Weekly Journal 7.20.26
Reading
I am reading The Best American Essays 2025, awestruck at the artistry of these writers. Theirs are the sort of pieces I cannot even aspire to: lyrical and full of wisdom about elements of life I've never experienced.
I always love the micro-memoirs curated by Five Minute Lit. The digest they posted this week is fantastic.
Watching
I've gotten hooked on The Comeback after worrying that I wouldn't get through Season 1. My fascination is somewhat morbid, because it's the most brutal satire I've ever seen. It's not as obviously vicious as a show like Veep. Instead of zingers, it has daggers that cut deep, and the show lingers uncomfortably on the wounds they create. Lisa Kudrow conveys so much with a single word or grimace.
Cooking
My latest blueberry galette held together well and tasted so fresh and sweet. The next helping of frozen blueberries will probably go into a batch of muffins or pancakes.
A neighbor of ours just dropped off a bunch of figs and plums from their yard, so I need to figure out what to make with those as well.
Doing
My son has been sharing with us his new fixation on bugs. He adores roly-polies, moths, ants, flies, beetles, and mosquito-eaters. I am not a bug lover, but I'd much rather bond with him over natural phenomena than feign interest in the world of video games. This week I sat with him as he befriended a backyard roly-poly (a.k.a. pill bug), talking to it and letting it crawl across his hand. I used my phone to look up what roly-polies eat and what sort of habitat they prefer. Since they like dark and moist environments, this prompted my son to create a little house for his friend out of a shoe box with some grass inside.