Emchap's Shit from the Internet 12/16/20 🍠
Now that I don’t leave my house (pandemic) or put on coats (Los Angeles), I rarely have the experience of finding a few dollar bills squirreled away in a coat pocket I’d forgotten about. But, today I had what is probably the closest available experience: my company had mandate a company-wide day off (very sweet, I’m lucky to work in this goofy industry) which I’d forgotten I scheduled for today. After some small morning meetings (a company all-hands, a team building exercise with my immediate teammates that involved us all making art with each other on Zoom), I was free for the rest of the day.
I’m not great at planning for non-travel time off normally and especially not this very weird year, so I was uncertain what I was going to do. Luckily, fate intervened and my hold on Glennon Doyle’s new (“new”) book had come up at the library. (Its cover, coincidentally, looks rather like the art we made.)
I enjoyed the book (which I commented about on Twitter and—after some very confusing responses—learned shares a name with a Chinese TV show that also looks like it might be extremely my shit). I wouldn’t have read it (it seemed not really my style) except that several months back she’d been interviewed on Call Your Girlfriend and seemed earnest in a way that wasn’t totally offputting. It feels like a slightly toned-down, more religious Ask Polly column of a book, if that’s your thing.
I finished the book today, which was good; it’s also the first time since October that I’ve been able to sit through a whole book, which is unusual for me. The pandemic has completely tanked my attention span in a way that I know is mostly stress and boredom, but leaves me curious for what things will be like when life is back to something approaching a new normal in the US. (I absolutely seethe with jealousy when I see Instagram posts from my coworkers in slightly more functional nations and am reminded over and over again that it didn’t have to be like this.)
It’s very weird knowing that you are likely living through what will become the defining post-9-11 Event for a huge number of people except that of course there are a million other things you can think of that might also be the Event (Ferguson, Flint, the 2016 election, any number of other things). This time period is going to fuck us all up in ways we can only begin to foresee.
But, fingers crossed, we’re at least past the halfway mark and at some point in 2021 I’ll read another book.
Shit to read
This long read about Mormons was, I thought, very interesting. I think the author does not necessarily go after the Book of Mormon musical for its larger sin—being incredibly racist—and there’s something weird about considering oneself a minority religion when you also control a state, but the writing is good.
A lovely piece about Korean comfort food.
Fuck Facebook, obviously. Did very much enjoy this piece about people’s going-away blog posts, which are a classic tech company place to air one’s grievances.
Longread from someone who infiltrated a racist Canadian nationalist group.
This spoiler-containing Wild Mountain Thyme review is art.
Deeply love this charming interview with a man who runs a Japanese cafe for pessimists.
Sleepytime tea has a fucked-up past, so that’s fun.
I loved this piece on Native conceptions of the apocalypse and our present time.
So many people don’t know how to run meetings.
I just bought a ring light so like this piece on withdrawing from social media isn’t my actual Deal but I liked it.
What’s awful is I knew exactly what gross food video the author was describing.
Shit to eat
Buy brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving.
Forget that you’ve done that and order new, better brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving closer to.
After Thanksgiving, realize you still have more brussels sprouts.
Forget about it for like another week.
Finally, jogged by a Smitten Kitchen post, remember that you should probably eat them.
Put a cast iron pan over medium heat and toss in half a package of frozen bacon pieces.
While that’s doing its whole thing, grab the slightly degraded bag of brussels sprouts, and get to peeling off all the sad yellow leaves from them. They look okay underneath.
Remember halfway through that process to turn on the broiler.
Wash them, chop off the bottoms, and chop them into quarter inch strips.
Periodically go over and poke at the bacon.
If you do not have half a random onion you need to use in your fridge, chop up a shallot. If you do, chop up that onion.
Put it in with the bacon once the bacon is looking cooked and not like a giant frozen mass, and sweat it for a few minutes until things are soft.
Add in your brussels ribbons, and cook for several minutes longer.
While that’s happening, crack 8 eggs and toss in some half and half, salt, and pepper. Whisk it all up.
Once the brussels are beginning to look cooked, toss in the egg mix.
Poke at it for about a minute to get everything incorporated, and then leave it be until the bottom is cooked.
Once that happens, off the stove and into the broiler oven. Let it cook for a few minutes, until it’s set through and a little wet on top; if it leaks when you cut it, just put it back in the oven for a minute.
Enjoy on your couch for dinner and, because you live alone, for several days after for lunch.
(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s brussels bacon frittata.)
Shit to watch
I finally watched Ted Lasso so if anyone wants to talk to me about the nice soccer man please get at me. Apple TV has a free trial, you can get through it in a week.
Shit to buy
I so desperately want to be a linen sack dress person.
I think 2021 is the year I become a sleep shirt enthusiast.