| 1. Can We Learn to Live With Germs Again? “Bacteria blanket our surfaces, suffuse the air we breathe and saturate certain areas of our bodies, especially the gut. While some microbes and other microscopic particles are a threat to us, a vast majority are benign. And there’s mounting evidence that our health relies on our early and ongoing interactions with them.” 2. Hollywood Bias Comes at a Hefty Price “America’s film industry is the country’s least diverse business sector and that its systemic anti-Black biases cost it at least $10 billion in annual revenue.” 3. The Pandemic Shrank Our Social Circles. Let’s Keep It That Way. “While our culture has encouraged us to accumulate friends, both on- and offline, like points, the pandemic has laid bare the distinction between quantity and quality of connections. There are those we’ve longed to see and those it’s been a relief not to see. The full reckoning will become apparent only when we can once again safely gather and invitations are — or are not — extended. Our social lives and social selves may never be the same.” 4. Bradley Whitford Finds Inspiration in the Theater (and Dog Park) “The problem isn’t the obvious forms of fascism — that people are going to start burning books. The problem is people are going to be so distracted they don’t care about books anymore. There’s a big part of the book that says that television is at its most dangerous when it is pretending to be edifying. It’s basically a condemnation of everything that I mistakenly get celebrated for.” 5. Letter of Recommendation: The Filet-O-Fish “The Filet-O-Fish is the gold standard of fast food for many Asian-Americans, as well as other minority American communities. Invented by an Ohio franchise owner in 1962, the first Filet-O-Fish was the answer to the problem of McDonald’s falling sales on Fridays, when observant Catholics abstained from eating meat. Born from an attempt to market fast food to as many people as possible, the tasty little unit has since been further claimed by everyone from fish-loving Chinese-Americans to practicing Muslims to — well, anyone with taste.”
Every week I, Matt Thomas, read the Sunday New York Times so you don’t have to, bringing the articles everyone’s talking about as well as hidden gems from America’s “paper of record” to your inbox. Reached your limit for free articles? Subscribe to the New York Times or see if you can access it through your school or local library.  | 
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