When Maya Rudolph returned to her old stomping grounds to host Saturday Night Live this weekend, the cast members Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman popped in during her monologue to declare her “mother”—and not only because she has four children. They also meant it in the slang sense of the word, which was derived from queer ballroom culture.

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In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II, the Earl of Warwick warns the king of an impending revolt, which is one of those
main chance of things
As yet not come to life, who in their seeds
And weak beginning lie intreasured
The ailing but canny king rises to the occasion:
Are these things then necessities?
Then let us meet them like necessities.
A brutal war ensues, in which Henry saves his kingdom.

1.
I’m tapering
the doctor says––
It might feel
like you can hear
your eyes moving––
space racing
from the back
of your skull
to the front––
Mine goes a little
cold sometimes––
I don’t know
how else
to describe it––
Tall black candles––
2.
I’m tapering
off
because they
make me
very sick––
the morning
and evening
tablets I take
to stave off
the chill
of consciousness––
Two poles––
all stomach
or all mind––
Tall black candles––
3.

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This week, a range of political headlines continue to raise questions about the looming presidential election. The adult-film star Stormy Daniels took the stand in the third week of former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial.

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“During most of my early adulthood, philosophy had little appeal to me,” Elissa Strauss wrote in 2022. “As long as I treated people mostly kindly, what did it matter what I thought about right and wrong, or the nature of knowledge or the universe?”
“Until, of course, I had my first child.

This article was originally published by Undark Magazine.
In April 2023, a satellite the size of a microwave launched into space. Its goal: to get ready to mine asteroids. Although the mission, backed by a company called AstroForge, ran into problems, it’s part of a new wave of activity by would-be asteroid miners hoping to cash in on cosmic resources.

A true sports parent dies twice. There’s the death that awaits us all at the end of a long or short life, the result of illness, misadventure, fire, falling object, hydroplaning car, or derailing train. But there is also the death that comes in the midst of life, the purgatorial purposelessness that follows the final season on the sidelines or in the bleachers, when your sports kid hangs up their skates, cleats, or spikes after that last game.

The House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act last week in a bipartisan vote of 320 to 91. “Antisemitism is on the rise,” it declares, and is “impacting Jewish students.”
Bigotry against Jews is vile and warrants the nation’s attention. As President Joe Biden said Tuesday at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, “This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world and requires our continued vigilance.