PicoBlog

Hello Hearties! Wow! We only have three episodes left in this season and things are starting to get crazy! Overall, I would say that I am really enjoying this season so far! The storylines are neater and tighter. The episodes do not feel overwhelmed by too many plot points, and there has been a clear sense of community that has been sorely lacking in recent seasons. All in all, I would say a lot has improved, and I am loving it, regardless of how certain storylines end.

I confess I don’t know much about popular music. I am more of a country music guy, but I recently came upon a new documentary on Netflix that might be worth your time. It is called “The Greatest Night in Pop” and is about the making of the song “We Are the World.” Even I have heard that song, which came out almost 40 years ago. The song and the video were a huge hit.

Hello, friends: I hope this finds you well. First of all, a hearty welcome to new subscribers—particularly those who arrived by way of We Can Do Hard Things, the podcast hosted by Glennon & Amanda Doyle and Abby Wambach, on which I’m thrilled to say I recently was a guest. (You can listen to the entire conversation here and here — it was a double episode!) I’m also thrilled to see that Substack’s algorithm has chosen to randomly feature this specific frame from this video clip—I had nothing to do with this, but wow: delight!

I have a favor to ask of you: Would you be willing to recommend A Place Is a Gift to a friend by forwarding this email on? This newsletter will always be free, but in order to build on the writing I’m doing here, I’d love to double my readership. Thanks! Three years ago, when Christian and I were beginning to grow our front-yard garden, we went looking for blueberry bushes and ended up with a jostaberry plant as well.

To the wonderful “friends” in Krystal Kyle & Friends — we’re away this week, with Krystal and Kyle on their honeymoon following their wedding this past weekend. We’ll be back soon with more coverage of breaking news, leftist theory and strategy, and analysis of the major issues the working class is facing in our country today. We’ll see you soon! But we’re so grateful to you for joining us on the political and creative journey that is KK&F — one that has been so important and special to us — so we thought we’d share a special moment from this weekend:

Rosters are nearly complete (what’s up, Jacksonville?) so there’s no better time to discuss trivial matters like where we stand on the number of Jalens and all of its variants in college basketball. Last season, for the first time since Jalen Rose left Michigan for the NBA, we experienced a drop in Jalens in college basketball. But you don’t really know if something has peaked until the peak has passed, so we really needed another season to declare to Peak Jalen.

Mary is a historian and cultural critic who loves thinking about the stories we tell about ourselves, and the meanings behind our pop culture attachments. Through her podcasting and writing, she’s combined, travelogue and memoir to investigate the origins of the iconic AG brand. And all of Mary’s work is also just super smart, and extremely hilarious.  So, as we are going to discuss today: I am a Samantha and I have a pretty tragic backstory about being a Samantha.

I shuddered a bit when I saw the image in Wired, and the title Tarform unveils 50 mph electric jet ski designed like a manta ray. I spend the summer on a small lake, barely half a kilometre wide and two km long, and there has always been a sort of unwritten rule personal watercraft (PWC, the sort of official name for these things) were not welcome. Last summer, this went overboard, and one of these things was zipping down the lake at what seemed an amazing speed.

Firstly, my apologies for being a day late with this piece. I had to let the takes contained within sit in the oven of my mind palace just a little longer, so as to marinate in the juices of my bubbling frustration and misdirected apathy. Okay, for real though, I got carried away and didn’t get around to this in time for my usual Thursday upload. However, do not despair, fair reader.