Some guests would complain about the mess and the cat smell … [Jackson’s friend] remembers the house as homey and untidy, but not dirty. “It was writing clutter … not filth, not at all.”*
—Ruth Franklin, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
Hello from Minnesota, where the weather is totally normal and not at all approaching 60 degrees. How are you? Are you prepared for tick season? Are you all stocked up on sunscreen? Do you know what to do in case of total societal collapse?
Let’s see. What have I been reading. First, there is Broken Code: Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose Its Harmful Secrets by Jeff Horwitz, which should really be titled How the Algorithm Ruined Everything and What To Do About It (Spoiler Alert: It’s Too Late). This is not an uplifting read. But if you want to learn, for example, how fast a made-up Midwestern Gen X white lady is radicalized solely by following Facebook’s suggested content (24 hours), or how Facebook’s good intentions have actually enabled hate, violence, and genocide across the globe, this is the book for you.
The other book I’m deep into is Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas, which I plan to revisit as I have many thoughts about it. (Meanwhile, please no one use the term Thought Leaders in my presence.) Giridharadas narrates the audiobook, which I appreciate since he gets this I’m about to throw a giant fuck-you Molotov cocktail edge to his voice during the exact same passages I would.
Speaking of Facebook, is everyone else’s News Feed just a tedious stream of that one Gen X group right now? You know, the one with the memes about how you never died from drinking from the hose and life was simpler in the olden times.
If you have been reading RBCA for a while now, you know that I love my British soaps and one reason I love them is because they are chock full of well-executed public health awareness storylines. Sometimes they get ridiculous, though, like late last year on Emmerdale when Rhona Goskirk’s ex-husband stole her frozen embryos and IVFed them with his new wife, who immediately died, prompting Rhona to flip out and kidnap this fraudulently acquired baby who was biologically hers (me: this is absurd. Alabama: hold my beer!) I am, however, riveted to the will-they-won’t-they May–December romance between Mary, Rhona’s formidable mother, and Suzy, the village wedding planner. Mary showed up last year to help when Rhona’s husband Marlon had his stroke and also highlight the issue of women coming out during their crone years. She is played by Louise Jameson, who you might remember as a soft-core 1970s Doctor Who companion. Well guess what, now she is old and old actresses should get work too!
Actually, Coronation Street is hitting it out of the park right now with the public health awareness campaigns, and if anything is going to do me in this year it will be the Billy and Paul motor neurone disease assisted suicide storyline.
Cat update: Sally is making good progress on her New Year’s resolution of biting everything in the house. Some of her favorite things to bite are faucets, the stepstool, and the plunger on the French press. Sally is, in fact, determined to carry the French press off into one of her hoards.
Some things I have indulged in recently. Fernet Branca, which should be a lot more polarizing than Malört and was definitely formulated to drink while smoking an unfiltered Gauloise. It is like a Polish shower for your mouth! I also tried salty licorice for the first time. Unsurprisingly, I came down on the where have you been all my life, let’s get married and move to a private island where we can be alone together side of that fence. Other than that I’ve been subsisting on a diet of goldfish crackers, ramen, string cheese and Hobnobs.
Two things you should not ask me about: the progress of my thesis, which I’m outright avoiding at present, and my book. Actually, no, ask me about my book. Ask me about the unexpected Jesus people rabbit hole I’ve gone down, or figuring out how much damage a roadkill peacock would cause a 1985 Plymouth Reliant sedan. Ask me why I have “I wish I knew Shirley Jackson’s TV habits” written in my notes (go ahead and answer that too because I have no idea).
Anyway, I have to go practice doing what I’m best at now:
Remember to be decent to each other.
—CB
*You didn’t think I was going to talk about actual housekeeping did you?