This week, I’m thinking about car rides. When I was a kid, I was in a car a lot. My father owned boat-sized Cadillacs and enormous vans with a plush bench in the back and big seats in the middle. Every Saturday, he’d drive us down the West Side Highway to Brighton Beach to visit my brothers. His ex-wife would glare at him while welcoming my sister and I in with open arms and feeding us pancakes.
Also every week, I’d get carsick. There were plastic bags stashed in the back seat pockets for the inevitable moment when my breakfast would come back up. It was devastating not just because puking is the worst, but also because it meant I could not read in the car. This became exponentially worse when we started making very long drives down to Miami after my brothers moved there in the late 80’s.
Zu has been a road warrior having only gotten carsick when the situation was dire (windy, bumpy roads in Jamaica sort of thing). When she was little, I would sit in the back seat and read to her in order to keep her entertained and calm and we would listen to a lot of music. As she got older, we needed to get creative for how we kept her occupied on long drives (of which there have been many). We have an either or game - “pancakes or french toast”, “orange juice or apple juice”, “cupcakes or cookies”, “unicorns or dragons”, “dory or fancy nancy” and so on and so on forever and ever. Alphabet game (none of these games have actual names, but for the purposes of this newsletter, here we are) which is where we just pick a category and go around and name things in that category, alphabetically. The games and their variations are endless.
But no game has as “rainbow cars” as we drive around we collect cars in every color of the rainbow, with rare colors obviously getting more celebration. We keep track and count up to 10 cars of a certain color (yellow, orange, or green, usually) and then celebrate with a car dance party. I started a photo album below. This summer, we got my mom into it and she now sends us pictures of bright color cars she sees. Soon after, I started a photo album. (Did I edit it for this? I will never tell)
RAINBOW CARS
Your impulse is going to be to send me rainbow cars. Please only send exceptional ones! There is a pink sparkle car in there! We are looking for gems to add to this album!
This week in reading. . .
Slanting Towards the Sea was very pretty and oh-so-slow. A Witches Guide to Magical Innkeeping was absolutely charming. I am in the midst of several other books, one physical, one audio, and two ebooks (one fiction, one non-fiction). Whichever two I finish first will be books 99 and 100 for the year.
This week in Good Hang with Amy Poehler. . .
The thing is, Amy Poehler has no end to the amount of talented friends she could interview and I love that for her. I love that we get to know more about her and all these funny and smart actors. This week her old friend Rachel Dratch was on and it was, predictably, very good. I didn’t know anything about Rachel’s Broadway career or her podcast (about Woo Woo moments of which I have one - call me Rachel!). And they speak about the importance of Annie to a woman of a certain age. (It’s me, woman of a certain age who played Molly in the elementary school production)
This week in TV. . .
I’ve been watching Task which is a stressful show and I am not certain I will keep going because the protagonist made one of the single dumbest most baffling decisions I’ve seen in a show like this.
Turns out I enjoy Slow Horses more when I can watch them all at once rather than week to week.
This week in a gif. . .
This week in a newsletter. . .
We have not reached the homework phase in Zu’s academic life, but I am wildly anti-homework so I am bookmarking this for future.
AHP goes deep on those over the top, elaborately decorated dorm rooms all over tiktok.
This week in google searches. . .
kids accordion art portfolio
international birth records
[every single result of my annual bloodwork]
This week in one good thing. . .
Shout out to group chats. I was trying to write this newsletter last night and was CACKLING at my “Unified Snarking” group chat instead. Distracting? Yes. Delightful? Also yes.
This week in a quote. . .
“This is the beauty of our minds. Unlike our bodies, they aren’t chained by chronology. They are time travelers. And that can be the curse of memory, because the moments that resurface aren’t always lightness and joy.” - Suleika Jaouad
This week in artsy stuff and photo things. . .
Very much looking forward to this documentary about conflict photographer Lynsey Addario.
Bob Ross paintings up for auction!
In praise of physical inspiration boards by photographer Stephen Lewis.
This week in last week’s most popular link. . .
On newsletter day, you all wanted to read about saying farewell to bars (and other local spots) in NYC, but by last night, the most clicked on link was about why forcing kids to apologize doesn’t teach kids anything.
This week on the internet. . .
This piece on being a “career minimalist”
Keri Russell profile by Emily Nussbaum?!! WOOOOOOO!
The story of Stevie and Lindsey.
An interview with Bisan a heroic journalist in Gaza.
For better or worse (for worse, really), the TikTok algorithm Is brilliant.
Michael Chabon on the 25 year anniversary of Kavalier and Clay - perhaps it is time for a reread?
me, yesterday, (I was cute though)
Leonor
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