The insanity list
A simple way to focus, plus my weekly shareables: Robert Caro and basketball, Stanford trees get married, and the inventor of Lite-Brite
Welcome to December, y’all. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving weekend, and for those of you who traveled, hope you made it back home without too much highway traffic or airport limbo. I have been enjoying the perfect post-Thanksgiving sandwich, which I came up with a few years ago: Turkey, a little Duke’s mayo, Alix’s cranberry-orange relish, and a sprinkling of fried onions. This year I made them as sliders with Milkbread dinner rolls. Heaven.
This first Monday after Thanksgiving is when I try to bear down on a couple of projects I want to take care of before the end of the year, while at the same time starting to make Christmas plans. It’s an easy time to get distracted. And I am easily distracted.
The other day I ran across one of those simple tips that’s infuriating because I can’t believe I never thought to do it before. It came from Casey Johnston, a writer and weightlifter whose newsletter SHE’S A BEAST has a lot of smart thinking about health and body image.
One of her recent posts was about how to read more (the post is paywalled but Casey’s work is worth the money if you’re able). One of her tips was to keep something she calls an insanity list. The idea is, when you’re reading something and a fleeting question or thought pops into your brain, DON’T GET OUT YOUR PHONE AND LOOK IT UP. Instead, just write it down on a piece of paper and go back to your reading. Then, later on, look up the stuff on your list.
Our brains are now so wired to jump-cut from one topic to another that we have to retrain them to focus on one thing, such as the words on a printed page. The insanity list is a way to offload those stray thoughts and get back to the main thing you want your brain to do.
This obviously applies to a lot of activities besides reading. How many times have you been talking to someone who states some interesting fact they’re not 100 percent sure about … and the conversation grinds to a halt while they pull out their phone to Google the right answer? Or, even worse, how many times has someone mentioned something they saw and then spent precious minutes of both your lives scrolling through their photos to find it? I have been this person, from time to time, and I regret it.
Just jot down “look up X later” or “text them the photo later” and get back to the task at hand, or the real person in front of you.
I’ve always kept a notebook handy to jot down ideas, but I’ve never really used one this way before. Now I just write down all those random neural firings as sort of a to-do list for my curiosity. As Casey notes in her post, by the time I get around to looking at the list, I don’t care about half the things on it anymore. Efficiency!
This feels like a good time to Ask the Shedheads: Do you have tips on how to keep focused in this distracting world? Drop ‘em in the comments and let’s talk about it.
10 things I wanted to share this week:
I have two new pieces out in the world … neither is online yet but I’m proud of both. I’ve got an essay in the new Garden & Gun that answers an etiquette question: How long should you keep up your Christmas tree? (Spoiler: Forever, according to my mama.) I also contributed to the debut issue of a new magazine called Geezer, which I’d describe as “alternative AARP.” It’s really fun. My piece there is a riff on the one I wrote here a few months ago on the end of AOL’s dial-up service. Go buy both mags if you can—support print!—and I’ll post both stories if/when they appear online later.
Loved this Baxter Holmes story on how historian Robert Caro inspires the general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA’s defending champs. Worth the whole thing for this Caro quote: “I do want to say, though, that I had a terrific jump shot. I’m not sure everybody appreciated it, but I did, anyway.” (ESPN)
If you’re not familiar with the sordid ongoing scandal involving journalists Ryan Lizza and Olivia Nuzzi, revolving around Nuzzi’s affair with RFK Jr.—well, God bless you for not knowing. But if you want to read one story that will both get you caught up and also help cleanse the whole thing from your brain, Brian Phillips has the perfect story. I LOL’d a dozen times while simultaneously weeping for journalism and our country. (The Ringer)
The Stanford Tree is the weirdest and best mascot in sports. And now, two former Trees are about to get married. The photos of them in full tree outfits are fantastic. (SFGate)
Time for College Football Name of the Week! We’re expanding to the world of college basketball this week, thanks to this submission from Shedhead Ed O., who found this gem on the roster at Arizona State:
(For the origin of her name, scroll down to the last paragraph here.)
Last year my friend Wright Thompson published THE BARN, a beautiful and profound look at Emmett Till and the men who killed him in a lonely barn in Mississippi. Now, thanks to a donation from TV producer Shonda Rhimes, that barn will become an official historic site. (Mississippi Today)
It’s been 10 years since the passing of Grantland, the ESPN-affiliated site that featured so much brilliant writing on sports and pop culture. (Brian Phillips, author of the piece in #3 above, is one of its many alums.) Here’s a look back. (Awful Announcing)
Thanks to Shedhead Rick R. for this one: Maybe this Missouri judge went a little heavy on the Elvis. (CBS News)
RIP Burt Meyer, who invented two of the iconic toys of my youth: Lite-Brite and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Among his other creations: “Gooey Louie, which invited children to pick ‘gooeys’ out of Louie’s nose. (Choosing the wrong one caused his head to open and his brain to fly out.)” (NYT)
RIP the great Jimmy Cliff, who became a reggae star not just through his music but through his starring role in the 1972 film THE HARDER THEY COME. My favorite song of his is “Many Rivers To Cross,” which is more gospel than reggae … he wrote it about his struggles as a young musician, but it sings as a message of hardship and hope to anyone on this long journey. What a beautiful melody.
Upcoming events
Jan. 10: Casino Theater, St. Simons Island, GA
And before I forget: DOGLAND and THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM make great holiday gifts! So does a gift subscription to The Writing Shed!
Have a great weekend, everybody.
—TT
I have read and re-read and read aloud to several family members your G&G essay soon after receiving this month's copy. My dad, who loved Christmas more than any person I know, passed away unexpectedly in March this year. In the past, we never put up a tree before Thanksgiving. This year, my husband and I were on a tree farm in Waynesville the second week of November, and our tree has been standing in the corner of our living room ever since. Each time I walk past or glance over to its lights, I think of him, and my heart warms a little. This year our tree doubles as a type of comfort blanket, and I suspect that will be the case for many years to come. This holiday especially will hit like a jackhammer, but I'm so grateful that, like your mother, we can take comfort in the decorations and the happy memories they hold.
Turn every page! Thanks so much for the link to the story about the books Sam Presti reads. I’m inspired to start reading some Robert Caro myself. If an NBA executive has time, then surely I do too.