Ordinary Sunday Brunch

by · November 4, 2018

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Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has been the Managing Editor of Ordinary Times since 2018, is a widely published opinion writer, and appears in media, radio, and occasionally as a talking head on TV. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter@four4thefire. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew'sHeard Tell Substack for free here:

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9 Responses

  1. fillyjonk says:
    November 4, 2018 at 9:39 am

    Fo3: something I have always wondered…..with gold-covered food, does the, ah, end-product of digestion wind up glittery?

    I am way way too cheap (and have too many dental issues) to want to try gold-covered food but I’ve always wondered that.

    But, point well taken: the need to make everything perfect and “Instagram worthy” is ruining the world; I recently read a story claiming that craft stores needed to “step it up” and be more “Instagrammable” and I was like “No that’s not how it works what they need is to have enough yarn in a single dyelot to make a sweater for an adult person with, or they need to have the bead racks properly organized so you can find stuff, they don’t need to make everything twee and pretty.” The claim was “Millennials” (they really mean Gen Z) would allegedly only be attracted to stores that they could feature on social media and I suspect the Instagrammers are like maybe 5% of the actual population, and the overlap with many of the hardcore crafters is probably minimal.

    I mean, I’m a hardcore crafter (and Gen X, so no one gives a literal crap about me, nevermind I have more disposable income than your average Gen Z kid) and I’m a lousy photographer and I care more about making stuff than I do about staging the stuff I’ve made so it looks pretty. (And I suspect the reason I was always an outlier is that I’m a hot mess who lets all the messiness in my life out on show in places like my blog instead of pretending I’m better than I am)

    I’ll be glad when “wabi-sabi” (wonkiness or imperfection) becomes on-trend again. And not “pretty” wabi-sabi that isn’t really imperfect, but the genuine article.Report

    • Andrew Donaldson in reply to fillyjonk says:
      November 4, 2018 at 9:45 am

      When I first got into cooking, watching Emeril Live was so enduring because he would mess things up in real time occasionally, laugh it off as “we are cooking for real here” then praise the assistant that would come running out to fix the error and make a joke of it and start again. There is something to what you say about staging. Seems to me there is a real difference in – lets call it “presenting” – as opposed to real, true “craftsmanship”. Something you could probably expound on better than me (and should, write that up as you have opportunity)Report

      • Aaron David in reply to Andrew Donaldson says:
        November 4, 2018 at 9:57 am

        Indeed. My wife is a great cook, as it is a major part of her life. And even knowing as much about food and its preparation as she does, mistakes are still made.

        All of which makes the fact that I am indifferent to food even funnier.Report

    • Atomic Geography in reply to fillyjonk says:
      November 5, 2018 at 10:08 am

      fillyjonk: with gold-covered food, does the, ah, end-product of digestion wind up glittery?

      Yes.

      Back in 2012 Tobias Wong and Ken Courtney had an art project that consisted of gold capsules you could buy that would turn your poop all glittery.Report

  2. Anne says:
    November 4, 2018 at 10:18 am

    Great group of links thank you! You touched on a bunch of things that resonate with me. Iz, food, art, I’m going to be reading through all of them later when I have more time….except Ar1 which I think is about my chosen career but I can’t read it …damn you WSJReport

  3. Saul Degraw says:
    November 4, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    Someone needs to do a study on why the best solutions to problems are often the most hated and unpopular

    https://sf.curbed.com/2018/10/25/18023174/housing-rent-control-construction-poll-la-times

    I am not even that opposed to rent control because you do need something that can provide immediate aide to people while construction is done.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Saul Degraw says:
      November 4, 2018 at 2:06 pm

      You know what more construction in the neighborhood means?

      People moving into the neighborhood.

      Rent control, if you can get it, means that the neighborhood will more or less stay the same even if there are a lot of people competing for your apartment.

      It’s like the immigration debate, only smaller.Report

      • Saul Degraw in reply to Jaybird says:
        November 4, 2018 at 2:15 pm

        I agree with you here. After 9/11, the novelist Colson Whitehead had an essay in the Times where he observed that New Yorkers want the city trapped in amber at the moment they moved there.

        I think this is pretty true and can be replicated across human nature. The problem is that it is also impossible and equals death.Report

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