The Weekly Wrap: August 1, 2021

Sometimes you just have to give in to your feelings. Right now, I am stewing in some anger.

I am angry about the Delta variant. I am angry that our indoor mask mandate had to come back. I am angry that I now have to get my almost two-year old to wear a mask at daycare. I am angry that vaccination rates are not higher.  I am angry that my University is making plans to open - in-person - for the fall semester but will probably have to promptly return to online classes.

I'm angry that this has been going on for over a year. OVER. A. YEAR.

I'm also angry that, aside from promoting vaccinations and wearing a mask, there is literally nothing I can do to help fix this. 

So, I am going just to sit here for a little bit and stew in my anger. I'm going crankily eat goldfish crackers and vent when I read stories about case rates. I'm going to fume and I'm going to be happy that I can just let myself feel my feelings.

What are you feeling right now?

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• Making traditional Japanese washi paper. [National Geographic]
• The variations in Spanish dialects makes it hard to issue severe weather alerts. [WaPo]
• How Katie Ledecky is so darn fast. [WaPo]
• This take on NIMBYism is satire but also not. [McSweeneys]
• The case for the four day work week. [Career Contessa]
• Are managers and executives pushing people back to the office because they're afraid, if they don't, it will show how unnecessary some of their positions are? Maybe. [The Atlantic]
• A history of Ziploc. The bags we just can't quit. [Taste]

• We can't predict earthquakes but we can detect them. Even the really small ones. [Short Wave]
• Please. Don't be my neighbor. [Atlas Obscura]
• Old books and tiny bats. [Atlas Obscura]
• The history of sourdough starters and the creation of a microbial library. [Atlas Obscura]
• The sound of a town where every name is a song. [Atlas Obscura]
• The nudges of behavioral economics. [The Indicator]
• An introduction to YA. [Life Kit]

• Enjoy a trip down the world's longest water slide. [Gezen Adam]
• All Olympics - all the time. When it comes to the summer games, my preferred sports fall in week one. I enjoy watching gymnastics, diving, and swimming the most having participated in those athletics in my youth. What I have also been loving about these games is the family reaction videos. Make me tear up every time. What I don't love is how some of the coverage is recentering from the female athletes on to their male coaches. I get that coaching is a part of the success, but that's not the story. Let's rejoice in Ariarne Titmus's fantastic swim and not her coach's hyper response. [NBC]

• The husband was skeptical, but even he agreed making a slow cooker red beans and rice was a good call for this week. I skip the dried beans and use two cans of red kidney beans then reduce the water to just two cups. This time, I also added some carrots since it's the one veggie the kiddo is eating right now. [A Pinch of Healthy]
• We made two vegetarian dishes this week and one was this chana aloo masala. So very tasty with some naan. The leftovers were even better the next day. [Budget Bytes]

• I go through cycles where I subscribe to a lot of email newsletters, realize I follow too many, and then go on an unsubscribe spree. I am in an unsubscribe phase right now. I ask myself, does this add value. It I don't immediately think "yes," I unsubscribe. So far, I've already knocked out over a dozen publications. An equal number will probably got the axe in the next few days. It feels good to take back a little bit of self-control with my inbox.