Top 10: San Antonio edition
+ Golf season is upon us.
Ed. note: I’m switching this Friday newsletter to a classic Top 10-style feature, similar to several writers I admire (Austin Kleon, Wally Holland). On Tuesdays I send out a longer essay or reported feature that involves a bit more legwork; I’m taking a shot at a new paid subscription model to support those stories.
Thanks for reading.
I was in San Antonio this week for a water industry trade show. A big part of my job these past few years has been developing a news media brand in that industry and reporting on the sprawling problem of water scarcity and America’s aging infrastructure. The show was great; the industry is filled with terrific people who care deeply about improving access to clean water. But more to the point, San Antonio was beautiful.
This was my first time in Texas ever, and I was pleased with everything except the awful springtime humidity. (I’m due back in Houston this summer, and I’m already on edge about, e.g., perspiring insanely if/when I walk anywhere.) The River Walk is the clear downtown highlight, a scenic feat of architecture and awesome Tex-Mex staples. Already, I’m planning to return with my family someday to see more of the city. I ended my 48-hour stint with a brief tour of the Alamo and a pair of perfect tacos at Casa Rio on the river.
I also ran a 5k on the River Walk Tuesday morning. I hadn’t run a road race in about a year and a half, but I figured why not? It’s Texas. Let’s get out there and run. The race day vibe was amazing, reminding me to run more of these throughout the year. The run went well. I have a bad habit of giving in to mental fatigue and walking portions of these races; this time I held strong and ran the whole thing. A minor but major achievement to start the day. The race wrapped with breakfast tacos and Liquid I.V. blended into my water.
With the week of travel, I once again took a stab at just bringing a single bacpack—no luggage. I’ve done this a few times for three-nighters, so I knew this shorter trip would be fine; nonetheless, it’s a challenge to get everything you need for a work trip. The r/onebag community on reddit is indispensable if you’re interested in cultivating a “one bag” lifestyle. I’m no connoisseur of the game, but it’s a fun wormhole to explore. I carry a Fjallraven Raven 28L bag; aside from its imbalance issues, totally unable to stand on its own, the bag is great. I use it everyday.
Shout-out to Akron-Canton Regional Airport, too. If you can pull it off in Northeast Ohio, it’s an elite departure airport. Security couldn’t be any easier, the airport is cleaner than CLE, and everyone on staff seems happier somehow. Flights are tougher to come by and often more expensive, but you take the bad with the good. San Antonio’s airport was similar, a bit bigger, but despite the cultural decor an overall poorer experience. Hometown bias I guess.
Enough about Texas. Back home, we’re in comics mode.
Our daughter, almost 4 now, is obsessed with Dynamite Comics, not that she knows the publishing name or anything. Dynamite is doing good work, though. Mainly, they’re “rebooting” classic Disney titles as new comic series. Same characters, all new stories, all new artwork. We’re big on The Lion King and Stitch right now. What I love is that she’s getting into these stories, but they’re not the fast-paced or even CGI-laden live-action reboots that are in theaters. Those are fine, but they’re very thin productions. There’s nothing to cling to as a fan. The original Disney films had real weight, and that’s because they were animated delicately and, generally, written and scored well. The comics hit that same note with fine illustration work that gives the reader something to really experience. Kids don’t/can’t articulate this sort of thing, but parents can, and I’d recommend comics to all parents, whether their kids are already bookworms or not.
I read Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know this week. One of my fastest novel reads ever. It was… good? It’s a climate change novel that falls completely into domestic concerns and mysteries. What can we truly know about the planet? What can we truly know about the people we love? The pairing of those questions is a bit jarring in the book, but overall I thought it was a clean and intriguing novel.
I’m wrapping up the Rabbit novels by John Updike (so good) and also happened to start Barkskins by Annie Proulx, one of my all-time favorite writers.
As mentioned, I’m debuting a paid tier for this newsletter, and that started this week with a feature on safety-net hospitals in Northeast Ohio. How do federal spending cuts impact nurses on the ground, working 12-hour shifts in cities like Lorain and Euclid? This intersection feels fruitful for me: Drilling down on the complex systems that drive America from the perspective of smaller stories and interviews closer to home.
Next week: We’ll take a look at data center development in Ohio—and the recent and aggressive pushback from many local communities.
I’m all in on the Stanley Cup playoffs this year. Each season, I seem to get slightly more into hockey; without a local team, though there’s no foothold. Playoff drama is the hook. I’m backing the Buffalo Sabres as a bandwagon/neutral fan this year, though I’m also following the Dallas Stars, Utah Mammoth, and Montreal Canadiens. Each of those series has been amazing. Hockey is intense and fast, and I barely know what’s going on half the time but it’s fun to watch.
Golf season is upon us. I got out twice in April, slowly but surely reviving my game. August/September are my sweet spots, year over year, then I fall off a cliff for some reason in late fall, with more rust accruing my spring. At any rate, the first two rounds were good enough, culminating in a birdie on No. 18 at Manakiki last week. There is nothing like it: Hitting a perfect draw that arcs back into the center of the fairway, then swinging a brand-new 52-degree wedge to land the ball about five feet from the pin, then sinking the putt with authority. The idea would be to replicate that somehow, to bottle that sequence and simply follow the natural course of events on every hole. That’s outlandish and unrealistic, but it seems so simple.
If you’re ever at a coffee shop or airport or somewhere, trying to access Wi-Fi but unable to trigger the login screen for a network, type “1.1.1.1” into your browser. This happens to me all the time, and I just learned that trick this week. Complete game-changer for a nomadic coffee shop writer. Hey, you never know what sort of high-tech life-hacks I’ll serve up in this newsletter.
These Friday posts will continue to be free, but for those sweet, sweet Tuesday stories you can always: