I OFFICIALLY ENDORSE the use of mushed-up roasted butternut squash as a spread on toast, especially when mixed with tahini and spritzed with lemon.

I endorse vegan ganache.*

I endorse vinyl. The sound is better. I'm sorry it just is.

Speaking of music, there is one Taylor Swift song that, for me, justifies all the hype: "Dear John," which she wrote, incredibly, when she was nineteen. I endorse this song.**

While we're talking about music, I also endorse Chappell Roan. I love a ballad, and Pink Pony Club is an excellent one (with its own backstory: Atlantic Records dropped Roan because they thought the song was lame but she refused to let them change it). Michaela and I have developed a dance routine in which we dramatize the lyrics for Pink Pony Club. I play the horror-stricken Southern mom; she is Roan, of course.

I endorse free admission for all to museums everywhere. But free admission to people 25 and under at the Whitney Museum in NYC is at least a start. Kudos to artist Julie Mehretu for her advocacy. Would that billionaires followed her lead and, instead of plastering their names on new buildings, donated simply so that the masses had access to culture.

I endorse Mitsuwa Marketplace.

I'm going to skip my (semi)regular section, "Three Things that Kept Me Going This Week," since it feels redundant on top of all these endorsements. But I will add that Chad and I have started the series "Agatha All Along" and it's very enjoyable and perfect Spooky Season viewing. The cast is killer: Kathryn Hahn, Patti Lupone, Aubrey Plaza, Ali Ahn. A bunch of middle-aged, demoralized witches go on a road trip to rekindle their spirits? Basically this show could have been written for me.

Speaking of witches, I am super excited about Shana Gozansky and Gabrielle Balkan's new picturebook, How to Be a Witch. I can't imagine a more perfect Halloween-themed gift for little kids.

And thank you, Lisa C., for recommending that I try the World Peace Cookie! I haven't done so yet but it's going to happen soon.

Also, thank you, Anthony A., for telling me about Zum Deutschen Eck, RIP, after reading last week's Mushroom Head. This reminded me of another such establishment, lost to the wrecking ball, Schneithorst's of St. Louis.

Mushroom Head may need to take next week off for mental health reasons. We'll see. In the meantime, Happy Halloween!

*You can make excellent vegan ganache in under three minutes by putting half a cup of high-quality chocolate chips (I like the "Enjoy Life" brand) into a glass jar and putting the jar into hot water so that the chips melt, then mix in half a cup of coconut milk and a spoonful of coconut oil. Stir until smooth. It will be thick, not watery. After refrigeration you can use the ganache to make vegan truffles or just eat it straight from the jar.

**I especially endorse the version that I heard sung by one of the older students at Michaela's music school. She had a real powerhouse of a voice (better than Taylor's it must be said). The singer's mother was a puddle by the end of the song; if I were her mother I would have been, too.

Thank you for reading! If you like Mushroom Head, please consider leaving me a tip, or share this with a friend. And if you're new here, welcome. Mushroom Head is a comic diary about me, Claire, a middle-aged lady who lives in Oak Park. Previous installments recorded the time I thought I'd ODed on THC and my experience parenting a person with ADHD as a person who has ADHD. There are also occasional forays into the surreal. If you'd like to get in touch with me, please feel free to respond directly to this email. I'm always happy to hear from you! (Also, you might want to put the Mushroom Head email address into your contacts to avoid having it go to your junk folder.) And if someone forwarded this email to you, I hope you will subscribe, because you are welcome here! Unless you are a bot. In that case, boo, please go away.