On the harmfulness of captivity (kind of)

TV recommendations from another self-quarantine, including The Bear; plus the Hearts in Taiwan podcast, a survey for Taiwanese Americans, and Book Club

Forgive us for being absent, friends! We’ve been overwhelmed—with travel, childcare, family duties, and COVID brain fog—and basically unable to work on anything for a month.

We’ve been back in Taiwan for a week. It’s muggy! Mercifully we haven’t really had to face the weather, since we’re in government-mandated quarantine, as required since June. You can do three days in your house and then “self-manage” for four more, which is much more humane than the fifteen days we spent last year in a Taoyuan hotel, which as you may recall we endured by beating Super Mario World.

But the day this quarantine ended, our two-year-old tested positive for COVID, throwing us into another week of isolation. By the time we’re done, we’ll have spent roughly the same amount of time in quarantine as last year! Poor baby P. has now tested positive twice in six weeks. In Paris, she recovered within forty-eight hours, though her fever ran high. So far her symptoms this time have been light. Every time her nose…