90 Things:
Counting down all my recommendations for what to watch, play, do, cook, listen to, read, and consider in 2025
Dear Friends,
Wow, what a year. And in other ways, not what a year — because for the first time ever, I couldn’t quite manage to get 100 things on this list. I published seventeen “10 Things” written by me in 2025, and 80 of those things, apparently, were not worthy of this year-end list. IDK, maybe too many repeats?
I am including the descriptions that I think are helpful — if you want more information about anything on this list, you could drop a comment, or you could try to find the original posting in an old 10 Things email! The top 3 this year were a work of whimsy, a TV show (which, just so you know, I have now watched 27 times through, giving it that coveted Top 3 spot), and a board game from the 1990s.
I love you very much, and am excited to love more things this year. Thank you for being, thank you for being here, onward.
WATCH: Slow (film)
READ: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
READ TO A CHILD: A House Is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Betty Fraser
MAKE: Stickers, with Sticky Brand
LISTEN: “Love Me Not” by Ravyn Lenae
APPRECIATE: Yarrow and Katydids
DELIGHT: Pigeon Pageant
SUBSCRIBE: Alex Falcone’s Fun Fact Friday newsletter
COOK: Chili with farro
I made Ali Slagle’s farro and bean chili and was shocked. It seems like it shouldn’t work like this, but somehow, the farro tastes… meaty? I know, I know, that seems wrong. And yet, it was incredible? And it was really easy. Onion and garlic in oil, a big ole can of crushed and fire-roasted tomatoes, two cans of beans (and juices!), and farro. It’s seasoned with chili powder and cumin and salt and pepper and apple cider vinegar. I would write the recipe, but I didn’t alter it at all, so instead, here’s a gift link!
LISTEN TO: The Westerlies: B61 (teasing Songbook Vol. 3)
WATCH: Too Much on Netflix
BUY: A Sonicare toothbrush (PS - I just went to the Sonicare website to link that link, and it looks like Kate McKinnon is their spokesperson!?!?!? Soooo)
SIT BY: Sunflowers
BUY: Thinking Putty
READ: Amelia Wilson’s post where she writes about her marriage through the lens of 11 New Yorker cartoons.
COOK: Falafel Pizza
This tasted better than it looked, and honestly, it looked really good! The concept comes from an Instagram video I long ago lost, but I modified it and will now share it with you.
Start with pizza dough. I made mine using the linked recipe, but you can buy pre-made, too.
Roll her out and brush with oil. Let rest for a little bit. You should always do that with dough. Dough gets winded easily.
Slather with hummus. Like the hummus is tomato sauce.
I used frozen falafel, which is a good hack in general. I pre-cooked it HALF as long as the package said to, to thaw it and get it going. Dot the falafel on top of the pizza.
In a separate bowl, toss a head of cauliflower (torn into pieces), some capers and brine, some kalamata olives, and halved cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt, and cumin seeds. This is your topping; add it liberally.
This green “sauce” is lemon + parsley + tahini + salt + garlic + water, in a blender. Drizzled that on.
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or so.
Damn, girl.
I served it with a salad that looked like this:
LISTEN: Annie DiRusso’s “Super Pedestrian”
INSTALL: The Terra
BUY: This backpack
READ: Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz
SUBSCRIBE: The Old Shoebox by Erin Mc.
READ (COMIC): “Hey Chubbs” by Christopher Blackwell and Solomon Brager
REFERENCE: The Birding Dictionary by Rosemary Mosco.
CRY: Bam Bam
Here’ s the story that captured all of our hearts and minds in the city of Chicago this week. Please only read if you are ready to happy cry.
READ: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
EAT: Nasturtiums
POEM:
GRILL: peaches
READ TO A CHILD: Lunchroom Lizard by Daniel Kirk
READ: Dare to Disappoint by Özge Samancı
“COOK”: Cold Pesto with Capers
SUBSCRIBE: Pizza Friday by Front Yard Veggies (and read: “an ode to toads”)
LISTEN: Dr. Becky Kennedy’s podcast
COOK: Flatbread with silken tofu
I saw an Instagram video that implied that it was possible to make a very nice looking stuffed bread using only flour and silken tofu. It seemed too good to be true, so I made it as a myth-busting experiment.
Folks: the rumor is true. Add 2.5 cups of flour to a bowl and add some salt. Now throw in the whole block of SILKEN tofu from your 12.5-ounce package, and mix together to form a dough. If the dough is too sticky to roll, add a little more flour. Knead it together for a while until there could be no question that this is dough. Then let it rest for 30 minutes with a damp towel on top. Divide it into pieces (I did four), roll with a small rolling pin into a flat disc, and pan fry for a few minutes on each side.
The version I made was stuffed with seasoned tofu, but I do think this would work better as a non-stuffed bread, because the stuffing made it a little damp inside. Still: the flavor was fantastic, and the texture was incredible. I have already purchased more silken tofu to make this again.
PAINT ON: Arches watercolor paper
PLANT: Tromboncino squash
WATCH: “Poker Face,” season 2
READ (NOVEL): Cassandra In Reverse by Holly Smale
SEE: The Naked Gun
READ: Everyone Is Lying To You by Jo Piazza
TRY: Taking a deeper breath
One time, I was watching Three’s Company, and I was a child, and Janet (her name was Janet, right?) has just gone for a run, and says to Chrissy (I’m going to have to look these names up1) something about how when she runs out of breath, she takes a deep inhale, and just when she thinks she can’t breathe in any more, she takes two MORE sharp inhales. I have been using this advice ever since then, and it’s better than any professional breathing guidance I’ve received. Especially this past week, as I’ve perpetually been one parking ticket away from a full panic attack, I’ve been looking out windows, breathing deeply in this specific sitcom way.
USE: Does The Dog Die
LISTEN: Florist - “Jellywish”
CONSIDER: Gary Panter’s “On Keeping A Sketchbook”
MAKE: Broken lasagna noodle salad
Are you tired of me telling you about making pasta? Well, TOO BAD, because I made this very weird recipe and it was very good. It’s a radicchio and broken lasagna noodle salad, by Kendra Vaculin, published in Bon Appetit. My friend, I, too, was skeptical. And if you don’t like olives or radicchio, skip it, because those are some powerful flavors. But if you DO like those things, and feel like doing something a little weird with your lasagna noodles, this is the best.
Preheat oven to 400°. Toast ⅔ cup raw almonds on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing halfway through, until fragrant and slightly darkened, 6–9 minutes. Let cool slightly, then finely chop. Meanwhile, cook 1 lb. lasagna noodles, broken into 2” pieces, in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until tender (you don’t want al dente pasta salad). Drain and rinse well. Stir almonds, 2 garlic cloves, finely grated, ⅔ cup extra-virgin olive oil, ½ cup finely chopped parsley, ⅓ cup finely chopped basil, ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (2–3 lemons), ¼ cup red wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast, 2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes in a large bowl to combine. Season dressing generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add noodles, 1 head of radicchio, thinly sliced, and 2 cups Castelvetrano olives, pitted, torn, to dressing; toss to combine.
WATCH: Public library social media
BUY: Some hair cutting scissors
DRAW: Using this triangle exercise
This is a nice twist on a diary comic, written by Lynda Barry, who I love so much she is tattooed on my bicep. The instructions have you drawing yourself in four triangle quadrants, then expanding one of the quadrants out to fill a whole square. If you’re afraid of drawing yourself: don’t be! Lynda says to start with the Ivan Brunetti method of person-drawing — a head, a little torso, and lines for arms and legs. That’s a great starting point. These drawings should be full-body drawings, which scare a lot of us (We are terrified of getting bodies wrong! And bodies are always right! Even when we draw them!) — a diary comic is a safe solution.
Having spent about 30 minutes doing a scaled down version (I wish I had taken the time to color and darken various parts of it, but I simply don’t have it), I can tell you that there are a lot of great, mind-stretching things that this exercise does for you.
It asks you to think about the last 24 hours of your life and consider four moments worthy of remembering, probably for years to come. This is great, because life is a gift that deserves to be eaten up.
It challenges your memory to think about things you look at but don’t always see. I do not know what the paintings are on the living room wall. I vaguely believe one is kittens, one yellow daisies, one is eggs (???), and one is a pheasant. It’s amazing to know about what you think you know but you don’t know.
It has you slow down to consider the landscape of the world you inhabit. You are not a floating person. You are connected to all kinds of things you often take for granted.
READ: Meditation for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
GO TO: The mall
READ: Thinking Fast, and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
READ: Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
SUBSCRIBE: Hallie Bateman’s Substack, HALMAIL
READ (???): The Unfortunate Life of Worms by Noemi Vola
WATCH: Josh Johnson on The Daily Show
Time to brag to you that in another life, I knew Josh Johnson. I met him at a comedy festival and we connected; briefly, he lived in Chicago and we were very much in touch. The last message I have from him is this genuinely kind one from 2016? And it’s really indicative of the kind of person he is.
If you’re somehow not familiar yet: Josh is one of the rotating hosts on The Daily Show now, and his standup clips have been helping me laugh about politics during a time when it’s really, really hard to do that. If you need levity, but you don’t need to look away from it all, let Josh be your guide.
PLAY: Eider Cake
DECORATE WITH: cut ranunculus
FOLLOW: @flora_and_frost on Instagram.
WATCH: St. Denis Medical (Peacock)
LISTEN: Rosalía’s LUX
EAT: Sky Flakes crackers
My friend Jill brought in a bucket of Sky Flakes crackers into the office. They’re Korean fare, and they look a lot like saltines, but there is no salt. And you’d think that wouldn’t be good, but it’s great. They’re elevated. Do you have hummus? Cheese? Broccoli puree? Put it on a SkyFlakes. I read that they’re good because they’re made with coconut and palm oils and so they’re butterier. To be frank, I am mostly obsessed with their packaging, which is blue and silver and beautiful. And they come in a bucket. You can get them at H-Mart. Or online. They’re kind of cheap! ($7 a bucket.)
BUY: Sephora lip stains
USE: A soil blocker
BAKE: This incredible blueberry skillet cobbler
I made this once, and then I immediately made it again. The thing I love about this is that it’s comparatively easy to make. I find the ordeal of cutting cold butter (or vegan butter) into flour for shortbread crumbley things to be kind of messy and unpleasant. For my money, this is simpler, cleaner, and more incredibly delicious. Here’s a link to the Bon Appetit recipe, written by Kendra Vaculin. I adjusted it slightly. If you aren’t vegan, I think the non-vegan substitutes are really obvious, but let me know if you need more detail.
Combine 2 cups of blueberries with the zest and juice of a lemon in a bowl. Add a handful of sugar (About two tablespoons. I am very willy-nilly with this) and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, 2/3 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1.5 teaspoons baking powder. Pour in 1/3 cup vegan cream (I used vegan whipping cream both times, but any thicker milk will work). Mix together until there’s nothing else dry. (The mix itself is not a batter, but more of a dough.)
In a 9-inch cast iron skillet, melt a stick of vegan butter. Turn off the heat, then add the dough. Swirl it around until it’s pretty well combined with the butter.
Pour the blueberries and their juices into the skillet. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the middle is clearly set.
PLANT: your flowers in a gum ball machine
I have a thing for buying gum ball machines at thrift stores, thinking that they would be a good project of some kind. At first, I filled this one with Skittles. That was a mistake, because I just ate so many Skittles. Next, I tried to fill it will little toys. It hated that. It wouldn’t dispense them. Next, I decided I’d make it into a terrarium. That kind of worked, but not really, because it’s not actually air-tight; I had to water it, and the water would get all over the floor.
The solution, which I’m presenting to you only now that I’m sure it has worked, was to plant a bunch of flower seeds in it, and keep it outside with the top off. These are snapdragons, and they’re growing beautifully.
READ: Checked Out by Katie Fricas
COOK: A spicy black bean soup
This is adapted from an Ali Slagle recipe that actually blew my mind (here it is) — it was so easy that it truly (TRULY) came together in under 20 minutes. (I know recipes say that, but they’re counting on you having already cut up onions, or whatever. This is a can recipe, like it’s 1955, and I’m here for it.) Heat a tablespoon of chili crisp in a big soup pot; then add 4 cans of black beans with liquid, 2 jars of salsa verde (green salsa), 2 cans of green chiles, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, cumin, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat for about 10 minutes, then top with cilantro, corn chips, vegan sour cream, limes, and diced avocado. You can make this yummier by making your own black beans or salsa, or frying poblanos in lieu of the canned ones. But are those things necessary? No. I didn’t want to tell the people who ate this at my house how easy it was to make, because they thought it was criminally delicious, and I wanted them to think I was good at cooking.
VISIT: Indianapolis!?!?!?
PLAY : Raddle
READ: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
KILL: Mosquitos with Mosquito Dunks
Eight months ago (this is not an exact date), Kat suggested that we take a trip to The American Pigeon Museum in Oklahoma City! We would fly there and stay at an AirBNB, and that would be the whole point of the trip. This is the exact kind of trip I love most: a small, inexpensive, generally overlooked place with a specifically niche destination. (Luke and I did a trip like this to Omaha, Nebraska to visit Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s vegan restaurant Modern Love (now permanently closed, RIP), and it remains one of my favorite travel memories.) I’m happy to report that it was a basically perfect vacation. The plane to OKC was so empty that they asked us to spread out and sit near the back so that there was even weight distribution while the plane was airborne (!!!!?).
The Pigeon Museum itself was good! It’s a one-story museum with a suggested donation of $5. On the weekends, there are live pigeons that moonlight at the museum so people can get to know them. One of the pigeons, Gerbil, was out. We got to hold her! She was a fantail pigeon and looked like a cartoon of a pigeon drawn by a child. There was also a library that included pretty much every pigeon magazine and book that has ever been published. They weren’t even all in English! The magazines from the 1930s and 1940s were my favorite.
OKC has a good vegan restaurant called The Red Cup, which is a short walk from the popular AirBNB called “The Nest,” which is gay-friendly and includes intermittent yard visits from perfect, small dogs. An inexpensive weekend getaway that you are welcome to steal. Thanks, Kat!
EAT: Dole Whip Pineapple Cups
YES, WATCH: The Paper
Many people (three) have asked me if I have seen The Paper yet, given the fact that I have rewatched The Office (guiltily; I am not proud) over 400 times (estimated; the number is probably higher). The answer to this question is that I have watched all ten episodes through exactly eleven times. The complaint lodged against this show, which is that it doesn’t do anything new or interesting, is what makes it such a success. And now I will tell you all the things I think about it. This is below the paywall because I trust you. I’m not out with these thoughts yet.
Sabrina Impacciatore is a comedic mastermind. I am in the “only-the-ones-before-Michael-quits” camp of Office watchers because, as funny as everyone else is, Steve Carell so perfectly channels a Certain Kind Of Man and with such masterful ease that the fact that he never won an Emmy for it is criminal. So: is Sabrina Impacciatore that level of excellent? She is more excellent. She is a star. She is gorgeous; she is hilarious; you cannot look away from her. You hunger for her. When I re-watch this show, I’m only waiting for her to come back onto the screen. I’m obsessed with her, and while I wouldn’t literally die for her, I would rhetorically die for her.
The soundscape is exactly perfect. What I love most about The Office is that when it’s on in the background, there are lots of scenes where a hollow, distant landline rings inside a cottony silence. Is there a safer sound? Is there a sound that more channels the specific non-threatening monotony of a well-lit room in the 1990s? No. The Paper also has this.
Comedies need more than one season to find their feet. David Jesse Fox has a my favorite theory about what makes something funny, and it is essentially play theory. He says that we laugh as animals, not as thinkers; that something only becomes funny when you feel safe and are having a good time with people you trust and like. A comedy (or a comedy special) is successful when it puts you in that playful state, so that you’re open to laughter. This is why you don’t laugh out loud when you see a meme, but you do send it to a friend (my example, not his); comedy is about community. You might laugh out loud at that same meme when you are with the friend; and that might be genuine, because you feel more safe with your own vulnerability. We need to learn these characters to trust them enough to laugh at their bits. This has the right number of characters, some strong talent (particularly in supporting cast), and a good driving story with potential for both episodic hijinx as well as season-long stakes.
It is about print journalism. This might be the last piece of fictional mainstream media that takes place in the present and is about a print newspaper. As a true print journalism zealot, I couldn’t be more thrilled that this is our setting. There are even a few jokes that are delightfully inside-baseball, which will be a treat for a particular kind of nerd. (I am that kind of nerd.)
What’s up with Ned? I can’t quite understand the male lead. I’m not sure what his deal is. I think he’s supposed to be kind of winningly naive, but it’s confusing. He’s sometimes cringey, but more often he’s earnest. It’s hard to understand why the hot female love interest is interested in him. It’s hard to understand why the people want to follow him. This is a loose thread. If you are a writer for this show, please think about this moving forward.
Travis, on the other hand. A sleeper hit of a character is Travis, played by Eric Rahill, whose thing is fish and drones. IDK, it really works.
PLAY: Tales of the Crystals
This is a board game that my sister and I had when we were children, and it was the most important board game of my life. It really mattered. It is essentially an RPG that you play with a cassette player. You set the game up around your house and yard, and then pretend like you are a fairy-princess living in the forest with a unicorn. It is a little scary but mostly just the best. AND my sweet partner Bob found it for me on EBay and bought it for me. I don’t know that you can play this game without the game board, and when I searched online for it, it was criminally expensive. BUT you can come to my house and play it; or, you can look online for the directions and DIY a version of it. Or just use this as inspirational to write your own game that is exactly like this. Let this be the summer of the crystals. (UPDATE: WE PLAYED IT.)
PATRONIZE (?): The OK Be Kind Gallery
A wonderful citizen on the block next to ours (if you’re in Chicago: On Wolcott Avenue between Touhy and Chase) installed a “micro gallery” a few months ago in his side yard. He invited neighbor artists to “apply” to install artwork in it (I think he just says “yes”?), and there are tiny pigs looking at the gallery all day and night, and a little stepping stool so you can look at it, too, if you are too short to see it without one. And then the other side is a take-an-art-give-an-art, like a little free library but explicitly for handmade artwork. I have put tons of stuff in there, and not to brag, but it always goes.
This is the Instagram account for the artist, so you can keep up with the gallery. Heartbreakingly, someone in the neighborhood left him some threatening scary mail, because (I think?) she’s upset that he supports trans youth, or something. And I just the whole rest of the world to lift him high, high up.
PS - do you think you should do this in YOUR yard? I think so too.
Ohhhhhh so many recipes I want to try but all I will be thinking about is Tales of the Crystals
I’m really proud of how many of these I’ve done this year! A BUNCH of the books, but other stuff too!