Syllabus #48

Hey guys, I guess it's like, Easter or something?  I scooped the cat box this morning, that's about as close as I'm getting to an egg hunt.  I won, though, so that was cool.

Here's some media I consumed this week:

And some other stuff I consumed, I guess

Cool, let us know how that worked out for you 2 weeks from now.


If only:  "And perhaps a more contemplative, deliberate way of living can become permanent."


Animals are boldly returning to human-dominated spaces.  Foliage is reclaiming space.  What I'm saying is, dudes can grow playoff beards, I can grow a quarantine unibrow.


Speaking of animals, who are all these people with asshole pets?  Or who are these asshole people who can't even endear themselves to their own pets?  As much as I complain about Charlie, he's having the time of his life thanks to Covid-19.  He's never been happier or better behaved, and Hadley is glued to either one of us at all times.  I wake up and she's laying on my chest.  I sit down to read and before I've turned a page she's crawled into my lap.


We almost had a Tennessee Tiger Titan - the zoo that wasn't.


Do you even Dalgona, bro?  


Yep, this is a real problem.  Equity of access is a challenge that only gets magnified when we are stuck at home.  


This just in:  I'm going to live forever.  


Nothing will ever really be the same after this  "I presumed when writing those chapters that the world would always remain more or less as it was, and I mourn the safety of that presumption."

Watching:

Okay okay, I know I said TV was over after Tiger King, but then we found The Iliza Schlesinger Sketch Show on Netflix and I'll never be the same.  Much like our regional supplies of toilet paper, the episodes are in woefully short supply, but like TP, I will fight you for more.  There are only 6 episodes, and they run about 20 minutes.  We watched 4 before we even realized what was happening.  We only stopped because we were about to call urgent care to describe our shortness of breath when it occurred to us that the unfamiliar sensation we were experiencing was uproarious laughter.   Tears.  Screaming.  

Listening:

Terry Gross's Fresh Air interview with Stephen King.  It's his world now, we're just living in his twisted-ass little snow globe.

The Sunday Read from NYT's The Daily podcast:  "Weird Al Yankovic's Weirdly Enduring Appeal."  He's a national treasure.

Analog Reading:

Slogged through The Recovering by Leslie Jamison.  Not that it wasn't well written, but it was heavy, and I found that my time was actually a little more occupied by some work demands.  I don't want to use the word busy, because that wasn't it at all, and I kind of want to ban that word from our vocabulary after all this is over.  I just had more stuff to do this week and didn't spend as much time reading as I would have liked.  One thing about this book that struck me is how much the author relied on going to AA meetings to maintain her sobriety.  It's worrying to think about anyone struggling right now with their recovery process when they are stuck at home, alone, with plenty of time to think/wallow/drink/use.  Are virtual AA or NA meetings happening?

Picked up Liz Moore's Long Bright River, a literary mystery/thriller about the opioid crisis in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.  I'm a sucker for any book even tangentially set in Philly - see The Dutch House or Such a Fun Age.  Clearly, I'm also of late turned into a sucker for some super heavy books about people inhabiting dark spaces.