First Word #12

A little late, a little short. The worst month is nearly over.

Every morning, at 8:30am, I put on bike shorts and an oversized T-shirt, then drive six to eight minutes, depending on traffic, to a hot, cavernous room lit like a nightclub.

Desperado // Neena Pathak // Signal Hill

Signal Hill is a new audio magazine that has a fresh feature-y approach to audio reporting. I like this story about yoga class. “I go somewhere to be told what to do. But like, not in a sexy way.”

Philip Roth famously worried that good satirical fiction was impossible to write in America because actual America was too absurd and too extreme to effectively parody.

A Hero for Cro-MAGA Times // Sigrid Nunez // The NY Review of Books

From Charlie who loves “The Friend.”

Her father’s typewriter went clack-clack…clack-clack-clack…The clock awoke in dustless tin-dlen. The silence dragged out zzzzzz.

Near to the Wild Heart // Clarice Lispector

From Jack H.

Here is what the companies that manufacture hummingbird feed are praying you don’t discover: Using pantry ingredients, it’s a breeze to make perfectly serviceable nectar in your own kitchen.

How My Trip to Quit Sugar Became a Journey Into Hell // Caity Weaver // The New York Times Magazine

It ended not with the bang of a gavel but the whimper of a memo.

Quid Game // Charlie Dulik // The Baffler

I’m embarrassed to admit that I bought a pair of pants to eat at the Yellow Bittern.

This is not a restaurant. This is a dollhouse.

Wonderful review of an Irish “marxist” restaurant in London.

Here’s three haikus about my day, comment one about yours.

By six forty five

I wake and I’m surprised as

The Sun shows her face.

Coffee in my hand

“Stand clear of the closing doors”

Swallowed by the mouth :V

The office window—

New Jersey bobs beautiful.

Gurling current.