Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 2/5/2024

Dear friends,

Before ANY curiosities are revealed, we MUST address Taylor Swift’s announcement at the Grammy’s last night. Her new album The Tortured Poets Department releases ON MY 21st BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only am I verklempt at that announcement but the kismet is insane. Just the night before, I had an intense dream (I’ve been dream-journaling!) that Taylor Swift performed “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” a foot away from me while I just sank to the floor, sobbing. Needless to say, my unconscious is incredibly prescient and overwhelmed. Am I delusional to think that this album is a gift on the personal-spiritual plane from Taylor to me??? I have cried several times thinking about this.

Also, a notable performance by the magnificent Joni Mitchell — the soundtrack to my childhood, and as Brandy Carlile put it, the matriarch of imagination.

In other news, there have been several new exciting sports developments.

I follow only one sport, and I use the term “follow” very loosely. That sport is Formula One, birthed honestly from an obsession with Drive to Survive on Netflix in the depths of the pandemic. First year of college, I would watch races and follow much closer, but these days, my fandom extends only to keeping up on Instagram. But in BIG NEWS, Lewis Hamilton is moving to Ferrari!!!!! Lewis Hamilton has been a mainstay on Mercedes for the last 11 years, winning seven World Drivers' Championships. Fans across the world were shocked by this switch. Very curious to see how Lewis will fare with Ferrari.

I attended my first sports game of the semester — watching Yale Men’s Basketball destroy Penn! But my favorite part, by far!, was watching the 6 & 7 year olds they brought out at halftime to play a (much) smaller version of the game. Nothing had me on my feet, screaming my head off, like watching one of these tiny boys score a basket. They must institute this at every sports game. I would attend far more.

Another sports-related curiosity, LJ Rader makes these superb art history references with sport moments on Instagram, feat. here in the NYT.

Nearly completely unrelated, but also interesting, I’ve been following Safiya Nygaard since the beginning of the Ladylike series on Buzzfeed in 2015…I’ve been a fan for almost ten years. She recently hit 10 million subscribers on YouTube and well deserved. Her videos are weird (delivered as a high compliment), well-researched, and so much fun to watch. I didn’t regret a single moment of watching this 42 minute video of her attempting to melt together all the Yankee Candles into a 25 gallon candle.

Also, in the spirit of big news of the week, the first episode of the last (?) season of Curb Your Enthusiasm premiered last night! I haven’t seen it yet — I plan on watching tonight! If you weren’t aware, I’m a big fan. I even have a Larry David sequined pillow, bequeathed to me by Elena. Also, enjoyed this profile of Susie Essman in the NYT.

I’ve been listening to a lot of comedy podcasts at the gym (Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, and Obsessed with Brooke Averick), which is a fantastic way to pass the time, but also has the unfortunate consequence where I’m failing my sets, not because my muscles are burning, but because I’m giggling too hard.

The New York Times featured what I think is the best possible expository writing on Israel/Palestine — by having historians bicker over the details side by side in the scope of the same article.

Browsing through the Yale newsletter, I found this fantastic story about how political scientists took inspiration from the Torah to reduce partisan bias in gerrymandering.

My favorite podcast of the week goes to Zeroworld from Radiolab…I mean, math, god, psychedelics, and the dissolution of the universe — listen immediately! The reporters go down the rabbit hole of what it means to divide by zero — I was thoroughly tickled.

I’ve shared a couple of our reflections on pluralism in the Jewish community, but I want to share a last one, best summarized by Yossi: Everyone is unhappy. Great!! Pluralism!

A few reflections from class:

I’ve been writing my daily themes (300 word responses to prompts) to Pirate Ship Ambience (which is indeed an artist on Spotify). I’ve been using it both as inspiration for writing my Jewish Pirate Novel, but also as a general creative nudge. I don’t know — it’s something about the squeaks and groans of the ship mixed with the pattering rain and the words flow out of me.

We finished The Odyssey this week and I must shout out Fagles’ incredible translation. The writing is beautiful but the cleverness of the writing does not detract from the ease of understanding. Always a pleasure to read about my namesake…although Jeremy and I disagree whether Odysseus is a loveable character. I did learn that Odysseus is called Odysseus, the Son of Pain, which I suppose makes me Odessa, the Daughter of Pain. Not sure how much I like that one…

I’m starting The Aeneid (trans. Fitzgerald), but I fear I have an Odyssey hangover.

One of my favorite parts about being at Yale is the opportunity to hear from such amazing speakers such as the brilliant (!!!!) Natalie Diaz (Pulitzer Prize winner!).

She discussed reciprocity in how we’re in consequence to each other, relationships with lands — and how they shape our language and imagination. She talked about fables and how they create tension/energy in our gaps of understanding — she boldly declared that she didn’t believe in understanding. Some lines from her poetry that I cherished (both old & new):

from Alchemy Horse:

“Tonight the city + + is a tectonic bone radio—

, Our ancestors are on every channel + + +”

“+ + + A flesh being bearing + its first dreamSelf + + +”

& a new poem:

“beloved occupiers, I am posting notice: there is no more vacancy”

She taught us about how everything is deserving of wonder…how her exploration of the Mojave word ‘anya, which traditionally means sun, also means east and light and day and time and clock/watch and electricity and how wonder directed toward this one word unfolds into all these different pathways.

Also this week, I accidentally got into a fight with a Nobel Prize Winner. Well to be fair, I didn’t know he was a Nobel Prize Winner. I just thought he was a guy with an ego pontificating outside of his field, so I didn’t hesitate to try to tear into him with my contrarian spirit. Oopsie.

Continuing on poetry, we discussed Yiddish poets in Modern Jewish Poets. Most of my annotations to the poems of Moyshe-Leyb Halpern and Jacob Glatstein were expletives…still insufficient to describe how the goosebumps coated my skin.

By Moyshe Leyb Halpern, I recommend: “Memento Mori”, and “The End of the Book” — its playful rhythm in Yiddish mirrors exactly how my mom and I pick up the phone with each other: “Hi mommale/moomale/loomele/shnookele / Hi dessele/lessele/bessele/contessele.” Also “Salute”, a chilling poem about lynching.

From Glatstein, I recommend “Genesis”. I am devasted but cannot find a copy of “Genesis” (trans. Cynthia Ozick) on the internet, but I intrigue you with this excerpt:

“Come back, dear God, to a land no bigger than a speck. / Dwindle down to only ours. I’ll go around with homely sayings / suitable for chewing over in small places. We’ll both be provincial, / God and His poet. / Maybe it will go sweeter for us.”

And also from Glatstein, “Without Jews” (trans. Cynthia Ozick):

“Shattered Jewish skulls, / shards of the divine, / smashed, shamed pots — / these were Your light-bearing vessels, / Your tangibles, / Your portents of miracle! / Now count these heads / by the millions of the dead. / Around You the stars go dark.”

On this particularly rough week, I want to shout out my friends. Specifically, my friends who let me cry on their shoulder in cold courtyards (Ava), make me buttered popcorn and put on Taylor Swift to cheer me up (Henry), save me big hugs after a tough day (Jeremy), and check in on me throughout the day (Reece).

With love & curiosity,

Odessa