I Don't Hate It | Andy & Don & Maya & Me
Hey there. Has everyone thawed out? Today I drove past a gigantic mountain of snow, just hanging out in a parking lot waiting for the sun to come out and temps to rise.
1. One day last week, while visiting my parents in Texas, I was browsing in a bookstore and came across something I thought my father might enjoy. It wasn't his usual fare—histories of World War II—but I had a good feeling about it. A few days and a few hundred pages later, turns out I was right. (No surprise there, right, Dad?) Andy & Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show was a real hit. Written by Don Knotts's brother-in-law, Andy & Don is a biography of Knotts and Andy Griffith as well as a behind-the-scenes look at The Andy Griffith Show.
2. A few days ago I read that Maya Angelou's Harlem brownstone is for sale. And I thought about the year that I taught her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in "Autobiography as American Experience," and how thoroughly engaged with the text students were. Have you read it? You should. Have you read it lately? You should revisit it. Angelou eventually wrote a follow-up, Mom & Me & Mom, that is equally compelling, the story of what happened after she was reunited with her mother a decade later.
3. I can't overstate how much I love quizzes. I'm one of those people. Of course I want to know which eighties song matches my personality. And which color. Tonight I took this one and all I will say is that the results were uncanny.
As always, art by that brave lady Jen Deaderick.