Saturday Morning Cartoons #120
Putting the "Hot" in Hot Air Balloons
Good morning, fam!
Hope you all had a good week.
I’ve never been one to enjoy talking about the weather, but it’s wayyy too freaking hot for tomorrow to be the first official day of fall.
If you don’t believe in global warming, just step outside and bask in the muggy heat. Fortunately, we should be looking at highs in the mid-70’s next week.
While I religiously update the Weather app, check out this week’s recs.
Put those Solo Stoves back in storage, switch your coffee order to “iced”, and let’s get into it.
Here’s what I have for you this morning:
I just read The Corrections by fellow St. Louisan Jonathan Franzen and it's wild how well he captures the chaotic dynamics of a midwestern family, especially during the holidays. Parts of it are especially sad if you know someone with Parkinson's or another neurological disorder, but he does a good job of balancing it with dark humor. I'd say worth the read! (★★★••)
Welp, Emily in Paris Season 4 Part 2 dropped and it’s just as frustrating as the other seasons. How many times can they get away with the whole “will they, won’t they” plot between Emily and Gabriel? Also, it took four seasons for her to start learning French?! She’s the worst. (★★★••)
Abby agreed to watch a Fallmark movie with me so we naturally chose The Heiress and the Handyman staring Jodie Sweetin (i.e. Stephanie Tanner or DJ Tanner for the five of us who watched Fuller House). Ya’ll…you know the movie’s going to be bad when the main character loses her family fortune because of…A CRYPTO CRASH?!? Just wait to see how she gets her money back in the end, lol. (★••••)
At work, we took our new co-director to a welcome lunch at Mi Ranchito in U City and as someone who has probably eaten at every other Mexican place in St. Louis, I’m surprised to say this was my first time. The verdict? ¡Ay dios mío! You HAVE to get their Tacos al Pastor. ¡Es muy delicioso! (★★★★•)
Speaking of Mexican, me and a few friends went to Mission Ta…I mean Session Taco, and with the new brand comes a few new tweaks to the menu. The BLT Taco is now kaput but they have a new Lobster Taco that was fire and worth getting. Why the rebrand? Apparently the makers of Mission brand chips and tortillas weren’t super happy. (★★★••)
We went to the Balloon Glow last night in Forest Park and after making the questionable decision to drive (instead of Lyfting per Abby’s suggestion), I waited in line for 40 minutes for food. Fortunately, it was well worth the wait because I got the Egusi from FUFU n’ Sauce (a West African food truck). Oh, I also got the BEST DAMN FRIED PLANTAINS I’ve probably ever had for dessert. (★★★★★)
As I’m writing this, I’m sipping on an espresso with these “Good Vibes” beans from Greater Goods Coffee Co. Honestly, the tasting notes are spot on: hot cocoa, peanut butter, and dried cherry. Tastes like fall to me. (★★★••)
If you can listen to “The Search” from NF without getting goosebumps, are you even human? It’s worth listening for the lyrics alone and the instrumentals sound like they could be straight out of a Jordan Peele movie. (★★★★•)
After spending the past few months writing a new draft of my book Fumbling Forward with all of the feedback from my editor, it's finally time to send it out to early readers! Here’s a look into how I went about rounding them up.1
Would you pay $5,000 for a painting of an Uncrustables sandwich? (★★★★•)
You made it to the end! As a bonus, I’ll leave you with this.
Cheers,
Billy
I’m not rating my own work because that’d just be douchey.