The Grudge Report

1 week ago | besskalb.substack.com | Bess Kalb

Hi. I have seen a LOT of people criticize nice, tall, decent man Jeff Bezos for today’s Blue Origin flight where his normal-looking space ship thrust its tip through the earth’s atmosphere, and I am honored to be writing the only article saying resoundingly that I think it was good. And cool. And a beacon of hope for the world etc.

2 weeks ago | besskalb.substack.com | Bess Kalb

Oh no the first shot is PIPER. Does this mean Piper dies? Do we care? Is it bad that we don’t care? DUUUUUUKE! It’s the meanest joke of the season and it tracks. Jason Isaacs you are so stressed that at this point if you kill your family we will be relieved for you. SAXON IS READING THE BOOKS CHELSEA GAVE HIM? No. Saxon got his phone at 3AM and got a ChatGPT summary. Also, Saxon, LOCHLAN and Piper? Belinda and Zion? Jaclyn, Laurie and Kate? Mike White Pulitzer for Naming Characters.

2 weeks ago | besskalb.substack.com | Bess Kalb

TW: Pregnancy lossOne November morning I was seated at my desk in my bedroom, writing my morning joke assignment for the late night TV show where I had worked for half a decade when I felt the smallest, barely perceptible sense that something was suddenly falling. It wasn’t quite vertigo, it was an interior drop. An instant later, I felt a rush of warmth, a tiny pain, and then the cold nightmare of a puddle. I was two months pregnant. In those two months, I had changed my life entirely.

3 weeks ago | besskalb.substack.com | Bess Kalb

Hi, Goof!Just wanted to touch base about your pitch for Day Off. We all wanted it to land at the Museum of Ice Cream and honestly thought it was a sure bet, but after taking it up the ladder and discussing things internally, it turns out we ran into a snag on the business affairs side of things. Very annoyed to have to relay this, Ice Cream is asking us to come in with $72 on OUR end to move forward (which in my experience is VERY unusual, and definitely not industry standard).

3 weeks ago | besskalb.substack.com | Bess Kalb

TW: The beast of depression and everything that comes with it. RFK Jr. wants to ban depression medication, including SSRIs. The reason you are reading this is since I was 19 years old, I have been on depression medication. In the spring of my sophomore year of college, I was diagnosed with an incurable, painful autoimmune disease and then a few weeks later my boyfriend dumped me. The heartbreak was bad. The disease was worse.