Tags: Russia and Ukraine

Slightly-cynical singles seek later-life love.

When my wife Jean was doing family medicine, many of her patients were smart, accomplished, kind and financially-secure women over 50 who had given up finding a mate because none existed.

“Have you tried dating online?” Jean would ask. Their eyes would roll and they would practically spit: “I would never do that. It’s so demeaning.”

Many of these women have turned out the lights on this issue. There are no men out there, so why waste your time looking? Just create a rich life where you don’t need them. Didn’t Gloria Steinem say a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle? Or you can select men for different uses, the way you would a spice from the kitchen cupboard.

Meanwhile…

Not a good look.

I remember as a kid in Edmonton walking home and looking at families in their windows and seeing them having dinner or playing together, and thinking: “Why can’t our family be like theirs?” Well, of course, I had no idea what their lives were really like. I was comparing their appearance to our reality – and coming up short, as we all do.

This was a big week for that old bugbear between appearance and reality:

● The BBC told its reporters to look a bit more sweaty and dirty
in order to appear more authentic to viewers.

● Imposter Syndrome, “the crippling idea that people like us could not possibly triumph given what we know of ourselves,” got a new workbook.

● Here are this year’s Oscar Visual Effects nominees.

● Where do you call home? The citizen intelligence agency Bellingcat uses geolocating to find where Isabel dos Santos, once Africa’s richest woman, is really hiding out.

Meanwhile…

“I need ammunition. Not a ride.”

With those six words, President Volodymyr Zelensky has become the unlikeliest of war leaders. Before rising within 48 hours to be the most instantly known and lionized politician, he sang and danced and did the voiceover for Paddington Bear. But the real scale of his transformation is chronicled in this wonderful Atlantic piece, Meanwhile, if you just can’t let go, here’s an app to help you track oligarchs’ private jets; plus a daily assessment from the Institute for the Study of War;  plus the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera singing the Ukraine national anthem; and a chart on how much NATO countries spend on defense.

RamsayWrites

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