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 2/6: Voting, Formula 1, Freaknomics, Rick Pitino, and Breakfast Gyros

Best Activity

Voting: I know the founding fathers didn’t picture millions of Americans walking into decrepit middle school gymnasia around the country to cast their ballot, but here we are. It’s probably the only thing that can create some mystique to that setting. Unless mystique is an Axe spray (I checked, it’s not an Axe scent).

I walked down to the middle school in Charlestown and casted my vote in the democratic primary. The experience always gives me the chills. It’s such an intimate experience wrapped in the greater good. I can’t think of any other action we take as people that has the same effect.

Best Watch

Formula 1: Drive to Survive: The series is back! I texted by buddy Pat who is on paternity leave: “I know what you’re watching this week.” He wrote back, “Oh shit. Was that out today?”

Not many shows can generate that type of ESP.

Best Read

This is an article about kids and phones that I wish I had written: I felt this Assistant Principle’s pain with every sentence. Phones are the worst and have created an added layer of responsibilities for educators. Some parents think they have it under control or that their kids are 100% honest with them. They’re not. Not all the time. No matter how great your kid happens to be.

Parents: your kids know every way around those “sky apps” that show you what they’re doing on their phone. They’re smarter than you, and they know exactly how to leverage that knowledge. GoodMorningAmerica.com

Twenty Years Later, Rick Pitino’s “Not Walking Through That Door” Rant lives on: Hat tip to reader and friend Rob for sharing this article. It’s been twenty years since Rick Pitino lost his mind at a press conference and offered his nomination for the Mount Rushmore of Coaching Meltdowns. This piece is more like an oral history, with quotes from various people involved or covering the Celtics during the Pitino Era (Full Disclosure: I forgot Pitino coached the Cs for as long as he did. What a disaster.) - TheAthletic.com

An Article Remembering my Former Golf Coach: Bob Molt, who was the golf coach at Holy Cross, passed away last week. He was quite the guy with a boatload of stories, a pocket full of one-liners and a big, kind heart. - Telegram.com

Best Listen

Bill Simmons Podcast: If you’re not an NFL fan, skip the first 30 minutes of this pod and listen to Simmons’ interview with Stephen Dunbar, coauthor of Freakonomics and host of the Freakonomics Radio podcast (which is next on the list). Dunbar is super interesting and turns the podcast around into an interview of Simmons, which is always fun when he’s a little off kilter and has to talk about himself and not just make constant analogies to Boston sports stars and 1980s movies.

Freakonomics Radio: I had never listened to a second of this podcast until Thursday; I listened to a few since, and this one about meetings hit close to home. Meetings suck, and schools might be the worst at running meetings. I still get the chills when I remember the 4:15-5:30 Monday evening meetings we would have.

Best Eat

Breakfast Gyro at Committee in the Seaport: Tiff and I are running a bunch of miles on the weekends as we creep up on the Big Sur Marathon at the end of April. This past Saturday was a cold, windy day for a run along the Charles River. A trip to Committee kept my legs churning, and golly it was worth it. We don’t go to brunch all that often, but this Breakfast Gyro might be my favorite brunch item I’ve had in Boston.

The Gyro is served in a large pita stuffed with chorizo, scrambled eggs, and cheese. It’s insanely good all the way around. The chorizo is in big chucks, the eggs are cooked perfectly (creamy but not watery). The pita is soft and the side of potatoes require no ketchup or hot sauce. Just a dynamite brunch following a 19 mile run.

Soy-Glazed Chicken Breasts with Pickled Cucumbers: It took a lot on Thursday evening to not pull the cover off the grill, stand outside with a beer, and enjoy the early days of spring. But this chicken recipe was a phenomenal alternative. It is simple and absolutely delicious. The process of cooking it made the chicken unbelievably tender, and even though the recipe calls for like a lot of steps, the chicken stays in the pan the whole time, just covered or uncovered with a few ingredients added as you go. Serve on rice, or make it a GD sandwich.

Best Drink

Daily Serving by Trillium: This beer blew my mind. It’s basically juice. We had the mango and passion fruit version, but they have a bunch of different brews. I have nothing else to say.

Best Plug

The Random Division Pod: The Women Tell All was not all that great, which is on brand with past versions of the reunion episode. But Tiff did a Reddit deeeep dive and we talked about the women who were, and weren’t, at the union. Listen here on iTunes and here on Spotify.

As usual, spread the love and tell your friends, or just nab their phone and subscribe for them. They’ll thank you later!

Oh, and follow us in Instagram: TheRandomDivisionPod.

The Imperfect Game: Both and I continue to get as much as we can out of the research we did this winter. This week, we picked the worst stadium, fans, crests, uniforms, etc from the ten teams we have highlighted in this series to build our Nightmare Club. Listen here on iTunes and here on Spotify.

Friday Faves 2/21: Pammy's, Cadbury, Pearl Jam, Taco Bell Tuesdays, Knives Out

Best Activity

Last Friday, Tiff and I ventured to Cambridge for a Valentine’s Day dinner at Pammy’s. I’ve written about Pammy’s before, but it is amazing. It’s impossible to get a reservation on a normal Friday, let alone Valentine’s Day, so we got there early and stalked the bar scene. They had a prix-fix menu, four courses, two choices for each course, so we ate every on the menu for the night, sharing each course. Biggest upset of the night was Tiff’s fear of red snapper and then liking it more than the chicken dish that was served along side it.

The highlights were the the Taglierini with Wagyu Oxtail, chocolate, and horseradish. It’s a regular on the menu, but was part of Friday’s menu, too. It’s so so good. The best new dish from Friday night was a chocolate Torte. It had this insanely delicious crust on the bottom and an sorbet with whipped cream that tasted like a creamsicle.

I’ve said it here before, I’ll say it again. If you live in or are visiting Boston, you have to make time for Pammy’s. Get to the bar early or make a reservation weeks in advance.

Best Watch

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood - What a fantastic movie. I am not a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, but this movie gripped me for the entire two hours and forty minutes. The old time western aspects of the movie were amazing, and watching actors pretend to be actors is always a strange universe to step into. There’s a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothy Olyphant are shooting a scene in a western movie. It’s actors pretending to be actors and actually acting. It’s inception level stuff.

I didn’t know that the Charles Manson murders played a role in the movie, and it added a creepy edge to the story. The ending, which was gruesome in a classically Tarantino manner, was great and satisfying. Oh, and Brad Pitt was superb the whole way through; he’s slowly morphing into Robert Redford.

Knives Out - Another fantastic movie (two in one week!). A witty Who-Dunnit that is well-paced and kept me guessing the entire time. Daniel Craig sheds his James Bond skin and is wonderful as the New Orleans detective hired to crack the case when well-known murder mystery author dies suspiciously.

Best Listen

“Ten” by Pearl Jam: Maybe it was Starbucks osmosis, but on Tuesday, as I searched for something to listen to, Pearl Jam popped into my head. I have never listened to “Ten” or any Pearl Jam album, for that matter. I just missed the Nirvana and Pearl Jam grunge-band fervor of the early 90s. I have to say, I enjoyed the album; obviously, I was familiar with a lot of the songs, but just hadn’t listened to them in the order Pearl Jam intended (and about three decades late, too).

Peter Kostis interview: Hell hath no fury like a scorned lover or a fired golf commentator. Peter Kostis was fired by CBS this fall and he joined Chris Solomon to air some grievances, inform the listener about the challenges of covering golf on TV, and label Patrick Reed as a dirty, rotten cheater…

Best Read

Meet Lazarus Lake, the Man Behind the Barkley Marathons: I read this article when it came out nearly a year ago, but returned to it this week because I saw a trailer for a documentary about the hardest race in the world. Over the last 25 years, only 10 people have even finished the race. This is a profile of the man who dreamed up this insane race through the woods in Tennessee. Outside Online.

Best Eat

If you skimmed over the “Best Activity” section, go back for some of my favorite foods of the week… any other week, these were stand-outs…

Cheesy Gordita Crunch: Our favorite Charlestown spot, Monument, does a Taco Tuesday every week. Every couple months they roll out a very special Taco Bell Tuesday and remake some of the Taco Bell favorites that every college kid and pothead enjoy. The place fills up so quickly that we arrived at 4:55 to get a seat. It was a little over zealous, but by the time we left at 6:00, there wasn’t a seat available in the restaurant.

The Cheesy Gordita Crunch is a hard shell taco with ground beef. However, wrapped around the edge of the hard shell, and secured with cheese, is a soft tortilla. If given the choice, hard shell taco takes last place in my taco hierarchy. I’d even place it behind a taco bowl. But when you add the soft shell wrapper, it keeps everything together, and the hard shell provides a satisfying crunch.

Easiest Chicken Noodle Soup: This is one of Tiff’s favorite NYTimes cooking recipes. It calls for ground chicken; the egg noodles are delicious even though they soak up so much broth that the leftovers need either more broth or an open-mind to eating a pasta dish. Soup season is dying soon as spring approaches, so get on this one soon!

Cadbury Chocolate Mini-Eggs: These delightful eggs might be the best holiday themed chocolate in the world. Listen, I’m not talking about the Cadbury Cream Egg. Those are weird. I’m talking about the small, candy covered chocolate eggs that make M&Ms run and hide for a few weeks. I bought a bag at CVS last week, and while it might have been the greatest choice I made all week, it’s something that can’t become a habit.

Best Plugs

Book Club on Midnight in Chernobyl: Did a little write up on Midnight in Chernobyl, an excellent read about the Chernobyl disaster and cover-up. Here’s the link.

The Random Division: Hometown dates were last week. Give our podcast a listen to catch up or relive the families and fights! iTunes. Follow us on Instagram! TheRandomDivision

The Imperfect Game: I was back with Both Long to talk about Blackburn Rovers. This was a special one, as Both and I did it in person at my apartment. iTunes.

Friday Faves 1/24: 1917, Substitute teaching, The Outsider, and White Bean Pasta

Best Activity

On Monday I received a call from my former school, they were looking for a substitute teacher for the week. A former colleague, and very good friend of mine, was out of town and needed coverage. I said yes. I am glad I did. From Tuesday to Friday I dragged my butt out of bed a little earlier every morning and made the auto-pilot ride up Route 1.

In many respects, it was just like riding a bike. I love being in the classroom and around kids. I especially loved returning to a place where people knew me, so I could just jump back in. I felt like the fun uncle, I dropped in for a few days with very few responsibilities (a far cry from when I worked there full time) and then got to pack up at the end of the day without any grading or planning to do. It was glorious!

Most importantly, it gave me some great insight to my mindset the last couple years as a teacher. I was lucky enough to be involved with every grade in the school, most of the 400 kids knew who I was (and some of them hated me due to my role as Dean of Students). Returning to a place I worked to see it running smoothly helped me see that while we may think we’re vital to an institution, things will be fine when you move on. It also made me realize that sometimes, maybe a lot of the time, I took myself too seriously in those last few years. In some respects, I lost the joy of being at a school and around smart kids and wonderful colleagues.

It’s also pretty cool to have a 6 year-old see you from a distance and remember you by name. They can barely remember what they ate for breakfast.

Best Watch

1917: For the first time in my life, I went to see a movie by myself last week at the new Arclight in Boston. In the last year, we have gone from having one theater within walking distance (Boston Common) to having three within walking distance. I mistimed my arrival at the theater and found myself in an empty cinema 30 minutes before the showing with a small popcorn and an ice coffee. It was rather eery, and I was actually nervous I was in the wrong theater, even the screen was turned off. I did enjoy the experience of seeing a movie in the middle of the day, and I plan on doing it more often. There’s a lot of good movies out there right now.

Okay, let’s talk about 1917. It’s spectacular. The critiques I have heard are centered around a lack of story, and I would say that’s a fair thing complaint. If you’re looking for a plot-driven, dialogue laden movie, then this isn’t where you should be looking. If you’re looking for a movie that’s going to offer amazing cinematography, sweeping views, tension, and fun cameos (Richard Madden, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Andrew Scott, and Mark Strong) then 1917 should be on your list. The main two actors are really excellent, the movie doesn’t drag on.

I’d put the first 30 minutes up against the first 30 minutes of any movie ever (I’m looking at you Saving Private Ryan).

The Outsiders: This new HBO show has aired three episodes so far. It’s based on the Stephen King novel, so when we started it we should have known it was going to veer off the true crime path into the supernatural. The story is about the small town murder of a boy, but the main suspect has a rock solid alibi but was also spotted at the scene of the crime. Hilarity does not ensue; the town, and lead detective, is left trying to figure out what the heck is going on. The cast is excellent, led by Jason Bateman and Ben Mendelsohn, from Bloodline. Do yourself a favor and watch the first three episodes this weekend.

Best Read

Becoming a Man: A moving essay about transition, family, and manhood. P. Carl is an exceptional writer, and I look forward to reading his book: Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition. NYTimes.com.

Best Listen

No Laying Up with Lanny Wadkins: Any golfer will love this interview. Wadkins played in the 70s and 80s and is now a golf analyst. He shares some great stories and insights. The interviewing just gets out of the way and lets him run wild. Spotify.

Best Eat

Cannellini Bean Pasta with Buerre Blanc: This was a NYTimes winner this week. Listen, I know I post a lot of NYTimes stuff on here. If you don’t subscribe, you should. It’s dynamite. Tiff found this one and made it, and she added Swiss Chard. If we weren’t ravenous that night, we would have had leftovers.

Best Social

Marcus Mariotta: If Tom Brady leaves the Patriots, Mariotta is a possible replacement. He was benched this season in Tennessee, but has come up in conversations about what the Pats might do next at quarterback. He’s an incredible guy with plenty of talent, and this clip of him cheering up Ryan Tannehill, the QB that replaced him, is amazing. This is what a good teammate looks like.

Marcus Mariota is seriously the best dude on the planet. pic.twitter.com/Th8ExKzxNv

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 22, 2020

Best Plugs

The Random Division: We’re three episodes into The Bachelor and Peter is in love with all the women. Here’s our latest episode where we wrap-up ChampagneGate (thankfully) and open up a new feud. iTunes.

The Imperfect Game: Nothing new this week, but we can an episode in the can that’ll be out on Monday about Blackburn Rovers. If you haven’t listened to any of our Past and Present pods, you should. iTunes

Friday Faves 12/20: Themed Yankee Swaps, Gingerbread Coffee, Jason Mesnick, and Dal

Best Activity:

Holiday Party: This weekend, we hosted a holiday party. It’s become a bit of a tradition at this point. We hmm and haw over the date starting around Halloween, wanting to pick the one that will be best for the most people. Some years we’ve had small groups of 7 or 8 and other years, like this one, we have about 20 people crammed into our apartment.

Over the years, we’ve streamlined the prep for the party. Food is easier, we’ve dialed in the booze purchasing so we’re not left with a year supply of beer the next morning.

This year’s party had some new additions, either people that we’ve befriended in the last year or folks that could finally attend. Much like a wedding, it’s always gratifying to have people from various parts of our lives come together and get along. We had a Yankee Swap this year with the theme of “hometown” which could be interpreted in different ways. We all gathered around, opened, and exchanged gifts. The theme was clever (and, naturally, Tiff’s idea), but the unintended consequence was it offered everyone a chance to explain their gift and where they’re from. It was a great excuse to have everyone in the same room for 30 minutes to hang out, joke around, and learn about each other.

Best Read:

Decade in Pictures (and some words…): Some stunning stuff in here to remind us all of the good and bad of the last decade. NYTimes.com

What the Digital Revolution Really Did To Us: From Joseph Bernstein at BuzzFeed… sadly, the toothpaste is out of the tube… “Comparing the coming changes to the Enlightenment, Katz lauded an ‘interactivity’ that ‘could bring a new kind of community, new ways of holding political conversations’ — ‘a media and political culture in which people could amass factual material, voice their perspectives, confront other points of view, and discuss issues in a rational way.’ Such a sensible, iterative American public life contained, Katz wrote, “the … tantalizing … possibility that technology could fuse with politics to create a more civil society.”

Best Watch:

Collateral: A British four part mini-series that zooms around London following the murder of a pizza delivery man. The murder sparks inquiries about drug deals, immigration, and honesty. We’re two episodes in and it’s very good, you know, like every British TV show. Is it the accents? The storytelling? The cityscapes? Outside of the modern Sherlock series, this is the first British show we’ve watched that is set in London, usually we’re out in the countryside or an industrial town. Find it on Netflix.

Bachelor on Netflix: Last week, Jason Mesnick’s season of the Bachelor was dropped on Netflix without any marketing. The season aired in 2009, and if you like the series this show is a great reminder of what it was like before the Instagram/influencer angle swept through the contestants. If you don’t know how the season ended, it’s amazing. It’s also a much smaller time commitment. Fewer shows (I’m on episode 5 and there are five women left) and no commercials.

Best Listen:

Reading Adventure: I have been in the final phases of working on a massive writing project. The “Reading Adventure” playlist on Spotify has been superb to listen to. It’s a list of instrumental songs from epic TV shows and movies. You can find it on Spotify’s “focus” channel. Put it on and it will make doing the laundry feel like your hero’s journey

Best Eat:

Ritz Peanut Butter Cookies: Tiff makes these, and they were a hit at our holiday party. She makes ritz peanut butter sandwiches and then dips them in melted white chocolate (milk chocolate would work, too, I’d imagine). My friend Eliot said they tasted like a homemade Butterfinger.

Cannoli Dip: This Wegman’s pre-made dessert was insane. Basically it’s all the good parts of a cannoli without the challenge of eating a tube of cheese. This ricotta dip was served with cannoli chips (the shell of a cannoli). The cannoli “chips” were delicious on their own and stayed good for a few days after that they went well with hot chocolate later in the week. Add this to your shopping list.

Masoor Dal: This red lentil dish was incredibly simple to make and fed us for two nights this week, with enough left over for a lunch portion. While I love sweet potato, chopping it into small pieces is always a bit of a pain. But that’s the only chopping you’re doing aside from an onion. We had it with some white rice I dug out of the back of the cabinet and some naan I bought at the store (I’m not a bread maker…).

Best Drink:

Gingerbread Coffee from Trader Joe’s: The season is running out, but this flavored, affordable, coffee is one of the best I’ve had. It doesn’t smack you in the face with gingerbread; I dare you to throw in a little maple syrup or, if you’re feeling feisty, some eggnog. I’d imagine this flavor will be replaced with the January/February blend of “I hate the winter" very soon.

Best Plugs:

The Random Division: Tiff kicked me off the pod for the week in favor of Lindsay so they could talk about musicals and theater of the last decade (I would have been a horrible cohost on this one…) It’s a great listen; even if you’re not a big musicals person you’ll learn something and definitely see the crossover between theater, television, movies, literature (Moby Dick: The Musical is coming….) and (duh) music. Listen on iTunes (subscribe, rate, review!) or Spotify.

The Imperfect Game: In the fifth installment of our Past and Present series, Both and I talk about Sheffield Wednesday. This one has everything, match-fixing, crosstown rivals, stadium tragedies, and modern-day financial shenanigans. iTunes (subscribe, rate, review!) and Spotify.

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.

Friday Faves 11/8: French Onion Mac and Cheese, Derry Girls, Scary Pods, and Cover Songs

Best Activity

Seeing Friends: For the first time since June, I returned to the school where I used to work. I had promised myself I’d go to watch the boys soccer team play before the season ended. I spent an hour or so before the game wandering the halls and saying hello to everyone. It was great, and it gave me a sense of why I left, but also why I miss it. There’s no replacing the energy of a school. 400+ people buzzing around before 8:00am, ready to seize the day (or just survive it…). It turned out there were four home games that day, so there was a bunch of activity on the fields, which was great. It was one of those picturesque days that admissions directors dream of putting in a brochure. Low fall sun, packed sidelines, competition, smiling faces.

Part of the reason I walked away from teaching, or at least being in a school, was my role as Dean of Students. I have told people that being a Dean of Students has the same life span as an NFL running back. You get beat up for 3-5 years and look for something else to do (and the ones that do it longer should be in a Hall of Fame someone). When I started working with kids at summer camp in high school, it just came naturally. I got along with kids (maybe it was the match in maturity-level…). When I started teaching, I felt the same way. Once I became Dean of Students, I transformed into the Grimm Reaper, I was asked more times than I’d like to admit, “Am I in trouble?” It sapped my energy, I couldn’t just talk to a kid about last night’s NBA games or the Patriots win or their essay. There was a constant static between me and the kids. That’s no one’s fault, it’s just how it was.

I was glad to return without the static. I was also glad to return and see the plethora of really great colleagues I had over the years. It’s the thing that everyone misses the most when they leave. I don’t think there are many places with such a close-knit, positive, fun group of teachers. It definitely filled my bucket getting back and seeing them on Wednesday.

Going back was fun, and it gave be a sense of what I missed and didn’t miss about being in a school environment. My new existence is a much quieter one. There’s more time to think, less reacting and putting out fires. I have to work a lot harder to get my 10,000 steps in without a going for a run. I have to work a lot harder to get that human contact. Maybe that’s part of the reason I like starting my day in a coffee shop, it feels the same as a hallway in the morning. The promise of the day bubbling up in everyone, the coming and going. The excitement.

On top of that, last Saturday, we had our annual “Friendsgiving” which started when we all found women that were organized enough to organize us. It is so hard to get a bunch of us together, and this afternoon is one of only a few where the majority of us can hang out. I miss the days when we could walk down the hall (or even just hop on the T) to hang out for a day or weekend. We do a potluck and all catch up with one another. I believe there are “High School people” or “College people” when it comes to friends we keep. I am, for the most part, a college person. My high school friends scattered and I’ve found that even after my Holy Cross group has scatted, we have stayed in touch through email chains and gatherings like this one.

Best Read

Dopamine Fasting (NYTimes): The world is full of stimuli. Just like with a drug, our body craves more dopamine over time. Our bodies become unimpressed with the dopamine hit a 10 likes on instagram gives us, so we chase 20 likes. There are \some guys in Silicon Valley who have started dopamine fasting, making an effort to limit stimuli for a day. They think this lack of stimuli resets (or at least helps) how their body reacts to dopamine. This helps them appreciate the little things again. No screen time, no human contact, no music. Nothing that might spike those dopamine levels. While it’s kinda whacky, I think it’s also interesting.

Best Listen

Knifepoint Horror: This narrative podcast will give you the creeps, so if you like that kind of thing, give this podcast a listen. The most recent episode called, “Three for Halloween” starts with a creepy tale that’s about 8 minutes long. If you like it, keep listening. If not, at least you tried.

Fake Plastic Trees by Tramples by Turtles: This Radiohead cover came across my Spotify discover playlist. Trampled by Turtles is a great band, and this cover is excellent.

Best Watch

Derry Girls: I’m not sure how this show hasn’t been on Friday Faves before. It’s an Irish comedy set in 1990s Derry (or Londonderry, depending on what side you’re on…). The show follows a group of teenagers who continuously find themselves in trouble with school, their parents, and various religious leaders. It has an incredible sound track taps into the great Irish music of the time, particularly Ace of Base and The Cranberries. I’d recommend watching it with subtitles… it’s tough to follow sometimes between the speed they speak and the slang.

Chelsea v. Ajax: This game was incredible. I found myself standing in my living room for the last 25 minutes as Ajax held on for dear life with 9 men against Chelsea’s 11 men in London.

Best Eat

French Onion Mac and Cheese: This NYTimes food recipe was our contribution to “Friendsgiving.” This is a baked mac and cheese, however, the recipe adds onions and the classic French Onion gruyere cheese along with slices of bread on top, just like the soup. It was delicious. Buy the cheese grated, it makes life a lot easier.

Best Drink

Nuun: I’m running a marathon on Sunday, so I’ve been trying to drink as much water as possible. Last year, we discovered Nuun tablets, which turn water into a flavorful beverage packed with even more nutrients. They have a ton of flavors and they also have a different purposes. You can purchase ones with caffeine or ones that offer more vitamins. They are low (or zero) calories and aren’t gross and sugary. They’re perfect in that first glass of water in the morning or if you’re looking for a little pick me up in the afternoon but can’t bear to walk into a holiday adorned Starbucks for a cup of coffee. They come in a great little case that you can stick in a bag and bring with you!

Best Plugs (my stuff from the week)

It’s too early for Holiday decorations, right?: I wrote this post early this week, and on Thursday when I walked into Starbucks I felt validated AF. It was like the place was visited by elves. The typically black menus were replaced with bright red ones, advertising peppermint mocha and and gingerbread lattes. The bakery case had a gingerbread load; I guess the pumpkin loaf had to skip town. Strands of lights lined the menus and I had to drink my coffee from a holiday cup. This all came after I left my wife on the couch watching a Hallmark Christmas movie to start her day.

Soccer Podcasts: Both and I spoke for about 90 minutes this week about soccer. I broke it into two different podcasts. First, a 30 minute podcast that covers the current events in English soccer. Second, Both and I did some research on Wolverhampton Wanderers and reported back our findings. I looked at the long history of the club and Both dove into the club’s present day management and how they have turned into a solid, effective English club that’s found it’s way back into European football. This was a blast to record and we’re planning on doing a bunch more of these so we can learn about various clubs in England.

Digital Time Capsule: The Random Division is back with Season 2! Tiff and I will be releasing an episode every Friday between now and January breaking down the world of pop-culture over the past decade. In the first episode we talk about TV and rank our five favorite shows of the decade. Please subscribe or follow on your podcast apps.

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