Everyone else has a newsletter!

It's time I joined the club. Welcome to the first installment of the cute animal pictures newsletter weekly roundup of Monica Potts Takes on the World. Or, less formally, The Site is Dark and Full of Errors. I'm constantly in front of a computer, letting this shiny magic box suck years of my life away, and so I'm rounding up the best of the Internet to send to you!

What I'm Writing:

Just one this week: a column for The Daily Beast on the new poverty numbers. The good news is that poverty declined slightly. The bad news is that a lot of Americans are still struggling financially.

What I'm Reading:

I'm still not over this amazing piece in GQ about male rape victims in the military. Everything about it, from the layout to the decision to concentrate on the men's voices, is really smart and touching. An arts battle in New York. Old-timey marital advice and vintage sexism. This cool champion swimmer who decided to be a hero and rescue people from a trolleybus that had just plunged into a polluted lake.

Bonus archive read: Classic Annie Dillard.

What I'm Pretending to be Watching:

This is going to sound like an insult, but it really isn't. Peter Coyote's soothing voice makes me fall asleep. It took me three months to get through Ken Burns' Prohibition, and I expect The Roosevelts to follow the same timetable. But I bet I will eventually find it fascinating!

What I'm Pretending to be Too Erudite to Watch but Actually W:

The Mindy Project. It's back, and, I mean, c'mon. I'm pretty sure Mindy Kaling created Danny Castellano to give me a new dream boyfriend.

What I'm Recommending:

​Actually, do yourself a favor and don't buy these.

Cute Animal Pic of the Week:

The first animal picture is the truest animal picture that has ever been taken. Otters holding hands. They do it when they sleep so they don't drift apart. Let this be a lesson to all you cold, unfeeling humans.

Please tell your friends to sign up! In the meantime, please also visit me at monicapotts.com.