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Weekend Butler: If it’s too heavy for Superman to carry, who will carry it? Plus: Michelle Williams on love, Chris Rock’s message Kanye could use, a hearty recipe, and more.
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Published: Oct 20, 2022
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Weekend
PRELUDE: “WAITING FOR A SUPERMAN”
Let’s start with a song, “Waiting for a Superman,” by the Flaming Lips. Watch.
I asked you a question
I didn’t need you to reply
Is it gettin’ heavy?
But then I realized
Is it gettin’ heavy?
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be
Is it overwhelming
To use a crane to crush a fly?
It’s a good time for Superman
To lift the sun into the sky
‘Cause it’s gettin’ heavy
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be
Tell everybody
Waitin’ for Superman
That they should try to hold on the best they can
He hasn’t dropped them
Forgotten or anything
It’s just too heavy for Superman to lift
IF OUR TROUBLES ARE TOO HEAVY FOR SUPERMAN TO LIFT, WHO CAN CARRY THEM?
When I talk about my now three-month obsession with daily walking and modest jogging, I say health is not the only motivator. If the worst happens, I say, I want to be able to carry someone. Yes, a metaphor. But also, a literal goal.
Of course I think of “Do Hard Better,” the Kara Lawson video I’ve posted several times.
But today, much more, this, also in the Times:
Jim Redmond, who created one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history during a 400-meter men’s race at the 1992 Games when he leaped onto the track to help his injured son, Derek, make his way across the finish line, died on Oct. 2 in Northampton, Britain. He was 81.
A champion sprinter from England, Derek Redmond was widely favored to win a medal at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. He had been a member of the 1991 English men’s relay team, which overcame steep odds to take the gold at the world championships. He ran the fastest time in his 400-meter qualifying round and won the quarterfinal race in Barcelona.
He then took his place in the fifth lane for the semifinals at Olympic Stadium. Some 65,000 people were watching, including his father, who sat in one of the upper rows.
Redmond got off to a good start and, with 250 meters to go and three runners ahead of him, seemed ready to make a move to the front. Suddenly, he reached to the back of his thigh and began hopping. He had pulled his hamstring. Within seconds, he crumpled to the ground in pain.
Attendants surrounded him cautiously. He stood and began to hobble forward, intent on completing the race even though the rest of the runners had already crossed the finish line.
“It was all animal instinct,” he told The New York Times a couple of days after the race. “I kept thinking I could still catch the other runners. I didn’t want to quit. I’m a very selfish person.”
A film crew caught sight of his father entering the track wearing a Nike cap, blue shorts and a white T-shirt that read “Have you hugged your foot today?” An attendant tried to stop him, but he blew past him to reach his son.
“You don’t have to do this,” Derek recalled his father telling him. “You don’t have to put yourself through this.”
Derek insisted. He had to finish.
“Well, then,” Jim Redmond said, “we’re going to finish this together.”
More attendants approached. Jim waved them away as well.
“I don’t speak Spanish,” he told reporters a few days later, “and I wasn’t going to be stopped by anything.”
By the time they reached the finish line, the crowd was roaring. Camera crews surrounded them. And an intimate moment between a father and a son had become instant Olympic history.
“It was just a question of me getting on to help him,” Jim Redmond told reporters in 2012. “The Games had lost that sort of direction. It was all about winning, winning, winning. We changed it by showing we were taking part. We brought a different aspect to it without even planning it.”
And, of course, I thought — just as some of you did — of this U2 song:
One love, one blood
One life, you got to do what you should
One life, with each other
Sisters, brothers
One life but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One
One
Q: HOW DO YOU GET TO BE #1 ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST? A: HAVE SOMEONE BUY $158,000 WORTH OF YOUR BOOK
That’s how Jared Kushner’s book got to #1. Forbes has the story.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
“I’m in Paris and I ordered an oat milk latte and the waiter said no.”
A VIDEO THAT KANYE WEST OUGHT TO WATCH
This short video is from a Chris Rock show shortly after the invasion of Iraq. Still true: “That train is never late.” Watch.
MICHELLE WILLIAMS ON LOVE
This scene from “Manchester by the Sea” is high on my best-ever list. Her husband (Casey Affleck) accidentally started a fire that killed their children. They divorced. She remarried. They meet on the street as she’s pushing a carriage with her baby. Prepare to be gutted, but… watch.
“I spent my entire life thinking, ‘When will you know you’re in love?’ What is it? How do you know? How do you know into whose hands you should put your life? And your children? And your children’s lives? Who do you trust with that, and how do you know and when will you know?’ I have made decisions using my heart, and I made decisions using my head. None of those seemed to work for me. Then I started thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll make decisions based on signs from the universe. Maybe I’ll interpret things — signs — falling from the sky.’ That didn’t work out for me. Then I realized: It was experiences. For me, it was having experience with this person and knowing how they would respond in all different situations. On a Monday morning; on a Wednesday afternoon; on a Friday night. Trusting the depth of that experience to make a decision about a life and going forward in a life together.”
THE WEEKEND RECIPE
From The Bon Appétit Cookbook
Porcini and Sausage Stew
serves 4
1 pound sweet Italian sausages, casings removed
6 garlic cloves, chopped
4 14-and-a-half-ounce cans of diced peeled tomatoes with juice
2 ounces of dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in 2 cups hot water
3/4 cup dry red wine
2 bay leaves
Sauté sausage and garlic in a heavy large pot over medium heat until sausage is cooked through, breaking up with back of fork, about 10 minutes.
Strain the mushrooms, saving the strained water with the porcini.
Add tomatoes with juice, mushrooms and mushroom water, wine and bay leaves. Bring to boil.
Reduce heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens and is reduced to about 6 cups. This will take about an hour and 15 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard bay leaves.
Excellent served over pasta or polenta. Suggested wine: an Italian red, such as Barbera or Dolcetto D’Alba. Note: This stew can be made a day or two ahead.
