Links + Local Love (Vol. 5)

the red stiletto heist, for one thing

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Putting together these links roundup once a month or so has the side-effect of revealing my own predilections and tastes - to myself. When I zoom out and take in this month’s collection of oddities, for example, I see: good food, new books, observational humor, movie musicals, parenting, journalism, podcasting, local history, and the perpetual hope of encountering a litter of kittens in a barn. Of course those are the things that caught my attention, right? Interests shift and new ones arise, sure, but also: we are who we are.

This installation at my local public library is so cool, I wanted to share it with you!

Onto the links…

a smattering of things I’ve been creating, loving, making, reading, or listening to

• I got up early on Tuesday and chatted with

  Meagan Francis
  on Substack Live. Her new book, The Last Parenting Book You’ll Ever Read: How We Let Our Kids Go and Embrace What’s Next is out now! Watch us talk about what it means to go ‘home again’ as a midlife mom and how her grown/flown kids find their own ways home as young adults.

• We are re-re-re-watching The Office as a family, so Rainn Wilson was already top of mind when my friend Sarah sent me this episode of his Soul Boom podcast: Is Society Losing Its Soul?

  Nadia Bolz-Weber
  on Faith, Outrage & Redemption, to which I replied by sending her this episode of
  The Culture Study Podcast
  : WTF is Spiritual Care for the Non-Religious?. I thought both were excellent.

• For the precisely zero of you who are still thinking about this casting choice a dozen years later, I ended up down a rabbit hole of Russell-Crowe-as-Javert critiques last weekend and appreciated this one.

• My friend

  Kelsey Wharton
  nudged me to make this incredible salad from
  Jenny Rosenstrach
  ’s Weekday Vegetarians cookbook: Wheat Berries¹ with Crispy Tofu, Grapes, and Arugula & Feta. It was my first time truly working with tofu, and it was as deeply satisfying to make as it was to eat. I served it to two other midlife women who could appreciate the fiber, protein and nutrients in a way my family would not (Kelsey suggested it be henceforth referred to as the Midlife Lady Salad, and I second this motion).

  

  Wheat Berries with Crispy Tofu, Grapes, and Arugula & Feta, from Weekday Vegetarians by Jenny Rosenstrach

Local Love

a few items of note pertaining to my hometown - tell me what’s happening in yours in the comments!

• Special Report: “Red Heel Heist” perplexes Locals, causes Social Media Stir is local reporting at its finest, with its mysterious headline capitalization choices and hot takes like this one: “Either somebody really hates high heels or somebody loves high heels”.

• I can’t recommend The Shop highly enough; the food is SO GOOD. I got very scared that the brunch tacos had been taken off the menu when I went this past week, but I was assured that I could still order them, even though they’re among the official offerings. A secret menu item, if you will. You heard it from me.

  

• I loved this 1945 photograph displayed in the Central branch of the Santa Barbara Public Library. It’s a beautiful room still, but those old card catalogs really do it for me:

  

• A good summary of the local newspaper saga that spans the last couple of decades and is entering a new era: The rise, fall and reimagining of the News-Press

• I have only been to Rose Story Farm once, and it was for a wedding held at the venue, not a farm tour, but I think I’d like to make a tour happen this summer. (There was a week-old litter of kittens in the barn when I was there in the aughts; I hope that’s a permanent/rotating fixture of the place!)

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If you’re reading this on Mother’s Day, I hope it’s just the type of day you need it to be this year. And if it isn’t, I hope you know you’re not alone.

That’s it for now! -S

1. I used farro instead of wheat berries, which I’ve read is a pretty close substitute. Everything else I made to the letter!