A Letter from Charles Schulz, Baseball's Magic Mud, Stephen King on Writing, etc.

In which I offer a newsletter that is still the opposite of doomscrolling.

🙏 Rest in peace and God Bless, Quincy Jones. Thank you for Michael Jackson records, film scores and Rashida Jones.

📺 I’ve actually been rewatching Parks and Recreation and even though I loved it a lot before, I’m loving it even more now.

🙋‍♂️ Somewhat related: I am still interested in your comfort media. What books, movies, shows, etc. are like warm blankets?

✍️ If asked, I’d say Vonnegut is my favorite writer, but because of prolificacy. and page count, I’ve read more Stephen King than anyone (not to mention watched countless adaptations of his work). What I’ve Learned, by the author himself. “You can’t think of writing as an adult pursuit or anything that’s important. That’s a good way to turn into a gasbag and start to think that you’re really fucking important. You’re not. You just do your work.”

And from Open Culture, Stephen King’s twenty rules for writing. “First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience. ‘When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.’”

(See also: why every generation rediscovers King.)

🎬 "I believe in putting the horror in the mind of the audience, and not necessarily on the screen.” Alfred Hitchcock on his film-making secrets. “Getting his audience to invest this emotional involvement was key for the Hitchcock, so he could manipulate how they felt. This, he thought, was much more important than what the film was actually about. It was Hitchcock who popularized the term ‘MacGuffin’ a plot device that drives characters' motivation and the story forward without intrinsic meaning.”

👻 It’s no secret I love horror (and watched a lot of it recently). How horror stories help us cope with real life.

“Research suggests that horror fans also tend to be people who enjoy intellectual stimulation and imaginative activities… Some studies have found that people who are feeling nervous or are prone to anxiety are drawn to horror films, too. Perhaps scary movies provide a new focal point for their worries: Instead of ruminating over, say, finances, they can worry about the zombies they’re watching. When you watch a horror movie, you can ‘switch the source of your anxiety.’”

⚾️ Baseball’s “magic mud,” as analyzed by scientists. “While it can’t be credited with winning the Los Angeles Dodgers their eighth World Series championship, baseball’s ‘magic mud’ is the stuff of lore. Each Major League Baseball (MLB) team’s equipment manager applies it to every game ball. It improves the grip on the ball, can dull the shine on a new ball, and keep it from getting damaged.”

🏀 The Secret Code of Pickup Basketball: “It allows a small group of perfect strangers with little in common besides basketball to experience a flow state — a brief, but intense, form of group transcendence.”

🕹️ A Scottish children’s hospital has a gamer-in-residence who plays with patients. “He said that playing Mario Kart has improved the mobility of a patient’s hand and that it was also a useful tool in distracting the children during medical procedures.”

📋 “If you can't be a good example, at least try to become an interesting cautionary tale.” Words of wisdom, as written (collected?) by Merlin Mann. “Never argue on the internet. No one will remember whether you won or lost the argument; they’ll just remember that you are the sort of person who argues on the internet.”

✉️ I’ll leave you with this letter from Charles Schulz, a response written to a 10-year-old in 1970.

“I think it is more difficult these days to define what makes a good citizen then it has ever been before. Certainly all any of us can do is follow our own conscience and retain faith in our democracy. Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call ‘American Virtues’ who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.”

✌️ Keep the Hoping Machine running, until the wheels fall off.

Love,

Luke