Friday Food for Thought: April 15, 2022

Hello Friends, welcome to Friday Food for Thought. Every Friday I’ll help start your weekend by sharing four people, thoughts, or things that are on my mind this week. These may be books or movies, podcast suggestions, interesting people I follow on Twitter, music, products, or, well, anything. You may find interesting creativity boosts here, some conversation starters, or just a small dose of entertainment. Click here for last week’s post. Feel free to share this with friends, offer suggestions via the comments, or connect with me on Twitter @bradbravard. Let’s begin!

1) No Sweat:

I live in Florida, where the humidity is approximately at the level of a sauna. In fact, the humidity in our house is lower in the summer months, when air conditioning has a dehumidifying effect. During the shoulder seasons between summer and winter (yes, we do have winter in Florida), humidity can become a problem. We evaluated our need for a dehumidifier with humidity gauges sold by Walmart under the TSV label. There are many other similar gauges available at relatively low prices. Ours came in a 2-pack to help confirm accuracy and to monitor two locations at once. Not accurate enough for detailed weather monitoring, but accurate enough to determine your home’s humidity levels.

2) Lost Stars:

I can’t say I was a fan of Gilbert Gottfried, but I was certainly dismayed by his untimely death this week. I’m not one for celebrity worship, but of all the consequences I had been told to expect with aging, I did not expect to be so affected by the deaths of people who have been artistic and pop culture touchstones throughout my life. People whose work I have enjoyed for decades are fading away faster than I could have imagined – Ed Asner, Ned Beatty, Christopher Plummer, and Charlie Watts all died in 2021 and I’m still hard-pressed to imagine a cultural landscape without them. Others are being forced to the sidelines by age, such as Elton John’s final tour currently in progress, or illness, such as Keith Jarrett forced into retirement by two strokes in 2018. For someone who takes such pleasure in books, movies, and music, the world seems a little less interesting every day.

3) Lynchian Weather:

Speaking of pop culture touchstones, where would we be without David Lynch? The recent announcement that he may be debuting a new work at this year’s Cannes Film Festival sent me to his YouTube channel, David Lynch Theater. Sadly, the Cannes news appears to have been a false alarm, but Lynch’s daily weather reports are a breath of fresh air on even the smoggiest of days.

4) Red Bird of Happiness:

I noticed a cardinal in our front yard this morning, as I often do. Cardinals (what I call cardinals are, apparently, northern cardinals, a species of the genus Cardinalis) are the state bird of seven U.S. states and have a year-round natural range of a good two-thirds of the U.S., plus parts of Canada and Mexico. They are not only a common sight in our yard, but a common sound, with their distinctive territorial song that always cheers me up. Want to improve your day? Turn off everything, step outside, and watch for a cardinal. Depending on where you live, if you’re patient enough, there’s a good chance you’ll see one.

That’s all for this week. Have a good weekend!

This post contains NO affiliate links. All suggestions are based on my own personal experience, your experience may vary. Nothing herein is intended to serve as medical, legal, financial, or any other advice for which you should consult professionals and not some random guy on the Internet.