I was going to write about bougie sweaters this week. But then ICE murdered yet another person in Minneapolis and, well, much as I like to treat this newsletter as reality-adjacent at best, it's hard to commit sustained thought to knitwear right now. So instead I'
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. Rose Byrne got a much-deserved Oscar nomination for her work in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, I film I greatly admired and never want to see again. I re-watched Lost in Translation a
This past December, a very good thing happened to me: I got a two-book deal for two novels I've been writing for the better part of the past decade. My publisher, Bloomsbury, asked me for a headshot they could use to accompany the announcement. This quite reasonable
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. Helen Frankenthaler is at MoMA for three more weeks! Mulatu Astatke's Éthiopiques Vol. 4, forever transcendent. People in the U.K. are helping hedgehogs by creating hedgehog highways, a phrase I will never get tired of saying.
Whether it's due to a flawed memory or a subconscious act of radical self-care, I don't remember much about junior high school. But what I do recall with great clarity is the feeling of being left out, of wishing I could, for just a moment,
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. Aimee Levitt, who was one of my best contributors at Eater, has written a smart and disturbing piece in the Guardian about how Google AI is wreaking havoc on the recipes and livelihoods of recipe writers. Also smart and
As I drag myself out of a two-week semi-hibernation (hello! Happy New Year!), I've been thinking, unsurprisingly, about resolutions. I used to be a New Year's resolutions person; as someone who lives to make lists, I appreciated the concept. At least in theory. In
I'm in France this week, so in the spirit of Gallic appreciation, this week's round-up is of some good things that happen to be French. There's now a walkway in Paris named after Jane Birkin, and her daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon
When does novelty graduate to annual tradition? That's a question I've been asking myself about The Family Stone because I can't pinpoint which year it became essential holiday viewing in my home. I do know for sure that its origin is tied to my
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. House socks. I saw these at the MoMA Design Store last weekend; while I didn't buy them, they represent my ideal winter fantasy, i.e. swaddling myself in layers of protective fabric and never leaving the house.
"Rebecca, hi from Open AI! Holiday hosting w/ChatGPT?" This fragrant morsel appeared in my inbox about an hour ago, coincidentally right after I'd put a batch of Dorie Greenspan's World Peace cookie dough into the refrigerator to chill. When I was at Eater,
A brief weekly round-up of some things that are good. Lactaid. The ideal Ashkenazi stocking stuffer, if we did that kind of thing. Cookies. As both a general category of food and the title of Jesse Szewczyk's baking book. The latter serves a dual purpose as my