The Mixed Bag, February 2025
a crop of new and old favorites, plus what turned 30 this year
The Mixed Bag is a curated list of stuff I’ve enjoyed this month: books, podcasts, talks, the occasional movie or TV show, and more. We’ll be back to regular programming in the next issue.
🐾 in case you missed it
If you could use a bit of rah-rah pep talk: It’s February. How you doin’?
If you’ve ever wondered what people say about the younger version of you: Ghosts Of Our Younger Selves
This month’s In Profile: Dina Bell-LaRoche
On the podcast: Steer. Don’t drift. With Matthew Long
In the Lounge: The Kick-off Chat
In the Lounge: Help! Help?
🔗 finds
“There is no future in which we don’t have to be brave. Discomfort is discomfort, and if we’re growing, if we are practicing deeply, we will always feel it.” —
, in her piece “The Brave Band”“I gaze out my window at heavy snow on tree branches. Those branches are strong and can bear the weight. So can I, I tell myself.” —
in her piece “The Weight of Grief.”“If you ask me for some advice, I might give it, but with the proviso that I’m just muddling through and my good advice will not necessarily be your good advice.” —
, in his piece “Can You Please Stop Telling Me To Live My Best Life Please.”“I know nobody who’s bullish about America’s future,” writes
. Here, he expands on how we find our way back to hope.- writes about persistence, adaptation, and finding strength in precision rather than force, through the lens of a woodpecker, of all things: “Why Woodpeckers Don’t Develop A Splitting Headache.”
Austin Kleon suggests we study something we love in depth.
Sy Safransky, Sun founder and editor emeritus, writes, not about, but through his worsening dementia: “This Is Hard To Write.”
The School of Life on how to endure.
📚 reading
The Touchstone by Edith Wharton (1900). I finally started this project I’d long wanted to do: reading all of Edith Wharton’s published fiction work (22 novels and novellas). I decided to work on the list in the order of publication, starting with this novella, published in 1900. I'm not sure how long this project will take as I tend to read classic literature more slowly than usual. We shall see!
The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth (2014). I’m having immense fun learning about Polyptoton, Synaesthesia, and Anadiplosis. Because there’s more to life (and writing) than Alliteration and Antithesis. 😊
📺 watching
The world is exhausting these days, and I’ve found comfort in watching old favorites. Don’t know why, but I just can’t deal with new stuff these days! Right now, I’m going through all seven seasons of The Closer and enjoying the gall of one Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson.
💬 last word
You know what turned 30 40 this month? The Breakfast Club.
Seriously.
May the odds be ever in your favor,
Lou Blaser
Great round-up, Lou! The Closer is an all time favorite, as is The Breakfast Club (even though I may have been a bit older than the target audience).
Thank you for mentioning me and sharing Sunday reads 😊