The "...Than Never" Edition
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the first-ever LZSP two-fer Sunday.
Once again, greetings from the West Coast. Travel, work, fun non-work obligations and activities, throw in a little (unusual) jet-lag, and it all added up to too much news, too little time.
Oh, also because I rented a Tesla. It started inauspiciously at the counter when the terrific Hertz customer service rep, Frank, said “oh can you wait about a half hour for it to finish charging?” I asked if there were any others and he said “Yes, one, but the driver’s side door seems to be malfunctioning.” That kind of thing isn’t gonna do much for un-stoking people’s fears of being stranded and / or unable to operate simple things like…a door. Well, it turns out that upon questioning the guy who had reported that the front door was broken, Frank surmised that said guy actually didn’t know how to unlock the car. So, Frank and I headed out to the parking lot with the key to the Tesla, which is like a hotel keycard but made out of the metal in the style of the American Express Platinum card. We spent some quality time together in the Hertz parking lot.
Henry sensed my unease, and asked if it was okay to get in the passenger side do give me a few lessons. You really have to begin with the basics, like how to start the car. Which I knew, because if you do rent a Tesla from Hertz you will get a daily missive starting a couple of weeks before your rental. Super-helpful by the way. Which I had studied. But like lots of things, studying on paper or even via a YouTube video can turn out different in real life. So I gamely got in the car and spent quite a while reviewing things with Frank on how to do things such as start the car, switch into gear, and generally how to deal with a touch screen control system that does not mesh with Apple Car Play, including phone, navigation, and anything else you’re used to.
I took off, quickly realizing that Frank and I had not really reviewed the climate control system, and saw that it was actually set at…81 with a fan speed of 8 out of 10. Racing up the 405, burning up and already starting the cascading lateness of my whole stay, I did have one realization: old fashioned, physical knobs are handy! When you turn them right or left they correspond to things like “up” and “down.” As opposed to the shiny smooth touch screen with the three step touch to get to the tiny screen area buttons and sliders in order to turn down the temperature and the fan.
Remember, we’ve spent well over a decade screaming “Don’t text and drive!” at our kids? I will look it up later or go back to Frank to ask, but is there a Siri-like voice activated control system? Like could I have said “Hey, Elon, I’m really freakin’ hot, turn the temperature down!” ?
OTOH the form factor is pretty great. And it’s real cool that it’s electric and I hope it helps us to not burn down the earth in a dumpster fire and all, and there is a “pet mode” (in said sub-menu of the sub-menu in the Climate Control section) so you can leave your animal in the car, safe and locked, as it keeps running at whatever temp (not 81 degrees) you set it to. but a) I’m not buying an Elon product and b) I gotta focus right now on having enough time, even halfway through the day, on not having to figure out how to turn on the hazard lights without my two-and-a-half-ton little vehicle crashing into something or someone.
So here you go, no touch screen needed (well I guess that’s not true, if you’re on your phone or iPad) to bring you all the news of the week by, for, and about women in the news. From politics to pop culture, with everything in between, this is what you need to know.
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And if you have a story you think I may have missed, even if it is The New York Times “Most Popular” carousel for days on end, email me at LZSundayPaper@gmail.com.
See you next week, likely much more promptly,
Hope you still have time to dive in!
The Pic(k) of the Week:
It Was A Good Night For Abortion Rightstacey AbramsXXX’s Last Stand via The Cut
POLITICS:
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy Becomes First Woman, First Lesbian Elected Governor In U.S. via PBS
Analysis Reveals How Abortion Boosted Democratic Candidates In Tuesday’s Midterm Election via KFF
BUSINESS:
In One Tweet, Elon Musk Captures The Everyday Sexism Faced By Women In STEM via Quartz
JURISPRUDENCE:
Warren Beatty Sued For Allegedly Coercing Sex With A Minor In 1973 via Vulture
SCIENCE & HEALTH:
Gender Differences Exist For Surgical Practice, Billing, Coding via HealthDay
Planned Parenthood Is Opening New Clinic— In The First State To Ban Abortion After Roe Fell via Glamour
Book Review: How Motherhood Alters The Brain via Undark
CULTURE & THE ARTS:
Tig Notaro Is Still Being Vulnerable via The Atlantic
The Boundless Optimism Of The Spice Girls via The New Yorker
Joan Didion’s Life In Objects via The New York Times
OBITUARY:
Hannah Pick-Goslar, A Presence In Anne Frank’s Diary, Dies At 93 via The New York Times
Vanilla Beane, The District’s ‘Hat Lady,’ Dies At 103 via The Washington Post
Charlbi Dean, Breakout Star Of Palme D’Or Winning ‘Trianangle Of Sadness,’ Dead At 32 via Rolling Stone
AND WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE ABOUT…?:
It’s Never Too Late To Uproot Your Life and Open An Inn via The New York Times