Peter Grosz

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Peter Grosz is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning writer who has worked for Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Amy Sedaris and can be heard regularly on NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!”

Dream

I dreamed I saw my old apartment on Jewett Street after 45 years. It was now condos and there was a working fireplace.

Seasonal shifts are heavily linked to a surge in vivid dreams. As daylight hours and room temperatures fluctuate, our internal body clocks adjust, increasing melatonin production and altering time spent in REM sleep. This natural disruption frequently leads to more intense, memorable dreaming.

When you’re making decisions based on what gives you purpose or what lights you up, boom! That’s self-love—

 Creating a safe zone all your own is an act of self-love

Cold Weather Craving Mash and Greens

Yesterday it was 40 degrees out in the morning. I wore my hat and scarf and gloves when walking my dogs. By the afternoon I was craving mashed potatoes.

Russet potatoes cubed with skin on (4 minutes) in the instant pot with tiny amount of water. Mash with potato masher and add a drizzle of heavy whipping cream and then salt to taste. Sprinkle on fresh scallions.

Rinse kale in a tub of cold water and then use scissors or a knife to chop it into 2 or 3 inch pieces. Steam it in the instant pot for 4 minutes. Add olive oil and Adobo seasning.

Enjoy together. Scoop potatoes with ice-cream scoop!  

Years ago my friend Susan and I imagined  being street vendors of savory food selling scoops of mashed potatoes in a cone in place of ice cream.

Advice for Artists, By Michele de Bragança

• Trust yourself. Don’t try to paint like your favorite painters — find your own voice.
• Be your own teacher. Don’t just stick with what works or what sells, try new things — a good painter’s work is always evolving.
• Work really hard (paint every day), and never give up. You will always have setbacks, and many rejections. You never really “get there.” The carrot keeps moving forward. We are blessed to love what we are doing enough to weather these disappointments. As Kevin Macpherson says, “Painting is sort of like fishing. You are out there enjoying the beautiful day, feeling the wind, taking in the sights and sounds —you never really know if you are going to get anything or not!”

 

Three Things: Write Read & Daily

I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.

MADELEINE L’ENGLE

Letter to Gustave Flaubert from George Sand

To Gustave Flaubert, at Croisset Nohant June 21, 1868

Why am I not the ... river which cradles you with its sweet murmuring and which brings you freshness in your den! I would chat discreetly with you between pages of your novel, and I would make that fantastic grating of the chain* which you detest, but whose oddity does not displease me, keep still. I love everything that makes up a milieu, the rolling of the carriages and the noise of the workmen in Paris, the cries of a thousand birds in the country, the movement of the ships on the waters; I love also absolute, profound silence, and in short, I love everything that is around me, no matter where I am; it is auditory idiocy, a new variety. It is true that I choose my milieu and don't go to the Senate nor to other disagreeable places. 

*The chain of the tug-boat going up or going down the Seine.

George Sand Gustave Faubert Letters translated by A.L. McKenzie (p171) 

Nobody can advise and help you, nobody. There is only one single means. Go inside yourself. Discover the motive that bids you write; examine whether it sends its roots down to the deepest places of your heart, confess to yourself whether you would have to die if writing were denied you. This before all: ask yourself in the quietest hour of your night: must I write?

RAINER MARIA RILKE

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Marcus Aurelius 

I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you’re writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have.

I tell my students that when you write, you should pretend you’re writing the best letter you ever wrote to the smartest friend you have. That way, you’ll never dumb things down. You won’t have to explain things that don’t need explaining. You’ll assume an intimacy and a natural shorthand, which is good because readers are smart and don’t wish to be condescended to.

JEFFREY EUGENIDES

Power of Swimming on Mental Health

 https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/the-power-of-swimming-on-mental-health/

Athlete, psychiatrist, and Chief Medical Officer of Brightside Health, Dr. Mimi Winsberg, told me that while exercise in general stimulates the BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) — key ingredients in the health and growth of brain cells — swimming may actually outperform other forms of exercise.

“Swimming may be particularly good for our brains,” Winsberg wrote in an email. “In addition to enhancing sleep length and quality, it also seems to boost mood, reduce anxiety, and improve cognitive function. Animal studies have shown that swimming exerts these positive effects on mood both by stimulating the growth of new brain cells, and the neurochemicals they produce.”

Sara Anstis

https://www.contemporaryartissue.com/8-artists-to-watch-in-2026/ 

https://fabianlang.ch/armory-show

Broccoli

Broccoli is my favorite vegetable but the reheated leftovers are often bitter. 

Broccoli leftovers taste bitter primarily because glucosinolates (naturally occurring sulfur compounds) break down into sharp, pungent byproducts as the vegetable ages or sits in the fridge. Additionally, enzymes in the plant start to degrade, releasing strong flavors that are further intensified by oxidation. 

Understanding exactly why this happens can help you manage and even prevent that strong taste:

• Enzymatic Breakdown: When cooked and stored, the cellular structure of broccoli degrades. This process releases enzymes that convert glucosinolates into isothiocyanates and other sharp compounds that taste highly bitter to our receptors. 
• Oxidation & Spoilage: Storing cooked broccoli for more than 3–4 days or improperly sealing it causes oxidation. This causes a strong, sometimes sour or ammonia-like sulfur smell and taste.
• Genetic Sensitivity: Your own biology might be the final culprit. Roughly 75% of people inherit the TAS2R38 gene, which acts as a bitter taste receptor. If you have a dominant version of this gene, you are much more sensitive to these naturally occurring compounds. 

How to Prevent the Bitter Taste

• Quickly Blanch: If you are meal-prepping or freezing, quickly blanching broccoli in boiling salted water for 1–2 minutes, then shocking it in an ice bath, deactivates the enzymes that cause bitterness. 
• Proper Storage: Always store leftover broccoli in airtight glass containers or sealed bags to limit oxidation.
• Neutralize with Acid: If your reheated broccoli tastes a bit bitter, splash a little bit of lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar over it. The acid will help neutralize the bitter compounds on your palate.

The French City That Champions Its Trees In scenic Sceaux, a one-of-a-kind Tree Charter protects and nourishes the urban canopy as “a long-term investment.”

 Article

Think before you speak. Read before you think.

 Fran Leibowitz

The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

 Fran Leibowitz

Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.... I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use. Pleasant because one is in the best possible company and safe because sleep is the consummate protection against the unseemliness that is the invariable consequence of being awake. What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Sleep is death without the responsibility.

Fran Leibowitz 

A book is not supposed to be a mirror. It’s supposed to be a door.

 Fran Leibowitz

As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.

 Fran Leibowitz