Dump your winter blues, spring has sprung

Does anyone else find they need to stretch their fingers before they type? I think it’s because I have terrible circulation and my hands are always cold that I find that I really struggle to get the words flowing. Makes accidentally deleting 400 words particularly painful.

I have five hours until Spring Break. My goal is to produce content before then. You may say: But once you’re on Spring Break, why not produce content then? Good point. But no, I know I won’t. Let’s get it done now.

I haven’t posted anything in over a month. Granted, it’s the short month of February. Despite being a February birthday guy, I think it’s my least favorite month. Just a real blah. Probably adds to my dislike of birthdays, to be honest. More optimistic about March.

Since posting in February, little of note has happened. It was freezing cold for about three straight weeks, and we didn’t go outside. Since the thaw, I met one of my neighbors. Her name is Doreen. She’s in her 70s, and she has a dog called Shirley. Also, since the thaw, I cracked my windshield. I am not totally sure what I need to do to repair it. There is an advertisement here that shows people showing up at my house or parking lot to replace the glass. That seems wild. In Qatar, I had to spend the morning at a police station to file a police report and the afternoon at my insurance agent going over every detail of the police report. Then a tow truck came and took my car away for three days. All to fix the windshield.

Seems like the USA might come out ahead of Qatar in “ease of windshield repair.”

Two other “Since February” things.

1) I grew a mustache. I am trying it out. Mustache March, I am calling it. Leen spent 30 seconds laughing at me the first time she saw it. Then told me it looked better than she expected it might. This is about as high of praise as I can hope for. In 2014, I invented something called the Rosé Cuervo. I went to a bar and asked for a drink equal parts Cuervo and Rosé served over ice. The bartender said that any drink someone invented, he had to try. He mixed one for me and one for him and took the first sip. “Better than I expected it would be.” A phenomenon was born. My mustache is currently in the “better than you’d expect” phase. I’ll keep you updated. 🥸

2) Got the second dose of Moderna. Some people are fine. Other people report hangover-like symptoms. I am firmly in the hangover group. Suppose I had to rank bad hangovers/events. In that case, I’d say 1) Engagement party celebration outside of Tbilisi at a vineyard 2) Gender Reveal/Going Away Party All-You-Can-Drink Brunch 3) Throwing up at Olive Garden after a birthday party 4) Yeasayer concert 5)Throwing up in a garbage bag in Sarajevo after a day at Sarajevo Brewing.

The Moderna shot hangover is almost in the top 5. For about 36 hours, I was totally out of it. I read something that people are ashamed of their vaccine status. It is weird being vaccinated. A friend of mine yesterday asked when vaccines became political. They've been fringe political for quite a few years now, but yeah, we're into full-blown political status now. One of the ways they've become political is people being ashamed to admit their status. I was a bit squeamish about it too for a while, but now, I am ready to proudly declare: I am fully dosed. 💉

Tell me about your hangover experiences or your vaccine status. Happy to dish on either.

And now this.

Profile: Lauren Underwood is the Future.

I'll forgive the bad headline. Neither the author nor the subject had anything to do with it. I am skeptical that Lauren Underwood, Representative from a marginal district outside of Chicago, winner of her recent race by 5,000 votes, is the future of anything. I think Lauren Underwood's story is interesting because she is a progressive voice from an atypically progressive part of the country. Underwood herself does not make any "I am the future" proclamations. I found it surprising that the piece's narrative doesn't really align with what I think is probably the reality. I believe the profiler expected Underwood to be more "The Future" and instead found her to be more pragmatic. Underwood knows that her district is full of MAGA-loving Trump voters. Instead of using Anti-Trump rhetoric to win, she fought for the farmers to get aid and lower insulin costs. I think political narratives are continually searching for the next Barrack Obama. I am sure older readers would tell me that we spent 40 years looking for the next Bobby Kennedy. 🔍

I am not breaking new ground when I tell you that political journalism is sometimes inadequate. Profiles like this, I guess… I don't know. I mean, I can see Underwood getting rolled by her GOP rival in 2022 and then this profile calling her the future represents a moment in time that never came true. I understand that we live in a culture of hot takes and clickbait headlines, and there's no cost for being wrong on her Future. Don't read it because she's the next Obama. Read it because she's an impressive public servant who comes from a part of the country you probably don't think about all that often.

Statistics and News: What's Keeping Men From Doing More at Home?

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life. We hear that adage trotted out a lot, or you do at my house as I ask my wife what chores I can help with to reduce some of her load.

Men get this rep as being bad at housework. I lived with a woman after college, now she's a dentist, who was very clean. I left a bowl in the sink, she cleaned it. I left my cup on the table, she picked it up. At some point, it became learned helplessness. I didn't have to clean because Cait was going to take care of it. Thanks, Cait! But honestly, F you Cait! You spoiled me. Now my wife asks why I can't get my socks from the space next to the couch to the hamper.

Here belies the problem that men run into around the house. We are effectively so bad at chores that our partners would rather we don't help out because they just have to do it over. Indeed, not all men are as inept as I when it comes to making sure not to mix our laundry with our kitchen towels, but I am sure that some of you know what I am talking about. 🧺

So what gives? 80% of men surveyed say they should contribute equally to chores around the house, but only 41% think they help out equally. Why? Because mostly, we have the Cait's of the world as our others. This report from Fortune.com explains that men are probably pretty equipped at handling chores when they are forced to but are more reliant on a partner when given a choice. What's the fix?

That I am less sure. Men, it seems, can identify when a toilet is dirty or a floor needs sweeping but are less inclined to do anything about it because someone else always seems to take care of it. So is the solution for spouses to not take care of it and see who breaks first? It may get dirty for a bit, but in the long run, what if it leads to greater sharing of duties. Think about that next time you notice your husband eating cereal out of a mixing bowl with a ladle. Instead of running the dishwasher… maybe don't.

A History: Behind the Brazilian Butt Lift.

Leen and I discuss plastic surgery a lot more than I ever expected to discuss it. I am pretty oblivious to people's body modifications. Leen, on the other hand, can spot a new nose or fake boobs a mile away. I tried to show her what I thought was a Dave Grohl nose job, but it turned out to be just a different photo angle. She pointed out that he likely had done something to fix his teeth or jawline. Here I was looking for a new nose and totally overlooked a modified jaw. I remember when Kim Kardashian's "Break the internet" magazine cover hit. Little did I expect that it would play such an outsized role in sending the Brazilian Butt Lift skyrocketing in popularity. 🍑

In this story, the author from the Guardian traces the history of plastic surgery in Brazil through Miami and LA clinics, across the pond to the UK and finally to the medical tourism hot spots of Turkey. The tale weaves the factoids like: "Dr. Renato Kehl, who founded the Eugenics Society of São Paulo in 1918, expressed his support for surgery in his book The Cure of Ugliness. His aim was simple: to "perfect" Brazil's population through "the extinction of the black and the rainforest-dwelling races," and "But once you start having surgery, she told me, it can be hard to stop. She finds herself on surgery websites, browsing. "I'm in love with the ski-slope nose now," she said. "Like, where did that come from?" with details of the procedure (pretty invasive! surprisingly risky!) and earning potentials based on different options.

The story is an interesting moment-in-time piece and discusses the problems with modifying your body to look en vogue. Everything that is out will once again be back in and vice versa. Brazilian Butt Lift today. Butt Liposuction tomorrow.

Of the moment: NFTs and Wealth

I am leading a seminar right now that is called "Stonks and Other things about Economy." This whole Gamestop really had students curious about how to make money quick. I think students have always been interested in get-rich-quick (GRQ) schemes, but mostly those schemes were unattainable from jump. This newest phase of GRQ is more Very Internet, and being creatures of the internet, my students feel like maybe they are just one click away from hitting the big one. My task in the class is to give them a basic idea about how money and the economy works. You know how you always hear people say: I wish someone had taught me about taxes in high school. Well, people, I am going to tackle taxes. You're welcome.

This piece in WealthSimple from the Axios Financial writer Felix Salmon posits that the days of getting rich slowly (ironically the tagline of WealthSimple Magazine) are gone. Instead, wealth is now transferred from one extremely internet person to another. From million-dollar gifs to overvalued basketball cards, the current economy's musical chairs-i-ness leaves many people thinking they are close to hitting it big, only to get left behind when the next big thing moves drops.

If you've ever tried to figure out why people were lining up to buy Supreme bricks or wondered what would happen if you left Compound Interest to do its thing on your savings, then this piece is for you. I promise you will encounter some words and phrases that you don't understand. That's okay. Felix does an excellent job of translating these for you to make it all make sense. I, for example, learned that the term SWAG is an acronym for Silver, Wine, Art and Gold. Apparently, investors used this term to describe assets they had a hard time valuing. Now those assets are things like Bitcoin and CryptoKitties.

That’s all! Have a good Spring Break!