I know I'm fully ballet-pilled because every time I see a pointe shoe-inspired ballet flat I'm like "ugh gross the ribbons on that look ALL wrong"

I guess this is a good time to resurface my analysis of Katie Wilson and Zohran Mamdani's social media and ad buy strategies meganburbank.substack.com/p/lets-discu...

New: Katie Wilson has taken the lead over Bruce Harrell by just 91 votes. Not enough for anyone to declare victory or concede defeat, but it likely makes her the favorite with roughly 6400 ballots left. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Wilson needed about 54.6 percent of the rest of the votes outstanding and got 55.6 percent of this latest batch, with about 6,000 ballots still out there (and not counting the 2,000 or so that have been challenged due to signature discrepancies, etc.)

91 votes separate the two mayoral candidates in Seattle, but Katie Wilson has pulled ahead of incumbent Bruce Harrell and is now in the lead.

The bad news is I no longer have a job. The good news is I always have a job at Burbank Industries, and I'm using my current downtime to go all-in on my newsletter. Here's my latest—on One Battle After Another's Comrade Josh, the Weather Underground, and the importance of annoying side characters.

I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!

Seattle politics nerds explaining the next week of ballot counting

sometimes the New York Times is good

when I first started freelancing while I was still a staffer at the Portland Mercury, Teen Vogue was one of the first places that said yes to a pitch on abortion policy. the idea that they're being folded into the publication that gave Lauren Sanchez a vanity cover does not seem like a good sign

I keep seeing smug little articles that begin with, like, "Voting isn't *actually* the most effective way to change the world, you know," and I'm just like... who is saying that? No one from where I'm standing

I wrote about Comrade Josh, the pedantic, unpleasant person who gatekeeps a revolutionary hotline in One Battle After Another. I loved him meganburbank.substack.com/p/an-ode-to-...

King County elections confirmed to me that so far they’ve only counted ballots up to those submitted Monday or early on Election Day, and none from drop boxes. Wednesday reflects basically a wrap up of what they started counting Tuesday.

I wrote about the UW telehealth medication abortion study last week, building on years of reporting on the mifepristone rule change—context you won't find anywhere else meganburbank.substack.com/p/uw-study-t...

He is proposing five municipal grocery stores

First ballot drop shows Harrell ahead of Wilson 53% to 46%. Wilson says it’s within the range of what her team expected, and she’s hopeful they’ll catch up as more ballots are counted.

Packed house at Katie Wilson’s election watch party:

It's standing room only at Katie Wilson's campaign party at El Centro de la Raza at the moment...

A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/451hFM

with comms like this, I’m not at all surprised at what the TV pundits and some breathless headlines are framing as a crazy! wild! upset! open.substack.com/pub/meganbur...

I will always remember this Mamdani ad. www.erininthemorning.com/p/as-some-de...

For those looking for Steve Kornacki

I miss Steve Kornacki

We miss you too! ❤️

Halloween was my last day at Crosscut/Cascade PBS, a month after my team was laid off. What do we lose when we lose a newsroom? Even before I was an editor there, Crosscut amplified abortion access and reproductive health policy coverage while other newsrooms waited for Dobbs to force the issue.

Crosscut is dead. Long live Crosscut. Today’s the official last day for me and my Cascade PBS newsroom colleagues. We did good work over the decades and it is supremely sad to see it shut down.

just me and the boys with Letterboxd accounts dressed up as Bob Ferguson (One Battle After Another Bob Ferguson, not embattled WA Governor Bob Ferguson)

the 2nd season of Nobody Wants This is such a good argument for Nora Ephron's rule that romantic comedies end at the beginning of a relationship you could recut this as a horror movie about a man who gives up all of his hopes and dreams because he was too nice to a hot person with a bad personality

if you subscribe to the one big abortion newsletter you should subscribe to mine as well, especially if you live in the PNW. thank you for your attention

Even before Dobbs, abortion activists promoted abortion pills as a solution to maintaining access to abortion in ban states. Now there's data from @uwmedicine.bsky.social showing telehealth abortions specifically went up 2x after Roe was overturned

Sylvia Plath's birthday was October 27. Here's a feelings post I wrote about her work and all we can learn from it ✨ substack.com/home/post/p-...

CALLOUT: I'm working on a piece about pregnant people or those with newborns/infants who rely on SNAP/WIC, and I'd like to add personal stories to it. If you or someone you know is experiencing this right now or has relied on this program in the past with children, can you send me a DM? Thanks!

We go on and on about AI and robots and yet I can't even get my grocery store account to keep me logged in for more than 15 minutes at a time

wrote about No Kings Seattle, the PNW's rich history of protest + tactical frivolity, and what the 3.5% rule actually means meganburbank.substack.com/p/at-no-king...

I can’t watch Cal Raleigh cry it makes me too sad

I haven’t covered a protest in a long time. It’s good to be out there - I’ve followed (and edited) coverage but of course seeing it from the ground is a different and necessary thing and it always makes me grateful for my alt weekly past

I have yet to see a crowd estimate for Seattle but this video, shot from the monorail directly above the march, gives a sense of scale

David Byrne at #NoKings on his bike. (via @wutangforchildren.bsky.social)

When the dinosaurs come back from extinction, that must be a good sign🦕🦖

Eleanor is such a gem - I loved covering her work in Portland’s theater scene

Portland Police Police estimate so far is 40,000 to 50,000 at downtown Portland No Kings today @statesnewsroom.com @oregoncapitalchronicle.com

We had great turnout at the Mercer Island #NoKings walk-about. It was early so we could also attend the Seattle rally.

saw crowd in portland and my brain just shut down when I tried counting. 50k just downtown maybe? tens of thousands for sure. turnout at no kings in june might have been the biggest action in portland in decades but this one is bigger several times over

No Kings Seattle is huge and loud (audible all the way up the hill to Queen Anne) and there are frogs

infrastructure week but it's actually just a Great British Bake-Off theme

me when I’m cheerful but need enrichment time in my enclosure

getting laid off has been good for my writing I fear open.substack.com/pub/meganbur...

I really appreciated this analysis of yet another Mamdani ad. I need to know more about this comms team

🌹 wrote about Zohran’s Bachelor ad and why it has the same energy as Katie Wilson’s Goodwill haul 🌹 meganburbank.substack.com/p/lets-discu...