Hello dear friends!
How are we? It’s been a full week. Has it just been a week? I feel like we’ve carried enough for at least a few. This week I went to Memphis for the Saveur Blog Awards, for the ribs, for the MLK National Civil Rights Museum. My flight back to New Orleans got wonky so I rented a car and drove myself back home from Memphis. I like to keep it moving, and everything about this week called for a good long car-think while driving.
I hope you’re staying steady this week. I hope you find some time to restore your heart this weekend. Here’s the offering this week. Stay in it:
• “We live in a country where there are relatively few restrictions on gun ownership and where our cultural tolerance for mass murder appears to be infinite.” From Roxanne Gay: Thousand Oaks and Our Peculiarly American Affliction. (NYT)
• Listened to: This American Life on school shootings Before The Next One.
• In California there are fires – so many fires. (The Atlantic)
• 112: the number of women in Congress, the largest number in history. (Vox)
• Semantics, but really America’s Problem Isn’t Tribalism – It’s Racism. (The Atlantic)
• “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Martin Luther King Jr, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964.
• How A Woman Becomes A Lake, quiet and still and PLEASE. (The New Yorker)
• This is beautiful: Late Life Love (Guernica)
• I’m here for this content: Meredith and Derek’s Relationship of Grey’s Anatomy Wouldn’t Happen In 2018… but what about a world where Denny lives, ya know? (Glamour)
• I used to date one of these: Plantfluencers. (New York Times)
• I’m re-reading one of my favorite collections of short stories: This Is The Story of a Happy Marriage. The way Ann Patchett writes about writing is so honest and approachable and deeply profound and also, just plain helpful.
• It. Is. Time. Dad’s Perfect Sweet Potato Pie. (Joy the Baker)
• We have two great events happening at The Bakehouse next weekend! 1. Brunch with Benefits – a celebration of the book Wine Food! 2. Make and Take Pie – a pie baking class that has you all set up for the Thanksgiving holiday!
• I absolutely love the new Hedley & Bennett Smock Aprons! (H&B)
• I found something we need: guide dogs to the blind in Midtown Manhattan. It’s hard enough for a seeing person to navigate this space DANG! (New York Times)
• Are you listening to the third season of Serial? It’s on my list this week! Maybe yours too?
I’m thankful you’re here! Enjoy your day!
My love to you.
xo Joy
Roxanne R Graham
The link to Late Life Love (Guernica) is not working. . .
Alexandria
I live in Cleveland, so I was really interested to see what season 3 of Serial would be like. I think it is an important perspective of the justice system. It is hard to understand the impact of those interactions and decisions without the personal stories. I hope listeners understand that these issues are pervasive in majority of our cities in the U.S. and everyone should care as if it is their own city.
They mention Judge Dawson towards the end- definitely check him out on Instagram! He is a great yoga instructor and really cares about the community.
UL
Atta girl Joy. Great to talk to you on the phone last week. You must have been driving from Memphis to NOLA. I could here the turn indicator in the back ground. Uncle Dan would be proud of you. Keep up the good work and have a Happy Thanksgiving where ever you land. UL
Saurs
re The Atlantic piece on American white supremacy: it’s most definitely racism, and even the euphemism of racists’s choice–“tribalism”–is itself racist, drawing on a mythic, primitive Other who are decidedly more barbaric and less naturally civilized than us, where we’re “reduced” to behaving like some unspecified ‘aboriginal’ whose behavior, ordinarily, is beneath our own. It’s gross, it’s obviously an anti-Native American and First Nations dogwhistle, and it’s just another version of Both Sides Do It, where anti-racism is Just As Bad as racism and being called racist is worse than being on the receiving end of it. The White Moderate Centrist’s answer to social justice resisting reactionary violence: “both of you are ‘too extreme’ and uncivil.”
Kristy
Curious, about how far in advance do you announce events for The Bakehouse? I’m possibly planning a trip to New Orleans for February and would love to take a class!
Jessica DeStefano
Sheesh! “Late Life Love” beautiful? I thought it bleak, even re-read it to see if there was anything resembling an optimistic takeaway. Nothing of the sort. Just cold, hard reality, which I suppose can be beautiful in its own way. Is that what you meant?
joythebaker
yea – i found beauty in the reality.
Hailey
That episode of This American Life was so much. Heartbreaking and eye opening and even reasuring. A must listen for sure!!!
Susan
Someday, when you have some time, check out Warrior Canine Connection. They’re an organization I follow and try to support when I can. They train puppies to assist vets with both visible and invisible injuries and to make it even better you can watch the puppies 24/7 as they grow before they leave for a few more years of training – and many of the trainers,aka puppy parents, do a pretty good job of keeping us in cute photos and stories on FB
about the adorable pups we learned to love.
Good to hear positive comments on the new serial. I’d read otherwise.
Karen
Wow. Just Wow. Every Sunday morning I think you can’t bring anything better to the landscape…and you DO!
Thank you.
Babs
Controversial statement of the week – I think the third season of Serial is more compelling than the first. I can’t stop listening to it.
joythebaker
Oh dang I’m glad to know this!
Midwestern Lady Baker
ABSOLUTELY AGREED!
Julie F
Serial is so interesting. I listened to the first season one year before Christmas. I spent all of my free time baking & cleaning listening to the show. My husband would try to talk to me and I’d get mad. LOL
Ramona
Love your Sunday posts! It’s going to take me all day to read it! Delicious! Glad you are safe and home.