Kazoo News: October '24 Update

October 14, 2024

Hello friends,

It's been a while. How are you? I was in the middle of planning the next issue of Kazoo when, perhaps against my better judgement, my daughters convinced me to welcome this bouncy, little pup into our family! In truth, they've been begging for a dog for years, and whew! It's like having a very fluffy baby. Her name is Chloe Snickerdoodle. She's a mini labradoodle. We all love her so much, and you'll be seeing more of her. But, she's sleeping now, so I finally have a minute to chat with you. Hi there.

I know you've probably been missing this newsletter and my random thoughts about what I've seen on the internet (with a sprinkle of the latest Ani Difranco news), but not to worry. I'm back. Read on for the best of this fall, but first, a big sale: 50% off our first 25 issues, for the rest of this month.

Click here for 50% off issues 1-25. Use code CHLOE at checkout.

• Pick-Me Girls: I first thought that the "Pick-Me" insult, used against girls, was a tool to dampen their ambition, like "Try hard, but not too hard." But my daughters have been trying to explain the subtleties of the term to me. Like all generational slang, it's sometimes hard to translate. Parents explains that Pick-Me Girls are not cool. (So not sigma. Amiright, chat?) 

• Running for a Good Cause: The NYC marathon route goes right past our apartment in Brooklyn, and it's our favorite fall tradition to cheer on the athletes as they speed by. This year, friend of Kazoo, vascular surgeon, and mom to an awesome Noisemaker is running it to raise money for The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health. You can donate and feel good about it, here. Another friend of Kazoo, who's a midwife and mom to three Noisemakers, is running and raising money for Every Mother Counts, which supports maternal health. If you're running, send me your bib number, and we'll look for you and cheer for you at mile 7! 

• Potluck Dreams: Who would attend your dream dinner party? Courtney Thorsson's book, The Sisterhood, describes the Brooklyn supper club that seems more like a fantasy than something that actually happened IRL. And yet, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and June Jordan, plus other amazing black women, got together over dinner and basically changed the world. I wonder if they knew they were doing it at the time, if it felt electric. I really wanted to start a recurring Sunday Dinner party and had it all planned to begin in Spring of 2020—and then I didn't eat with a non-family member for, like, a year. Even now, dinner parties still seem...a little weird? Is this whole tradition gone, or are you just not inviting me?  

• Luddite Kids: In The New Yorker, Jessica Winter asks, Can We Get Kids Off Smartphones? Honestly, as often as I've threatened to throw my middle schooler's phone in The Lake, I don't know how I could; she uses it for everything, even at school! And, if kids don't have them, they're further isolated because that's the only way all of their friends communicate. I'm hoping this pup helps distract her from her phone. Puppies, after all, are 100% screen-free. 

• Meet the Birken Bag of the Book World: This family-run publisher—excuse me "luxury brand"—sells gift books for $1000+. So obnoxious, but then again, Louis Vuitton sells plain white t-shirts for more than $1000, so why not? The printed page is a thing to treasure. Also, should we be charging more for our magazine? Kazoo—I mean, our brand—is also "collectible and covetable." Right? RIGHT? (Even though I increasingly tend to buy my t-shirts at Costco. What? They have good deals.) 

• Here Comes the Sun: Julie Mehretu, an artist who worked with us on Kazoo #23, is creating an 83 ft-high painted-glass window, inspired by President Obama’s remarks at the 50th anniversary of the marches from Selma to Montgomery. “Uprising of the Sun” will welcome visitors to the Obama Presidential Center. I want to go see it. 

• Speaking of Bright: We had the idea to create a “Kazoo Klassifieds” section (and not just so we could spell classifieds w a K, which just cracks me up). We did it to help offset our printing costs, without advertising products. And we liked it so much that we're going to make it an ongoing thing. Want to say, “We love you!” or “We’re so proud of you!” or “Happy birthday!” to a special kid you know and watch her face light up, when she sees her name in ink in her favorite magazine? Messages received before Oct 15, 2024 will appear in our Winter Issue (#35), out in December. Click here to write your own. 

• Winning! If you're a subscriber, you should already have your copy of Kazoo's latest, The Winners' Issue, #34. (If not, it's most definitely OTW and will arrive soon! If you need to pick one up, it's on stands now.) It felt so good make this one, and we sure hope you loved reading it. You know, we'd originally planned to make this issue all about persistence. But as we were putting it together, Kamala Harris took her place at the top of the Democratic ticket with such hope and joy, announcing, "We are not going back!", and I thought, What if we allow ourselves to believe her? We've become accustomed, for nearly a decade, to just slogging through one crisis after the other, being strong, and teaching our kids to "Nevertheless, persist!" But, what if we remind our daughters what it feels like to win? This small shift in mindset means everything. No matter what happens with the election, this is one of Kamala Harris's great gifts to us. Here are some others, all worth watching:   

 

•And you can wear whatever you want to our party, we still love you for being you.  

 

 •And couldn't we all use some female energy? How about a Femininomenon!

 

• And how refreshing to have a politician who really listens to kids.  Kids are all worth listening to. 

 

• And this one, most important to me: kids aren't born with hate. They learn it. It doesn't have to be this way. 

 
YES WE DID: 

With your help, we hit the fundraising goal for the Radio Kazoo podcast and we've sent out all your rewards. Now we just have to finish the episodes! Stay tuned! In the meantime, we have a few Kazoo posters left in our shop. 

 

• What We're Reading: New books by Kazoo Contributors! Erin Entrada Kelly's First State of Being was just named finalist for the National Book Award! Karina Yan Glazer's Poppy Song Bakes a Way is out now. Lois Lowry's Tree. Table. Book. gets a star from The Horn Book. Ruth Chan's Uprooted was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection. Stacey Abrams's Stacey Speaks Up reminds kids that everyone has power to make a difference. Sophie Escabasse's Taxi Ghost is about growing up and standing up. And Margaret Atwood, who talked to us way back in Kazoo #4, has collected 62 years of her best poetry in Paper Boat. Here's a NPR interview with Margaret Atwood about her book, in which she spills that her college advisor told her, "Why don't you just forget all this writing and graduate student stuff and find a good man and get married?" (!!!) Thank goodness she didn't take that advice. And Ani Difranco's Show Up and Vote get's a star from Kirkus, and we get this message from Ani about how to be a strategic voter, even if you find the candidate imperfect, joyfully. (Be honest, you read this far to get that Ani news!)  

• What We're Watching: Run don't walk to The Wild Robot. We already loved the books by Peter Brown, and this adaptation was excellent. "Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we are programmed to be." really hit home with my gen Alpha kids, and I might have even shed a tear or two. The perfect animation changed throughout, as the robot changed. 

 

•  What We're Eating: This Sweet Potato Hash is my go-to Sunday morning fall brunch. I loosely follow this recipe, but add a ton of fresh spinach and crack an egg on top. (If you prefer meat, this version includes sausage.)

 

Thank you for reading along. I hope I've kept you off Twitter for a minute. 

I'm in the middle of planning Kazoo #35, which will come out in December, just in time for the holidays. Since Kazoo is printed quarterly, it's always a little hard to know what the vibe will be by the time the issue finally lands. But, after this November 5th, Kazoo #35 could be arriving into a fully different world. (I'm so nervous! BTW, check your voter registration status here.) But, whatever happens, our kids will always need something good to read, something that encourages them to keep being strong, smart, fierce, and true. And inspires them to remember to keep looking for the light. So, I'm going to try to do just that. 

If you come across anything interesting this fall, please send it my way. You can always find me at erin@kazoomagazine.com. 

xo,
Erin
Kazoo magazine
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

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