Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
Creatures That Don’t Conform (Lucy Jones / Emergence)
I was reading a copy of New Scientist magazine in October 2021 when I turned the page and paused. What on earth was that? It looked like a gelatinous raspberry, but each drupelet was elongated and stood erect on impossibly spindly black stalks under a hat of the cobbled surface of a licorice spog. To top it off, a wood louse seemed to be sucking part of the crimson jelly into its mouth. I read the caption: it was a “slime mold,” photographed by Barry Webb, in the south of Buckinghamshire, UK—not far from where I live.
Slime mold? I’d heard vaguely of slimes that had been used for experiments in labs to solve mazes, but this bright berry-like structure was new to me. I searched online and found a gallery of images Barry had taken of other species.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Iridescent rainbow orbs bursting into tangerine spun sugar. Pearly spheres of goo. Sorbet corn dogs leaning into one another with matching bouffants. Bright yellow blackberries. A bunch of Mr. Blobby’s babies. Golden goblets overflowing with effervescent honeycomb. Opalescent spherules in crinkled sweet wrappers. Amaretti flecked with flakes of soap. Honestly, go and check it out if you don’t believe me.
The Snack-Cake Economy: How I Learned Money in Prison (Nico Walker / Wealthsimple)
In prison, you could eat at the chow hall three times a day and live on that, but you would be hungry. The food was mostly carbohydrates, oftentimes stale. The chicken quarters were said to be expired crocodile food, irradiated so as to be safe to eat. The first day, you couldn’t touch any of it. Nobody could come in cold off the street and dig into the baked fish. You had to undergo a process. You went to jail. You got hungry. You got hungrier. Then you ate. Still, even after this process, sometimes you didn’t want to eat at the chow hall, or sometimes you couldn’t because you had to be somewhere else during “feeding.” So, if you had any money on your book — your inmate account — you went to the prison commissary. The trouble was that you could go to the commissary only once a week. That was why storemen, like the Fly, existed.
Rest in Power Brianna Ghey (Pink News)
@pinknews The investigation into the death of trans girl, 16-year-old Brianna Ghey has lead to the arrest of two teens on suspicion of her murder. #briannaghey #trans #🏳️⚧️ #transgender #uknews #queernews #queertok #queertiktok #lgbtq #translivesmatter🏳️⚧️ #lgbtqhistorymonth #justiceforbriannaghey ♬ Sad Scene BGM Piano Instrument(313618) – HomeMadeGarbage
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Image: Zosia Korcz