It's Tuesday: So, are you feeling grateful?
That awkward moment when even the small stuff feels sweaty...Issue #138
Once again, here we are. We’re a few weeks away from completing a full circuit around the sun. The year has been eventful for all, exciting for many, triumphant for an odd few, not so much for many of us. How do I feel about it? Well, after you brush aside all the dust, leaves, odds and ends that the wind blew up against the wall, I feel grateful. I’m here. I can still stand, feel, move, love, and occasionally speak in complete sentences.
When you’ve worked in magazine media as long as I have you can be sure you’ve seen everything. And then, one day, you see something entirely new. And you wonder: How the hell did that happen? The past few decades (That hurt to say!) have taught me that just when you think something is certain, it is not. For me, that is the hard lesson of 2024.
We’re conditioned to sit around the Thanksgiving table and say that we’re grateful for our family, friends, a roof over our heads, food in our bellies. But no matter how true or heartfelt, that exercise can often feel rote. This year, try thinking and feeling deeper. There is a lot going on in the world right now and a lot that we could do to help those who do not have friends, family, a roof or food.
So if you do have these things, maybe take a few minutes to think of someone else and think about what you might be able to do to help. What can you do to heal the world?
While we’re at it, here are five things I’d like to share with you that I have been grateful for this year. In the comments below, hit me up and share some things that you enjoyed this year.
one__Books to take you somewhere else
Is there any joy better than reading? Better than immersing yourself in another place, time, world? Making new friends who you can’t wait to see again? Friends who each time you meet them, revisit them, you learn something new about them?
These books aren’t literature and I don’t pretend to be a deep reader of literature. But they offered an escape and a chance to meet new people, new places, make me wonder, “Is this possible?”
Chuck Wendig: Black River Orchard
I think I discovered Wendig on the old Twitter and first read his pandemic-dystopian themed Wanderers just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit. This creepy, weird, strange apple themed book will keep you up, freak you out and make you wonder what is that Wendig sees from his windows each day that gives him these ideas.
Michael Connelly: The Waiting
Like I said, none of this is high literature. Maybe you’re familiar with the Netflix series: The Lincoln Lawyer? Well, Mickey Haller, the incredibly lucky defense lawyer was not the first creation of prolific writer, Michael Connelly. His first series hero was LAPD detective Harry Bosch (Now the Amazon Prime series: Bosch). Harry and Mickey are half brothers. And later in the Bosch series, Harry is introduced to LAPD detective Renée Ballard. The Waiting is the sixth book in the Ballard & Bosch series and like Haller and Bosch, the character of Renée Ballard is not only fully realized, but in my opinion, the superior of the three main characters this author has created.
Renée is flawed, but she is no anti-hero. I think that’s what I like about her best. In this very timely story, Ballard is trying to track down an unsolved serial rapist case, retrieve her stolen badge and gun, mentor a young police officer, and stop a potential massacre. In other words, just another Monday in the world Connelly has created.
two__Music to escape into
Cage the Elephant: Neon Pill
I confess that up until recently, about all I knew about the band Cage the Elephant, was their 2008 hit song, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked. So when their new album, Neon Pill popped up in my feed, I slowed my pace and took a listen. The lyrics and rhythm of Neon Pill is less hurried. I’m also a fan of the follow-up song Rainbow. Both are excellent companions: Lean back, listen close type of songs. The whole album is well worth the time.
Paris Paloma: Labour
No, I’m not even in the least bit the “target market” for the UK’s singer-songwriter. But her voice is incredibly graceful, her lyrics meaningful. There’s a 21st century intensity to her performances and she reminds me so much of my favorite singer-songwriter, Maria McKee from back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.
three__Things to stream
The Empress, Netflix, Seasons 1 & 2
Internet streamer Netflix has come up with an interesting strategy of making shows from all over the globe available on their platform. So our family has had some fun checking out shows from England, Australia, Germany, Italy, France and Mexico. I’ve enjoyed looking up new to me actors on IMDB and trying to learn what else they have performed in that we might want to watch.
The Empress is the “based on the true story” of the Empress of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, Elisabeth of Austria beginning with her introduction to Emperor Franz-Joseph. We watch as she adapts from a mostly free and uninhibited life as a privileged child of German aristocrats to the restrictive court and codes of Vienna.
Devrim Lingnau, a German actors creates sympathetic young Empress who tries to find her way. She has a slow burn as she negotiates her life with Franz-Joseph and evades the constraints of his controlling mother. But the performance that steals the show is Johannes Nussbaum who plays the frustrated younger brother of the Emperor, the doomed Archduke Maximillian. You’ll want to hit pause when you see him on the screen and look up the historical Maximillian on Wikipedia.
four__Food for your soul. And to pad your belly…
The Best Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe Ever!
We’ve had this recipe for about a decade. It’s a favorite in our branch of the family and one that is requested every year. And, every year, we promise ourselves that we will not make so much of it. But that just doesn’t happen. It’s delicious, you always want more, and it’s great for leftovers. Here’s how you do it:
Ingredients:
4 C. Butter
2 Garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 C. Fresh mushrooms, chopped rough
2 Large onions chopped
1 Celery bunch, finely chopped (About 5 stalks)
4 - 5 loaves of bread (Yeah, seems extreme, doesn’t it?). You choose your varieties but we like French, Sourdough, 9 Grain and Cornbread (which we make). The original recipe calls to open up the loaves and let them get stale, we think you could skip that without any issue.
1/4 t. Salt
1/4 t. paprika
2 t. dry parsley
1 T. ground sage (optional, but it really does enhance the flavor)
4 Eggs
Slice the bread and melt 2 C butter. Brush the bread slices and toast in the oven. Check frequently. Once golden brown, remove, cut slices in cubes and set aside.
Sauté remaining 2 C butter with the mushrooms, onions, garlic, celery and seasoning. Sauté until they begin to brown and soften.
Combine bread with mushroom mix, add stock (Chicken or vegetable) and mix well. Add in eggs and mix by hand (This part is surprisingly fun!).
Put the stuffing in a large casserole dish, bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about one hour.
Doesn’t that sound really delicious? Don’t you wish you were eating that right now? Personally, I could skip the turkey and go straight to this dish every time.
five__Service for your soul
It is so easy to slip into despair for this society. Are we really people to whom cruelty is the point? Are we so glued to our screens that we can’t take a moment and notice the leaves falling from the trees? The sounds of the birds who live there? Appreciate what we see before us?
Critics of our society claim that we don’t participate anymore and that’s why we’re falling apart as a nation. No one volunteers anymore. We’re too addicted to Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube videos.
I’ll partially concede the point, but experience has shown me that we are so much more than our critics claim. If it weren’t for my family, my friends, I’m not sure I would have survived the whirlwind of the pandemic, the insanity of the political world these past eight years, the slow decay of the magazine industry, the dread of what comes next for our broken country.
But at the same time, I think we all need more time outside of work and family, a chance to feel a part of a broader community. Before we left Illinois, I had been a volunteer at the Orphans of the Storm animal shelter where I walked dogs and helped out with the playgroups and trained other volunteers.
Here in Denver, I’m working to recreate that community I built in Riverwoods by volunteering at the Denver Animal Shelter, an open access shelter run by the city and county of Denver. The professional staff and volunteers are the same type of incredibly good people who are trying to make a difference in the world by helping animals and the humans who love them connect and be a part of a family.
Volunteering is good work. It helps to heal the world.
Your moment of magazine zen…
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I am always open to a discussion about almost anything (Except for cold beets. They’re terrible and there is nothing more to say about them.). If you want to start a chat with me, please click on the “Comment” box below and let’s get going!
Want to find me on the social sites?
Here’s my Linktree that will take you almost everywhere…
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I still own a suit and a few ties and every now and then I put them on and look something like a professional. Want to see that? Here’s my LinkedIn account.
BlueSky is pretty decent. I’ve been spending a little time there and it is a nice place to go if you’re looking for authors, journalists and other professionals who contribute to the reading world. You can find me here too.
The holiday season brings with it shorter work weeks and what should be for most of us, a lighter work load. But that’s not always the case. Let’s check in with our favorite stressed out magazine media marketing team and what the Thanksgiving holiday has in store for them. It was supposed to be a short and easy week for them. Veronica was going to let the team leave after their Wednesday morning wrap up meeting but the new CMO joined their session and announced a new initiative: A holiday subscription giveaway that was going to be launched on all the platforms over the weekend. “I’ll need you all here on Friday! This is going to be fun! I’ll check in from my ski house in Telluride!”
However you all celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!