A New Year for PTP
The State of the Paper
Happy 2026! Writing slowed a bit during the holiday season, but now I’m refreshed and ready to pickup where I left off. Looking to submit to some magazines and competitions this year so I will keep you all informed. As always thanks for reading!
-Niall
The Strength of a Coleus
Back in our September issue of the PTP I talked about the magic coleus growing pot we had in the back yard. Every year the plant in it seems to grow a little bit taller and last a little bit longer. This year was no different. As Taylor and I set off for Ireland, we said a bitter sweet goodbye to our three foot tall plant friend. Knowing in our hearts that this would probably be the last time we saw it in its full splendor.
Two weeks later much to our surprise and delight there greeting us on return was an unconcerned coleus. Still proud in its display of color and defiance of nature.
It didn’t just hang on until after our honey moon, as it pushed into the cold snapping end of November and first freezing breaths of December our Coleus hung on for all it was worth.
As of writing this it has failed to outlast the winter, withered dry stalks are the only thing that remains of its verdant glory days. Still I am impressed, it held on for all it was worth. A simple plant with a simple strength to remain strong even in the bleakness of days past their summer prime.
1,000 Days of Reading
Doing anything for a thousand days is an interesting exercise. At a certain point it becomes a habit and then sometime after that it starts to grate on your psyche. It loops back around to being fun around the 900 day mark or so. For all of those who can’t do 1,000 / 365 in their head it’s just 96 days shy of doing something everyday for three years. Which both seems like a long time and not long enough. My stipulation to reading for a thousand days was that I had to read at least ten pages every day. A fairly benign task for someone who enjoys reading four to five books at a time. However you don’t really consider that sometimes you will have to be swaying at a urinal while you swipe at your phone trying to get through Watership Down’s drier sections so that you get your ten pages for the day. I raced against the clock only a couple of times, worriedly checking as midnight approaches and I am stalling out at page eight of ten. In the end I completed the required page numbers and on December 28th I reached one thousand consecutive days of reading. Now the question is, will I keep going? Probably because I am both an insane person who likes keeping track of inane things, and an insane person who also likes reading.
A Fantasy Football Champion is Crowned
The start of this newsletter/Substack was born through the Kimmerlein Fantasy football 2 league; so it only seems appropriate to update you all now that the championship has concluded. With PTP staffing getting cut down to just Ruth and myself after the conclusion of last year (blame the venture capitalists), responsibilities fell upon our bookish mouse to guide the team for the 2025 season.
The draft in September was a success, Ruth claiming the projected number one spot from the ESPN predictive ranking. As a little easter egg Ruth changed the team’s profile picture every week to the cover of the book she was currently reading, a number of which she reviewed in her section of the paper. The season started off with three straight wins and a strong feeling that the team could repeat the success from 2024. Mid-way through the season the team sat at 6 - 2, and the team felt close to untouchable. However Sierra’s The Underdogs would shatter that confidence. After going 1 - 3, through the first four games, Sierra’s team rattled off an impressive EIGHT straight wins that shot her up the standings.
Going into week 14 of 15, Ruth’s Book Corner had to win just a single game to seal up their spot in the playoffs. The team lost by 2.3 points that week and 10 points in the last game of the season. Hope was not lost as there was a three team tie for third place to end the season. Because of this it came down to point differential to see who would make it into the playoffs. Ruth’s team made it into the 3rd seed by only a couple of points and the skin of her tail.
The first round was a battle between the Dayton Triangles and Ruth. Blows were exchanged and middling performances balanced by standout point scorers. Ruth’s team came out victorious to then have to face off against the undisputed top dog of the season, The Underdogs. It was 9-6 versus the tremendous 11-4. The championship was another tough battle that came down to the final game on Monday night. It wasn’t until the final quarter of the game that Ruth’s team finally put up enough points to scrape by Sierra’s team. A repeat championship performance graced this paper and once again the trophy is held aloft by the PTP. Two cheers for the magnificent mouse manager and the three-peat hopes start now!
Ruth’s Book Corner
This issue of the Book Corner will dive into the powdered pale pages of Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. Published in 1948, this book was cited among two other novels when Kawabata received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Snow Country tells the love affair of a Tokyo man and an isolated mountain town geisha. Kawabata’s prose feels almost intangible. I found myself getting a little lost at times, able to center in the story for a moment to then once again become adrift. It was almost like trying to track a snow flake as it descends from the sky to be among its siblings. It didn’t feel intentionally confusing, just that it was ethereal. This in turn makes it difficult to grade on any kind of scale. I would recommend it if you are looking for some snowy rural Japanese vibes, but even that doesn’t fully deliver at times. This book has made me reflect on it a lot more than most other books have this past year.
-Ruth