Every month, I share the articles and sites that I found most interesting. Here’s what caught my attention in March: learning a language, pandemic baking, and more. (Links marked with ($) may be behind a paywall.)
• How To Practice ($) by Ann Patchett
I didn’t need the glasses or the silver, those things that represented who I thought I would become but never did, and I didn’t need the dolls, which represented who I had been and no longer was. The typewriter, on the other hand, represented both the person I had wanted to be and the person I am. Finding the typewriter was like finding the axe I’d used to chop the wood to build the house I lived in. It had been my essential tool. After all it had given me, didn’t it deserve something better than to sit on a shelf?
• Baking Beautiful Things Gave Me Hope in a Lost Year by Rachel Mennies: “There’s no substitute for the joy of eating in community, but baking deliberately beautiful things holds space for the possibility of that joy’s return.”
• Islands in the Stream by David Dayen: “Everyone loves music, and most of us now have the capacity to listen to anything, anywhere, at any time. We can’t hear through the noise that the people who brought us this musical bounty are in trouble.”
• How To Be an Ally of Victims of Abuse by Charisma Carpenter: “The truth is that while the inundation of comments and calls were rooted in good intentions, some still fell short. It dawned on me that many may not know how to be an ally or to best support a survivor of trauma.”
• How to learn a language (and stick at it) by John Gallagher: “What I’ve learnt from the process is that while language learning is often presented as a task with a one-size-fits-all solution, what’s central to success in learning a new language is working out the goals and strategies that are specific to you.”
• How to Delete Your Old Online Accounts (and Why You Should) by Chris Hoffman: “You’ve probably signed up for a lot of online services that you no longer use. Most of those accounts probably still exist, and they likely contain a mix of your personal data, identity details, and credit card numbers.”
What’s the most interesting thing you saw online this month?
Reghan Skerry 