I am TOO SLEEPY and FILLED WITH CHICKEN to do much but the actual post, and so IN LIEU of a joke-filled or anecdotal intro I will simply tell you: Go read the hell out of This Is Chance! by Jon Mooallem and/or (better and, really, they’re great in different ways) listen to this episode of 99PI about it featuring a live performance of a reading from the book by the author with accompaniment by Black Prairie, it fucking rules.
The upshot is this: in the immediate aftermath of the 1964 Anchorage Earthquake, the single most catastrophically devastating earthquake in United States history, one radio newswoman stayed on the air for more than 70 hours, broadcasting to the outside world to let them know what had happened, who had survived, and what was left of them. It is amazing.
January 24th:
How Do You Show Love?
(Obligatory reminder to subscribe to my once-monthly newsletter here, which rounds up everything I wrote in the preceding month, grants access to a curated members-only Spotify playlist, and includes a piece of exclusive bonus collectible content I will NEVER repost anywhere else, ever!)
The Love Languages system is not perfect, speaking as it does from a presumptively heteronormative and explicitly Christian perspective, but it has the right basic idea: people both express and receive love in different ways, and learning the languages of the people you care for is key to being able to care for them in a way that is mutually meaningful. That said, I mostly reserve that level of thought and systemic engagement for my wife; if you’re a friend of mine, odds are you’ll receive my love through one of the following, not limited to but including:
- Giving you a nickname which’ll stick so hard that people who’ve known you longer than I have will start using it
- Puns (Angering You With)
- Puns (Delighting You With)
- Running jokes (Both Of The Above With)
- Sending you random Kindle books when I see them on sale. Do I know if you’ll like them, actually read them, or even have a way to read them? Not even a little bit! (Although really, like, c’mon, the app is free, it’s 2023, read on your phone in line at the pharmacy like the rest of us). The point is, I saw this book, and I thought of you. Make of it what you will.
- Half-Baked Ideas For Podcasts We Should Do
- Cat Pictures (Bombardment With)
- Cat Pictures (Requests For)
- Cat Pictures (Photoshopped)
- Long, unfocused voice messages about whatever I’m playing or reading
- Podcast suggestions (Unsolicited)
- Podcast suggestions (Threatening)
I’m sure there are others, but as this episode of M*A*S*H* nears its end SO DOES MY WAKEFULNESS, and so I depart, but rest assured that pending my untimely death I will return; this too, is how I show my love, for you all. (I will leave it to you to decide what goes in the parentheticals on this one.)
And if she sees you, it changes you
Rearranges your molecules