How Are Your Resolutions Going?
Today is National Quitter’s Day. It’s the day when you can officially quit something, probably the New Year’s Resolutions you started a week and a half ago. Why not? You made it a whole ten days. It’s time to reward yourself.
According to figures in a study I won’t link to because who knows if it’s accurate or not, 88 percent of people quit their resolutions by the second Friday in January. Hence, National Quitter’s Day.
In a way I feel kinda bad, because if I hadn’t mentioned it, you probably wouldn’t have known that there is such a thing as Quitter’s Day and you wouldn’t have this pressure. So let me apologize if I contributed to you not losing weight, not getting a new job, or not cleaning that closet you’ve been meaning to clean since 2019.
What I would do is this: Don’t quit your resolutions completely, just make National Quitter’s Day a “cheat day.” Eat what you want, sit on the couch watching TV, don’t make any improvements. And then tomorrow you can go back to keeping your resolutions.
Until February, when the other 12 percent break them.
Read This!
Here are six new books you can resolve to read in 2025.
New York Sketches by E.B. White. This is a collection of short casual pieces about New York City White wrote for The New Yorker.
The Big Empty by Robert Crais. If you’re a fan of first-person mysteries, you should be reading the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels. This is the 20th entry and it’s about a social media influencer who hires Cole to find her long-lost father.
Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right by Walter Mosley. The latest King Oliver novel is also about a long-lost father. This time it’s Oliver’s.
The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2025 by Sarah Janssen. Remember when people used to look up things in books? I used to buy this every year, and even though the whole world is now on their computers and phones there’s something about having a book in your hand that can’t be beat.
Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia by Mike Pepi and Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart by Nicholas Carr. Remember when the internet was supposed to be a magical wonderland that was going to solve all of our problems? Yeah, it didn’t turn out that way.
Fridgescaping
Hey, let’s take a look online and see what the latest trend is (that I’m not going to participate in).
It’s “fridgescaping!” Apparently, people have so much time on their hands they are decorating the insides of their refrigerators.
This isn’t something I could do (and I bet you’re the same). I already have enough trouble trying to find a spot for my half gallon of milk and the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (which I resolve to stop eating so many of in 2025). How do you decorate a place where you’re constantly moving around everything in that place? Are people just doing it to cover up that bottle of grape jelly that’s all sticky from the jelly that has run down the side?
But maybe this will start a trend: decorating home appliances. Who doesn’t want the inside of their oven or washing machine to look more festive? You might have company coming over!
Fridgescaping is just as ridiculous as this solar-powered hat unveiled at CES last week, but at least you won’t be seen in public with your fridge.
You Don’t Know Peanuts
That’s the name of the new official podcast about Charles Schulz’s comic strip that I’m going to spend all day listening to and not getting anything else done. Recent episodes have taken a behind-the-scenes look at A Charlie Brown Christmas, the introduction of the Franklin character, and Shulz’s longtime relationship with Hallmark.
And don’t forget: Schulz had some cartoons published in the Post even before Peanuts began.
RIP Peter Yarrow, Wayne Osmond, Lenny Randle, Britt Allcroft, Friedrich St. Florian, Barry Malzberg, Brenton Wood, and Jeff Baena
Peter Yarrow was a member of the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary. He died Tuesday at the age of 86.
Wayne Osmond was one of the brothers in the Osmonds singing family. He died last week at the age of 73.
Lenny Randle was called “The Most Interesting Man in Baseball.” He died last month at the age of 75.
Britt Allcroft created the TV show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, which was based on a series of books by Reverend Wilbert Awdry. She died last month at the age of 81.
Friedrich St. Florian designed the World War II Memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. He died last month at the age of 91.
Barry Malzberg was a prolific writer and editor of science fiction, mysteries, and non-fiction. He died last month at the age of 85.
Brenton Wood sang the song “The Oogum Boogum Song,” which you probably know even if you never knew the title. He died last week at the age of 83.
Jeff Baena co-wrote the film I Heart Huckabees and directed Life After Beth and The Little Hours. He was the husband of Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza. He died last week at the age of 47.
This Week in History
First “State of the Union” Address (January 8, 1790)
It was given by George Washington at New York’s Federal Hall.
First Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” Commercial (January 9-10, 1984)
Some sources say this ran on January 9, some say January 10. Wendy’s just says “January.” Anyway, it was this week in 1984!
Uploaded to YouTube by Wendy’s
This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Swift’s Brands of Beef (January 8, 1942)
Hey, how did they know I was puzzled by fridgescaping?
January Is National Meat Month
I just walked to the mailbox down the street and the temperature/wind combo just about took my breath away.
It’s definitely “chili weather” (also “chilly weather”). You can make Curtis Stone’s Comforting Chili or Curtis Stone’s Southwestern Chili. That’s not to say that Curtis’s Southwestern Chili isn’t also comforting. I’m sure it is, I’m just going by the names.
Here are some other hot, comforting, meat-based winter meals you can eat. Beef Lovin’ Texans has this Beef & Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie, the Pioneer Woman has Baked Spaghetti (“packed with a hearty meat sauce”), and Taste of Home has The Best Beef Stew. Serious Eats has the Ultimate Beef Stroganoff, if you’ve ever wanted to attempt that.
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Australian Open (January 11)
It starts on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. ET and that channel and ESPN will have ball-to-ball coverage every day (with morning highlights on Tennis Channel).
National Hat Day (January 15)
I’d like to start wearing a hat (the non-solar-powered kind) but my options are limited. I don’t want to wear a baseball cap all the time and I don’t want to wear a winter hat all year-round because that’s ridiculous and I’ll end up looking like Mike Nesmith.
I’d like to wear an old-fashioned fancy hat, the kind Don Draper wore, but how do you wear one of those hats when your daily costume is a flannel shirt and jeans?
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Comments
Buy the hat. Change your wardrobe. Invest in some dress shirts, pants, and sports jackets. You live in a cold climate, so you can augment the look with sweaters or vests. You do have some neckties, I hope.
When I was a child in the 1960s, our neighbors were Forrest and Mary Byrnes. ( They’d been born circa 1880 in southern Mississippi, pronounced “Miss’ipi,” and had basic New Orleans pronounciation, so pronounced their surname as “Boins.” )
Mr Byrnes had been an accountant. In 1917, he and Mrs Byrnes were in their late thirties and had a daughter, so Mr Byrnes had been exempt from the World War I. military draft. He’d been retired for over fifteen years when I met them in 1962. In the eight years they were our neighbors until his death in 1970, I never saw Mr Byrnes dressed in anything other than a white dress shirt, dress pants, a necktie, polished dress shoes, and depending on the weather, a suit or sports jacket. It’s strange that I don’t remember his ever wearing a hat, but not unusual that he wouldn’t given the reliably suffocating weather.
That, you see, was how a gentleman dressed in Mr and Mrs Byrnes’ world.
Invest in some good spats. Start carrying a sword cane in case, as Chesterton said of his own sword cane, it should ever become necessary for you to defend the honor of a lady ( even if, as Groucho said of a female character in a Marx Bros.’ movie, that’s more than she’s ever done for herself ). Assuming you don’t currently carry a flask filled with brandy around with you, start. Medical emergencies can happen when you least expect them. Buy a quality cigarette case and keep it filled in case it should fall to you to give a dying man a last cigarette. Obviously, always carry a book of matches and a sterilized pocket knife.
And consider investing in a derringer in awareness of the possibility that you or others could be set upon by a brigand.
Bob, thanks so much for the book list. I had not thought about an Almanac in ages. I won’t be fridgescaping either. Some people must have way more time on their hands than I do. Love the Schulz podcast link. To celebrate National Meat Month my wife is making chili in our crock pot. It’s a family recipe that I’m sworn to secrecy on or I’d be happy to share it. Hope you select a meat dish for yourself. Have a great week. I’ll look forward to your next SEP article on line.