Here’s what’s making us happy this week.
This week, Lit Hubbers are reporting from all over the country. Bracing for the acknowledged end of summer this weekend, we’re resting hard, chasing best selves, and getting the last laugh.
James Folta’s nice thing of the week involves a stirring and unexpected reunion with a Proustian cheese. Best let him explain in his own words.
When I was briefly in San Francisco, I lived for about a year above a Salvadoran restaurant and bakery and fell deeply in love with pupusas, curtido, and whatever they were putting in their coffee—chicory or cinnamon or something, but I was too bashful to ever ask.
Most of all though, I dream of their quesadilla salvadoreña, which is a sweet breakfast cake/quick bread with cheese and a dusting of sesame seeds. I’ve never been able to make it quite right at home, which I think is because I don’t have the right cream or cheeses for quesadilla. There are a lot of good approximating combinations you can find online, but nothing quite matches what they were using under my place in Bernal Heights.
But dear reader, I’ve been blessed: I’m up visiting my parents in the Hudson Valley and found some Salvadoran duro blando cheese in a little deli grocery that I think could change everything.
Watch this space next Friday for the recipe report back.
Meanwhile, in unseasonably hot Seattle, McKayla Coyle has been finding blessings on television. “I’ve just been sitting on my couch with an ice pack watching The Summer I Turned Pretty and it is sooooo good,” says our glorious engagement editor.
Though the show’s rom-com formula is familiar—”teen love triangle, one guy is hot and haunted and one is hot and nice”—series author and show creator Jenny Han has apparently “freaked it” with this sweet series. A perfect treat to mark the season’s end.
Down South, Molly Odintz dug some political theatre. “I have been enjoying watching the Texas democrat legislators f*ck with their police escorts by taking them to gay bars,” reports our Lone Star citizen.
Some context: in response to a GOP-led redistricting battle that would juke Democrats out of five house seats if passed, liberal congress-folk in Texas have been tasked with police escorts to prevent them leaving the state come crucial voting time. In response, state reps Terry Meza and Venton Jones have committed this glorious act of queer rebellion. (“Dragged” being the operative word.)
“Deeply passive aggressive and very #goals,” says Molly.
In the Hudson Valley, Drew Broussard is swinging low. “We got a really nice Nags Head hammock for the yard and it has immediately solved 20% of my problems,” says our podcasts editor. “I’m calmer, my body feels better, and I’ve laid in it like twice.”
Note to the hammo-curious? The Nags have got a summer sale on, in advance of Labor Day. (This message is not endorsed.)
And speaking of calming mechanisms, good pranks, and #goals, Oliver Scialdone would like you to click on this link—but you aren’t allowed to ask any further questions.
I, Brittany Allen, have been observing my favorite back-to-school traditions, despite no longer being in school. Soon in my neck of the woods, it will be New York in the fall. Which makes the best of us want to buy school supplies.
A writer buddy recently got me hooked on the fine supply at Appointed. And friends, I’m talking habit trackers, bullet journals, planners…this store is simply an organizer’s paradise. I’ve been getting acquainted with my new Workbook this week and feeling like my purest writer self. Did you know that with a new notebook, you can do anything?
Wishing you a weekend of goal meeting and setting, trolling thy enemies, and kicking way, way back.
