Afternoon Tea (7/10/19)

ICYMI, here is the COMPLETELY BONKERS preschool story everyone is talking about: The Battle of Grace Church

Sandra Boynton is tweaking some of her beloved children’s books. But why mess with perfection?

The Goal Is To Feel Strong, Says 'Black Panther' Jewelry Designer

On the 18th-Century Origins of Celebrity Worship

Bless Us, O Instagram

Morning Coffee (7/3/19)

GOOD: Federal Court Blocks Trump Administration Policy of Arbitrarily Jailing Asylum-Seekers

DHS Inspector General Finds 'Dangerous Overcrowding' In Border Patrol Facilities

Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway.

Phew: 2020 Census Won’t Have Citizenship Question as Trump Administration Drops Effort

Woww: Navy SEAL Acquitted Of Murder After Witness Claims To Have Killed ISIS Captive

About time: House Files Lawsuit Seeking Disclosure of Trump Tax Returns

Kamala Harris Doesn’t Have to Believe in Joe Biden’s Innocence

Amazing: Suspicious substance mailed to 'Straight Pride' organizers turns out to be … glitter

Good for him: Adam Scott Calls Out Mitch McConnell’s Social Media Team for Using His Image on Twitter

Lee Iacocca, Visionary Automaker Who Led Both Ford and Chrysler, Is Dead at 94

Afternoon Tea (6/27/19)

NICOLE CLIFFE'S ALANIS MORISSETTE PROFILE IS OUT!!! It is great, of course.

They Thought This HIV Strategy Couldn't Work. But It Did

Brand Twitter Grows Up

The Many Liars of Crime Fiction

Toads and ermine (and other coats of arms)

Afternoon Tea (6/20/19)

This Sherrilyn Kenyon profile is... a lot. 'I Really Thought He Was Going to Kill Me and Bury My Body'

Meet the New York couple donating millions to the anti-vax movement

The black Georgia school teacher who turned out to be a Union spy

Hollywood Finally Let Bianca Lawson Grow Up

Watch Soap Bubbles Turn Into Tiny Snow Globes as They Freeze

Afternoon Tea (6/3/19)

Memories of Massacres Were Long Suppressed Here. Tourists Now Retrace the Atrocities.

A NatGeo TV Drama Is 'Inspired' By A 1989 Ebola Crisis In The U.S. How Accurate Is It?

This is so cool: Martin Parr's Soviet space dog collection – in pictures

Bradley Whitford Will Save Us From the Monsters

38 of the Best YAs of June

Afternoon Tea (5/24/19)

This is FASCINATING: The Invisible City Beneath Paris

I love her: Emma Thompson Gets a Shock at 60

Belgian Monastery Will Brew Beer Again, After A 220-Year Pause

Can you guess the British city from the vintage travel poster?

Summer Reading Megalist: Fantastic, Fabulous, F/F Fiction

Morning Coffee (5/14/19)

French special forces rescue hostages in a deadly Burkina Faso raid

Supreme Court Allows Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple to Proceed

New York Regulator Launches Investigation Into TurboTax Maker Intuit and H&R Block

How a James Comey Tweet Fueled a Conspiracy Theory That Upended a California Town

US is hotbed of climate change denial, major global survey finds

65 years after Brown v. Board of Education, school segregation is getting worse

Good for them: Brother and Sister of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Accuse Him of Spreading Misinformation on Vaccines

Actress And Singer Doris Day, Hollywood's Girl Next Door, Dies At 97

Missing Piece of Stonehenge Returned From Florida 60 Years After Removal

Dinosaur With Bat Wings Was More Than Legend

Afternoon Tea (4/26/19)

Janelle Monáe: Living Out Loud (and to make it even better, Lizzo is the interviewer!)

This was just lovely and made me cry: Blair Braverman on the Iditarod, Fear, and Resilience

Finland’s Hobbyhorse Girls, Once a Secret Society, Now Prance in Public

A brief history of the ball pit

The Magic of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct

Morning Coffee (4/26/19)

Friday happy link time! I'm writing this Thursday night because I will be ON A PLANE when it posts, but by the time you're reading it there will be NEW TAYLOR MUSIC OUT, THE HAPPIEST OF OCCASIONS, GO GET IT.

HAHAHA: Avengers: Endgame Cast Sings "We Didn't Start the Fire"

!!! Possible 'marsquake' detected for first time on red planet

Oh neat: The New Hampshire Fisher Cats Go Organic

SO CUTE: It’s (Nearly) Prince Louis’s First Birthday and We Got New Pictures

!!! YES. I AM FREAKING OUT. McDonald's is bringing its iconic Dutch Stroopwafel McFlurry to America — and people are freaking out

This sounds fun: Star Trek Animated Series in Development at Nickelodeon

Interesting: Skyhorse Forms Arcade CrimeWise

Australian ship discovered off Victoria 77 years after Japanese submarine attack

I'm not even particularly into DD, but I kinda want these? Dunkin’s New Lip Balms Are Essentially Spreadable Munchkins

I love this: Blake Lively Used to Wear Forever 21 on Red Carpets and Lie and Say It Was Vintage

Afternoon Tea (4/23/19)

Lizzo Loves You Like She Loves Herself

A Leading Cause for Wrongful Convictions: Experts Overstating Forensic Results

Here’s How TurboTax Just Tricked You Into Paying to File Your Taxes

Archivists race to digitize slavery records before the history is lost

Women suffer needless pain because almost everything is designed for men

Afternoon Tea (3/26/19)

This piece by Emilia Clarke on surviving two aneurysms is great: A Battle for My Life

Why Anti-Semitism in Media Just Won’t Go Away

“She Lied to My Face”: Inside the Hectic Last Days of Gymboree’s Retail Bankruptcy

The Fertility Doctor's Secret

2019’s Must-Read Romance Novels According to Romance Authors

Afternoon Tea (3/15/19)

IT'S HERE: The 2018(ish) Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog

Lori Loughlin Is the Hallmark Channel's Best-Loved Actor, So What Happens Now?

Fascinating: How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger

THIS IS VERY ALARMING: Wild Ice

Alexandre Dumas’s Magnum Opus Was a Massive Cookbook

Afternoon Tea (3/8/19)

Here's a great piece by and about women running the Iditarod: Cool Runnings

The Olympics Are Over, but Tessa Virtue Is Just Getting Started

Stacey Abrams, Star Trek Nerd, Is Traveling at Warp Speed

Taylor Swift is delightful, don't @ me: 30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30

A History of the American Public Library

Morning Coffee (2/23/19)

New Election Ordered in North Carolina Race at Center of Fraud Inquiry

Saudi Crown Prince's Visit To India Signals Pivot Eastward For Riyadh

The frenzy over Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s solicitation charges, explained

Finally: R. Kelly charged with sexually abusing 4 victims, at least 3 of them minors

Federal prosecutors broke law in Jeffrey Epstein case, judge rules

Elizabeth Warren Unveils Proposal To Ensure High-Quality Child Care For Every Family

The Lobbying Swamp Is Flourishing In Trump’s Washington

This is awful: Little, Brown to Publish Transphobic Novel That Erases Historical Trans Man

Abortion Access Improves Children's Lives

Found: A 50-Year-Old Scientific Message, Stuffed in a Bottle

Afternoon Tea (2/20/19)

This Is Her: The Lost Past and Hopeful Future of Mandy Moore

Meet the Mormon Transhumanists Seeking Salvation in the Singularity

He sounds exhausting: Tolstoy Ghosted His Wife Then Up and Died

A Whale's Afterlife

In the Fair City of Verona, Star-Cross’d Lovers Want to Believe in ‘La Casa di Giulietta’

Afternoon Tea (2/18/19)

Finding My Father’s Auschwitz File

The North Magnetic Pole’s Mysterious Journey Across the Arctic

R Kelly, Michael Jackson and Bryan Singer. Who knew? Everyone

Val McDermid | 'My relationship with the landscape has always been very strong'

One of film’s greatest epics is a 7-hour adaptation of War and Peace. Really.

Morning Coffee (1/30/19)

Brexit: What just happened and what happens next?

Lindsey Graham floats a dangerously irresponsible escalation of the slat wars

Senate panel postpones William Barr’s confirmation vote amid Democrats’ concerns

No Republican senators have signed onto a bill to give federal contractors backpay after the shutdown

Horrifying (and I get that they can't say it for legal reasons but this seems more than POSSIBLY a hate crime) (and the FBI is now involved): 'Empire' star Jussie Smollett brutally attacked, hospitalized in possible hate crime

This is awful: A Mother’s Fatal Fall on Subway Stairs Rouses New Yorkers to Demand Accessibility

I Want to Be Excited about Kamala Harris. The Reality Is a Little More Complicated.

How a teenage 'Fortnite' player found Apple's FaceTime bug — and why it was so hard to report it

Yay! The 2019 Rainbow Book List

HA: Daniel Radcliffe to Tom Brady: 'Take That MAGA Hat Out of Your Locker'

Morning Coffee (1/25/19)

Time for Friday happy links!

GOOD: Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue Cover Features Majority People of Color For the First Time

Good news from my home state: Kid Governor sworn in with LGBTQ platform

3 Newborn Endangered Right Whales Seen After Year With No Births

This thread of corresponding composers and cookies is the greatest thing ever published.

Oh. Why, yes, this is what it would sound like if The National covered the Frasier theme song

After Controversy, City Approves 'Pho Keene Great' Restaurant Name

Hahaha: 'Ancient' Scottish stone circle was built in 1990s

'The Unhoneymooners' By Christina Lauren Is An Enemies-To-Lovers Romance Set In Paradise & You Can Start Reading Now

Aw: Olympians Sophie Caldwell And Simi Hamilton Announce Engagement

QUIZ: Guess the YA book from the Picture

Afternoon Tea (1/24/19)

Are Jews White? American History Says It’s Complicated

Florida’s Citrus Trees Face Extinction. Are Antibiotics the Only Answer?

France Debates Where to Teach Arabic: Public School or Local Mosque?

10 of Our Most Anticipated Indie YA Books of 2019

He Knows the Stars’ Dirty Laundry. Because He Washes It.

Morning Coffee (1/24/19)

Why thousands of protesters — and Trump — are demanding Venezuela’s president step down

Exclusive: Iraqi scientist says he helped ISIS make chemical weapons

4 Arrested and 23 Guns Seized in Plot Against Muslim Enclave in Upstate N.Y.

What the hell is going on with the State of the Union, explained

The Wheels of Justice Are Grinding to a Halt

This piece about the sexual abuse accusations against Bryan Singer is important (and timely given Bohemian Rhapsody's nominations): ‘Nobody Is Going to Believe You’

The Voices of Indigenous People Continue to Be Silenced

I'm very impressed with what L.A.'s teachers got in their negotiations to end the strike.

This is awful: Trump Administration Grants South Carolina Foster Care Agencies Authority to Discriminate Against Jewish, Muslim Families (and Catholic and agnostic and...)

Gawker 2.0 Implodes as Its Only Reporters Quit