The Bachelor has been the only reality show I’ve watched consistently over the last 15 years (I had to stop myself and do the math…). I found the show funny and intriguing and ridiculous. I roped other people into watching the show with me because watching alone felt silly. Who was going to laugh at my witty jokes and cutting observations if I was in an empty room?!
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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.
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.
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
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;
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.
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.
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.