30: Three Hundred
Three is an odd number, and so I don't really like it. I prefer two. It's rounder, friendlier. But three is something I use all the time in writing whether I like it or not. The rule of threes is a perfect joke format: two normal things and a silly thing. An ideal list length. A natural way of laying out of ideas. See.
This is my 30th newsletter, and totally by chance, I've just reached 300 subscribers. (Thank you all. You have no idea how much it means to have 300 people willingly ready to read The Gulp.) It's made me think about the number three, and why we naturally fall on it, and why three things are better than four -- unless those things are mini scotch eggs. Then four is better.
I have three sisters. I am in my thirties. Also, because it's now 2020, I've been writing about beer -- and therefore regularly and with some sort of direction -- for 3 years. That means this year counts as three years since I went to bed and lay there in the dark and thought: "You aren't a writer. Why not?"
[I don't know what I should do to celebrate 30 newsletters and 300 subscribers, it seems like a big fucking deal. I'm going to open a bottle of wine and make pizzas. Why don't you reply to this email with ideas?]
Other Stuff:
I love Detectorists and this interview with Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook about it from a few years ago is so perfect. It really lays out exactly what it is about the show that I love so much.
This piece on two unique souls making wine in Catalunya by Lucy Lovell really captured my imagination (Spain, wine, of course). It's sunny and fun and free, but it's also packed with juicy info and has tons of details to geek out on. Loved it.
A frank and moving piece about anxiety and how writing about beer has become a way to battle through it.
Did you know that garlic isn't as beloved in Italy as it is elsewhere in the world? I didn't. This piece by Danielle Callegari looks into "the great garlic divide". (I just made a huge batch of marinara sauce and if I paid attention to classic sensibilities, I used about twice as much garlic as I should have. Oh well.)
I watched this BBC 4 documentary over the weekend because it was too grim to go outside, and it was perfect. Tales of Winter - The Art of Snow and Ice.
I'm obsessed with photographs and paintings of New York at the moment, and trying to trace how its layout and buildings have changed over the years. These beautiful paintings of the city from 1910-1920 by Samuel Halpert, a Polish immigrant, really took me by the hand. I love the perspectives, colours and shapes he uses, and the sense of fun in some of his work. It's a totally different feeling to the serious black and white photographs that (to me) show an unwelcoming, intimidating city of change and skyscrapers.
My Stuff:
Not much to report this week -- I've got something I'm really proud of on an editor's desk at the moment, and a few other things in my drafts pile. (I use the American spelling. I'm not sorry. "Draught" is such an ugly word, I don't like it at all. It looks like I should be pronouncing it "Droauuft" and no. I won't.)
City View -- Samuel Halpert