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Weekend Butler: No, your emotional flatness isn’t “seasonal, it’s real. Multiple murders, multiple times, in the weekend book. An ideal soup for cold weather. A knowing song about a daughter. And we can’t leave Bill Nighy out!
Published: Jan 19, 2023
Category:
Weekend
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MY FIRST EVER, ONE TIME ONLY REQUEST FOR HELP: To read and respond, click here.
“GOTTA GET THROUGH JANUARY, GOTTA GET THROUGH FEBRUARY”
Decades ago, when Van Morrison sang that line, he was evoking the flatness of cold days and early sunsets. That’s a summer season compared to what we’re experiencing. Here’s the ever-smart Carolyn Marks Blackwood on Facebook:
Right now the news is literally making me feel ill, as I watch the shit show that is unfolding before our eyes. On one hand, I feel it is our responsibility to know what’s going on, and on the other hand, I live in this beautiful world outside my window which brings me such joy. I find the news almost unbearable. It is ruining my everyday life. I feel torn apart.
I hear this distress from friends often. And not just because the usual dingbats are pressing on the accelerator to blow up the economy via the debt ceiling,
From the Washington Post:
Last year Marjorie Taylor Greene was featured speaker at a white supremacist event where her fellow speakers praised Hitler & called for Fauci to be hanged. Attendees chanted “Putin” as bombs dropped on Ukraine
From the Hill: The House GOP Steering Committee on Tuesday selected Greene to sit on the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committees.
From Lucian Truscott:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School — told a press conference that research has shown the new bivalent COVID booster shot causes more disease than if you didn’t get the booster. “Like almost every study now has said, with these new boosters, you’re more likely to get infected with the bivalent booster.” Here is where the state of Florida stands today with COVID. An average of 5,768 cases of COVID a day were reported last week in Florida, a 90 percent increase from the rate two weeks ago. Deaths from COVID are up 74 percent over the same period. Nearly seven and a half million Floridians have come down with COVID since early in 2020. 84,176 of them have died from the disease.
From the New York Post:
Disgraced Rep. George Santos allegedly conned a disabled, homeless veteran out of thousands of dollars donated to save the man’s dying service dog, according to a stomach-turning report. The veteran, Richard Osthoff, who was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2002, was living in a tent on the side of Route 9 in Howell, New Jersey, with his beloved service dog Sapphire at the time. The dog was suffering from a life-threatening stomach tumor that was growing by the day and surgery to remove the tumor would cost $3,000, according to the vet’s estimate, Osthoff said. He said he met Santos during a tough time in his life in May 2016. The veteran, who couldn’t afford the surgery, said a veterinary technician took him aside and offered assistance via a pet charity called Friends of Pets United run by Anthony Devolder, an alias used by Santos in the past. Devolder set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for Sapphire and once it hit its goal of $3,000, he closed and deleted the fundraising page and became hard to reach before he disappeared altogether.
And now Santos has been named to two House committees, Small Business and Science.
There’s more, but it’s the same story, repeated: the kids who sat in the back of the classroom in high school and seemed doomed to dead-end jobs are now running the show in the House.
There are minutes — there are hours — when I feel our nation is skidding down a long, slick roadway with nothing like rescue at the bottom. But as I’ve often written, my mother didn’t train me to surrender: “There’s always something more you can do.” Now I add to that. The news sucks? Read less news. Watch less TV/cable news. Walk more. Listen to more music. Read more books. If you can’t avoid it, write. In a word, reject the national political drama that you can’t do anything about — the drama that has turned citizens into spectators — and make a better life for yourself.
Rumi asked: “Why do you stay in prison/ when the door is so wide open?” Here’s one vote for a jailbreak.
AND HERE COMES THE SUN
Sunset on Saturday in New York City is at 5:00pm. The sun won’t set any earlier than 5:00pm in NYC until November 5th, 2023.
A SONG TO GET YOU OUT OF THE CHAIR
Florence & The Machine. Dog Days Are Over.
PRAISEWORTHY POLITICIAN OF THE WEEK
Jacinda Ardern, the 42-year-old prime minister of New Zealand, has announced she’s stepping down. From the Times:
In her remarks, Ms. Ardern addressed her partner, the television presenter Clarke Gayford, and their 5-year-old daughter Neve. They were, she said, “the ones that have sacrificed the most out of all of us.”
“To Neve: Mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year,” she said. “And to Clarke — let’s finally get married.”
WEEKEND BOOK: “FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD, AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE”
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a black preacher in Alabama. Tragedy struck on August 3, 1970, when the police found his wife’s body in a car on the side of a country road. “She was swollen and bruised, her face covered with lacerations, her jawbone chipped, her nose dislocated; she was missing part of her left ear, which the police eventually found on the floorboard of the back seat. There was some consolation: the Reverend had insured his wife… with 17 insurance policies. Maxwell remarried. And, again, insured his wife. And, again, she was found on another country road, dead in her car. She too was insured. And then Maxwell bought life insurance policies on more family members… The follow-up? Harper Lee started to write a book about Willie Maxwell. Then she didn’t. Why not? That’s the second half of the book. My review.
WEEKEND MOVIE: “SHOPLIFTERS”
From the Times review:
The Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda has the sensitive, calibrated touch of a master safecracker, and he’s a virtuoso of emotional and narrative buildup. His nuanced approach and self-effacing visual style give you room to breathe and to think; he doesn’t try to bludgeon you into feeling. (He knows the emotions will come.) His way of discreetly unwrapping stories and people is pleasurable; you never feel as if he’s gaming you…
To stream the film on Amazon Prime, click here.
BILL NIGHY
Much talk of an Oscar nomination has “Living” opening in more cities. Check yours. But start with my appreciation of my favorite actor.
WEEKEND SONG: “DAUGHTER”
Sending Loudon Wainwright III’s song out to my daughter… when did he meet her?
Everything she sees
She says she wants
Everything she wants
I see she gets
That’s my daughter in the water
Everything she owns, I bought her
Everything she owns
That’s my daughter in the water
Everything she knows, I taught her
Everything she knows
Everything I say
She takes to heart
Everything she takes
She takes apart
That’s my daughter in the water
Everytime she fell, I caught her
Everytime she fell
That’s my daughter in the water
I lost every time I fought her
Yeah, I lost every time
Every time she blinks
She strikes somebody blind
Everything she thinks
Blows her tiny mind
That’s my daughter in the water
Who’d have ever thought her?
Who’d have ever thought?
That’s my daughter in the water
I lost every time I fought her
Yeah, I lost every time
WEEKEND RECIPE: A BRACING SOUP
From Canal House Cooks Every Day
Cleansing Ginger-Chicken Soup
serves 6
Ginger has long been known for its health benefits. Prized for its anti-inflammatory properties, it is also known to calm an upset stomach. We love the heat it adds to this rich, satisfying broth. We remove the chicken breast halfway through cooking to keep it tender and juicy. The purity of this broth needs little else, but if you want more substance, add rice or noodles.
1 onion
sliced 2 ribs celery
chopped 1 big hand fresh ginger (about 8 ounces), unpeeled and sliced into big pieces
1 clove garlic
10 black peppercorns
1 organic chicken, cut into 7 pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs and legs, 2 wings, and the back)
Salt
Handful fresh cilantro leaves
Put the onions, celery, ginger, garlic, and peppercorns in a heavy large pot, then add the chicken pieces, placing the breasts on top so they will be easier to remove from the hot broth halfway through the cooking. Cover with 4 quarts cold water and bring just to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
After about 30 minutes, remove the chicken breasts and set them aside to cool. Continue to gently simmer the soup for 1½ hours.
Remove all the chicken from the broth and set it aside until it is cool enough to handle. Pull off and discard the skin, bones, and gristle. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl then return the broth to the pot. Boil the broth over high heat until it has reduced to about 8 cups. Season with salt to taste.
Put a handful of chicken in each of 6 individual bowls, then ladle in the hot broth. Serve garnished with cilantro leaves.
WEEKEND POEM
from Kabir, Ecstatic Poems
When the bride is one
with her lover,
who cares about
the wedding party?
