I’m Darren Samuelsohn, and this is love, journalism.
Featured today: airplane delays and sloppy handwriting. From my new book: Please, God, Let There Be a Bowling Alley in Heaven — Subscribe now for a limited edition analog copy.
Hard rock, ‘cause there wasn’t much else but Chick-fil-A or expensive Chinese food. Delayed American, again, two hours, then canceled and redirected without asking, to Miami. Okay, bar fajitas. A hundred dollar tab for two Negronis, too. Tatted fed waiting for daughter. She disses the bartender for reccing the original Hooters. Not much else in Clearwater — I mention it’s home of Hulk Hogan and the Scientologist. She rolls her eyes. I know. I got stuck there during concrete snow this February. Helping mom — the Mom Express, kids helping parents. Then two guys see my journal, ask me to move my bags. Excited. Who still does this, one of them asks? The other, smack, at the sight: “What’s that chicken scratch?” #30#
August has always been slow — the news goes quiet, vacations, kids head back to school, and for a few weeks the whole country seems to exhale. This month I wanted to hand you something different during that lull: poems. A palate cleanser, one a day, pulled straight from the new book. I’ll admit sharing them felt a little scary — this isn’t the beat you signed up for. But that was sort of the point.
In between poems, I stood outside the National Archives and watched the Indy cars buzz past — self-appointed sentinel duty, making sure no one crashed into the Constitution or the Declaration. A strange, good way to spend a loud weekend.
Wednesday night was the National Press Club’s journalism awards dinner, in a building marking 100 years in 2027. Watching this year’s honorees do the kind of work I once strove to do myself — it’s the reason I keep showing up for this Substack, and for the Press Club board chair role too.
Coming this September:
It’s National Recovery Month, and we’ll spend some of it on journalists who struggle with substance abuse — building the kind of support network our industry doesn’t talk about enough. Mike Allen joins to talk about his new book on work-life balance. And with Labor Day here, the politics hat goes back on: a groundbreaking former Senate chair, journalism educators, and more, all looking ahead to the midterms.
Thank you for indulging the poems. Back to the regular beat soon.
