Welcome to The Thursday News Dump.
What is The Thursday News Dump?: Excellent question. This newsletter will cover what I do at work, what I’m cooking, and any other random things I think you should see or know about. It will probably include reflections on grief, The Pandemic Of It All, and whatever else I feel like writing about.1 And honestly, this thing makes me feel a bit like Reggie from Rocket Power.2
Why Thursday?: Well, I’ve always liked Thursdays. From fourth grade until high school, Thursday meant one thing: dance class. Specifically, clogging class. The summer before fourth grade, I successfully tried out for a competition team at my dance studio, and I was named as an inaugural member of the Peewee Clogging Team.3 The competition teams had class on Thursday, so nearly every Thursday from that year on I was finding myself on Main Street in Saco in a former library that had been turned into a dance studio. Growing up, the dance studio was a bit of a refuge of sorts, and it’s where I met some of my closest friends. So yes, I like Thursdays. Friday eve, if you will.4
What I did this week: In this section of The Thursday News Dump, I will quite literally dump the news I wrote this week for Catholic News Agency or anywhere else. Any commentary in The Thursday News Dump is my opinion,5 and not reflective of anyone else or my employer.
“Bill expanding access to euthanasia, assisted suicide advances in Canada” I talked to a member of the Canadian parliament about why the Canadian government appears to be hell-bent on expanding “assisted death,” even for those who are not actually in the process of dying.
“A Catholic guide to March Madness 2021” I enjoy college sports. I enjoy Catholic schools. I enjoy Catholic schools doing well at college sports. Get those brackets filled in!
“Christian medical groups oppose health secretary nominee” The Catholic Medical Association, among others, is opposed to the nomination of Xavier Becerra for HHS Secretary.
“Knights of Columbus remove Satanic graffiti from outside DC church” What’s better than this? Guys being dudes.
Recipe of the week: I got a KitchenAid pasta roller/cutter attachment for Christmas this year, and I just had the good sense to break it out this past week. I’m not sure what I was waiting for. I made fettuccine alfredo (yum), a chicken and mushroom noodle stir fry (also yum) and then…this, The Thursday News Dump’s first-ever “recipe of the week.”
I’ve dubbed this dish “hmm…I bet that’d taste good? noodles” as that was the process behind creating them. I used a standard egg noodle dough that I had chilling in my fridge, and rolled it out until the “three” setting on the pasta roller.6 I then used the spaghetti attachment to cut it into, well, spaghetti, and immediately dropped them into a pot of boiling water.
After 60 seconds of boiling, I drained the noodles with a spider and put them in a bowl.7
This is where the “I bet that’d taste good?” comes in. I topped the noodles with 1/2 tbsp of chili oil, because the 1/2 tbsp measuring spoon was closest to me and appeared to be clean. I then added 1 tbsp(ish) of soy sauce, because soy sauce and chili oil tend to play nice together. Having covered “fat,” “heat,” and “salt” of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,8 I realized I should probably add “acid.” I splashed in some Chinese black vinegar.9
At this point, I realized I should add in something to the dish that isn’t carbs or salt, so I tossed in some scallions, ya cai, and peanuts. The next step was to take a picture for the Twitter, stir all the ingredients together, and eat.10
In memoriam: On Monday, my mom sent me the text every millennial dreads: “Hey. Are you there?” followed by “Lillian is at the vet.”
Nothing, and I repeat, nothing, good has ever come from a “Hey. Are you there?” text from a parent before 10 a.m. (If any parents of millennials are reading this, please keep this in mind for when you text your children.)
Back at my house in Maine, we had two cats: Walter and Lillian. Lillian, a thin, beautiful, gray tabby, was “my” cat. My brother considered Walter,11 Lillian’s foster brother who was adopted the same time she was,12 "to be “his” cat.13
(Walter, left, and Lillian react to the news that I was leaving to head back to Virginia. Or they were just tired; after all, it was a hot summer day, and they are cats.)
Anyhow, Lillian was “not doing well” when my mom texted me, and she later called to tell me that she had some sort of mass around her heart and wasn’t breathing well. I’m honestly not sure exactly what she said, as by this point I had started sobbing. I asked my mom if she could wait a day before putting her down, as I had half a mind to hop in my car and haul ass to Maine to give her a hug, but that idea was quickly shot down.
I had one final 3-minute FaceTime with Lillian, which I think my mom cut short because I was a blubbering mess and seeing me was leading her towards becoming a blubbering mess. Lillian looked so small, and so scared. My heart was broken.
My mom was with her until the end, and she said that Lillian passed very peacefully; a small mercy in all of this.
I’m no stranger to loss—undoubtedly a topic I will get into on future issues of The Thursday News Dump—but this was the first time losing a pet affected me to this degree. When my cat Cassie was put to sleep my senior year of high school, it was almost anticlimactic. She was sick for a bit, and then she was gone.
But Lillian was different. She was not an overly affectionate cat; she was kind of a jerk at times, to be honest. She was aloof and shy. Much like myself, she hated loud noises and enjoyed hiding. She once had a very bad trip on catnip and hid under my bed for about six hours. Multiple relatives referred to her as “the elusive Lillian.” But when she warmed up to you, life was great.14 She was super snuggly—on her terms—and she purred and chirped very loudly. She’d eat yogurt from my mother’s spoon every morning, and she’d hop up on one of our bench chairs to see what everyone was up to. She was constantly the subject of Walter’s “friendly” skirmishes.
The loss of Lillian just seems like a weird coda of sorts to the bad things that have happened in the past year: my father’s sudden death in May, my stepfather’s cancer diagnosis six months later, and the general *waves arm around* of the pandemic and its restrictions. I can’t believe the next time I go home I won’t be greeted by a tiny tabby who will promptly run away at the slightest amount of my affection.
I miss you, Lil.
Parting thoughts: Whew, that was a doozy. Thanks for reading! Here’s a cute #ThrowBackThursday picture of yours truly. Have a wonderful weekend!
Can I call this a Zine? This feels like it should be a Zine.
If you get this reference, we should be friends.
Older girls (and the random guy every so often) were on the junior and senior competition teams. I would eventually climb my way up those ranks.
Plus everyone else seems to send out their newsletters on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays, and I want to stand out.
Which should also be your opinion, let’s be real.
I like them thicccccccc.
It was a lazy afternoon and I didn’t feel like doing anything fancy. And by “fancy” I mean “pulling out a colander.”
A book I will probably never get around to actually reading, but probably should.
I have no idea how much. It wasn’t all that much.
Get a picture before and after you mix, and then post the one with the best aesthetic.
They are named after Walt(er) and Lillian Disney. Contrary to popular belief, she was not named after Lilly Pulitzer.
There was a two-for-one sale on “teenage cats.” No, I’m not kidding.
In reality, our mother took care of them about 99% of the time.
Even me—it took a week or two every time I came home.