Hachette and Her Sisters
A new humor piece from the Before Times
Hello pals,
Right before (USA-based) civilization crumbled I had written a humor piece about Woody Allen’s book being published, then pulled, by Hachette. This piece *would’ve run* in *potentially more than one* top tier publication had they not had *ties* to *the players* mentioned in this piece. I, of course, cried CENSORSHIP and now I know why people love to say that! Very satisfying! Anyway, since we’re in these horrible times I thought I would share it here, a thing I may do with other humor pieces in the future, because it’s nice to shake things up a bit. Like the way we used to shake things up, in boring ways that hardly matter.
[Also: apologies for the visual gaps in the below. I did my best to retain the formatting / font within the constraints of Substack. Easy problem to have right now!]
“Hachette Book Group dropped its plans to publish Woody Allen’s autobiography and said it would return all rights to the author, a day after its employees protested its deal with the filmmaker. The journalist Ronan Farrow, whose book CATCH AND KILL was published by another Hachette imprint, criticized Hachette in an email exchange earlier this week, calling its decision to publish Mr. Allen’s book a betrayal.” — The New York Times, March 6, 2020
NEW FROM ME:
I don’t know how it’s come to this but HUMOR IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 has become my beat and I’m so sorry. I regret to inform you these have all gone — wait for it — viral. The first two pieces are at #1 on their respective sites and the third just entered the TRENDING list on McSweeney’s. Also: We need a new word for viral, yikes.
• McSweeney’s: Working From Home During a Global Pandemic Bingo
• The Cut: Now Is the Perfect Time to Lower the Parenting Bar. Looks like I’m going to be appearing on PBS NewsHour and speaking with a radio show in Canada about this sometime next week (??? very normal for this to happen in my life ???)
• McSweeney’s: Homeschooling While Working From Home During a Global Pandemic Bingo. Woke up yesterday morning to find out this was included in The New York Times Morning Briefing (!!! also pretty normal and routine !!!)
Hang in there. Wash your hands. Love your people. See you on the other side ❤️
Like what you’re reading? Subscribe, share, forward it to your friends who are all stuck inside and *absolutely fucking losing it* already. You can find my copywriting work here and my writing-writing work here. You can find me on Twitter. You can find me on Instagram. Please do not find me in real life. Or anyone. No more real life finding for the time being.