Happy Friday...and Groundhog Day!

plus: a prank book becomes a literary hit; pistachio milk is a thing; and Valentine cockroaches?!

Feb 02, 2024

Happy Friday, and Groundhog Day! I’ve escaped one of the greyest New England winters I can remember for sunny New Orleans, where I’m accompanying my daughter on a college tour, and hoping she’ll watch the classic Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell morality tale with me tonight.

This week’s recommendations include two TV shows and a movie and I feel the need to apologize for the lack of book recs lately! I’m currently reading several books, but don’t like to recommend one until I’ve actually finished it…In case you’re interested in what I’ve got in progress, pop into the Comments below, where I’ll share the whole list!

📺 Colin From Accounts: this delightful Australian comedy series, which I discovered on my trip to Australia last summer, is finally available to stream in the US! Written by the lead actors, who are also a couple in real life, it begins with an unlikely meet-cute: when a dog is hit by a car because the male driver is distracted by an attractive woman crossing the road, the two end up sharing responsibility for its treatment and care. Hilarity ensues. Fans of Catastrophe and Fleabag will love this. I can’t wait for the second season!

📺 Griselda: Sofia Vergara is excellent as the lead in this inspired-by-a-true-story limited series about Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug dealer in 1970s Miami. Even though Griselda is a horrible person - committing every crime you can imagine - it’s hard not to root for her to succeed as a “businesswoman” in a brutal man’s world. The 70s fashion, music, and interiors are fabulous, and if you can stomach the violence, this is a must-watch.

🎞️ American Fiction: this movie (currently in theaters), based on the novel, Erasure, is a clever and hilarious satire of the publishing industry’s attempts to portray (and monetize) the “Black American Experience.” Jeffrey Wright is a professor and frustrated literary novelist who writes a book lampooning the genre he despises, only to find that his prank becomes a sensation. It’s all that, plus a story about relationships, how our families shape who we become, and finding true love at any age.

👓Looking for something else? More ideas here:

📆 February 2024 Recs // 📖 Books // 📺 TV Shows // 🍿 Movies

In Case You Missed It: I Wish You Sweatpants aka sage advice on getting through winter by

Sophie Lucido Johnson

// Cheers to everyone in the northern hemisphere: we made it through January, the longest month…even if we literally need it to be summer right now // I can’t stop thinking about Ashley C. Ford’s poignant essay for

Big Salad

on learning to allow herself to want things // Apparently pistachio milk is delicious // As a big Ally McBeal fan, I loved this profile of Calista Flockhart, with the scoop on marriage to Harrison Ford, and her latest role // Delicious WFH lunch inspo //

Anne Kadet

’s newest adventure makes me want to take to the streets and talk to strangers…and name a cockroach as a Valentines Day gift! // Did not see that twist coming at Book Club // I wrote about Dry January and expanding my Teetotalers Paradise //

That’s it for this week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Coming soon to Some Happy Scribbles: how to warm up during winter doldrums, and an answer to a perplexing screen-time-era conundrum, how to play board games as a family?

xo Amelia

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