Newsweek 1/1-1/8/2021

1964 “The widowed Jacqueline Kennedy is finding a way to live with her sorrow,” wrote Newsweek. “In these incredibly painful days, no detail of the Kennedy legend is too insignificant to console her, no aspect of her husband’s life too alien to offer solace…With the fervor of a curator, Mrs. Kennedy culls the memories of those she talks with for stories about her husband.” The nation looked to her as a symbol of poised “Spartan grief.” In 1999, five years after her death, Gallup listed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as one of the most admired people of the 20th century. 1984 Newsweek reported “the tattered ranks of America’s homeless are swelling,” from 250,000 to 2 million. Lacking an address, they are “unable to receive food stamps and welfare in most states, invisible in unemployment…

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, A DEAL MAY HAVE been agreed upon between the European Union and the British government on Brexit. It is equally possible that no deal will have been agreed. This deal/no-deal crisis has been ongoing since the 2016 referendum decision by the British to leave the EU. It should be remembered that the people of the North of Ireland and of Scotland voted to remain in the EU. Every decision taken since then to advance the Brexit agenda by Prime Minister Theresa May and her successor Boris Johnson flies in the face of the democratic vote of the people of these two places. Brexit was driven by a Little Englander mentality—a particularly myopic view of the world mixed with an idiotic Colonel Blimpish conception of British of…

“If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone.”—TOM CRUISE TO CREW OF THE SET OF MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 WHO WERE NOT STANDING 6-FEET APART“I DO NOT KNOW WHO THIS IS. INVENTOR OF THE SWIFFER?”—ACTOR RAINN WILSON ON TAYLOR SWIFT“I’ve just been informed that although the Covid vaccine won’t contain microchips, it will have the new U2 album”—BLONDIE GUITARIST CHRIS STEIN“Travel in my mind is synonymous with growth, with adventure—even love. So much so that I proposed to my husband Chasten in an airport terminal. Don’t let anybody tell you that O’Hare isn’t romantic.”—PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION APPOINTEE“THIS PANDEMIC HAS BEEN A WRECKING BALL IN THE LIVES OF AMERICANS ALREADY STRUGGLING.”—MacKenzie Scott, on making billions in donations“His name is Joe.”—THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CORRECTING A STORY THAT CALLED THE…

AS A PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT Yale and host of The Happiness Lab podcast, I’ve spent the last few years teaching simple science-backed tips to improve our well-being. I know the research inside out—but the giant dumpster fire of a year that was 2020 has had me struggling, too. The COVID-19 pandemic has cheated us out of all the good times we live for—the weddings, the vacations, the graduations and celebrations. Our work lives have been upended and our livelihoods threatened. There are people we love who we haven’t seen in months and some we’ll never see again; millions of us are mourning someone close who’s been taken by this awful disease. These overwhelming losses have had a devastating effect on our mental health, with rates of depression, anxiety and even…

AFTER THIS TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD YEAR, maybe the best thing about 2021 will simply be that it isn’t 2020. Certainly, an end to the health and financial challenges, the pain, incivility and grief that have marked the past 12 months will be most welcome—although it may take many months into the New Year to get us there. But the absence of awful is not enough to make 2021 a good year; we need not just a respite from the heavy weight put upon us by the pandemic but the promise of actual joy. ¶ Fortunately, there are plenty of things to look forward to next year, and not just the return of, well, everything—at some point, sports, culture, travel, in-person get-togethers with the people you love and…

THE PANDEMIC DOESN’T SEEM to have dampened Americans’ enthusiasm for linking a New Year to a fresh start. More than two-thirds of Americans plan to make a resolution for 2021, polls show, which is roughly the same as in years past. What has changed: The most common objectives for 2021 look strikingly different from traditional New Year’s promises, and attitudes about when, how and why to tackle key goals have changed as well. The reason: More than half of Americans say their usual pre-COVID January 1 resolutions—think, hitting the gym more often or nabbing a big raise—aren’t applicable to their lifestyle anymore. Seven in 10 say they are tossing out materialistic pledges and instead looking to learn life skills, improve overall wellness or savor experiences, like time with family, according to…