I’m grateful for a long walk in the park. I’m grateful for the chance to do something I love. I’m grateful for some time at the library. I’m grateful for a little more light every morning. I’m grateful for seeing how things really are different. I’m grateful my plants like it here. I’m grateful to be sober today.
I hope you bear with us as we experiment with the swanky new branding we got—also you may have noticed that yesterday’s missive was mis-titled: I don’t remember voting to change it to the Saturday Gratitude Extravaganza?? Like always, there’s a lot cooking here at Sober HQ. We are trying to figure out exactly what it is that we’re doing and changing-up the format following a plan mostly built on randomness.
One thing I did want to address is the whole pledge thing. So we didn’t know that Substack had started to put a “Pledge” button at the end of the emails until one of you very lovely people pledged actual dollars to us! I was stunned and forwarded the email to Jane, she called me and amid some actual sniffles said something along the lines of:
These [**mf’ers**] just make me cry sometimes.
This is actually a very loving reference to you very lovely readers, and yes, Jane does have kind of a shocking sailor-like vocabulary sometimes. But I completely agree with the sentiment. Like I keep saying, I started this as a way for me to keep myself sober and so every time one of you reaches out and shares something with me (and I’m not talking about your money here), well, I find it unbelievably moving. I get teary and sniffly just writing about it now. Anyway, one of you pledged something to us and Jane and I were stunned and emotional and then it happened again.
So, I turned on the Pledge button. This will not change anything content-wise; We’re not erecting a pay-wall, everything is still going to be free. I tried to make that clear in the subscription option page:
Here’s the thing—We don’t expect you to do anything, but if you wanted to, well, we’re not going to say no to that. We are working on building a pretty cool website with what we think is going to have a lot of cool and really helpful stuff, so we have software licenses, talented brand strategy people (really, really talented) and what-not. It makes me super uncomfortable to discuss this, so we’ll leave it here for now: If you’d like to pledge something, that’s cool and any amount is appreciated and if you don’t, that’s also super cool
We’ve re-launched the podcast and everything. Wait, you didn’t know that Season 2 of Breakfast with an Alcoholic kicked off yesterday?
Anyway, we’re trying to figure out a format and a schedule that will keep you, our loyal readers, happy and yet thirsty for more.1 I’m an inveterate tinkerer and think the idea is to always get better, not just leave well enough alone. I’m also a big believer in the power of randomness and believe that, when scaled correctly, randomness can overcome a lack of talent. What am I talking about?
The Infinite Monkey Theorem
“Wait,” you ask? What is the “Infinite Monkey Theorem?!” It’s the idea that if you had an infinite number of monkeys, sitting at an infinite number of typewriters, one of the monkeys would eventually write “Hamlet.” If you believe in quantum physics and the fact that the more than two trillion galaxies we estimate to exist are accelerating away from each other at a rate that now puts them forever beyond the time/event horizon, well, then, you realize this isn’t just a funny theorem, but a fact. I’ve actually addressed this topic quite a bit here, most recently in this gem:
The Multiverse and Sobriety
Also Here:
And also, in a piece that I entitled
A Burt Bacharach Christmas Story
“…except that I was a Sixth Grader and it was a Burt Bacharach song. The Sixth-Grade TBD-model delivered the Des Moines Register, was a pretty accomplished Webelos and knew very little of actual heartbreak, yet absolutely loved that song.”
And that brings me to the sad news that Burt Bacharach, the composer of the soundtrack of my youth, passed away this week:
And with that, I’ve decided to put together a collection of my favorite Burt Bacharach songs, and being an alcoholic, I’ve very self-aggrandizing-ly called it:
TFLMS Ultimate Burt Bacharach Playlist
That’s it. Happy Sunday and hope you’re strapped in for an exciting week. Jane writes tomorrow, with luck, you’ll get to read “My Funny Rehab Valentine” on Tuesday, see what Jane has been writing in her Diary on Thursday and the Liner Notes for Episode 28 will appear at some point! It’s good to have a project!
Thanks for Letting Me Share
I’m going back and forth: Is this inappropriate or not?