Welcome

My idea for this newsletter is, “Write interesting things in the way that only I can write them to bring people together and offer them a moment of levity during the fleeting time we’re all floating on this blue rock spinning through space together.” I know that’s rather broad, and I’m sorry I’m not one of those specific newsletter writers who has a niche topic like making salads or understanding China. This is writing for the sake of writing. If you want a fun break from the screeching hysteria of social media and would prefer a laugh, mash that subscribe button.

Who are you?

If you are asking what is the self in the Cartesian sense, I don’t think this About Me page is an appropriate place for that level of digression. I will share some biographical information that lets you know I am a real living human. My name is Joe Donatelli, and I am a journalist who lives in Cleveland with his wife, two children and a dog, all of whom I love dearly but also go to great lengths to avoid when I get up before sunrise to work on the newsletter. Topics vary. I spent six months documenting my attempt to lose 17 pounds, and I moved on to write things that some people find funny and entertaining. The weirder your sense of humor, the more you will come to appreciate what you’ve stumbled into here.

What have you written?

Here are some pieces I like.

• Don’t panic! There’s a bird in the house!!

• My Night with Richard Simmons Sweat (The Class, Not His Sweat)

• The Ohio University daylight saving time change not-riots of 1997-98

• The Age of the Modifier

• What your email signoff really means

• Take it from me, parents just do understand

• Holidays on the wrong dates on the calendar

• Did Paul Newman really roll a keg down a hill, hit the dean's car and get expelled from college?

• I apologize for giving our kids the most thrilling moments of their childhood

• I totally could have rebuilt this my house by myself, but I guess I'll let you do it

• What ‘we need to’ means when you’re married

• It finally happened: I got Covid

• Oops, your tablet accidentally got run over by my car

• ‘Dad, does everyone die?"

• The true story of the time Ohio University’s alumni band fought the Miami of Ohio football team