2023.12.DisappearingMoment
This issue of the newsletter marks three years of Disappearing Moment. I realize that publishing a short, monthly newsletter isn’t a heavy lift. Or, rather, it shouldn’t be. As with most things , I’ve made it more difficult than necessary.
From the beginning, I fought any artifice that would save me from being honest and vulnerable. I channeled some of my favorite writers. Steve Albini, Mandy Brown, Stacia Brown, Warren Buffett, Eve Ewing, Aubrey Gordon, Alice Munro, Iggy Pop, S.R. Ranganathan, Cecily Walker. They gave me courage. They helped me cut the cruft.
I turned 54 this month. We bought our decennial car. I saw family and friends I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. I went to SoJo in Edgewater for the first time. A lot of good things happened this month.
As grateful as I am for these gifts, I’m even more grateful for your attention. I wouldn’t have sent a newsletter for 36 consecutive months if it weren’t for you. Through much of that time, I had fewer than a half dozen subscribers. Thanks, Emily, Christa, and, especially, Ned. You made writing this thing into a habit.
It’s not like I’m minting Beyoncé concert tickets every month. As a reader, you’re one of about two dozen subscribers. A few more people read the feed.
To write, I need an audience. In most instances, that’s one person, real or imagined. Knowing I have more than that feels lavish.
It also feels right. Not like a performance. Instead, it feels like individual conversations. Like you appreciate me and understand why I’m writing for you.
Welcome to December 2023’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
Podcasts
- Brains and Gains (Worth My Time): Gym bro talk for people who hate gym bro talk. Host David Maconi is a Havertown dentist and personal trainer.
- Hang Up (I Loved It): I adore dating shows. This one is superb. The concept is great, the twists are creative, and the editing is on point.
- Iron Culture (I Loved It): Omar Isuf's Merlin Mann shtick annoyed me until he and Eric Helms added Eric Trexler. Now the ATP, intellectual humility, and wackiness feels balanced.
- Women’s Running Stories (I Loved It): Host Cherie Louise Turner creates oral history-style interviews, my favorite format. She edits out her questions, leaving only the subject's voice. Sparse, beautiful, and moving.
Nerdy Software
"The government" might be the universal punchline for every Dad Joke. Making the Fatherhood.gov website too on the nose?
Bougie Products
Fuck NASA. I’m with Team NOAA. A thousandfold more good for a quarter of the price.
Personal Finance and Investing
For our new Kia Niro, Costco’s Auto Program saved us $900 off the best price I could negotiate. And I'm a fierce negotiator.
Reading
- Carolina Carter, Under the Legend (2016) (I Loved It): Pseudonymous Carolina Carter is the real deal: brilliant, engaging, wicked, and funny. I look forward to reading the other two books in this series.
- Justin Duke, Mandy Brown on using Buttondown and the open web to stay connected with readers and clients (I Loved It): “… I felt it was safe for me to write and for people to listen, without the fluorescent visibility and context collapse that social media was designed for.”
- George Monbiot, Call me all the names you want – I won’t stop telling the truth about livestock farming (I Liked It): “A remarkably wide and intense range of impacts... reveal livestock farming, alongside fossil fuels, as one of the two most destructive industries on Earth.”
- Leon Paternoster, The privilege of being able to opt out of Meta (I Liked It): “But if you do enjoy the privilege of being able to make a personal, ethical decision, then maybe you should.”
- Joe Posnanski, Why We Love Baseball (2023) (I Loved It): Posnanski satisfies. He indulges. His one weird trick: write what you want to read. Would that everyone did.
Some Topics I Intend to Write About in 2024
- Classical music.
- How to teach people stuff.
- Evil business models.
- My personal investments. For transparency and accountability.
- Professional running. Because I’m a fan.
- What I eat and how I exercise. Inspired by case studies I admire.
Thanks for spending three years with me. I look forward to corresponding again next year.
Brett
No large language models were used in the production of the Disappearing Moment newsletter or website (inspired by RFC 9518 Appendix A ¶ 4 and Tantek Çelik).