Volume 4, Issue 24: Birds Without a Tail/Base of My Skull
"When my door began to crack, was like a stick across my back."
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Here are 10 things that are making me feel better about the world right now—things I sort of need:
On Wednesday afternoon, as my father, my older son William and I headed to the entrance of Truist Park, where we were about to see our Cardinals trounced once again, a man collapsed about 30 feet in front of us. He was awake and alert but stricken, surely from the 100-degree temperatures. Instantly, the sea of people—who were all crammed together in a small space, sweltering from the heat, cranky for the gates to open—cleared out a space for him. The crowd made an instant semi-circle around him, and four different people gave him water. A nurse in the crowd kneeled with him, and four large men cleared out a path for nearby EMTs to take him away on a stretcher. Then we all got back to our spots in line. Collectively, hundreds of people saw someone in need and instantly organized themselves to come to his aid. This all happened wordlessly, amongst a group of strangers, within a matter of seconds.
“Better Call Saul” returns on Monday night for its final six episodes. This is the best show on television and the only show left that I still watch the way I did 20 years ago, when I made sure to sit and experience the show as it aired on television for the first time. The show is about flawed people, but it’s also about intelligent ones, a show that trusts its audience to be adults and think about the world as adults. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to see it end its run in real time in a way I suspect I will never be able to enjoy a television show again. I am going to pour myself a drink, sit alone in a dark room and just focus entirely on the show itself. I’ll even watch the commercials without fast-forwarding through them.
This morning, I did my monthly interview on WDWS Radio in Champaign, Illinois, with the great Loren Tate. Loren Tate has been covering Illinois athletics for more than 60 years and will turned 91 years old in November, but he’s still out there, every Saturday morning, hosting a radio show and writing a weekly column. He discovered decades ago what he loved to do and what he was good at doing and decided he’d just do that the rest of his life. He’s still doing it well, too. To find your place in the world, and to stay there, to find that peace, is rare and sublime and should be cherished and celebrated.
There is a joke in the new Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe movie in which Butt-head gets in a car and shifts into “R,” which he believes stands for “Really Fast.” He smashes the gas pedal but continues to stare straight forward through the front dashboard, as the car accelerates backwards, causing untold chaos. But he doesn’t see any of it, because he is only facing forward, confused why the car, from his perspective, doesn’t seem to be moving. “This car is broken,” he says. I have been laughing about this idiotic joke all week and now find myself thinking about it every time I’m driving. If you didn’t realize that “R” meant “Reverse,” you really would be confused why nothing appeared to be happening every time you pressed the pedal.
Speaking of “Better Call Saul,” I just finished reading Bob Odenkirk’s memoir Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama. It is hardly a revolutionary memoir; it’s basically just him telling the story of his career in a dashed-off, not particularly introspective sort of way. But I still found it inspiring. Odenkirk basically has spent his entire career just doing his own thing, not caring about how many people were or were not paying attention to it, happy in the act of creation, steadfast (for better or worse) in following his specific visions and muses. He was just always, always working, happy simply to be creating. That was enough until, late in life, the perfect thing landed at the perfect time, and he was ready for it when it did.
I just finished my 14th C.S. Peterson’s scorebook this week. I keep score at every baseball game and keep every old book. I don’t need to be buried with them, but I will, when I die, want to know that they are, somewhere, stored safely and cared for. They are in many ways the story of my life.
While we’re on baseball, I’m a sucker for a cheap heartwarmer of a video as much as anyone, particularly of late. This one will forever work:
The new book is now officially coming out next May. We are in the (mostly) final edits. The happy thing here is not that this has happened; the happy thing is that I haven’t started bombarding you with it yet.
For all the despair that our social media feeds provide us, there are people—most people, I’d argue—out there working, every day, to make the world a little bit better, in whatever little way they can. They’re just too busy doing it to be on social media all day.
Every Saturday morning I get to sit here and type out whatever I happen to be trying to figure out that week, and have very nice people like you who read and indulge me, even when I’m tired, even the world seems broken, even if it feels like nothing anyone can say can make any difference. Thank you.
Sometimes I need a little palate cleanser. I think we all do.
Here is a numerical breakdown of all the things I wrote this week, in order of what I believe to be their quality.
The Early Days of the Pandemic Are Getting Memory Holed, Medium. Rudy Gobert gets to have his name and reputation back, deservedly.
Ten Midseason Storylines No One Saw Coming, MLB.com. I may have gotten the Yankees a little wrong.
James Caan’s Best Non-Godfather Movies, Vulture. He always made me laugh in Bottle Rocket.
Your College Football Upheaval FAQ, New York. I’m trying to make sense of it all myself.
How Scared Should We Be of Trump Running Against in 2024? Medium. The galaxy brain bit is to hope he runs.
The Thirty: The Most Untouchable Player on Every Team, MLB.com. Names you won’t see this trade season. (I do this every year, and inevitably, several players on this list end up getting traded.)
Your Friday Five, Medium. Five is not the loneliest number. That’s a different number.
PODCASTS
Grierson & Leitch, we give our best films of the first half of the year.
Seeing Red, Bernie and I talk about a truly miserable team right now (with cameo appearance from William Leitch).
Waitin' Since Last Saturday, no show this week.
LONG STORY YOU SHOULD READ THIS MORNING … OF THE WEEK
“Scenes From the Republican Surrender to Trump,” Jonathan Chait, New York. This is a review of my friend Tim Miller’s book—we’re hoping to get an event together in Athens this fall to help further promote this book—that is smart and fair and pretty infuriating. You should definitely buy this book to help understand, not that understanding helps much.
Also, Mark Leibovich is the best.
ONGOING LETTER-WRITING PROJECT!
This is your reminder that if you write me a letter and put it in the mail, I will respond to it with a letter of my own, and send that letter right to you! It really happens! Hundreds of satisfied customers!
(I know I am behind on these, but I’m catching up this week.)
Write me at:
Will Leitch
P.O. Box 48
Athens GA 30603
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO
“Certainty,” Big Thief. I’m back on another Big Thief kick, and I’ve been trying to find the right song to get other people into them as much as I am. I think this is a good intro song. Perfect laid back summer song, and a gateway drug to the bigger, even more ambitious stuff. This is just a straightforward lovely song.
Remember to listen to The Official Will Leitch Newsletter Spotify Playlist, featuring every song ever mentioned in this section.
We saw some terrible Cardinals baseball this week, but the William Bryan Leitches still had a great time.
Have a great weekend, all.
Best,
Will
Love that you keep score of every game. I used to but no so much since the kids were little. I recommend The Joy of Keeping Score by Paul Dickson, a great book on the subject.
As always, you make the disgusting veggie smoothie that is our current day to day existence go down easier…mucho thanks!