Syllabus #181

 My brain is officially on Winter Break.  I have nothing to offer you, except photographic evidence that not everything I touch turns to dust:

Finnish Bread!

Look at that rise

I am the favoriteonly child for leaving the chocolate chips out of the first tray, hi, Mom, you're welcome

 

This may or may not be my last missive of 2022.  We'll see how it goes.  I might pop back in with something before the new year descends upon us.  Perhaps something akin to a Spotify Wrapped, except for people who only listen to podcasts at 1.5 speed.  Truly.  It's a sickness.  I can no longer tolerate a normal speaking cadence, it makes me physically ill.  Get to the point or get out of here!  It's a real liability here in the South.

At any rate, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Yule, Blessed Festivus, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, all the things.

Oh but wait, I do want to shout out a couple books I've enjoyed lately:

Analog Reading:

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey:  Crazy stories about racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar.  Ruffin is a writer and performer known for her own eponymous late night show and also from her work on The Seth Meyers Show.  Lacey is her sister, and the book is about growing up and existing as a Black woman in Omaha, Nebraska.  If you, like me, picture a very caucasian person sitting on the side of the road spooning mayonnaise out of an industrial size jar straight into their mouth when you are asked to picture the average Nebraskan, you will not be surprised that even the largest city in Nebraska is very white and rife with racists of both the simply ignorant and the overtly virulent variety.  The book is a humorously related highlight reel of some of the wildly offensive things that people have said and done to Lacey.  Sadly, there is a sequel.  Sad because Lacey had so many more encounters to share, but also not sad, because the narration of the stories is virtuosic.  The absolute ass-hattery she has to deal with is appalling, and only a master storyteller and comedian could possibly make the telling of these tales take an amusing tone.

On a lighter note, Ive been enjoying My First Popsicle: An Anthology of Food and Feelings, edited by Zosia Mamet.  I think I shared Jia Tolentino's essay about acid chicken that was published in Bon Appetit, and like, duh, food and feelings are inseparable.  Unless you're serial killer.  Are you a serial killer?