Remember your allergies

Figuring out what throws you off -- plus Links of the Week, including Coach K, big-money antlers, two great novelists, and much more

I felt like crap for a couple of weeks — headache, brain fog, gunk in the back of my throat, fatigue like I’d marched across Death Valley. Took a COVID test — negative. It felt like a mild cold but it wouldn’t go away. Then I saw our local weatherman’s tweet about pollen levels and a little bell went off in my head.

Up until a few years ago, I never had any allergies I knew of. But a few years ago, just as winter rolled into spring, I started feeling a little scattered and smothered. It’s always this time of year, when the tree pollen hits. It’s still so new to me that I forgot why I felt so terrible. I took Claritin for a couple of days and everything cleared up.

It got me wondering about all the other things I’m allergic to, literally and figuratively.

I get edgy every year when we compile our tax info — I’m always worried we’ve forgotten something and the IRS is going to hound us for years. I get all queasy when I have to take a plane trip — I don’t mind the actual flight, but I hate getting to the airport and going through the bag inspection and worrying about getting to the gate on time and all the other hassle that goes with flying.

When I start to think about it, I’m allergic to lots of things in that way. But for the most part I can’t just avoid those things. So I have to find some sort of medicine. (For flights, that means getting to the airport ridiculously early. I’ve read entire issues of the New Yorker at the airplane gate.)

I’d be interested in hearing about your allergies — especially the metaphorical ones — and how you deal with them. Maybe we can help one another out here. I feel better already.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. My other newsletter post this week was on the beauty of brackets. (And yes, after one day, my bracket looks like a blackout poem.)

2. My weekly for WFAE was on whether one of the loudest voices claiming voter fraud in the 2020 election — wait for it — might have committed voter fraud himself.

3. I had fun contributing a couple of lines to this Garden & Gun roundup of thoughts about the legacy of Coach K.

4. This week’s SouthBound was a replay of my conversation last year with the great Anna Sale. Anna’s book LET’S TALK ABOUT HARD THINGS will be out in paperback soon — preorder now!

5. DOG NEWS: While I work on my book about the Westminster Dog Show and the bond between dogs and their people, I’m devoting this slot to dog stories. This week: Words and phrases inspired by dogs.

6. Just finished LOST & FOUND, Kathryn Schulz’s incredible memoir about grief and love and the miracle of getting to be here every day. It resonated so much with FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS, another book I finished just recently — I’m going to dive into that more on here soon. Both these books moved me in ways I’m still processing.

7. One thing about the New Yorker is, just about every issue there’s an amazing story on something you never knew about before. Here’s a great piece by Abe Streep on the big-money chase for antlers.

8. Loved this piece from novelist Richard Russo about foolishness, and how none of us are immune.

9. Harry Crews, the wildman from south Georgia, changed my world when I read him in my twenties. Here’s a smart and perceptive story by Lauren LeBlanc looking back on his legacy.

10. RIP pro wrestler Scott Hall, who was so damn good at being a bad guy. David Shoemaker has my favorite of many tributes. One of the most important skills in wrestling is “selling” — making it look like your opponent’s moves are devastating. Few people were better at selling than Scott Hall. I could watch him take Stone Cold Stunners all day long.