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We are in the doggiest dog days of summer, which means I do not want you spending time reading an email of all things, so just a short one today, Nexties.
You may recall an issue of this very newsletter in which I came down pretty hard on Augtober which, lol, I just discovered Google Docs also refuses to accept its existence and keeps trying to correct it to ‘October.’
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If you don’t read everything I have ever written (how dare you), to refresh: Augtober is a seasonal creep retail phenomenon in which stores, particularly of the craft and home decor variety, try to gaslight you into thinking it’s October by selling pumpkins and giant skeletons and apple-scented candles. You’ll also be able to purchase pumpkin spice lattes (#PSL) at Starbucks as of next week. My take was (and still kind of is): don’t rush my life away, capitalism! Protracted holidays make them less special!
Also, look at Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was directly inspired by the retail overlap of Halloween and Christmas and whose overarching message is “stay in your lane.” Nothing good happened when Jack Skellington decided to be Santa Claus.
Sports editor Grace Paizen (gently) took issue with my missive as a big Augtober/Summerween fan and, this year, asked me to make her a ‘Summerween’ wreath after seeing the Halloween wreaths I’ve made for a few Freep peeps.
I love making wreaths and I love a creative challenge, so I decided “cute ghosts doing summer activities” was going to be my inspo. And I’m sorry — I think I absolutely nailed it?
This is a Summerween wreath I created. (Jen Zoratti / Free Press)
I wish I had a video of Grace’s enthusiastic reaction to it; I think she carried it around the office all day that day. And honestly, this exercise was a great reminder overall that we have free will and being too rigid about stuff — your retail opinions, say, or when holidays are – can stand in the way of having fun. You know who was having fun before he was blown out of the sky by the military? Jack Skellington.
And because of the advent of Summerween, I was able to procure Halloween notions to make this wreath — in July.
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