This week’s issue of The Quick Fox is brought to you by “She Drives Me Crazy” by the Fine Young Cannibals and this very slow, mystifyingly same-energy Sharon Van Etten cover of the same song.
Why? A list:
Roland Gift, the lead singer of FYC, was a straight hottie with an amazing voice and I cannot get enough of it right now. This is my newsletter, deal with it.
The word “cannibal” actually comes from the Taíno people of the Caribbean, along with tobacco, hurricane, potato and canoe.
I just adore when artists do live covers. See also: Mitski does “How Deep is Your Love” and Titus Andronicus does “Lilac Wine.”
There was a brief moment where I was persuaded FYC got their name from Moby Dick. At one point, Ishmael describes Queequeg, his close friend and implied lover who grew up practicing cannibalism, as a “fine young savage.” Supposedly the band’s name is actually from this movie I’ve never seen. But I like my version better.
Roundup
Shortish
Less than a fifth of deep-sea life is identifiable (Hakai Magazine; Nicola Jones; San Diego, USA)
Hundreds of thousands of mussels cooked to death on New Zealand beach in heatwave (The Guardian; Charlotte Graham-McLay; Wellington, New Zealand)
Looking beyond protected areas to conserve species in tea-garden terrains (Mongabay; Sahana Ghosh; West Bengal and Assam, India)
Texas can’t quit the Aoudad (The Atlantic; Marion Renault; Texas, United States; January 2020)
The creepy robot dog botched a test run with a bomb squad (OneZero; Michael Hayes; Massachusetts, United States)
Longish
How Ron Pittaway developed his acclaimed winter finch forecast (All About Birds; Hannah Hoag; Ontario, Canada; January 2020)
Extra tails and chonky bellies are making animals go viral–and it’s a game changer for shelter pets (Insider; Sophie Haigney; the depths of the internet)
The answer to lactose intolerance might be in Mongolia (Popular Science; Andrew Curry; Lake Khövsgöl, Mongolia)
How a beloved bird is helping save the Chesapeake Bay (Hakai Magazine; Libby Sander; Chesapeake Bay, United States)
Designing a new future for flesh: The case for the carnal skeuomorph (Mold, Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft; the wilds of philosophy)
Please read me
My most recent work.
The last word
Skeuomorph: noun. “An object or feature that imitates the design of an older similar object, just for show.”
Oh, also: Lizzie Wade’s last newsletter was really good.
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