Acts of God

When a world-rocking event triggers your dormant superstitions.

Welcome to Quality Sheet, a weekly assortment of outside-the-box news, events, trends and offbeat oddities to indulge your curiosity. Subscribe for a midweek treat each Wednesday that'll make you hummm with intrigue and amusement.

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A rainbow appeared across London last Monday afternoon. It was unambiguous and chunky, as if a five-year-old had taken a bunch of jumbo paint markers across the sky. Was it a sign? Just in case, I took a picture of it at 16:58. I was unaware at the time that, exactly 20 minutes earlier at 16:38, an email landed in my inbox containing a teenage dream come true. I can officially move to New York! 

There’s nothing unique about assigning personal meaning to natural phenomena. Millions who marvelled at the American eclipse this week attached their own symbolism to the event beyond our scientific understanding of it—some harmless, others conspiratorial. This, despite the rainbow, sun, moon and tectonic plates not knowing who we are. But as much as humans love to create our silly little stories to make sense of things…some synchronicities feel too divine and cinematic to write off as coincidences. Which is why I believe news of my move was obviously foretold in ancient texts and manifested as last week’s earthquake!!!

Something about making a big leap prompts me to fine-tune my senses to detect little winks from God; a rainbow here, a bright star there, a ladybird flying in through the window. Signs of guidance and protection from above that feel powerful enough to engulf my nerves and temper my hungry heartbeat. A spiritual compass. So this is the personal story I’m assigning to last Monday’s rainbow: it was reassurance that the future will catch me as securely as a Yankees’ mitt. Or a Mets’ mitt? C’mon, don’t gimme that side-eye! I still have a lot to learn. 

Welcome to Quality Sheet. Let’s hop into this week’s assortment of newsy treats…

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Speaking of signs, some groups are once again nursing the disappointment they felt on 13/12/12, when they woke up still very much on Earth after the apocalypse failed to materialise. The world also did not end after Monday’s eclipse, contrary to the warnings of some factions online. Adrienne LaFrance writes in The Atlantic: “​​The human tradition of treating an eclipse as an occasion for apocalyptic doomsaying is ancient; apocalypticism is among the most enduring human obsessions, and the preoccupation with eclipses predates even the major religions that have perpetuated the most influential end-times stories.”

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Here’s possible proof of our “enduring human obsession”: Irish Neolithic tombs may be the earliest examples of ancient eclipse art. Researchers looking into the abstract circular carvings from around 3,000 B.C. say we can’t be sure, but Susan Johnston, an anthropologist from George Washington University, tells Atlas Obscura: “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if [Neolithic people] saw an eclipse at some point and were freaked out.” She went on to suggest the drawings aren’t unique enough to confirm this.

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Thankfully, there were no injuries reported in last Friday’s earthquake in the U.S. Northeast. But the tremor birthed great jokes, beautiful jokes, as well as probably the most apt response ever from New York City Mayor Eric Adams: “New Yorkers should go about their normal day.” What are the odds of an earthquake bigger than 4.8 magnitude coming to the city? Here’s what dozens of experts told New York Magazine in 1995.

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May 6 is almost here, which means one thing: it’s time to find an outfit to wear on your sofa while you judge celebrities sashaying up the Met Gala steps! Is Beyoncé going this year? How about Jared Leto? The Cut breaks down who’s definitely expected to show up in their best interpretation of the “Sleeping Beauties” theme.

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“Combined with a rise in authoritarianism in many countries, some activists and civil groups fear that the increased use of facial recognition could mean an end to protest as we know it,” Rest Of World’s Darren Loucaides reports about how facial recognition technology is threatening the nature of protests around the globe.

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“For the first time in history, many workplaces span six generations,” from the Silent Generation to Gen Alpha entering the workplace. How to navigate the challenge of making each age group feel seen? Nicholas Pearce, associate professor and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of management has the answers.

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What’s the fuel that keeps creative legends like Giorgio Armani, Joan Collins, Betye Saar and Martha Stewart eagerly working into their 80s and 90s instead of retiring? Ambition, of course! Love this package on the “secrets of a lifelong career” from the New York Times’ Ruth La Ferla and Guy Trebay.

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“Should we make ‘appearance’...such as height, weight and facial differences protected characteristics, in the same way that, in countries like the UK, race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion and age are ‘protected characteristics’, meaning it is illegal to discriminate on their basis?” Andrew Mason, a professor at the University of Warwick, asks whether legislating against “lookism”— discrimination based on someone’s appearance, which often encompasses racism, sexism and ageism—could help reduce the “invisible” prejudice.

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Paparazzi shots could be the future of product marketing, if recent viral campaigns by the likes of CeraVe and Bottega Veneta are anything to go by. Adweek’s Rebecca Stewart reports the out-of-the-box strategy “could help drive brands’ bottom lines.”

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Finally: get ready because goth girl summer is almost here.

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Thank you for reading. Share to sweeten someone’s day—and have a lovely rest of your week!

Isabel :)

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