Two weeks ago, I got a taro milk boba tea from Kung Fu Tea, and I didn't love it. But another boba tea place opened recently, just across the street from Kung Fu Tea, near the huge Chinese buffet that opened up two months before COVID hit, and nevertheless somehow survived.

 

So I thought I would give them a try as a comparison, and I'm glad I did. The taro flavor was delicious; I asked for 50% sugar and they delivered something that had just the right amount of sweetness. The boba were perfectly cooked. 

 

Even more, the ambience felt right: they had Chinese characters on the menu for every item, you could get popcorn chicken on the side. There were little tables and the radio was playing Chinese pop. And there are so many flavors there that I could go ever week and not repeat within the year. I’m very excited!

 

New place, more authentic than the last one? Flavors pop, and there’s so many more of them? Let’s go!

I have finally posted the first chapter of The Earl who Isn't on my website, and I'm incredibly excited for you all to finally meet Andrew and Lily!

 

They're both delightfully, lovably imperfect and I can't wait for you to see how they're nonetheless perfect for each other.

Preorder The Earl who Isn't on:

On the political front, the last few weeks have really sucked for anyone who likes civil rights, equality, or a functional regulatory system. 

 

There was the debate. There was the assassination attempt. There were the weeks of Democratic party-infighting and people floating ideas like “what if we hold a mini-primary that won’t involve any real people voting but will involve a giant public spectacle of tearing each other down in public without the chance to build unity back before the convention” or more painfully “what if we nominated Mitt Romney” because surely the best way to excite the Democratic base is to nominate a guy who would put more Alitos on the Supreme Court. (Please Aaron Sorkin never become a Democratic strategist.) I wanted to knock heads together because the middle of the GOP convention filled with people screaming for “mass deportation now” was not the time to have a party meltdown. I especially didn’t love that there were large-dollar donors who seemed to need to dominate the conversation without our input, and that they seemed to mostly be talking about candidates that were both untested and extremely unexciting.

 

Nonetheless, I held steadfast in what I said three weeks ago: we always have reason to hope, as long as we are willing to do the work. I continued to believe that Trump was beatable in 2024–not just beatable, but that he would be beaten. Trump looked weak and feeble, and frankly, him calling Biden “old” was very much throwing stones from a glass house.

 

So let me just say, after weeks of shaking my fist at everyone making a mess in public, I was so incredibly here for what happened on Sunday. Biden dropped out, and instead of this resulting in chaos and fighting, he endorsed Future President Harris and everyone came together. Party officials endorsed her. She swiftly swept past $100 million in donations, largely from small-dollar donors. Volunteer groups are engaged and stepping up to do the work of voting her in as the 47th president of the United States.

 

I know there are people who still have fears because of what happened the last time a woman ran for president, but this election is different. More people hate Trump this time around. It’s eight years later, and a larger percentage of the voting public has grown up being told that a woman could be president. People have their sights set on restoring abortion rights, and retaining birth control, gay marriage, and other rights that stem from substantive due process. And Gen-Z is exploding with memes and remixes on a platform that didn’t exist back then.

 

I am now even more firm in my conviction: Donald Trump will become a two-time presidential loser. But I now believe something that I wasn’t sure of before: Donald Trump is going to be such a drag on the GOP ticket that we can get solid Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

 

We are going to win this thing and change the future. We just have to do the work to get there. Let’s go.

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