Charcuterie Vol. 21
Lucky number 21! It's been a minute...
Hello dear reader! It has been over two months since I last put together a charcuterie of written words. Too long! So long that I’ve surely forgotten to include many things that might be of interest to you. So long that I’ve almost forgotten how it was I ever put these together in the first place.
To catch you up: December was a mad rush. I ran like an energizer bunny for the first three weeks and was sick for Christmas (two years running now!). It became the New Year and things got slow and cold and perfect. January was delightfully long. Bet you haven’t heard anyone say that yet, but here I am saying it. February has sped up a bit but it’s still cold and perfect.
I haven’t read too much in the way of short form or sharable things, at least not much that I’m compelled to share with you.
I did find this Aeon piece on prayer’s cognitive power interesting. I feel wary of over-intellectualizing something that to me is so clearly beyond any kind of logical breakdown or classification. I find the scientific impulse to explain the unexplainable unsettling rather than invigorating, which is obviously a personal thing. To me prayer is good because it entails active participation in one’s own relationship with God (or alternate higher power). A worthy endeavor without having to be a means to an end.
Still, it was a good reminder of prayer’s concrete benefits. The author, Sam Dresser, seems to want to imply that even people who don’t believe in God can reap these benefits. While true in the sense that the god you pray to does not have to be the traditional Christian God, and true that some elements of prayer can be co-opted for problem solving outside of their context, the piece can't reach it’s own desired conclusion. This is because in truth, not anyone can reap the full benefits of prayer. Someone who does not believe in any higher power cannot engage in one of prayers central actions (as identified by Dresser and seconded by this author): giving it to God. How can you give something to someone you don’t believe in?
I also read this short story by Sonia Feldman, which was excellent and just the right amount of creepy for me (a truly pathetic scaredy-cat). In it a group of scientists is tasked with tending to a mysterious, white-flowered plant at an isolated greenhouse site. They do not know why they have been tasked with it or what the plant does. They tend, they take notes, they prepare samples and seeds. Our narrator is the only woman in a group of eight scientists. I loved it.
I also love Sonia’s weekly email, Sonia’s Poem of The Week, which you can sign up for here. Read more poetry always!!!!!! Last week’s poem was by C.P. Cavafy, which reminded me that I have a collection of selected poems by him. Thank you for the reminder, Sonia!
Here’s the one she chose, plus an assortment of other poems I like. For you:
The other thing I’ve been reading is recipes! Lots and lots of recipes. The universe seems to want me to engage with beans and leeks and broth. First these beans and leeks in briny broth from Sara Keene, then these miso brothy beans ‘n leeks from katie. Literally say no more, I have no objections.
My two new recipes for the month of January were Italian Wedding Soup from Julia Turshen’s What Goes with What and Rice Noodles with Green Onions and Edamame from Ottolenghi’s Plenty More.
I made two roast chickens, and subsequent chicken salad from half of the second chicken. Chicken salad is stupidly good? With a little lemony arugula salad & avocado on toast (wheat preferred)?? I can’t believe I lived 25 years of my life without eating chicken salad because it has what? Celery in it??????? I’m making up for lost time. My most recent iteration had celery, green onions, cayenne, lemon, salt, pep, dijon, mayo. Eyeball everything. So simple, so delicious.
I also made up a soup recipe that involved fennel, celery, onions, a bean varietal that I cannot remember the name of (they may have been these???), plus shredded chicken & kale, pesto & pecorino to top, served over a little bowl of pipette rigate (to catch the beans, duh).
I’ve actually been consuming other medias of late (rare).
The girls at Mandylion Press have been keeping me positively entertained with their podcast 1-800-1800, wherein they choose a year of the long 19th century (roughly 1789-1914) and just chat about all the crazy things that happened in that year. It’s exactly the kind of nerdy, hyper-specific yet broad-ranging shit I’m into. I only wish it came out weekly instead of monthly, now that I’ve caught up on all 5 episodes. But I really cannot complain because my own podcast is published on a monthly schedule. It’s a lot of work, okay!!!!!
19 by Adele is a perfect album. I listen to it on LOOP at work. Nothing else to really add here, but was the soundtrack to my January. Listen, enjoy.
My lover and I have been watching The Sopranos. I know, I know, late to the party, whatever. I never said I was a trend-setter, never claimed to be on the cutting edge. I just like the sound of my own voice (spoken and written both do the trick), and by subscribing you’re enabling me, and what that means is that every once in a while you have to read something as unoriginal as “I’m watching and loving The Sopranos.” If you haven’t watched it, you obviously should. It’s great for winter.
An unexpected benefit of watching TV again is that I have time for my needlepoint as well. I’m trying to decide what color to do for the letters. I was planning to do the dark green, but then my friend and life partner, Maddie suggested that I do a contrasting color. So now I’m thinking orange or purple. Do weigh in.
In other delightful and uncategorizable news, there are four (4) FOUR planets (PLANETS) plainly visible with the human eye, currently gracing our night sky. These are the stars I wrote about last month. They’re actually not stars, they’re planets! Saturn and Jupiter and Mars and Venus. VENUS! I see her every day on my walk home from work and I take a picture and draw a little heart around her and send it to my lover. The other night she was right up next to the moon and I tried to take a picture, and it was horrible! So instead, I’m writing this to make sure that everyone is looking up. It really just isn’t every day that you get to see something like that.
Similarly uncommon was the hand carved wood mantle I found at a thrift shop in Chelsea this month. Don’t bother asking, I won’t tell you where. I deliberated, but with a $150 price tag, the mantle won. I won. We both won. Maddie and I carried it home with Lexy as our director (both in the sense that she photographed us and made sure that we didn’t knock anyone over at the turns). Barely anyone on the street or subway batted an eyelash.
I had to rearrange my whole living room to make it work, but the fun consequence of that is that I feel like I just moved in again. I think I’ll put some stick on wallpaper on the inside (send recs) and get some very large candle holders (send recs) in order to achieve perfection. My mom says I should get a poster of a roaring fire that can be rolled up and down depending on mood and weather.
Something else to think about and make sure you do is taking yourself out to dinner alone. I did this in January and will do it again this month (probably). Nothing feels more decadent and grown up to me than dining alone at the bar. If you’re worried about seeing someone you know and feeling uncomfortable, go to a neighborhood where you don’t know anyone. Personally I delight at the idea of someone I know seeing me and thinking, wow, look at that charming woman dining alone at the bar. Oh wait! That’s Eve.
And finally, I must add: the morning moon has been showing off. So this is me, once again, telling you to look up.
Coming soon, Kathryn and I are reading White Nights for February’s episode of Something We Read the Podcast™. Please join us! You have no reason not to, it’s only 50 pages long, really technically a short story.
I will be starting The Artist’s Way this weekend, so if you notice me acting different, that’s why (could also be the fact that I recently got the Our Place blender (not an affiliate link, just genuinely obsessed with it) and am now making smoothies at home). Hopefully you guys will benefit from this exercise. The Artist’s Way, not the smoothies. I will become so prolific I’ll end up setting anywhere from 1/3 to 3/4 of my writing aflame. There will just be too much of it, and we can’t have it falling into the wrong hands. Only the best will make it here to the light of day.
And FINALLY, one week from today is Valentine’s Day. Probably my third favorite holiday after Christmas and Groundhog Day. Make sure you send your valentines early next week. I’m positively giddy already. My lover and I will be cooking dinner together on Thursday night. Possibly shrimp scampi, though he’s threatening to make me chicken galantine like Carmela tried to make for the man who wallpapered her dining room in season 2. On Friday we will go see a favorite band play. On Saturday we will spend the whole day staring lovingly into each other’s eyes. On Sunday we will drink 14 pints of Guinness each. It will be perfect.
love you, bye for now!
Wait I absolutely love the idea of word charcuterie !! The poems you included were great :)