January 02, 2023
🎉 New year, new meh 😏
IT'S A BRAND NEW YEAR FULL OF TREACHERY — GET READY TO BE MENACED!
I hope your 2023 is off to an acceptable start. Did you make any resolutions? I did not, because I have enough failure in my life without bringing in arbitrary promises I know I won't keep based on the human construct that is the calendar. I just survived several weeks of Christmas music and holiday parties; the only thing I am resolving to do is lean into my hermit-like ways for the next few weeks. This dovetails nicely with today being World Introvert Day.
Today is also National Science Fiction Day , which pairs nicely with the former occasion. Curl up with a sci-fi movie or book, and if anyone gives you the side eye, tell them you're celebrating.
Daria gets it.
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Want a few January 2nd famous birthdays and historical facts? Here are a few...
• Born on this day: sci fi writer Isaac Asimov (1920), actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. (1968), actor Taye Diggs (1971), actor Dax Shepard (1975), and playwright Christopher Durang (1949)
• 2014: Recreational marijuana went on sale for the first time in stores in Colorado, after it became the first state to legalize recreational use (California had a very lax medical marijuana policy for almost 20 years before this, but now the whole US west coast has legalized it for recreational use)
• 1960: 42 year old Senator John F. Kennedy announced his plans to run for President
• 1906: Willis Carrier received a US patent for the world's first air conditioner
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Alright! Scroll on down to learn a bit about fellow Boredwalk fan Hilary! If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Monday email (and are a customer with some Boredwalk tees, tanks, hoodies, towels, bags, or books to show off), just reply to this and let us know, and we'll send you some fun questions to answer (along with our undying gratitude)!
We'll be back here in your inbox on Wednesday with some more random holidays to observe, historical tidbits to acknowledge, and fun links to entertaining content! Until next time...
Peace, love, and treachery,
Meredith
Hilary preparing to dive into the most dystopian activity book this side of Ragnarok, Adventures in the Abyss!
1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?
When I was in college my dream jobs were being a croupier in a glamorous European casino or being a "nose" and developing new perfumes.
Instead I became an artist's model, a chef, a library worker, a child care worker, a stage manager/publicity person for a theatre group, a stagehand for opera and rock concerts, and a yoga teacher. But not all at once! Now I'm retired, and while I loved most of my jobs, being retired is really, really dreamy.*
* (Editor's note: this is how I romanticize retirement. Sometimes friends will ask me "won't you get bored?" Of what? Not dealing with social media trolls 24/7? Not stressing about supply chain issues or an algorithmic tweak I have no control over tanking our ad performance? Not fretting about how a global pandemic or international conflict might impact me and the rest of the Boredwalk team? Not worrying about whether or not all my best creative ideas are behind me? I think I'll survive the boredom.)
2. What's your biggest pet peeve?
I have a lot of pet peeves. Saying "ironic" when you mean "coincidental." Leaving a Little Free Library a jumbled mess. But my most passionate peeve is restaurants that don't put their menus in the window — which in this country, unfortunately, is most of them.
(YES! Don't be coy about your noms, restauranteurs!)
3. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?
If I could choose a superpower it would be the ability to find lost things. Man, that would be just incredibly useful, both in my own life and to help other people. (My actual superpower is that if I want I can always be the first one through the buffet line. Which is actually not too bad a one.)
4. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?
Yogis tend not to have nemeses, but I admit that I wish that every time someone dropped trash out of their car or littered while they walked, a little wind would come up and blow the trash right into their faces.
(I can get behind this. Also, why is it that the degenerates that engage in this behavior are seemingly always a mere half-block away from a receptacle? Is it THAT difficult to just pocket your candy wrapper for the 100 feet it takes for you to toss it?!)
5. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?
My bucket list item used to be white water rafting, but a few years ago I actually did it! So now I would say that it's to visit Trieste, the town in Italy that my parents lived in before I was born. I was there in utero, but I sure don't remember it.
6. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, or some other topic you know a lot about).
The misconception that really bothers me is when people say they can't do yoga because they're not flexible. In the first place the physical practice — the poses — are only one of the 8 "limbs" of yoga, and whether or not you can do any given pose really doesn't matter. And secondly, that's like saying, "I can't take a shower, I'm too dirty."
7. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?
I'm on Instagram @hilaryemartin.
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