Another Week: Number 124

Often, TV news coverage is more about the anticipation than it is about the actual event. I have seen cameras trained on an vacant lectern for hours, only to have the channel cut away once the speaker finally begins speaking — with the promise that they’ll keep an eye on the remarks for me, and let me know if anything newsworthy is said.

On Tuesday, hot on the heels of their NFL Draft hysteria, WISN 12 News reached for an Emmy. They had every possible resource devoted to the removal of a boat that ran aground on Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan shoreline seven months ago and became a local news staple.

Likewise with the conclave to select a new pope. On Thursday, CNN had experts analyzing the symbolism of a baby gull hanging out near the conclave chimney — and another who helpfully noted, “There’s a very special connection Catholics have with the pope.”

At least the new pope was chosen without much delay. I actually expected an American — just not Rob from Dolton.

Happily, we have not yet reached the point where popes are younger than I am. Sadly, we have reached the point where our president openly admits he’s unsure whether he needs to follow the Constitution — 102 days after taking a solemn oath to do just that.

Some things lately are very hard to swallow. I miss my wife, and I miss America.

Still, I do my best to grasp life’s chance occurrences.

On Wednesday, as I began my walk through Petrifying Springs, I was joined by a stranger named Larry, a slightly older guy with an ever-searching social antenna. He’s a retired Marine and an assertive Christian who greets all oncoming walkers as “brother” or “sister.” We talked about our careers, our alcoholic fathers, and breast cancer — but the evangelical undercurrent made things slightly awkward, because no sale was going to be closed.

On Saturday, I unexpectedly ran into someone I know while buying a card for my mom at CVS. Next, at my mom’s, I watched Natasha Lyonne (who I love) on Late Night with Seth Meyers, immediately followed by Nonnas on Netflix. In both shows, the exact same axiom was quoted word-for-word: “If you can’t see the camera, then the camera can’t see you.”

I know this principle intuitively, of course — but I’m not sure I have ever heard it stated out loud. To suddenly hear it twice in the same evening seemed like some sort of cosmic underlining.

I walked 7.42 miles this week.

Suleika Jaouad on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

For weeks now, breadcrumbs keep appearing as I try to follow the trail of my identity quest — my hunch that maybe a person can assemble his identity like a craft project from a pair of shoes, a music playlist, a little exercise, and some magic beans.

Of course, this is something that most of us do instinctively in our teens, but you might have to do it again — deliberately this time — if your identity ever gets obliterated by trauma or grief.

On Monday, Suleika Jaouad was a guest on Stephen Colbert’s show.

After my sister Lori died of leukemia in early 2023, my wife Amy borrowed Jaouad’s book Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted from my mom and read it to me. A month before Amy died, we watched American Symphony, the documentary about Jaouad’s leukemia and her writing, and her husband Jon Batiste‘s composing and performing.

Now, Jaouad has a new book out — The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life — which explores the art of journaling, and how it can be used to navigate life’s ups and downs and synthesize them into creativity.

On Wednesday, I played the segment for my mom at lunchtime without any preparation. She gasped.

Nonnas (2025)

You may feel like you’ve seen this this movie already.

Vince Vaughn plays Joe, a sentimental Italian New Yorker. He’s particularly sentimental about the food his nonna and his mother used to make — especially now that his mother has just passed.

So he decides to open a restaurant. He finds a place on Staten Island, and instead of hiring a professional chef, he enlists a quartet of actual nonnas — Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, Brenda Vaccaro, and Susan Sarandon — to cook their heirloom dishes for the public.

Coincidentally, Vaccaro’s character is a neighbor of the prom date that Joe squandered years ago, Olivia, played by Linda Cardellini.

Even though you know where this story is going, there are lots of nice little touches along the way. All five women are excellent, while Vaughn dutifully ushers the plot along. The only real cowlick is Joe’s best friend, Bruno, played by Joe Manganiello in a role that’s just not fleshed out enough by the script.

Nonnas premiered Friday on Netflix. I was pleasantly surprised, my mom enjoyed it — and it’s based on a true story.