StoryShedding: #4
A weekly digest from StoryShed Media for the week of Dec. 29, 2025
HAPPY NEW YEAR, FOLKS!
If you’re seeing this it’s Saturday morning, Jan. 3, 2026. Who knew, right? Here’s hoping your holidays (or whatever/however you celebrate them) were swell. And hello new friends, current subscribers, and interested followers. All are welcome to Storyshedding or StoryShedding, however it tumbles out.
Let’s get right to…
Warm Bake > Hot Take
THINKING OF MY LATE father ahead of his birthday on Jan. 1st (he would’ve been 93). In his younger days he was a natty dresser and kept things sharp in a Leonard Cohen sort of way.
Close on the heels of Dad’s birthday, my only brother has his day today, Jan. 3. So, here’s to my amazing brother—a man for whom few problems exist that he cannot wrench into reasonable solutions.
Dedicating tuneage down below to Brian on his birthday.
What Is the Sound of One Substack Clapping?
LET’S RACK ’EM UP!
Must Read Dept. this past week from fellow Minnesotan and marvelous songwriter and storyteller Peter Himmelman: “Critical thinking,” he writes, “whether intellectual or moral, is an imperative. A necessary discipline. A refusal to deny what is factual and provable. A refusal to turn fear into blame. A refusal to let history repeat itself under a different name, and under different circumstances.”
Go check it out.
Sad News
This past Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, fellow Substacker (Elevate the Discourse) and friend Richard Bryant passed away, leaving his wife, children, and beloved cat Teacup—and all of us who enjoyed his writing and many kindnesses.
Rich and I talked about collaborating on a future project—now, ironically based on a class syllabus I wanted to present called How2Die—but couldn’t figure out how to translate it to Substack with the sort of interactivity and lively cohort the course would need. He was excited about the prospect and so I’ve decided to roll out a mini-version in episode 3 of this season of Stargazing: “Does J.R.R. Tolkien Prove There’s Life After Death?”
More to come. Here’s hoping I do Richard proud.
Godspeed, my friend.
Into the Shack
Now that it is 2026, I’ve tried to make sure StoryShed’s Substack feeds the outside writing muse and income-producing (cos, gotta eat, roof over head, you know the drill, etc.) side of things. It’s funny, but growing up I was “taught” that making art was something lazy people did—it’s the exact opposite, folks. The lazy people are just … phoning it in and hoping for the best with whatever employer they have if they’re lucky to even say that. It’s sad. It shouldn’t be that way, alas.
As usual.
So, over here inside the shack/shed, I’m steaming ahead with Season 11: Stargazing and trying to find that new octopus friend! Stay tuned.
The Morning Muse
Let’s cut to the chase…
“There’s a guy I want you to meet!” “What’s his name?” “Gilbert Frothingham.” “Really now…”
Cleanup in Aisle Me
The Haversteen Packet
“booziddle” …let’s use it in a sentence: “Wouldn’t give a booziddle if’n ya handed me Nero’s smokin’ fiddle.”
Kemosabe snorebait
Change Your Life with Corn Syrup and Decoupage
Your Eustace diamond for my cheesy comestible?
hey-ho baggage moment
Suzanne Bazillions
callowbear
“One time, long ago, somebody cared about me. But in hindsight, it was only superficially.”
That’ll do, Pig.
Thought for the Week
“Simpler and more sustaining is Johnson’s recipe: the safest antidote to sorrow is employment. He was referring to grief at others’ deaths, adducing the example of soldiers and seamen among whom he found much kindness but little grief: ‘Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul … remedied by exercise and motion.’”
—D.J. Enright from The Oxford Book of Death, “On Suicide,” Oxford University Press, 1987.
Tuneage for You!
“The Greatest Discovery” by Elton John (1970; lyrics: Bernie Taupin; released on his debut album featuring “Your Song,” here live in Sydney, Australia in 1986).
It’s the only song I know about brothers first being introduced by their parents.
For my brother Brian on his birthday.
Exercise, any movement really, is so helpful for many ills.
Was just commenting on Lee Bacon’s piece about his brother who passed way too soon, and you are absolutely right…there but for the grace of God
I’m so sorry to hear about your friend Richard, amigo.