Fewer wrappers, less convenience, and more flavor? — About a month ago, after I finished lunch — a small can of pre-packaged tuna salad and a little pile of crackers out of a foil wrapper — I brushed away the cracker crumbs and realized I had been eating too many packaged foods. …

The first two seasons of the show made me feel nostalgic for answering machines, pay phones, and video stores — The first season of Seinfeld came out in 1989, and it ended its run in 1998. Seinfeld and its absurdities were staples of my TV viewing growing up. Over the holidays, I rewatched a lot of seasons 1 and 2. On this rewatch, I liked seeing the fashion from those…

I’m trying remember to put these out into the world — When it comes to writing reviews or giving feedback to stores and businesses, it’s easy to forget the good experiences and focus on the negative ones. But lately I’ve thought about how giving positive feedback could possibly make someone’s day better or just add a little friendliness to the world. …

My three recent trips to the cinema after a pandemic hiatus from moviegoing — Movie theaters are an escape and sanctuary. For two hours, real life pauses and your mind can fly with the film, above, and beyond it. I used to go to a movie every couple of weeks, sometimes every week. It was strange not going to a movie for over a…

A journal-like dispatch with small and soon-to-be-forgotten incidents — This week I went on a hike in Shenandoah National Park. I had been on this trail once before, and its lovely river and waterfall views drew me back. I got to the park early, around 7 a.m., …

It was an unsettling distraction from an otherwise mostly good documentary — When I found out that they used an AI-constructed version of Anthony Bourdain’s voice for several lines of voiceover dialogue in Roadrunner — the new documentary about Bourdain’s life — I was upset. I didn’t want to hear a fake digital voice woven into a movie about a guy who…

In “Loki,” he’s on a journey to who he was meant to be — Marvel movies, and now TV shows, aren’t about action, superpowers, magical abilities, or world-threatening events. They have those things, but they aren’t about them. They’re about characters being human and sometimes being heroic. That’s why we’re still watching more than 10 years after Iron Man. We love these characters. Loki…

Now I’m on to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — In a year, I played 880 hours of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing New Horizons. That number seems staggering, but it was what I needed. Animal Crossing was a beautiful distraction in a dark year. I’ve never put that many hours into any video game. I estimated that I galloped across the…

How I water orchids without causing crown rot — My first few orchids were beautiful but frustrating. I couldn’t figure out why they kept dying. The problem would start with the bottom leaf, which would turn yellow. Then the leaf would fall off. Rot would spread upward and the leaves would fall until the plant would be no more…