The scheme falls apart

The Friday newsletter makes plans, then laughs.

Sometimes, you just can’t pull a scheme together.

I’ve had an occasional, recurring bit on these Friday newsletters since last year—a loving homage to Sufjan Stevens’ so-called “Fifty States Project”, wherein the indie singer-songwriter suggested that he would record a concept album themed around each of the 50 US states. The ambitious undertaking received a lot of press at the time, only for Stevens to abandon it after only doing two states—Michigan and Illinois—and years later admit that it was never going to extend beyond those two.

Last March, following this path, I did a fully-Michigan-themed Friday newsletter, headlined by the delicious Midwest/Chinese dish Almond Boneless Chicken, then followed it up the next week with an Illinois-centric one. Since then, I’ve surpassed Stevens’ career record by sneaking in Kentucky and Georgia editions, too. It’s not something I plan to do often, but it’s been fun when I’ve done it, and I’ll surely do it again at some point.

I was going to do one…