Friday Faves 5/29: Back on the Course, Dream Team Podcast, Italian Subs, Home Before Dark

Best Activity

On Monday afternoon I stood on the first tee for the first time this year and promptly topped my tee shot 50 yards in front of me. I tried again, re-teeing and knowing that my golf game is going to have some rust, but not enough to top another tee shot 50 yards in front of me, right? Wrong. As a topped my way down the first three holes of my opening round of 2020, I didn’t care much about the result of the round. It was an odd one to be sure, playing in a foursome with two strangers, who were friends of the organizer of the foursome.

Driving out of the city for only the second time all spring, it was one of those baby step moments that gave me a bit of hope. There are things we all miss doing, and I’m fortunate that some of my favorite things require wide open spaces, so they’re safer than other “out-of-home” hobbies. However, it also made me realize how far we need to go. The sensation of hopping out of the car and meeting a new person without a hand shake, and instead a wave from a safe distance, was awkward. Not being able to commune in the clubhouse or on the driving range before the round was weird. Killing the 15 minutes before the round around the corner from the first tee, unable to approach until it was completely clear felt strange.

While we’re slowly getting portions of our lives back, the experience is going to be so different and require patience and understanding and self-awareness. If this pandemic was a marathon, we’d be on mile 20. Half the race comes in the last six miles. Our bodies and minds are exhausted and screaming at us to just give in, quit, stop worrying. Instead, let’s keep moving forward and taking care of each other.

Best Watch

Home Before Dark: This Apple+ show is a small delight. Hinde Lisko is a 9 year-old amateur journalist whose family just moved back to her father’s childhood home in Washington state. It’s a far cry from Brooklyn where Hilde used to ride along with her journalist dad and help him investigate stories. When an old friend of Hilde’s dad ends up dead, Hilde thinks something suspicious is going on and starts to dig for the truth. The show isn’t GREAT, but it’s a solid, charming show that we keep sitting down to watch each evening. Hilde can be a bit too precocious at times, but it’s been a good one so far.

Tiger, Phil, Tom, and Peyton in The Match 2: This was a great afternoon of golf viewing. Tom Brady sucking at golf brought a lot of people joy. If we weren’t in a pandemic, Tom Brady splitting his pants on national TV after holing out from 150 yards would have exploded the internet. Here are my grades for the players, course, and programming.

Best Read

Notes From Our Homes To Yours: This is a cool NYTimes interactive page where a bunch of reporters and editors and writers are keeping some sort of journal. There’s something in here for everyone, the formatting is cool, as many of them are written in Google Docs, so they’re living, breathing things. Here’s the link.

Best Listen

The Dream Team Tapes: Author and journalist Jack McCallum is The Dream Team expert. He wrote a book on the 1992 Olympians in 2013. He interviewed them all and kept the cassette tapes. This pod weaves in McCallum’s narration with the interviews from ten years ago. It offers solid insight into the making of The Dream Team and its personalities. The podcast made a bit of splash this week when the third episode had Michael Jordan saying he wouldn’t play on the Dream Team if Isiah Thomas was picked. Which makes MJ look like a liar in his very own documentary.

Best Eat

Sheet Pan Italian Sub dinner: Yep, another sub, just not meatball this week. This wasn’t quite an Italian sub , but more like an Italian sub bowl with a sidecar of bread. It was delicious. Here’s the NYTimes cooking recipe.

Best Drink

Homemade Shandy: The thermometer tipped the 80 degree mark this week. Crack open any lager, pour it in a glass, add some lemonade (3:1 beer to lemonade ratio?) and enjoy! Or just buy Leinenkugel shandy, but it isn’t the same.

Best Plugs

The Match 2: I wrote about the Match 2 this weekend where Tom Brady embarrassed himself. Here it is.

The Imperfect Game Podcast: Southampton was this week’s club of choice. If you’re looking for insults based on having sex with fish, then this pod might be for you. Portsmouth and Southampton hate each other, and it’s glorious. I researched the clubs hero Matthew Le Tissier, who is a delight to watch gallop around the field and score amazing goals. iTunes link.

Friday Faves 2/7: Bookstores, Chicken Wings, Lord Huron, and Fiddlehead

Best Activity

Sometimes the best activity takes up an entire day or weekend. This week, it was a ten minute chunk of time on Wednesday. I had a bit of time to kill before a meeting in Concord. I was feeling a bit sleepy so I grabbed a coffee and headed for the Concord Bookshop, which is one of my favorites around. There’s not much better than wandering a bookstore: the smell, the quiet, the crack of a book as you skim through a couple pages. The Concord Bookshop has creaky wooden floors that betray your every move to the employees, and the old-town vibe that gives me the sense that I went back in time.

Bookstores also remind me of my old man, who would drag us into them when he had time to kill. Walden books in the mall might have been kept open a couple extra years because of my dad. He always had a pile of books at his bedside, but they seemed to be a in a constant rotation, never gathering too much dust. I was not a big reader growing up. At least in the classical book-reading sense, but every Christmas, my dad would give us each one book and he’d be sure to write “Merry Christmas, Dad.” He’d include the year. My mom’s house and my bookshelves in Boston are littered with books, and many of them have those little notes from my dad in them. It’s a tradition we’ve carried on since he died, we all buy books for each other for Christmas.

Best Watch

The Circle: This Netflix show gives me the heebie-jeebies, but I can’t stop watching it. The premise is that eight strangers are put in a house, kind of like the Real World; however, they don’t ever see or speak to each other. Each person is sequestered in their own apartments and interact with each other using “The Circle.” Every episode the contestants play games, group chat, solo chat, and manipulate and rank each other. The top two people are made influences and have a “meeting” to decide who to “block.” You’re blocked and you’re out for good, replaced by a new person. The most interesting part of the dynamic between these people is that some of them have created personas and are catfishing the group. For example, one guy is pretending to be his girlfriend, so any pictures that he posts are of her and if there’s ever a “girls chat” he is invited because everyone thinks he’s Rebecca.

Best Read

Midnight in Chernobyl: This book will get a deeper write-up in my Book Club section, but I just finished it this week. My sister gave it to me for Christmas because I loved the HBO series. The book is incredibly well researched (the last 20% is notes, acknowledgments, and sources) and dives deep into the mechanisms that allowed for such a disaster to happen and then get covered up. The Soviets were good at it.

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President: I don’t think this is a novel idea, but this article’s writer created a brand new account on Facebook and took a deep dive into the world of Donald Trump… even the smartest people can start to doubt things when they’re inundated with slated or misinformation. TheAtlantic.com

Best Listen

Lord Huron: I love this band and put them on this week while I was working. I’m just gonna leave one of my favorite songs by this band right here… give them a listen…

Accused: This podcast is in its third season. We listened to the first season a while ago. It covered an unsolved murder in Oxford, Ohio. We didn’t listen to the second season, but the third season has been a great listen, albeit, really scary. A man disappeared in Ohio and they believe his body was found in a uranium plant completely burned beyond recognition. They have no idea what happened, and this podcast tries to figure it out while also dipping into the world of water contamination, nuclear energy, and cover-ups. It’s well produced and on the heels of reading “Midnight in Chernobyl” I am haunted by the nuclear power wave and the risks it entails.

Here’s the trailer for Season 3;

Best Eat

Everything at Casa Verde : Casa Verde in Jamaica Plain was a new joint for me this week. I visited my friend Pat, who is on paternity leave, and we grabbed lunch there. They make an insanely delicious cacahaute salsa, which is a peanut salsa/dip. I had never had anything like it before.

I also ate two tacos: carnitas and rock shrimp which left me full because they didn’t skimp on the filling. Pat had a fried chicken torta which didn’t make me jealous, but it made me want to come back.

Chicken Wings: I don’t make chicken wings all that often, but I make a point to cook some up during the Super Bowl. The last couple years I have followed (roughly) a recipe from SeriousEats, which also has an amazing cookbook called “The Food Lab.” The best technique I have learned is the double fry. I used the oven this year to fry them the first time, then I let them cool for an hour before pan frying them. I tossed half of them in a hot sauce and the other half in a Korean BBQ sauce.

Best Drink

Hodad by Fiddlehead: This beer was introduced to us by the bartender at our local spot Monument Tavern in Charlestown. It’s a delicious American Porter. I had a couple during the Super Bowl. It’s probably a two beer max type of beer. It’s very rich, and if you like coconut and chocolate, give this one a whirl.

Best Plugs

Mookie Betts: It was a bad week for the Boston Red Sox. They traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers for what feels like 50 cents on the dollar. They are receiving a player in return, Alex Verdugo, who was caught up in a sexual abuse story a couple years ago and seemingly got pushed under the rug.

All this happened because the Sox were not terribly responsible with their money the last few years and “can’t afford” Mookie (they can…). Here’s a quick and dirty look at some of the bad contracts the Red Sox are on the hook for: Farewell Mookie Betts and Hello Bloated Salaries

Random Division: The Bachelor had five hours of shows this week. There isn’t a show that makes me more tired than this one. Tiff and I went ahead and recorded two podcasts. They are both only on Spotify right now because I messed up our iTunes feed and it isn’t back up and running yet.

Here’s the Spotify link to Wednesday’s podcast.

Friday Faves 12/13: Planners, Presidents Cup, Slangria, Couscous, and Music of the Decade

Best Activity:

A new planner: During my time as a teacher, I became dependent on my daily planner and a Moleskin notebook. They kept me relatively organized, although sometimes meetings would slip through the cracks… The planner was made for our school. Each student used one, it had events specific to the school on it (overnight field trips, the start and end of breaks, holidays, etc…) and it only covered the months of September-June. The summer was “plannerless.”

Now that I don’t have that planner anymore (I’d be lying if I didn’t think about asking a friend to grab one for me) I started looking around for one. I stumbled upon a “Bullet-Point” planner and started to use it this week. As far as dates, it’s completely blank, so I settled in on Sunday and filled in the entire thing with the dates for the next year. It was strangely gratifying to fill out all those dates. It reminded me how long a year is and how quickly it can go by all at the same time. When I arrived at December 2020 I started to think about the future version of me sitting down to reflect back on the year and fill out my 2021 planner. Considering my professional career is in limbo and I’m not sure what life will be like in a year, it was a little nerve-racking. Once I got over that feeling, it was exciting to imagine the possibilities that lie ahead.

The thing I like about this planner is it actually has pages every three months that act as a “quarterly” reflection for achievements, things I learned, things I’m looking forward to. The individual weekly pages are also simple. There’s a place for appointments, but also for a meal plan, To-Do List, priorities, and a theme.

As we head to 2020 and you’re trying to find a fresh way to organize your life, a new, different type of planner might be a good start.

Best Read:

Lovers in Auschwitz: “The first time he spoke to her, in 1943, by the Auschwitz crematory, David Wisnia realized that Helen Spitzer was no regular inmate. Zippi, as she was known, was clean, always neat. She wore a jacket and smelled good. They were introduced by a fellow inmate, at her request.” -NYTimes.com

Best Watch:

Presidents Cup: This international golf team competition started on Wednesday and will continue through this weekend. This tournament matches Team USA against an International team that includes every country outside of Europe. If you like golf (or the USA) and are interested in golf architecture, this is worth watching. Royal Melbourne is the host club, which was designed by Alastair McKenzie, who designed Augusta National. The US has historically dominated this competition, winning ten of the twelve past events. The USA finished strong on Thursday night’s session, capped off by Justin Thomas hitting a huge putt on 18 and celebrating with Tiger Woods. That putt could very well be remembered as the one that turned things around for the Americans.

Best Listen:

Pure Heroine: Lorde’s debut album hopped back on my radar this week as I spent some time sussing out my favorite albums of the decade for a podcast with Tiff. Hard to believe it came out in 2013. So many great songs on here: White Teeth Teeth, Buzzcut Season, and World Alone are some of my favorites. Not a skippable song in the bunch, I say.

Best Eat:

Spiced Seared Eggplant with Pearled Couscous: This was a delicious one-pot recipe we made this week. Tiff and I had to tag team to make it because I had a phone call scheduled. I got it started and she finished it off. It was easy (read: not much slicing and chopping) and, like I said, required just one pot; that’s always a bonus. The dish was filling, had some interesting flavor combos, including cinnamon, which I rarely eat in a dinner. If you wanted to add a bit of protein, I would imagine something decadent like steak tips or simpler like grilled chicken would be good additions.

Best Drink:

Slangria: There’s a brewery out of Cincinnati called Rhinegeist. It’s probably the only thing you’ll hear my wife get excited about that comes out of Cincy (oh, and Sky Line Chili). I’m not entirely sure how it made it’s way out to Massachusetts in such volume, but Rhinegeist (and Cidergeist) can be found in most stores around Boston. Slangria was a new brew that Tiff found at Total Wine and Liquor. I’ll let Rhinegeist give you the lowdown: “Pomegranate, blueberry and lime collide in an effervescent blend of ruby red refreshment. Luscious, slightly tart and full-bodied, Slangria sows scarlet seeds of juicy delight.”

I was surprised at how much I liked this. It’s like a gateway beer into sours, too. It’s tart, but not too much. A good beer to bring to a holiday party if you’ve got a few to attend this weekend. If you’re really creative, it’s probably something you could use as a mixed in a punch.

Best Plugs:

The Random Division: This week, Tiff and I talked about music of the last decade. Tiff has another “Get off My Lawn” moment, we rank our five favorite albums from the decade, and give some other artists a shoutout that we enjoyed listening to. iTunes (If you listen to us here. We’d love a rating or review. We’ll read your review on our next show!). Spotify (If you listen to us here, click “follow” and then go to iTunes and rate and review!).

Imperfect Game: For our fifth installment of this Past and Present series, Both and I researched at Sheffield United, one of the oldest soccer clubs in England. Sheffield United is newly promoted and making waves in the Premier League with their risky, and pioneering play. Their manager is a former Sheffield United ballboy and player. Some interesting info on Sheffield United’s home stadium and the city in here, too. iTunes (If you listen to us here. We’d love a rating or review. We’ll read your review on our next show!). Spotify (If you listen to us here, click “follow” and then go to iTunes and rate and review!).

Sport!: I wrote about my favorite English soccer team, Manchester United, this week. They have a star player that I think they need to sell.