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 2/14: Chili Cook-Off, The Pharmacist, Carly Rae, Scallops, and Hazy Janes.

Best Activity

Chili Cook-off: Last Saturday, Tiff and I drove down to Hoboken, New Jersey for a chili cook-off hosted by our friends Lindsay and Dean. Chili is this funny food that has so many different interpretations, some of which can be polarizing (see: White chili and Skyline chili).

Like all good ideas, it has grown slowly. This year’s battle had nine chilis and the apartment was packed. The theme changes each year. Year one had an Olympic theme, so winners received medals and the mood was rather patriotic. Last year it was hosted on President’s Day Weekend, so it had a presidential tilt to it. This year, it was the Oscars. There was a red carpet welcoming the guests and the three winners received Oscars. The tasting is all blind, so each contestant picked from a list of best picture winners over the years to label their chili, which made it sound like we were talking about the pot: The Gladiator was really good. Oh, I haven’t had My Fair Lady was delicious.

If you don’t have a friend that hosts some sort of food-focused contest/party, be that friend and start one yourself. Mac and cheese, soup, chili, and dip all have a place in the world of competitive cooking.

Best Watch

The Pharmacist: This show is so captivating that when I put on the first episode, Tiff was winding down for bed and she literally stopped in the living and stood transfixed throughout the entire show. The docuseries is based in New Orleans and a nearby parish called St. Bernard. The main figure in the show is a father whose son was killed at age 23 in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans trying to score some drugs. The four episodes move quickly and it wasn’t at all what we expected, every episode is different. It begins with the father, Dan Schneider, trying to find out who killed his son. Once that’s done, he moves his attention to the opioid addiction sweeping the area. He is an actual pharmacist, so he’s watching people come in for Oxycontin and starts to ask questions. He’s basically an amateur private investigator. The show builds to the point where Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, goes bankrupt.

It’s an excellent four episode docuseries. I particularly liked that each episode had one focus with the through line being Dan Schneider trying to make the world a better place.

Best Read

The Chain: After a few long, intense reads, this was a perfect February beach read, without the beach. The story is set on the North Shore of Massachusetts, an area I have spent a lot of time. It’s a true page turner about a kidnapping ring that sustains itself because once a loved one is kidnapped, the only way to free them is to pay a ransom and kidnap someone else yourself. If you break The Chain, you and your loved ones die. That simple. The book is fast-paced and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it turned into a movie at some point soon. Amazon.

Best Listen

Let’s Be Friends by Carley Rae Jepsen: “Let’s be friends” could be a phrase used a lot today as people shoot their shot with a crush on Valentine’s Day. Jepsen’s new song has a break-up anthem that will probably find it’s way into most dance parties this spring and summer. It’s bitter and angry but still has that Carley Rae pop sound that weasels it’s way into your brain that you find yourself humming later on the in the day.

Best Eat

Seared Scallop Pasta With Burst Tomatoes and Herbs: This NYTimes cooking recipe is dynamite and incredibly easy. If you’re not a scallop person, or they intimate you, or you don’t like the smell of fish in your apartment (like someone I know…) you could substitute scallops with shrimp, salmon, chicken, or.. nothing. From “First chop to first bite” it probably took 35 minutes.

Best Drink

Brewdog’s Hazy Jane: This was a new one for me this week. I had it in Hoboken, and then I proceeded to have a couple more (hey, it pairs nicely with chili…). It’s on the sweeter side as far as IPAs go, but as someone that likes Pepsi over Coke and Bud Light over Miller Lite, I seem to have a taste for more sugary drinks.

Best Plugs

Should We Really be Worried About Tom Brady Leaving?: I’m not sure Tom Brady returning to Foxboro is the best thing for the Pats at this point. I tried to put my emotional hedge into words… here’s the link.

The Random Division: Tiff and I were at it again this week watching The Bachelor and then talking about it. I firmly believe if you don’t watch the show, you could hop in right now and thoroughly enjoy the next four Mondays of viewing. In fact, after 30 minutes you might know the four women as well as Peter does. Just a disaster of a season. We can’t get enough of it.

Follow our show on Instagram… TheRandomDivision

I also tweet up a GD storm on Mondays during the show on my personal Twitter… BostonHomer.

iTunes link (rate, review, subscribe, and tell your friends!) and we’re on Spotify…

The Imperfect Game: After a short hiatus, Both and I are back talking English football. This week’s club is Southampton F.C. A club without many trophies, but a load of homegrown talent that they have sent all over England and Europe. A fantastic academy and scouting program have helped Southampton F.C. stay stable, but has never pushed them to the top of English football.

iTunes link…