Introducing the Trying! Awards

Today’s email is quick but important. Read on for the details, but don’t miss what comes after, a new occasional feature I call Random Travel Advice.

Like other grand institutions, Trying! likes to flex its might. Others may do this through multi-day festivals featuring big-name literati, or by developing offshoots in other forms of media, like radio or movie development. Some even do it by publishing meaningful words and images for decades and decades, in order to build a wide base of readers and fans whose thoughts and experiences have been influenced in this way since their earliest memories.

But that takes a lot of effort, and that’s not what we’re about here. Instead, we want to use our cultural capital to bestow upon the people and phenomena of this world a series of honors appropriate to our—and their—schtick. We want to showcase the most valiant attempts, the most memorable failures, the most solidly B+/A- figures of the past year. These are The Trying! Awards, and they need your help.

That is, we need nominations! I mean, sure, I could come up with this whole thing myself, but what’s the fun in that? Just click through the button below (or hey, that link—and that one, too!) and send me your picks. Remember, the honorees can be anyone or anything—a comic book, a sandwich, an elementary particle. Please, won’t you give it a try?

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Random Travel Advice no. 732: Always Pack a Swimsuit

I was almost out the door last night and on my way up to visit friends in the Berkshires when I remembered: They have a hot tub! I dashed back to my bedroom, grabbed trunks from a drawer, stuffed them in my coat pocket, and at last I was ready. Because how could I have forgotten? Wherever you go, whatever you’re expecting to do, you should always pack a swimsuit. There may be a pool or a lake you didn’t know about; there may be a hot tub or a hot spring or a sauna. A swimsuit is small and light—you should always have room. You will never regret bringing one along, but you may regret not bringing one. So make this a part of your routine, and have one always at the ready. As for goggles, that’s up to you. 🪨🪨🪨

It’s Good and I Like It: Exoplanets

Exoplanets are planets that exist beyond our solar system—many (but not all) of them orbiting distant stars. Over the past 15–20 years, scientists have found around 5,800 exoplanets, and they believe there may be billions. While it is fairly unlikely that we will visit any of them in person, we do have this excellent NASA site to explore them virtually, from rocky worlds to gas giants to potentially water-bearing super-Earths like Kepler-22b (whose gravity would crush you like a bug). Have fun getting lost in our galaxy!

Notes

1. TKTK

Read Yesterday’s Attempt