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Happy Thursday, dear readers! It’s been a very busy week for me, as, in addition to following the now normal never-ending news cycle, I’ve been packing for a move. I’ve moved at a rate of at least—although usually much greater than—once every two years for the last 16 years, and, while I’d like to say that has made me an expert, I’m still as likely as anyone to end up with garbage bags filled with random crap thrown in the back of a U-Haul. The only thing I have conclusively learned is to use these rental boxes. Those are cool.
But while the act of moving can be terrible, escaping from one place to another can be the best, whether it’s a long weekend or a new home. For example, there’s this fascinating account by Elaine Mokhtefi of leaving the U.S. and making a life in Algeria in the 1960s. Just when you think the Black Panther stuff can’t get any weirder, Timothy Leary shows up. It’s fantastic. Imagine the life you could lead if you wandered abroad and then rolled with it through a coup or two? I also remembered this essay on getting a green card in the U.S. after emigrating from Oman, a difficult thing to do in the best of times, which these are not. There are lots of ways and reasons to move, some of them more harrowing than others. For example: how do you make it from Iraq to Sweden in 17 days? And what to take with you? When this family left their home, they brought a farm.
On to the news: The U.K. election is imminent—apparently, no one is listening to my suggestion that we take a little timeout from snap elections!—and the real question is, who will the nation’s curry house chefs vote for? I don’t know why anyone thinks any election will be anything but a nail-biting existential crisis anymore, but people are surprised that incumbent Theresa May, plagued by such electoral difficulties as being a bad politician, is facing a possible upset by a dark-horse candidate who causes much hand-wringing among the chattering class. I need people to stop being surprised when this happens. And of course fucking Facebook is involved. Anyway, I’m just paying attention for the dogs.
And my God, the news coming out of Doha is insane. Here’s how the crisis developed in the U.S. There’s also this little detail about a one BILLION dollar ransom paid to kidnappers in Iraq.
Here’s what I’m reading: There is no deep-dive on the Eurovision singing concert that I will not read, but this is a particularly good one. A strangely riveting behind-the-scenes view of Trump’s NATO speech. Meet the Filipino immigrant who built the largest communal farm in Canada’s subarctic Northwest territories. How cold brew changed the coffee industry. “Many people ask, why pay $16,000 to learn how to cut a banana?” Do many people ask that? Has anyone ever asked that? Maybe I just hang out with the wrong people.
Don’t miss this uplifting story about the bravery of casual alcoholics. Yesterday was the dear-departed Prince’s birthday, so you know what I’ll be listening to while I pack. But for now, I, along with many of my fellow Americans, will be listening to the sonorous strains of our republic heaving a last gasp. Never have the nation’s journalists felt so justified in turning up to a bar at 9 a.m., but remember, we here at R&K have been doing so for years.
That’s it for this week! Join us next week for more of the best in food, travel, and politics from around the web. Tweet me stories you want to see here @caraparks.