PicoBlog

Hello friends, Welcome, June! A new month is a new beginning. There is a joy in turning the calendar page in anticipation of what’s to come. June is a month of nostalgia. In Canada and many other countries, June is the month of celebrating graduations and the start of summer. It’s when the air feels noticeably warmer, dining outside under hanging patio lights is a common gathering, and the daylight stretches until 8:00 pm.

Liz Hagelthorn is a social-first storyteller and meme-maker with a diverse background in meme culture, technology, and organic virality. Enter your email for a suprise or press skip to be taken directly to my work (free). Launched 2 years ago No thanksncG1vNJzZmikma%2B1b7%2FUm6qtmZOge6S7zGg%3D

Dear Community, This time of year, we hear much about the happiness of new beginnings. But for me, I am often wistful, reflective. I lost my dad on New Year’s Eve, decades ago, but even today, it is not a day that I celebrate. Most of the time, I don't wait up for the clock to tick over, the fireworks to begin or the ball to drop. When I was younger, I felt guilty about not feeling the new year cheer, but now, it is much easier to accept the quiet that I crave on this day.

Letters from Lola By Lola James Welcome to my substack, here you'll find all sorts of writing from essays about something thats been on my mind, small snippets of prose, and poetry. This is the home of all my work, good, bad and ugly and a little peek into my crazy mind ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kja27y5qhmqWVqA%3D%3D

Two new studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine today address the extent and duration of cognitive deficits after Covid in very large cohorts. In England, in a prospective study nearly 113,000 participants, with or without Covid infections, accepted the invitation to participate and completed a cognitive and memory assessment (see flow chart below from the 800,000 total community of participants) and after 12 weeks, with or without symptom resolution.

If you toil in the fields of nonfiction, as I do, you probably have an opinion about John McPhee, as I do. This week, I had the great privilege of reviewing his latest book for the Washington Post Book World (which, by the way, is one of only two stand-alone newspaper book reviews in the country, and which is deftly and smartly edited by one John Williams, who improves everything I send him).

What a wonderful day this is! I am filled with hope, gratitude, admiration and joy. I am filled with love for every human being on the planet. In a zoom meeting earlier, I literally broke out into song. Then I got a bit tearful. Perhaps the strain of advocating for boys and men has finally caused me to breakdown? No it’s not that. It’s this: A Norwegian Government Commission just issued its final report.

As we head into week two of the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, I am more confused than ever as to the government’s strategy. Friday morning saw Maxwell’s defense attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca destroy the credibility of Epstein’s “butler,” Juan Alessi, who, it emerged, had previously stated under oath in 2009 that he had burgled Jeffrey Epstein’s home twice back in 2003. However, on Thursday at the Maxwell trial, also under oath, Alessi said he had only committed one burglary.

A few years ago, as Black Lives Matter convulsed the country, my alma mater appointed a commission to discuss changing the school mascot.  My beloved Carmel High had been the “Padres” since it opened in 1940. St. Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions, is buried one mile from campus. The Padre was a fitting symbol for eighty years, until, as the Great Racial Reckoning began, a great many people began to point out that the real padres treated the Native Americans rather shabbily.