This week’s must-read is What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick With Coronavirus by Jessica Lustig, an editor at the NY Times. Her account of caring for her gravely ill husband while trying to keep herself and their teenage daughter from getting sick is harrowing but essential reading
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles have challenged people to post photos of themselves recreating their favourite works of art from the safety of their homes, and a lot of people definitely have too much time on their hands
Meet one of the female scientists leading the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine (“The commute to work is the weirdest part. The whole of Imperial College London has shut down, but eight of us scientists are deemed key workers and we’re allowed into the lab every day to develop and test a COVID-19 vaccine. Where normally the roads would be full of cars, cyclists and commuters, it’s eerily quiet when I walk to Imperial’s St Mary’s campus at 7am every day.”)
Vanessa is embarrassed to admit she’s been making instant ramen noodles wrong this whole time
This three-minute video showing millions upon millions of workers in India fleeing big cities to escape to their villages in search of food is eye-opening, to say the least
Can’t sleep? Dolly Parton is reading bedtime stories now, and you better believe her dulcet tones are gonna knock you out cold
Audible! Is! Offering! Free! Audiobooks!
Here’s the pottery porn you didn’t know was missing in your life
From Ed Yong at the Atlantic, this is a fascinating article on the current state of the pandemic in the US, what will happen over the next few months, how it will end, and what the aftermath will be. It’s a bit US-centric but it definitely feels relevant to anyone in an affected country right now
What were you doing at this time last year? (you’ll want to scroll down to the comments, and linger over the two orange poems for a while, just trust us on this one)
Tiny love stories (“Now, practising social isolation in separate apartments, I ask what would happen if he forgets me during our time apart. His reply? “We’ll just get to fall in love all over again.”)
Samin Nosrat (from Salt Fat Acid Heat fame) has just launched a new home cooking podcast and even just hearing her laugh (which she does a lot) somehow makes us feel like everything is going to be okay
Mark your calendar for April 27: the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People is coming to Stan, and the latest trailer looks excellent
Over on Twitter, a Sydney-based academic asked everyone what the first thing they planned to do when this was all over, and the responses are wonderful (and sometimes heartbreaking)
Finally, recipes we’ve bookmarked this week include this easy no-knead focaccia, 10 simple Italian meals courtesy of Rachel Roddy, noodle recipes designed for one, Smitten Kitchen’s new recipe for the ‘ultimate’ banana bread and chickpea flatbread (chickpea flour doesn’t seem to be as in demand as the other flours these days, and you only need two other ingredients to turn it into a delicious dinner)
