You all are already talking about Trump's NFTs and Musk's meltdowns and all sorts of interesting things. Oh well.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting: is iron the new cholesterol? I'm going to be overly-sensitive though: there's a whole big section about how hard it is to lower one's iron levels, and how basically blood-donation is the only method. That's not interchangeable with menstruation, but it really feels like menstruation should show up somewhere in an article about blood and iron levels. (Like the NYT article about the clit a few months ago, or perennial articles about endometriosis and PCOS: I just get off-the-rails angry about women's health being understudied and ignored by the medical field.)

ALSO, I self-diagnosed my humpback as Upper-Crossed Syndrome (ie cellphone hunching syndrome) and self-imposed some PT which is already helping dramatically.

This article is such a mess. The headline is "Nearly half of Americans age 18 to 29 are living with their parents." Granted, it is a Yahoo News story, but I thought I could ferret out the actual story. That's what I actually wanted to talk about. But it claims those are census data and doesn't provide a direct link, so I'd have to wade into the census website to figure it out, and I have a zoom meeting in four minutes.

But anyway, I'm seriously wondering if the Yahoo article was written by AI, because the hook is that this explains why luxury goods have done so well recently:

Nearly half of all young adults in the US ages 18 to 29 live with their parents, and this living arrangement is boosting the profits of luxury goods companies, according to Morgan Stanley.

Yes. Surely the only explanation of why luxury goods aren't impacted by inflation is that people who are too poor to afford rent have all this wonderful disposable income that they're spending on luxury good. (And yes, the article talks about how that is the case in China and other places where it's common to have multigenerational households. Different situation.)

It's so dumb, but I have trouble putting the internet down and watching, like, an actual TV show. But I'm giving my last final exam today, and the time is ripe to do so! Starting with season 3 of Derry Girls.

My kids are very into Wednesday, and Wednesday Addams herself could not be cuter.

Some of them read like fever dreams, others like email forwards from the aughts about the perils of vice, and still others would make a good Netflix series if placed in the right hands.

via pocket

NickS writes: This is an amazing story,

Weddings are one of the few celebrations common across all peoples, no matter their ethnicity, geography, religion, political views, career, educational attainment, or socioeconomic status. Wedding photography is often one of the most important yet expensive parts of planning a wedding, and thus offering to photograph for free and spending meaningful time with a couple, their family, and their friends presents a rare and authentic opportunity to learn about and document their stories.

Vincent Po, a former Electrical Engineer, Venture for America Fellow, and Princeton alum, began documenting couples' stories across the United States in early 2020.

...

When you say "free," what do you mean?

I mean free! It's enormously important to me that this project tells the stories of people from a diverse range of backgrounds, especially financial. Generous donors and my own freelance photography business help cover all costs associated with this project. If you're willing and able to contribute, though, that is always appreciated.

What I ask for in return is hosting in your own home (unless there are special circumstances for not being able to, like religious reasons) and an extra portion of whatever food is already available for a total of two weeks, whether before or after your wedding. You should also be open to sharing your full story with me, both joyful experiences and painful ones, too.

Based on the way he tells this couple it seems like an amazingly rewarding experience, and he is a good, and ambitious writer who includes a great deal of their life stories.

The American immigrant experience is one of struggle and one of pride: struggle to learn the culture in the new land, pride in retaining that from the land left behind. My and La Lee had worried this balance would prove too tangled to make. "There was a pull," My told me, "between the desire to do a traditional ceremony, and the desire to do it in a way that was actually meaningful for us and our families, and not just for the facade of it." She smiled, and looked at La Lee. "But, ultimately, we were so happy that both our families got to experience the ceremony."

Heebie's take: The My and La Lee story is gorgeous, and feels like a blog post with the alternating photos and text rhythm, which is a medium I'm obviously fond of.

This: "Weddings are one of the few celebrations common across all peoples, no matter their ethnicity, geography, religion, political views, career, educational attainment, or socioeconomic status" reminds me of a post I've been toying with, about dance in the US, and the lack of an organized cultural dancing that is both formally taught and occurs at major life events (of white, protestant, dominant culture). You can spend time learning and practicing a specific style of dance, or you can dance to YMCA at your cousin's wedding, but there's no widespread intersection, like there is in many cultures.

Is a semi-difficult dancing style that takes practice and shows up at significant life events something common to the vast majority of cultures, and (white, protestant) US is an outlier at the moment? Or is it generally spotty?