My Writing Year
Work from not-so-auld lang syne
This week I wrote two pieces, one occasioned by an unhappy anniversary and the other by the passing of sports journalist Grant Wahl. I decided not to publish either because they were too, well, personal. So those pieces will loiter in the drafts folder, and I’m instead sharing some of my writing from the past twelve months as a way to mark the end of 2022. Or you can skip to the end to the holiday greetings and one of the best seasonal songs ever.
A year ago this week, NBC asked me to write an opinion piece in reaction to a promotion requiring teachers to scramble for dollars for their classrooms in an arena — on their hands and knees. Needless to say, I wasn’t cheering from the stands.
Mid-winter, I published my first piece in Catapult, which gave me a chance to write about a lifetime of drinking coffee, the character of El Exigente, and the torture of grading student writing, among other things. It also allowed me to share a favorite pic of my dad from a vintage Maxwell House corporate photo shoot.
In the spring, media coverage of rising gas prices prompted me to return to an evergreen obsession, America’s over-dependence on cars, in another piece for NBC that attempts to reframe the debate around the costs of cars, not just the price of gas.
At the start of the school year, The Hechinger Report published my argument that we can’t solve the teacher shortage by downplaying it or without making the profession one that people want, once again, to enter and stay in.
In the fall, the deconstruction of Twitter — where I’ve met so many, learned so much, and ranted so often — pushed me to try some new social media sites (it seems like I’m settling on post.news).
It also led me to launch this Substack newsletter. I called it “Nobody Wants This” — because, really, another Substack newsletter? If you’re reading this, though, you may have said, “OK, sure,” and for that I thank you.
Wishing you joyful, restful holidays and the bright, new year that you need.
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