Your Mid-Week Experiment
Hey kids, do you like reading stuff? 'Cause I got you covered.
Welcome to the always free, reader-supported mid-week edition of The Experiment where we share great things to read, cook, listen to, and watch. If you’d like to support my work, buy my Alamo book, buy some Experiment merch, drop some coins in the PayPal fountain, or become a paid subscriber. But even if you don’t, this bugga free.
Didn’t get the weekend essay done because I took my oldest son to Seattle to visit my mom and stepdad and to see the Philadelphia Eagles — his favorite team — play the Seattle Seahawks — my favorite. We had a great time and are already talking about seeing a game next year, but first, I need to finish last weekend’s essay. Before then, however, we’ve got the mid-weeker with an overabundance of great things to read, listen to, cook, and watch.
Let’s get to it.
I did not think I would live long enough to see this written by TFG. (Chris Cillizza)
Sheet-pan roasted fish with sweet peppers for the win — though I subbed lemon zest for the olives and added lemon juice to the vinaigrette (New York Times Cooking)
Masha Gessen, the author of one of my favorite books about Russia, went to Berlin to report on what’s happened since Oct. 7 and how the memory of the Holocaust, in her view, obscures what is happening in Gaza. (The New Yorker)
And here is her Q&A about the sh*tstorm that enveloped her after it was published. (Washington Post)
Easy Beauty, a memoir, showed me a new way of writing, and it started with perhaps the best first sentence ever written in a book: “I am in a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.” Best of times, worst of times, my butt. (Chloé Cooper Jones)
The guy who filmed Eric Garner’s murder was his friend. (Chloé Cooper Jones)
Dammit. For many reasons, this hurt. Almost wish I hadn’t read this. As W.L. said, this is the epilogue to Easy Beauty. (Chloé Cooper Jones)
The crisis in confidence in the news media isn’t as bad as people have been making it out to be, and local television is doing particularly well. (Tom Rosenstiel and Mariana Meza Hernandez)
The achievement of Netflix’s The Crown is that it was smart about something so silly. (Lili Loofbourow)
Do you also watch The Sound of Music around the holidays? This is the funniest thing you will ever read about that movie. (McSweeny’s)
After Elon Musk boosted the Pizzagater conspiracy theory on X, posts about it rose 9,501.5%. (Montclair State University)
I didn’t realize how bad Twitter was for journalism or how much its demise might help. (The Verge)
This is the best movie ever made about rowing, and it’s a great movie to take the hold family to over the holidays. Also, suck it, Hitler. My only complaint? Not enough Sequim.
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