Father's Day Eve

The day before a day for dads. Plus recs for Skyler Knutzen's film about beekeeping, Ken Cheng on birds, and Amanda Klasing on boat strikes

Tomorrow is Father’s Day in the United States. A day I recently learned was originally intended to commemorate the victims of a terrible mining disaster but then got transformed by the daughter of a Civil War veteran living in Spokane, Washington.

Now, 116 years later, it’s a Sunday where Americans are socially obligated to give their father new socks. Incredible how time works!

(Shout out to France, whose Father’s Day celebrations were created by a company trying to sell more lighters, which is indisputably a cooler gift than socks, if less useful.)

Personally, I’m not a big fan of holidays where appreciation is mandatory. I’d much rather get a card or a gift on a random Tuesday when you just happened to be thinking about me than on a day when you’re “supposed to.” But who am I to disrespect the legacy of a day that led directly to the creation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines?

So I will be taking my kid to see a puppet show. I will be gratefully accepting a card. And, I’m not certain, but I think the odds that I’ll be wearing a new pair of socks are fairly high.

Actually, another quick side note here: I thought that was going to be the end of this intro story but I remembered a good sock-related anecdote. Many years ago, I was a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I did not win but I did become a meme. (I wrote about the experience here and also told the story on a live Pop Up Magazine tour.)

As I was working with the producers to audition and then prepare to compete on the show, one question my producer repeatedly asked me was “What would you do with a million dollars if you won?” She told me that if I won, I could do whatever I wanted but that I should not say something boring on camera like “save it for retirement” or “buy a house.” Instead, she wanted to know, “what would you do that’s exciting and different?”

She was looking for an answer like, “My wife and I have always wanted to live in Spain for a year,” or “I have a passion for fixing up classic cars,” or “I run an exotic bird sanctuary and this would save a lot of parrots.” Her job was to make me seem fun and relatable to the audience but also memorable enough that they’d root for me.

I gave her my honest answer of what felt like the richest thing I could imagine. I said, “I would wear a new pair of socks every day.”

My producer looked at me blankly for several seconds, trying to gauge whether I was joking or not. Then she said, unequivocally, “You cannot say that on television.”

I asked her why not? After all, it’s such a good, luxurious feeling. She explained that new socks don’t require winning a million dollars. In fact, I could probably achieve that dream by just getting a Costco membership.

I did the math and was amazed to discover she was right. When it came to new socks, I was already able to live the life of the millionaire in my dreams. It really took the pressure off.

Ultimately, I ended up saying something on air about how I wanted to get to the highest point of all 50 states, which is actually my dad’s dream, not mine, but I borrowed it for the day. Then I got on the show and promptly lost. And now, here I am, about to get some free socks tomorrow anyway.

Dreams do come true.

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My upcoming events and other projects:

MY BOOK: Humor Me is out in bookstores everywhere

MY PODCAST: How to Be a Better Human (from TED/PRX). I first saw Rick Andrews perform improv almost 20 years ago and I can still remember scenes he created and how hard they make me laugh. Rick’s an amazing performer but his real passion is teaching improv. In this episode, we talk about why he loves sharing improv with people who have never done it before and what he has taught everyone from Ira Glass to Zohran Mamdani to me. Why you should try improv comedy (w/ Rick Andrews)

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This week’s list

GREAT:

The Keeper is a short (6 min) documentary film by Skyler Knutzen. It’s a profile of Stacey Vasquez, a beekeeper in New York City who is allergic to bees. It’s such a beautiful and memorable short film about why you would keep doing something you love even if it doesn’t seem to make sense. The Keeper

FUNNY:

It was my friend Sarah Kay’s birthday this week but instead of me giving her a present, she gave me one by sharing this perfect standup bit from Ken Cheng about the phrase “to kill two birds with one stone.” BBC New Comedy Awards: “I’ve got some issues with the bird phrase”

INTERESTING:

This opinion piece about the current status of U.S. military strikes against fishing boats in Central and South America is the kind of thing I would like people in power to be asked about at every single news conference. It’s egregious, illegal, and immoral. As far as I can tell, The Bulwark is a center-right publication. So this perspective is not coming from some far left, super progressive organization. You’d hope that the principle that innocent people, thousands of miles away from any war zone, shouldn’t be randomly killed by the U.S. military would be a bipartisan stance. And yet… No Guns, No Drugs—Why Did We Blow Up These Boats?

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That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please share Bright Spots with anyone you think might enjoy it.

In strong support of both fathers and mining regulation/oversight,

Chris Duffy

This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.

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…wait, who are you?

I’m Chris Duffy. I’m a comedian, I host TED’s How to Be a Better Human podcast, and I’m both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. I wrote a book called Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy that’s out now from Doubleday.