It's Friday, Issue #28

Frugality is not my core value

These Friday emails were initially designed to be short, link-driven delights but I feel stressed by all the links hurdling at me from other newsletters. How can anyone keep up? Do I want to add to your interweb reading load, or make you want to buy more shit? Besides, what can I share with you that you don’t already know about? I’ve seen all the same articles and personal essays you have. Or, maybe I haven’t: I’m spending very little time online these days, and I’m off social media for now, which means, essentially, that I was the last person to hear about Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. Like many of you, I read the New York Times and the LA Times, plus a bunch of Substacks. The news these days (aside from the abortion victory in Ohio!) is bleak. I don’t need to remind you of that, nor am I an expert in anything beyond, perhaps, writing immersive scenes about made up people. So where does that leave us?

I do have a longer newsletter I’m working on. It’s A Proper Essay. These Friday emails are just—what? Me on the page, thinking, musing about my very specific life. Random snapshots of my days, I guess. Right now, I’m enjoying the exercise of opening the document and seeing what flows out of me, what minor thing I want to record. Hopefully, in the midst of the bleakness, they’re fun for you too.

Anyway, this is all to say that the “It’s Friday” series is evolving. Here’s the latest…