PicoBlog

Hi Everyone! Since the last time I posted, a new human has joined the world! She will be four weeks old tomorrow, and we’re finally getting into the groove of not sleeping, doing laundry every day, constantly cleaning up poop, and realizing that people are mammals. (Breastfeeding has been unexpectedly challenging and mind-melting. There have been lots of nightmares that feel like A24 movies.) It’s also been wild watching this little chunk change every day.

The years since his 1989 passing have been kind to Blaze Foley. While he was alive, the singer-songwriter had released only a single and an LP that was never distributed aside from a box full of vinyl albums he would barter for beers and cab rides. In recent years, the “derelict in duct tape shoes” of the 1998 Lucinda Williams’ song “Drunken Angel,” has vaulted to folk hero status. Merle Haggard, Lyle Lovett and his hero John Prine are among those who have recorded his compositions, plus he inspired two fine films, the Duct Tape Messiah documentary (2011) and 2018 biopic Blaze, directed by Ethan Hawke.

Happy new year, readers! I’m dropping into your inbox today with a little essay about the life-saving art of writing absurd beatitudes when times become weird or craptastic. If you’ve ever grown tired of the “hashtag-blessed” culture, or even feeling like you’re on the wrong side of luck, this post is for you. “Blessed” is a pushy word. We’re obligated to offer it in certain situations, like above the heads of children in our care.

Chaplains are tasked with meeting people at their most vulnerable, when they are confronted by the frailty of their bodies and the mortality of their souls. These are sacred moments, but ones that tend to be accompanied by sadness, grief, and pain.  Fortunately, these are not the only opportunities for chaplains to help infuse the sacred into the everyday lives of those in the hospital. Blessings, invocations and rituals are other ways chaplains make the ordinary holy.

Top Notes: Hey there! Welcome new readers, especially all of you who are here thanks to the Work Appropriate podcast with Anne Helen Petersen. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it. Also, as an aside, if you are on Instagram and aren’t following Anne Helen’s comprehensive guide to sorority rush season (check out her stories), you are in for a treat— its honestly some of the best non-snarky, deeply contextualized collective cultural analysis you’ll find anywhere (and for the record, both Leigh Anne and Collins Touhy were Kappa Deltas at Ole Miss).

Welcome to Episode 6 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which two music journalists/obsessives, Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. Our 5th Episode, Oasis: What's The Story?, in which we discussed the 1995 album that catapulted the Manchester band to international fame, is now available in full, on all streaming platforms, for anyone who is not one of our paid-up Substack subscribers and wants to hear where we go with these discussions.

When you write and share recipes online or in a cookbook, as a baker, the most FAQ is if something can be frozen. I don’t know about yours, but my freezer is fully packed 365 days of the year. (There’s a scientific theory that if there is a void, something fills it, and my freezer is a prime example of that.) I kept dreaming about buying a separate freezer…until I finally did it and bought a mini one.

I was at a low point in my life when I paid for a Cameo from Juliet Landau. At the time, I was rewatching a whole lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to get the most out of my Hulu free trial and escape gnawing feelings of anxiety about the future. I’ve always used fandom to escape anxiety about the future and pretty much everything else, so by the time I had re-embraced her haunting portrayal of the vampire Drusilla, it felt natural to fork over a modest sum for a message under the category “pep talk.

This tender blueberry loaf cake is the perfect spring baking project: it’s light, bright and so fruity, it all comes together in one bowl, and it’s so easy to make. One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to blueberry cakes is when they have about 2 blueberries per slice — not this recipe. My recipe was born to solve this problem and offer you cake slices with evenly distributed jammy, tart and juicy berries.