SSoP Podcast Heads to NYC + Endnotes
Bagels, books, bodega cats, and more in the Big Apple
Our new episode New York City: NO! SLEEP! TILL BROOKLYN! should be in your podcast player right now! Visit our show notes for stunning photos, entertaining videos, and links to all the books and other stuff we discuss in the show.
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As we did our research for the show (and we reminisced about our own trips to New York over the years), one question kept bedeviling us: Is New York City the world capital of... everything?
We could talk about how the New York Stock Exchange started under a tree (!) on Wall Street and how NYC is now the financial capital of the world. Billionaires, millionaires, blah blah blah.
Let's talk about what really matters.
Like... the best pizza and bagels in the world, the Met and the New York Public Library, art deco skyscrapers and bodega cats, Carnegie Hall, Broadway, Rockefeller Center, and that one place on the corner in Brooklyn with the best Polish pastries.
There's the immediately identifiable New York accent and the 800 or so languages spoken by New Yorkers from all around the world. The City That Never Sleeps is the ultimate melting pot; we're all better for it.
New Yorkers are a unique breed who've changed the personality of the city over and over again. Dutch and British settlers named the place, immigrants made it cosmopolitan, the elite of the Gilded Age filled it with skyscrapers, and the artists of the Harlem Renaissance blasted through barriers. And let's not forget the unnamed good samaritan on the subway who will warn you that the next station is closed so you need to transfer.
In this episode, we grab an imaginary coffee to go in a 'We Are Happy to Serve You' cup and explore the ultimate bookish day in New York City. In Two Truths and a Lie, we meet the musicians of the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and visit a Brooklyn store where you can buy a can of chutzpah.
Then we recommend six great books that took us to New York City on the page, including:
two graphic novels
a love letter to '90s Manhattan
a frothy family saga
historical fiction with a challenging heroine
and a collection of short stories from a master of fiction
Here are some snaps to get you in a New York State of Mind:
Listen on your favorite podcast app or on our website. We hope you enjoy the show!
Before We Say Au Revoir to France
Be sure to listen to our previous podcast France: Mostly Here for the Butter — and if I may, I’d like to recommend this recipe for cookbook author Clotilde Dusoulier’s recipe for a Potato Chip & Chive Omelet from her book Tasting Paris. (Explore all of our Paris stuff — more recipes, books, podcast, and more — on our Paris Destination Page.)
New on our blog this week, is a celebration of Vincent Van Gogh’s time in Arles, and a poem by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre that pays tribute to his painting Bedroom in Arles (plus the poignant letter he wrote to his brother Theo as he was painting this masterwork).
Just what you need in a room:
a window tall enough for poplars,
bright with borrowed green;
crookedness and color enough
to keep the eye entertained… [read the rest of the poem]
Endnotes: 07 May
These otherworldly trees are Grandidier’s Baobabs — and they’re standing sentry along the Avenue of the Baobabs (or L’allée des Baobabs) in western Madagascar. I think we can agree that all trees are miraculous and majestic, but baobabs are particularly iconic. They can live to be thousands of years old, and they’re not really trees at all. They’re succulents, which means they absorb and store water in their massive trunks to survive the arid season when everything else dries up. No wonder they’re also known as The Tree of Life.
There are various legends built around these iconic trees, but the truth may be even more entertaining than fiction. Baobabs are pollinated by lemurs (!), and the tree’s buds open up into big, white, fluffy pom-poms at dusk. The baobab fruit looks a little bit like an oversized avocado and has a sweet, tangy flavor with hints of yogurt, lemon, pear, and vanilla; get the scoop on that here. And treat yourself to this excellent video about baobabs.
This is the in-depth look at the moral economy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Shire that you didn’t know you needed. ‘Are there taxes in the Shire? If not, how does the government function? Are there worries? Does the lack of taxes relate to the lack of worries? How do people think a whole economic system built around drinking and pipe-smoking even works?’
Why don’t books have full credits like movies?
Perfect fodder for heated discussions with your bookish friends:Â Bookmarks: The Definitive Ranking.
Not too proud to admit that I was well into adulthood when I learned that the narwhal, a.k.a., the unicorn of the sea, is a real animal. An independent scientist has taken more than 20 trips to the Arctic (!) to unravel the mysteries of these magical creatures. ‘The story was that this gigantic tusk was just for social hierarchy, like a lion’s mane or a peacock tail. The more I read, the less sense this made. Just to get the best girl of the lot? It doesn’t seem plausible to me. This animal has gone through an enormous sacrifice to create this thing. I thought, this animal deserves a better story.’ (Psst… there’s a narwhal tusk in Prague’s Strahov Monastery Library — and you can take a virtual trip to the land of the narwhals with our podcast episode Arctic: Otherworldly Beauty That Might Kill You.)
Where are my Room with a View fans? Florence, Italy, has just been named the world’s most walkable city.
Only tangentially related:Â Remember when (I Love) Lucy went to Italyand stomped grapes with her feet then got into a hair-pulling fight with an Italian woman in the giant barrel?
It’s been 100 years since Franz Kafka’s death, and all manner of events will celebrate the author throughout 2024. The Guardianexamines the enduring legacy of the phrase kafkaesque in pop culture. (This includes a surprisingly dramatic story.)
Do you like word nerdery? Then you will enjoy this investigation of names for (and treatment of) fandom through the ages. ’Lisztians and Wagnerians, the fans of the composers Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner respectively, are clearly the most legible to modern audiences… ‘Longhairs’ were often also Liszt fans: Liszt was an object of fandom so beloved that he provoked the ‘Lisztomania’of the 1840s, which had people fainting at his concerts and collecting his trash as keepsakes. Liszt’s male fans would carefully coif their long hair, in contrast with the relatively unkempt Wagnerians.’
How charming is this drawing by artist Frédéric Forest?
News you can use: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline to Become ‘Dark, Spangly’ Stage Musical.
Enjoy this deep dive into magical realism by
. So many great suggestions for short stories and novels!Why are titles printed ‘upside down’ on books printed outside the US? Answers await here.
Two food-intensive destinations on opposite sides of the Atlantic: the coolest DC food tours and 15 foods to try in France’s Brittany region.
Just in time for summer, here’s the story of the Ferris Wheel, illustrated with dreamy, pastel-colored, Wes Anderson-esque photos.
All of the episodes of the PBS show Poetry in America are available online. Each entertaining half-hour program includes a poem and discussion that brings the work to life.
I read the entire ‘A Narwhal and Jelly Book’ series with my kids and somehow still thought they were a magical, made up creature. Eventually my kids set me straight.
Another great episode - thanks, Mel and Dave! I'll start my NYC reading project with with "Manhattan Beach". :-)