Reading Roulette

Stories to Make You Laugh Instead of Cry Right Now

This week: dystopian soup, quarantine TV, and cats

Photo: Marco_Piunti/Getty Images

At Human Parts, we spend our days scouring the Medium platform for essays and perspectives we think our audience would love. Along the way, we stumble upon countless stories that surprise us — proof of the internet’s enduring ability to deliver what we didn’t know we needed. Each week, we’ll share a few of our favorites in a roundup we call ‘Reading Roulette.’ If you come across anything we missed, let us know in the responses!

• A quarantine is the perfect time to cook something tedious — like Daniel Chudnow’s “Chicken Soup for the Social Distancer.” This recipe has everything: soggy vegetables that have been sitting in your fridge all week, tomato paste you don’t have, and approximately 700 reminders to wash your hands.
• Cats were working from home long before the rest of us. Jack Shepherd’s ode to our feline colleagues, “16 Reasons Your Cat Is a Better Coworker Than Karen,” is a testament to their collegiality.
• Locked in an apartment with your significant other? Slowly detaching from reality? Sing along with Jeffrey Denny to “The 12 Days of Quarantine.”
• If you want comedy, there’s always Netflix (and Hulu, and Amazon Prime, and… Starz?). Shamita’s “Guide to Quarantine Television” is the most comprehensive list of streaming recommendations we’ve seen. From poignant dark comedies to garbage reality TV that will remind you of a simpler time, this guide has you covered.
• “Hello and welcome to Ridiculously Local, a new travel show hosted by the voices inside your own head,” begins Shani Silver’s satirical travel guide. We all live in our heads now. Might as well empty our junk drawers and explore.