Good things #4
In which we ask, what is "fun"? And also remember never, ever to read the comments.
Dear friends,
I hope you are OK.
No, it’s not Sue Gray’s report, sorry. But it is your weekly round up from me!
Ready for some good things?
First up, some top advice: From the article by Elle Hunt about new book, The Power of Fun by Catherine Price.
An article about staging your own “fun-tervention” is the thing I’ve thought about most this week.
Truly, when was the last time you had some…fun?
And what does that even mean? Journalist Elle Hunt explores all this in her article, inspired by a new book called The Power of Fun by science journalist Catherine Price.
I’d recommend reading the article but here are my two favourite bits to tempt you:
‘There is an assumption that fun is effortless – “that your leisure time will just fill itself,” she says. “But unless you put effort into figuring out how you want to fill it, you risk having the feeling that Viktor Frankl described as ‘Sunday neurosis’ – when the void within yourself becomes manifest.”
And…
‘“Price identified three factors of real, restorative fun: playfulness, connection and flow. The confluence of the three she termed “true fun”: when we feel lighthearted, engaged with another person and absorbed by the activity. It’s possible to have fun if only one or two of the criteria are met, Price says – but highly unlikely if none are.”’
The main takeaway for me? I need to get on a Zoom call with my girlfriends as soon as possible.
Musing: Don’t read the comments
Don’t read the comments is the first rule of writing online and this week I had to remind myself that you really can’t please everyone, and that’s OK.
Most of the writing I do as a journalist is for local papers, around the UK, and usually it’s the lighthearted stuff - TV, celebrities, that sort of thing. I’m happy to say that being lighthearted, on paper at least, is my speciality.
I can do serious and sincere, but it isn’t my favourite. After something serious happens, I’m the one you should come to when you’re ready to hear the jokes.
But let me tell you, being the person at the local paper who writes the fluffy stories about TV and celebrities, of course alongside my eminent colleagues who write about serious local issues, means comments under my stories often say things like: “HOW IS THIS NEWS?”
Well, dear mean-commenter, it depends if you think lighthearted TV news, is news? If you don’t, maybe it helps to think of it as just a spoonful of sugar to help your news go down? And also, grow up.
If you put yourself out there this week and someone was mean about it, well, who cares?
Podcast: Wild Things: Siegfried and Roy
I must confess before this week I only knew the names “Siegfried and Roy” from that bit in 10 Things I Hate About You when Julia Stiles refers to them in a speech to her teacher about misdirection.
But now I know that they were German-American magicians, known for their spectacular magic shows featuring lions and tigers.
During a performance in Las Vegas in 2003, Roy was savagely attacked by a tiger and it almost killed him. It’s a dramatic listen but also an interesting exploration into the duo’s mysterious personal lives. Plus, was this tigers just being tigers or was there more to it?
Wild Things is available on Spotify.
Treasure from the internet: In memory of the Holocaust, here’s Sir Nicholas Winton on “That’s Life” in 1988
Holocaust Memorial Day went by this week and many chose to mark it by sharing personal memories or stories from their own family vault. This clip, from an episode of ‘That’s Life” in 1988, appeared on my timeline yesterday, and I wanted to share it in case you missed it.
Sir Nicholas Winton was a British banker and humanitarian who found himself in Czechoslovakia in 1939 and organised the rescue of 669 Czechoslovakian children destined for the Nazi death camps. In this clip, he finds himself in the audience of That’s Life, unknowingly surrounded by them.
You can read more about Sir Nicholas Winton, and how he did what he did, here.
Substack: Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar
Now time for a shout out and it’s someone who absolutely does not need a shout out from me.
Cheryl Strayed is the author Wild (you know that book/movie starring Reece Witherspoon where she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail?).
But aside from being hiker and author, Cheryl also worked at The Rumpus as an agony aunt under the pseudonym “Sugar”.
I used to love reading problem pages in magazines. Dear whoever, my boyfriend hasn’t called me for 6 weeks, what should I do?” That sort of thing. Me and my friends used to read them out to each other.
But Dear Sugar is different. It’s the best problem page ever, not just for the juicy problems but the advice. Oh the advice!
Even if you’re not going through the specific problem yourself, I promise you’ll glean so much from the advice. You can read the back-catalogue of Dear Sugar columns in The Rumpus, which are collected into a fantastic book called Tiny Beautiful Things (the gift you should give all your friends for their birthdays) AND you can subscribe to Cheryl Strayed’s newsletter too, also called Dear Sugar, here.
If you have problems, she’ll sort you out. Email deardearsugar@gmail.com.
Urgent news flash and theatre: 2.22 A Ghost Story stars “Mirabel” from Encanto
Sorry if I keep going on about Disney’s Encanto but it’s on repeat in my house and I’m going a bit nuts.
When I lay my head on my pillow I swear I hear that smooth, Spanish voice from the end credits yelping out: “eh Encanto, eh Encanto!” Genuinely, I don’t know what to do. I can actually hear it right now.
Anyway, in related news, I went to the theatre back in October 2021 (held my breath for 2 hours and didn’t catch Covid) and saw 2.22 A Ghost Story which, at the time, starred Lily Allen and Max from EastEnders.
Anyway, how is this related to Encanto? Well! Lily’s gone and it now stars actress Stephanie Beatriz who is the voice of Encanto’s “Mirabel”. So that gives it an extra little fascination for you, if you too are trapped living a life soundtracked by the music from Encanto.
Tickets available at 222aghoststory.com.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Good Things newsletter! If you have, please let me know by leaving a comment (“HOW IS THIS NEWS?”)
You can find me on Twitter @emilyincam.
Have a great week and see you next Friday!
Emily xx
Loving the Good Things every week Emily, your writing is great, it always makes me smile 😊 xx
Whether it’s news or not is largely irrelevant; one of the best things I’ve read all week, closely tied with The Power of Fun by Catherine Price.