Summer Reflections

Is it something in the air?

I started my day on our quiet street in Washington, D.C. watching two brown-skinned men get dragged out of their car, cuffed, and hauled off in a black unmarked van. At 7 a.m.!

At the same time, the East coast was getting pounded by 20-foot waves from Erin and the West coast was looking at highs in the 110s. All the while NOAA (the Federal agency that monitors our weather) has axed 20% of its work force. Nothing to see here!

An article this week in The Atlantic posed the question: Is A.I. making people feel like they’re losing it? Between deep fakes, last week’s images from Alaska, and the continuing horrors from Ukraine and Gaza, there is a sense that things are spinning more than a little out of control. And yet we soldier on.

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right words when your heart is breaking and your brain is torn between rage and sorrow. Beyondish was born on the winds of hope – that shining a light on shared tables and the hardworking people who strive to put food on them, would in our own small way contribute to a sense of unity in this country. Last night, in front of a crowd of booing protesters at Union Station, Vice President Vance said (and I paraphrase): “Ignore these aging hippies…what we’re doing is what the American people want.” So of course that made me wonder: What do the American people want?

Well, from the guy who signs off these missives “always hungry,” my no. 1 fallback position is always food! Having lived in Brooklyn – the ultimate melting pot of humanity – for the past 20 years, you just mention the words “street fair” and out they come. By the thousands. Happy, hungry, festive people looking for a smile and a bite to eat.

A few years back, my travels took me to the Eastern Montana County Fair. The mingling smells of rodeo grounds and midway grill-smoke were only bested by the extraordinary cross section of people who came from miles around to enjoy their version of a night on the town.

Here on the eastern seaboard, the final days of August are on fast fade, and from Bethany Beach to the shores of Cape Cod, no matter the daily news, we’re grabbing up those last delicious moments of summertime.

This week I plan to off the Internet and pause the New York Times. The world will keep spinning and I know I can’t hop off, but I sure can use a reset. Maybe we all can. I know we’re better than this, and I am praying we can find our way back. To simpler times, or maybe just a better way to co-exist. I return to my favorite quote from 1992, which sadly, has not lost a drop of resonance. “Can we all get along?”

Always hungry,

Ken Carlton, Editor-in-Chief

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