This is the story of what followed—and what I learned about love, grief, and the stories we all need. 8/8

I spoke to Terry Gross today about this story. Listen here (or wherever you get yr podcasts, as they say).

Aces post by @DamonLinker, who describes the GOP as (damn, this is good) “a combined faction of legislators tirelessly devoted to cutting taxes for rich people with another primarily motivated by hatred of providing access to health care for the poor.”

RT @eilperin: 1/ Today marks the release of "We are Eating the Earth," by @MikeGrunwald I've already read it, and you should too. Here's a….

RT @RadioFreeTom: okay, I'll look into it.

RT @mrianleslie: Superb piece on the scourge and shame of insomnia, from the great @JenSeniorNY (link below)

A feature I wrote for my fellow insomniacs, one that (I hope) is neither reproachful nor plump with myths and misunderstandings:

RT @YAppelbaum: New @JenSeniorNY story! New @JenSeniorNY story!

So maybe it’s time for a different kind of discussion about this problem…? One that isn’t so reproachful or plump with misunderstandings and myths? That’s what I tried to do here: 7/7.

The fact is, 30 to 35 percent of Americans suffer from some of insomnia’s various symptoms, at least temporarily. And at least 12 percent suffer from insomnia as a more obdurate condition. The number pops up to 15 for Millennials. 6/7.

Instead they just bang on with the same old bromides. Avoid caffeine! Don’t drink before bed! Sleep in a cool room! *As if we haven’t heard all of this before.* (And by the way? That advice is really weak tea.) 5/7.

“Chronic insomnia is similar to where depression was in the past. We’d say ‘major depression’ and people would say, ‘Everybody gets down now and then.’ ”.Many people once didn’t realize how tenacious depression was, and many people now don’t realize how tenacious insomnia is. 4/7.

Also, those stories have a really smug, hectoring quality. Those gifted with sleep often can’t grasp how difficult it is for those who can’t do it. At a sleep conference I attended last summer, one doctor put it perfectly: 3/7.

Because most stories about sleep are really stories about sleep *loss*—and as an inveterate insomniac, I really don’t need another. I already have a multivolume fright compendium in my head of all the terrible things that can happen if sleep eludes you or you elude it. 2/7.

A word about my latest feature for The Atlantic: Though it’s about sleep, I am hoping it’s not a *typical* story about sleep. I despise most stories about sleep. Why? Glad you asked. 1/7.

RT @TheAtlantic: “I like to tell people that the night before I stopped sleeping, I slept. Not only that: I slept well.”. @JenSeniorNY beca….

Loretta Swit, damn. And this, from her obit re her role on M*A*S*H…!. “It was the greatest time in my career,” she told the The Guardian. Her ambition throughout the series was to be “the best damned nurse in Korea, and that motivated everything I did, even when it came to sex.”.

Just made an appt with a hyper-specialized doc whose next availability is … March 26, 2029. Receptionist said I had to make one so that I was eligible for cancellations. Then he asked if I wanted 9.30 or 2 pm. I was like, Surprise me. But now I’m realizing I have therapy at 9.30.

Amazing. Not sure my aunt could have handled this sort of program, even if she’d been properly cared for. (Wrote about her two years ago: But to think we’ve gone from warehousing the disabled to this…! I could cry.

RT @theworldofdog: When your dog thinks he is a cat .(viralhog)

My friend Sarah Murray has started a Substack that's such a refreshing departure from today's bedlam. Composed of beautifully observed moments, serendipities, observations about art and the things that bind us. Her two most recent: