Kate & Silas

First Dance Songs Someone Needs to Use

The downside of choosing a first dance song is that plenty of great options go unused. And I spent a lot of time compiling options! Someone needs to use these. Ideally someone I know so I can be there, but an internet stranger will do just fine, too. 

“When You Say Nothing At All” - Alison Krauss 

Classic Nashville first dance song. 

“Here, There and Everywhere” - The Beatles 

Rated very high for criteria #4: A message that’s sweet, simple, and realistic. And it’s The Beatles! Who doesn’t love The Beatles? (Matt.) And if it matters to you, this is the song that Phoebe from Friends walked down the aisle to (played on the steel drum). 

“Is This Love” - by Bob Marley, but the version sung by Corinne Bailey Rae (verrrry different)

This was a close second for me. But again: Definitely the Corinne Bailey Rae cover, which is mellow R&B instead of reggae. 

“The More I See You” - Peter Allen 

Awesomely classic song. The most danceable on the list. Frank Sinatra-esque without being as obvious as Sinatra. Matt hated it. 

“For Once in My Life” - Stevie Wonder

Upbeat, fun, and a crowd pleaser. (Please watch the music video with the amazingly retro backup dancers. Matt says it looks like a parody. I think it looks like zumba.) 

“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” - The Proclaimers

I threw this in the mix as a wildcard, and was surprised by how totally it into Matt and I were. It’s not easy to dance to. It’s kinda weird. But it’s so goddamn fun. We spent a while looking at each other going, Are we the kind of couple who could have this as their first dance song? Eventually we concluded that sadly, no, we are not that couple. We are not going to arrive at the ceremony via canoe, and I am not going to wear a brightly colored dress, and we are not going to mime walking 500 miles for our first dance. Some ideas you have to let go. 

Vanity Fair - 2 Good 2 Be 4Gotten: An Oral History of Freaks and Geeks

JUDD APATOW: Part of the problem of the show was it should have been on HBO. Everything that’s popular now you might call “independent television.” Mad Men is a little like indie TV. But there was no home for us in 1999. It wasn’t niche television—you were competing against Regis Philbin hosting a game show.

Slate - Stop Calling Me a Troll

But to call everyone a troll, even those who are advancing their true beliefs, is to let genuine trolls off the hook. If you don’t like something I’ve written, don’t assume I’m punking you. I’m not. I really am that stupid, trust me.

New England Journal of Medicine - Two Hundred Years of Surgery

Liston operated so fast that he once accidentally amputated an assistant’s fingers along with a patient’s leg, according to Hollingham. The patient and the assistant both died of sepsis, and a spectator reportedly died of shock, resulting in the only known procedure with a 300% mortality.

The New Yorker - Love on the March

In fact, the inquisition may have only hastened the process. The question lobbed at prospective soldiers during the Second World War—“Are you homosexual?”—raised consciousness rather than suppressing it. (Wait, am I?)

Washingtonian - Remains of the Day

I began to wonder about the other brides and grooms whose weddings I had shot. Were they facing the same kinds of challenges as Cat and Larry? Were they still married?

Asks New York Magazine: Why Do Millennials Love Martha But Not Oprah?

Because of this. And this.

And her completely absurd Twitter account where she tweets photos of elaborate dinners in poor lighting, and you can tell she’s getting drunker with each tweet, and then at the end of the night she tweets photos of fireworks.

(Here is NYMag’s theory.)

Interesting Things I’ve Read This Week

Religion Dispatches - Mitt’s Jesus, Barack’s Jesus, and Why Christ’s Color Matters

That’s it’s own kind of privilege—getting to assume that God looks like you.

The Atlantic - Why Are Women Paid Less?

So there was a 9 percent difference in pay you couldn’t explain even when you considered the jobs women do, the education they have, or the years they spent in the workforce.

Right.

Popular Science - Where Will The Next Pandemic Come From? And How Can We Stop It?

A horse dies mysteriously in Australia, and people around it fall sick. A chimpanzee carcass in Central Africa passes Ebola to the villagers who scavenge and eat it. A palm civet, served at a Wild Flavors restaurant in southern China, infects one diner with a new ailment, which spreads to Hong Kong, Toronto, Hanoi, and Singapore, eventually to be known as SARS. These cases and others, equally spooky, represent not isolated events but a pattern, a trend: the emergence of new human diseases from wildlife.

NPR - With A Phone Call, Truckers Can Fight Sex Trafficking

The scores of truckers carrying freight across America see and hear a lot on the road, so they’re in a position to notice when something at a rest stop doesn’t look right. That’s why people who fight sex trafficking of underage kids are enlisting drivers to help.

London Review of Books - Diary

One afternoon a routine email with a purchase order attached to it arrived in his inbox. But it wasn’t routine: the email was from a woman. At the time, emails from women in his line of work were exceedingly rare. He stared at it. He showed the email to his colleagues. He tried to imagine the woman behind it. ‘I wonder if she would date me?’ Then he had another idea: what if he had a database of all the single women in the world?

Ways to Distract Yourself When the Love of Your Life Is Hunting Alligators

1. Write an essay for grad school
2. Take a nap
3. Wash all your bedding, comforter included
4. Catch up on The Gloss’ Shelved Dolls series 
5. Give yourself a blowout 
6. Go to Dekalb Farmers Market (like retail therapy and emotional eating combined)
7. Get takeout from Top Spice
8. Read the entire internet 
9. Rewatch the most recent Parks & Recreation
10. Look at baby name websites
11. Call your mom

SWEET JESUS HOW IT IS ONLY SEVEN O’CLOCK