Happy Monday,
Here’s what you should check out this week:
Books and BFFs: Have you talked to your friends recently? I’ve been missing mine sorely, nostalgic for a time when we could talk smack and play UNO around a coffee table instead of Houseparty. Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close authors Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman will talk about their close relationship and the challenges they’ve had to overcome as friends in a virtual book talk from Politics and Prose. Monday 8/10 at 8 PM; Free, register here.
Votes for women: Scroll through the White House Historical Association’s historic photos that illustrate the history of protests at Lafayette Square. On Tuesday, the organization is hosting a virtual chat called “The Turning Point: Parades, Protests, and the Women’s Suffrage Movement.” Hear about the suffragettes from Dr. Colleen Shogan, director of the David M. Rubenstein Center for White House History, and Lina Mann, White House Historian. Tuesday 8/11 at 5 PM; Free, watch it here.
How to laugh in a crisis: Listen to “How Humor Helped Heal the Pain of the Holocaust,” an upcoming Facebook event from the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Ferne Pearlstein, director of the 2016 documentary The Last Laugh, will talk about the power of humor as a coping mechanism and a form of protest in the Jewish community. I’m sure she’ll crack some jokes herself. Wednesday 8/12 at 9:30 AM; Free, watch it here.
What to read in a crisis: In an installment of Profs & Pints, comparative literature professor Joseph Luzzi will chat about classic works that might help get you through quarantine. In “Literature for a Pandemic,” learn more about how classic writers including Charlotte Brontë and Albert Camus explored sickness. Wednesday 8/12 at 7 PM; $12, register here.
Crack some crabs: If you’re craving a good shell smackdown, there’s a Chesapeake crab and seafood shack that just opened on H Street called Pier 1354. Run, don’t walk.
Something fun:
It’s Shark Week, which means you’ll need to watch this video of Mike Tyson taking on a lemon shark. What a weird thing to do in 2020! Discovery billed it as an epic showdown between the strong man (in a protective suit) and Jaws. “It’s got some ferocious teeth,” says Tyson. “I’m scared but I’m trying not to show it.”
Speaking of the deep blue sea, are there any nature nerds here? For a while I was super obsessed with the BBC documentaries on Netflix, particularly Blue Planet. Like a surprisingly high number of people I’ve talked to, I wanted to be a marine biologist as a kid—until I started sleeping through high school bio classes and it no longer made sense to me. But I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that humans have a better understanding of outer space than we do the deep sea.
Mike Tyson aside, Smithsonian Associates is hosting a virtual program with professional cave diver and filmmaker Jill Heinerth in “Into the Planet: The Science and Exploration of Underwater Caves.” Heinerth will share her epic stories from adventures in diving around the world. Wednesday 8/12 at 6:45 PM; $20-$25, buy tickets here.
Thanks for reading! Tell me what you’re up to at home by dropping me a line at rcartagena@washingtonian.com.
Rosa is a senior editor at Bitch Magazine. She’s written for Washingtonian and Smithsonian magazine.
