10 Things: Bees, Trees, Knees
My recommendations for what to read, watch, listen to, do, cook, obsess over, learn, work to, buy, and ponder this week.
These “Friday” emails are increasingly coming on Sundays now, and I appreciate your patience with that. The end of the school year, man. Anyone else? Anyone? Anyone?
The first three recommendations are free; there are seven more below the paywall (including twists on gnocchi, the only present you’ll ever need for a toddler, and plenty to read.)
READ: Under the Henfluence by Tove Danovich
I was genuinely over-the-moon when a wonderful person who works at Women and Children First (Kaylie!) asked me to be in dialogue with the author of this book for the Chicago leg of her book tour, because (1) I love Women and Children First; (2) I already followed her chickens on Instagram; (3) I love chickens; and (4) FREE BOOK. I did NOT expect to gobble1 said book up in one sitting, and then wish that there was more. I’m not sure what I was expecting. Something that was more appropriate JUST for chicken people, I guess? But this is for everyone, and especially for philosophical animal lovers. It’s loosely memoir-ish, following Danovich’s journey into her own accumulation of a backyard flock, but it veers into some very strong journalism when she goes to visit therapy chickens, or the facility from whence baby chicks are shipped; and research about the history of chickens or the current state of poultry farming in America. There’s roosters, 4H clubs, chicken lore, surgeries… it’s all totally fascinating, charming, sometimes dark, funny, and thought-provoking. Even if you are only mildly interested in chickens, I recommend this book whole-heartedly. It’s a delightful read, cover to cover; a work of gorgeous research and real love that is rare and special. SOMETHING TO CLUCK ABOUT! EGG-CELLENT! I’M NOT YOLKING! (Kaylie beamed that they managed to write an intro for Tove without a single chicken pun, but I couldn’t resist, and I am not sorry, either.)
WATCH: Videos of bee guys
Yes, it’s getting very 4H Clubby in here, but the main thing that’s been on my mind in every spare moment (and there have been VERY few) this week have been my bees. I have a lot of thoughts about them, and really, I love them very much, in a way I didn’t expect to. But the love I feel for these bees has led me to need to watch a lot of videos of people dealing with bee issues, because I have bee issues. It’s always this certain type of guy, and I love him. Like, watch this guy at 3:47, talking about ignoring the “free bees.” (I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT “FREE BEES” MEANS.)
Here’s this guy looking under the top cover to get a mite (!?!) to “become [the bees’] friend for today” (!?!?!)
And this Australian (I think?) man who just goes on wild romps and talks about how happy the bees are and takes a super long time just staring at the bees and giggling like it’s Christmas morning.
I’ve started putting these on in the background, letting this type of man talk to me about bees while I’m doing other things. He is so CALMED by them! It calms ME. I watch these right before I fall asleep, and sometimes first thing in the morning. I don’t know what it is about these older, grizzled men lovingly and tenderly handling beehives, but it makes the world seem less awful.
LISTEN: Connie Converse
In 2015, they re-released the album “How Sad, How Lovely,” and I went down the internet rabbit hole about Connie Converse that people go down. If you haven’t gone down it, the short version is that she was a genius folk singer active in the 1950s, who mysteriously disappeared in 1974, right after her 50th birthday, never to be heard of again. The long version is much more fascinating, and now there’s a book coming out about her, so The New York Times did a profile, and so there’s a new thrum of interest. Three people sent me this article, and this made me feel seen. An opportunity to have this on again, my friends.
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