Friday Favorites 5

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s finally feeling like spring: the sun is melting, migratory birds are chirping and flying through the trees in their little flocks, and a fox left prints in my yard.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week.

I love looking at flow charts of how different genres of art — from types of books to genres of music — have changed and morphed over time. So I had a blast scrolling around Music Map this week, but I wish it were way, way more in-depth.
I got into typewriters during the pandemic: I needed to write without distractions. But using it always put me in a much different headspace than the one I had writing on a computer. So I really enjoyed this video about another guy who’s come to love typewriters.
RIP to Chuck Norris. I feel like Chuck Norris jokes were one of my earliest internet meme memories? I printed out a bunch of Chuck Norris jokes and taped them to my school locker in junior high, and we’d all memorize and parrot them to each other like one-liners.
Loved this profile of Willie Nelson. My very first concert was a Bob Dylan-Willie Nelson show! It ruled. I love reading about artists that live to make their art, spending their entire lifetime committed to the craft. Inspiring.
Really love this Instagram account sharing daily David Byrne dances.
I went to the Mall of America this week (I am still sad it’s not named Camp Snoopy!) and hadn’t yet heard that the MoA Hooters restaurant is closing — and people have thoughts.
I never thought I’d feel so understood by Charles Darwin? Turns out there were a lot of days he’d rather stay home in bed than go do science?
This week I nearly caught up on my stack of unread New Yorkers. I finally got current, only to discover a few long reads that are, ahem, very long: The Atlantic gave $100k to a staff writer to gamble on the NFL season, and Reuters spent a lot of resources tracking down the identity of Banksy. I kind of like the mystery of not knowing about Banksy though!
I’m sad about the downfall of the mass market paperback. There’s something very nostalgic and accessible about them, like something you don’t have to treat as precious or high-brow, but something that can carry around and love and beat up and share with a friend with folded, torn covers. In the meantime, I’ll keep ordering 70’s mass market paperbacks from bookfinder.
I finally caved and ordered this beautiful illustrated edition of Lord of the Rings to match my Silmarillion edition I got a few years back. I went back and forth between this and the newer Alan Lee box set, the 2000 set I had, the 1973 set my dad had, and the hilarious 1993 set my friend Tom has. I finally relented that I’ll probably collect them all eventually.

See you on down the dusty trail,

Darwin on Isak's Blog

Friday Favorites 5