My wife and I attended the same high school. I had a crush on her back then, but it was unrequited. We didn't see each other for a decade after high school, until one new year's eve when we both ended up at the same IHop. Something about the cut of my jib as I consumed my French Toast must have triggered a change, because she started to finally come around. Long story short, it took me 14 years to get laid in high school. It turns out that my lack of romantic prowess may have been ahead of its time. According to Faith Hill in The Atlantic (Gift Article), fewer young people are getting into relationships. Teens Are Forgoing a Classic Rite of Passage. "In a 2023 poll from the Survey Center on American Life, 56 percent of Gen Z adults said they’d been in a romantic relationship at any point in their teen years, compared with 76 percent of Gen Xers and 78 percent of Baby Boomers. And the General Social Survey, a long-running poll of about 3,000 Americans, found in 2021 that 54 percent of participants ages 18 to 34 reported not having a 'steady' partner; in 2004, only 33 percent said the same." (We've ruined young people's attention span for everything else, so maybe we've ruined it for relationships, too. Or maybe the modern difficulty everyone seems to have forging meaningful real-life connections has spilled over into romance. Or maybe teens just use different lingo to describe relationships. I try to avoid the topic altogether with my own Gen Z teen children, aside from my one non-negotiable rule: No eating at IHop until college.) 2Who's on First?"Maybe President Trump isn’t clamoring to push Ukraine under the bus after all. Tuesday’s meeting in Jeddah, between his top officials and their Ukrainian counterparts, ended with the Americans handing Kyiv a clear advantage—militarily and diplomatically—and putting Moscow in a tight, awkward spot." The U.S. Just Handed Ukraine a Clear Advantage. 3Debbie DownersBenzos are featured prominently in two major series: The White Lotus and the Pitt. I'm guessing they're also featured prominently in the way many Americans are managing the 2025 news cycle. They work fast. But getting off of them can be a long, difficult effort. NYT (Gift Article): Don’t Underestimate the Risks of Benzodiazepines. 4Steamed PriceThe price of eggs in America has become a major story. But it's nothing compared to this. Japan is short on rice. NYT (Gift Article): Going Once, Going Twice: 165,000 Tons of Rice. "Japan doesn’t have enough rice, a pillar of its diet. A shortage forced supermarkets to implement buying limits, and soaring prices have driven restaurants to hike prices of everyday food. Things have gotten so dire that, for the first time, the government is tapping its emergency stockpile in an effort to drive down prices." 5Extra, ExtraProbationary Status: "It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie." Judge orders Trump administration to reinstate most fired probationary staff. Meanwhile, Democratic Attorneys General Sue Over Gutting of Education Department. And a "federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked parts of President Trump's executive order targeting a prominent law firm for its representation of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and for causes unpopular with his administration. Can the courts hold the line against these attacks on government and the rule of law? 6Bottom of the News"It is not known how widespread the practice of manipulating pre-approved suits is within ski jumping. Lindvik and Forfang said they knew nothing about deliberately altered equipment, but their coach Magnus Brevig and equipment manager Adrian Livelten confessed." Three more ski jumpers suspended as cheating scandal engulfs sport.
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