Our Incredible H5N1 Bird Flu Journey

Take me to Ohio, RFK Jr.'s brain worm.

Author

Rusty Foster
May 13th, 2024

The New York Times is on an “Everything is a Journey Now” journey, and The New York Times is On It. In Washington state, Bob Ferguson is on a journey of running for governor against Bob Ferguson and Bob Ferguson, as are they. I think it’s obvious who my favorite is (it’s Bob Ferguson). Also in politics, RFK Jr.’s brain worm is on its running for president against RFK Jr. journey. Raw milk enthusiasts can’t wait to embark on their H5N1 bird flu journey and equally wellness-addled libertarian beardo and two-time second worst Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is still on his journey of promoting Elon Musk’s Twitter as “freedom technology.” But if you’re wondering “freedom technology for whoms’t?” Ryan Mac, Jack Nicas and Alex Travelli chronicled Musk’s journey of what they euphemistically call “diplomacy” but unambiguously describe as corruption among the world‘s authoritarian scumbags and right-wing political ideologues. Meanwhile Today in Tabs continues our journey of not using the bad microblogging service anymore but occasionally embedding tweets, because some of them are still so good.

Somerville Porchfest attending Guster fans were underwhelmed by their journey of standing in the street and not being able to hear their favorite band Saturday but at least Guster still exists, which is more than I can say for Charles Entertainment Cheese’s animatronic musical act Munch’s Make Believe Band, to be replaced by giant screens at all but two of Charles’s eponymous pizza restaurants. Apparently today’s Five Nights at Freddy’sified demographic finds animatronics unpleasant to look at. We did too, but our Boomer parents were too busy getting day drunk on light beer at our elementary school birthday parties to care.

Gif of Munch’s Make Believe Band stiffly rotating and blinking in the most unmusical imaginable way.

You telling me kids aren’t blown away by this kind of action anymore?

Luke Winkie was joined on his literal but also figurative Creed fandom journey by his partner in the two-content-creator-family journey of life, Vox’s Rebecca Jennings, who ‘slettered her thoughts as the “DFW’s plus one” of the Summer of ‘99 Creed Cruise. This observation is particularly our-journey-coded:

“There’s another demographic here, mostly older folks, who love to sprinkle the words ‘positivity’ and ‘healing’ into normal conversation. I have come to understand that using these words means you have experienced extreme tragedy, and when they talk I nod along and say ‘yeah’ even though I haven’t.”

Meanwhile, I’m excited to finally start my tattoo journey:

Tumblr post by topthagomizer: “idea for a tramp stamp: the eyes of dr. t.j. eckleberg”

We’ve all had a lot of fun here but what’s not fun, writes Rachel Aviv at journey-requiring length in The New Yorker today, is the case of:

…Lucy Letby, a thirty-three-year-old British nurse, [who] was convicted of killing seven newborn babies and attempting to kill six others. Her murder trial, one of the longest in English history, lasted more than ten months and captivated the United Kingdom. The Guardian, which published more than a hundred stories about the case, called her “one of the most notorious female murderers of the last century.” The collective acceptance of her guilt was absolute. “She has thrown open the door to Hell,” the Daily Mail wrote, “and the stench of evil overwhelms us all.”

With thirteen thousand words of top notch reporting that still only feel like the intro episode of a hit true-crime podcast Aviv casts extreme doubt on the justice of Letby’s conviction and life prison sentence, suggesting instead that she’s been scapegoated for the failures of a systematically underfunded N.H.S. Due to the U.K.’s restrictive media laws the whole story is embargoed there unless you use this archive link instead. The final word will go to Last Week’s New Yorker Review of course, but in my opinion if you only read two hours worth of this week’s New Yorker this is probably the two hours worth to read.

And Finally: I liked this essay by Greg Allen in The Brooklyn Rail about art in resistance to historical autocratic regimes like the one we’re about to elect. Allen mentions Marcel Duchamp’s lover Mary Reynolds, whose epic six month escape from occupied France in 1942 was pseudonymously “published in three parts in The New Yorker.” I was able to exercise my primary talent in life, searching for stuff online, and find those articles in the New Yorker archive this morning so at least I’ve done one useful thing today.

Today’s Song: Brozier, “Take Me to Ohio:”

@elliotcox01

Brozier - Take me to Ohio @Hozier #takemetochurch #brainrot #cover #sigma #rizz #ohio #skibidi #edging #adinross #mogged #VoiceEffects #fortnite

I’m just kidding, today’s song is actually Ice Spice, “Gimme a Light.”

Music Intern Sam also suggested Megan Thee Stallion’s “BOA” which is an unbelievable video but not her best work as a song, in my opinion. You might disagree, but all of us are on our own Megan Thee Stallion journey, and I respect that.