First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m so grateful for the community of FPS readers. You mean the world to me. Thanks!

Marshmallows #1 by Thomas Jackson

Thankful for Home Cooking

When I was a kid, this was one of my favorite meals. What were some of your childhood favorites?

Prepping for the Holidays

My friends who are hosting Thanksgiving dinner asked me to bring soup for 20 guests, and masochistically I chose a recipe from the labor-intensive but worth it Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The delicious kabocha squash and fennel soup with candied pumpkin seeds is seasonally appropriate, bursting with orange, red and green. I’ve made this recipe before and it’s not until I’m deep in dishwater that I remember that it uses almost every pot and bowl in the house.

New Yorker Cartoon by Tom Gauld

And then it came to me

Artwork by Harland Miller

JFK Assassination Fatigue

Earlier this month, I devoured the articles about JFK. I poured through photos of the Kennedy clan. I’ve watched and re-watched the Zapruder film. But tonight, I’m at my limit for looking back. Here’s to a weekend of creating new memories.

Reclining man (John F. Kennedy) by Willem de Kooning

The Things That Keep Us Up at Night

Meditation on Ruin by Jay Hopler

It’s not the lost lover that brings us to ruin, or the barroom brawl,
or the con game gone bad, or the beating
Taken in the alleyway. But the lost car keys,
The broken shoelace,
The overcharge at the gas pump
Which we broach without comment — these are the things that
eat away at life, these constant vibrations
In the web of the unremarkable.
The death of a father — the death of the mother —
The sudden loss shocks the living flesh alive! But the broken
pair of glasses,
The tear in the trousers,
These begin an ache behind the eyes.
And it’s this ache to which we will ourselves
Oblivious. We are oblivious. Then, one morning—there’s a
crack in the water glass —we wake to find ourselves undone.

Artwork by Dadu Shin

What are you hoping to eat this Thanksgiving?

Photo from the New York Times Essential Thanksgiving

The Essential Tool

I’m not good at household repair, nor do I have enthusiasm for getting good at it, so when I lived with someone who knew his way around a power drill, I was happy to take a back seat. When I moved on and barely owned a hammer, I had to build my toolkit from the ground up. Now I have the basics, but it’s still laughable watching me do even the most remedial fixit job. The other day when the plate fell off that the cable guy used to cover the hole in my wall, I tried screwing it back on, but there was nothing to hold the screws in place. For a moment I panicked, and then, eureka! I reached for the duct tape.

Photo by Uwe Schramm

Flower Girl

My palette leans towards neutrals, but I love a pop of color. Lately, I’ve been decorating with orchids, which are plentiful at Trader Joes. The bloom can last for months, and they’re practically maintenance free. What brightens your decor?

Art by Clare Elsaesser

End of Week Car Zen

Driving in L.A. can be nasty business. In traffic today, I thought about tallying the hours a week that I spend in my car. I decided against it, as what would it get me but heartache. If I could only use that time to spread a little love around…  I send you my wishes for a weekend with an open road!

Painting by Killy Kilford