Comeuppance 😒

IT'S INTERNATIONAL STAND UP TO BULLYING DAY 🥺

While I think today's random occasion has its heart in the right place, this seems like one of those problems that just isn't going anywhere.*

* See: story this week about non-binary teen Nex Benedict who died after being assaulted by their classmates in a high school restroom.

Sometimes people end up the way you'd expect, though. I googled my middle school bully several years ago and the only thing that came up was her mugshot.

This girl had the build of a linebacker even in the 7th grade and towered over me, tripping me in the hall and doing her best to try to make me miserable. I was entirely too small to do any standing up to her at the time, but it sounds like karma caught up to her eventually. If only karma were on a tighter timeline.

I hope whichever bullies made your life difficult as a kid are having the day they deserve now. 

Sometimes it's the only thought, Taylor.

GIF via Taylor Swift

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While you're waiting for your new Boredwalk gear to arrive you can also treat your earholes to the latest episode of the Boredwalk Podcast!

This week Tess and I lamented the soggy L.A. weather reflecting the generally cursed vibe of 2024 thus far. Turns out targeted social media ads and organic content are no help in this regard! Just an endless doom scroll of posts about war-torn Gaza and Ukraine, endangered & neglected animals, and environmental catastrophe. What fun!

This discussion of the present dystopia led to us pondering whether or not we are actually in Hell, and curiosity as to what each of us did in our past lives to warrant such torment.

Fittingly, Tess lightened the mood with a 5-star review of Boredwalk's darkly humorous dystopian activity book Adventures in the Abyss. If you can't leave the hellscape, you may as well laugh at it, right?

Things have been mercifully subdued on the internet troll front, but that is largely to do with social media platform shenanigans on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, which I explain in an exasperated but (hopefully) amusing fashion.

Moving along, Tess read fan responses to our recent Question of the Day "What life experience drastically changed your thinking on something?" and she and I share our own answers. Strap in, because we got deep!

We wrapped things up by trading questions & answers from the Venting and Joy editions of the Delve Deck! First we respond to the query "What is your least favorite home decor trend?" and then close things out with "What have you watched recently that you can't stop recommending?" 

Get in on the action and listen to the hilarity on the platform of your choice!

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Here are a few historical tidbits and famous birthdays to kick off your weekend:

• Scientists announced the first successful cloning of an animal on this day in 1997 (this animal is referenced in our 1990s activity book, which you should definitely get if you don't have it yet and want to get nostalgic about the 1990s).

• The Tootsie Roll was introduced on this day in 1896. Thank goodness better candy options have come along since!

Birthday shoutouts for composer George Frideric Handel (1685), activist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868), actor Peter Fonda (1940), singer-songwriter Howard Jones (1955), actress Niecy Nash (1970), actress Emily Blunt (1983), and actress Dakota Fanning (1994)

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OK, that's it for this week!

We'll be back here in your inbox on Monday with another email and FINALLY a fresh customer Q&A! If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming email, reply to this one and let us know!

Peace, love, and karma,

Meredith