PicoBlog

When one of your best friends asks if you want to go to a Lunar Faire to commemorate the last Super Blue Moon for 14 years, the answer is yes. At least, for me it is. In case you don’t already know (if you follow me on Instagram, you probably do), my girl Ashleigh and I love to get witchy. We love Halloween. We’re into crystals and dressing up like a couple of ghouls (or skeletons), channel Wednesday Addams's energy whenever appropriate, and are just genuinely curious about all things supernatural, spooky, and magical.

There’s a line in my book I think of every time I come across #tradwife content on social media. The therapist I saw after my escape was helping me see how I’d been my family’s PR manager for years. Christian wives kept their husband’s secrets and they protected their family’s appearance.” I come from the Michelle Duggar model of fundamentalist influencers, reinforced with this cherry-picked scripture so it couldn’t be argued with: These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a good movie and I enjoyed it. It’s inventive, often quite funny, and a great portrayal of immigrant parents and their struggle to understand their first-generation child. For me, it’s a B+, a fun and spirited romp that gets a little worse when you think about it too hard. But it is overrated. It’s breaking records with user reviews. It sits at a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, for whatever little that means.

The last time I sent a newsletter was a year ago this month. This time last year, I was recovering from the COVID-19 virus—and preparing for my NPR All Things Considered interview. That was the start of my killer (professional) year. I had listened to NPR since I started driving in 2004 when George W. Bush caught Sadam because 9/11. It was surreal to see La Voz De M.A.Y.O. & Helm Greycastle sit among the top 10 best-selling Image Comics graphic novels overnight.

At Steady, you might have noticed that we have a thing for trees. And music.  Last week, in our “A Reason to Smile,” we brought the two together with performances of a favored hymn, “I Shall Not Be Moved,” and its central imagery of “a tree planted by the water.”  Today, we ask you indulge us once more. We have another tree song we found particularly inspiring, relevant, and yes, smile inducing.

Share Garrison Keillor and Friends We old Anglo guys have a bad habit of grabbing the check after lunch and I realize it’s a macho power move, dismissive, marginalizing, elitist, sexist, oppressive, colonialist, and a number of women have told me over the years, “You shouldn’t have done that,” but I notice, now that I’m old and slow and not so grabby, that they don’t reach for the check and it sits there in plain sight for several minutes before Anglo Man picks it up, when perhaps a woman says, “Won’t you let me contribute something?

“I’ll Find You” feels like something based on a true story, though it’s a piece of fiction. However, the screenwriting team — David S. Ward and Bozenna Intrator, with a quartet of other writers who receive story credits — based this historical romance based on the plight of real Polish musicians who survived the Nazi incursion and eventually made their way to the States. It’s directed by Martha Coolidge, who had a strong run in movies during the 1980s and ‘90s (“Rambling Rose,” “Real Genius,” “Valley Girl”) before mostly switching to television and streaming.

Hi Again! I know it’s been a minute since I’ve popped into your inbox, and there is so much to catch you up on. First off, I’ve moved to Substack! This newsletter was previously hosted on Bulletin, which announced that they will be sunsetting the platform at the top of next year. But we’ve had such a blast together that I’ve decided to keep the newsletter going right here on Substack.

I’m a dietitian, I spend my days talking about food and suggesting ways for people to have a healthy relationship with food. I discuss food neutrality and balanced meals and food pairings consistently. Here’s the catch: I do all of this, and I still have trouble with my meals. The thought of having to feed myself every single day with enough food to nourish and satisfy me sometimes is very overwhelming.