An Immediate Mood Booster

Hello, hi!

If you’d like an immediate mood booster, follow this simple 3-step procedure: 

1. Call one of your oldest friends at the last minute (this won’t work if you plan in advance)
2. Head to one of the oldest dive bars in town
3. Order a ginger ale and a po’boy and proceed to catch up on ~life~ 

Additional notes: it helps if your friend has the gumption to commandeer the TV remote and change the channel to Columbo of all shows because, heck yeah, Peter Falk. And the final part of this winning formula is to meet up at 6pm so you’re *in bed* by 10pm. 

Anyway, I did just that a few weekends ago and it was the highlight of my month. Below are some more mood boosters that came across my desk and happy Sunday!

Xo,

Toby

• I am not chill enough to consider an open marriage, but I would marry the writing in Jean Garnett’s article, Scenes from An Open Marriage. (The Paris Review)

• Honestly, this is one of the main reasons we left LA for a smaller town: Cities Aren’t Built for Kids. And I can’t help but think that many of the suggestions the writer makes to improve infrastructure for families would help the environment, too. (The Atlantic)

• Like many of you, I would not have made it through the pandemic without a steady diet of meme culture. So I loved diving into the background of American Girl Doll-Core. Those women are a gift from the heavens. (HuffPost)

• PSA: If you see these delicious freaks of nature when you’re out and about, make sure to grab a package. Or two, depending on how fast they went in our house. (Publix) 

• Is anyone else out there watching Irma Vep? I’m utterly obsessed. Alicia Vikander plays an impossibly sexy American actress shooting a vampire mini series in Paris. Carrie Brownstein plays her agent and the show is highly stylized + dark, but not scary. (HBOMax)

• Well, I know a lot of y’all are watching The Summer I Turned Pretty so let’s hear it: are you rooting for Conrad or Jeremiah? My best friend read the series and I’m guilty of shaking her down for spoilers. So I’m not at liberty to participate in this conversation. But! I would love to hear your thoughts as always :) (Amazon)

• “Look, we are not unspectacular things. / We’ve come this far, survived this much. What / would happen if we decided to survive more?” Those are beautiful words from our new Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. (New York Times)

• If you’re on the market for a refreshing change of pace, here’s Simon and Garfunkel’s 1981 concert in Central Park shown in full with no ads. Hurry up before the YouTube overlords take it down! There were 750,000 people in the audience and not a single cell phone light or camera in sight. About an hour in, Paul Simon’s singing “Johnny Ace” when a crazy fan jumps on stage and Paul doesn’t lose a single beat. (YouTube)

• Sorry, fellow humans, I’m on Team Sea Lion. (Twitter)

• Calling all 90’s teens, you’ll want to check out the history of the Lilith Fair. Ah what a dream lineup. I saw this show back in the day, and certainly loved it, but I feel like my puny 15-year-old brain didn’t fully comprehend how groundbreaking it was at the time. (NPR)

• Last week I made Joy’s Baked Coconut Crusted Fish Tacos by following the recipe to a T and am here to report that it’s perfect, no notes. We even topped our tacos with grilled corn for some summer flair. (Joy the Baker)

• If you spent more than two minutes scrolling social media last week, you’ve already seen this gem. But let’s just watch it again. (Instagram) 

• Internet princess Rayne Fisher-Quann wrote a stunning analysis of everyone’s favorite plastic heap in her article, Selling Sunset and the Shimmering Edifice of Feminist Capitalism. The last line threw me for a LOOP. (Next Mag)

• Tim Riggins on life and wolves is exactly what you need right now. (Esquire)

• Lastly, this might be a long shot but have any of you tried this beauty? I think it’d make a lovely traveling companion but can’t imagine adding it to my cart before smelling it first. (Diptyque)

Have a lovely day, friends!