E.B.'s Notes & News: National Alligator Day Edition 🐊🦎🐍🐢🦖
Plus, last Saturday was World Turtle Day! It's been a great week for reptiles.
Did you know that today is National Alligator Day? And that May 23 was World Turtle Day? What a great week to celebrate reptiles!
Scroll down for my usual updates though take special note of my event happening TOMORROW (Saturday 5/30 at 1pm EDT): I’ll be doing my first ever Substack Live video with Cindy Ojczyk:
xoxo,
E.B.
Hope Notes & News:
This is kind of cliché and cheesy, but I have to admit that working at a college does give me a lot of hope every spring. We just celebrated Wellesley’s commencement (congrats, class of 2026!) and reunion weekend (hurray for the classes ending in 6s and 1s and all the Continuing Education/Davis Scholar alums!) and knowing all these smart, amazing Wellesley recent grads and alums are doing great stuff out in the world makes me feel a lot better about, well, the world. There are good people out there.
If you want a little burst of that hope-for-the-future joy, check out Wellesley’s commencement video, in particular the speeches by Elise Wilson ’26 and Ruth J. Simmons. I dare you not to tear up a little bit.
Writing Notes & News:
It’s here! It’s here! The spring 2026 issue of Wellesley magazine is out and that includes my feature on alums who work with non-human primates. The print copies should be arriving in mailboxes soon and for those of you who don’t subscribe, you can read the digital version on the magazine website.
Plus, other things I’ve written recently for Wellesley: a story about the new café in Clapp Library, a feature on reunion weekend 2026 and the end of Wellesley’s sesquicentennial celebration, a short piece about Jennifer Chudy’s political psychology class’s film festival project, an interview with Wangũi wa Kamonji ’13 for LinkedIn, and a recap of the special 150th anniversary panel featuring former and current college presidents Paula Johnson, Alecia A. DeCoudreaux ’76, Diana Chapman Walsh ’66, and Nannerl “Nan” Overholser Keohane ’61 will be posted on the Wellesley website on Monday!
Events Notes & News:
Tomorrow I have a VIRTUAL event on Substack! Here’s more information:
Plus, stay tuned for more info on events this summer/fall including appearances at the Pioneer Valley Kennel Club Summer All-Breed Show, the Pet Rock Festival, and Dog Mountain!
Reading Notes & News:
Guys, I am feeling so hip! I actually have read three recently-published books that have gotten all kinds of buzz / been part of online discourse: Whidbey by T Kira Madden, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, and Adult Braces by Lindy West. (2/3 of these were audiobooks courtesy of Libby. Thanks, libraries!) Comment or send me a DM if you want to discuss any of these titles! I have MANY FEELINGS. Plus, I just started another buzzworthy book, London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, and it’s SO GOOD.
In the photo above Luca and I are reading Pizza! A Slice of History, written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli, and given to us by the Bickel-Zipprich family for Luca’s first birthday. Luca recently rediscovered it on his bookshelf and he is obsessed.
Friend Notes & News:
Hurray for these smart, kind, incredible people!
Big shout out to Haley Young (above) who is now officially a published author! Her book The Dog Lover’s Bucket List: The Ultimate Guide to a Full Life with Your Pup came out on May 19!!! So proud of you, Haley! I can’t wait to read it.
I also somehow missed it until now but the great Cinelle Barnes, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing for Non-Fiction by Non-Men back in the day, has a new book coming out on June 9: A Way Home: A Memoir of Losing Yourself, and the Beauty of Returning. I also can’t wait to read it!
A music professor at Wellesley recently wrote a piece for the arts and culture section of The Conversation, and her editor was none other than the great Nick Lehr. I’ve gotten to work with Nick professionally in this way before, but it had been a while, and so I was reminded of how he does such a good job at getting academics to figure out a way to approach writing about their beloved esoteric research topics for a wider general audience. I saw both the original pitch and the final article, and Nick really is a talented editor!
I have really not been following the whole Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni drama but shout out to my pal Claire Ayoub for her role in it!
Oh and a major congratulations to Sara Squeglia who was sworn in last Friday as an official member of the Needham Historic District Commission!
Menagerie Notes & News:
Lately Luca has been pressing his face into my arms and legs and taking deep sniffs and then telling me that he is “pretending to be a puppy dog.” So, yes, we will be getting another dog eventually, and probably sooner rather than later, though we are not quite ready yet. Maybe once Luca is out of diapers.
However, in the meantime, if you are currently looking for an amazing dog, hit up my fellow Wellesley alum Sara Newland who is fostering dogs for Better Together Dog Rescue. She is currently fostering Fozzie and he needs a home!
Sara writes: “This sweet boy is still looking for his forever home. Will he bark at some dogs? Yes. Will he try to eat the neighborhood bunnies? Also yes. But Fozzie is absolutely the sweetest dog, perfect at home (housebroken, not destructive, cuddly, quiet, funny) and so happy to greet all the people he meets. He’s a great hiking buddy and an excellent couch cuddler as well. We completely adore him.”
Are you Fozzie’s person? Let me know if you’re interested in learning more about him and I can put you in touch with Sara, or submit an application through BTDR!
That little free library shot is perfect! And thank you for the bucket list shoutout 💛💛
I airlifted a painted turtle trying to cross the road.