PicoBlog

(A note: this poem is sad.) from Something Sinister (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2016) Okay. Yes. This poem is utterly devastating. We can all just sit with that for a second. It is devastating in subject matter, devastating in the moment that prompts the moment of the poem, devastating in the moment that occupies the poem, and devastating in the moment that will inevitably end the poem. I am only a little sorry for ruining your morning with it.

Happy Thursday! In this issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, we’re looking at the art of animated running. About a month ago, something very cool happened on Twitter. A Los Angeles artist, Rebekah Machemer, shared a translated version of a small animation guide by Hayao Miyazaki that dates to the early ‘80s. It went viral — and for good reason. If you’ve ever been swept up by the spirited running in Miyazaki’s films, you get the appeal.

We hold the keys to the cages we build around ourselves. Eleven words that tumbled out of my mouth three years ago when put on the spot at a speakers conference. Eleven words that would go on to be a key theme in my first book. Eleven words that will echo in my life forever. The problem? Sometimes we get so caught up in the rhythms of life that we forget where we put the keys.

No one is the next Travis Kelce. He’s one of one. There’s never been a tight end like him, and expecting anyone to fill the same role he has in the Chiefs offense is an exercise in futility. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about Chiefs’ 4th round pick Jared Wiley, a big, fast tight end out of TCU who has smoother movement skills and better speed than you’d expect in a guy his size.

Earlier this week I started the process of previewing potential head coach candidates for the Washington Commanders, looking at the hottest offensive coordinator on the market: Ben Johnson. Today, I thought I’d look at someone from the other side of the ball. Ravens defensive coordinator Mike MacDonald very much the defensive counterpart to Ben Johnson as the hottest coordinator on the market on his side of the ball. The Ravens’ defense has been one of the best in the league under MacDonald and this year the team is top five in just about every major defensive category.

With the Washington Commanders hiring 49ers assistant general manager Adam Peters to be their new general manager, the focus now turns to who Peters would like to hire as his new head coach. Last week I broke down the schemes of two of the rumored favorites in Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. I also looked at Ravens defensive coordinator Mike MacDonald, who is likely to be one of the most popular candidates on the defensive side of the ball.

The Shopper had bought king prawns, and I had unearthed a random fillet of blue-eye trevalla in the freezer. We looked at each other. This called for fregola.  Toasty pearls of Sardinian semolina pasta, fish and prawns in a sort of thick, dirty, dark stew made from the prawn heads. Done. You don’t need to actually cook the recipe to get a couple of things out of this: 1/ Never throw out your prawn heads and shells.

The first part of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the whole thing, become a paid subscriber here. New York Times bestselling author and former CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers joins us to discuss her history of chronic fatigue and illness, her experience with dubious diagnoses and wild wellness treatments, what she discovered about the true causes of her issues, how disordered eating helped mask and exacerbate her symptoms, how she’s rethought her relationship with work in general and her own past work in particular, her viral post “The way we live in the United States is not normal” and her decision to move to Italy, and more.

“Heart Ripped Out Twice and So Can You” might be the perfect Fringe show. It’s funny, engaging, and tells a compelling story. The performance is stellar, and it has an important message. And because Linnea Bond is such a compelling actor, it never feels like a sermon; it’s, in fact, a change-motivating piece that audiences will remember for a very long time. Using the device of a sales pitch trying to convince the audience to be born, Bond tells the story of her health history - including tumors, surgeries, and infections all while also grieving the loss of a romantic relationship.