Friday Flames | 1.12.24
A weekly synopsis of what we figured out about robot nurses, library hacks, and saving all this silly self-improvement stuff for the spring solstice.
Why we should all INDULGE in January
January, as a rule, sucks. The Holiday Hangover oozes into the pointless "New Year, New You" mentality that crowds the gym with the flabby, the wistful, the broke, the sober, all denying themselves pleasure at a time when we can use all we can get.
Another cycle is starting up. The kids are grumpy after only a week off from school. Your boss is issuing amazingly tone-deaf imperatives to return to in-person work. You have to shovel your parents out* and ferry them to germ-filled waiting rooms during a nationwide surge in flu, RSV, and COVID.
* this might not apply in Florida, but you still have to deal with living in Florida.
It's kind of a cruel joke up here in the Northern Hemisphere that the calendar turns during such a grim time. So we think January should be when we all go nuts and find every bit of joy and indulgence we can. Eat 30 Oreos. Binge-watch Northern Exposure (finally!). Take between-nap naps. Then we can declare a Fiscal New Year that starts on the first day of Spring, when we can finally open our windows and breathe deep.
Embers in the News
Here are some of the links that peeked through the noisy news cycle this week:
Look to the OCO, eh? If you care for elderly parents and young kids and work full-time and maybe want a life, the Ontario Caregiver Organization has resources.
“How are you feeling? BEEP BOOP” Venture capital is seeing a lot of opportunity investing in eldercare robots like “ElliQ.”
“When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 15 years” Consolations of middle age, by a college professor who sees helpful contrast from the young adults she teaches.
So much to learn, so little time Keep up the “active” in cognitive activity: Learn new stuff.
This week on the podcast
Writer Jeff Bogle talks about finding new holiday traditions to help heal the family after his father and brother died, and how an random, impulse tweet landed him a literary agent and a book deal.
Episode 29: "We'll remember the ones we've lost, but we're forging new ground."
It’s our first podcast episode of 2024! And we’re greeting the new year with a discussion with writer Jeff Bogle about holidays, death, serendipity, literature, and cats. It’s a difficult episode to encapsulate in one blurb, so let’s try three: Late last year, Jeff randomly tweeted an idea for a book and walked away a month later with a literary agent an…
Currently reading
Magda just started "the book about the octopus," Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures. So far, it's funny and weird and full of small, accurate moments. And here’s a fun Library Hack: She jumped ahead on the waiting list for the book by reserving the Large Print edition! And now that she's reading it, she's wishing everything was in Large Print. Hmm.
Doug is coping with January by re-reading his absolute favorite book, Kissing in Manhattan. The title contains two of his favorite things, and David Schickler is the kind of author who describes a character’s happiness by writing that “his blood sang.”
Currently watching
Doug watched and loved the “tidings of discomfort and joy” in The Holdovers. Can you believe it has been 20 years since Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne teamed up on Sideways? And punished merlot sales for a generation?
Magda and Mike watched Season 17 of Project Runway a few weeks ago (Bishme was robbed) and decided to go back to start the series again (and skip Season 1, because neither of them can stand Wendy Pepper). The difference in quality of designers from Season 2 to Season 17 is astounding, and Heidi Klum's maternity tank tops were really something. “On Trend in 2006” looks comical now.
Currently cooking
Magda never got into the whole sourdough thing. But when she learned that baking with sourdough leavening instead of yeast doesn't necessarily result in sour food, she went to a sourdough seminar at the library and met Sourdough Brandon—who gave her a starter named Audrey III. When Magda returns from Detroit next week, she and Audrey III will start experimenting with biga-style pizza crusts.
Doug braced for three days of Michigan snowsleet followed by a week in the sunless subzero by making Yakamein, which is rich and meaty and warms your marrow without making you feel like you ate a whole herd of cattle.
Next on the podcast
We’ve got some interesting new programming ideas for 2024, based on all the great feedback you listeners keep giving us. Plus, Bill Braine will explain how he walked out of the hospital within hours of his hip-replacement surgery.
Thanks for reading, and bottoms up while you bundle up!
Magda and Doug