Week 5

An unseasonably warm week. I could have worn shorts on Monday, but instead I went to the gym without a jacket and felt confused.

Other highlights: On Tuesday my department held a retreat at which we heard from our chief diversity officer, who led us in an exercise that allowed us to practice speaking, listening and asking questions in a way that deepens understanding between people. The whole process was enlightening as to what bad habits we have when doing all those things - we ramble, we think of what we want to say next instead of listening, and we ask the wrong kinds of questions. I learned some powerful things about my colleagues in literally 5 minutes simply by practicing these principles.

Then we went bowling. I bowled 123 on my second game, so it was a good day for me.

And what a cool moon we got! I saw it in the east as I came home from work on Tuesday evening, and in the west, blood-red, as I stood at the bus stop the next morning.

On Wednesday evening my body broke down and I took Thursday for myself to shore up some strength. I wondered if all my contrived optimism about January collapsed on the last day of it and caused an upset to my system. Well, February, here we are.

Joel brought a special guest to pick me up from work

Reads

"The voice itself would evolve over the years from a violin to a viola to a cello, with a rich middle register and dark bottom tones. But it was a combination of voice, diction, attitude, and taste in music that produced the Sinatra sound. It remains unique. Sinatra created something that was not there before he arrived: an urban American voice." - Pete Hamill, Why Sinatra Matters

If ever there was a thing to make me an old soul, my unequivocal love of Frank Sinatra is it. Among my closest friends and colleagues (one of whom saw this book in a free pile at a bookstore and knew I should have it), I am quite known for it. Reading Why Sinatra Matters about 20 years after my initial obsession renewed my appreciation as to what made him so different when he hit that microphone in the 1940s. Ultimately, the author concludes that [SPOILER ALERT] Sinatra matters because he was a true artist. So that was a little unsatisfying. But it was a fun, quick read that didn't go into gratuitous detail about the gossip surrounding his life, but rather the experience of Italian-Americans, the connections to mob life, Sinatra's predisposition toward loneliness, and his lasting impact on the American songbook. If you're a super-fan like me, you might as well read it.

I also devoured Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies in a few days. I can't stop thinking about it. It was a beautiful collection of short stories, some of which devastated me. Each brought different elements of the history and culture of India to life, making me very aware of how much I don't know about that corner of Asia. And I appreciated that several of the stories' characters felt the same way.

Finally, in the article realm: I love Penzey's, and I am the opposite of a Trump fan, but stuff like this makes me mad. I've been thinking about this article for the past few days, and it's inspired good dinner table conversation. In the end, I think there are far better ways for CEOs to live out their values than to rally one side and alienate another in marketing products. In the end, these CEOs are still making money from your purchases. Embrace nuance and action, people, not polarization and rhetoric. Use your platform for something more noble. [End of political rant]

TV
We watched the Grammys to catch up on what everyone else is listening to, and through it, learned that 1991 is completely nostalgia inducing.

Listens
After finishing the Sinatra book, I listened to the first half of his "In the Wee Small Hours" album, which many Sinatra fans, myself included, list as their favorite album. It's not swingin', but it's the beautiful example of the Sinatra brand of loneliness he sang so well.

A little Mille Bornes at the brewery before trivia began

Movies
A Stupid and Futile Gesture. I ended up kind of liking it even though I have no affinity for National Lampoon.

I randomly caught Julia, a 1977 film I'd never heard of, starring Jane Fonda, on PBS's Saturday Night Cinema (and what a wild Saturday night it was!). Interesting story about playwright Lillian Hellman and her friend, Julia, who is in Vienna as the Nazis are coming to power.

Sweater progress

Recipes

I started out the week with a made-up recipe for Italian chicken sausage and bean soup with  homemade focaccia that lasted us a couple days. I then ventured into new territory by trying out a roasted red pepper and hazelnut relish to top some seared-then-roasted cod, a recipe from the Science of Good Cooking. It was delicious and came together quickly. (I took a photo for posterity but it is another one of those unappetizing incandescent-light photos that made the relish like vomit on fish.) And then I tried this recipe for pork tenderloin with golden beets. I loved the idea of it but it was a little much, and came together in under an hour (which Bon Appetit promised it would) only because I combined a couple steps in the cooking process, mostly because I don't feel comfortable leaving seared-but-uncooked meat on the counter for 40 minutes before returning it to the pan to finish cooking. Am I the only one worrying about this? Ultimately, I don't need to make this one again, but I'm glad I tried it. The walnut sauce was the best part.

Cookie of the Week (COW)

Coconut patties! This was a great cookie to serve my gluten-free friends. These are just like macaroons in their taste and consistency, only flattened, rather than mounded. And they featured the delicious addition of lime zest and lemon extract, so they were bright and luscious at the same time.