Welcome to Woof of the Week!
Alright boys huddle up. There’s been no shortage of obstacles this season, and I’m really proud of how you all pulled through together, as a team. Byron, you really rose to the occasion this year, taking Tom’s spot as quarterback after he tore his ACL trying to impress the middle schoolers that were visiting. I don’t blame any of the first five losses on you. And I know things started looking worse when Ryan quit to play trumpet in the marching band. And then we lost Coach Lund to that DUI. And I’m here, just fresh out of grad school trying to make the best first impression I can to get hired next year. And so… I guess what I’m trying to say is… Boys, if we can just win one game, or I don’t know, get one touch down… that’d be alright I guess, that’d be alright.
Welcome to Woof of the Week where I write about the things that made me say “Woof” the longest each week. Whether it’s international news, or just something that happened to a friend of a friend - it’ll be featured here.
And don’t forget - you can always submit a Woof!
Woofs are submitted anonymously so even your most secret Woofs are safe to send. And if you’d just like to submit dog pictures you can send those too!
Now without further ado -
My Writing Schedule
This was the first week since the start of “Woof of the Week” that I actively worked on the newsletter throughout the week. Last week I had a Woof that I wanted to spend more time writing about. I really wanted to push the limits of my creative writing, as well create the space for myself to actually play with the text. To create pockets of nuance, utilize clever wordplay, and really try to reach an emotional core with the Woof. So I decided to push the Woof to next week (aka today).
During the week, I found myself with surprising pockets of time. I think that’s what happens when you have the intent to do something - “where there’s a will there’s a way” and that way ended up with me sitting at my desk, at my new Mac Mini with my Dual Monitor setup, and being able to actually think about writing.
As opposed to my usual weekend writing sessions, I was (relatively and in regards to WoTW) stress free. I put music on. I wrote a little bit, did a little bit of research, moved sentences around. I went out to my living room here and there to play video games. Afterward, I returned to my desk, wrote a few sentences and then put my computer to sleep. I repeated this process throughout the week.
Flash forward to Sunday (today) - where I woke up at 5AM for no reason. I tried to will myself back to sleep, tried to tell myself I had a few more hours before I had to start really getting my day going. But my brain rewarded me with a dream that was a cross between Squid Game, Saw, and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders1. So, system shocked, I sat up, having only slept for 20 additional minutes.
I was || a w a k e || and so I decided that I would get some work on some other project(s) done. That work ethic would carry me throughout the day, taking calls, crunching numbers, going through all my favorite focus music and finding some new tracks (I saw Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon” yesterday, and not only do I recommend it but it also has a great score!). I was so focused on the other stuff that I completely neglected Woof of the Week.
And that brings us to now, 7:10 PM PST2 and not only have I not finished the Woof that I had spent all week working on, but I had saddled myself with two honorable mention Woofs that I feel require some research to do justice. I would ask myself “How did I end up here?” but I mean, I detailed exactly how that happened above.
Working on this newsletter has been really interesting! Not only has it been a great creative exercise every week, but it’s the most I’ve kept to a personal deadline in a really long time. Not to brag or anything but I’m actually really proud of myself for that! Sometimes it’s really hard to keep promises to yourself.
The deadline forces me to think about writing in more condensed ways – in a way where I have to think “this has to go out, so I need to finish it.” I can’t go back and forth for days on how I want to describe an experience, like I did this week. But yet, I also can’t be typing furiously so I can get this out at a semi-reasonable hour, like I’m doing this week.
Writing is hard. One thousand percent. And a big part of doing this newsletter is so I can recognize that fact. I want to spend time workshopping a piece a little bit more, as opposed to spitballing feelings and emotions. I love “stream of consciousness” as much as the next person, but I can only imagine that this is more fun for me to type than it is for you to read.
Lastly, the other thing that kind of makes writing this newsletter a “woof” is that it eats up a lot of my weekend, hence why I wanted to write more during the week. I have been a bit more social lately but the first few weeks of WoTW I was doing || n o t h i n g || on weekends. And while that’s all well and good, it also means there’s a whole lot less to draw from when writing. There’s a whole lot of things out there to be saying Woof to and I can only have a Woof that is basically “isn’t internet funny?” so many times.
I’ve mentioned this to many readers in messages I’ve gotten - I’m striving to strike the balance of personal writing, creative writing, and reporting in each newsletter. I don’t have a journalism degree, nor do I know the first thing about “proper reporting”. But I’d like to be a little bit more informed, especially when writing about current events. I’d rather know that I’m fact-checking myself, and not just spouting feelings that have become thoughts, as I am one to do and be wrong about.
Every week it’s a new challenge! And I welcome it. Except this week. Because I’m writing like a mad man. Not to be confused with AMC’s Mad Men (Higher Quality).
Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.
Honorable Mentions
Too many things happen in a week to just talk about one Woof! Here are some of the other things that made me say Woof this week:
My Favorite Food
Disclaimer: This technically happened last week! And it’s the Woof that I wrote about above!
Two years ago I was talking about one of my favorite food spots in Los Angeles and mentioned the price of my usual order to which one of my interns, a recent East Coast transplant, responded “You paid THAT much for just a sandwich?” That reaction has haunted me for longer than I thought - having avoided returning to said place since COVID restrictions have lightened up.
But after an absolutely brutal last few months, I decided to take a day off work to collect myself. And as I planned what my day off would look like (because of course even the days designated for relaxation must be planned) I thought, “What better way to start off the day than going to my favorite spot in Los Angeles - Langer’s?”
Langer’s Deli is a “Kosher style delicatessen” (read: Jewish deli) on the East Side of Los Angeles. It was founded in 1947 and has been on many “Best Of” lists on every food website, food magazine, or any variation of a “What to do in LA” website, which a new one seems to populate my social feeds eery day.
I am not a food reviewer and am barely a foodie. Anything that I could write would pale in comparison to any of the glowing reviews written by professional food critics or better writers alike.
So instead I’ll write about my experience.
After nearly running over a pedestrian getting into the parking lot (sorry!), I was handed a yellow parking slip by the parking attendant and was told to make sure I got it validated. It was an abnormally quiet Wednesday in Westlake. It could have had to do with the newly installed fences around MacArthur Park - part of Los Angeles’s continued effort to “manage” its unhoused citizens.
I walked down the street to the deli. As usual, there was litter in the streets and sidewalks wet with unknown liquids. My bright blue button down shirt fluttered in the wind and caused me to stick out against the backdrop of money transfer businesses and cell phone stores whose walls were varying sun washed shades of orange and yellow. I waited for the walk sign. Next to me were several street vendors selling random articles of clothing. After a mishap of “Who should be the one to press the cross here button?”, I crossed the street and was welcomed into Langer’s.
Cheesy as it is, there really isn’t another way to describe the feeling of what happens when you enter Langer’s: You are transported. It’s a complete 180 from the world outside. Gone is the slight apprehension of walking through a neighborhood that’s seen better days. Dampened are the shouts of people arguing in the middle of the intersection. It’s not only an oasis from the environment directly outside but it’s also an oasis in time as well. It’s as if Langer’s has chosen to ignore the going ons outside and work on itself, preserving its traditions, it’s look, and whatever else it can until the waves of time come to bring it back out to sea. It’s easy to feel guilty about having the privilege to eat in a place that’s so entrenched in a neighborhood that has the second highest population density in Los Angeles county and could use some assistance, the same type of assistance & care that I’m sure has been taken by the Langer family to make sure it’s restaurant could survive over the years.
I got my vaccination card checked and was presented with a classic question for a solo diner -
Is the counter ok?
I replied that it certainly was and was seated by a waiter that I had recognized from the last time I had eaten there in person, nearly two and a half years ago at this point! I wondered what the wait staff here had done in the time spent away from COVID - as Langer’s COVID-19 Take-Out Only started later and lasted longer than most. I looked around - most of the staff seemed familiar. I marveled at the thought.
The waitress (Julia?) came over and passed me a menu. I told her I was happy to be back and she replied that she was happy to have me back. The menu was different from what I was used to. It used to be a large one page deli menu - chock full of items and hard to read. It was still chock full of items, and still very hard to read. But now, as a trifold, it was more manageable.
I spent some time scouring for what I wanted even though I already knew what I was going to order. When she came back with a hot coffee, I asked:
Could I get the #19? And a side of Macaroni Salad?
You might be wondering what the #19 is. Here’s a picture from the internet.
From their website: Experience the #19 for yourself: hand-cut hot pastrami piled high with cole slaw, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese, all on double-baked rye bread that’s warm on the inside and crunchy out. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience you can only get at Langer’s!
It’s perfection, every bite.
As I ate, I looked around. Norm Langer (the owner) was walking around, working with the staff. People were being seated and served. It felt odd to sit at the counter. It could be that I hadn’t had the sandwich in awhile. Or it could have been that I hadn’t had this type of time for myself in a while. But for the first time, in a long time, I felt at peace.
There was another time I was at Langer’s by myself, sitting at the counter. A Mexican man walked in and sat two seats away from me. He was given a menu and perused it, even though he too, as I would soon come to know, also knew what he wanted. As the waiter (Paul?) came back, he passed him the menu and said, in slightly broken English:
The usual. The Roast Beef dip please.
I was perplexed. Why would anyone EVER get something OTHER than the classic #19 at Langer’s? I ate in silence, waiting for him to get his food. When the sandwich came, the man thanked the waiter. He put away his phone. He took a second to admire the sandwich. And then he picked it up, dipped it, and took a big bite.
I’ll never forget the smile on his face.
When the waiter (I’m pretty sure it was Paul) came over, he asked the man how the food was. And he replied -
It tastes the same as it did when I was a kid.
That’s the magic of a place like Langer’s. It feels like coming home.
Whether it’s the food or the environment, you’re allowed to hit pause on the world around you for a bit, and totally and entirely, be transported. Langer’s proves that, for better or for worse, even if the world is changing around you, if just the right amount of care is taken, something really special could be preserved. In some framing that could be pretty problematic thinking. But in others, sometimes something really special is exactly what you need.
The whole meal in total was $33. I’ve spent more on less. And certainly less on more. But you can’t put a price on time travel.
I tipped $10 and went back into that quiet Westlake Wednesday.
A total of $43 for lunch for just myself. My intern would be dragging me in front of everyone right now. Woof.
Ok here are the real honorable mentions, I’ll keep ‘em short.
Crypto.Com Arena
I can’t believe they had the gall to rename the Staples Center the “Crypto.com Arena”. That is the absolute funniest thing I have ever heard and possibly a contender for Woof of the Week if I cared to do the research about an arena I have only ever walked by after anime conventions.
I’ve allegedly heard that people are calling it “The Crypt” but even if that’s true I will still only call it the Crypto.com Arena.
Can’t wait for vendors to be crypto only there and for the price of hotdogs to be listed out in BitCoin, SushiSwap, MANA Coin, and whatever other crazy name they’ll come up with next. I know that won’t happen but one can dream of Woofs right?
Spider-Man No Way Home Trailer 2
Welcome back to Woof of the Week’s continued coverage on “Press about Spider-Man: No Way Home”.
This past Wednesday, at 5:30PM PST, the second trailer for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” dropped. And the world was BRIMMING with excitement - exactly 24 hours earlier Sony had announced across social media that the trailer would be dropping and the internet was lit aflame.
The announcement was accompanied with stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon reacting to the second trailer. Everyone was extremely excited. An hour or two prior, the YouTube search page for “Spider-Man No Way Home Trailer 2” was lit aflame with people streaming, garnering audiences so that they could all watch together in real time. Fans were showing up for a trailer launch release event hosted by Tom Holland IRL. I can’t find it now but a news site had even cut together a trailer FOR the new trailer that was about to drop that actually featured some of the new footage.
I was in awe that so many people and SO much press was done for JUST a trailer. I’m not sure if this many people were even excited for the Endgame trailer to drop? I don’t know if there has been any comparable event to this in movie history but I’m all ears if there is.
What really strikes me is this proliferation of putting out content that’s just about what used to be considered “content”. Every outlet is fighting each other for the clicks, everyone is reposting the same stuff. Movies like Spider-Man No Way Home, these big tentpoles with bankable stars, beloved IP - every entertainment outlet and every desperate YouTuber will be milking every release, every piece of footage for as much as they possibly can because it’s all a fight to the bottom to see if we can get a piece of that big click pie.
Anyways the reason I know any of this is because I too was just as excited about the “Spider-Man No Way Home Trailer 2” and was actively hitting refresh at least an hour before 5:30 PM PST in the hopes it would drop earlier. Once 5:30 hit I stopped everything I was doing. And I clicked whatever the first outlet was to post the trailer.
And even though it had subtitles in a different language baked in, I still watched.
“Break me off a piece of that big click pie!”3
Quote of the Week
Every week I’ll dive back into my Apple Notes where I write down quotes that I’ve heard from friends, Romans, and countrymen in real life, unless otherwise noted.
This week’s quote is from 2021:
Dude they changed the chicken tenders… the only reason I go now is to see maybe if they… changed them back.
I’m sorry for your loss. I know what it’s like to lose a good meal. And boy howdy have we talked about good meals today. I hope all your chicken tender dreams come true.
That’s all folks!
Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Woof of the Week! Leave a comment because I’d love to hear your thoughts! Some questions I have for you -
What’s your favorite meal?
Will you call the Crypto.com Arena “The Crypt”?
Have you watched the “Spider-Man No Way Home Trailer 2” yet? I won’t hyperlink because you have to choose who you’ll click on.
See you on the next one!
Submit Your Woof!
Got a Woof you want to share? Click below to submit your Woof.
Woofs can be submitted anonymously so even your most secret Woofs are safe to send. And if you’d just like to submit dog pictures you can send those too!
oh my god I wanted to link to a trailer but the whole film is available so definitely take a watch.
Actually my laptop is 4-5 minutes ahead of every other clock in the world, a future Woof of the Week for sure.
Y/N? Was this joke worth it?