Burning Questions
Hold onto your peppermint latte
Dear All,
This is the latest episode of Don’t Press That Button, a newsletter about books and music and movies and cats and baseball and whatnot. As the name would indicate, we are very cautious about buttons around here. Buttons are tempting, but so are a lot of things.
Luckily, the button below is safe. All it will do is subscribe you to this newsletter.
The Late Great Todd Snider
Before I get into the programming I had planned for this edition of the newsletter, I want to take note of the passing of the irreplaceable Todd Snider. If you’ve been around a bit, you may recall that I wrote about one of his many (many, many) incredible songs in a previous issue, and he’s been a favorite of mine for a long time. A lot of people have already published essential, thoughtful pieces about Snider and his art, and I expect there will be more to come, as there should be. I’ll just add that these last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about this passage from “Money, Compliments, Publicity (Song Number Ten)”:
I went to see this therapist,
she said just do the best you can do.
Do the best you can do.
I was hoping for something more specific.
It’s a harrowing ride, this life — any life. On the one hand, the people we love are everything to us. On the other, we are impossibly, eternally apart from them. That is the condition. And, looking down the line, it’s not one that’s going to get better! This is a bummer to consider. There’s no instruction manual to fix the way of it. All you can do is work your ass off to be good to your family and friends, be as generous as possible to people even if you don’t understand them, fill your days with as much joy as you can find, and try to keep your brain away from the sucking whirlpool at the bottom of the big sink. All you can do is the best you can do.
Thank you, Todd.
Here’s a beautiful song Rhett Miller and Ben Greenman wrote about him.
Burning Questions: Holiday Special
There are many questions that people never ask me that I’ve been waiting to answer for them. More, in fact, than we can get to today in this limited space, but as the holidays approach, I thought I might cover a few seasonal issues.
Is it OK to listen to holiday music before Thanksgiving?
Yes, and more than that, you can listen to holiday music in the hottest days of July if you so desire. Maybe that makes you a freak. So what? Fuck it, be a freak. Freak out. I do.
The best holiday music is some of the best music. It would be a shame if you only ever listened to “Fairy Tale of New York” by the Pogues, “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love, “Red Suit On” by Josh Rouse, “I Want an Alien for Christmas” by Fountains of Wayne, “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight)” by the Ramones, “I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas” by Aimee Mann, “Christmas Is Coming” by the Old 97’s, or It’s a Holiday Soul Party1 by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings in the gap between Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas.
Should I discuss politics at Thanksgiving with my family members?
Everything I have read on the subject has led me to believe that any beneficial conversation about politics depends on first giving the person you are talking with the space to explain where they are coming from, acknowledging what they are feeling, and then countering with your own ideas and beliefs in a calm, sincere way. If you believe that the person you want to talk politics with is a little bit open, and you possess enough patience to let them express ideas that you don’t agree with, it could be quite a positive thing. I say go for it.
What is your stance on year-end lists?
I’m personally not too keen on ranked lists of books, movies, albums, etc. I used to be. Different works of art have such different ambitions, though, I’ve come to find it extremely hard to settle on my own criteria. It makes more sense to me to write “Of the books I read this year, [X] was my favorite, and I also had a hell of a time with [Y] and [Z].” That said, if the format2 helps someone open the door to spread the word about stuff that they love, why not? I certainly appreciate any time my own work appears on a positive list.
What’s your go-to holiday gift?
You know what I’m going to say: Books. Specifically, the one that never fails is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos. It’s an undeniable classic, underappreciated, and a total rip, just wildly funny.
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity by Adam Becker3 is another one I’d suggest. It has so much to say about how we live in 2025, I really feel that it’s essential reading for, well, everyone. Becker does an outstanding job of making complex science approachable. It’s disturbing but clarifying.
Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
It’s my firm belief that no one in the world cares about this determination. It’s like the fucking thing about fighting a hundred ducks or whatever that is. Great movie, though. I want this Die Hard puzzle in the worst way, but it’s sold out.
Isn’t caroling sort of scary?
Yes! A large group of grinning people carrying lit candles materialize from the frosty night onto your lawn singing “Jingle Bells.” Take a step back and you realize that’s about a quarter-inch away from a classic vampire seduction move.
The Latest
I snuck away from my novel for a couple weeks and knocked out a long short story, a piece that’s quite a departure from anything else I’ve ever tried. I feel good about it. This might be a subject that bears a longer treatment, but it’s a first-person story and I don’t usually go that route these days. For a first-person voice to motivate me it needs to be determined — I really need to hear from them. The Catcher in the Rye is a quintessential example of a first-person voice that has an absolutely vital ring to it4. (Think of Holden talking about phonies, etc.) Anyway, I really went for it with the voice in the new story. I don’t know what’s in store for it, but when I do, I’ll let you know.
Expect some Self Help: Lie Another Day news in 2026. The final issue is being drawn as I type these words. Jerry Hauser and his friends are coming back, I promise. It’s just taking us a little time to get all the ducks in a row.
Recommendations
It’s getting colder, there’s less aid than ever, and there are a lot of hungry folks. If you can give, it’s a wonderful thing to do.
If you’re a baseball fan of a certain age, the 1988 Topps Podcast is a treat.
As ever, if you have a question or a comment or just want to say hi, if you reply to the email, I will see it. I also have a chat here on Substack, and a modest amount of chatting sometimes occurs. I’m over on Bluesky and Threads and Instagram, too, if you’d like to follow along at any of those places, although I’m not super active. If you’d like to purchase a signed copy of one of my books, Oblong Books has a selection and they are always happy to mail them5.
I expect that this is 2025’s last newletter. Thank you for subscribing, and here’s hoping that 2026 is an improvement.
All Best,
Owen
My top tune on this album is “8 Days (of Hanukkah),” which is one of those songs that’s so cool it makes you feel like you can bounce up the street with the power of your mind. Just learned it’s from the Hadestown musical. Now you know, too.
You’ll notice that I’m using a fairly hoary format — the old question-yourself gambit — in this installment of DPTB.
Example of the criteria problem: More Everything Forever made an enormous impression on me and I want to give it to everyone. Is it the best book I read this year? In a sense. It’s a very, very good book and I’ve thought about it a great deal. Is it better than The Quincunx by Charles Palliser, another book I read this year that I adored, a majestic blimp of a historical novel? It’s not just that one is nonfiction and one is fiction. They seek to scratch entirely different itches. I recently had a blast with Martin Cruz Smith’s Night Wing, which is about a bat plague. Its approach and intentions are radically different from The Quincunx. I treasure them both, but I can’t compare them.
So is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as it happens.
I don’t know what their shipping turnaround is right now, but I’m guessing if you want something for a Christmas gift that the window is fairly tight.