We'd like a word with the chef

Because what they are serving us tastes like it's all gone bad

Please pardon the tardy. Technical glitch! Totally my fault. Here… I got you these:

Forgive me now??

So, I’m away from my desk this week, but didn’t want to miss the chance to connect with you! Trying to build a consistent thing here with you—every Tuesday, we’re here together chatting it up, leaning on each other, and trying to stay afloat in this sea of utter madness and constitutional crisis.

While I’m taking a mini break and getting some needed fresh (ish?) air and I-deserve-these-sunny-days, I do hope that you’re finding ways to do the same. Getting off the rollercoaster is imperative, friends. It’s preservation.

Let’s jump right into the Healthy, Wealthy & Wise portion of things, yes? A bit of a quick & dirty version this time, but trusting you’ll understand. Also, I have some big, fun, good news to share very soon. So, I’m reserving my hootin’ & hollerin’ for that. I cannot wait to tell you!

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Here’s what I…

READ: Near the end of last year, I had read that “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” was coming to the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC and I think I did a soul-clap, a hard holler and pumped my fist in the air. Yes, basically, I’m super excited! I will definitely be making my way to see this—possibly more than once.

Copyright Amy Sherald | Amy Sherald, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Definitely check out this piece in ARTNews for a far more nuanced critique on the exhibit that I could ever offer.

“It’s worth noting that the exhibition title, ‘American Sublime,’ intentionally places Sherald’s work both within and against art historical tradition. Sherald offers a different vision of sublimity from the overwhelming natural phenomena that inspire awe or terror that we are used to. Rather than vast landscapes or dramatic scenes, her sublime comes through in the daily experiences of ordinary people, their gazes steady and self-assured—set against backgrounds so uniform they risk quieting the very individuality her portraits aim to elevate.”

The exhibit will be at the Whitney from April 9 -August 10, 2025.

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WATCHED: The season one finale of The Pitt on HBO MAX (am I the only one who still calls the streamer but its rightful premium cable television name?). It’s been almost a week and I’m still thinking about it. Might just find some time to rewatch it. Honestly? Might have to re-watch the whole series from the top. Yes; it’s that good. The series, called a “counterintuitive comfort watch,” will grab you and pull you in from the minute the emergency room doors slide open and we’re inside the belly of “the pit.”

The series premiered in early January and quickly landed on the must-watch lists of critics and viewers—especially real-life medical workers—alike. And now, 15 excellent episodes later, it’s in HBO (leave me be!)’s top three shows of all time.

The show, set in an emergency department of a hospital in Pittsburgh, follows Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (played by ER-vet Noah “Dr. John Carter” Wyle) and his crew of medical workers during one chaotic and utterly riveting 15-hour shift. Each episode spans one hour in the long day’s shift. I’ve seen many people call it NBC’s ER meets 24, but that description, though effective and quick, kind of robs The Pitt of the necessary gravitas it deserves. And as a longtime ER fan, who is on her third re-watch of the entire 15-season series (leave me be!), I can confirm that The Pitt digs deeper than even the best medical/hospital drama that’s come before it—and that’s including The Knick. Another one of my favorites that ended way too soon.

“What most makes ‘The Pitt’ a TV series of its moment, however, is its diagnosis: It pinpoints the widespread feeling that everything now is sick and broken, from systems to people to social compacts,” says James Poniewozik, the chief television critic for The New York Times.

I will have much more to say on this when I’m back to 100 percent “work mode” and have had my first (or second? leave me be!) rewatch of the gripping finale.

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HEARD: I gotta keep it a buck, the podcasts I listened to this past week were mostly dissecting the current political mess that we’re in and it kind of left me feeling, well, freaked the eff out! So, around midweek, I started listening to music instead. It was a Nancy Wilson-Frank Ocean-Mk.gee kind situation.

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