Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 52
Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 52
A year of newsletters, the most memorable writing of the past 52 weeks, Leon Bridges, the NBA season in ten minutes, Texas & OU on the move, the best thing I cooked in the past year, and much more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the introduction post here and the entire archive of previous newsletters here.
Please, subscribe and share with a friend.
Micah’s thoughts on a year of newsletters
A year ago, I decided to start a newsletter. And now, 52 weeks later, here we are.
I’ve really enjoyed this project. I’ve got a lot on my plate, but to be clear, there’s no plan to stop publishing here. In fact, you’ll be seeing even more content from me soon.
I’d first like to thank my fiance Caitlin. I’m not always fun to be around. Publishing a Monday newsletter every week adds a level of pressure (and often dread) to our already hectic Sunday Scaries routine. Although she doesn’t often read the newsletter, she’s been with me every step of the way. CB, I love you. And I can’t wait to (finally) marry you soon. I hope she sees this.
I’d also like to thank you, the reader. Thanks for sharing, and liking, and commenting. Writing this newsletter is a creative outlet for me. But the most rewarding part is hearing from family and friends and followers who enjoy what they’ve read. I’ve been around content a very long time, and I learned quickly to never read the comments and ignore the trolls. I’m lucky to have you as a reader and to be almost totally free of negative commenters.
To anyone who tweeted me, or said something nice at a party, or sent me an email, or a DM, I say sincerely, thank you.
I’ve also started a new career this year as a mortgage loan originator. Thanks to the incredible team at Leahy Lending, I’m now able to offer my services to the public.
What does this mean? I can help you get a mortgage loan to get you in a home. This extremely difficult market for buyers means that it’s essential to be prepared and ready to make a qualified offer when the opportunity presents itself. And the first step in that process is pre-approval. You might even be able to qualify for more than you expect. I can help with that.
Refinancing your current mortgage might help you (or a family member) save on monthly payments or reduce the length of a current loan. Interest rates are still at historic lows, and taking a cash-out mortgage loan is one of the best ways to improve your financial position. I can help with that, too.
You can reach me via email (micah@leahylending.com) or DM (@micahwiener). If you’re even mildly interested, I’m happy to set up a free consultation.
You’ll be reading and hearing more from me on the subject moving forward, but before we get back to the regularly scheduled content, I would like to thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter. It means a lot. I appreciate it. I appreciate you.
Thanks,
M
Now on to the newsletter…
The most memorable piece of the last year
Unfortunately, there’s no way to talk about what’s happened this past year without talking about COVID. This piece stuck with me all year, and I can’t get it out of my mind.
From way back in Vol. 2: ‘It was me. I know it was me.’ Francene Bailey, on passing the coronavirus to her mother:
They keep telling me it’s not my fault, and I’d give anything to believe that. The doctor called after my mom went to the hospital and said: “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong.” The pastor said basically the same thing at her funeral. “Let it go. You had nothing to do with this.”
I know they’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s a lie. I had everything to do with it. This virus doesn’t just appear in your body out of nowhere. It has to pass from one person to the next. It has to come from somebody, and this time I know it came from me.
What if I’d kept my mask on? What if I’d turned away when she reached out to hug me? We only had close contact that one time, and it barely lasted a few minutes, but that was all it took. A week later she was in the hospital. Ten days after that she was gone. That’s the timeline I have to live with, and it points right back to me. I got sick and then she got sick. I lived and she died. How am I supposed to let go of that?
Unspeakably sad, and simply heartbreaking. This leads us to this from this week:
‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’: Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients
This piece went viral this week and for good reason. This is the week that those who have the vaccine lost their patience with those who haven’t. This is a perfect distillation of the frustration many of us feel watching the Delta variant hammer the unvaccinated.
Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine. The vaccinated patient, she said, just needed a little oxygen and is expected to fully recover. Some of the others are dying.
“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post Sunday. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”
If that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, it gets even harder to take. This stupid disinformation campaign is killing people, especially in places like Alabama. This anti-vaccine and anti-expert sentiment is so strong, that even in the face of literal death, people still don’t believe what doctors say.
“A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.”
“They cry. And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu’. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.”
“I try to be very non-judgmental when I’m getting a new COVID patient that’s unvaccinated, but I really just started asking them, ‘Why haven’t you gotten the vaccine?’ And I’ll just ask it point blank, in the least judgmental way possible,” she said. “And most of them, they’re very honest, they give me answers. ‘I talked to this person, I saw this thing on Facebook, I got this email, I saw this on the news,’ you know, these are all the reasons that I didn’t get vaccinated.
“And the one question that I always ask them is, did you make an appointment with your primary care doctor and ask them for their opinion on whether or not you should receive the vaccine? And so far, nobody has answered yes to that question.”
So, here’s something I never thought I’d say: maybe people need to actually take some advice from Sean Hannity.
"Please take Covid seriously. I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more death," he said. "Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor, your doctors, medical professionals you trust based on your unique medical history, your current medical condition, and you and your doctor make a very important decision for your own safety."
Stop what you’re doing right now and read this Leon Bridge profile
This may be the best profile of a musician I’ve ever read. How Going Home Helped Inspire Leon Bridges’s New Album—And Saved His Life
It starts at the beginning, before Leon was Leon.
On a winter evening in 2013, a 24-year-old young man finishes his shift bussing tables at Rosa’s Café, on the suburban southwest edge of Fort Worth. He’s had this gig for seven years, kept it while he studied at Tarrant County College, and after he dropped out, in 2010, to help his mother pay the bills. At TCC, he dreamed of being a dancer, a choreographer. His biggest dream at present is leaving Rosa’s forever. He’s leaving now just for the night. It’s New Year’s Eve.
He’s got a gig on this night, an open mic at Pop’s Safari Cigars, but he doesn’t have his mother’s car, and his coworker refuses to give him a ride. It’s 7.5 miles from Rosa’s to the cigar shop. That’s roughly two hours on foot. If you’re Todd Bridges, it might be longer because you’re carrying your guitar, which you’ve stored in your manager’s office all day. And it’s cold as hell. And your sneakers with the no-slip soles don’t have much arch support. But you want to sing your songs, so you take off walking.
Spoiler alert: Todd Bridges became Leon Bridges. And by the next New Year’s Eve, he’d signed with one of America’s most legendary music labels.
Signing with Columbia wasn’t just about that, though. Leon signed with Columbia because, in the words of Block, “they gave him a nineties deal.” What’s that? He laughs. “A deal we haven’t seen since the nineties.”
Leon signed his big record deal at a Staples in Fort Worth. Up till then, he’d been making $8.75 an hour washing dishes. When the Columbia direct deposit hit, the first major thing he did was pay off his mother’s house. Rightfully so. After hearing of his long walk, she’d helped him buy a Ford Fusion. She’d made it possible for him to get here, even if she never thought he’d get here, if only because, as she later told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “he always avoided anything that would put him in the public’s eye.”
So much for that.
What a difference a year makes. The professional story is uplifting. But the piece also goes deep. Leon Bridges is complicated, introspective, and vulnerable.
Turns out there’s been a mighty cost to Leon’s journey from Rosa’s to the top of the world. “There’s a solitude that comes with success and notoriety. Initially, when I got in the game, I was swept up, and I didn’t express that to anyone. I just had a really hard time, on a lot of levels, being in the limelight.” I wonder why he didn’t tell anyone. “It’s one of those things that you feel is very minuscule, you know? You wonder how people are going to respond. You think they’ll say, Oh, you got everything—how are you feeling that way? But the wild thing is to have everything but still feel that way.”
Leon Bridges is very cool. And I MUST see this painting:
Leon takes me around, past the RIAA plaques for Coming Home. “ ‘River’ just went platinum,” he says, in the same tone you might announce the mail has arrived. Above his couch hangs a large painting by a local artist, Jay Wilkinson, which Leon special-ordered. “My pantheon of guys that I look up to,” he says of the image. They’re all hanging out together: Willie Nelson, Ginuwine, Townes Van Zandt, Miguel, Van Morrison, Bob Wills, Guitar Slim, Dr. John, Bobby Womack in an astronaut suit, Leon’s friend Jake Paleschic, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Allen Toussaint, Lee Dorsey, and Frank Ocean. Oh, and Hank Hill, from King of the Hill. “Hank is that quintessential Texan, you know?” Leon explains. “And one of my favorite cartoons.” As we’re walking back to the kitchen, he adds, “He actually plays guitar as well.”
Seriously, read the whole thing. And go listen to the new album. I’ll talk about it next week.
Texas and OU are leaving the Big XII
So it’s official:
We’re doing this again, huh? Re-alignment madness is back. There’s a lot going on with major ramifications for the state of Texas and all of college sports.
I spent a half-hour breaking it all down with Curry Shoff on my sports podcast, Back Door Cover. It’s a really fun conversation. I think you’ll enjoy it. I’m sure we’ll have more to talk about later this week as this story develops.
The best 10-minute video of the week
If you are interested in basketball at all, please find ten minutes to watch this video. The best, funniest, and weirdest moments of the NBA season in one wildly entertaining video.
The Knicks fans at 3:00 really cracked me up. I love this game.
Lede of the Week
Check out this Vice headline. A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn:
Hardcore porn is embedded all over regular-ass websites because a porn company has purchased the domain of a popular, defunct video hosting site.
Hardcore porn is now embedded on the pages of the Huffington Post, New York magazine, The Washington Post, and a host of other websites. This is because a porn site called 5 Star Porn HD bought the domain for Vidme, a brief YouTube competitor founded in 2014 and shuttered in 2017.
Someone might want to fix this.
Recipe Corner
The best thing I made this past year
Grilled Pork Shoulder With Butter Vinegar Sauce
We featured this recipe 9 weeks ago, and honestly, I’m still thinking about it.
1 Tbsp. fennel seeds
2 Tbsp. dried oregano
2–2½-lb. boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt)
Grapeseed or other neutral oil (for pork)
1 Tbsp. kosher salt, plus more
10 chiles de árbol, torn in half, seeds removed if desired
½ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. sugar
Toast fennel seeds in a dry small skillet over medium heat, tossing often, until golden brown and starting to pop, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a spice mill or mortar and pestle and let cool; coarsely grind. Transfer to a small bowl and mix in oregano. Place pork on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and rub with oil. Season all over with 1 Tbsp. salt, then rub with spice mixture, packing it on. Let sit at room temperature 2 hours or chill, uncovered, up to 2 days.
Bring chiles, vinegar, butter, and sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and sauce is reduced by about a third, about 5 minutes. Season with salt; cover and keep warm over low heat until ready to use.
Prepare a grill for medium heat. Drizzle pork all over with oil, then grill, turning every 5 minutes or so, until extremely, gorgeously browned and crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 120°F, 35–45 minutes. Continue to grill, brushing with sauce and turning not quite every minute (you’re going to see flare-ups, but don’t worry), until pork is glazed and shiny and temperature on thermometer has risen to 130°F, 5–10 minutes more. Transfer pork to a platter and let rest 30 minutes; reserve remaining sauce.
Transfer pork to a cutting board and pour any accumulated juices on platter into reserved sauce. Return sauce to a simmer. Slice pork against the grain ¼" thick. Arrange on platter, spoon some sauce over, and season with salt. Serve remaining sauce alongside.
If using a charcoal grill, a bed of medium-hot coals will gradually lose heat. Get a chimney started when the meat first hits the grill. About halfway through, throw some new glowing coals on the pile to keep things going.
Burnt Eggplant Butter on Tomato Toasts
Here’s an easy side dish that will be a crowd-pleaser whenever you grill that big hunk of pork.
1 large eggplant
1 ½ tablespoons best-quality butter,softened
6 slices sourdough bread
1 large garlic clove, peeled and cut in half
2 ripe tomatoes, cut in half
Finely chopped fresh herbs, such as dill, basil, cilantro (optional)
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
You need to blacken and cook the eggplant until it collapses, as you would for baba ganoush. The best result comes from doing this over the smoldering coals of a barbecue.
When the eggplant is charred on the outside and really soft inside, set it aside on a plate until it is just cool enough to handle. Pour off the liquid that will have come out of the eggplant into a bowl, then use your fingers to peel off the skin – don’t worry if some of it doesn’t come off, it will only add to the flavor. Add the eggplant flesh to the bowl containing the liquid and mash with a fork. While it is still warm, whisk in the butter with the fork and add some salt and pepper, then taste – it should be well seasoned and taste of comfort, like baba ganoush’s Ukrainian third cousin.
Grill your slices of bread, then rub first with the garlic, followed by the tomatoes – as you would for Spanish pan con tomate. Now spoon some of the eggplant butter on top. Garnish with some finely chopped soft herbs, if you like, and serve.
If there is any eggplant butter leftover, it will keep for up to a week in the fridge.
Crema de Coco
How about a cooling dessert? Here’s an easy one.
3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes or angel flakes
1/4 teaspoon fleur de sal or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground canela or true cinnamon
2 14-ounce cans coconut milk
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spread the sweetened coconut flakes on a small baking sheet, sprinkle with the salt and cinnamon, and mix and spread again. Bake 7 to 8 minutes, or until the coconut flakes barely begin to toast (don't let them brown entirely). They should be slightly crisp and still chewy. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer to a small bowl.
Pour the coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk into a medium saucepan.
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with the regular milk and stir until completely dissolved. Pour it into the pan with the coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 8 to 10 minutes, until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat.
Immediately ladle into custard bowls or ramekins, sprinkle with the toasted coconut. Serve warm right away. Or serve cold later on by letting cool completely, then covering with plastic wrap and chilling in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Where else can I find Micah content?
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
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