Happy Friday! If you're new to Now I Know, you'll notice that today's format differs from the rest of the week. On Fridays, I pause to write the "Weekender," my  "week in review" type of thing, or to share something else I think you may find interesting. Thanks for reading! — Dan

It's Not Too Late to Help People Read

Hi!

A few things today, with Christmas next week:

First, as I shared last Friday, I’m raising money for ProLiteracy, a nonprofit organization that helps adults gain the reading skills they need to succeed and thrive. My goal is to raise $5,000 before the end of the year and thanks to you, I’m more than 60% of the way there!

I chose this cause because literacy is the key to so many things we take for granted. Imagine being unable to read a job description or fill out a job application. Or the instructions on a prescription bottle. Or anything else you need just to be a functional member of society. It shouldn’t be surprising that illiteracy is highly correlated to poverty. The old adage “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” applies even more strongly here. If you teach someone to read, they can teach themselves how to fish — and a lot, lot more. So please, click this link and join in supporting ProLiteracy this year.

Thanks to all who have, and thanks in advance to those who will!

Next up, a programming note for next week. Last year, I took the week off between Christmas and New Year’s — the first time I took more than three consecutive weekdays off from the newsletter since I started this in 2010. I didn’t really like that. 🙂 So I’m not doing it again. I won’t be publishing at all on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day, but I’m going to try to share something on the other eight days over the next two weeks. I’m taking an actual get-on-a-plane vacation next week, so I’m probably looking at a handful of reruns then (and maybe one new story — it really depends on this cold that I’ve been fighting), but expect new stuff starting again the week of December 27. Happy holidays to everyone celebrating over the next two weeks! (I think that’s just about everyone — is there a nation that doesn’t celebrate New Year’s Day?).

I thought I had a third thing I wanted to share but I can’t remember, try as I might! So let’s move on to the week in review.

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: The Angel of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge: An uplifting story, but it is predicated on others attempting to harm themselves, so reader beware.

Tuesday: How To Eat Your Way Out of a Fantasy Football Loss: This is not an uplifting story. Except for the bonus fact, maybe?

Wednesday: The Problem with a No-Pancakes Christmas: The door that never locks never needs a key. (That’s not some fortune cookie-level wisdom; that’s the actual problem.)

Thursday: Bacon of the Sea: Meet the swimming pigs of the Bahamas.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “The Internet Has Been Searching for the Name of This '80s Song for 17 Years” (Influence Podcast with Matt Silverman, 1 hour 15 minutes, December 2024). If the name Matt Silverman rings a bell, he was the host of my short-lived YouTube channel. Matt and his guests dive into a really strange mystery about “the strange ‘discomfort’ of unidentified media in a world where everything is Google-able.” The link I’m sharing goes to the YouTube version of the video, but if you prefer the regular podcast version, you can get it on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon.

2) “They Missed Their Cruise Ship. That Was Only The Beginning.” (Curbed, 28 minutes, December 2024). The subhead: “Nine stranded passengers made a mad dash across Africa to meet back up with their boat.”

3) “The Strange Theft of a Priceless Churchill Portrait” (The Walrus, 26 minutes, September 2024). The first few paragraphs hooked me.

Have a great weekend!

Dan