Weekly Journal 03.08.26

Reading

I'm still absorbed in the narrative of Kevin Fedarko's Grand Canyon book. His prose can be a little too flowery for my taste, but the other day I encountered a line that was so good, it stunned me: "The color of that rock was deeply pleasing to the eye, a honeyed brown with a hint of toasted orange that suggested what might happen to sunlight if it were barreled and aged." Maybe it's just because I like aged whiskey, but isn't that brilliant?

On Substack, I was moved by this essay by Kerala Goodkin. She makes the case not only for the soothing power of cradling infants, but the overall benefit of social interactions among people of different generations. As part of this argument, she criticizes adults who loudly dislike children and seem to wish their disappearance from public life. I get that kids are annoying; I've sometimes been embarrassed at the way my son comports himself. But kids deserve the opportunity to be part of society at all of their developmental stages. It's how they learn to be full-fledged people.

Watching

On ER, Romano just had his arm chopped off. Enough said.

While hunting for something new to watch, I finally pulled Fisk from my stale list of Netflix shows. I'm glad I did. It's a cozy, quirky workplace comedy from Australia, about a middle-aged divorced lawyer who finds work at a small firm specializing in estate law. The main character is a bit disheveled, and has a dry sense of humor that doesn't usually sit well with the people around her. It is heaps better than the other sitcom I tried to watch late one night, which was the recent reboot of Night Court. Just awful, formulaic humor. Even seeing Will Hines in the cast wasn't enough to keep me in.

Doing

THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Karaoke night is happening! I had a sizeable group of friends on board for karaoke in January, to celebrate my birthday, but given that I wound up in the ER that week, it had to be rescheduled. Now there might be only a few stalwarts coming. I've been known to do private-room karaoke with just one friend, so I'm excited nonetheless.

Cooking

I've got a pint of heavy cream in the fridge--not one of my usual staples because I don't like cooking foods that are overly rich. I'm finding ways to use it a couple tablespoons at a time in soups, sauces, and espresso drinks. This week I made a delicious potato leek soup with scrubbed and unpeeled new potatoes, and with a splash of lemon juice at the end, as per this recipe. My favorite part of making soup is using the stick blender my husband got me for Christmas in 2024.

Listening

While compiling a list of songs to try at karaoke (to be shared later), I realized I'd forgotten to add Tonic's Sugar to my Qobuz library. I played that CD a lot when I was in high school, and it holds up for the most part. "You Wanted More" was the biggest hit, but the title track, below, has more successfully gotten stuck in my head.