Your mid-week Experiment
This edition is like a liquor store robbery: in & out, no one gets hurt
Welcome to your mid-week Experiment where we offer up some things to do, read, watch, and listen to. We’re moving installments of Frank A. Spring’s Regulator to the mid-week to give it more spotlight. And damn, only half a week in, and last weekend’s essay on new requirements to teach Texas History in six grades is already one of the most popular posts in the history of the Experiment. (A day after I sent this, the essay climbed to #7 all-time.) People are sharing it like free money on Facebook but not so much on Twitter. No clue how to take that. If you missed it, here it is.
Let’s get to it!
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The List
I’ve got work tomorrow, but you likely have no excuse not to go to Sarah Bird’s book release party at the Austin library for Last Dance on the Starlight Pier. It’s her pub day, or was yesterday, but I am a Sarah Bird hipster and read this Texas historical novel weeks ago. Loved it. Cried, for real. Buy this book if you want a brainy beach read set partly on a beach.
Walk 7,000 steps a day or die.
Vote for Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, in The Austin Chronicle’s Best of Austin 2022 contest.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee asked now-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to define what a woman was. Jen Bendery threw the question back at them. It was funny.
Russia’s failure to take Kyiv is fuel for those who partake in Schadenfruede.
Monica Hesse wrote about why the “Don’t Say Gay” bills avoid saying exactly what they mean.
Slow Horses on Apple TV+ has all the hallmarks of a British spy action comedy that will end up in good watchable place.
And I give. My resistance to Wet Leg’s eponymous debut indie pop album is nil. Adding “Chaise Lounge” to the playlist because it’s my favorite piece of furniture.
Not getting added to the playlist is this episode of the HBR Ideacast that offers science and actionable advice for being happier at work.
That’s it. Get on with your week. Go like and subscribe somewhere else. I got work to do, and you probably do, too.
Thanks to Noom, I lost 40 pounds over 2020-21 and have kept it off since then. Click on the blue box to get 20% off. Seriously, this works. No, this isn’t an ad. Yes, I really lost all that weight with Noom.
We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment.
We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is some
Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. Out in paperback this June!