[Seth Says] Porks and Recreation
Shakespeare was a big fan of pork.
That's why he wrote Hamlet.
"To sleep, perchance to dream of BBQ. Aye, there's the rub." (Is BBQ rub a commonly-known thing? If you're unfamiliar, please feel free to substitute "Aye, there's the ribs.")
There are religions which eschew (gesundheit!) pork (Judaism, Islam, Veganism) but surprisingly it turns out I'm a fan. I say "surprisingly" because I have always disliked pork chops as well as ham in all forms. But this week has been a pleasing plethora of pork plates.
Pork sausage and eggplant and feta over pasta. Ground pork and peppers in a miso-oystersauce. Char siu pork (like in the bao)(only not in bao, more’s the pity). It's getting to the point where I feel like I should have a swine steward. (I don't really drink wine - although we do cook with it a lot - but I think you could just substitute pork for wine and have a swine cellar and swine tastings and swine moms and okay I should face the fact this word substitution is overdone now.)(overdone swine!)
FACE: THE FACT
I was at a little firepit gather last weekend where someone I'd never met recognized me from my caricature. A friend had just said, "Hi Seth!", and this woman said, "wait, are you Seth Brown? I recognize your caricature from the paper!"
I feel like this is pretty impressive given that it's been well over two decades since my friend Tom drew the quintessential caricature of me which I use everywhere that wants a profile picture (and even a few places that don't). As I have aged and the caricature hasn't (a reverse Dorian Grey!), I often joke that my caricature looks more like me than I do, so I'll admit I was pleased that someone could still recognize me from it.
Also it's always nice to hear someone is reading and enjoying my columns, since unlike doing live comedy, there's not necessarily much in the way of audience feedback to let you know. Also also it's nice just to get together with friends outside now that the weather's warm, which is something I always tell myself I'm going to do more of and then don't.
But all in all it was a lovely weekend and as the world keeps worlding it becomes especially important to celebrate and enjoy those moments of joy. They can help sustain us, along with pork.
MALCOLM GLADWELL, I REBUKE THEE!
This week's column is about my biggest counterexample to the idea that 10,000 hours of practice can make you an expert at something: Sleeping! I am still very bad at it!
Also I've noticed that some of my extended parenthetical ramble style from the newsletter has begun leaking into my columns. It is of course better in full context so I'd encourage you to read the full column here:
But failing that, please enjoy this excerpt which would fit so well in this newsletter that I'm adding it right here:
Good habits can also have an effect on sleep, which is something I will certainly keep in mind if I ever acquire any. Meanwhile I can probably blame at least some of my sleeplessness on my own bad habit of reading too much news. I have repeatedly made the mistake of keeping up with current events, rather than burying my head in the sand and pretending that a ceaseless parade of unjust harms being visited on other people is nothing I need to worry about. You'll note that you very rarely hear about ostriches with insomnia.
(For that matter, you rarely hear about ostriches at all. Just living their best bird lives even though they can't fly, and not losing any sleep over it. Which is not to say ostriches never get depressed or emotional or lash out; some of them do go through an awkward teenage "emu phase" but it's not who they are.)
...and now I'm craving apple cheddar emu pizza.
TH-TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL, FOLKS
Thanks for tuning in to this porky, piggish edition of Seth Says. As always, I thank you for reading, will be back in two weeks with another column, and hope that this week you get to enjoy some tasty pork (or if you don't enjoy that, that you at least enjoyed me babbling about it.)
Tiny Babbles in the Swine,
Seth