Every Thursday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.

5 days off in a row

I work part-time at a small-town library and as such, my schedule varies week to week. This week, it just happens I have five days off in a row: Wednesday through Sunday. I’m using it as a chance to mostly hibernate as the temperatures especially for the next couple of days are all under 25 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m curling up with a book or two and binge-watching a few shows: Bones, The Lincoln Lawyer, and maybe the original Law & Order. I also have a playlist of podcasts, mostly from Tara Brach, that I’m going through.

2 days off together

My wife Kim is off the last two days of the five days I’m off. Tomorrow night, we’re getting Chinese, which, with appetizers and entree, usually lasts us the entire weekend. Also tomorrow night we’re having a themed movie night: Funky Friday with two documentaries, Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) about Sly Stone and Thunder Soul about a lesser known funk act, the Kashmere Stage Band.

Celebrating 1 show

Then on Saturday, the theme is Saturday Night Live with The Anniversary Special from this past Sunday and The Homecoming Concert from last Friday. We might also sprinkle in the four-part documentary Beyond Saturday Night. We already watched the documentary Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music.

Kim started watching SNL when she was 7 with her sister, Debbie. They’d sneak watch while at their grandmother’s, usually missing the cold open because they’d wait for her to fall asleep. Steve Martin was her favorite, she said. Myself? I probably only really “discovered” it in my final years of high school and then in college, with my favorite probably being Phil Hartman. I even wrote a poem about him when he died in May 1998 (best viewed on desktop to show line breaks as the poet intended):

On the Death of Phil Hartman

A comedian dies, and suddenly the world explodes 
into a nuclear array of light. It’s not funny
how he died, bang with a bullet. Or how
crowds cheer the demise of another country

not realizing their own is near. What is funny
is how he brought characters to the screen,
but never his own, how a mushroom cloud
is like a lotus flower opening its petals,

how the clock can be pushed forward
by actions in New Delhi, Islamabad.
"I think laughter is an underrated emotion,"
he once told Jane Pauley on Dateline.

It’s what the world needs now,
what could have been written
as an epitaph on his gravestone
if he hadn’t chosen to be cremated instead.

His wish to be consumed by fire
no longer seems bizarre;
perhaps it was just foretelling what was
and is, and is to come.

And with that happy thought 😉, I will bid you adieu.