I was on the road with The Gorn this week, so I'm going to share a few great substack reads by other people. We spent a week in North and South Carolina, and a day on Chincoteague Island with the wild horses. I ate too much and tried to ride a lot to make up for it, but that didn’t work. I had a great time on trails local to Wilmington and Charleston, and only flew over the handlebars once! I was also not kicked by a horse. More of that next week, but here’s a teaser:
First, an update: the own of Holmdel has taken the first steps towards ownership of Crawford Hill, thus saving the “Holmdel Horn” radio antenna that was used to verify the existence of the Big Bang! Thanks to all who signed the petition. Now, onto other people’s writings that are better than mine:
Hannah the WanderFinder wrote a great piece about just one of the horrors of enduring summer camp as a child:
Field Notes by Christopher Brown is always good, and this one was especially good.
Leah Sottile wrote about her life in journalism, and links to two stories about local wrestling teams that are great reads themselves.
Dr. Kate Manne, author of Down Girl, gets a lot of hate mail because she doesn’t look like Jack Skellington. I don’t even think she looks fat, but that makes it sound like I think “looking fat” is bad, when obviously I do not. I’ve been “husky size”—to use ‘70s-era Sears clothing department parlance—since I was six years old, and even when I was boxing three times a week as an adult, or sprinting as I trained to set the school shotput relay record as a teen, I was always carrying more fat than what is considered “normal.” Which is funny because “normal” is now heavy, and the skinny people are outraged. I wrote a comment on Dr. Manne’s post that sums up my feelings.
This gave me hope. Bill Davison writes about a new “nature playground” that gives children a place to play and also gives a home to native plants and wildlife. We need all our playgrounds to be like this.
And another great piece about introducing children to nature, and much more, by Antonia Malchik:
I can’t ignore the horrible news of the atrocious terrorist attack in Israel and the ensuing war Palestine. I hope for peace without further civilian casualties, and for all the hostages to return home safely. Before you try to play pundit in the comments, or justify dehumanizing anyone, please click unsubscribe. Lauren Hough says it better:
Thank you, Thomas! Another fan of Hannah's camping piece here, too. :)