Cold Hollow Cider Mill Apple Cider Donuts. Our family has made regular visits to Vermont over the years, and when we’re there, one place we always visit is the Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury. The big draw? Their famous apple cider donuts. So good. Though we can’t get to VT as often as we’d like, you can order the donuts online and have them shipped to you, and every year my mom sends us a box. We always eagerly await its arrival, and eat some of them that day and freeze others to use later in one of the most delicious confections known to man: apple cider donut milkshakes.
Before the Colors Fade: Portrait of a Soldier, George S. Patton, Jr. by Frederick Ayer Jr. If you want to get to know the character of George S. Patton, but don’t want to wade into a giant tome about him, pick up a copy of this great out-of-print book. Written by Patton’s nephew, Frederick Ayer, it’s not a traditional biography or a blow-by-blow account of the general’s military campaigns. Instead, it’s a series of snapshots of one of history’s most colorful and complex leaders and offers an insider’s view of Patton’s belief in reincarnation and prophecy, career controversies, outspoken opinions, and conflicted personality, which encompassed both profane, stoic bravado and pious, tear-shedding, poetry-writing sensitivity.
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. Professors, even at the country’s most elite colleges, have noticed a distinct, and worrying, change in their students: they struggle to read entire books. From Columbia to Berkeley, young adults are having a hard time tackling longform texts, and it’s not just smartphones that are to blame; high schools have been assigning fewer books in their curriculums and replacing them with shorter excerpts, so that kids never develop the discipline and extended concentration required to read something cover to cover. As a result, college students feel overwhelmed when whole books are assigned in their classes, and in response, some profs are trimming their syllabi. Reading a book is truly a skill that needs regular practice to be maintained. Maybe we need to encourage that practice with a BookIt program for college students. Save us, Pizza Hut!
The Monster Squad. This October, the McKay family will be filling its slate of movie-watching with spooky films. First up: 1987’s cult classic The Monster Squad. A ragtag bunch of monster-obsessed kids face off against Dracula and his spooky squad of Universal Monsters (Frankenstein, Wolfman, Swamp Monster, and Mummy), armed with silver bullets, wooden stakes, and some choice one-liners. Is it a great movie? Heck, no. It’s cheesy and full of plot holes wide enough to drive a semi through; it’s B-team Goonies. But, it’s a blast and such an awesome encapsulation of 80s-ness. The film inspired what is probably my favorite illustrated AoM guide of all time: What to Do If You Get Kicked in the Nards.
Quote of the Week
A man must know his own destiny, because he must know what he was meant to be. But if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. He is also lost if — and it will happen only two or three times in his life — if he does not recognize Fate. By this I mean once, or twice, or at the very most, three times, Fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder. He usually says, ‘Go away, I’m busy,’ or ‘I don’t know you, so don’t bother me.’ But if he has the imagination, he will turn around and Fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take. If he has the guts, he will take it.
—George S. Patton
