The mischievous magic of funcles (and aunts)

Also: Why I'll chase the eclipse this April [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  March 24, 2024 Dear Cog reader, When I think back on the family gatherings of my youth, one song comes to mind: “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye’s version). That’s the song that got the adults dancing, after we pushed back the furniture in our small living room. It’s the track I remember starting a conga line to around the table littered with cloth napkins and Baci chocolate wrappers. My mom has three sisters, and as a kid, my family’s social life was punctuated by those family parties. Thinking back on them now, they were laughably gendered affairs. Inevitably my uncles would retire to watch sports or play a game (cards or otherwise), while “the aunts” lingered around the table, talking. My cousins and I could choose where to be. Sometimes I played H.O.R.S.E. with the men, sometimes I sat quietly at the table, listening to my mom and her sisters. In 1996, Hillary Clinton called attention to an African proverb with her book, “[It Takes a Village]( The idea is that no child is raised in one home alone. My aunts and their families were my village then and now. They cheer me on and help me navigate all manner of things, from family drama and hosting holidays to choosing paint colors. When my husband and I were thinking about starting a family a dozen years ago, my first wish was for healthy kids. But secretly, I wanted girls, so they could have relationships like my mom and her sisters. Now, I wonder about who among my friends and family are “the aunts” to my three daughters; and what roles my kids will play for each other and their future families. David Tanklefsky had his own version of “the aunts” growing up: [His Uncle Kevin, a “funcle”]( (that’s fun uncle) if there ever was one. The word funcle — which is apparently not an approved New York Times WORDLE term — is, in David’s telling, “used to describe a particular beloved uncle, one with that sturdy blend of fun, good-natured mischief of the PG-13 (and occasionally R-rated) variety, a pocket full of well-worn jokes and a capacity for loving their nieces and nephews unconditionally.” David’s funcle died last fall, but his essay about Kevin inspired us to ask others to share tales of the funcle-types in their lives. Cog is collaborating with our colleagues in WBUR’s newsroom to collect some of these stories (and photos) for a future post. Whether your story is joyful or [bittersweet]( we’d love to read it. Email us at opinion@wbur.org and put “FUNCLE” in the subject line. P.S. — Unrelated to anything we published this week, but very much on my mind: A lot of people have been asking me recently about the state of the news business. Why are so many outlets, [including WBUR,]( in trouble, all at the same time? What’s the problem? This [conversation between P.J. Vogt and Ezra Klein]( on Vogt’s podcast Search Engine, does about as good a job as any I’ve heard explaining individual responsibility in solving collective problems, ethical consumption of media and [some notion of what we might do](. I’m not naturally drawn to podcasts like this (too tech-bro-y for me), but this is informative and compelling. Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news  Must Reads [My mother's family survived the Holocaust. Now I’m finding faith on my own terms]( For most of her life, Diane Forman felt like a religious misfit. Then she moved to a new town after her divorce and joined a church. [Read more.]( [My mother's family survived the Holocaust. Now I’m finding faith on my own terms]( For most of her life, Diane Forman felt like a religious misfit. Then she moved to a new town after her divorce and joined a church. [Read more.]( ['When the dragon eats the sun': Why I'll chase the eclipse]( Eclipse chaser H.L.M. Lee will fly to Mexico to see the moon's shadow. The eclipse, he writes, allows us to watch something greater and more wondrous than ourselves. [Read more.]( ['When the dragon eats the sun': Why I'll chase the eclipse]( Eclipse chaser H.L.M. Lee will fly to Mexico to see the moon's shadow. The eclipse, he writes, allows us to watch something greater and more wondrous than ourselves. [Read more.]( [Let’s hear it for the fun uncles]( The word “funcle” describes a particularly beloved fun uncle, one with that perfect blend of fun, good-natured mischief and a capacity for unconditional love, writes David Tanklefsky. Mine was named Uncle Rick. [Read more.]( [Let’s hear it for the fun uncles]( The word “funcle” describes a particularly beloved fun uncle, one with that perfect blend of fun, good-natured mischief and a capacity for unconditional love, writes David Tanklefsky. Mine was named Uncle Rick. [Read more.]( [The MCAS debate deserves better than our polarized politicsÂ]( Whether or not Massachusetts students should be required to earn a passing score on MCAS to earn a high school diploma is a complicated issue, writes Jack Schneider, a professor at UMass Amherst. With more than eight months until the election, we have an opportunity to find an evidence-based compromise that all parties can live with. [Read more.]( [The MCAS debate deserves better than our polarized politicsÂ]( Whether or not Massachusetts students should be required to earn a passing score on MCAS to earn a high school diploma is a complicated issue, writes Jack Schneider, a professor at UMass Amherst. With more than eight months until the election, we have an opportunity to find an evidence-based compromise that all parties can live with. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "[D]espite Democrats’ progressive economic policy goals, many voters simply don’t associate them with the ideas that will improve their lives. They feel that Trump — with his constant barrage of rhetorical attacks on the rich and powerful — understands their pain better than the elites who write Democrats’ campaign checks." "[Democrats who attack the rich do better in elections. The party should take notice]( The Guardian. "What are we to make of a life that can age and grow young again at the turn of the seasons, that equally distends and contracts our perception of time?" "[The Art of Communing With Trees]( The Atlantic. "Many of the issues roiling American society today — the banning of books, magazines, newspapers and music, the outlawing of the freedom to read and write and listen, the censoring of educational materials while criminalizing educators and librarians, and repressing speech — have roots in the anti-literacy laws of colonial slaveholding America." "[My brother isn’t permitted to read his own story. That’s a remnant of slavery.]( The Washington Post. "When the sun finally bursts out of that hole in the indigo sky and overwhelms its own corona, what relief, what ecstasy, must we feel at the return of the light." — H.L.M. Lee, "'[When the dragon eats the sun': Why I'll chase the eclipse]( ICYMI [Picking up sticks in troubled times]( The news is so bleak, it can feel difficult to do even basic tasks like going to work, filing your taxes and folding laundry, writes Holly Robinson. Her antidote? The meditative act of picking up sticks. [Read more.]( [Picking up sticks in troubled times]( The news is so bleak, it can feel difficult to do even basic tasks like going to work, filing your taxes and folding laundry, writes Holly Robinson. Her antidote? The meditative act of picking up sticks. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 🔎 Explore [WBUR's Field Guide]( stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2023 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.