Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 25
The vaccine, the insurrection, Phil Spector, a mysterious pasta shortage, the return of recipe corner, one final 2020 link dump, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the introduction post here and the entire archive of previous newsletters here.
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Who’s getting the vaccine?
The vaccine is here! It’s exciting. But who gets it, and how is it distributed? This piece describes the methods Americans are using to game the system and get the shot. Tipsters, tech-savvy kids, pharmacy hopping: How Americans are landing coronavirus vaccines
Older Americans are enlisting their kids and grandchildren to stay on the phone and keep refreshing websites until they land an appointment. Tiny intelligence networks are forming around the country to scour for morsels of information on how to get a leg up on the vaccine search.
“Our millennial skills kicked in and the years of when we were younger trying to get concert tickets from Ticketmaster,” McAlexander said. “The website would go down, the website would come back up, and we were just essentially clicking anything we could click to try to get appointments, and we slowly but surely got appointments for myself, my mother and both of his parents.”
Of course, there are issues of fairness and privilege involved. Ask yourself this, would you turn down the shot if you had a chance to get one?
A healthy Arkansas man in his mid-30s cut ahead of senior citizens thanks to a family friend who was a pharmacist running a clinic with more doses than patients.
“Personal contacts are unfortunately filling the information void. That has helped me rationalize jumping ahead because I don’t really want to wait for my state to figure out how to be efficient with administering the vaccines,” said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid social repercussions. “I am a wealthy White man, so I do feel guilt that my privilege is definitely giving me another advantage in this world, but at the end of the day, I’m making a decision that I think will keep my family safe.”
The underlying issue is that much like the entire pandemic response, there seems to be no federal plan.
“I don’t think that getting a vaccination should be based upon luck or ploys or schemes,” Alpert, 68, said. “I assumed our federal government had some sort of plan, a plan that had been in existence all along. I figured it would be like a military war game that they would be ready for this eventuality.”
On a personal note, both my parents have received their first round of the vaccine, as have my fiance’s parents. It’s hard to describe the relief. A reminder that our doctors and scientists deserve all of the praise.
Some really strong pieces about the insurrection
I’m tired of writing about what happened on January 6. And although I probably should stop reading about it, there’s just too much outstanding work to ignore. Here are some of the best pieces from the last week.
Among the Insurrectionists
The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold.
An inside look at the attack from a writer who was there.
Biden and Trump Voters Were Exposed to Radically Different Coverage of the Capitol Riot on Facebook
Data from The Markup’s Citizen Browser project shows the different realities Americans inhabited on Facebook last week
This is an eye-opener about how Facebook filters news. Just check the photos below from the day of the riot. The first, a story served to a Biden voter, the second to a Trump voter.
Things only get worse from there. Check out the whole thing, if you can stomach it.
41 minutes of fear: A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege
Using facial recognition, exclusive, unpublished video, and interviews with lawmakers, The Post reconstructed the chaos inside the seat of government.
If you have the time, watch the 14-minute video at the top of this story. It’s a masterful piece of storytelling.
Dating apps are using images from the siege to ban rioters’ accounts
Bumble, Tinder and others are freezing out rioters with help from law enforcement — and, in some cases, their own photos. Other app users have taken matters into their own hands by striking up conversations with potential rioters and relaying their information to the FBI.
Apparently, women are changing their locations to D.C. to target the losers who participated in the insurrection. It’s kinda wild. I was struck by this quote:
Amanda Spataro, a 25-year-old logistics coordinator in Tampa, called it her “civic duty” to swipe through dating apps for men who’d posted incriminating pictures of themselves. On Bumble, she found one man with a picture that seemed likely to have come from the insurrection; his response to a prompt about his “perfect first date” was: “Storming the Capitol.”
“Most people, you think if you’re going to commit a crime, you’re not going to brag about it,” Spataro said in an interview.
“Civic Duty.”
Quote of the week
This is a doozy and it comes from this: Trump to flee Washington and seek rehabilitation in a MAGA oasis: Florida
Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican strategist in Florida who is a senior adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, explained the state’s appeal to Trump — including that Florida’s Republican base is especially “Trumpy.”
“It fits in with Florida’s overall character of being the magnet for all insanity in the universe,” Wilson said. “We are what we are in the great state of Florida, and that is a state of lives restarting and second-chances and reboots and low property taxes and liberal bankruptcy laws and a fairly casual approach to public ethics. Florida, in some freakish, horrible way, is the Trumpiest of states. This is the logical place for them to come.”
Headline of the Week
Phil Spector, lionized producer of 1960s pop and convicted murderer, dies
Wow, this is some kind of obit. Spector is best known to people of my generation for the photo above, taken while on trial for murder. If that’s all you know about Spector, then buddy, buckle in. Too often we throw around the word “unbelievable,” but this story absolutely fits the description.
His bombastic-symphonic “wall of sound” had a booming but controlled effect — elaborately and minutely planned for maximum dramatic effect — and it influenced an array of performers, most prominent among them Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and members of the Beatles. The Beatles coaxed Mr. Spector out of retirement to produce their final album, “Let It Be,” in 1969, and later the megahit debut solo albums by John Lennon and George Harrison. Lennon once called him “the greatest record producer ever.”
OK, that’s a pretty cool legacy. But how was Spector as a person? Apparently truly rotten:
Mr. Spector’s first wife, Annette Merar, described him as a womanizer prone to fits of rage. His second wife, Ronnie Bennett, the lead singer of the Ronettes, claimed that he kept her a virtual prisoner in their Alhambra, Calif., mansion. She escaped in 1972 by running barefoot from the hilltop estate. Several of his children, from whom he was estranged, said he abused them.
Then, the murder:
On Feb. 3, 2003, he was arrested in the fatal shooting of Clarkson, a 40-year-old nightclub hostess and struggling actress who had starred in the low-budget movie “Barbarian Queen” (1985).
It was a tragic coda to a life of vast creative accomplishment that had long been shadowed by Mr. Spector’s reputation for unhinged and abusive behavior. He produced 18 records that each sold more than 1 million copies and, in an industry interested principally in turning out profitable records, he had broad latitude to indulge jarring habits, which included a tendency to brandish guns in recording studios.
Even during his trial for murder, he continued to grant interview requests. As expected, Spector wasn’t short on audacity.
“You just don’t know what you’re doing that is so important, but you know it’s different and you know it’s important, and maybe that’s what the word genius is, maybe that’s the genie in us, the gene in us,” he told an interviewer in 2008. “It’s the step that makes you able to see above when everybody is seeing on the same level.”
Read of the Week
What the Hole Is Going On?
The very real, totally bizarre bucatini shortage of 2020.
This is a really fun, well-written, and insightful look at another critical shortage I didn’t know our country was facing.
You can listen to the multi-part investigation this week on my podcast, Mind of Micah. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or listen on Spotify below.
Recipe Corner
Dill and Mint Yogurt Dip
Remember when we gathered together to watch football? This looks like something that would please a crowd. It’s like the classic sour cream and onion dip, except not disgusting. It also looks like something that would be really nice on top of a boring-ass chicken breast on a Tuesday night.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups plain Greek-style yogurt (preferably full-fat)
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon finely grated zest and 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup capers, plus more for serving
Toasted or grilled flatbread, cut into wedges, for serving
Potato chips, especially sturdy or ridged, for serving
Stir together the yogurt, dill, chives, mint, lemon zest and juice, oil, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup of the capers in a medium bowl. Taste and add more salt and/or lemon juice, as needed.
Serve with extra capers scattered on top.
2020 link dump pt. 3
This is it. Below is a list of pieces I enjoyed last year but didn’t feature in this space. In the interest of starting fresh, here are a bunch of great stories presented without commentary.
Check out last week’s newsletter to see the second set of links. And Vol. 23 for the first set.
Keith Richards Is Riding Out the Pandemic in His “Comfies”
A far-ranging conversation with the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist on pandemic life, making music, his new box set, and, yes, his sweatpants.
How Gillian Welch and David Rawlings Held Onto Optimism
The uncertainties of 2020 led the folk duo to discover a new emotional urgency in songs about the slow, challenging, beautiful heat of living.
"He's Radioactive": Inside Johnny Depp's Self-Made Implosion
It wasn't just erratic and violent behavior that wrecked one of the world's most bankable stars. It was his unquenchable thirst for revenge.
The 2021 Bum Steer Awards
Texas Monthly’s annual list of the state’s biggest dopes. Let’s face it: this was no one’s favorite year. Here are a few dozen reasons why.
Where else can I find Micah content?
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
Twitter: @micahwiener & @producermicah (Why two twitters? It’s a long story)
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Email: micahwiener@me.com