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Weekend Butler: News you can use: The government wants to mail you 4 free COVID TESTS (really!) What to give food banks. Help a friend in a slump. The official summer soup, winterized. Bette Davis. Somerset Maugham. And more.

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Sep 28, 2023
Category: Weekend

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THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: Three Women/Esther Perel.  The Blood of My Mother.  Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen

NOT A SCAM! FREE COVID TESTS IN THE UNITED STATES

The govenment will mail you 4 free COVID tests. Click here.

HOW TO BE USEFUL WHEN YOU DONATE TO FOOD BANKS

No words from me this week, just words you can use. Don’t give food banks what pleases you or what you have in quantity. Better to listen to experts — give what the needy actually need. 

1. Everyone donates Kraft Mac and Cheese in the box. The needy can rarely use it because it requires milk and butter, which are hard to get from regular food banks.
2. Boxed milk is a treasure, as kids need it for cereal, which they also get a lot of.
3. Everyone donates pasta sauce and spaghetti noodles.
4. They cannot eat all the awesome canned veggies and soup unless you also put a can opener in or buy pop tops.
5. Oil is a luxury but needed for Rice a-Roni, which they also get a lot of.
6. Spices or salt and pepper would be a real Christmas gift.
7. Tea bags and coffee make them feel like you care.
8. Sugar and flour are treats.
9. Fresh produce donated by farmers and grocery stores is a rare treat.
10. Seeds are cool in Spring and Summer because growing can be easy for some.
11. The needy rarely get fresh meat.
12. Tuna and crackers make a good lunch.
13. Hamburger Helper goes nowhere without ground beef.
14. The needy get lots of peanut butter and jelly but usually not sandwich bread.
15. Butter or margarine is always welcome.
16. Eggs are fragile, thus rarely given — but very welcome.
17. Cake mix and frosting make it possible to create a child’s birthday cake.
18. Dishwashing detergent is very expensive and is always appreciated.
19. Feminine hygiene products are a luxury donors rarely think to give.
20. Everyone loves Stove Top Stuffing.

 

HOW TO HELP SOMEONE IN A SLUMP

from Billy Oppenheimer

Last December, Trea Turner signed an 11-year, $300 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. He proceeded to play some of the worst baseball of his career. He started the season batting second and incrementally dropped to the bottom of the lineup. As his performance plummeted, the Philly fanbase’s support of him did too. I was at a game on July 24th against the Orioles, and every time Turner came up to bat, he got booed. Eight games later, Turner went 0-5, dropped his batting average to a career-low, and in the bottom of the 12th inning, he made a fielding error that cost the Phillies the game. Two days later, a fan known as “The Philly Captain” posted a video: “Let’s not boo Trea Turner. Let’s give him a standing ovation every time he comes to bat. Our boy is in his head, and he needs some love.” The next night, every time Turner went to bat, Phillies fans gave him a standing ovation. In his third at-bat, Turner hit an RBI single. The next night, he hit a game-winning home run. Since the ovations, Turner has played some of the best baseball of his career. Since the ovations, he has led the MLB in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs, and RBIs. Turner bought billboards around the city that said, “Thank You, Philly.”

WEEKEND MUSIC

Try to resist the Vienna Philharmonic, performing Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op.11.

BILLY FRIEDKIN’S LAST MOVIE

It’s being released after his death. Watch the trailer for “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.”

PAUL SIMON ON THE LISTENER’S ROLE

“One of the tenets I have of songwriting is this: the listener completes the song. You sing whatever lyric you know, and that’s what the song is. Very often people sing the lyric, and they have words that are different. Rarely, but sometimes, they have a better understanding of what the song is than I did when I wrote it. It’s valid. It’s pleasurable to me as a writer to have this other revelation come to me from what the person hears.”

A VERSION OF “SOUND OF SILENCE” YOU’VE NEVER HEARD

The group is Disturbed. Go for maximum volume near the end. 

MOVIE SCENE/MOVIE/BOOK

Watch Bette Davis scorch the scene in the film of Somerset Maugham’s “The Razor’s Edge.” To stream the video from Amazon Prime or buy the book from Amazon, click here.

COMING ATTRACTION

“Basquiat vs. Warhol, at the Brant Foundation in NY. November – January. Click for tickets.

IN LIEU OF A POEM, A JODI PICOULT STORY

Here is an experience I had in 2007 when “19 Minutes” was published. A few schools were given 100 copies of the book. Guilford High School in New Hampshire was one. The entire student body read the book as curriculum.

I was asked to speak. I talked about the research I’d done with school shooters in prison and survivors of shootings. Then the principal opened the floor to questions. One boy stood up and said, “I don’t really have a question…but this October I was gonna bring a gun to school. Then my teacher assigned ’19 Minutes’, and I started reading, and I realized I wasn’t the only person who felt like I do.”

The principal on stage beside me turned white. He called on a girl in the audience. She was in a wheelchair. She said, “Every day in this school I’m invisible. No one looks at me or talks to me. I came home a few weeks ago and told my mom I wanted to kill myself. She started crying and left my room. My homework was ’19 Minutes.’ I read it in one night… and it’s the reason I am still here.”

“19 Minutes” — the novel that was taught as curriculum just 16 years ago — is now banned in multiple school districts in the US. I’ve had thousands of emails from teen readers who tell me the book has has fostered compassion and allowed kids who felt left out to feel seen.

I find it difficult to believe teens have gotten more fragile in the past 16 years. What’s changed? Parents who believe they have the right to tell other parents what their children should read, how they should think. Legislatures that have passed parental rights bills that have been twisted into power plays taking place in school libraries.

My message now: fight school book bans. High school kids deserve better than to be told “19 Minutes” is too mature for them, when they are also told they have to have active shooter drills.

WEEKEND RECIPE: YELLOW OR GREEN SQUASH SOUP

The official Butler soup of the summer, served chilled, may now be served hot.

Serves 8