Minutes of a Monday #71
#minutesofamonday
Brain Food > If it walks like a duck…
“Earlier this year, I woke up to a strange email at a difficult time. After going viral in January I was getting used to strange things in my inbox but this one was particularly odd. It said:
Hi - I saw your comedy clips on TikTok - if you’re free to perform at an event in Rome, let’s jump on a zoom to discuss.
Rome?! I’m barely known inside Australia, let alone across the equator. This was my first ever invitation to perform across borders. I elbowed Charlie awake and excitedly shared this information. He said: Babe that’s human trafficking 101, please delete that immediately.
He went back to bed. I jumped on a zoom anyway. I like Lady immediately - she’s a straight shooter, an engaging storyteller and super organised. I can see why she’d be a strong asset in the trafficking world.
She speaks with much love of her partner Man, whose formal title is His Excellency and what they both do for work sounds super important. She would like me to roast them at a welcome dinner, for their four day wedding in Rome. Yowza.”
breaks down the most bananas thing that happened in 2023Soul Food
“For reasons I have never understood, people like to hear that the world is going to hell.”
Historian Deirdre McCloskey
LOL
Back when Awards season meant Ricky Gervais was let loose:
Appendix
“there’s a part of innocence in the European project that is lost forever: this idea we had that the world was going to become like us, about gentle treaties and soft power. This European exceptionalism, which was much stronger than American exceptionalism, is what we’ve lost.”
Former Italian political advisor, Giuliano da Empoli, speaking to the FT.
AOB
Thanks for taking the time to read. First article of ‘24 hitting your inbox next week. Until then - mind how you go out there.