Best tree ever
The best times are now, plus my weekly shareables: An old running back looks back, a denomination splinters, and my favorite Christmas track
A couple of quick notes:
—I’m taking next week off, so no newsletter next Friday … but now that the book is (mostly) done and I have a little more time, I’ll be posting here more often. So look for lots more fun stuff here after the first of the year.
—I am also required by Author Law to remind you that if you’re looking for a truly last-minute gift, just preorder DOGLAND for someone you love, print out the receipt (make sure to black out the price), and stick it in an envelope. They’ll get their copy in April, just when they’ll be needing a gift in their lives. It’ll be like the tiny time pills from those Contac commercials, which you will definitely remember if you’re 14,000 years old like me.
Preorder from Park Road Books and I’ll sign and inscribe the book however you like. But if you’d rather order from your local bookshop or somewhere else, you will earn just as many points toward your reward in heaven.
Alix’s dad used to go out in the woods every year and cut a Christmas tree. It was never tall and lush; most years, to be honest, it was a little scraggly. One year he couldn’t find anything quite suitable so he sort of grafted two trees together. It didn’t matter. Once he got it in the stand, and they finished decorating, he would stand back and say the same thing every time:
Best tree ever.
When I was growing up, we had the exact opposite tradition. We had an artificial tree from Sears, color-coded so you could match the branches with the holes. We never had any heirloom ornaments, just a bunch of baubles and lights. But once we got it dressed, there above our shag carpet, damn if it didn’t feel like the best tree ever. (At some point my mom just started keeping the tree up all year … but that’s a story for another holiday.)
Alix and I, as we made our lives together, carved a path in between. We get a live tree but we don’t cut it ourselves; usually we get it from the same lot a couple miles from our house. We hang the old ornaments Alix brought from her side of the family, and we try to add a new one every year. There’s also a long strand of lace tatting that her grandmother made. We put on some music and string some lights and at the end we sit back and look at what we’ve done. And we always say: Best tree ever.
Because it is the best tree ever, every time. It’s not better than the other trees … it’s the best tree for this moment, and this is the only moment that counts. Shed the holiday anxiety the best you can and live your best version of it. Sing loud and drink warm things and say “thank you” to every gift, the ones in wrapping and the ones unadorned. Sometimes I like the Christmas tree best when we first get it home, sap still running, branches relaxing, making the house smell so good. I’ll never remember exactly what it looked like. But I’ll always remember how it made us feel. Best tree ever.
Happy holidays, y’all.
10 things I wanted to share this week:
This week’s SouthBound was our Best of 2023 episode, featuring clips from some of my favorite guests of the year: Ben and Erin Napier, Anne Hull, Ryan McGee, Nat Glover, Bomani Jones, Ryan McGee, Nic Brown, and Robert Earl Keen.
My weekly for WFAE was about North Carolina’s baffling marijuana laws, and the unintended consequences.
Driving through the backroads of the South, and what it feels like when that’s home. Beautifully done by Margaret Renkl. (NYT)
The New York Times: a newspaper company that puts out games, or a game company that puts out a newspaper? (Vanity Fair)
DOG NEWS: From now until DOGLAND comes out (April 2024!), I’m devoting this slot to dog stories. This week: I fall in love with dogs on the Internet every week … but I especially fell in love with Alfonso this week. (@weratedogs on Instagram)
Frank Gore was one of the NFL’s greatest running backs, and the best old running back there ever was. The brilliant Tom Junod shows how Gore got there—and if the same traits live on in Gore’s son. (ESPN)
Joni Deutsch, my old boss at WFAE, on how to rebuild a podcast industry that shows signs of crumbling. (Nieman Journalism Lab)
The Methodist Church is breaking in half over ordaining and marrying LGBTQ members. (NYT)
British crime drama update: We binged all six episodes of RIVER, a strange but fascinating show starring Stellan Skarsgård as a detective who sees dead people—including his partner (the great Nicola Walker), whose murder he is trying to solve. (Britbox)
My favorite Christmas tune, one that captures the holiday in all its joy and longing: Alex Chilton’s version of “The Christmas Song.”
Have a great week, everybody.
We had the same color coded branch artificial tree growing up. I remember at the end of the branch there were three small branches that we always had to "fluff" so the tree would appear more lifelike. It didn't really work but we pretended it did anyway. By the time I was a teenager, the color coding had worn off and it was more of a measuring and sorting operation. The "fluffing" strategy had become more of a salvage job, a delicate balance between fluffing and not shredding the threadbare branches. The tree was still beautiful though, it just required a bit more tinsel to fill in the gaps in its later years. But doesn't everything? Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Tommy and all y’all Shedheads.