Lydia Likes It

Magazines with benefits

Remember when magazines were printed on paper, and delivered by the post office every week or every month? If you were like me, you read some of them right away (New York Magazine, Seventeen, Mad), and others, like The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly and cooking magazines, piled up for a month or more until I had time to settle in with them. These days we still get The New Yorker in print every week, because my husband Ted makes art out of the covers, but I read the magazine with my digital subscription. Same with The Atlantic. And both of those digital subscriptions come with benefits -- special interest newsletters, at no additional charge, so I'm sure to see content that most interests me.

Every Thursday, Arthur C. Brooks sets his sights, and his mighty pen, on making us happy. Not in a haha entertaining way, but in a way that helps us think our way to the life we want. He tackles the big questions of meaning and happiness in his column, How to Build a Life, in The Atlantic. Recent columns discussed how to have your most fulfilling vacation ever, the happy art of grandparenting, the narrow-but-easy path to happiness, and the happiest way to change jobs. You'll need to sign up for a digital subscription ($79.99) to The Atlantic to get this newsletter delivered to your mailbox every week, but that digital subscription will get you more than just How to Build a Life, which you can order in newsletter format. Of course you'll be able to access every article in the magazine. You can also subscribe to their other wonderful newsletters, like The Weekly Planet (climate) and The Books Briefing (new and interesting books), plus daily or weekly news updates.

A digital subscription to The New Yorker drops a newsletter called The Food Scene in my inbox every week, along with The Borowitz Report and a weekly news and politics review, plus access to all the content of the magazine, and daily crosswords during the week. Digital-only subscription: $59.99 for the first year. Worth every penny.

Have you seen these potatoes?

Whenever I'm planning a trip, or a staycation, or a holiday weekend in Boston, I reach for my iPad and log on to Atlas Obscura, which calls itself "the definitive guide to the world's hidden wonders." The Atlas, a crowdsourced site, features -- for example -- 113 wonders right here in Boston, and Ted and I have seen most of them. Pictured above, one we've not yet found: the Potato Shed Memorial, marking the location in Charlestown below mega-highway I-93 where potato sheds once stood. I kid you not. I've followed Atlas Obscura recommendations in San Francisco, Chicago, Rhode Island, Maine, and even in Kyoto, Japan. In recent years, the site has added features like trips to Mexico City and Venice, online classes in taxidermy and lockpicking (!), and live classes in How to Forge a Michelangelo, and perfumery, and pop-up paper art. You never know where the Atlas will take you.

The volunteering life {how to find your gigs}

If you're looking for love, you can log on to any of a number of apps (among them Tinder, OKCupid, Her, Match.com -- there's even one called Coffee Meets Bagel) and swipe your way to a first date.

If you're looking for a project, a program, or an event that could use a little bit of your volunteer time, Volunteer Match is the site for you. Want to help a charity at a Springsteen concert? Teach a child to read? Prep meals for homebound seniors? Whether you have a couple of hours, or a couple of hours each week or each month, Volunteer Match has options for you.

Get started by signing up for their listings email. When you receive it, you can select your areas of interest. I always check Education and Literacy, and Immigrants and Refugees, and sometimes Community or Seniors; they have listings for Arts, Animals, Human Rights, Technology, Health, Women, Veterans and more. Review the list of current opportunities, and if anything floats your boat, the site will send a notice of your interest to the organization. I usually hear back from the contact person within a day or two, and can continue the conversation from there.

Some of the things I've done through Volunteer Match were one time only, like the day last June when my husband Ted and I, and our friend Linda, signed up to help with a Boston history event for school kids on Boston Common. Organized by the Friends of the Public Garden, Making History on the Common invited 700 Boston public school students in grades 3-5 to learn about Boston history in the first public park in the US. Ted and I were assigned to the oh-so-popular snack tent; Linda went to the equally popular public protests tent. We spent a morning being part of this fun and well-run annual event, and I'll definitely sign up again next year.

I've also found one-off volunteer gigs with Cradles to Crayons and Room to Grow. One year, for Martin Luther King Day, Ted and I signed up for a morning of assembling math and science kits for public school students. And I connected through Volunteer Match with my first ESOL opportunity with Jewish Vocational Services, which turned into a longterm commitment that I love.

Why not give Volunteer Match a try for your own area? Start by entering your city on the home page, and see what's there for you.

Next Spring, Ted and I might sign up to help on Duckling Day (pictured above). Want to join us?

Comments on, comments off?

Most blogs, including this one, allow readers to add comments to any post. The comments can be read by anyone, and occasionally will start a conversation that adds to the topic the blogger has posted about. I love hearing from readers, but on this particular blog, it seems most people prefer to contact me by email rather than leave a comment for public consumption on the blog. That's fine, and I hope I respond to each comment. 

My question: would you mind if I turn off the comment function on this blog, or would you rather that I leave the public comment option open? 

Please respond in whatever way works best for you. "I don't really care" is a perfectly reasonable response!

Seeing in color {cinema palettes}

Color makes the message, especially when it comes to setting the mood of a movie. Cinema Palettes, a Facebook page, breaks down scenes from films old and new into a palette of colors (above, Rear Window, a 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic). UK-based designer Gaby Smith posts scenes from films of all genres and generations: Apocalypse Now, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Macbeth, Funny Girl, Edward Scissorhands, Blade Runner, Pride and Prejudice, The Grand Budapest Hotel -- more than 250 in all. Focusing on colors will make you look at a film just a little bit differently, even when the film is one of your all-time favorites and you've watched it at least fifty times.