All of the Christmas gifts are bought and under the tree, why the hell don’t I do this every year? People are mean in those mall parking lots, so I’m grateful to be done the shopping portion of the season. Now there’s just decorating and cooking left, which is kind of the best part. Here’s what went down last month!

The best tweets of November can be found over here.
I read and reviewed Anna Marie' Tendler’s memoir Men Have Called Her Crazy.
Got an oil change for $66 with no appointment at Royal Lube (perfect name, no notes) in Mississauga. Am I nuts or is that really good in 2024?
I tried the 10 3 2 1 method and it sucked! Completely did not work for me.
I made these ricotta beef shells that were good, but honestly a lasagna would be more satisfying.
Will never tire of my favourite chicken marsala recipe.

Chicken marsala over tres leche mashed potatoes

I took a day trip to Buffalo (and woof, I really don’t like that city), but I’m happy to report that the Wegman’s ultimate chocolate cake remains the greatest cake in the history of grocery store cakes.
I made tres leche mashed potatoes and they were phenomenal. Making them again for Christmas.

Hot take: suburban Targets are too big. It’s enough already.
I got a tub of white chocolate raspberry butter from a holiday market and it’s changed all of our lives, it’s so good. (It’s made me want to make a bunch of different butter combinations for the holidays, so I’ll report back.)
Love a seasonal flavour and these (below) are pretty great.

Some things I watched:
- Perfect Days - pretty long, but liked it.
- Getting Lost (the documentary about the show Lost) - look, I was a fan of the show but I wasn’t a superfan so maybe I’m not the key demographic here. It definitely could’ve been edited/shortened, but I did love Kate’s explanation of the finale.
- The Martha documentary on Netflix - loved it. Yes, she’s a bitch (with the way she talks to her staff) but she’s insanely rich so I don’t see why that’s surprising. Nice people aren’t exceedingly rich, it’s that simple.
- The Weekend Away (Netflix) - not terrible!
- Anora - best movie of the year, hands down.
- Cast Away - god, it’s still such a great movie, especially this monologue.
- The John Mulaney SNL - okay, the man is not funny. I’d say it’s bewildering that he’s so popular but so many famous comedians are terrible…? So this makes sense?
- Bowen Yang in this Shrek sketch is so goddam funny, I’ve watched it five times.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: cannot wait for that first snowfall, there’s a maple syrup museum I want to take the kids to, already bought my bayberry candles for Christmas Eve, I’d love to make homemade ricotta after watching Ina do it and I will definitely be watching some of these movies.

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If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in October over here.

The only thing better than reading a comedian’s memoir? Reading the partner/ex-partner of a comedian’s memoir. Truly. I don’t know why exactly, but the partner of someone who’s had immense success/fame is usually ten times more interesting than the famous one. Practically always. And this memoir was fantastic. I had known so little about Anna Marie Tendler before reading this (I knew that she was John Mulaney’s beautiful ex-wife, that she designed lampshades and seemed like she wouldn’t have liked me in high school) but I’m grateful to have found this book. Favourite parts ahead.

“I cemented my role in relationships as a pleaser, a convincer, a girl, who, well into adulthood, would contort and conform to the desires of a man, overlooking his easy dismissal, and dampening her self-worth, all to be loved” - OOF, it that wasn’t me for all of my dating life.
The parallels of our two lives are fucking eerie (I know that’s interesting to no one other than me), but it’s weird that we both heard about 9/11 in a high school chemistry class. (I also agree with her about hot firefighters but that’s, like, a universal thought that you’d have to be a comatose to disagree with, so I won’t count that commonality.)
The entire part about her longterm therapist being so horrid to her was nuts to read. I loved it mainly because therapists are such trusted people and it’s insane to me that none of the terrible ones ever really get talked about that much.
“Why are women so fucking ashamed of ourselves? I blame men.” Perfect line. Wish it was the title of the whole book. I get why it wasn’t, but really wish it was.
Talking about a web series she did: “I simply got to show a weekly guest how to do one makeup trick and asked them to share a ghost story or paranormal encounter. When the web series aired, it was met with backlash from women, mostly moms, who insisted that a show about makeup was antithetical to the very ethos the website touted - that girls were smart - and the decision was made to stop making episodes. May we never forget that females cannot be intellectual and aesthetically minded at the same time.” I love this woman.
It’s crazy how much I agree with her thoughts on motherhood: “My reservations about motherhood have been shaped by my feelings about men, their general incompetence, their propensity toward selfishness, and their inability to empathize with the female experience. My obsession with equality in relationships restricts me from balancing the weight of what men put into child-rearing versus what women do. I wonder if it can ever be equal. I feel instinctually it can’t, while also recognizing that instinct might be wrong.”
“I know mothers feel excluded from life too. I guess that’s the paradox of being a woman: no matter what path you choose, chances are you’ll feel invisible.”
“I’m momentarily aroused by the memory of a man properly doing a chore.” Good god, that’s funny.
The entire chapter on her losing her dog Petunia made me weep, but I’m a human being with a HEART sue me.

Such an inspiring memoir, I can’t recommend it enough. Read it immediately. And the fact that she didn’t mention her marriage in detail at all speaks such volumes - she’s not defined by that part of her life and that is made extremely clear with what she chose to share. She’s an incredibly strong writer so I sincerely hope she continues to publish. Absolutely love this woman.

Navigating November 2024

Men Have Called Her Crazy By Anna Marie Tendler - A Review