Patagonia Provisions Lemon Olive White Anchovies. I’ve never been a canned fish guy, but after reading Michael Easter’s article about the nutritional benefits of anchovies, sardines, and mackerel, I decided to give these Patagonia Provisions a try. Turns out anchovies are nutritional powerhouses — packed with omega-3s, vitamins, minerals, and an impressive 20 grams of protein per tin. These aren’t the overpowering, salty anchovies you remember your grandpa eating; Patagonia’s lemon anchovies are buttery, huge, and surprisingly mild. They taste like tuna. I’ve been pairing them with crackers for an afternoon snack. I feel like Zorba the Greek eating them.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlo Cipolla. This slim book by an Italian economic historian started as a tongue-in-cheek essay for friends in the 1970s but became an underground classic. Cipolla’s key insight: a stupid person causes losses to others while gaining nothing themselves. At 85 pages, it’s a quick read that somehow makes the daily frustrations of dealing with human behavior both funnier and more bearable.
27 Notes On Growing Old(er) by Ian Leslie. In this essay, Ian Leslie talks about why getting older actually sucks sometimes, which goes against all the mandatory cheerfulness we’re supposed to have about aging. 40 is the new 30! No. Forty is forty. His best insight is about how aging isn’t gradual. It sort ambushes of you in bursts. One day, you’re the youngest person in the room, then you blink, and suddenly you’re wondering when everyone around you became younger. It’s definitely weird the first time you realize that, say, an NFL coach or a Congressman is younger than you. I especially related to Leslie’s bit about “felt age.” Inside, I still feel like I’m in my early thirties, but my body keeps filing official complaints that distinctly issue from the department of my early forties. The piece is not exactly uplifting, but is refreshingly real in a world full of “aging gracefully” platitudes. The ethos reminds me of The 15 Most Sobering Quotes About Getting Old that we published last year.
Ultra Lounge Collection. I got into lounge music back in high school when I went through my swing phase. I still enjoy the smooth, sophisticated sounds of bachelor pad music from the ’50s and ’60s. This Spotify playlist has all 18 original volumes from Capitol Records’ brilliant mid-’90s reissue series. Perfect for background music at dinner parties or when you want to transform your living room into a swanky cocktail lounge. My favorite albums on the list are Space Capades (for that otherworldly exotica vibe), Wild, Cool & Swingin’ (classic cocktail hour material), and Crime Scene (perfect noir soundtrack music). Put on any of these albums, dim the lights, and suddenly your Tuesday night feels like a scene from a Rat Pack movie.
On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Sunday Firesides: It’s Fine . . . Until It’s Not and The Anti-Relevancy Guide to Staying Relevant.
Quote of the Week
Most of us, swimming against tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement and we’ll make the goal. Say, ‘Thank you!’ whenever you think of it. Say, ‘Nice job!’ to that workman who put extra effort into his task. Say, ‘Atta boy!’ to the fellow who is struggling through in the face of odds. You’ll get a whale of a lot of joy out of life that way. And people will love you.”
-Jerome P. Fleishman
