Hi 👋 

This week: A two-fer before love month ends.

Both of this week’s long reads are a bit dated, but I’d argue (very strongly) that a good story is evergreen. I sometimes get lost in them like I would in fiction stories—except they actually happened. And the realization that they’re grounded in reality is a different kick altogether.

Plus: Another Taylor Swift-Superbowl take (this one is different, I swear!), a tragic mother-daughter story, and reflections on the “extinction-level event” in Media. News bits, too, as usual.

PS: I’m pretty sure many of my recommendations this week are behind paywalls. Write back if you need help accessing them and let’s figure something out!

One long read…

I’m typically not one for a light-hearted longform narrative (they tend to bore me) but this one is a pleasantly unique and uncommon story. Actually—as someone who’s been burned many, many times by the virtual dating scene—I’d say it’s near-impossible that something like this could happen. The people in the story think so, too.

It also helps that Jeff Maysh is a masterful storyteller, weaving three very different perspectives together into one cohesive thread. He also shows a lot of compassion and humanity toward the characters, including the catfish (which, honestly, I’m not sure I could).

This one took me around 35 minutes to finish, with distractions.

+ Full disclosure: I’ve been a long-time fan of Jeff. He typically writes about crime but also has this great talent for finding the strangest, most interesting stories, including this one about Pepsi’s botched marketing stunt in 1992 that turned into a nationwide scandal in the Philippines.

… and then some

💃 Some pundits prophesied (wrongly, as it turned out) that Travis Kelce would propose to Taylor Swift after a stupendous football victory, and that that would create enough news buzz to turn the popstar into a super-powered asset for the Democratic Party, delivering a sure victory for Biden later this year. Not a particularly convincing conspiracy story for me personally, but writer Justin Ling nevertheless took it, ran with it, and turned it into an opportunity to trace the history of psy-ops, pointing us toward a different, arguably more sinister disinformation campaign that’s been in front of us all along.

+ That said, I’m not against erring on the side of skepticism. There is a long looong history of powerful institutions using channels of traditional and mass media to sway the public’s opinion: From the Cold War (remember “The Red Scare?”) to 9/11 to modern-day China.

+ Still, the media can also be used to move the needle toward peace. Guess we’ll have to see what way the press falls in the coming U.S. elections.

📰 Speaking of the Media… It’s going through one of its biggest crises since the dawn of digital news. Writer Clare Malone calls it an “extinction-level event,” and as a Person of the Media™, I’m terrified. Jobs are quickly running out and the competition just keeps getting tighter (maybe that’s why I’m starting my own newsletter, to take more charge of my livelihood). Incoming: a lot of tangents below, because this has been on my mind for years.

+ Anne Hathaway supports the Condé Nast walkout.

+ Just this year, there have been way too many newsrooms that have slashed headcounts. Not to be so precious and self-absorbed about it, but we need to start bracing ourselves for what that might mean for democracy.

+ BuzzFeed News shutting down last year particularly stung, mostly because I considered it as a shining example of what digital news could achieve. Many looked down on BuzzFeed for its admittedly sensationalist, clickbait content, but its News vertical was the real deal.

+ But BuzzFeed News’s closure is also the surest sign that the digital boom in Media was, in actuality, a bubble waiting to burst.

+ It’s not as if this all took us by surprise. The demise of the Media as we know it has for years been foretold by everyone, its just that its leaders were too conceited or too old-fashioned or not innovative enough to have figured something out in time. They still haven’t found a solution. The industry’s future is bleak.

☠️ ANYWAY. Enough with the doom. Let’s move on to something more fun, like murder and massive manipulation. This one is another oldie-but-goodie, this time from BuzzFeed News when it was at its prime (see: I told you they were incredible). Some lies are harmless (I don’t completely endorse this), but sometimes even the smallest mistruths can spin out of control, and you find yourself telling more lies to cover up for your first lie. Throw a psychological-condition-bordering-on-fraud in the mix and you have the perfect recipe for catastrophe.

+ Speaking of lies that have spun out of control, here’s a book about a different but similarly tragic incident. Read this one last year and it still pops up in my dreams every now and again. Here is a quick review from The Guardian.

Around the world

Here are some of the most important/interesting/infuriating news bits from around the world this week:

1 - Beyonce has become the first Black woman to reign country music charts.

• The Queen dropped Texas Hold ‘em amid the Super Bowl, taking some of the sporting event’s thunder away.

• Her new country track pays tribute to the Black roots of country music, which have largely been ignored by most of the genre’s listeners.

2 - The US has vetoed another UN resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.

• There is, apparently, a rival draft resolution for a ceasefire that the US supports.

• The blocked resolution was drafted by Algeria and was widely supported by Arab nations on the UN Security Council. US was the only dissenter, while the UK abstained. Here is a quick but good tally of the differences in the two resolutions.

• This isn’t the first US veto against a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

3 - Don’t put your wet iPhones in rice, says Apple.

• I don’t use iPhones but apparently this has been a thing? Here is a needlessly long guide from Macworld.

• But apparently putting a wet iPhone uncooked rice only makes it dry out slower.

4 - India’s farmers are again marching on the capital, this time to ask for guaranteed crop prices.

• Police have tried to stop the protesters with teargas and rubber bullets, but the farmers refuse to give up.

• India’s farmers previously staged a similarly massive demonstration in 2020 (which stretched into 2021) to protest contentious agricultural laws. They won. They forced the government to repeal these laws.

5 - A 10-year-old boy in Bangladesh died after circumcision. His parents allege that the doctors used too much anesthesia.

• A 5-year-old boy in Bangladesh had also died from circumcision just over a month ago, likewise from complications with anesthesia.

One more long read

Another one from Jeff Maysh (told you I was a fan)—and another story of what is essentially fate at work. Only this time, fate worked its magic through the postal service and a mythical matchmaking tree.

Jeff flexes his writing muscle even harder here, telling an even more complicated and heartwarming story, spanning many decades and tying together many lives. Definitely try to find the time to read this one, too.

This one is a bit longer than the story at the top, so it might take 45 to 55 minutes, depending on your attention span.

(PS: I know I keep on saying just one long read per week, but I was on a roll this week okay. Plus they’re both great stories).

Thanks for reading! Please, please reach out if you have feedback, suggestions, or questions. I know some of the stories I recommend might be behind paywalls, and maybe I can help you with access to those, too!

Also, please feel free to share The Lazy Reader with friends or family who you think might want to join us in reading more.

Until next Sunday!