As it was for us, this week may have been the first time you had to open your box of cozy gear since the last winter frost, and while it may have had you 🤔 about the whereabouts of mysteriously missing mitten mates, it was surely nothing compared to what NASA saw upon cracking open a lunar rock for the first time. Speaking of galactic enigmas…

Space oddity isn’t just a David Bowie song

Faithful Weekly Sound Off readers will recall we’ve marveled over interstellar water bears and a Martian phenomenon that could be best described as space farts, but new findings from the latest Voyager 2 expedition have us 🤯. To quote the headline on a National Geographic article reporting on the mission’s findings: space is even weirder than we thought. The language of the report requires at least a college-level understanding of physics and astronomy (heliopauses, anyone?), but suffice to say Voyager 2 has led to more questions than answers.

Back here on earth...

Also in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category this week, an 11-year-old girl in Zimbabwe turned into a combination of Arya Stark and Hermione Granger as she rescued her friend from a crocodile by jumping on it and gouging at its eyes. Yes, she dug her fingers into a crocodile’s eyes until it let go of her friend. That act of heroism might have gotten her a chat with the Crocodile Hunter but definitely should earn her a place among the pantheon of rebel girls. #girlpower

The generational divide at its pithiest

The phrase OK, boomer hit the radar of even the more aged among us recently, when the New York Times reported on Gen Z’s default retort to older generations who just don’t get it. But for those still wondering how to use it in context, a 25-year-old New Zealand politician gamely stepped up to the mic—silencing a heckler with a devastating deployment of the viral insult. As for us, we’re diving back into Gretchen McCulloch’s Because Internet to turn our hurt feelings into optimism about how linguistic creativity is flourishing in the digital age.

....and at its most time-crunched

We had a lively debate the other day about a new plan from Senator Kamala Harris that tackles the schoolday/workday discrepancy by lengthening school hours to match common business hours. While many of us see the merit of the plan—which would especially benefit lower-income families whose heads of household often work long or erratic hours—Editor Katie wondered if the better idea would be to flip it and match the workday to the school day. After all, Microsoft recently tested a 4-day work week in Japan and saw a 40% increase in productivity. Maybe there's no need to be as extreme as Tim Ferriss, whose 4-hour workweek has been inspiring slackers for more than a decade, but we have no doubt that some adjustments could be broadly beneficial to all people (including parents!).

Other notable clickables:

One Audible editor—and self-professed true crime obsessive—chatted with some heavy hitters about the difference between bad and good true crime...Bill Gates wants every new hire to read (or listen to!) these two books...Since Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney, it has made movies exclusively about Star Wars and Indiana Jones. That’s all about to change with Children of Blood and Bone...We might be biased since Audible HQ is just a few doors down, but isn’t it awesome that Philip Roth left $2 million to the Newark Public Library??...When Zora asked why hasn’t Harriet Wilson, the first black female novelist, been given her due?, we added this to our TBLT lists stat...The great 20th century novelist Ernest Gaines has passed away in Louisiana at 86 years old. )