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Giving: Here for It, #312

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Look, I'm not pointing any fingers but it seems that Friendsgiving has been getting earlier and earlier every year. Online I started seeing people gathered at their friends' houses for an evening of bonding and Beaujolais as early as November 1st

Drizzle: Here for It, #311

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Well, y'know, I love to vote. First of all, to have an opinion about something is a terrific use of one's time. And then to be compelled to have an opinion as a way to fulfill the promise of a democratic

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Robot: Here for It, #310

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Okay, so I walk into this crowded Szechuan restaurant the other night and I see one of those little restaurant robots coming toward me. Do you know the kind I mean? They look like an air purifier with a face? So

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Typewriter: Here for It, #309

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I am sitting at the gate in a North Carolina airport, eavesdropping on a group of seemingly well-heeled parents from Malvern, PA recapping their wild weekend of drinking and carrying on at Wake Forest and it’s like I’m listening

Again: Here for It, #308

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Okay, I cannot--nay, will not--allow this newsletter to just become a repository for my thoughts about "the aliens" (which, of course, boil down to "I don't give a flamin' hot damn about them"). But I remain so utterly gobsmacked about the

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Tourists: Here for It, #307

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I load four full grocery bags into the back of an Uber picking me up from the Stop and Shop in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and climbed in the back seat. As we pulled away, the driver remarked that she didn't even know

Wowee: Here for It, #306

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I had never been to Sardi's before, the famous New York restaurant where they post caricatures of celebrities on the wall, but I walked by it on my way to see a performance of Alex Edelman's astounding one-man show Just For

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Stamps: Here for It, #305

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! THE NEW BOOK IS OUT!!! There's this hilarious--to me--thing that happens when you're sitting at a table in public, available to sign books but not the reason that people might be in the same space as you. If they've come into

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Aliens: Here for It, #304

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Okay, I'm going to say something controversial. And, the truth is I probably shouldn't be out here logging on to AOL and saying controversial things because I have a book coming out in two days and I'm not trying to get

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Afternoon: Here for It, #303

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! It’s been a week since I got back from Scotland which means it’s been a week since I’ve said the words “it’s 2pm; should we have a spot of tea?” And frankly my life is falling apart.

Chaos: Here for It, #302

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Okay, so remember last week when I said I can never nap? Well, apparently the solution to that problem is to introduce a little thing I like to call Time Zone Chaos. I just woke up from my second nap of

Heaven: Here for It, #301

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I'm considering letting myself be held hostage by a timeshare salesperson again. So, I'm currently at a resort in Puerto Vallarta on vacation. I didn't used to think of myself as a resort person but it turns out that eating ceviche

Pencils: Here for It, #300

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! One of the things I love about recording audiobooks, as I've just done for Congratulations, the Best Is Over!, is that I learn new words from a book that I have written myself using my own brain and words that I

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Television: Here for It, #299

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I MET A PUPPET! That's the headline. This feels deeply important because most of my life is not puppet-adjacent so to be, as I mentioned, not only near a puppet but engaged in conversation with said puppet? Call it a veggie

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Relaxed: Here for It, #298

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! A couple weeks ago I went to LA for professional reasons. Well, were they professional reasons? It was mostly just to hang out, but I wanted to hang out in Hollywood, a place that I sometimes Zoom with, so I think

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Trial: Here for It, #297

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Okay, so I think we can all agree that my first mistake was clicking on an Instagram ad. Every year, Instagram figures out enough about me to know that I want a chunky sweater with a bold pattern, but never figures

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Question: Here for It, #296

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! On Friday night I was in Williamston, Michigan, at the great Williamston Theater for a performance of my play Mrs. Harrison. Just before the start of the show, the executive director, Emily Sutton-Smith, bounded up on stage and launched into a

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Pageant: Here for It, #295

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I don’t think we give enough credit to the pageantry of this time of year. I mean, there’s obviously the nature aspect of it--trees kitting themselves up in full drag of flowers and doing a dramatic reveal of leaves

Water: Here for It, #294

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Greetings from Philadelphia where I am writing this to you instead of scouring the ravaged streets for bottled water. The commitment, the shortsightedness, the lack of executive function--it's truly breathtaking! Why do I need bottled water? Well, we're in a real

Moon: Here for It, #293

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! As we pulled into the airport in Austin, my heretofore silent Uber driver suddenly had a flurry of opinions about the design of international airport arrivals gates. I love when people start ranting out of nowhere because it feels like when

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Lego: Here for It, #292

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! 💡(If this newsletter gets cut off in your inbox, click here to read it.) A few weeks ago I went to Charleston to visit one of my brothers, my sister-in-law, and their two kids. It had been years since I saw

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Soup: Here for It, #291

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! I have to tell you about the soup party! A night of intrigue, double crosses, and liquid danger! A few weeks ago, our friends Byron and Lawrence mentioned that they were having a soup party at their place. I was like

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Tickets: Here for It, #290

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! So, I’m on a plane right now and it’s Sunday night and the Super Bowl has just started between the Eagles and the Chiefs. The flight attendants asked who on-board was a Chiefs fan and three people raised their

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Impressed!: Here for It, #289

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! This week let's play Does It Impress Me?, a game I just made up which takes its theme from the Shania Twain's masterpiece and a seminal work of Brad Pitt right-sizing "That Don't Impress Me Much" from her 1997 album Come

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Hamburgle: Here for It, #288

Hi! It's R. Eric Thomas. From the internet? Hi! Okay, hello, before we get down to business I need to let you know the very good news that I've written another book of essays and it has a cover and that cover is great and it comes out in August.