Friday Bitch & Brag
October 20, 2023 - The Friendship Edition
Exclusive for paid subscribers: the Corinne Channel is a roundup of what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to over the past week. This list will be included at the end of each Friday Bitch and Brag.
In case you missed an older Friday Bitch & Brag, you can check out the index here.
Gather round, kiddies!
Bitch: On Sunday evening I got a text from my bestie Rimi* saying her dad passed away unexpectedly. I am still reeling from the news, as I’ve known her family ever since I was in grade school and he was always in great health. (You can read more about him in this week’s Tuesday Scribblings.)
Brag: Desi* was able to come to town for the funeral and we’ll be spending as much time as we can with Rimi over the next several days. We both hate that it takes a tragic event to bring us together, and yet having this time to connect and support one another is very precious.
Bitch: The University of Maryland campus and all throughout College Park there’s a mess of construction projects. It took me forever to pick up Desi because the Metro station is a jumble of concrete barriers and wire fencing. Then the Kiss and Ride section on the east side has PAID parking. What the hell is this? Back in my day you could park for an hour for free if your sweetie was running late.
Brag: Desi and I had a delicious lunch of enchiladas and tacos at one of my favorite spots and talked about all sorts of things. I remembered being with Emily* in this same restaurant back in March, under similar circumstances. Another bittersweet moment.
Bonus Item: Last Sunday morning I met the black and white tuxedo cat that Pops calls Boots. He was very friendly and chatty with me, and he seems to think that he should be allowed inside Pops’ house, which ain’t gonna happen. Mari is scared of him, probably because he’s way more pushy than Max. As for me, I am enamored of this cat and if I didn’t already have two cats I would take Boots home, get him neutered, and rename him Freddie Mercury.
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Bitch: I think something changed with the PayPal debit card because it doesn’t automatically pull funds from my backup payment account anymore. If there isn’t enough money in my PayPal account, the transaction is declined. I gotta figure out this nonsense.
Brag: In my grief, I did a lot of baking this week. On Tuesday evening, it was apple pie, which HM and I have been eating. I used two Bramley apples, two Calville Blanc d’Hiver apples, and one Ambrosia apple—the flavor is a little tart, a little sweet, and a lot of YUM. On Wednesday, it was two loaves of pumpkin bread (the recipe is from The Joy of Cooking 1997 edition) and peanut butter cheesecake brownies using a recipe I found on
‘s Substack via a Note by . These three items will go over to Rimi’s family this weekend. I may bake more quick bread and/or muffins tomorrow to keep here at the house, and maybe a second pan of the brownies because they smelled so damn good.
And now for this week’s media wrap-up on The Corinne Channel: classic comedies, action flicks, and tunes!
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