, a young woman who is in love with her best friend but unwilling to tell her, and then the two of them and some other friends impulsively buy a house together out in the country. It’s very funny, and the friends are very sweet, but also very stressful because El is in love with someone who is totally oblivious about it. I have to say it did not make me feel terribly nostalgic for the days when I had crushes on people who didn’t know! In fact, that sucks, and it sucks for her too. But what doesn’t suck is this book (was that a smooth transition or what). It’s sweet, and funny, and while I do not want to live in the country (there are bugs there), I am a strong proponent of latching onto your friends in your youth and then forcing them to live with you for decades to come. This author has a real ear for dialogue and most of the time when these friends talked to each other, they sounded like people actually sound.

And the other book was All This Could Be Different, by Sarah Thankam Mathews. Sneha graduates from college and takes a terrible and kind of shady job in Milwaukee, but it gives her some financial freedom for the first time in her life, and she gets to take herself out to fancy dinners, send her parents money in India, get her friend Thom a job, and start dating a dancer she has a crush on. But the book is also about the precarity of all of these things, particularly for someone like Sneha, whose immigration status depends on her keeping a job. She’s also really isolated—her parents are not back in India by choice, and she desperately needs community and support in the U.S. She makes some not-so-great choices, and other people make bad choices for her, but she also finds a sense of family with Thom and her friend Tig. She’s in some really dire straits at various points along the way, but also I read almost the entire thing in one night, because I just wanted to know what was going to happen to her.

What I’m Watching

I picked up the show Minx last night. I’m not sure why I didn’t try it earlier, given that it’s about journalism, feminism, and the undying appeal of Jake Johnson from New Girl. Sometimes it feels like someone is taking a sharpie and underlining the show’s politics while you’re watching it, but it’s also pretty entertaining, and I have never seen a show with that many penises in the first episode. Wait, does everyone know what this show is about? It’s about a young feminist who basically wants to make Ms. magazine in the ’70s, but no one wants to make it with her because she and the magazine are insufferable, and so she teams up with the publisher of a bunch of naked lady magazines to make a naked man magazine that also publishes articles about feminism. Like I said, it’s not exactly subtle, and I really hope the main character gets a little more three dimensional as the show goes on. Also, I am giving it the benefit of the doubt for now, but for a show with ostensibly feminist politics, it sure does make the people who care most about those politics seem terrible. And I’m not sure how many more people need to suggest that feminists are humorless buzzkills.

Apologies for a Terrible Omission from Last Week’s Newsletter

I didn’t wedge in a reference to my cat. He’s still a very good boy even though he’s been knocking over any water glasses I leave out at night.

Stay hydrated out there, everyone!