Paloma Media Newsletter Number idk

The line between compassion and enabling addicts, an NYPD officer killed at 22, happy birthday Dolly Parton

Paloma Media Newsletter week… 9? 10? I take it as a good sign that I do not know! And hello! It’s been an interesting week of stories, some that hit painful spots and drew a lot of traffic, including, “The Bad Mother: On Making it Easier for Addicts to Do Drugs,” in which I recall trying to support a young mother (and her baby) only to learn she was a crack addict, and questioning whether the creation of supervised overdose centers is compassionate or enabling. We memorialize lounge singer Marty Roberts, of Marty & Elayne, who played LA’s Dresden Room six nights a week for nearly 40 years. And in “It’s Time for Kids Liberation Day,” Matt Welch makes a plea to once and for all get the masks off kids, and brings receipts – including from people who’ve heretofore been pretty mask-happy – showing that not only is it time to move on from the omicron variant, it’s time to throw the kids a big ol’ party.

Matt and I also narrated our pieces, if you prefer using your earholes.

Scott Ross followed the continuing saga of Novak Djokovic, arguing that the “refusal to accommodate Djokovic is shortsighted, as he’s a member of an ever-shrinking minority - the anti-vaxxers - who present a problem that is steadily solving itself, either by relenting, becoming infected or dying.” We dropped episode 8 (!) of “Ask a Jew” and – because I love you – I shot a video showing you how to make better coffee than you are drinking now.

We are working on a few re-dos for the site, including creating directories for Person of the Day – this week’s included Jim Thorpe, Dolly Parton, and Django Reinhardt – and Beauty Mark. If you happen to tap into this letter today, Sunday, do check out Beauty Mark, for a take on George Washington I’m betting you’ve never considered. And if there is one must-read Work We Didn’t Do item, it’s Kat Rosenfield’s crushing (if ultimately hopeful?) essay, “The Death of Intimacy.”

I am jumping in the car with my daughter this week and road-tripping to Texas. Tell me where we should eat/drink in Pittsburgh, Louisville, Memphis and Houston and I’ll try to hit it and do a little on-site vid. We will continue to cover the tough stuff, including the rise in violent crime and murder in NYC – Yael Bar Tur and I jumped in the studio tonight to speak with retired NYPD detective Steven Weiss about where the city finds itself, about what a call to action might look like, and about Jason Rivera, who was 22 when he was gunned down while on a service call. As a friend who works with the police said, of Rivera: “He was exactly the kind of young person you want to see on the job. A kid from the city who saw the problems with policing and wanted to make a difference anyway.”

Thank you for being part of Paloma. Please tell your friends and follow us on Twitter and YouTube. I have a secret wish (Ed: not so secret anymore?) to double our subscribers and add, oh, ten new Patreon peeps by the time I write this letter next week, and, go!

With all the love xx Nancy for Paloma Media