The Friday Thing #663

For the last almost 13 years, I have written an email I send to friends every Friday - without fail. It’s imaginatively titled "The Friday Thing" and it started out as a fun email to about 12 people where I shared something fun/thought provoking/creative that I had found on the Internet that week. It’s now delivered to over 500 people weekly. Some of them like it….I think.

I thought perhaps I should start to post it here too. Over the last few weeks, it has expanded way beyond a single ‘thing’ to be more of a collection. I hope you like it. Please let me know in the comments whether you’re an existing reader or new.

UPDATE: I'll aim to add new editions each week. #664 is here if interested.

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Thank you for the notes back on last week’s edition. One long time reader suggested I should rename to be The Friday Things given the shift from one thing to many things ??

 The Friday Thing #663 is another compendium of things I have found and read on the web this week. I’ll shamelessly start with some Microsoft content. Friends and family have asked what Microsoft is doing to respond to Covid and the best place to learn about the many things is this Responding to COVID-19 together page that my team curates on a daily basis. There is a ton of other stuff going on at the company too but this page captures many of the highlights. One new story today is about the work our dining teams undertaking to repurpose Microsoft’s food supplies and facilities for schools and families during this time of crisis. When I say ‘some’, I mean 6000 boxed lunches per day and 120,000 to date. Check out Quiet Ingenuity: 120,000 lunches and counting – our photo essay on this work. And if you enjoy it, please share it. 

When friends here in the US ask me what I miss most about the UK the answer is always – “the pub”. Two world wars couldn’t stop the British going to the pub – but Covid has. Boris Johnson acknowledged this when putting the country on lockdown, saying “We’re taking away the ancient, inalienable right of freeborn people of the United Kingdom to go to the pub”. It’s led to some people recreating the pub in their house because after all, What Is Britain Without the Pub? I also miss the humour in the UK and thus am enjoying rugby commentator Nick Heath who is applying his skills to  sports commentary on everyday life. Genius. Oh and I do love a bit of British art in the form of a Banksy (please reply direct if you have a connection there btw) and also enjoyed this mini-documentary - Harland Miller on North Yorkshire. I’ve also been busy reading British GQ this week – in particular two fascinating athletic interviews. The first is How Eliud Kipchoge Broke Running’s Mythic Barrier – a fine piece of writing punctuated by some very unusual clothing ensembles. The second piece has me marveling at the maturity of ‘the Scouser in our team’ when interviewed by Alastair Campbell. Check out Trent Alexander-Arnold on Liverpool's unreal season.

Elsewhere around the world, it was reassuring to see that the Easter Bunny and tooth fairy are deemed essential workers. Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand said so. Hence it’s true. Over in my adopted second/third city of New York, the store signs showed the emotion (and humor) of the closures of stores in ‘Dear Customers’: These Are the Emotional Store Signs of a Closed New York.

Also from the New York Times, this diary of 24 Hours in a Pandemic Nation that includes Tammy Wiatrowski from Kirkland, Washington was beautifully done. And the excellent, How NOT to Wear a Mask.

Back to the topic of closures, I was intrigued by this piece in The Economist on How to reopen factories after covid-19. There is much to learn from China, who learned from SARS and H1N1. There is also plenty to learn from Nike in this piece by Marker titled Nike’s Secret for Surviving the Retail Apocalypse. In some ways, they were well prepared with a massive digital operation already under way, but it’s still fascinating to see how they’re pivoting and doing relatively well.

Music has become even more of a thing than usual for me in these strange times. I was pretty pleased to hear that Spotify Kids is now available in the US, Canada and France – not least as my kids can now stop polluting my feed with their trash. I know that makes me sound old but that’s because I am. And because I have better music taste than my kids. It’s also been interesting to read about Spotify listening trends and perhaps no surprise to hear that Don’t Stand So Close To Me by The Police has seen a resurgence. You can learn a lot more in How Social Distancing Has Shifted Spotify Streaming about the rise in more chill music being played and parents playing music and podcasts for kids.

The final link this week is a piece in The Financial Times from novelist, Arundhati Roy titled ‘The pandemic is a portal’. It took my breath away when I read it as Roy explained in heartbreaking detail how the coronavirus threatens India – and capitalism at large. It’s a sobering, powerful and beautifully written and despite feeling anger and desperation as I read most of it, I was left with optimism as I read her close.

Amen.

As always, stay safe. And, wash your hands.

-Steve