The Morning News

Camp ToB 2020

Week Five: The Night Watchman

It’s a new month and a new book matchup at Camp ToB. This week we’re discussing the first half of Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman.

by The Tournament of Books Staff

Scientists say plasma from COVID-19 survivors could help inoculate people at risk—but feds and Big Pharma won't act.

↩︎ Los Angeles Times 12h

Just over 420 COVID-19 tests per 100K people have been performed in Africa—raising fears of a silent epidemic.

↩︎ Reuters 13h

Since most of the books at our location are shelved face out, we stocked relatively few books for a store our size. I was always happy to recommend that customers shop the city’s local independent bookstores for titles we didn’t have on hand.

David Gutowski on working at an Amazon bookstore.

↩︎ Longreads

13h

The pandemic has left people dying alone—without those nearby who need to hear their final words.

↩︎ The Atlantic 14h

Budget cutbacks have resulted in not printing green cards—disconcerting given Trump's immigration stance.

↩︎ The Washington Post 14h

Christo's first posthumous project—wrapping the Arc de Triomphe—is now set for 2021, and his team is ready for more.

↩︎ The New York Times 14h

I’m also suspicious of the way that Not Being Racist is a project that people seem to be approaching like boot camp. To deepen your understanding of race, of this country, should make you feel like the world is opening up.

An interview with Jia Tolentino about, among other things, the protests and white America’s reckoning with racial inequality.

↩︎ Interview

14h

In an analysis of whose videos trended on YouTube in the US in 2019, two cooking channels were in the top three.

↩︎ Ammar Alyousfi 15h

A map of the roads of the Roman Empire ca. 125 AD in the style of the London Underground, by Sasha Trubetskoy.

↩︎ Boing Boing 15h

Nandini Jammi of Sleeping Giants says her white male co-founder gaslighted her out of the movement they built.

↩︎ Medium 15h

To stop Trump from playing their music at rallies, artists may have to sue—as the Rolling Stones are now threatening to do.

↩︎ Pitchfork 1d

Serene collages on paper of waterfalls, by Thomas Danthony.

↩︎ This Isn't Happiness 1d

Fascism has been in the US as long as anywhere else—ask anyone who's Black in America.

↩︎ The New York Review of Books 1d

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The Editors' Longreads Picks

Act 1 of the Hamilton soundtrack if it had been performed by the Muppets.

Kudos to Animal for that rendition of "You'll Be Back" (at 19:01).

Yankee Stadium can hold 11% of its capacity safely during the pandemic—not the 20% the team owner wants.

↩︎ NJ.com 1d

Citing "security risks," Amazon tells employees they must remove TikTok from mobile devices that access Amazon email.

↩︎ The Verge 1d

An epidemiologist answers questions about the safety of children, teachers, and families as schools figure out how to reopen.

↩︎ Vox 2d

In almost every area of life, people are undermined and exploited, then made to feel that their inability to thrive is somehow their fault. It’s not unreasonable for someone living under such conditions to decide they simply can’t provide for a new life.

Jessa Crispin explains why she doesn’t have children.

↩︎ The Guardian

A podcast episode for those who would be moved.

Rough Translation did a good job with this one: stories from five continents about the global impact of George Floyd's murder.