no. 01

what I've been reading and writing this week

Hello! It’s Friday! Or whatever day it is that you ended up opening this newsletter! Or never because you regret subscribing! Hello anyway! I’m so glad you’re here!

You may notice that I’ve rebranded this entire situation three times now. Maybe more by the time you open this. No one can stop me!

I like Substack! The concept is great! It’s easy to use! It feels like old blogging that I loved and miss! AND I really want my writing to be on my own site! So I’ve been spending way too much time figuring out how to be here and there and actually nowhere because I have no time these days (!!!) for anything like this at all! And yet, I keep coming back!

I used to write about parenting. I posted pictures of my kids online. While I don’t regret what I’ve done, I no longer would do it again with the internet being what it is now. So I’m messing around with how I’m online, I think lots of us are. I’m locked down more now than usual — private accounts, closed public pages — that kind of thing. I’m figuring it out. Then changing my mind. Then figuring it out again.

I just keep coming back to reading and writing. I like to write online. I don’t care if anyone reads it. Truly. And yes, I could just keep it all to myself, but there’s something about thinking through something, working it out in words (not just in spinning head), then hitting publish and walking away that I just can’t quit.

And, I love reading and sharing what I’ve read.

So for now, welcome to Reading and Writing — with me! Here’s what I’ve been reading and writing this week.

READING

On Marathon Monday, all Boston accents increase by 48%, and enthusiasm for Boston increases by 136%. This is factual information. The Boston Globe knows this and DELIGHTED US with: How a dog was blamed for ruining the 1961 Boston Marathon.

A BLACK LAB RAN IN THE BOSTON MARATHON. FOR TEN MILES. THEN RAN INTO ONE OF THE LEAD RUNNERS AND HE FELL DOWN. I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS STORY.

Unrelated: Luna, my black lab, has never run for ten miles in her entire life. But she gives really good hugs.

ARTICLES I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT (OTHER THAN THAT “FLOPPY-EARED” DOG THAT RUINED THE ‘61 MARATHON)

Have we been thinking about ADHD all wrong? NYT gift article that is WAY too long to be about ADHD lol. And is super interesting and made me (finally) buy a digital NYT subscription.

What we knew about without knowing, The New Yorker - When I heard that Didion’s therapy notes would be published, I was like WELL I WON’T READ THEM! THAT IS WRONG! YOU ARE BAD GUYS! Until this piece showed up in my New Yorker and well, I guess I’m the bad guy now. She’s chain smoking in heaven (??) with an ice cold Coke laughing at me. Hi Joan! Sorry!

Go and tell no one, Maya C. Popa on substack (that is not the title). Go and tell no one is precisely what I needed to read this week while writing and publishing and telling no one. I didn’t link out. I didn’t post on social. I didn’t even tell my wife until yesterday. And it felt GOOD.

WRITING:
THINGS I WROTE ON THE INTERNET THIS WEEK

Outside
I keep a little notebook

CURRENTLY READING

The New Yorker (It’s so good! Why didn’t anyone tell me?)
Parable of the Sower (having a slow start on this one)
Dear Writer (just finished!)

Until next time! Or never again! We’ll see!