Good morning everyone,

How is it going? Better, I hope, now that you are reading Fem Fri because I have an exclusive interview for you all to enjoy, and it's with one of my favourite writers.

Ann Wroe edits the Obituaries column of The Economist and is a huge part of what makes that magazine a joy to read. Every week, you get to read about a different life through Dr Wroe's calm, kind, detailed immersion in that life:

To be true to the people I’m obituarising, I need to be true to their character, not the character of their times. That’s who they are, they can’t choose the time that they died. I’ve just delivered this week’s obituary, and it’s a pretty jolly one – Michel Roux. The first thing I thought when I delivered it was that it’s sad now that the restaurants are all closed; maybe a frivolous thought, but I wondered if we wanted that as an antidote to how we are feeling.

https://medium.com/@Vincennes/interview-with-ann-wroe-obituaries-editor-at-the-economist-860f53f05031?sk=528061d4b8106bba945545518565012a

Maybe you'd like to read some more of her writing, here's a recent one you will enjoy – Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, exceptional early prodigy and exceptional woman:

This attention was all the more surprising because, for her, the work had been its own reward. She just did her job, enjoying every minute. The struggles of being both black and a woman were shrugged away. Do your best, she always said. Love what you do. Be constantly curious. And learn that it is not dumb to ask a question; it is dumb not to ask it. Not least, because it might lead to the small but significant victory of making a self-proclaimed superior realise he can make a mistake.

https://www.economist.com/obituary/2020/02/27/katherine-johnson-died-on-february-24th

Finally, I hope that that has cheered you up, but if you are feeling like you are never going to be cheered again, maybe you will get some use out of a guide to grief that I have written. There seems to be a lot of it around right now and it's something I have experience in, so if you need this here it is:

Anger is the least well understood stage of grief. Far from the concrete targets one might imagine – "the person who cheated on you", for example, or "God" – the anger stage consists of a diffuse rage at everything in the world, which turns to concentrated rage at the moment you interact with a thing in the world. Like toothbrush packaging! Or poorly executed parodies on websites you otherwise enjoy! Or your DUMB PHONE with its COUNTERINTUITIVE SETTINGS MENU why do people PERSIST in this BIZARRE FANTASY that Apple can design AN EVEN HALFWAY TO USABLE PIECE OF SOFTWARE.

https://medium.com/@Vincennes/vincennes-guide-to-grief-9ff91906b7ca?sk=1083c4e7cd74c565e97fa89c1c052130

Mega love everyone,

Alex.