October 8, 2025

Look 121: We aren't here to make things perfect

Fellow angler,

I didn’t post last Wednesday. Someone who claims to read this blog asked me why I missed that post day and while the reason is simple (I was too busy as I started a new schedule of freelance writing so that I can continue paying my bills) I propose to you an alternative reason that, while a lie, is more fun: I skipped my post last week so that I could talk to you this week about the moon.

You see, last night — that is to say, last night relative to the time you’re reading this but tonight relative to the time I’m scheduling this and tomorrow relative to the time I started writing this, and if that’s confused you about what day I’m talking about then that makes two of us so allow me to reset — Tuesday night, was a full moon. It was also a harvest moon, which is what we — meaning the fancy people who are in charge of naming moons — call the full moon that occurs nearest to the autumnal equinox, which is the first day of autumn (huzzah). On top of all that, the harvest moon was also a supermoon, which is what we — or rather the aforementioned moon-namers — call the moon when it’s full at the same time that it’s in the closest part of its orbit to Earth. During that time, it appears bigger than it really is — 30% bigger in the case of last night’s super harvest moon.

You’re wondering about the point of all that moony talk, which I can’t blame you for because I myself have begun to wonder what I’m doing here, but I guess my question to you is: Do you ever feel the compulsion to be circuitous?

If not, may I suggest that you’re doing something wrong. If yot¹, I can’t guarantee that you’re doing something right but at least you’re having fun. After all, it’s fun to do things for no reason sometimes. It can serve to focus your mind on an unimportant matter in a way that clears your head of all the other unimportant things that I’m sure are in a constant swirl. There’s no need to be serious all the time.

This is all to say that I don’t have much to share this week, but I wanted to send something (I chose the route of something annoying, which luckily comes naturally for me) to ensure you don’t forget me or think for even a second that I’ve forgotten you.

I will send a real post next week (though when it comes right down to it, perhaps this is as “real” of a post as I’ve sent). I may or may not cover some of the big things happening in my life:

• A Muppet celebration at the Museum of the Moving Image for Jim Henson’s 70th birthday

• The Brooklyn Book Festival

• New York Comic Con (will I dress up?)

• A book I read that annoyed me but that I’ll read again

• My Halloween movie marathon featuring bad movies of my youth (last night was Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire)

• More moon facts??? (no, don’t worry)

Finally, here’s a funny picture for spooky season:

Title song

The title of this post is actually a quote from a movie: Moonstruck. It’s a classic film starring Cher and Nicholas Cage as two Italians who fall in love in Brooklyn while an old lady dies in Sicily. Please watch it during the next supermoon (The beaver moon) on November 5.

The first song to play in that movie is That’s Amore by Dean Martin. That’s the song I’m sharing here but instead of the movie version, which is the same as the studio version, I’m sharing a live version that I enjoy so much that I downloaded and watched it on my iPod Classic back when I was a very cool high schooler.

If you’re unfamiliar, I am a big fan of Dean. As a child, I thought his name was Bean, but since then I’ve read three biographies, listened to most of his studio albums, and have slowly worked my way through his movies (next to my TV, I have a sizeable pile of DVDs that my wife feels has “been there long enough”).

If you’re a Hey Arnold! fan, you may have noticed that the first gif in this post is a character named Dino Spumoni, a mashup of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, who sings a semi-catchy song that I’m not sure why I still remember all the words to.

Until next time,

Happy fishing!