A shortage of fun

I found this diary comic from (checks notes) five years ago. In last Friday’s email, I wrote: In the “Who’s having fun?” section of Don’t Call It Art, I quote Ed Emberley saying, “I am determined to have fun doing my work… if I’m enjoying myself then that feeling is passed on to the reader.” Somebody who seems like she’s having a lot of fun right now is cookbook author Julia Turshen, who recently published a romance novel. (“I feel more relaxed about this than I’ve felt about anything in my career,” she says. “This just feels really fun.”) I recommend looking around you, especially in your field, and seeing who seems to be having fun right now. (And figure out if they have something you can steal!) A reader then sent me a Slate post with the subhead, “Erling Haaland is having fun. Remember fun?” And a headline from Bloomberg a few days ago: “The Great American Fun Shortage of 2026.” (Then again, Iggy Pop was singing about having “no fun” in 1969.)