Maggie Astor

My blood pressure was admittedly high, but in my defense have you seen the news lately

My doctor was harping on my weight gain at my recent physical and telling me my bloodwork was probably going to show I was prediabetic, but my A1C actually went down from last year and I've never felt so smug in my life

I don't understand how I unsubscribe to at least 10 email lists every day but I never get fewer emails

Once in elementary school I was playing a trivia game with a friend, and she scoffed at a card and said "this is too easy: are tasmanian devils real?" But I didn't know and was mortified, so I tried to laugh it off and said "oh that is too easy, pick another, not fair for me to get such an easy one"

An email with the subject line "your lab test results are ready" and text beginning "you have new results."

I will not look before my doctor calls I will not look before my doctor calls I will not look b

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

NEW:

In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.

She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.

Then she died.

www.propublica.org/article/texa...

Just remembering the time I was writing about a long-shot candidate and attended church with her and everyone was told to hold hands with the people next to them, and she grabbed my hand and I stood HORRIFIED trying to figure out if I could let go without being rude and obsessed about it for a week

Fellas. It's okay. Stop fighting. You're BOTH the worst.

C.D.C. Links Measles Outbreaks in Multiple States for the First Time

SCOOP: CDC officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.
(Gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/h...

Haven't seen such an explicit, shameless statement of the power dynamics of sexual harassment since Dennis's "the implication" scene in It's Always Sunny www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Frustrated by the Medical System, Patients Turn to A.I.

New from me + @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social: Many people are using AI to try to fill gaps in the medical system, from rushed appointments to lack of doctor access to dismissal of symptoms. The gaps are real. So are the risks of AI hallucinations and sycophancy (yes, the sodium bromide case is here).

Alice Wong, Writer and Relentless Advocate for Disability Rights, Dies at 51

“One of the things that really gives me joy is the fact that there are so many amazing, brilliant, creative disabled people out there. But part of my rage — and it’s a very real rage — is that most people don’t really know about them.”

Obit:

Some days it feels good to be statistically literate, and other days you see a claim that pets with a particular company's pet insurance "are twice as likely to live longer"

Just did a terrible thing for my mental health and searched Bluesky for a particular person in the news, posts about whom would definitely piss me off, and no results came up and I was like ????? and then remembered I muted the name last year. Amazing job 2024 Maggie, saving 2025 Maggie from herself

update, I've had seamless open for 2.5 hours and have been unable to decide whether the food I want to get me through this process is mexican, thai or mac & cheese, with the result that I have not eaten anything

ah, the cycle where you manage to squeeze your article down to the allotted word count and then the editing process adds an actually quite useful section and then you manage to squeeze it back down and then the editing process adds an actually quite useful section and then you

Don't Buy Starbucks! At any location, today and beyond, while workers are on ULP strike!

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.

Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

Pitch blackness with two orange crescents that look very much like eyes

Me: go to sleep

My brain: did you ever notice how the streetlight coming through the gaps at the top of the curtain makes it look like there are eyes glowing at you from the wall

I'm really sorry, but I can't answer this. I have no expertise or sources on the details of marijuana/hemp policy.

This would be a perfect post if the text on the photo were "The Penny, 1793-2025"

Well, usually (in my experience at least) they say "clinically validated" and you have to be like "mhm okay, by whom, can I see the peer-reviewed paper please?" But this one doesn't even make that claim

Also, you can say "vaginal dryness." It's okay. Vagina isn't a bad word. You should be able to say it if you're going to hawk menopause treatments. GTFOH with this "intimate dryness" business

Formulated with clinically studied REDACTED for cognitive clarity, REDACTED for intimate dryness and REDACTED to help ease hot flashes and night sweats, it's a clean, science-backed formula made to help you feel like yourself again.

How fascinating that they don't say what the *results* of the clinical study of these supplement ingredients were

I'm told that when my husband was a little kid, a gull got in his face and flapped its wings and screamed at him until he dropped his funnel cake, which the gull then flew away with

I personally had a Jersey seagull swoop down from behind me so low that the wind rustled my hair, grab a bite of my frozen custard cone and swoop up and away, leaving me staring in shock at a beak-shaped hole in the frozen custard

(this is from a press release titled "Shouting at seagulls could stop them stealing your food," about a new study)

“Most gulls aren’t bold enough to steal food from a person, I think they’ve become quite vilified,” said Dr Boogert.

When you have never been to New Jersey

I don't even have the excuse of being a transplant from somewhere without winters

NYC human, despite entire lifetime spent in Northeast, agrees

Not as much as pasta, but I do like it. I'll take a look