Traveling with a sick baby will not be on this list: it is hard and bad. I failed to bring you 10 things last week, because we were dealing with (1) having a sick baby; and (2) having our direct flight back to Chicago canceled, and re-routed as an overnight with three-hour layover the next day. I’d fully expected to be back to work beginning Monday, but instead I was still traveling Monday, and then all week at home with the sick baby, who could not go back to daycare. I think these are GOOD EXCUSES, but I am still sorry.
Today, to make up for it, I bring you 15 things. The first five are free, the last ten are behind a paywall. This round-up includes EXCLUSIVE GOSSIP ABOUT “SESAME STREET,” courtesy of a reader (who is ACTUALLY NAMED ERIN!!!) You will need to pay to get to it, but you won’t regret doing that.
OK, enough preamble. Let’s get to it.
1. Trader Joe’s has truffle barbecue sauce.
I am a real sucker for truffle-flavored stuff. I buy basically any truffle thing. Mostly, I love truffle salt on popcorn, and that has translated to me spending too much money, just like Oprah. This is pretty good — it tastes like barbecue sauce (which is good), and has a little bit of a truffle kick (which is good). I use it on this barbecue tofu recipe, which is one of my favorite weeknight recipes.
2. This Clickhole article about Queen Elizabeth II blogging.
This is a dumb joke, but any joke about many robes is also a good joke.
3. This TikTok of the bear getting the bird seed.
I can’t find the original; I’m bad at the internet. But this is it with needless writing on top of it.
4. Life of the Party starring Melissa McCarthy
I completely missed this movie; it may have come during a moment when I thought Melissa McCarthy was doing too much and felt that she couldn’t be doing it all well. It is poorly reviewed, according to the internet. I watched it on a plane, which generally makes me like movies more than I should. (Do they drug you? Here’s an article on the science of crying at in-flight movies.) But I LOVED THIS. There was basically no conflict; it was a run-of-the-mill gentle feminist revenge fantasy. Nothing about it is realistic at all, but isn’t that what the movies are for? If you need to just feel nice while suspending your disbelief about the world being as awful as it is, watch this.
This very internet-savvy Substack newsletter (which I consume like candy) has a set of great Spotify playlists that are really fun to listen to, and are full of great music. I’ve linked above to Season Six’s.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to You Are Doing A Good Enough Job to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.