The Church of Minding One’s Own Business

10 things worth sharing this week

A steeple near my house

Hey y’all,

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. I would like to become a congregant in “The Church Of Minding One’s Own Business.”
   
   

2. RIP Edith Grossman. Reading her translation of Don Quixote was one of the highlights of my summer, if not my whole reading life up until this point. Can’t recommend it enough.
   
   

3. I’m a huge fan of the comic strip Nancy, so I devoured Bill Griffith’s new comic, Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy. It’s not just a good biography, it also functions as a mini Nancy collection and a good introduction to what makes the strip so great. I read two nice interviews with Griffith about the book, one over at Hogan’s Alley and another at The Comics Journal.
   
   

4. More Nancy: in previous letters, I’ve shared Paul Karasik’s advice to “Study something you love in depth!” which he put to use in his over-the-top deconstruction of the strip, How To Read Nancy. (Might need to get my deck out and play some Five Card Nancy.)
   
   

5. “What gets in the way of writing is having to use words.” Clarice Lispector’s paradoxical certainties. (I’ve been meaning to read her Complete Crônicas for years.)
   
   

6. TV: So long to How To with John Wilson, which just wrapped its third and final season. One of the wildest things I’ve ever seen on TV. For behind-the-scenes: read this exit interview and follow John on instagram: @peepingjohn. (I drew him as part of a panel on “Making (Un)Real Films.”)
   
   

7. My 90s musical nostalgia is getting a little out of control: this week I listened to U2’s Achtung Baby for the first time, I blasted my cassette of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream after reading Jayson Greene’s review, and I made Blur’s “Tender” my anthem of late summer. (I did not listen to Smash Mouth, but RIP Steve Harwell anyways.)
   
   

8. Speaking of nostalgia: I genuinely enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. (I don’t think I ever shared this wonderful interactive feature about the music of composer John Williams.)
   
   

9. RIP Jimmy Buffett, whose classic “Margaritaville” was inspired by drinking in a strip mall Mexican restaurant right here in Austin, Texas. (The song was originally called “Wasting Away Again in Austin, Texasville.”)
   
   

10. I love these tiny rare books.
    

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xoxo,

Austin