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Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather take inspiration from Boccaccio’s Decameron and, during scary times, try to delight each other with topics unrelated to current events.
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Further Reading
- LL Cool J’s Platinum 360 Diet and Lifestyle: A Full-Circle Guide to Developing Your Mind, Body, and Soul
- Robert Frost: “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Spring Pools
=These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods—
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.
—Robert Frost
I just find it amusing how many of my friends all heard about “social isolation,” checked the pantry to make sure they weren’t catastrophically low on anything, and realized that we’ve all been training for this and begging people to leave us alone to stay home for decades.
So many books and TV shows to catch up on, but the one that seems the most keep-your-spirits-up-ish is Steven Universe, which I happened to start watching (it’s on Hulu) shortly before all these concerns came up. After years of people mentioning it in asides as a good show, I’m pleased to find out that it lives up to its quiet reputation.
I also discovered NBC’s The Good Place podcast, which I now wish I would’ve saved for re-watching the show on Netflix.
Nice to have Mark back, by the way. Hopefully the flight in was before these new Wild West days of TWELVE-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer getting through the TSA…
Several comments about Girl Scout cookies:
1. It is common for scouts/troops to buy cookies on spec with their own funds with the goal of selling them at booths in their area (e.g. outside grocery stores or sporting events) as an added fundraiser.
2. Because of COVID-19 concerns, most of those booth sales are now cancelled indefinitely, leaving many troops with an excess of unsold cookies and no ready market to sell them.
3. My wife and I are in a position now where we can afford to buy Way Too Many cookies, shipped to our house, in order to help local Girl Scouts lose less money on this venture.
4. We did.
5. Since we were buying Way Too Many cookies, I insisted that the new S’mores be among them. My wife was skeptical.
6. Reader, she was wrong. I broke into them tonight, and they are great. Sure, they’re not an actual S’more — nobody was expecting that. But for a S’more-inspired cookie, they’re quite good.
7. If you’re in a position to do so during this pandemic, help your neighbor (broadly defined). Order carry-out/delivery food from local restaurants (or even a national chain; they still employ local workers) to help them stay afloat. Buy up excess Girl Scout cookies. Contribute to fundraisers for local workers who have lost jobs or hours. This is unprecedented in our lifetimes and it can be tempting to hole up in your home and just fritter away weeks teleworking and streaming media … but that’s a privileged position. And when this is over, we’ll still need workers who can’t telework, who don’t have weeks of PTO banked, and who rely on face-to-face interactions. We’re fighting a war against a deadly virus and we all need to chip in.