Friday Flames | 5.3.24
A weekly synopsis of what we figured out about cancer scans, German bifurcation, and the wrong yellow potato curry.
First of all, thanks to the high numbers of everyone who listened to last week’s episode, which recalled some of the many unfortunate thoughts we were thinking when we got married in 1999. It was one of our most listened-to pods since That Hot Mike Zarin presented his side of the courtship and defended his habit of microwaving a refrigerated grilled cheese.
In case you missed it, the episode’s link is below. We figure that if people are willing to come on the show and talk about deeply personal shizz, we at least want to show them we’re willing to walk the walk ourselves.
This week, we ended up taking an episodic break in this liminal space, now that our son has declared his collegiate intentions and brought to rest The One Big Thing that has weighed on our brains for two years. We've been revving our engines during this gap year, ready to move on to the next phase, and now we're trying to come down from the adrenaline of the college search and plot how to meet up on Move-In Day.
The 18th birthday of our youngest child is a milestone, not least because that’s the date we launched this podcast. (Next week already marks our first anniversary! Can you believe it?)
And now that we’re each enjoying this new brain capacity to think about where we’re headed in Year 2, we’re thinking we should each bake a cake—and/or our son’s traditional birthday lasagna—and have a party. Because whenever you’re presented with an excuse to dance like nobody’s watching, why in heaven’s name would you not?
Embers in the News
Here are some of the links that peeked through the noisy news cycle this week:
Start cancer screening sooner The US Preventive Services Task Force says all women should start breast cancer screening at age 40 rather than 50.
Methodists will ordain gay clergy The United Methodists voted 692-51 to allow LGBTQ+ clergy to be ordained, ending 40 years of homophobic mishegas.
Fallout from FAFSAgeddon After this year’s prolonged FAFSA mess, Richard Cordray is stepping down as FAFSA’s top overseeing official.
An unprecedented medical miracle After it had stopped beating for 14 hours due to sepsis, 4yo Cartier McDaniel’s heart revived and is now beating normally.
Currently reading
Only Hanif Abdurraqib could get Magda to read anything about basketball, a sport she doesn't enjoy and intentionally knows nothing about. But There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension is luscious and raw and meaty, the way all of Abdurraqib's books are, and makes you feel better about being a human.
As part of the Great Book Purge, Doug is reading books he has owned for years but never cracked. This week it’s the often-referenced Brave New World. Is it comforting to know Aldous Huxley predicted almost a century ago that technology would crush individualism in favor of perceived peaceful conformity? Oddly, yes. Kind of.
Currently watching
If you like travel shows combined with the dessicatedly parched British humor of Richard Ayoade, you’ll likely enjoy Travel Man as much as Doug does. It’s kind of like Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but with more emphasis on European capitals instead of cars, coffee, or Jerry Seinfeld’s gildedly aloof worldview.
Magda has been watching the German game show Schlag Den Star (Beat The Celebrity) and been fascinated by the Halbieren segment, in which two contestants compete at cutting vegetables into two parts as equal in weight as possible. It's oddly compelling. (The corn is more chaotic than you'd expect.)
Currently cooking
Magda used a recipe from the grocery store magazine to make her first ricotta dumplings, which were easy but needed way more salt. She also took a request from her son and made yellow potato curry, unaware that he wanted the dish he'd made from The Joy of Cooking. Instead, Magda made the first 5-star-rated recipe she found online, which was delicious but drier than expected.
Doug has been watching the gonzo, f-bombed cookery of The Bear’s Matty Matheson, who is enjoying his moment showing off his culinary training on YouTube. Doug made these hot honey chicken-thigh sliders for a party, all the while wondering how far we’ve come from Julia Child.
Next on the podcast
We would bet that most people know someone who knows someone who is trying to get a handle on what long COVID actually is, why its symptoms vary so widely among its sufferers, and how difficult it is to treat. Next week, Heather Petit tells her story.
Thanks for reading, and how many tattoos is too many tattoos?
Magda and Doug