My top 5 obsessions of 2022, explained and rated

In the 2020s, it became easy to be obsessed. Pandemic passions, who could resist? But did they stick? Should they stick?

Nearly three years in, I took stock of where my attention landed in 2022. Which deep dives am I still swimming in? Looking to 2023, I ponder a few tweaks: such as less time on Twitter, more ... books? Fewer podcasts, more ... books*?

Here then are my top obsessions of 2022, explained and rated. (And some book recs.)

Typical proportion of a day: 28 or 30 minutes? Really, who ever knows, bouncing through guided runs on the Nike Run Club App, like Running on Empty with Coach (Chris) Bennett, the Nike global head coach, and Andy Puddcombe, the former Buddhist monk who founded Headspace. Or the Worst Advice Ever Run, the Tough Day Easy Run, or the Just a Run run. And that classic, the Don’t Wanna Run Run.

Or take a journey with an athlete, like the three-part Run with Lopez Lomong in which Lomong tells of being one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Thrilling.

There’s a whole community of us Coach Bennett-heads out there, and I can’t say enough about him. Or maybe I said too much about him this year, in which I passed the 650-mile mark since I started using the app. Every run has a purpose, as Coach Bennett says, and I’ve found all sorts of them, along with wisdom, perspective, and good (OK, corny) humor, out there with Coach Bennett in my ear.

Rating: 10. As obsessions go, this one has no downsides.

Plans for 2023: In search of new content, I started longer runs, and, harkening back to middle school, speed runs, and to Coach Bennett, I just say: thanks.

Like most reporters, my job is a never-ending obsession, but this one particular story, oof, it drove me nuts. Atlantic City’s beloved Fish Heads food truck, owned by Gregory Wood and parked for years at Gardner’s Basin, was evicted in a dustup involving the city, the state, rules governing Green Acres open spaces, and a little friction among the players.

It seemed senseless, but was never solved. And listen, there are other places to get a fish sandwich in Atlantic City, like Chef Sheed’s BBQ Shack or Yardy’s or Ahkii’s Soul Meals, but there was something so great about Fish Heads.

The reaction to the eviction really bothered the mayor, who felt that it wasn’t his fault, and who held a way-too-long press conference in May, in which he too seemed a bit ... obsessed with it all, and with the people trying to make a big deal over it.

Rating: Food, 10. Saga, 3. I’d much rather be obsessed with the food than the story.

Plans for 2023: Wood has hinted he’s working on his truck. And listen, if I have to write more stories about Fish Heads, I stand ready.

Lots of us know it’s easy to get obsessed with a Broadway show or soundtrack (see any parent with a kid into “Let it Go” from Frozen). My daughters went through Wicked phases, other years it was Rent. I’ve cycled through Hamilton obsessions and Oklahoma weeks and all versions of Jesus Christ Superstar.

But wow, nothing prepared me for my obsession with Hadestown. I didn’t even know what it was about when I first saw it on Broadway, and ended up going twice more, following the actors on Instagram, obsessing on Reddit over casting. I never did get to the bottom of the Persephone drama but, you know, I let it go.

Following actors on Instagram can be fun in controlled doses, and I’ve enjoyed the success of Philly’s ethereally-voiced Jordan Dobson, who was my first Orpheus. I cheered when he appeared in A Beautiful Noise, and, then, to the role of Prince Sebastian in the coming Broadway show Bad Cinderella.

Rating: 7. I had to go cold turkey after becoming a bit too invested in, like, which understudies were called up and whether actors reposted my video of them at the stage door.

Proportion of day: My Spotify Wrapped was nearly entirely Hadestown!

In my defense, I spent months running to it.

Plans for 2023: Gonna ride that train....

Proportion of my week: ideally, 1/7. A pandemic cliche: baking. I made pizza dough and Dutch oven crusty French bread. I still feel guilty for putting my daughter’s rosemary focacchio back in the oven to “crisp it up,” thereby turning it into a very large cracker.

But challah is a lasting love, and lots of Fridays, I’ve set the ball in motion by putting the yeast in a half-cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice (I use Melissa Clark’s recipe for olive oil challah). Like Coach Bennett’s running philosophy, if you make it easy at the start, you won’t realize you’ve embarked on a lengthy journey. From there, it’s a three-hour rise, a gentle press down, another 45 minutes, braiding, another 45 minutes, then baking. It’s a wonderful series of bookmarks to a day. In fact, I’m making it as I write this, and I’m down to the last rise. Somewhere, I ran into a Judith Nathan recipe with fennel seeds, which made it seem like I’d gotten fancy.

Rating: 10. A lovely way to pass the time, mark the week, and feed people.

Plans for 2023: Get better at braiding. Revive that needlepoint project during all that dough rising, time that is also perfect for doing the crossword, another A+ obsession, always followed by the great and cranky Rex Parker Does the New York Times Crossword Puzzle blog.

Percentage of my day: I’ll never tell.

This is a hard-core obsession. Watching reality TV has its highs and lows, (I think I may have maxed out on the Bachelor franchise), but getting to listen to the many talented and funny podcasts that spring up around them is a dog-walker’s delight. Here’s to you Ria and Fran of Chicks in the Office (and of course Kelly and Trent), Haley and Amy of Bachelor RHAP Up, The Ringer’s Bachelor Party with Juliet Litman and Callie Curry (wife of Seth), the many Survivor-adjacent podcasts in the Rob Cesternino universe (Shout out to Philly’s own Brice Izyah and Wendell Holland). But they’re fun and funny, even sometimes like a good college lit class, and I truly admire the whole genre of talking your craft out loud.

Rating: 6. Balanced out by a dose of obsessive (but not about reality TV) podcasts like Gaslit Nation and Skullduggery. I also like Higher Learning, which is reality TV adjacent (co-hosted by Van Lathan and former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay).

Plans for 2023: Might be time for a bit of weaning. At least from the shows, if not the podcasts.

* In fairness, I did read some amazing books this year, and leaving them until the day before my book group leads to some not-unpleasant obsessive cramming. They include: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez, The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and How a One-Armed Sister Sweeps the Floor by Cherie Jones.