Welcome back to The Weekend Press! Today, Suzy Weiss roasts the new “Avatar” film. Bill Maher explains why he’d rather have Zohran Mamdani for president than Donald Trump. Abigail Shrier offers Tough Love to a mom who doesn’t want her 22-year-old daughter to get married.
But first: a jaw-dropping personal story from Michael J. Fanuele about what it’s like to discover a family you never knew existed.
Some adopted kids long to know their biological parents. My brother Danny was one of them. He once told me he’d never be at peace until he met his “real” mother.
I didn’t have the same hole in my heart. Besides, as someone born in New York in the 1970s, my adoption records were sealed.
But then, in 2019 then-governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that radically loosened the state’s adoption privacy laws, and suddenly, information I never thought I cared about was only an online form away. And after years of looking forwards, I fell backwards—into a rabbit hole of fact and fiction.
Stories about adopted kids finding their birth parents so often end with either heartbreak or pure joy. Mine isn’t one of those stories.—Michael J. Fanuele
Whatever you do, do not go see the new “Avatar” film. “Watching it was like falling asleep while someone plays a video game next to you,” according to Suzy Weiss. Do not miss her roast of the movie. She also has thoughts about the very rich Chinese businessman who’s paying women in California to have dozens of his babies. (Yes, they get American passports.)
Imagine your ambitious daughter called you up during her senior year at college and told you: “I’m engaged!” Would you be happy for her? Or would you turn to whoever’s sitting next to you and howl: “She’s way too young!” One of our readers, Lisa, definitely falls into the latter category—and she wrote to our advice columnist to ask if she should try to stop the wedding. Abigail Shrier’s reply might surprise you.
Bill Maher just got his first Golden Globe nomination—for a comedy special that is all about living in an America where a normal liberal, who believes normal things, can somehow end up feeling somehow radical. Maya Sulkin visited him at home and asked if he was excited for the awards ceremony. Nope. He’s not going. “I'd be very annoyed in that room full of super-woke Hollywood people.”
Christmas isn’t about the presents. You hear that cliché every year, but sometimes it takes a lifetime to really get the message. As a young father, Joe Nocera learned the hard way—but click here, and maybe you’ll avoid his mistakes.
Party season is upon us! So we’ll be hearing a lot about the “hostess with the mostest.” But our resident gentleman, Elliot Ackerman, argues that “a man’s social life shouldn’t devolve into a series of ‘playdates’ arranged by his wife.” And he’s got some great tips on how to be the host with the most.
America’s celebrating a big birthday next year! And to mark the occasion, we’ve got a brand-new newsletter all about our nation’s remarkable 250 years of life. Every week, historian Jonathan Horn will dive into America’s past—and bring it to life in our pages. You can sign up here and catch up on the second edition below.
This week, we also ran two beautiful tributes: Hadley Freeman remembered Rob Reiner, and Rachel Goldberg-Polin remembered her son, who died as a hostage of Hamas:
How should you spend your weekend? We asked our editor Rick Brooks for some recommendations . . .
📚 Read . . . Virginia Hanusik’s Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana. Louisiana is disappearing by the day, its land slipping beneath the water. That precarity is as old as the coexistence of man and nature, but Hurricane Katrina laid bare the consequences of our decisions to carve and contain the landscape to suit our selfish interests. Katrina shattered my faith in government. What endures are the people of Louisiana, and Hanusik illuminates their connections to the land and the water, from the bayous to the Mississippi River Delta. You will not forget Hanusik’s haunting black-and-white photos, which include not one living soul yet are about them all.
🎵 Listen . . . Jason Isbell has shiny new teeth and a beautiful new love, but his first solo album in 10 years, titled Foxes in the Snow, is filled with the same layered lyrics, halting storytelling, and sad-sack sensibility that put him on the musical map. Isbell never sounds like he is trying to outsmart you with his metaphors or rhymes. His voice is what it is. So is life. “I love her well, and I love her sick,” Isbell sings in the album’s title song. “I love the carrot, but I really like the stick.”
🍳 Cook . . . I am not Jewish, but my daughter announced on Wednesday that her stuffed animal is Jewish, celebrating Hanukkah, and expecting to eat homemade latkes. (These notions apparently took root at either her New York City public elementary school or her Spanish immersion after-school program.) Luckily, I was looking for a reason to try Carolina Gelen’s recipe for pickle latkes. The twist is julienned kosher dill pickles that are folded in with the potatoes, breadcrumbs, and all the rest. The collision of brininess, crispiness, and saltiness are a hit. The stuffed animal is now asking to visit Santa, but I plan to bring out this recipe again next Hanukkah.
Last but not least, we want to pay tribute again to Rob Reiner, who made one of the greatest movies of all time, “When Harry Met Sally. . .” If you’ve never read Abigail Shrier’s appreciation of it, you must. And here’s Rob (center) on set with Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan):
That’s all, folks! Tell us what you think about this edition of The Weekend Press—or just tell us what movies you’ll be watching over the holidays; we’re at Weekend@TheFP.com.
The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article.
My Shadow Family was a nice adventure.
“I am not Jewish, but my daughter announced on Wednesday that her stuffed animal is Jewish”
——————————————
When her stuffed animal applies to law school tell him to check the box for ‘Native American’ or ‘Black’.
(NOTE: She doesn’t have stuffed animals but all of Ilhan Omar’s throw pillows are members of Hamas.)