“Women are very often elevated into leadership at exactly the moment an organization is broken. Handed the keys to a burning building and told to fix it. And when external forces make the fix impossible, the woman in the chair wears the failure. The ‘glass cliff’ isn't a metaphor. It's a pattern.”
Companion read: “In the opaque and expensive U.S. healthcare system, where costs are rapidly rising, people are increasingly landing in the nascent DIY healthcare shopping economy.” 😶
“Health care in the United States really scares both of us,” Mr. O’Flanagan said of himself and his spouse. “My wife’s English, so it really scares her, and I’m learning how bad it is when I go to use health care systems in other countries.”
Central Park. Never a dull moment.
“Ms. Harris shared a house in the Hudson Valley with her former partner, but when he fell ill, the two had to sell the home to pay for health care…and her beloved writing desk ‘reluctantly went into storage.’” 😶
Corporate Jenga nightmare. “While it sounds like a gross breach of corporate etiquette, organizers are seeing growing demand. The workplace dynamics are literally inverted: roles are assigned based on height and build rather than titles.”
Central Park’s cherry blossoms one chilly spring evening.
Floral print skies. Central Park.
Saucer magnolias bloom pink on a blue sky evening in Central Park.
Central Park. Saucer Magnolia Season.
This is:
1. Deeply moving.
2. The first time I've ever seen a real-life astronaut be anything other than serious or happy in space. Obviously they have been (they're human), but folks on earth have only ever seen this in movies or on TV.
Imagine watching your tears of grief float around you.
A chocolate bunny with spots and soulful eyes sits in a basket with foil wrapped eggs.
When the 🐰 surveillance network finds you in your travels.
China surpassed the US in global approval ratings in 2025, with a median of 36% approving of China’s leadership, compared with 31% for the U.S. China’s five-percentage-point advantage over the U.S. is the widest Gallup has recorded in China’s favor in nearly 20 years.
news.gallup.com/poll/707945/...
5th Avenue Easter Parade. Top hats and architectural coats in pink tulle and robin’s egg blue. Floral turbans, headbands and hats.
Spring’s Finest: Always the 5th Avenue Easter Parade.
“A study in September by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank, warned that without a reversal, the cuts to science could shrink the US economy by nearly $1 T over 10 years. That could leave the US lagging behind China, which is investing heavily in research.”
“We’re waiting for the midterms,” said Éric Berton, president of Aix-Marseille University in France, which started a program in March last year to hire U.S. scientists; six have arrived so far. “We are going to have a lot more applications if the Republicans win, so we will need a new program.”
A foggy stretch of rocky New England surf beach.
Travel to Boston to pick up sibling post colonoscopy. Spend the next day at the beach. And the lobster roll place. The things we do for love.
Supermarket news stand with magazines on display, including People, Readers Digest et al.
Meanwhile at the Market Basket magazine stand: “Making Friends with AI” and other self improvement options
“To valorize agency without also emphasizing its purpose allows us to ignore harder questions like: How do I live a good life? And what about the collective good? The smash-and-grab mentality elides these questions. Have we forgotten that life might be better lived in concert with others?”
Today’s NYP➡️ BOS Amtrak quiet car prize goes to the guy whose devices are broadcasting “speed cameras ahead” and “railroad crossing ahead.” 😹
Literary cat
Been teaching my shelter cat how to be a proper literary cat and assist my writing. Rule 1. No walking on my laptop keyboard, at least when I’m mid-sentence…
“In the first two months of this year, 41 deals were struck, and valuations of Chinese companies rose sharply. The average upfront payment has doubled to $77.7 M, up from $38.8 M in 2025, and total valuations reached a record of $52 B, according to data compiled by the South China Morning Post.”
“Lilly, like its rivals in the global pharmaceutical sector, is aggressively hunting in China for new drugs. A record number of pharmaceutical companies from outside China licensed drugs made by Chinese businesses in 2025, totalling $5.6bn in upfront payments.“
The US has canceled hundreds of millions in science grants and driven thousands of Ph.D.s out of the federal workforce. China, meanwhile, has poured evermore resources into its research efforts.
If they pass us as a scientific superpower, we shouldn't act surprised. buff.ly/W2wvyST
Winter-flowering cherry trees that bloom around the new year begin again in late March.
Central Park’s 40 degree cherry blossom skies.
Central Park’s skies begin to fill with magnolias.
Central Park. Magnolia momentum.
Magnolias begin to show in Central Park.
Walk through the conservatory garden at 105 & 5th. Magnolias are just starting to bloom. Crocuses and irises too.
“Women working full-time, year-round, now earn 81 cents for every dollar men earn. That's down from 83 cents a year ago, and 84 cents the year prior.”
✍️📻 Andrea Hsu
www.npr.org/2026/03/26/n...
“Health cannot be a luxury for the few." (As Reuters notes, Leo is the first pope from the United States, which does not have universal health coverage.) 😔
"Universal health coverage is … a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just.” -Pope Leo
A magnolia tree begins to bloom in Central Park.
Moments till magnolia season.
After “Mountains Beyond Mountains” published, a friend and I met Paul Farmer at a book reading with Kidder. Inspired, my friend went on to work with Paul in Rwanda. Years later I produced a story on their work for the Today Show.