Treat Yourself

Swimming in coffee; plus, performative reading, an utterly stupid font war, and precious little things that light up the holidays.

Hello readers,

How are you doing? How is your Christmas shopping going? Are you as behind on this as I am?

If you are, it's okay.

Maybe you need to stop for a second and get yourself a little something-something as a reward for making it this far into 2025. Like, what is one thing that you can do for yourself that will make you feel energized and elated? It doesn't have to be expensive, though it certainly can be if you have the means. It doesn't even have to cost you anything but time. I mean, I know a guy who this week hashed out an entire detailed proposal that could steer his place of work into some really exciting territory. He submitted it to his higher-ups and they were all in, and I am so proud of him for taking the initiative to say this is what is needed because it would have been really easy to talk himself out of it with the awful phrase "what if they say no?"

They didn't just say yes. They said hell yes. So let this be your sign to shoot your shot now, and always. You never know what gifts it might yield.

Now, I have my own proposal to finish, and two more stories to submit to editors before the end of this year. In the meantime, I decided to give myself the gift of truly great coffee. I originally intended to bring back a bag of my very favorite Parisian coffee a month ago, because every time I drank it, I thought to myself, "Wow...this coffee is so good I could just cry right here in public, like some existential heroine who can't bear the weight of this moment." I'd get a hold of myself, then see a sight, stroll through a garden, destroy a perfectly good pair of shoes in the rain, drink a thing and then find myself thinking about that coffee again, and how I need to be sure to bring some home in my suitcase, because: tariffs. Before I knew it, I was in an Uber on my way to Charles de Gaulle Airport and I realized "damn it, I didn't get the coffee."

As you know, I was having a chaotic week last week, where nothing was going to plan, but at least there was that David Byrne concert, which again...so great. Even so, last Friday night, I may have (definitely) had a couple of glasses of wine. Emboldened, I decided that I was going to order that coffee, tariffs be damned. So I ordered what I thought was three pounds of coffee, and I felt pretty proud of myself until I realized later that I had ordered three kilos of coffee, which put my order closer to about eight pounds. I justified this by telling myself "Okay, but it's eight pounds of really good coffee. It'll be fine." It's not like I was the recent "Home Cooking" caller who had a couple of drinks and accidentally ordered 100 pounds of flour and was at a loss for what to do.

Or was I? I started thinking about how I fell very madly and passionately in love with this other roaster's coffee while I was visiting my sister in Utah last year. I bought a cup of it at its cute little store before we went to a nearby farmers' market. I was so impressed by it, I went back for another cup. Whoo boy, did those two cups turbocharge me. I chattered at 5,000 m.p.h. the whole way back to my sister's house, and then I crashed and took an amazing nap. When I returned to Atlanta, I started thinking about that coffee, and ordered some roasted beans online based on what I thought I had drank. It arrived...and it wasn't the same...and I was so very sad.

This got me wondering whether my French "treat yourself" coffee would be eight pounds of something totally different from what I thought I ordered. The box arrived, I tore it open like a common savage, and lo and behold, it was clear from the smell alone that I had hit jackpot.

Here's hoping you're hitting the jackpot in your corner of the world. Are you? Hit reply and let me know what's what.

Paige

Writing prompt: How has learning new things in the past changed your life in the present? Write about something (or things) you're interested in learning in the coming year. What is that thing/things and why would you like to learn it?

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested. I'll kind of throw myself into some area that I don't completely know or understand, that I'm not adept at, so I'm forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There's a good feeling that comes from that.

-- David Byrne

Endnotes

Performative Reading

Earlier this year, I was in a restaurant in Brussels, gracefully shoving a bunch of mussels mariniere in my mouth when I happened to cast a glance at the person seated next to me, who was gleefully sipping a beer and reading a book. I can't remember the title, but I recall that it suggested that my neighbor was a gentleman of deep thought and discerning taste. A stack of similar books rested on the table where a dinner companion might have otherwise been, and I began to wonder whether this guy was an academic hard at work on his dissertation, or, I'm ashamed to say, just showing off. Face deep in mussels, I had no time or desire to stop and clarify matters, so I guess we'll never know. According to The New Yorker, there is such a thing as performative reading these days, and it confuses me because I don't understand why you'd play at doing something that's so enjoyable and good for you. Studies show that if you read – like really read – for 20 minutes a day, you're exposing yourself to nearly 2 million words and countless ideas that will strengthen your curiosity and critical thinking. Reading engages your brain more than a casual scroll. And yet, there are people who will use a carefully considered book as a prop to snare a romantic partner, as proof that they are superior to others, or to gain likes on social media. Again, maybe I'm showing my age here, but why do this? And out of curiosity, what books have you read this year that would convert someone into a bona fide reader, instead of...one of those people? Hit reply and let me know!

Performative Leadership

The U.S. State Department declared war on the Calibri font this week, as if you needed more proof that we are an unserious nation. The department said Calibri is yet another example of wasteful DEI, and that all official correspondence going forward would be done in Times New Roman because it is more professional. First, it's so much fun when blatantly unprofessional people decide what is and isn't professional. That always makes me laugh. Second, Calibri never hurt anyone. As a matter of fact, it's easier for people with low vision or reading disabilities like dyslexia to read. Shouldn't public servants be focusing their energy on actual issues, instead of whether a letter has serifs? And if we have to waste time declaring war on a sans-serif font, can we at least agree to fight the scourge that is Comic Sans?

Non-Performative Holiday Talk

I was reading author Denise Kiernan's newsletter this week and in it she talks about the lovely anonymous note that someone left in her mailbox. Denise loves decorating her home this time of year, and she says she would do it even if she was the only person enjoying the fruits of her labor. But recently, someone was driving around looking at Christmas lights with family and fell so madly in love with her display that they left her a note about it, thanking her for contributing to their Christmas tradition. "What really got me was the intention behind this: Driving around with a pen and paper and leaving a kind note in a stranger's mailbox," she writes. "How many times have I driven past a garden I admired? Or smiled at the folks down the road who recreate – right down to Linus's blanket – the raggedy tree from the Charlie Brown Christmas special?" All too often, the holidays can become a thing about the grand gesture, or the enormous get-together, or the guilt given and received. Kiernan's tale is a reminder that the holidays don't always have to be huge or gift-wrapped. They don't even have to be about what we would normally think of as something you'd put under the tree. They can be smaller, quieter things divorced from crowds and expectation, like sitting on the couch with your sister, watching the brand new season of "Culinary Class Wars" (which, by the way, drops on December 16).

If you can right now...

...please consider donating to your local community food bank. Thank you.