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  • The delta variant surge is making people around the country realize that COVID-19 isn't just "going away."
  • The Washington Post has a fantastic longread on the rush to buy property sight unseen in a mostly abandoned area of Peoria, Illinois, in a piece that touches on the impact of the pandemic, the reality of real estate investments, and grasping toward the American dream.
  • This woman's terrible friends tried to purposefully throw a birthday party while she was out of town—so she decided to ditch those friends and create new ones online, which has turned into "No More Lonely Friends" meet-ups for everyone.
  • Cindy Adams is a Page Six gossip-reporting legend, and she knows it: “Gossip has become pernicious. I don’t appreciate pernicious gossip. I don’t indulge in saying evil kinds of things about people,” she said. “I am not evil. I am not vicious. I am amusing."
  • The Good Place creator Michael Schur is adapting Field Of Dreams into a scripted series for Peacock.
  • An anti-masker was captured on video harassing a woman on the subway (and he may have since been identified).
  • Have you considered renting chickens to start your own backyard farm?
  • A new study by a Canadian public health agency has found that babies and toddlers are "less likely to bring the coronavirus into their homes than teenagers are" but they are very infectious when they do get it.
  • I've been gone for a bit, which means there's some great new music I've neglected to write about: Darkside released their excellent sophomore psych-electronic album Spiral; LUMP (featuring the incredible songwriter Laura Marling) released Animal; The Goon Sax channeled the likes of The Go-Betweens, Belle & Sebastian and new wave touchstones on Mirror II; Liam Kazar released his debut Due North, a wonderful slice of '70s rock-influenced songwriting; Wednesday conjured up the ghost of mid-'90s indie rock guitar with Twin Plagues; Big Thief returned with the mesmerizing singles "Little Things" and "Sparrow;" The Weeknd unveiled an instant song of the summer with the synth-soaked "Take My Breath;" Courtney Barnett returned with a couple nice lowkey singles, including the lovely "Before You Gotta Go;" and Guided By Voices kicked ass as usual on "My (Limited) Engagement."
  • And finally, this dog is TOO silly: