Here’s what’s making us happy this week.
A mixed bag over here. The Eastern Seaboard was way too hot, but New Yorkers got a blast of fresh air on election day, when the progressive candidate Zohran Mamdani swept the mayoral primary. All of us have neighbors who are afraid to go outside for fear of ICE raids or the next Supreme Court ruling. But daily acts of kindness, heroism, and protest point this reader toward the light.
Kicking it off with the political victories, Oliver Scialdone got through the week by playing this game, which found a fun way to remind metro voters not to rank Andrew Cuomo.
In a similar spirit, Calvin Kasulke celebrated “socialism getting some points on the board against barbarism.” This fellow traveler cosigns. It does feel pretty great to learn you can fight city hall.
James Folta found joy this week from a most unlikely source—the fossilized skull of a Permian mega-frog. The unusually intact remnant from this “large-headed semi-aquatic predator” was found in Texas. And Buddy (my suggestion) is over 280 million years old.
“It’s always a treat when bones imply a cartoon voice,” says our staff writer. “And even the name ‘Eryops’ is fun to say, with that trampolining ‘yop’ right in the middle.” Like the proud paleontologist, we dig.
Speaking of cartoon voices, McKayla Coyle loved being on the Lit Hub podcast this week. They spoke with Drew and Oliver about fan-fiction in a chat that is “perhaps more giggles-per-minute than any we’ve yet aired on the show.” Check it out here.
And speaking of Drew Broussard! Our podcasts editor is hyped about the new-ish Patrick Wolf record. “Finally had time to listen to it straight through a couple times and it’s amazing, rich and nuanced and gorgeous.”
The album triggers some happy nostalgia for us middle-Millennials, while also managing to feel very of-the-moment. And Mr. Wolf, if you’re reading this: a vocal coalition in the Hudson Valley would really love a tour stop this fall.
My happy things are a pair of books. I (Brittany Allen) am halfway through Rob Franklin’s Great Black Hope, and really loving it. Franklin’s writing in a sage, sort of snide third person voice that reminds me of some of my middle-aughts faves. This debut novel is a canny psychological profile dressed up as a whodunit, which is super fun. Many insightful paragraphs are reading me for filth.
On the non-fiction front, I also recently inhaled Katy Kelleher’s The Ugly History of Beautiful Things, a curious research project that considers the objects we associate with beauty. (Silk, glass, perfume, make-up.) It’s an emotionally involving collection, and I learned a lot. Like the fact that one can book a scrying lesson with a New Orleans witch “for just $50,” in the year of our Lord 2025. “All you need is the desire to look, long and hard, into the depths,” Kelleher writes.
Wishing you and yours a weekend of deep gazing, funny games, and gorgeous sounds. Stay cool, stay kind.
