Happy back-to-work day (for what else could you call the Tuesday after Labor Day?).

I’m keeping it short because, in the spirit of yesterday’s holiday, I didn’t want to do much work this weekend, including completely voluntary work that I do just for fun.

But don’t worry; I left you numerous distractions and good reads down below.

Ten Worth Your Time

1. Here’s a fun read that will rekindle your faith in the media: a behind-the-scenes appreciation of The New Yorker’s fact-checking department.
2. There’s nothing special about this Texas Monthly story on Republic Boot Co.; it’s a very solid magazine department story. But I couldn’t shake how much it reminded me of one of the very first bits of reporting I did while at the Missouri School of Journalism. It was largely so I could gain some (read: very little) familiarity with audio recording, video recording, and photography. I ventured to Camdenton, Missouri, in search of JP’s Boots, where Joey Patrickus was carrying on the family tradition of custom bootmaking. The images in the story just took me back to that small workshop and all those earnestly trying but poorly composed photos I took that day.
3. I found this piece in The Atlantic so relatable: What to do if someone you love hates your favorite movie? That’s just the hook for the specific example the author used to illustrate an action fraught with meaning: to share something you love with someone you love hoping they will also love it (so therefore you can love them (and they you) a little bit more). I felt that not long ago, when showing Courtney Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which is probably (definitely) my pick for favorite (and best) Indy flick. (Yes, yes, I know; Raiders is perfect.) She didn’t dislike it but nor was she leaning forward, mouth agog at the sheer awesomeness on display either. And that’s a scary feeling — both the moment you confidently declare, “This is awesome. I like it, and so will you,” and the moment when you realize maybe they don’t, won’t, never could view it the same way as you do. (It’s even the backbone for an entire episode of How I Met Your Mother.) This article gets at why.
4. Speaking of movies, I went to see a small film by this fledgling upstart of a director; you might have heard of him — Steven Spielberg? The movie was called Jaws, and it was about a crazy shark and even crazier boat captain/shark hunter (and also a police chief and a nerdy scientist). Call me crazy, but I think that film is going to do numbers. In all seriousness, the 50th anniversary screening was fantastic, complete with a little intro video from the man, the myth, the legend himself. In celebration of this cinematic achievement, I listened to a podcast episode that was even longer than the film on the film: Blank Check’s Jaws episode featuring Tim Simons (you remember that Netflix show we were all talking about for like a week — Nobody Wants This? With the Hot Priest? Well, Tim is the even hotter brother in that (and the incomparable Jonah Ryan from Veep). Podcast gold.
5. Speaking of the movie-going experience, I saw a poster for Hamilton coming to theater on Sept. 5. I can only assume it’s in celebration of the show’s 10-year anniversary, since that was the time peg for this New York Times story about its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. There’s a new biography of Miranda coming out, and part of it focuses on his (and the show’s) fall from its cultural apex in 2016. I was interested in this because I’m a huge fan of the show; I’ve seen in five different times in five different cities — New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis. I’m susceptible to the criticism of being a millennial who just couldn’t get enough of it. Yes. Guilty. And I was interested to hear what the man had to say for himself.
6. Another of my shameless obsessions: the U.S. Open. I’ve written more than a few times about tennis on here, and this year is no different in the amount of tennis I’m consuming. I’m low-key seething at the knowledge that my cousin and his husband are going (or have been) because that’s just something two doctors living in NYC would do, because why not? And while they’re there, I just know they’ll be sipping on Grey Goose Honey Deuces at some point. The Honey Deuce is the official drink of the U.S. Open (and our house for the past week, complete with the honeydew tennis balls I scooped out). But I hadn’t stopped to consider why: WHY was the signature drink of America’s biggest tennis tournament one that featured not one but two non-American spirits? Amanda Schuster’s newsletter was way ahead of me, and she taught me so much in such a short dispatch. A hat tip (and toast of a Honey Deuce) to her.
7. I hurt my back. Sometimes a headline says all you could ever want it to say. Sometimes a piece of writing finds you at exactly the right moment. Because, as it would turn out, I too hurt my back. And like the Defector’s Rachelle Hampton, I don’t know how I did it. What I do know is that Saturday’s tennis definitely did not help. I remain in pain, hoping for a better day tomorrow.
8. I wrote recently about a real double-gut-punch when it comes to reading, but this WIRED story is actually a really sweet, incredibly human story of a daughter trying to reconnect with a politically opposite father through the simple of a book club.
9. Here’s one for the writing nerds: an ode to the em dash. The Ringer’s Brian Phillips defends the unfairly maligned punctuation mark that’s come to be associated with AI-produced dreck.
10. Ah, what the heck; make it two for the writing nerds. This piece from The American Scholar is nominally about commas, but it’s actually about so much more, namely style.

More From Me

Over on my blog, I’ve been writing about various topics of interest to me.

Bring On Fall Film Festival Season!

A Trip Back Home Through Music and Photographs

Two Stories About Reading — One Sad, One Hopeful

Daniel Day-Lewis' Return to Acting is a Win-Win

Handwriting: The Unintended Beneficiary of AI?

What's Bringing Me Joy: Move-In Day For College Freshmen

I Have a New Favorite Dictionary App

The News Out of Alaska

Remembering Greg Iles

Culture Diary

Here’s a collection of what I’ve been consuming in the past week.

The legend for my list was stolen from Steven Soderbergh, where ALL CAPS represents a movie, Sentence Case is a TV show, ALL CAPS ITALICS is a short film, Italics is a book, and bold is a live performance or show. A number in parentheses after a TV show highlights how many episodes I watched. An asterisk after an entry means it’s a rewatch. The source of the movie or show, whether streaming service, physical media, or in theaters, is shown in parentheses as well.

8/24: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

8/25: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

8/26: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

8/27: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

8/28: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

8/29: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

8/30: U.S. Open (ESPN+)

9/1: Life and Art, Richard Russo (library); U.S. Open (ESPN+); JAWS* (theater; 50th anniversary screening)