Floods of floods, The Night the Lights Went Out, a flexible soup, and how The Onion made me cry.
September 14, 2023
What’s Going On?
Rain. Flooding. Rain. Flooding.
Did you see what happened in Libya?
Death toll hits 11,300 in Libyan city destroyed by floods
Of course, there is more to the story:
Libya’s deadly dam collapse was decades in the making:
With thousands of people dead and tens of thousands more left homeless by floods as a storm burst through the dams next to the east Libyan city of Derna, FRANCE 24 looks back at the years of violence and neglect that left the city ill-prepared for the unprecedented natural disasters of the climate crisis.
Flooding everywhere, including in New England these past few days as described here:
Rain-soaked New England hit by likely tornado amid wild weather ahead of Hurricane Lee’s arrival
It is all so overwhelming. On a personal note, I was so sad to learn that Flats Mentor Farm, a project of World Farmers, an organization that helps immigrants and refugees become farmers in Massachusetts, was hit terribly hard by flooding in these past few days to the point that all crops are lost for the season.
I say it is personal because I got to know many Flats Mentor Farm farming families as a farmers market manager and also via shopping at a number of local farmers markets where Flats Mentor Farm farmers were vendors. They farm on land in a river valley that is vulnerable to flooding, but this recent flooding is so extreme that the soil has been compromised. There will be no more crops to harvest this season even when (if) the water recedes. I don’t know if it is just for this season or if it means this land is becoming unviable for farming. I so hope not the latter.
What to Do?
There are so many souls suffering these days, but I am going to ask that, if you are able, you help either Flats Mentor Farm or an organization that helps small farmers in your area that are suffering due to climate change.
To help the Flats Mentor Farm farmers, go to the following website:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/h3uwf-farmer-flood-relief-fund-flats-mentor-farm
All 270 immigrant and refugee farmers in our Flats Mentor Farm program have experienced significant or total crop loss from the excessive rainfall and flooding this season. Please consider providing a gift to help farmers recoup a portion of their losses.
https://www.worldfarmers.org/flood-2023/
What to Read?
I had no idea I would love this book as much as I do. I purchased it for the same reason I purchased God Spare the Girls, by Kelsey McKinney, which I really enjoyed and recommended to you in my April 7, 2023 newsletter. Both Drew and Kelsey write for a website that I discovered by chance when researching one thing or another. Here is what I shared about said website (Defector) in April:
Here’s a fun one I discovered by…I guess it was by wandering around the internet. Doing so, I discovered an interesting website called Defector, self-described on its website About Us section as thus:
“Defector is an employee-owned sports and culture website brought to you by the former staffers of Deadspin [which is a sports blog].
We write about sports, politics, TV, movies, science, weird shit that happens on the internet, and anything else that catches our attention, because we believe that a good publication is one that reflects the genuine interests and obsessions of its staff.”
I was so impressed with the website and the way it came about that I became a subscriber. And I am not even a sports fan. However, as I noted in April, they do have a food section, Chefector. 😊
But back to the book I am recommending this week. Here is the standard marketing blurb for The Night the Lights Went Out, by Drew Magary.
Drew Magary, fan-favorite Defector and former Deadspin columnist, is known for his acerbic takes and his surprisingly nuanced chronicling of his own life. But in The Night the Lights Went Out, he finds himself far out of his depths. On the night of the 2018 Deadspin Awards, he suffered a mysterious fall that caused him to smash his head so hard on a cement floor that he cracked his skull in three places and suffered a catastrophic brain hemorrhage. For two weeks, he remained in a coma. The world was gone to him, and him to it.
In his long recovery from his injury, including understanding what his family and friends went through as he lay there dying, coming to terms with his now permanent disabilities, and trying to find some lesson in this cosmic accident, he leaned on the one sure thing that he knows and that didn't leave him--his writing.
Drew takes a deep dive into what it meant to be a bystander to his own death and figuring out who this new Drew is: a Drew that doesn't walk as well, doesn't taste or smell or see or hear as well, and a Drew that is often failing as a husband and a father as he bounces between grumpiness, irritability, and existential fury. But what's a good comeback story without heartbreak? Eager to get back what he lost, Drew experiences an awakening of a whole other kind in this incredibly funny, medically illuminating, and heartfelt memoir.
This blurb does not do the book justice. I will give you the first of several lines that really caught my eye and led me to make a note in the book. (Yes, I write in my books. I put the page number and subject of anything that catches my eye in some blank spot at the beginning of the book, rendering it unfit for profitable resale. Unless I get really famous someday.)
The main subject of the section I was reading is how a scent can bring back memories, but the final line of this bit blew me away:
“We sometimes did this in the middle of the night (use Vicks Babyrub on their infant daughter), when Flora was awake and fussy right when neither Sonia nor I wanted her to be awake and fussy. These were the sleepless nights every prospective parent is warned about, and they are the forge in which new parents are made and hardened.”
Upon reading this, I knew this was not a typical memoir of an extreme situation. Read it. It keeps getting better. You will not only come to feel that you know Drew so well that you are ready to consider him a good friend, but you will also get to know yourself better. You might not like the latter bit at first but trust me. It is all worth acknowledging and accepting.
Here’s my standard book-buying blurb:
To purchase a used copy of a book, check More Than Words first, then Thriftbooks.
To support the author of the book and independent bookstores, go to Bookshop.org.
You can also visit my affiliate bookstore page on Bookshop.org (where the link from the title and cover pic above will also bring you) to purchase this and/or other books I have recommended.
And, as I always say: there is a good chance you can find what you want at your local library.
What's Cooking?
Since I am about to have my other knee replaced soon, I am stocking up on freezer meals, including soups. I just made a double batch of what has become a favorite in our house: Mushroom Onion Soup. We love it! If you are a fan of mushrooms and onions, you will love it, too.
This time around, since I had just made the chicken stock called for in the recipe by pressure-cooking a whole chicken, I added some of the chicken to the soup. It worked famously! I am sure pork or any leftover meat would work as well, especially if you decided to use a different type of stock as the base for this easy-to-make and tasty soup.
Try it! It is really good.
What Else?
I think we all remember where we were on 9/11/2001. But what I remember even more clearly is the first time I cried about it. It was such a shocking, numbing event for us in the USA not used to having acts of war going on in our country.
Even The Onion, which I was reading regularly at that time, had no response until their September 26, 2001 edition.
What got me was this piece:
God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule
When you read it, take note that the paragraph beginning with “I’m talking to all of you, here!” is not the last paragraph. Be sure to click where it says:
Powerful stuff.
Be kind,
Wendy
And here is a picture to bring a smile.