Summer 2026 Bright Spots
My birthday gift to you: a scattered accounting of my summer
Today is my birthday and, Leo that I am, I thought the most generous way I could celebrate would be to share all my favorites with the internet. Truth be told, this post would have happened this week or next week anyway, but it did seem like talking about my favorite things of late was kind of a good vibes birthday post.
Watching
I have discovered nothing more delightful on television than “The Other Bennet Sister” which is on Britbox. I know, I know, you don’t want another subscription and, frankly, neither do I, but you can watch the whole thing in the free trial week and you’ll be so grateful. The premise is that Mary Bennet, depressing middle sister and mediocre pianist / vocalist from “Pride and Prejudice,” goes to London to become a governess. Somehow, this show manages to respect Jane Austen and bring so much humor and humanity to the spinoff I didn’t know I needed. It is a fabulous comedy and rewarding drama. No word on a second season, but they are going to do a Christmas special and what a gift that will be.
Post World Cup, I was looking for my inspirational sports content and ChatGPT pointed me to “All or Nothing: Arsenal” (on Prime) which takes us behind the scenes while Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, works to rebuild the team in the 2021-2022 season. It’s an incredible view of inspiring leadership in action: I don’t think it’s possible to watch and not fall in love with Arteta (although I suppose non-Arsenal fans will find a way). Here’s one of his locker room talks and it’s not even in my top two:
On the list of things I’ve told Jeff are an absolute “no go” for me to watch are talking animals, spaceships, and anything over two hours and 20 minutes (and that extra 20 minutes past the two hour mark is me being incredibly generous). So I am shocking myself at recommending either of these next two movies and also apologize to Christopher Nolan for the company he’s keeping.
First, “The Sheep Detectives:” essentially a shepherd is murdered and his flock (voiced by the likes of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Bryan Cranston and Sir Patrick Stewart) help solve the crime but I can’t stress enough how much better it is than it needed to be. The premise has “solid airplane movie” written all over it but the execution is beyond charming.
Next, “The Odyssey.” I almost didn’t go see it since I didn’t realize it was three hours. And I get it, it’s a long trip, needs a long movie, but I still think it could have been cut to two and a half. And then I almost didn’t get out of the car when I realized Jeff was hoping I’d stay awake for a three-hour movie in an all-Pepsi theater. However, the movie was exceptional. The acting was superb with such standout performances from John Leguizamo, Samantha Morton, and Robert Pattinson that they almost overshadowed just how incredible Matt Damon was. I really was blown away and even without Coke Zero stayed both awake and captivated the whole time. I truly don’t know how it could have been better (unless it had been cut to even, like, two hours and 40 minutes).
I debated including this at all since I really think, talking sheep aside, I mostly shared high-quality cultural pieces but the YouTube algorithm recently introduced me to Trip Hazard, a dog dancer who has performed at Crufts and on “Britain’s Got Talent” and I think sandwiching “The Odyssey” between talking sheep and a dog dancing to Mary Poppins seems on brand for me. Please note: there’s a world of Trip Hazard performances that await you — I was particularly impressed with his Aladdin routine where he rubbed the lamp with his paws to make the genie appear.
Listening To
For the last two months, I basically only listen to one podcast: “My Therapist Ghosted Me” which features Irish comedian (and former “Taskmaster” contestant) Joanne McNally and Irish TV presenter/general celebrity, Vogue Williams, shoot the shit twice a week. I don’t even know how to describe it beyond saying it’s just a genuinely great hang. Warning: tough listen if you struggle with Irish accents — and Jeff made me play it at 0.9x just to keep up. Incidentally, Joanne is coming to Philly to do stand-up at the end of October and Jeff, even on my birthday, will not agree to go with me because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to understand her. If you’re keeping score, that means that I will see a three-hour movie without Coke Zero for Jeff but he will not listen to an amazing comedian I love for 90 minutes with booze for me.
Reading
David Sedaris came out with a new book, “The Land and Its People,” which I adored (comme toujours) but it also meant we were treated to his press tour including this NYT article going behind the scenes on his art collection. We also listened to Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel “Villa Coco” as an audiobook and loved it for a drive. Fun fact: the audiobook narrator, Edoardo Ballerini, also voices some sleep stories in the Calm app so it’s a very soothing read and he does a great job with accents. The book is about a recent college graduate / archivist who takes a job for a year working for an unspecified Baronessa at a villa in Italy and everyone is a character who could have their own book. The story is quick and clever and a great escapist summer read.
Two other articles of note to help us all better understand Gen Z. First, “The New Yorker” covered “Love Island” and did a fantastic job of making it sound like something worth your time (although this season has ultimately been kind of meh in both the US and UK). I just appreciate any time there’s a highbrow/lowbrow culture (reminds me of the glory days of the NY Mag Approval Matrix).
The NYT had this, ultimately depressing, article about Gen Z and their collective lack of ambition. To be clear, it’s not so much a Gen Z hit piece as a meditation on how thoughts on work have changed. One thing that stood out to me and Jeff: “Eight out of 10 students who graduated from high school in 2022 don’t expect work to be an important part of their life, nor for their job to be particularly interesting.”
Making
Most of what I’m making of late is driven by forty-something protein goals and whatever comes in our CSA box (hello beets and zucchini!). We continue to get home run after home run out of Molly Baz’s recipe club (which, at this point, is far and away the best recipe subscription I pay for) but would call out the Green Bolognese and Chicken Piccata as mega-winners. You may not think you want bolognese in the summer but this one is minty and oddly kind of light? And you may not think you need another piccata recipe at all but this was the best we’ve made with cherry tomatoes and chile peppers.
I think we’re officially out of green garlic season, but definitely bookmark this Green Garlic Toast for next spring. I would also highly recommend using up your zucchini with Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini Butter Pasta (which I serve with garlicky breadcrumbs and roasted cherry tomatoes stolen from a cavatelli I had at The Proprietors a few years ago).
Using and Loving
Added this section because I figured I’d share some of my favorite things in general that have no other home but I need to evangelize. First, Snipd is an AI podcast app my brother recommended and it’s so fabulous. While it’s fine to use to just listen to two Irish women talk about random UK scandals, it’s best deployed when listening to lengthy podcasts where you want the takeaways but not to listen to Tim Ferriss for three hours (time you could spend watching “The Odyssey!”) The app both lets you snip and transcribes key bits and pulls out what others have transcribed for you to save and share. It also has a “DJ” feature that will skip through a long episode and just play the most important parts and provide some context or bridging in between allowing you to get 20 minutes of meaty content out of a 90-minute show.
Perhaps a little too squarely in the stereotypical elder millennial consumer target camp but the Republic of Tea’s Dubai Chocolate tea is a treat. Steep for seven minutes and add a little sugar and a splash of half-and-half and it’s the most delightful and calming and indulgent end to your day.
Lastly, Rachael introduced me to the Town AI assistant and I initially thought: I don’t need another tool, this looks overpriced and the fact that it gives you an actual character/assistant to work with is weird. But, I was wrong. It’s the best AI assistant I’ve worked with. The routines it suggests, the responses it drafts, the meeting briefs it prepares (all automatically) are amazing. And instead of using one of the boring preset assistants, I had it create Bechamel for me – the poodle with a clipboard.
I know, I know, we don’t need more AI tools but genuinely the quality and responsiveness of this is making a huge difference especially when Claude is starting to wear on me as seen in Claude’s recent working status:
I end this trip around the sun so grateful that you are reading this and have liked / subscribed / commented / been interested in my cascading failures.
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