Stuff I'm Into, August 2025

Non-Prestige TV, an excellent bulgur salad, and some book recommendations from Colin.

Thanks for reading Stuff I’m Into, a roundup of bits and bobs that are meaningful to me, or bringing me joy in the moment. If you’re not interested in receiving these wee recommendations, you can specifically toggle off these emails in your account settings without unsubscribing.

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• Non-Prestige TV
  I’m happy for the person watching The Wire or Sopranos for the first time this summer. Those are unforgettable shows, totally worth your time! I’m equally happy for the person rewatching Mad Men for the third time. There’s something new to discover on every viewing. I own a box set of Twin Peaks The Return. I love a good dose of artisanally-crafted, auteur-driven television. Just, not right now.
  
  Right now, I want old, uncomplicated comforts. I got the first season of Columbo on DVD for my birthday and I’ve been making my way through the episodes slowly, enjoying the lush production design and the perfect way Peter Falk solves every single murder, no matter how diabolical or clever.
  
  I’m also on the second season of (the original, obvs) Night Court, also on DVD, thanks to the public library. I was utterly obsessed with the show (which was syndicated and in heavy rotation when my family moved to Canada and I was experiencing my first taste of North American television). I wasn’t sure how well it would age, but I needn’t have worried. So far, every episode has delighted me. It’s funny, wholesome and progressive (yes, John Larroquette’s Dan Fielding is as sexist as you remember, but the show is clearly skewering him for it in every episode).
  
  When I finish the full run of Night Court, I’m thinking of rewatching another childhood fave, Quantum Leap. The library has all five seasons on DVD as well.

  

  Though some later additions to the cast stayed longer and were arguably more iconic, I have a lot of love for the first season crew.

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• Delicious Bulgur Salad
  All credit for this recipe goes to Fufu’s Kitchen, a new-to-me Palestinian food blog that published it (I have bookmarked a half-dozen other recipes from the site that I can’t wait to try). Credit also goes to the book club pal who brought this salad to a recent potluck, where I fell in love with it. I recreated it a couple of weeks later, to much acclaim, and I think it’s going into regular rotation at our house. It’s easy to make, and incredibly tasty. A perfect summer salad, but somehow I think the warm curry vibes might make it a perfect winter salad too.

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• More Summer Reading

  My own reading has stalled lately, so these recommendations come from Colin. Two biographies of fascinating Americans, and two very different beach reads.

  

  Barnum, by Robert Wilson
  A biography of P.T. Barnum, the greatest showman in the world and, as the book argues, a true American icon. Colin was so amused by the fantastical, larger-than-life details of Barnum’s life that he tore through the book in a matter of days and was constantly interrupting whatever I was doing to read me snippets (each more astonishing than the last).
  
  Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, by Jim Steinmeyer
  A biography of the twentieth century’s premier chronicler of the paranormal, Charles Fort, a man who made studying the unexplained his life’s work. Steinmeyer tells a carefully-researched and fascinating story of Fort’s life, in an era when scientific and religious truths that had long been taken for granted, were being tested, and flipped on their heads.
  

  Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen
  A lovable con woman and a disgraced detective team up to find a redneck reality TV star in this raucous novel by the king of the beach read. If you’ve never read Hiaasen, you only need to know that his hilarious, satirical books are set in the strange State of Florida, and feature complex, plots that move at lightning speed and are full to the brim of zany twists.
  
  Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
  If your idea of a beach read is less “events that spiral crazily out of control and some of the wildest characters ever set loose on the page” and more “tender coming-of-age tale that takes place in summertime in the Hamptons, but also sharply tackles the intersection of race and class,” then Sag Harbor might be more your speed.