Hi Bestie!!

Last month, my bestie texted to say he had made banana bread and his house smelled amazing. (His house probably always smells amazing; he’s a great cook.) I resolved to make banana bread for the next swim, and then didn’t swim for several weeks because the weather was terrible. It was bone-achingly cold. It was, "Why don’t you crawl under every blanket — because the heat did go out — and cry about it for a few hours," cold. Which I did, while reading The Long Game, which I found devastating.

And then I went to my friend's brewery, where I was rewarded with friendship and a goalie fight. Goalie fights are the universe's way of saying, "You're wrong, you deserve happiness."

Last weekend, thinking the weather might briefly allow me to leave my tear-stained couch, I mashed the bananas and thought about my friend's wife (she's my friend, too!), who gives love freely. I thought about what a gift it is to be loved, through all your highs and lows, and I remembered the end of Fargo (here it is again) when Dot asks if you've ever had something made with love. I knew thinking about how it feels to be loved wouldn't change the banana bread. People eat outstanding meals from coked-up, furious line cooks hanging on by a thread. Yet people also hold on to old recipes because they were made with love by people who cared for them. 

Which is how I came to this recipe. When I Was A Little Girl (™), we stood by a recipe from Grandma Genny's best friend.

That lady is, I'm sure, perfectly nice. But she made some comments I didn't love, and the recipe I use now is by someone I knew very well. The note at the end of the recipe, written in 2007, reads:

The history of this is that when I worked at the library, Barbara S. always sent banana bread to Katherine. It should be noted that Darlene and I would receive two slices each, and Katherine would have a separate package of the rest of the loaf. Darlene always said that it was because Barbara liked Katherine more.

The recipe is originally from a local cookbook and was sent by U.S. Congresswoman Beverly Byron. Do other kitchens make this and say they made Representative Bryon's Banana Bread? Do they say, "These bananas are brown, should I make Bev By's bread?" Bryon actually died between the time I resolved to make the bread and the time I actually made it; she served from 1979 to 1993.  

Byron grew up in Washington, DC, where she met and befriended FDR, Eleanor, and the Eisenhowers as a child. (I grew up in Frederick County, where I befriended Herman and Barbara.) She was elected to Congress in 1978; her husband, a Democratic candidate, died one month before the election. Of this turn of events, she said, "Within 24 hours, I was a widow, a single parent, unemployed, and a candidate for Congress." She was re-elected six times. 

Unfortunately, she was a conservative Democrat who opposed abortion and supported Reagan's fiscal policies, the ramifications we are still suffering from today. She was defeated in a primary by a candidate who then lost to my sworn enemy (we have never met), Roscoe Bartlett. Here's how much I dislike Bartlett: When I see young Millennials in a Bartlett sweatshirt, for The West Wing, I hiss in public before realizing it's for a fictional ("moderate") President. 

The 6th Congressional District, which still includes Frederick, is represented by April McClain Delaney. Bartlett, 99, continues to thrive. 

Of course, we know now that New York City had the worst storm it's had in 25 years. Or that's what the governor said when I got home from buying yogurt bars. I woke up early Sunday, watched the hockey game, cheered from my couch, wrapped the banana bread, and put it in the freezer. The Polar Bears can taste my love and affection next week. 

Some guy on the Internet said that people who have been through the wringer really, really mean it when they say they love you. I don't think they can tell, but I hope they know I really, really, mean it. Even when it's followed by “I hate you!” because Del Taco was the most beloved fast food franchise, per a poll by USA Today. (I did not yell "I hate you" at trivia, but the groan was legendary. Del Taco? What is wrong in Ohio?)

I don't know where the line is between an eight-minute voice memo being charming and grating. It's a different line for each person. I passed the time on the 3 train Saturday after a seven-mile walk with a five-minute memo about my friend's experience at a club, and thought, “This is actually pretty great.” When you think you don't deserve a five-minute memo about a bad DJ, you aren't sure that it's OK to send one.  

After all that, after the mashing, the thinking, the phone calls, the voice memos, the baking, the freezing, I sat down at my desk after the blizzard, and my best friend sent me a photo of muffins. He's perfected muffins, he said. I agreed. I agreed because he has, but I agreed because he's creative and inspiring, too. I had been thinking, and wondering, about the different timelines we (me, mostly) take to learn new skills. I had been thinking about what untested skills wait to be learned, and it there is a hobby I could be secretly very, very good at. (It is not, to my sadness, skee-ball, and mild surprise, pinball.) 

BANANA BREAD

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 cups mashed bananas (4 bananas)

1/3 cup walnuts (optional)

Mash the bananas — this will take FOUR bananas, rather than the three you are used to. Blend in the sugar, eggs, oil,  and vanilla. Stir together the dry ingredients, and then blend with the banana mixture. Stir in walnuts. Pour into pans, let stand for 20 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. (My oven does not take 1 hour — check periodically.)

Like, so depressing that I wondered if I should read Ordinary People again as a science experiment. I ultimately decided that this would be, without a doubt, the worst idea I've had in a long time. My therapist gave me a long list of books to read instead (I asked!) so when I remember how incredibly brave I am, I'll read them.

I was explaining over text that I love reading about the American desert this time of year and realized with mild horror that Blood Meridian had been on my bookshelf last weekend during the blizzard. If you're looking for a book with horrifying violence and the sensation of dying from oppressive heat, Cormac McCarthy wrote just the tome for you. (Conversely, if you read The Road, you'll never feel warm again!) If that's not going to do it for you, here's a recipe for pain killer, a cocktail that carried me through the pandemic (so did, to be fair, Negronis). Here is a recipe I lifted from The Kitchn:

Ingredients

• Crushed or pebbled ice
• 1/2 medium orange, or 2 tablespoons store-bought orange juice without pulp
• 4 ounces 100% pineapple juice, such as Dole
• 2 ounces dark rum or Pusser's rum
• 1 ounce cream of coconut, such as Coco Real or Coco Lopez
• Ice
• Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

Instructions

Fill a hurricane or highball glass with crushed ice.

Juice 1/2 medium orange until you have 2 tablespoons, or measure out 2 tablespoons store-bought.

Place the orange juice, 4 ounces pineapple juice, 2 ounces Pusser's rum or dark rum, and 1 ounce cream of coconut in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice, seal, and shake until the outside of the shaker is very frosty, about 20 seconds.

Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into the glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg, and add a straw.

You should know that I think you should pour the drinks into a shaker with ice, shake the hell out of it, and strain into a glass over ice.  

I scheduled this to send while in the air/on the road in Florida. I can say two nice things about Florida: I'm a huge fan of the Sunshine Laws, and it's a beautiful state (when you look past all of the asphalt).

To enjoy the beauty of Florida from your own home, I recommend River of Grass, Kelly Reichel's debut film. You can watch it on Mubi or stream it through almost every service through an add-on subscription. This is a film I'd pull from the Criterion closet, though I can't imagine a world where I'd be invited to do so. 

Always your friend,

Katherine

"Beverly Byron." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Dec. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Byron.

Editors, 10BEST. "10 Best Fast Food Restaurants in the United States." USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 16 July 2025, 10best.usatoday.com/awards/best-fast-food-restaurant/.

Hill, Katherine M. "Hunkerin'." Too Loud and Too Old, Buttonown, 23 Jan. 2026, buttondown.com/KatherineMHill/archive/hunkerin/.

"Painkiller Cocktail Recipe | the Kitchn." The Kitchn, www.thekitchn.com/painkiller-cocktail-recipe-23560660. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.

"River of Grass - Official Trailer 2016 - Oscilloscope Laboratories." YouTube, YouTube, 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9QrvLd2pbY.