Well, They Actually Did It.

Also: please don't eat plutonium?

Mar 18, 2023

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science, attention, wonder and - oh, absolutely loads of things. Have a look here if you don’t believe me.

And today, it’s mainly about me yelling OH WOW, THEY ACTUALLY DID IT.

Last Sunday I stayed up all night, giving my mirror neurons an enormously joyful workout by watching things like this:

(The way that Ariana DeBose chokes up as she reads his name out? Ghagghh make these feelings stop, I’m British, THIS IS NOT HOW WE DO.)

In so many ways, this film made history. Like, this way…

The RepresentASIAN Project™ @repasianproject

Everything Everywhere All At Once is now the most-awarded movie in history. With 158 accolades to date, it beats out Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" which has received 101 major accolades since its release 20 years ago, according to IGN.

…and also this (thoroughly bizarre) way:

Decider @decider

Michelle Yeoh portrayed over 70 different versions of herself in #EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce, which means–if she wins tonight–she’ll be the record holder for the winner that played the most characters in one movie. #Oscars

So, I just hung out on Twitter most of Sunday night and Monday morning, jubilantly retweeting things and drinking up all that rejoicing, and I regret nothing. (In fact, the memory of it kept me going for the rest of the week, which was an exhausting whirlwind of non-work-related shenanigans - which is why I’m late with this newsletter. Apologies.)

You know I’m a fan of EEAAO because of this partly-paywalled newsletter - so, to celebrate this historic win in the widest way possible, I’ve now removed the rest of that paywall so absolutely everyone can read it, in the hope it makes you curious enough to go see this anarchic, heartfelt splatter of cinematic sorcery:

Everything Is Amazing

The Magic Of Everything Everywhere All At Once

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science, attention, wonder, curiosity and highly unlikely cities at the bottom of the sea… And around this time last week, for the first time in my life, I saw the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis…

2 years ago · 58 likes · 23 comments · Mike Sowden

(And - paid subscribers: I’m making it up to you by doubling up, starting with a piece next week that attempts to answer the question Hey, What’s The Most Horrifying Way To Fall Off An Underwater Mountain?)

Secondly: over 50 (!) of you took me up on my offer to go through the old version of my non-fiction storytelling course, the one I ran between 2014-2018 when I was mainly a travel writer and copywriter:

It’s the one I’m reworking to make it less about blogging and more about newslettering, since newsletters (and enthusiasmletters) are more or less the new blogs - and I’ll be relaunching it later this year. Yet the old version was just sitting there, stopping me closing my Mailchimp account for good.

So last week I offered it up to any existing or new paid subscribers wanting to give it a punt before I shut those doors and delete the whole thing - and I’m glad to say it’s already causing some friendly havoc:

Electra Rhodes - writes a bit/archaeologises a bit @electra_rhodes

Today in @Mikeachim fantastic storytelling for bloggers programme he invites us to reach out to someone we don’t know, whose work we admire, to tell them. @summerbrennan I know you’re busy, hugely so, but just to say - I love your work. A lot. Thank you!

But since I’m running late with everything like the blithering idiot I am, I didn’t follow up to give anyone a final chance to sign up.

So let’s do that today.

LAST CHANCE/FIRE SALE: BLITHERING IDIOT EDITION

If you’re an existing paid subscriber (at any tier) to Everything Is Amazing, or if you become one before the end of this weekend, reply to this email and let me know you want to go through the old version of the course, and which email address you’d like to use for it - and I’ll get you added to the lesson queue.

After that, you’ll get the whole thing for free, in an series of emails delivered in an accelerated form, across the following two-and-a-bit weeks.

Okay. Job done. That’s the last you’ll hear of it until the new version’s ready.

Thirdly, here’s a sentence nobody should ever need to write: please don’t eat plutonium.

Daniel Feldman @d_feldman

Only one person ever has tasted plutonium. It got on his face during an experiment gone wrong at Los Alamos, he had his stomach pumped and his breath tested as slightly radioactive for the rest of his life. He also was forbidden from working in a lab again. But he died at 87.

🏳️‍⚧️🌸Big Mommy Liza🌸🏳️‍⚧️ @krystalwolfy

who did the taste test? https://t.co/emSA562LgT

This is the gentleman that did it - and not only did he survive the experience, he went on to live a full, rich life.

(No doubt this has everything to do with how quickly he & his colleagues reacted to the accident, and nothing to do with how good plutonium is for living tissue, because it profoundly and emphatically isn’t.)

But if despite every possible rational argument you’re wondering if this might make a hilarious new challenge that will blow your TikTok through the roof, please note that the entire world’s supply of ²⁴⁴Pu only comes to around 20 grams. Around a fifth of an apple, by weight.

Absolutely not worth it, mate. Stick to pickles in a blanket.

And lastly, I’ve shared it before and I’m sharing it again: this table.