Feldman's Faves: January 12, 2026

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

And greetings from sunny Arizona. I am two hours behind today (on so many levels).

It is a glorious time to be alive for those of us who are football fans (sorry Duncan). The CFB playoffs have been insane as was Wildcard Weekend. I continue (as I have been since the 1990s) to believe that this year belongs to the BILLS.

Just a reminder of our first BAGEL BREAKFAST of the year (thanks Alex, as always). Please save me a few dozen, which I will pick up on Wednesday.

No theme this week – just topics of interest.

SHADOW TICKET By: Thomas Pynchon – It is shocking to me that Thomas Pynchon, at age 88, is still sharp as a tack. His most recent novel, Shadow Ticket, while not his best book ever, is consistent with his zany style, multiple historical references and the ability to capture a moment in time is still top notch. Like many of his books, this one is a caper, a mystery and involves some pretty shady (read entertaining) characters. Also, he leaves the reader unclear as to how things will end, which can be annoying but also just the way he is…. As one reviewer notes, “Everything is connected in Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon’s fleet-footed noir fiction about a lindy-hopping detective in prohibition-era Wisconsin. The homemade bomb connects to the runaway cheese heiress, the cheese heiress to the federal agents, and the feds to the pro Nazi leagues at the bowling lanes outside town. Early-30s Milwaukee, in turn, is connected to powder-keg central Europe, where paramilitary groups have pitched camp on the Hungaro-Croatian border and guest speakers wax lyrical about “our immense fascist future”. Most likely it connects to the current moment as well, albeit wryly and slyly, with a nonchalant swing. That’s the implied final move of this merry dance of a book: the point where the past links its hands with the present. Shadow Ticket is a Pynchon novel – the 88-year-old’s first in 12 years; his ninth overall – and so it naturally connects to the man’s back catalogue, too, and its abiding fascination with conspiracy, chaos and the churn of American pop culture. Specifically it relates back to his two previous works – Inherent Viceand Bleeding Edge – in that the story comes tailored as a dime-store whodunnit, complete with red herrings, plot twists and reams of hard-boiled dialogue. But classifications, like people, are never entirely to be trusted. Pynchon inhabits the genre like a hermit crab inside a mollusk shell, periodically peeking out from the gloom to remind us that he’s there.

Our Bogart-esque hero is Hicks McTaggart, a semi-professional dancer turned strikebreaker turned dogged, compromised private dick, toiling to hold his position against a surge of rascally clowns and unreliable sources. Hicks is on the trail of Daphne Airmont, the missing heiress, but something about the woman smells iffy, and it may not be the cheese. There are Nazi sympathizers in the halls of power and an Austro-Hungarian U-boat running guns across Lake Michigan. Milwaukee contains Italians, Croatians and “more Germans than you can wave a knockwurst at”, which means that the city’s loyalties are conflicted and it could break either way. The New World, Hicks learns, remains umbilically tied to the old. All things are connected; that doesn’t mean they add up. Pynchon’s livewire prose hops from subject to subject, joins the dots and makes patterns. There is a pleasing logic to patterns, but they rarely provide explanations, never mind neat solutions; every fresh leap kicks up still further questions. And so it is with the widening gyre of Hicks’s investigation, which spins out of Milwaukee to cross the Atlantic, as spies are gazumped by counterspies and the plot gains in flavour what it loses in momentum. Airmont’s millionaire father styles himself “the Al Capone of Cheese” and is wanted for his role in a counterfeit cheese operation. “Cheese Fraud being a metaphor of course, a screen, a front for something more geopolitical,” explains Egon Praediger, the elegant, coke-sniffing Viennese cop who may turn out not to be a policeman at all. Detective mysteries home in, whereas Pynchon stories unravel. The author respects the genre enough to pay lip service to its rules. But he’s geared towards irresolution and leaves his private eye hanging, blindsided and lost.

Prime Pynchon – the Pynchon of Gravity’s Rainbow, let’s say, or the jubilant Mason & Dixon – might have interrogated this material with more rigour; mined its component parts for more gold. Shadow Ticket, conversely, runs wide but not deep, skipping from inner-city Milwaukee to the forests of Transylvania and from one espionage plot to the next. The tone is jaunty and joking in the manner of a bustling Tintin adventure in which bombs are wrapped as Christmas gifts and the goons look so comical that one assumes they must be harmless. It’s 1932, at least on the page, and so the yarn comes salted with references to contemporary figures: Sacco and Vanzetti, Walter Winchell and the Lindbergh baby. But it also veers from the record and succumbs to sudden scenic detours. In one exuberant set piece, two characters visit the local cinema to watch an entirely fictional gastronomic comedy, Bigger Than Yer Stummick, that stars “child sensation Squeezita Thickly” as the food commissar and Wallace Beery as a chef with “a big soup-soaked moustache”. The movie, the pair agrees afterwards, is altogether too long but somehow not quite long enough. As for Shadow Ticket itself, the book is an antic mixed bag, a diverting tour of old haunts. Pynchon’s yarn sets out with a song in its heart and mischievous spring in its step, but it edges into darkness and its final forecast is bleak. The writer knows what’s to come and where this roll of foul history will eventually lead: towards a clownish world order epitomised by men such as Elon Musk, who recently boarded a Wisconsin stage with a cheesehead hat on his head and the American flag at his back. Cheese fraud is a front and period details provide cover. But the fascist past isn’t dead, it’s stinking up the joint right this minute.” Shadow Ticket may not be Pynchon’s greatest work but if my mind is half as sharp as his is at 58 (not 88), I would be pretty happy….Here’s a good review from The New York Review– https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/10/23/the-big-cheese-shadow-ticket-thomas-pynchon/

THE PETER ATTIA DRIVE - Longevity 101: a foundational guide to Peter’s frameworks for longevity, and understanding CVD, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and more – It is hard to live in this world and not here about Peter Attia and the work he is doing in the area of healthspan. His best-selling book Outlive is a must read for anyone who is interested in understanding what it takes to make the final decade of one’s life as happy and healthy as possible. Most people don’t want to live forever but most people want the time they have to be the best quality life they can have, which is Peter’s life work. For those of you who don’t have the time or interest in reading the book, this PODCAST breaks down Peter’s ideas in a way that is clear and digestible (and not overly complex and “sciency” like it usually is. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “In this special episode, Peter provides a comprehensive introduction to longevity, perfect for newcomers or those looking to refresh their knowledge. He lays out the foundational concepts of lifespan, healthspan, and the marginal decade. Additionally, Peter discusses the four main causes of death and their prevention, as well as detailing the five key strategies in his longevity toolkit to improve lifespan and healthspan. Detailed show notes provide links for deeper exploration of these topics, making it an ideal starting point for anyone interested in understanding and improving their longevity. We discuss: Key points about starting exercise as an older adult [2:45]; Overview of episode topics and structure [1:45]; How Peter defines longevity [3:45]; Why healthspan is a crucial component of longevity [11:15]; The evolution of medicine from medicine 1.0 to 2.0, and the emergence of medicine 3.0 [15:30]; Overview of atherosclerotic diseases: the 3 pathways of ASCVD, preventative measures, and the impact of metabolic health [26:00]; Cancer: genetic and environmental factors, treatment options, and the importance of early and aggressive screening [33:15]; Neurodegenerative diseases: causes, prevention, and the role of genetics and metabolic health [39:30]; The spectrum of metabolic diseases [43:15]; Why it’s never too late to start thinking about longevity [44:15]; The 5 components of the longevity toolkit [46:30]; Peter’s framework for exercise—The Centenarian Decathlon [47:45]; Peter’s nutritional framework: energy balance, protein intake, and more [58:45]; Sleep: the vital role of sleep in longevity, and how to improve sleep habits [1:08:30]; Drugs and supplements: Peter’s framework for thinking about drugs and supplements as tools for enhancing longevity [1:13:30]; Why emotional health is a key component of longevity [1:17:00]; Advice for newcomers on where to start on their longevity journey [1:19:30]; and More.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-peter-attia-drive/id1400828889?i=1000733646543

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon