Dez Reads. Eat Less Veggies and Read More Books.

We cover the hottest stories of the summer this week.

By now, everyone knows that lettuce is to be avoided for the time-being. My kids have attempted to use this as an excuse to cut all fruits and vegetables out of their diets for the balance of 2026.

Phil Bogdan rushes to the defense of the little guy – Taco Bell, part of $40 billion Yum! Brands – which has been unfairly maligned for something it was previously fairly maligned for. Sorry for the heavy edit on your scatological humor, P-Money.

Nathaniel Beach has a take on Nolan’s The Odyssey, which he reminds us is a work of fiction, not history. Important context, and also the first and last Odyssey take here in Dez Reads.

Helen has a book review for us, and I dig the new content format. Reviews may be a bigger part of our content strategy moving forward. I read an interview with the author she cites and need to stop reading management books for a while and pick up a work of fiction.

And finally, Katie shows off her new last name (congratulations!) in signing off her reminder that Christmas in July, like the Odyssey, is fiction. Unlike any Christopher Nolan film, it should be ignored completely as an illegitimate concept. #KeepChristmasInDecember.

Thanks, as always, for reading along with us.

Here we go.

An Excuse to Skip Your Vegetables.

USA Today. Taco Bell offering $1 lettuce-free deal amid cyclospora outbreak

Poor Taco Bell, as if you needed any more associations with incontinence.

Last week, federal health officials identified lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants across five states among the many sources of cyclospora, the parasite that forced more than 11,500 people to…well, you know by now. But Taco Bell deserves some credit here for being responsible. They quickly removed all lettuce from their products before contamination was traced to their stores. They cut business ties with Taylor Farms once they learned they were the source of the outbreak, and then they took the situation in stride by offering a special $1 deal for lettuce-free Enchiritos. I don’t even know what those are. I do know, however, that Taco Bell’s reputation has been harmed thanks to content creators and their torrent of meme videos.

Give Taco Bell a break, social media. Try associating the nation’s gastrointestinal issues with the real villain: Taylor Farms.

– Phillip Bogdan

100% Accurate and Totally Made-Up Fiction.

USA Today. Elon Musk says his AI will make ‘accurate’ version of ‘The Odyssey.’

I’m spending my Friday evening going to the movies to watch Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

Supposedly it’s been getting heat over the creative liberties it’s taking in casting choices and costuming. Elon Musk has been at the forefront of pushing the narrative of how it’s going to flop (it’s already made over $300 million in like 2 weeks.) So, I guess to combat that, we’ll be blessed with more of The Odyssey via a full-length AI-generated version thanks to Grok that’s deemed “historically accurate.”

The Odyssey. You know, that famously historical piece of work. The one with the cyclops and goddesses who rearrange reality.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Elon and should wait to see the AI-generated historical recollection of one of the world’s famous myths myself before making fun of it. That’s what critics did with Nolan’s movie. Maybe this will be the start of something grand, and we can get historically accurate versions of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings next.

In the meantime, I’ll set my expectations aside and happily watch Nolan’s version until we see what Grok can produce. Because nothing screams historical accuracy more than turning the fictional “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns” into the very accurate “Muse, tell me about the man — he’s not just a normal man, he’s the man of twists and turns”.

– Nathaniel Beach

A Book Review.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

Just finished Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, and the twist genuinely blindsided me. Rare for a thriller these days.

Natalie Heller Mills is a tradwife influencer with millions of followers, selling a curated homesteading fantasy from her idyllic ranch (nannies and industrial appliances stay safely off camera). Then one morning, she wakes up living the actual 1800s version of it. No electricity, bleeding fingers, and a husband and kids who feel both familiar and completely wrong.

What makes it work is the whiplash. You are inside the head of a narcissistic, hilarious influencer on one page, then plunged into the exhausting, brutal interior of a real 19th-century tradwife the next. It is funny, sad, gross, and genuinely scary, sometimes all in the same chapter.

When the twist finally lands (no spoilers from me), it hits harder than I expected. Nothing about it felt like a cheap trick. Her poor kids never asked for any of this.

It’s a sharp, dark satire about internet authenticity and what happens when the performance becomes the prison. 10/10 read.

– Helen Taylor

Summer Scrooge.

Marketing Resource Blog. Christmas In July, A Retail Traffic Promotion

As we approach the August recess, the grown-up corporate version of the dog days of summer, I have been bombarded by “Christmas in July.” Whether it be gingerbread lattes, peppermint ice cream, or some weird Santa swimsuit, consumer America takes every chance they get.

If you love this out-of-place celebration, we are not the same. And the explanation is not whimsical; there’s no holiday magic. It’s simple as money. Businesses are trying to get around the sales slump, too far past Memorial Day, too long until Labor Day, and everyone’s on a beach somewhere enjoying vacation instead of shopping. They can creatively clear left-over inventory, or drive brand differentiation.

I remain firmly in the good old dog days. See you in December, Christmas.

– Katie Davis

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