Midweek Obsessions, Vol. 89

Cookies, a Frank O'Hara poem, and musings on some games I play.

This Frank O’Hara poem greeted me like a portent¹ when I opened Instagram today:

🐕 “Animals”

Animals
Have you forgotten what we were like then
when we were still first rate
and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth

it's no use worrying about Time
but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves
and turned some sharp corners

the whole pasture looked like our meal
we didn't need speedometers
we could manage cocktails out of ice and water

I wouldn't want to be faster
or greener than now if you were with me O you
were the best of all my days

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🕊️ The passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson

As a Chicago native and nearly lifelong resident, I watched the passing of local icon Reverend Jesse Jackson hit every Chicagoan I know in different ways this week. I have a lot of respect for his Rainbow Coalition, and for what he did for my city and country, and did not particularly care for this lens on his legend from his NYT obituary:

Mr. Jackson picked up the mantle of Dr. King after his assassination in 1968 and ran for president twice, long before Mr. Obama’s election in 2008. But he never achieved either the commanding moral stature of Dr. King or the ultimate political triumph attained by Mr. Obama.

Instead, through the power of his language and his preternatural energy and ambition, he became a moral and political force in a racially ambiguous era, when Jim Crow was still a vivid memory and Black political power more an aspiration than a reality.

It may be accurate, but it feels incomplete. I marched with Rev. Jackson on several occasions, including multiple antiwar demonstrations and CTU teachers’ strikes, and will remember him with fondness, gratitude, and admiration. The man deserves to rest in peace, and I hope we can all find inspiration in his example.

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🧢 My fave podcast getting merch??

The love fest between me and Witch, Please Productions continues. They need to hit 1,200 paying subscribers to add this cute hat to their merch store, and they’re only 56 subscribers away from making that happen. Anyway, enjoy the mini-season they’re doing about “The Pitt” over at

I don’t know of another podcast covering the show this well (and that includes the “official” HBO attempt).