Happy Friday!
After watching a friend’s 2-year-old throw herself onto the sofa in a screaming tantrum on Friday night, I thought: Yeah, me too. I’ve gotta get my ya-ya’s out.
The ya-ya’s, if you’re not familiar, are (technically speaking) little goblins of anxious energy that will eat you from the inside if you don’t get ’em out. I have one friend who calls them “rammies,” maybe because his mother believed they made him act rambunctiously as a kid.
So on Sunday, my friend Matt and I took over a fenced-in handball court at a local park, and spent an hour smashing balls against the wall with our hardest groundstrokes. It felt terrific. In the days since, I’ve eschewed my usual mellow lap-swimming and yoga and attempted to expel my ya-ya’s via loud, high-impact exercise classes such as spinning and kickboxing. Is it helping? I don’t know. But it’s definitely not hurting. At the very least, I’m sleeping better.
Still, my post-election pendulum swings between utter despair and measured perspective. New York Magazine’s Ask Polly helped with the former, acknowledging how flattened she feels and how she too is figuring out how to move forward in a meaningful way: “Everything I do or say is not enough.” Barack Obama’s pep talk on a call this week with Democrats helped with latter.
“You have a week and a half to mope,” Barack Obama told his people. ”Two if you really need it.”
Like many, I’m still working out what my personal rules of engagement will be for the Trump presidency, while reeling in the immediate present. I love a deadline, and would like to believe Obama’s ten-day limit on moping will be doable. Then, action.
If you’re in the US, Thanksgiving is on Thursday. While the traditional turkey dinner is fine, and leftovers are better than fine, I’ve always been most partial to the Thanksgiving happy hour. For some, this may be a Bloody Mary after a late-morning family football game, or beers with the NFL on television.
When I was a kid at my aunt Diane’s, it was late afternoon marinated shrimp with cheese and crackers while The Princess Bride played in the living room—ostensibly for the kids to watch, but really for my uncle Marty.
The Princess Bride is still a classic, and so are these sweet, lemony shrimp with marinade-softened onions and capers that beg to be piled onto Carr’s crackers. My mom and I both have made these for many a cocktail party.
Diane’s Thanksgiving shrimp, adapted from Bon Appetit
Marinade:
one cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup capers
two tablespoons sugar
two teaspoons salt
one tablespoon chopped parsley
one teaspoon dry mustard
three bay leaves
one clove pressed garlicone Vidalia onion, very thinly sliced
two pounds of fully cooked shrimp
garnish: niçoise olives and thinly sliced lemons
Stir together all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the shrimp and onions and toss to coat. Let cool, covered in the refrigerator for at least three hours. Garnish and serve.
I hear some of you are stressed about heading home for the holidays. Not to compare family gatherings to hostage situations, but… Quartz’s Jenny Anderson talked with seasoned hostage negotiator George Kohlrieser about how to keep political strife from hijacking your dinner table.
Here are the short notes:
- Know your emotions and be prepared to manage them
- Be curious: listen with an intent to hear, rather than react
- Acceptance does not mean agreement
“A family dinner…shouldn’t be a source of ventilation,” Kohlrieser says. “It should be a source of conversation.” (In other words: Get your ya-ya’s out somewhere else.)
Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out also happens to be the name of a live Rolling Stones recording from 1970 that could serve as an adequate soundtrack for Thanksgiving cooking, if that’s what your days ahead have in store. For mine, I’m playing The Replacements’ Don’t Tell a Soul—which came out of Reagan’s 1980s—mostly because all week I’ve wanted to yell like they do at the beginning of this song.
May you slay all your ya-ya’s. Have a great weekend—and a happy Thanksgiving!
[quartzy-signature]
One more recipe for a November happy hour. I learned this cocktail a couple weeks ago at Gaskins—a cozy, seasonal restaurant in Germantown, New York. (Go for dinner if your travels bring you to Hudson!) Gaskins has retired this drink from its evolving cocktail menu, but it’s staying on mine. The Sharky: 1 1/2 oz. rye, 1 oz. fresh apple cider, 3/4 oz. Nardini Amaro, and the juice of half a lemon. Serve over ice. Repeat.