Today was not a good day in the world of working-from-home; for various reasons I ended up not leaving the flat until five-ish when I was on the edge of madness, and went to the gym. But even though the exercise was somewhat stress-reducing, even when I headed home I was still cranky and lonely and disgruntled and pessimistic; so filled with rage about nothing that the sight of the local seafood restaurant, shut down at last, filled me with a wave of overwhelming Schadenfreude, because I am allergic to shellfish. “Ha! Now you can’t serve your FRICASSEES OF DEATH” I thought to myself in what would have been a crazy voice if I spoke aloud - as if the poor seafood restauranteurs, like rest of the world today, had been out to get me.
But then (this is in fact the point) I came home and listened to the latest episode of This American Life; something about the special nasal intonation of Ira Glass’s narration just always makes me feel so much better. If you’re not a fan already, you should be: TAL comes a close second, after White Noise, in the rankings of Cultural Things Important To Me. (I mean, I could maybe love a man who wasn’t a fan of TAL - who was maybe a little jealous of my adoration of Ira - but I would also worry that his heart was made of a lump of coal.)
I wanted to actually post the podcast but I fear copyright infringement, so here’s the link to the website instead: www.thislife.org. Click!
