PicoBlog

A Janus word, also known as a contronym, is a word with two opposing meanings. But if you want to be a jerk about it, you can build a sneaky almost-definition that holds both meanings true at once—which is what I did here. Yay! Cognitive dissonance as a grammatical exercise. 1: Overlook: non-omnipotent views 2: Fine: not intimidating for the very rich 3: Fast: incorrectly assumed of the young and lean

Apologies for my absence over the past few weeks. I was wrapping up edits on my book (!) and then traveling for my honeymoon in Alaska. I’m finally getting caught up and should be back to regularly scheduled newsletters next week. The geology of the South can be subtle. Our mountains are old and weathered. There are places—like the southern edge of Arkansas—where for hundreds of miles the land is so flat and unchanging that you can forget it’s geological at all.

On Wednesday night, June 5, Mary Kate and I settled into a boot at PDT, the famous cocktail bar in the East Village neighborhood of New York, to formally sample the latest addition to the speakeasy’s menu of elevated hot dogs: the Simonson Dog. The new hot dog, a collaboration between myself and Crif Dogs, PDT’s sister eatery, went on the menu June 1 and will remain there at least through the summer.

Welcome to issue #38 of Susanality, my free weekly newsletter. Thank you for being here and welcome to all the new sign-ups. If you enjoy this newsletter, please help spread the word! (And if you’re wondering about that email you got earlier in the week… keep reading!) Share Susanality Meet the next cookie in this month’s tour de sweets: my Figgy Cornmeal Cookies. These fig bars are not really trying to be a Fig Newton (but if you like those you’ll love these).

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.

In 1988, I ate my first fresh fig. It was handed to me by the person who’d grown it on the Greek island of Santorini. It was melting, succulent and with a sweet depth in that way muscovado is compared to white. It ruined me for figs for 24 years; in the years that followed, the ones I ate tasted not of luscious sunshine, but like tribute band supermarket peaches with a texture of rolled up football socks.

Score: 9 out of 10. Masterpiece. This review assumes the reader has seen the film already. I. This is a very simple movie, and its simplicity lies in its misogyny. Doc Sportello, a hippie and private detective, is induced by his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth, that he is still heartbroken over, to investigate an intertwining plot of real estate development in California and international drug smuggling. Both the real estate development and drug smuggling conspiracies stand as they were at the end as they were at the beginning.

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Kit Zauhar (b. 1995) is a Philadelphia-born, New York City-based writer, actor, and filmmaker whose works explore intimacy and communication in the lives of young people. As in the works of American indie filmmakers from decades past, her low-budget films are driven by dialogue and reflect the tumultuous transition into adulthood. Taking inspiration from Miranda July, Hong Sang-soo, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, her films exhibit a thoughtful patience in navigating selfhood and interpersonal relationships, while also drawing from her experience as a biracial woman.