february 2023
just links
I used to think February was the worst month of the year, but now I sort of love it for its mundaneness. Nobody is really expecting much out of February, and it never disappoints. Plus, at our house, it’s fire season, which is a perpetual favorite. As mentioned here, this is my monthly round-up post of just links. Check out my recent writing here in case you missed it!
Just raves this month
👍 Julia Turshen’s charts. I love Julia Turshen. I own all of her cookbooks (and rarely cook from any of my other cookbooks besides hers and Joshua McFadden’s if I’m being completely honest). But her little charts that she’s been putting out on her Substack are pure genius, especially for those of us like me who cook more by “formula” than following recipes to the T. My favorites are her two salad charts and her soup chart, but you should sign up for her newsletter for whatever good ones are still to come!
👍 It was a great reading month (H/T fire season). Here were my top recommendations:
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut. I posted on Instagram that I think this was one of the strangest and most captivating books I’ve ever read. I would like to take a college class to unpack and discuss it.
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. I finally got around to reading this and, despite it being quite depressing, I think it’s required reading for this stage of the Anthropocene that we find ourselves in.
Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center. I loved this and found it surprisingly insightful for what I thought would be a pretty standard rom-com.
The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine by Sophie Strand. I have an intellectual crush on Sophie Strand, so I was obviously going to love this. It was weirder and juicier than even I expected, and it made me questions all sorts of things in new ways, which is about the highest compliment I can give to a writer.
👍 The Oxo salt grinder. Our old salt grinder broke in the middle of dinner in dramatic fashion, so I ordered the Oxo to replace it - and it is SO MUCH better than anything I’ve had previously that I immediately ordered the pepper version to match. It’s the little things.
Stuff worth sharing around the interwebs
The truth about trauma. This was the most interesting thing I read on the internet this month by a long shot. I’m not sure the title is completely accurate because the conclusion of the article seems to be not quite so confident, but, regardless, for those of us, like me, who have been trotting out plenty of Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Maté and trauma speak over the years, this is a must read. Bonus deets on van der Kolk and Maté that made me a little leery and disappointed in myself for not doing better due diligence.
Maybe I’m Epicurean? I loved this conversation about Epicurus. I always thought hedonism when I heard “epicurean,” but Epicurus’ philosophy is actually far more nuanced and useful than that. The recent resurgence of Stoicism (which seems to be very popular with a certain bro type on the interwebs) has always rubbed me the wrong way, and this conversation helped me to see why. I also just generally love the idea of different groups of people sitting around and thinking about how best to live, coming to different conclusions, and then getting to pick which works for you. This seems like something we could learn from these days.
What if this is the 1950s of the smartphone era? “If you lose ten, twenty, or thirty minutes to frivolous phone use on a multiple-times-daily basis (I sure do), it might make sense to regard it as belonging to a much higher stratum of concern than we tend to assume. Instead of grouping it with I-probably-shouldn’t-but-who-cares sorts of behaviors, like rewatching barely-worthwhile TV shows or kicking off your shoes without untying them, perhaps it belongs with possibly-catastrophic vices like daily deep-fried lunch, road raging, or smoking.” David making me think, as usual.
Other good stuff breadcrumbs. This story just made me extraordinarily happy, and I keep thinking about it with a smile on my face. When it comes to boundaries, remember to show others how you want your boundaries respected in the ways in which you respect other peoples’ boundaries. Another addition to my adulting scripts that I learned this month that seems so simple, but is an easy way to be clear and kind: “It wasn’t for me.” Coincidentally, my oldest and I had a whole debate about this exact thing this week - whether honesty or support is more important in friendship. What do you think?
We’re savoring as a family watching this season of All Creatures Great and Small - it’s just so wholesome without being sappy, and I bet I’ll remember snuggling up on the couch with Grant and the kids crying over All Creatures when I’m an old old lady. Speaking of All Creatures, we pay the $5 a month for PBS’ Passport app, and it’s definitely the best streaming money we spend.
What are you ranting/raving/sharing these days that I missed?
Happy end of February!
Sara