You will never not see a packed gym in January. This used to annoy me, maybe because it’s so relatable. Who doesn’t yearn for a fresh start? Why not try to be new? So I say, make too many resolutions, really go overboard, and then drop most of them by February 1st, who cares. Imagine a new future for as long as you can, and when it fades, try again. I’m into it. One of my resolutions this year is to take the energy I spend worrying and spend it daydreaming instead. When was the last time you spent an hour daydreaming about something awesome?
Here’s something awesome and real: I’m reading and chatting with Juan Martinez about our books on Tuesday at the Book Cellar in Chicago. You should come! (Juan’s book - EXTENDED STAY - comes out 1/17 and is CORRECTLY getting incredible reviews! Go preorder it!)
Now, down to business.
Five things I’ve liked this month that you might also like:
I thought this article about the Ouija board was going to be about the game’s history, yadda yadda spiritualism and scams etc., and it is, but it ALSO turns out the Ouija board can maybe help us access our unconscious?? Check out this study where participants were asked a bunch of fact-based questions and told they were playing Ouija with a robot, when in fact it was only them controlling the board:
When participants were asked, verbally, to guess the answers to the best of their ability, they were right only around 50 percent of the time, a typical result for guessing. But when they answered using the board, believing that the answers were coming from someplace else, they answered correctly upwards of 65 percent of the time… The implication was, Fels explained, that one’s non-conscious was a lot smarter than anyone knew.
Come over sometime, and we’ll haunt our own minds together.
Every Christmas, Andrew Bird comes back to Chicago and does a concert in an old church with great acoustics. I managed to snag tickets to a sold-out show from my friendly neighborhood Facebook group, and sure, Andrew Bird was great, but the real zinger was Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond. That VOICE?!
Hey, did you know Columbo is a great show? I feel like everyone in the world has discovered this at the same time, or else I’m a victim of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Anyway. Columbo. I’m a little obsessed. I mean, come on:
[Peter Falk] would often deliberately improvise some of the shambling ways in which Columbo disarmed and confused the murderer of the week in order to keep the other actors off-balance.
If you’re still not convinced, read the rest of this great essay, and I’ll see you at the next meeting of Columbo Club.
This is just a hot tip for anyone in Chicago who loves oysters: There’s a guy who will deliver them to your house. He also makes a mean lobster roll that’s better than anything I’ve had on the actual East Coast. We got a seafood FEAST for New Years Eve. I mean come on: a “traveling raw bar”?? Yes please.
I’m writing a new novel, and it is strange and unlike anything I’ve ever done before, which means I basically need to figure out how to write all over again (argh). I’ve seen a bunch of authors talk about the value of retyping your WHOLE manuscript from start to finish as a way of editing a rough draft, and because I have to be extra, I bought an electric typewriter (it’s the model Kurt Vonnegut used, don’t roll your eyes at me, have a little respect) and retyped my manuscript on actual paper. This was fun and arduous and very LOUD and weirdly smelly and my fingers got a real workout. 10/10 would recommend.
Bonus lewd animal fact:
A little good-news-bad-news here. Bad news, there’s very little consensual duck sex. Good news, female ducks literally do have a way of “shutting that whole thing down.” Their uteruses are twisty and convoluted and full of cul-de-sacs (yes this the technical term) to make sure unwanted sperm gets lost and DIES A SLOW PAINFUL (maybe?) DEATH before it can fertilize the egg.