Lydia Likes It

Museum of Bad Art

Yes, it's a real thing, and how lucky we Bostonians are to have it. The Museum of Bad Art collects and preserves "art too bad to be ignored," like this painting titled Cat's Mouth. My favorite thing about the Museum is the very serious and thoughtful captioning that accompanies the works on display. For this one: A comment on issues of power as experienced by those who dwell with feline pets. Is the artist consumed with or consumed by his love for this cat? Does he identify with the personality of this startling animal? Does the similarity of these inseparable cohabitants stop short at the nose? The Museum, which began in a private home before moving to a location just outside the men's toilets in a movie theater, now has a home in a brewery in Dorchester. Admission is free. Or you can take advantage of online curator talks on a quirky list of topics: Doppelhangers, In the Nood, A visit to the MOBA Zoo, and more.

Andy Borowitz, political humorist

If I could live for one day in someone else's brain, I'd choose Andy Borowitz as my brain host. It takes a special kind of person to find humor in today's political climate. Borowitz, a writer for The New Yorker, is exactly that special. A Harvard-educated American writer, comedian, satirist and actor, he won the first-ever National Press Club award for humor. His new book, Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber, published in 2022, looks at the intellectual deterioration of American politics, from Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump. When Biden won the presidency, I worried that Borowitz would lose his edge after five years of satirizing the other guy. That didn't happen; Borowitz is sharper than ever, and finds plenty of grist for his mill. Sign up to get The Borowitz Report delivered to your inbox every weekday. 

Swan Lake once more

Because you can never have too much Swan Lake.

Local deliciousness

Every Thursday, my husband Ted picks up empty 50-pound paper flour bags from Flour Bakery's commissary, and delivers the bags to Bikes Not Bombs, where volunteers use them to pack bicycle parts to ship to nonprofit organizations in Africa and Central America. Flour Bakery is famous citywide (worldwide?) for its over-the-top amazing sticky buns. I spied this sign on the door of their delivery van when I tagged along with Ted this week. If you've ever had a Flour sticky bun, you know why they need this sign!

Cake Wrecks

As you know, I'm not much of a baker, so right off the bat, I have to give points to anyone who attempts to make a shaped or decorated cake. Should I ever be tempted to try, I have only to click over to Cake Wrecks, a blog that posts photos (with hilarious commentary) of cakes gone wrong. These are real professional cakes, the kind you might order from the grocery store or local bakery, made by real people, and you will really laugh. A lot. (I'm showing you a family-friendly cake wreck here, but trust me, there's much more to see on the blog. And yes, folks, this is supposed to be Mickey Mouse.)