Not a wheel, it's a carousel, etc.
Not a wheel, it's a carousel, etc.
The Friday Newsletter indulges in some nostalgic thinking this week, and then makes soup.
Nostalgia’s a hell of a drug.
As a child of the ‘80s and ‘90s, I grew up steeped in the nostalgia of the Baby Boomer generation without entirely realizing it. Whether it was The Wonder Years or The Sandlot or a solid half of the jokes on The Simpsons, the rose-colored memories of my parents’ generation made up much of the fabric of popular culture in my youth.
Once I reached my teen and young adult years, I became cynical about this nostalgia, in the way that teenagers are prone to do. Not everything has to be about the ‘60s, I’d grouse. That generation needs to get over themselves.
Well, it’s a heck of a thing to see it happen to your generation in real time.
The internet tells me I’m an Elder Millennial—on the cusp of Generation X, but a little further along into the internet area. Whatever you want to call it, my cohort’s navel-gazing era is in full swing these days, from movie reboots to special-edition LEGO sets to the continued existence of the Charlotte Hornets.
As a younger generation succumbs to it the same way I did decades ago, I find myself bristling at the less-worthy-of-remembrance things being held up to the light; the other day I saw a sincere tweet asking “what was it like to see The Phantom Menace in theaters?” (Extremely disappointing!)
A couple of days ago, I downloaded NES and Game Boy emulators for the kids’ Nintendo Switch. My seven-year-old had a blast playing the original Super Mario Bros—that movie’s appeal is trans-generational—and after the kids went to bed, I fired up the original Game Boy version of Tetris.
As soon as the green-tinged monochrome screen flickered on and the 8-bit Russian music began, I found myself overcome with nostalgia. I was sitting in the backseat of my parents’ 1988 Cutlass Ciera, trying to break 100,000 points and make a tiny rocket launch before we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
(Or before it got dark out, because the original Game Boy wasn’t backlit.)
It can certainly get a bit obnoxious at times, but nostalgia comes for all of us in time. In a few decades, my kids’ generation will surely be waxing nostalgic about Bluey or Minecraft or reusable plastic water bottles, and they’ll get it too.
Sometimes, you can go home again, if only for a few minutes.
Friends, it’s Friday.
We’ve made it to the end of another long week, and I’m here to help make your weekend be all that it can be.
Today’s slate is vaguely nostalgia-themed, with:
a refined method for the perfect weeknight chicken soup!
a refashioned classic cocktail!
music, book and TV recs!
The Internet’s Best Comment Section, pets and more!
Let’s get reminiscin’.
7) Home is where the soup is
Nothing hits quite like a bowl of chicken noodle soup when you need it.
Home sick from school? Get yourself a bowl of Campbell’s, a juice glass full of Sprite with a bendy straw in it, and a comfy spot to watch The Price Is Right, and you’ll be right as rain in no time.
A homemade chicken soup is our go-to family reset meal. If we’ve had an off weekend, a busy stretch of after-school activities, or just ordered pizza too many times, it’s the perfect thing to deploy. It’s healthy (enough), it’s hearty, and it (usually) won’t get an argument from the kids. We had a surprise late-April frost hit earlier this week, and I knew that a pot of soup was just the move.
My recipe is not especially groundbreaking, but it’s one I’ve refined through numerous reset weeks, and I’ve gotten pretty darn good at it.
Chef AC’s Chicken Noodle Soup
1 whole chicken