I’m sure there’s a scientific reason I do this, but I just can’t read one book all the way through. Instead, I complicate things so much that I read up to 5 books simultaneously, little by little, over the course of months.

Here are five I’m currently reading right now. I’ll provide thorough reviews of each right here on the Rucker Report as soon as I finish. Stay tuned.

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1. Just for the Summer — Abby Jimenez

2. Don’t Call it Art —

3. The Land and Its People — David Sedaris

4. Keith Haring Journals — Keith Haring

5. The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking —

What (five books?) are you reading rn?

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Now don’t get me wrong: I loved Guess Who? as a kid. (Shoutout to my guy Bernard.) And, while I normally love anything and everything Costco has to offer, I do have to question who HUGE Guess Who? is for? I can’t imagine children of 2026 spending even two minutes standing still in the sun to describe the physical traits of 36 strangers.

That said, if you’re interested in HUGE Guess Who? I might recommend that you wait a bit to buy. If last year’s Plinko yard game is any indication, you’ll find it on MASSIVE sale in a few months after nobody else buys it.

2. Al from Home Improvement’s POCKET HOSE

   Listen, I’m really glad I saw this hose at Costco yesterday because I’ve had a problem with the Pocket Hose ever since it debuted in 2011. THE POCKET HOSE IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM WOULD EVER FIT IN SOMEONE’S POCKET! Yeah, yeah, it shrinks to a much smaller form factor than a normal hose… but unless you’re an elephant in cargo pants, it’s NOT fitting in your pocket.

   The size of the “pocket” hose aside, I do have to just be very honest and vulnerable about my experience with this type of hose in the past: they’re terrible. They’re marketed as “kink free,” but sweetie, the hose is so flimsy (on purpose) that the entire thing is just a massive series of kinks. Move in any direction, and this hose will fold and crease in a million ways that obstruct the flow of water. I’m GRATEFUL to Costco’s generous return policy so that I could get my money back on this monstrosity that I sadly DID purchase in the past.

   All that said, I’m happy that Richard Karn is still getting work from his historic run on ABC’s Home Improvement. Carry on, Karn!

   

3. Best Store Bought Shrimp Cocktail You’ll Find

   Not a lot to say about this other than if you want to act like you made a great shrimp cocktail for a party and you don’t want to actually make it, grab one of these and throw them on a bed of ice at your next get together. The shrimp are MASSIVE and they don’t taste like grocery store shrimp. Cocktail sauce is tasty too.

   

4. “Punch” the Monkey Dog Toy

   JoJo’s 5th birthday is tomorrow, and I needed to find her a gift worthy of such a big milestone, and let me tell you, Costco delivered. This gigantic monkey toy, reminiscent of the one “Punch” the monkey befriended at his zoo outside Tokyo, was $4.97 and looked ADORABLE sitting in the shopping cart like it was my child. Can’t WAIT to see JoJo befriend him and attempt to carry him all around the house.

5. WOOZOO

   I have this fan. This is my favorite fan. Most importantly: it’s CUTE. Secondly, it’s a great fan. It spins around, it flexes up and down, it’s currently ridiculously cheap: $10.00 off at $26.99, and it’s powerful as all get out. You’ll be glad you got it. And you’ll thank me for it. But there is no thanks necessary—just share the Rucker Report with a friend, and that will be thanks enough for me!

   

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Case in point: Who is the Government? by Michael Lewis. Despite being the author of massive hits like The Big Short, The Blind Side, and Moneyball, I must call into question his judgement (or the judgement of his publisher) for allowing a cover like this to happen.

I’m sure you can understand my dismay without my explaining, but just in case you don’t, I’ll tell you.

The depiction of the pin on this cover is simply not acceptable.

One has to assume that this is the backside of an America-shaped lapel pin. However, if that was the intent, the execution is flawed. You see, this is how the front of an America shaped pin looks:

And this, my friends, is the backside of that same pin:

So now I’m sure you can see the issue at hand: Michael Lewis wants it both ways. He wants to show the backside of an America-shaped pin while keeping the orientation of the country as if it were right side up.

Friends, I simply cannot accept this. How many layers of approval must a book cover pass through before reaching shelves? How many people signed off on this flawed design?

These are the kinds of things I preoccupy myself with when I’m paying attention to the world around me. And thank goodness I do. Now maybe you will too.

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The Rucker Report is reaching out to Michael Lewis for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

2. Capri Sun Pacific Cooler

   I attended a friend’s birthday party today, and since so many of our friends have kids these days, there was an assortment of drinks for the kiddos. When I spotted the table of Capri Sun from across the way, I simply had to push a small child out of the way to help myself to a sip of nostalgia. The Pacific Cooler flavor tasted exactly like childhood, and somehow both better and worse than I remember.

   

   Growing up, I brought my lunch to school often and my favorite drinks had to have been the red Squeezit ‘fruit drinks.’ I don’t know what was in these, and I don’t WANT to know what was in them, but I can tell you there’s nothing like a sip of room temp Chucklin’ Cherry from a plastic bottle that you just ripped the tab off, and then proceeded to chew on for the rest of lunch. Nothing like it!

   

3. JoJo ALMOST Met a Cat Today

   As you may know, I take JoJo with me to the pottery studio I attend classes at, and today, Dillon the stray cat was loitering outside when we arrived. I thought, oh maybe this will be the day when JoJo meets a cat for the first time, and well, watch the video above to see how that went!

   
   Maybe next time!

4. Lots of Leftovers

   This week, I made one of my favorite Instant Pot recipes, BEEF BOLOGNESE, and friends, it is so good every single time. That said, because my partner doesn’t eat meat, it makes enough bolognese for me to eat it for every meal for about 2 weeks. Which, I’m not COMPLAINING about, just saying… it’s a lot. If you missed it, check it out below.
   

5. Tiny Drawings by

   One of me favorite follows on Substack has been Samgar Renkema. Every day he’s been sharing a new drawing from his 100 day project, and it’s something I find myself looking forward to every time I log on. Each of the drawings is its own scene, while being a part of the little interconnected world he’s building. It’s delightful and fun and you should check them out.

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This Instant Pot pasta bolognese comes from Pressure Luck Cooking, and mama it will make you scream BOLOGNYAY. Or something like that.

I can’t remember how long ago this recipe was brought to me, but I do know it was PRE COV-19. And I’ve made it a dozen or more times since. That’s how good it is, dear.

Now don’t ask me about the nutritional facts. I don’t know, and that’s frankly none of my business. What I can tell you is that it has two pounds of beef in there so you’re gonna get your protein LIFE.

And this kind of protein is at least 100x better than Khloe Kardashian’s protein popcorn, am I right?

My favorite part of this recipe, aside from everything, is that it has an entire box of Boursin in there. Liiiiiike you know how much I love Boursin? Maybe you don’t but I’m telling you right now it’s near the top of my favorite cheeses list. And that’s not easy to do. Not every cheese can say that!

So all this to say if you’re looking for a nice meal for yourself and/or your family, this is easy enough for me to make so I promise you can do it too.

This bolognese is 100% Rucker Report GAY GUY APPROVED™.

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Meet more Blahbs below and let us know if any of them are currently visiting you today!

For more about the Blahbs, check out the article below!

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2. Louis Vuitton Trunks

   I FINALLY got to see the Louis Vuitton trunks on 57th street at the location of the future flagship LV store. The installation is actually a brilliant cover for the scaffolding surrounding the building during renovation, which started in October 2024. It really is hard to believe this is real until you see it for yourself. The detail on the hardware is actually incredible. A rough estimate of the value of these Louis Vuitton trunks, if they were real, is approximately $50 billion (based solely on my very minimal knowledge of LV). Definitely worth stopping by!

3. Speaking of incredible design…

   

   Get a load of these ENORMOUS urinals in the PJ Clarke’s bathroom. It’s hard to describe just how big these were. They were the size of bathtubs and looked like the ornate molding on the side of skyscrapers. For a second I thought to myself “I wonder if I could fit my entire body inside one of these,” but luckily I stopped myself from trying.

   
   I honestly don’t even know how I feel about them, but I took a photo because I thought you should see.

4. Yes, we spent $48 on butter.

   I recently saw a reel on Instagram during a 3am scroll that stopped me in my tracks. The creator featured the ‘butter service’ at Quality Bistro in New York City, and it was a spectacle like I’d never seen before. Given that we were just a few days away from a trip to the city, I booked it immediately, and friends, I’m so glad I did. Barrett’s video does it more justice than I ever could, but just know it WAS worth it. I was admittedly worried that the butter service was just a gimmick and a spectacle and that the rest of the meal would be lacking, but friends, I had a magnificent steak frites (and they did provide a portion of gluten free bread and butter just for me) and it was all 10/10 Gay Guy Approved.

5. GIVE US MOM!!!

   One of my favorite things about NYC is that it’s absolutely filled to the brim with art and interesting things to see, even if I don’t understand it all. I took so many photos, and I could’ve taken 10,000 more. It was so nice to spend most of the week completely off of social media and just enjoying everything that was in front of me. Including that dog wearing thigh-high boots on all four legs. New York has everything!

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Fun fact about hydrangeas: did you know Madonna ‘absolutely loathes’ them? It’s something I think about every single time I think them. I have no idea why she hates them, and frankly I do not care. But I do love telling people about it.

2. I heart Jim Morris Tees

   In elementary school I was a proud member of the Environmental Club, the Space Club, and any other club that my science teacher, Mrs. Jones sponsored. I remember when we had the environmental club meetings, we would peruse the latest and greatest environment-themed t-shirts from I THINK Jim Morris Environmental T-Shirt Co., which I recently re-discovered online. I’m a huge fan of whales so this is one I simply had to have. They’re all hand-illustrated and incredibly old school. Love it.

3. Speaking of Tees…

   

   Just want to shout out the clothing store Uniqlo, whose AIRism Cotton Oversized Crew Neck T-Shirt is essentially my daily uniform. A few years ago, I decided that I would establish a daily uniform rather than try and come up with something snappy to wear every single day. For one, it simplifies shopping, and for two, I literally never ever have to think of what to wear anywhere. I’m someone who gets more stressed than necessary over literally anything so the idea that I can get a shirt that comes in a variety of colors and dress it up or down depending on the occasion is one of the greatest things to happen to me. Plus they’re comfortable and relatively cheap. Try them is all I’m saying. (Affiliate link, not sponsored.)

4. I found 25 photos of a blue jay in my camera roll

   As I’ve previously shared, I’m becoming a birder as I get older. And earlier this week, I stood at my office window and just watched this blue jay. I only just now realized that I also took about 25 photos of it just sitting there. And you know what? I’m proud of it. These are great photos, and he seems like a cool guy, despite blue jays’ reputation for being incredibly noisy and even aggressive toward other birds.

5. We’re going to NYC!

   Barrett and I are heading to NYC this week to see some shows (will report back on that, of course!), which means our dog JoJo is heading to camp, aka my parents’ house. She loves visiting her Gigi and Pops, but I will miss seeing her little face staring at me at all hours of the day waiting for me to drop a treat for her. So I’m sharing this photo of her here for you to enjoy the stare too.

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And rather than just click away and move on with my life, I decided to launch a full investigation into this campaign.

According to a landing page for the “Nearly Home with Reba” campaign, homebuying is near and dear to Reba’s heart simply because it is:

It is a role that the famed songstress doesn’t take lightly, she explains to Realtor.com on the set of her new campaign, and one that she believes is a very natural fit.

Homebuying “is not only a serious subject, but it’s also something that is very near and dear to our heart,” she explains. “People are putting up their hard-earned money, their savings, and they want to find the right place.

“[Things like] the backyard, the front yard, the closeness of a school or a church of their choice, all of those things come into play. And if one is not there, it’s like a little piece missing from the puzzle of the pie.”

While these sentiments aren’t not true (the backyard and front yard ARE very important when it comes to home buying) it still doesn’t explain why the “Does He Love You” songstress was specifically the best choice as the face of Realtors.

I did some digging and found out the campaign was conceived by Austin, Texas-based GSD&M agency and includes several short commercials disguised as a sitcom where Reba pops in for no reason to talk about homebuying. I won’t lie: she is definitely working for this check!

Something VERY wacky to see is that each of the most recent Reba-starring videos has over 10 million views in just a few weeks, with one achieving 33 million views!!! Compared to other videos on the Realtor.com channel hardly reaching 100 views, it’s clear that the Reba effect is massive (though, more than likely these massive views can be attributed to forced viewership via sponsored pre-roll ads).

Still, despite almost-definitely paying heavily for tens of millions of views, the agency and the brand must be thrilled. I found a panel below where they talk for nearly an hour about the commercials as if they’re a sitcom—even referring to the latest batch of commercials as “season 2.”

The panel also included a representative from TPA, which is an agency whose sole purpose is pairing celebrities with brands for massive campaigns. Despite having years of experience myself in the world of advertising and brand communications, I didn’t even know that there was an entire agency whose responsibility is to convince other agencies that someone like Anna Kendrick is the perfect person to sell Keurig machines.

That said, while watching this panel way more than likely anyone else on earth has watched it, they did point out something important: Reba’s celebrity and Reba’s impact spans generations. From boomers who know all her music to millenials who grew up watching her sitcom, she is instantly recognizable and appealing to a broad market of prospective homebuyers.

OK, I swear this post is not sponsored by Realtor.com (though if you’re interested in working together, please reach out).

So I guess despite not really making any sense, it does make sense at the end of the day. And Reba must be happy too! I mean the payday had to have been enormous for the Fancy singer to agree to co-sign on the following quote about how jazzed she is about Realtor.com’s amazing tools and listings.

"As I learned more about Realtor.com^®, I saw how they have amazing tools for home buyers and sellers, are the most trusted site by real estate professionals and have over 500,000 new listings a month – and I was sold… pun intended!" says Reba McEntire. "A home brings a sense of comfort, relief and belonging that everyone deserves. This new campaign will help people become more positive, energized and hopeful about their home search. When it comes to something as important as your home, you want the best team on your side."

All in all, in conclusion, to sum everything up: I’d like to congratulate Reba and Realtor.com on the success of their campaign.

But I’ll probably still use Zillow.

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1. Hot Tip: Take your dog to the home improvement store.

Most Saturdays involve some kind of home improvement task for me, and those tasks almost always result in one OR MORE trips to the Home Depot. One silver lining to the weekly cash-draining trip to buy more things to keep the house from falling apart is that both Lowe’s and Home Depot allow dogs inside. If I had it my way, dogs would be allowed everywhere. JoJo and I have an almost co-dependent relationship, and her anxious attachment style means she would rather be with me looking at sprinkler replacement parts than sitting at home wondering when I’ll get back.

This week, there was a shocking surprise awaiting JoJo in the garden section:

It’s not often that you find artificial topiaries in the exact size and shape of a member of your family so it did require a close inspection and photo shoot. JoJo ultimately decided against bringing this bushy pup home. “It’s just too freaky,” she said.

2. this bear holding a balloon: it’s no secret that I love all things cute and colorful, of which Linzie Hunter’s The Cute List has an endless supply.

3. Waxflowers:

We’ve been getting a good amount of rain lately, so I brought our wax plant, aka Hoya carnosa, inside for protection. Upon doing so, I was thrilled to see it was mid-bloom! The wax plant produces these gorgeous star-shaped flowers whose craftsmanship is so precise they almost look fake.

According to Wikipedia:

Hoya carnosa, the porcelain flower or wax plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae, native to East Asia. It is a common house plant grown for its attractive waxy foliage, and sweetly scented flowers. It is grown well in pots and hanging baskets.

This plant was procured from my favorite store on the planet, Costco, years ago, and it continues to happily bloom year after year. Now that’s what I call Kirkland Quality!

4. My eyes keep getting worse. According to researchers, eyesight deteriorates as one ages. And while I’m reluctant to acknowledge it, I am nearing 40. This year, 39, next year, 4-0. Listen, I’m grateful to be here, but it is wild to think that I, Adam Rucker, “the baby” of my family is nearing an age I once considered “ancient.”

I went to get my annual eye exam this week, and while there was nothing alarming, it was shocking to find out that my sight slowly, but steadily, continues to get worse and worse.

The only silver lining to this is that, as a result, I get to buy new glasses. I love trying glasses on, but I’m INCREDIBLY picky and almost never find anything I like.

My favorite pair, by far, was this pair of sunglasses that made me look like a citizen of Oz.

These are the kind of frames that qualify for the term “spectacles,” and frankly, given my advanced age, spectacles are probably what I need. Note: I did not buy the spectacles, because tell me why they were nearly $1,000???

5. The BLAHBS: Comics, Rucker Report-style

   As you may or may not know, I like to consider myself a bit of an artiste. And I’m happy to share that I’m going to begin sharing pieces from my archives on the Rucker Report. Beginning first with a series of single-frame watercolor and pen work called THE BLAHBS. Check out more about them here.

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Growing up, Sunday was one of the best days because I got to rifle through our copy of the Dallas Morning News to find the only important section: The Sunday Comics.

My favorites tended to be the classics: Peanuts, Garfield, and Ziggy. I grew up loving Pearls Before Swine, and for a while they would even run ‘Magic Eye’ pictures in the comics section, even though those weren’t comics at all.

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(Sidenote: I GOT BIG into Magic Eye. Why was that such a thing??? I remember cutting them all out and LAMINATING them to save in a 3-ring binder. Times were wild before the internet.)

While cleaning my office this week, I came across a notebook of single-panel watercolor and pen doodles I did daily during the pandemic. And, I thought the Rucker Report could really use its own comics section so beginning today, I’ll be sharing new Adam Rucker Original ‘funnies’ regularly.

The first tranche of my new series, The BLAHBS is below. Each card is a blob character saying whatever is on their mind (hence BLAHBS). I hope you enjoy getting to meet my BLAHBS.

Like me, they have a LOT to say…

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Now that I live in the suburbs, I don’t get to frequent it as much, but any time I have an appointment in Dallas, I ensure my route takes me by Half Price Books to give me a chance to visit my favorite 300 or so square feet in retail: the $3 clearance section. You never know what you’ll find in Half Price Books clearance and THAT, my dear Rucker Reporters, is the joy of it.

Today, I’m sharing 5 interesting books I found on clearance this week:

1. Unstoppable by Bill Nye [The Science Guy]

   If you’re a child of the 90s, just seeing Bill Nye’s face probably takes you back to the glorious days of elementary school when your teacher rolled in the giant TV cart and pressed play on the VHS tape of Bill Nye the Science Guy. You have to remember: We didn’t used to be able to just pull up and watch any clip ever created on demand at any time. A day with Bill Nye the Science Guy was something to be TREASURED. A rare event where we got to watch this wacky bow-tied guy explain something crazy to us that we never knew before.

It goes without saying that they simply don’t make stuff like Bill Nye the Science Guy anymore (though I do love getting lost in Hank Green or VSauce videos on YouTube). And if you want a trip down memory lane, just watch a bit of Bill Nye’s episode on energy below to get transported back to 2nd grade:

2. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

   This is a nonfiction book on creativity by the author of Eat Pray Love. I read this years ago on Kindle, and I highlighted countless passages from it that I frequently go back to. Gilbert had a wildly popular (and fabulous) TED Talk on creativity that this book expands upon, and I recommend it to anybody who needs motivation or inspiration.

3. He Texted - The Ultimate Guide to Decoding Guys by Lisa Winning and Carrie Henderson McDermott

   I LOLed in the store just reading the title of this one. Ladies and gents, there is no book on earth that can help you decode anybody based on the way they text. Published in April 2014, I can only imagine the gems of wisdom in this one.

4. Dome: A Photographic Record of the Millennium Dome

   This one I’m sharing simply because it was my most UNIQUE find of the day. The book features photos of the development process for the Millennium Dome in England, which housed a special exhibition in 1999 celebrating the ‘new millennium.’ Now, the dome is home to the popular entertainment venue, the 02 Arena. Interesting!

5. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations: Sixteenth Edition

   This was by far the largest book I found (over 1,400 pages!) and the most interesting. Published in 1992, all the familiar quotes inside will (mostly) predate the existence of the Internet as we know it (America Online first introduced consumer-facing internet services in the early 90s) . There thousands and thousands of quotes from notable figures in here, and I plan to reference this book often in future newsletters. For starters, here are some RANDOM quotes I pulled for today.

• “Punctuality is the politeness of kings.” -Louis XVIII (Agreed!)

• “O liberty! O liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name!” - Jeanne Manon Roland’s last words before her death on the guillotine, 1793

• “Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” -Leonardo da Vinci

• “When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.” -Confucius

If you have a moment this week, I highly encourage you to stop by a used book store and find the clearance section. You never know what treasures you’ll find!

Thank you for reading and subscribing to the Rucker Report! If you made it to the end today, you’ve saved at least 10 minutes of your time from being monetized by Mark Zuckerberg! Congrats!

If you’re new to the Rucker Report, you can read more here about why I started it. It’s been so much fun to get back to old school blogging again, and I hope you’ll spend some time in the archives of the past few weeks to enjoy a little more time away from the chaos of the social media feed.

Finally, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has subscribed! I genuinely want everyone to enjoy the Rucker Report as much as I enjoy making it so all content on the Rucker Report is free for all. I greatly appreciate everyone who has subscribed to either the free or paid tiers as this supports my work as a content creator AND encourages me to keep on.

Thanks for watching!

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1. Eraser Stamp Prints—These are prints I made a couple years ago while on a stamp-making spree I went on inspired by PinkEraserArt on Instagram. As you learn more about me, you’ll see that I will try any and every craft. And while many folks may not display their own artwork in their own spaces as much as I do, it really does bring me joy to see the little things I’ve made on display. Even if it’s in my own office. I’ve also noticed that the more time that goes by since I’ve made whatever item I’m looking it, the more I appreciate it as a piece of art. I see less of the flaws I obsessed over while making it, and I end up loving the piece more BECAUSE of those little mistakes that I made. I’ve got more on this craft coming in a future full-length feature on RuckerReport.

2. Work of Artists I Admire—On the top shelf of my bookcase (pardon the dust), I keep pieces from artists who bring me joy. Pictured below is a soccer ball created in conjunction with Goals 4 Girls. And in front, two ceramic figures by Studio Arhoj. Jon Burgerman and Studio Arhoj’s work both embody the spirit and the fun (and the colorful palettes) that I try to bring to anything I make.

   

3. Little Village- Over the past couple years I’ve taken ceramics classes at a local craft guild, and these tiny, unique buildings are one of my favorite series that I’ve made. I learned early on in my ceramics journey that I was never going to be the artist whose work was perfect and identical. I settled on the fact that that simply was not in the cards for me. So—these buildings are a great example of how I like to find techniques that allow me to produce work that all starts with the same building blocks but results in one-of-a-kind pieces that all have their own personality. (Displayed here on infinitely configurable 3D printed shelves I made on my 3D printer, which I’m obsessed with).

   

   4. Homemade Minis—I have a vast collection of “minis,” which will also be the subject of a future full-length post here, but below are some of my own personal mini creations. These were all handcrafted from polymer clay and baked in a $25 toaster oven next to my desk. During the early days of remote work, I needed SOMETHING to do with my hands while sitting through endless meetings, and polymer clay became a fun craft that I cook make any number of cute things with and quickly end up with a final product (unlike the lovely VERY LONG start-to-finish timing of a ceramic piece. PLUS, the endless array of colors and types of polymer clay can be satisfying for those who just like collecting craft supplies.

5. Cardboard Creations—Like I said, I’ll try any craft, and after seeing Oscar Wilder, an artist on Instagram, making incredible portraits out of cardboard, I knew I finally had something I could do with all the boxes I’d collected from my wonderful web shopping habit. The wonderful thing about cardboard is that it’s free, it comes in all sizes and colors, AND with some scissors and hot glue, you can make it into absolutely anything. Plus, I’ve also dabbled in just using large pieces of cardboard as a canvas to paint on, as seen below for this gorgeous portrait of my baby JoJo.

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   Remember: there’s a lot happening outside of your phone screen, you just have to look at it!

   
   Check out more of Oscar’s work here:

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2. Do you know the Enneagram? To be honest, I’m skeptical of most personality typing systems such as Myers-Briggs, which was essentially made up at somebody’s kitchen table. That said, I read this book, which is focused on the Enneagram, and in many ways I felt SEEN. I decided that I’m a 5w4. More on what this means in a future post, but in the meantime, can you Rucker Reporters tell me if you’re into the Enneagram? Thoughts? Concerns? Has it helped you understand yourself?

   

3. On a recent stroll, I saw a delightful looking bread shop called The Bread Club, and through the window I spotted potato chips in a paint can. Now I have to admit, I love potato chips and I love a gimmick so this immediately caught my eye, but upon further review, the chips cost $55. As much as I love chip and gimmicks, I don’t think I can justify spending $55 on chips AT THIS TIME. But watch this space because oftentimes my curiosity gets the best of me.

4. The Bunnies Are Back. If you’ve followed me on Instagram over the past few years, you know that the bunnies in my backyard have become a major fixture in my life. I’m happy to report that they’re back. More below:

5. A Little Bit Extra by . I really impressed myself this week making Lucy’s Tacos Dorados de Papa w/Avocado Salsa from Chef Reilly’s new book, A Little Bit Extra. Friends, it was easy, it was something I’ve never had before, and it was instantly 10/10 “Would Eat Again” Rucker Report Certified®️

   

As always, Rucker Reporters, more to come… Thank you for subscribing!

If you’ve followed me on Instagram for any amount of time, you’re likely aware that BUNNIES have become quite a fixture in my life. Ever since moving to the suburbs and owning a home with a spacious yard and a relaxing water feature, bunnies have been popping up literally EVERYWHERE around me.

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I was first introduced to the presence of bunnies in our yard by our dog JoJo, who according to Embark Dog DNA testing, has significant miniature schnauzer and dachshund genetics, two breeds that are VERY driven by their noses to find ground-burrowing animals, like bunnies.

I’ll spare you the details of HOW JoJo first alerted me to the presence of bunnies in our yard, but I’m sure you could take a guess.

While I don’t exactly LOVE the idea that bunnies are hopping around everywhere eating our plants and tempting our dog to try and… play with them… I’ve grown to love them and their cute little faces. At least from afar. There’s something mysterious and exciting about the idea of adorable animals that you don’t know just popping into and out of your yard unexpectedly.

Because of their abundance, we’re used to bunnies popping up on all sides of the house, and “Spot the Bunny!” has become a little bit of a “Where’s Waldo” game for us to play. Here, you can see a bunny relaxing and teasing JoJo outside our kitchen window.

They also like to chill near the water feature, as if it’s some fabulous bunny resort. And honestly, I can understand why! Look at the lush grounds and gorgeous waterscape!

Here are two examples from my Instagram Stories Spot the Bunny game.

Can you spot the bunnies?

National Geographic Kids taught me that cottontail rabbits (the type squatting on my backyard) can hop up to EIGHTEEN MILES PER HOUR and have 100 million scent receptors in their noses.

When an eastern cottontail faces a predator—which include hawks, owls, foxes, snakes, and even dogs and cats—it uses its speed to keep it safe, sometimes hopping up to 18 miles an hour. All the zigging and zagging they do makes it harder for other animals to catch them.

Rabbits don’t always leap away from danger, though. Sometimes they freeze in place to blend in with their environment so predators can’t see them. If these don’t work, rabbits will try to fight off a predator by biting and kicking with their powerful back legs.

Their excellent sense of smell helps them stay safe too. They have about 100 million scent receptors in their noses, which they twitch to expose as many of the scent receptors as possible to sniff out danger. An eastern cottontail rabbit can twitch its nose between 20 to 120 times a minute.

And as the bunnies have weaseled their way into my yard, they’ve also weaseled their way into my artwork.

Over the past year or so, I’ve been working on a project I’ve titled “A Billion Bunnies,” inspired by the massive population of them in my yard, and I’m excited to share more about that project SOON in a standalone report.

Aside from their obvious cuteness, I’ve often wondered if there is a more logical explanation as to why I have such a fixation on the rabbits in my yard, and in doing research for this story I found two quotes from The Way of the Rabbit by Mark Hawthorne, which really explain it well:

The rabbit’s high profile in pop culture represents not just the public’s love of furry and playful critters but also the appeal of rabbits as animals who are thoroughly present. They remind us to be our best selves, detached from the exterior world while remaining engaged with others. If all this sentiment sounds a little too philosophical to be attributed to the humble rabbit, think for a moment what lagomorphs have come to symbolize—rebirth, balance, rejuvenation, speed, awareness, resurrection, fertility, spring, purity, resourcefulness, abundance, creativity, magic, harmony—and then consider how many of these are life-affirming qualities or at least characteristics that bring deep meaning to our existence.

It would be difficult to identify an animal more universally admired than the rabbit. Maybe it’s that rabbits are ubiquitous in nature and yet somewhat mysterious—fully present while remaining mostly concealed. We respect their independence and resourcefulness. To see a rabbit or a hare (who are closely related to rabbits) in the wild, possibly nibbling on vegetation or hopping about with their mates, is to experience a moment of pure joy. For an instant, time stands still.

So here’s to the bunnies… May they continue to pop up in your life and mine!

Speaking of my dog JoJo, this is a watercolor and oil pastel drawing/painting I did of her. Did you know Crayola makes oil pastels? They’re great and I love them.

Do you know ? He’s one of my favorite authors and Substackers, and a huge influence for why I started posting here! I’ve read his books Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, and Keep Going multiple times, and can’t wait for his next: Don’t Call It Art. But his Substack has also become something I look forward to every Tuesday and Friday. He’s full of inspiration for creative types, and he also just gets me re-focused on the analog in a v v v digital world. Austin is a prolific notebook user, and this is one of my favorite posts of his, which gives a deep dive into his notebooking practice.

Austin Kleon

My 4 notebooks

Hey y’all…

Read more

a year ago · 498 likes · 68 comments · Austin Kleon

That’s all for now.

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AllAboutBirds.org shared this fascinating, if unsettling, fact about the brown-headed cowbird:

Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks.

So of course what I had to do next was search for these absentee parent cowbirds. I quickly IDed this enormous tree as the likely source.

Here I was, standing in the parking lot of a strip mall staring upward with my phone out (and my mouth CLOSED). Turns out the brown-headed cowbird, as is the case with most birds, is incredibly difficult to spot amongst leaves and branches. But spot them I did.

And while it was no up-close encounter, it was exciting to log a new bird in Merlin AND to not be pooped on in the process. Here, we see a grouping of cowbirds, most likely talking about how many eggs they left in other birds’ nests, forcing them to raise the abandoned children as their own:

I just love nature. It reminds me a lot of Pokemon Go.

To learn more about the Rucker Report and our mission, click here.

I didn’t learn to bake (on account of the celiac), but I did finally try and make some ACTUAL food for once. Up until this point in my life, my dinner routine almost exclusively consisted of alternating between Pei Wei and Chipotle. An easy, but boring habit. So for one of my first big cooking attempts I tried out Maangchi’s spicy garlic fried chicken and it became an instant favorite.

And while this may not seem very eventful, you need to understand that the limits of my cooking previously were just anything that came frozen in a bag, sealed in a can, or boiled and mixed together (I have an EXCELLENT feature on mac & cheese coming soon). Chopping vegetables? Combining more than three spices? Couldn’t be me.

But, during the pandemic I had the time, I also began dating the person who is now my long-term partner, and he introduced me to the concept of salt. I had NO idea that it BROUGHT OUT THE FLAVORS IN THINGS. Inexcusable, I know. Below, our first co-created Thanksgiving in 2020.

Learning how to chop things, cook them on a stove, and even add salt to them was a game changing moment for me. Suddenly, it felt like a whole new world was opened up to me. A world where I potentially could make things as good as, or in some cases, EVEN BETTER than a restaurant could. For instance, Maangchi’s spicy garlic fried chicken immediately blew away anything I’d ever had at Pei Wei before.

It simply never occurred to me before that that was possible.

Around the same time, I also got the spark to craft and create things. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to take pottery classes, and my friend Whitney and I found a place nearby to try. There, I found not only a new craft but also a new community.

Now I won’t go so far as to say “we’re like a family” because I hate when people say that. We’re NOT like a family, but we do get along very well, and I probably see them more than I see most of my family anyway.

One of my favorite styles of item to craft is the ceramic version of something you’d otherwise use and throw away. And given my love of Chipotle (we eat there at least once a week), you can imagine why one of my very first projects was a ceramic Chipotle bowl:

I mean, when it comes to user-friendliness, dining almost doesn’t get any better than the shape and size of the Chipotle bowl.

It’s one of my favorite pieces—not just because it feels nostalgic, but also because it truly is so functional. I’ve put it to the test many times now utilizing my newfound cooking skills.

You may be shocked to find out that I had never grilled much prior to this cooking era, but it’s true. And because of TikTok, I decided that the time was right to grab a Blackstone griddle grill. I’d seen so many people whip up pancakes, fried rice, and all sorts of other things that appealed to my sensibilities. Something about not having the grill grates where food can fall through just relaxes my anxieties.

Given my love of Chipotle and my ceramic Chipotle bowl needing to be used, I searched the internet for a dupe recipe of their signature chicken, and folks, once again, in my opinion it’s better than the real thing.

So, if you ever find yourself at my house around dinner time, don’t be surprised if I hand you a bowl and ask if you want white or brown rice cuz around here, it’s almost always Chipotle time.