What stuck with me: every essay you’ve ever written on parenting. A Hole In My Head, I Still Hear You Roar, Boyhood in Seven Costumes, The Five Parents You Meet at a Birthday Party, just to name a few. I reread A World Like This a few times a year.
Yes, I read the stories and enjoy them.
If you haven’t made a pork green chili something, you probably should. Like you, I could not remember and was not going to dig through the archives to check. Not weird, just delicious (or maybe I’ve spent so much time in NM and CO that I’ve completely accepted that we put green chili on everything).
A modest suggestion: I love reading about the cocktails, but they can be hard to adapt for someone who doesn’t drink alcohol. Maybe you could think up a few zero-proof drinks to sprinkle in the weekly newsletters, or include a zero-proof adaptation or two?
1. I've enjoyed all your writing. Favorite ones include the parenting ones (daily Dad life esp.), The Farewell (still quite topical), Reindeer Games (needs a sequel starring Frosty), the noodle shop.
2. Too many recipes to remember - Jules Verne (we call it "The Brooder"), Cherry Cola one (I enjoy rest of family swears Im making medicine), not your's per se but the Dirty Rice, Beef 3-way, Pork Padilla, and others. Generally if it's somewhat feasible, it gets made. Im still waiting to do the street meat skewers from years ago.
3. Friday newsletters are a routine now. My bookshelf is littered with various cookbook and book recommendations.
4. Not anything specific but I love when you do regional food. It's a neat feature.
Because I am a completionist, you're going to get an answer to all five questions (for better or for worse).
1. I am sure there's something else that you wrote that I've forgotten I picked it up from you, but I've shared "Things Will Settle Down Next Week" several times with friends and colleagues. (Looking further back, I still use variations of "I can't go in there--there's a BALOON in there" when describing Ike's distrust of new spaces.)
2. You did a pasta salad with roasted tomato dressing a couple years back that generally gets made once or twice a summer.
3. There is at least one book (maybe Fish Don't Exist?) that I recommended back to the newsletter after reading it from a Friday recommendation, so I know I'm picking up books from you. I also bought the Camp Trash album that you recommended a while back.
4. I read a lot, so I do read all the stories. Some I like better than others, but that's just the reality of writing, and there's definitely something fun about the possibility of a bit of fiction turning up every so often.
5. You've done the best regional food I grew up with (hotdish), but I would like you to consider exploring the wonderful realm of Terrifying Midwestern Non-Salad Salads (Snickers salad, pretzel salad, etc.); also consider a Brandy Old Fashioned for a drink sometime (if I haven't forgotten you already doing this).
One of the side effects of Brandy Old Fashionds is forgetting Brandy Old Fashioneds, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you've handled it and I just didn't recall.
My top 3 categories are the essays about parenting, the short stories are all incredible, and the unhinged ACB content.
Two things that I use constantly are the "things'll calm down after this week" - I have emailed that letter to multiple coworkers/grad students after they have promised me that, and the fox and the chicken riddle. We have 3 kids (6,5&2) and about 80% of my wife and my communication is logistics, and when it gets crazy, one of us will break out a "and then you take the chicken, and I'll go get the fox"
Reindeer games is an all time classic.
I hope you (in all of your spare time) write a short story collection, I would buy multiple copies.
As to recipes, we've made the apple pancake breakfast thing a few times and the kids like it. But I'm here for the Monday/Wednesday posts and usually just skim the Fridays. I did read the Robot and the Monk books and liked them. Loved the other SciFi time travel one you recommended. Couldn't get into famous people who never lived.
By far, the best thing I've gotten out of the newsletter is the book recs.
I had made it a goal years ago to start reading more because there was a solid decade+ where the biggest thing I read was a longform post on ESPN or the like.
Since 2022, I've read 45 books, almost exclusively from recommendations you've made in your Friday newsletters.
Every week, I look forward to adding another one to my To Be Read list.
I love the recipes. I love (and hate, but mostly love) the emotional terrorisms. But I really want to highlight your fiction work. You write dialogue as well as anybody, which is a lot of fun.
All of your parenting posts are direct hits to my chest.
I love them all dearly. This is clearly because I have three kids between 3 months and 5 yrs, but I'd venture to guess that a significant portion of your readers are in the same boat.
I know it's difficult to cover parenting while also keeping your children's lives private, so I appreciate the efforts you've made. I could read a parenting post 3x a week indefinitely.
Your short story on waking up the best ever at baseball is a personal fave. Such a fun idea. But your short fiction on the world where President's have to kill themselves after serving was GRIPPING. Just so much fun.
Food/Drink:
I mostly use these for flavor inspirations, I haven't actually sat down and made one yet, but it was an absolute delight eating them all at your pop-up last summer: I still think about the clam chowder nachos.
Friday Newsletter Misc.
That cover of Bittersweet Symphony you shared is on my happy earworms playlist that gets me through traffic, I love how big and round it is.
Fiction: see above, you are such a talented fiction writer I cannot wait for your short story collection or novella.
Regional Food:
Beef ribs. That was the most Texas thing, those were ribs to me - not baby back or spare pork nonsense, but honking beef ribs bigger than my forearm growing up. Grilled to perfection, they were a staple in my summers and something I just can't really get anywhere else.
Thank you for giving Olaf a bit, I was about to yell at you.
Is there an easy way to just drop suggestions (for recipes, specifically) when something comes to mind?
Just generally speaking, I always enjoy regional fusion, whether it’s hyper regional (I dunno, Altoona Pizza Chili?) or more broad (avgolemono soup dumplings?)The problem solving aspect is fun, and I like your writing for the process and failures along the way.
I think the short story was called The Farewell, where the leader was writing his farewell address, that really stuck with me. The parenting things all blur together- in a good way. You’re a few years ahead of me in that regard, so it’s just generally reassuring that 1) what’s happening now is fine and 2) what’s to come will be different but will also be fine.
More regional pizzas! More regional chili and chili adjacent foods (Green Bay style chili! New Mexico carne adovada!) More stupidly complicated "weekend project" foods because you aren't busy enough as it is! More architecture!
Things that stuck - The Red Zone (and any of the longer form stuff). Also The Special. Many many of your parenting stories, oddly enough as I am not yet a father.
Recipes - Pumpkin Spice Pork, Kentuckiana Hot Loin in all its forms, and the Cod/Chorizo/Kale/Gnocchi
Things I've picked up from newsletters - many books from the earlier years of the newsletter as I'm more of a fiction guy. Also, quite a few of the Pop Punk type bands, Meet Me @ The Altar was the biggest and I saw them in concert shortly after your recommendation. We moshed very well.
I have enjoyed so many newsletters but the one that got as a paid subscriber was Pedal Through To The End. I also ended up with an exercise bike shortly after that…
My feedback is pretty much to just keep doing what you're doing (really helpful, I know). It's just right because of the mix. Your instinct for what to do, and when, is undefeated in my book.
Everything you write manages to hit just right. I love the fiction and parenting stories. Weird Cookbook and Emotional Terrorism are equally wonderful. I anxiously await the rest of the football novel (but I promise to never be weird about it like Game of Thrones fans-I will never hold it against you if you never get back to it.) I love that I never know what I'm going to get but it always manages to be just what I need (you're like the Popeyes of newsletters!). I like that you have the structure of the Friday newsletter to ground everything and round out the week.
I have never made one of your recipes, but that is 100% a me problem. My diet is weird. However, I will try new ingredients or pull techniques or flavor combinations from your recipes as inspiration for my own stuff. So the recipes are valuable to me, even if I never duplicate them.
I don't really drink anymore outside of the occasional beer so I don't really focus on the drinks. But again, that's a me problem.
Possible suggestion: I don't know if you'd ever want to go back to the well of mascot origin stories. I'd understand if you wanted to evolve past some of the content that originated on EDSBS, though.
Lastly, I would absolutely buy a collected edition of your stories if you ever figured out a way to publish it.
What stuck with me: every essay you’ve ever written on parenting. A Hole In My Head, I Still Hear You Roar, Boyhood in Seven Costumes, The Five Parents You Meet at a Birthday Party, just to name a few. I reread A World Like This a few times a year.
Yes, I read the stories and enjoy them.
If you haven’t made a pork green chili something, you probably should. Like you, I could not remember and was not going to dig through the archives to check. Not weird, just delicious (or maybe I’ve spent so much time in NM and CO that I’ve completely accepted that we put green chili on everything).
A modest suggestion: I love reading about the cocktails, but they can be hard to adapt for someone who doesn’t drink alcohol. Maybe you could think up a few zero-proof drinks to sprinkle in the weekly newsletters, or include a zero-proof adaptation or two?
I have done a pork chili verde, but it’s been a while—worth revisiting as the weather cools down.
Also, I’m totally on board for some zero-proof experiments.
Unsolicited recommendation, but Julia Bainbridge's Good Drinks is a book I've enjoyed exploring for zero ABV cocktail recipes.
Unsolicited but happily received!
1. I've enjoyed all your writing. Favorite ones include the parenting ones (daily Dad life esp.), The Farewell (still quite topical), Reindeer Games (needs a sequel starring Frosty), the noodle shop.
2. Too many recipes to remember - Jules Verne (we call it "The Brooder"), Cherry Cola one (I enjoy rest of family swears Im making medicine), not your's per se but the Dirty Rice, Beef 3-way, Pork Padilla, and others. Generally if it's somewhat feasible, it gets made. Im still waiting to do the street meat skewers from years ago.
3. Friday newsletters are a routine now. My bookshelf is littered with various cookbook and book recommendations.
4. Not anything specific but I love when you do regional food. It's a neat feature.
5/5 no complaints.
Because I am a completionist, you're going to get an answer to all five questions (for better or for worse).
1. I am sure there's something else that you wrote that I've forgotten I picked it up from you, but I've shared "Things Will Settle Down Next Week" several times with friends and colleagues. (Looking further back, I still use variations of "I can't go in there--there's a BALOON in there" when describing Ike's distrust of new spaces.)
2. You did a pasta salad with roasted tomato dressing a couple years back that generally gets made once or twice a summer.
3. There is at least one book (maybe Fish Don't Exist?) that I recommended back to the newsletter after reading it from a Friday recommendation, so I know I'm picking up books from you. I also bought the Camp Trash album that you recommended a while back.
4. I read a lot, so I do read all the stories. Some I like better than others, but that's just the reality of writing, and there's definitely something fun about the possibility of a bit of fiction turning up every so often.
5. You've done the best regional food I grew up with (hotdish), but I would like you to consider exploring the wonderful realm of Terrifying Midwestern Non-Salad Salads (Snickers salad, pretzel salad, etc.); also consider a Brandy Old Fashioned for a drink sometime (if I haven't forgotten you already doing this).
I think I did a Brandy old fashioned once? I would search right now but ironically I am traveling in Wisconsin
One of the side effects of Brandy Old Fashionds is forgetting Brandy Old Fashioneds, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you've handled it and I just didn't recall.
Ah, here we are: https://actioncookbook.substack.com/p/cocktail-wisconsin-old-fashioned
Oh wait--I think the book was actually Sellout. (Both are very good.)
My top 3 categories are the essays about parenting, the short stories are all incredible, and the unhinged ACB content.
Two things that I use constantly are the "things'll calm down after this week" - I have emailed that letter to multiple coworkers/grad students after they have promised me that, and the fox and the chicken riddle. We have 3 kids (6,5&2) and about 80% of my wife and my communication is logistics, and when it gets crazy, one of us will break out a "and then you take the chicken, and I'll go get the fox"
Reindeer games is an all time classic.
I hope you (in all of your spare time) write a short story collection, I would buy multiple copies.
As to recipes, we've made the apple pancake breakfast thing a few times and the kids like it. But I'm here for the Monday/Wednesday posts and usually just skim the Fridays. I did read the Robot and the Monk books and liked them. Loved the other SciFi time travel one you recommended. Couldn't get into famous people who never lived.
By far, the best thing I've gotten out of the newsletter is the book recs.
I had made it a goal years ago to start reading more because there was a solid decade+ where the biggest thing I read was a longform post on ESPN or the like.
Since 2022, I've read 45 books, almost exclusively from recommendations you've made in your Friday newsletters.
Every week, I look forward to adding another one to my To Be Read list.
I love to hear this!
I love the recipes. I love (and hate, but mostly love) the emotional terrorisms. But I really want to highlight your fiction work. You write dialogue as well as anybody, which is a lot of fun.
Thank you!!
I’m going to need you to manifest the 17-way chili into real life.
Same here, I love the gag food that is actually plausible.
All of your parenting posts are direct hits to my chest.
I love them all dearly. This is clearly because I have three kids between 3 months and 5 yrs, but I'd venture to guess that a significant portion of your readers are in the same boat.
I know it's difficult to cover parenting while also keeping your children's lives private, so I appreciate the efforts you've made. I could read a parenting post 3x a week indefinitely.
Thank you!!
Writing that stuck with me:
Your short story on waking up the best ever at baseball is a personal fave. Such a fun idea. But your short fiction on the world where President's have to kill themselves after serving was GRIPPING. Just so much fun.
Food/Drink:
I mostly use these for flavor inspirations, I haven't actually sat down and made one yet, but it was an absolute delight eating them all at your pop-up last summer: I still think about the clam chowder nachos.
Friday Newsletter Misc.
That cover of Bittersweet Symphony you shared is on my happy earworms playlist that gets me through traffic, I love how big and round it is.
Fiction: see above, you are such a talented fiction writer I cannot wait for your short story collection or novella.
Regional Food:
Beef ribs. That was the most Texas thing, those were ribs to me - not baby back or spare pork nonsense, but honking beef ribs bigger than my forearm growing up. Grilled to perfection, they were a staple in my summers and something I just can't really get anywhere else.
Thank you for giving Olaf a bit, I was about to yell at you.
Keep kicking ass Scott!
Is there an easy way to just drop suggestions (for recipes, specifically) when something comes to mind?
Just generally speaking, I always enjoy regional fusion, whether it’s hyper regional (I dunno, Altoona Pizza Chili?) or more broad (avgolemono soup dumplings?)The problem solving aspect is fun, and I like your writing for the process and failures along the way.
I think the short story was called The Farewell, where the leader was writing his farewell address, that really stuck with me. The parenting things all blur together- in a good way. You’re a few years ahead of me in that regard, so it’s just generally reassuring that 1) what’s happening now is fine and 2) what’s to come will be different but will also be fine.
To drop suggestions (or feedback of any sort) the easiest way is just to respond directly to an email!
…so I use the Substack app, I can reply through that somehow?
I believe you can DM me through the app, yes! (Or on twitter, bluesky or instagram)
More regional pizzas! More regional chili and chili adjacent foods (Green Bay style chili! New Mexico carne adovada!) More stupidly complicated "weekend project" foods because you aren't busy enough as it is! More architecture!
I feel like you’ve told me about Green Bay Chili before but I can’t recall what it is.
A bowl full of cheese with a single bean on top
That might be too spicy for them.
Things that stuck - The Red Zone (and any of the longer form stuff). Also The Special. Many many of your parenting stories, oddly enough as I am not yet a father.
Recipes - Pumpkin Spice Pork, Kentuckiana Hot Loin in all its forms, and the Cod/Chorizo/Kale/Gnocchi
Things I've picked up from newsletters - many books from the earlier years of the newsletter as I'm more of a fiction guy. Also, quite a few of the Pop Punk type bands, Meet Me @ The Altar was the biggest and I saw them in concert shortly after your recommendation. We moshed very well.
I have enjoyed so many newsletters but the one that got as a paid subscriber was Pedal Through To The End. I also ended up with an exercise bike shortly after that…
1- if I were picking my faves it is a 3way tie on recipes, emotional terrorism and short stories.
2 - we have a CNY dish that really rarely see outside the 315 area code. Chicken Riggis : https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/166181/chicken-riggies/ Perhaps you have not heard of it and maybe you will enjoy making it better!
3- I originate from EDSBS days and the writings from there to now are all awesome. Write what makes you happy.
My feedback is pretty much to just keep doing what you're doing (really helpful, I know). It's just right because of the mix. Your instinct for what to do, and when, is undefeated in my book.
Everything you write manages to hit just right. I love the fiction and parenting stories. Weird Cookbook and Emotional Terrorism are equally wonderful. I anxiously await the rest of the football novel (but I promise to never be weird about it like Game of Thrones fans-I will never hold it against you if you never get back to it.) I love that I never know what I'm going to get but it always manages to be just what I need (you're like the Popeyes of newsletters!). I like that you have the structure of the Friday newsletter to ground everything and round out the week.
I have never made one of your recipes, but that is 100% a me problem. My diet is weird. However, I will try new ingredients or pull techniques or flavor combinations from your recipes as inspiration for my own stuff. So the recipes are valuable to me, even if I never duplicate them.
I don't really drink anymore outside of the occasional beer so I don't really focus on the drinks. But again, that's a me problem.
Possible suggestion: I don't know if you'd ever want to go back to the well of mascot origin stories. I'd understand if you wanted to evolve past some of the content that originated on EDSBS, though.
Lastly, I would absolutely buy a collected edition of your stories if you ever figured out a way to publish it.
Thank you, for all of this
Your Olympic one had me crying with laughter;) but the salmon burgers I made fell apart.
Your newsletters make me smile almost always and I read them the day they arrive
Thanks!