Epigenetics (Is Not Eugenics)

 I have been reading about ways inheritance travels along the limbs of family trees-- how ancestral trauma expresses itself in the genome. Every symptom makes perfect sense if you know the whole story. And yet we rarely know the whole story.

What A Race

As a child, I was obsessed with watching the Kentucky Derby each year. 

My claim to fame was I chose Alysheba to win in 1987 and if my mom had allowed me to bet two dollars (she didn't), I would have gotten a $109.60 return. 

So when Evan told me I needed to put eyes on the 2022 Kentucky Derby, I was all in...

I have watched this multiple times now and it never ceases to astonish. 

Simply amazing! 

Longest odds to ever win the race at 80 to 1. Worst starting position in a field of 21 horses. 

The moment when Venezuelan jockey, Sonny Leon, asks Rich Strike to give it everything he's got-- my god, they ran a masterful race together.

Heartstopper

 An aptly named series...

Gosh, who doesn't remember the excruciating pain/joy of love at this age?

Motherhood Is A Hero's Journey

"The truth is that motherhood is a hero’s journey. For most of us it’s not a journey outward, to the most fantastic and farthest-flung places, but inward, downward, to the deepest parts of your strength, to the innermost buried core of everything you are made of but didn’t know was there. And what I’ve learned is that there’s a reason motherhood as a story is so infrequently told.

It’s because, for so many people, our safest, sweetest, earliest memories are of nestling in our mother’s lap, in her rocking warmth, hearing her sing as we get milk-drunk and sleepy and burrow, heavy-eyed, into the crook of her soft arm. And if you knew that your mother’s journey was, intrinsically, a hero’s journey — if that was in any way an established narrative in our culture — you’d have to accept that this memory of womb-like safety, this foundation upon which so much of our identity is built, was often just an illusion. You’d have to realize that while you were blissed out on your mother’s lap, one of those epic battles, the kind that envelops heroes as they fight their way out of a ring of fire, was raging just above your head. No one wants to believe that in the moments you felt the most peaceful, the woman cradling you so softly was shielding you from a sword that she herself was holding.

A mother’s heroic journey is not about how she leaves but about how she stays."

-an excerpt from an essay in Jessi Klein's new book

Zodiac Signs

 Baseless, but nonetheless compelling...

Ah, horror scoops. I heart you.

OF COURSE...

 

OF COURSE Nicolas Cage once owned a two-headed snake he had to feed with a spatula because the snake heads fought. And OF COURSE he has a pet crow who randomly swears at him. And NATURALLY he once considered buying a cave full of bats so he could get “totally naked” with his wife in the heart of the earth. These are all VERY Nicolas Cage things to do, it’s part of his eternal appeal, just as Keanu’s measured speech and thoughtfulness are part of his. By the gods old and new, PLEASE send us more proper Movie Stars who LIKE being Movie Stars and share with us these entertaining glimpses into their completely bonkers lives. 

so says Sarah and I completely agree

우와

I was so engrossed watching this Korean rom com that I nearly killed everyone in our house... 

The pasta water boiled over and put out the flame. Only later did I realize and turn off the gas.

And then there is this: BinJin just got married IN REAL LIFE!!