I know that this title doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of good happening, and none of the things I’ll write about will undo the carnage of wild fires and hateful wannabe technocrats.

Instead, these are things that I enjoyed and that I want to remember for later on. I also hope that some of y’all might enjoy some of these things as well or have something you might want to recommend to me — hit me up here or on Bluesky (where I’m mostly lurking these days).

(In theory, this will be a monthly thing, but this is the first and who knows what this becomes)

1. Unrivaled Basketball — I watched more WNBA this past season than I had before, so the idea of a new league with 36 of the best women’s basketball players in the world caught my attention. Somehow, the TV product is even better than I hoped. They play 3 on 3 on a reduced full court with slightly shorter quarters, and that produces games that last about 75 minutes with quick up-and-down the court action. The broadcast has also been great – they often do the first and fourth quarters without commercial breaks, which makes it so easy to get locked in to a game. This isn’t even to mention all of the terrific things the league is doing (player equity, lots of fan friendly stuff, some of the best social media presence I’ve seen from a sports organization) that make this easy to root for. Speaking of “easy to root for,” I decided to root for the Lunar Owls before the season began largely because I wanted to follow Napheesa Collier’s team and the Owls have been on fire (5-0, currently up 17 points in their 6th game as I write this), and it’s nice to root for a winner every so often. (And this is before they do a league-wide one-on-one tournament in a couple weeks – what a dream!)

2. Better Man — When I saw this past fall that there was a Robbie Williams biopic starring a CGI monkey, I was all-in. The movie, directed by The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey, was somehow something even more interesting – a meditation on the intersection between massive ego and self-loathing. It has fun moments (the “Rock D.J.” sequence is rightfully lauded as a fun number) but I wouldn’t really call it a “fun” movie – interesting, compelling, messy, weird, but not quite fun.

3. Glen and Friends Cooking on YouTube — A few years ago, I started watching these videos hosted by a Canadian food photographer cooking in his home studio. Glen makes a whole bunch of different types of things – things from his massive library of old cookbooks, “what was on sale at the grocery store” recipes, things that he saw and wanted to try elsewhere – and they are interesting videos that focus on practical techniques and understanding why things work.

This recent video is a great primer: Glen started with a Yorkshire Pudding recipe out of one of his many vintage cookbooks, and while making a version of the recipe as popovers, he talks through cookbook history, the reason why his method works, and the other items he’s serving along with these sky-high popovers. His videos are always shot cleanly and with care, and wife joins to taste the food and give her take on whatever he’s making. They are relaxing and informative and make everything he cooks seem approachable. I watch basically every video he puts out.

4. Contributing to Mutual Aid — If you are able, there are groups around you doing work that you can support in big and small ways. Two I’ll recommend: if your community has a community fridge, this is an easy way to help your neighbors by picking up and dropping off a few extra groceries when you are out shopping. One specific mutual aid group that I’m contributing to monthly is Warm Up Boston, a group that is both supporting unhoused people while also advocating for policy change to support our unhoused neighbors.