To read all of Melville's Cetology, or to skip that chapter...

Who got the gold star for reading all about whale-fish, including the footnotes? Who is actually caught up on the reading? Who thinks Ahab is headed for a reconning of, well, mythic proportions?

And who is ready to read something completely different this week?

We referenced:

"I''ll Make a Man Out of You" from the Disney musical, Mulan.

On the tv show Friends, couple Ross and Rachel "take a break," and then have a fight about what it meant to "take a break" after Ross slept with another woman during the break.

Palate cleansers

• Megan - "Queenie" by Candice Carty-Williams and "Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors: a novel" by Sonali Dev
• Pete - "Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata
• Jennie - "I Love You So Mochi" by Sarah Kuhn and "Dear Los Angeles: the city in diaries and letters 1542 to 2018" edited by David Kipen
• Alex - "Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating" by Christina Lauren