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Let it Be Sunday, 381!

-An Immediate Mood Booster

July 16, 2022 by Toby L 23 Comments


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!

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Filed Under: Let It Be Sunday!

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  1. Joy Netanya

    July 18, 2022 at 11:08 am

    Bless you for this Taylor Kitsch profile. Perfect thing for my Monday! Also you might like The Bear on Hulu for your next show! We finished it last night and loved it.

    Reply
    • toby

      July 24, 2022 at 5:43 am

      I do believe in the hype but that show was too stressful for me :/

      Reply
  2. Nikki

    July 18, 2022 at 7:17 am

    I’m team Conrad and I’ve got words for Jeremiah but Belly needs to grow up so I guess she got what she got.

    Reply
    • toby

      July 18, 2022 at 10:22 am

      ahaha I think I waver back and forth as much as Belly does.

      Reply
  3. Ellen

    July 17, 2022 at 11:44 pm

    Thank you for telling me that Carrie Brownstein is in Irma Vep!

    Reply
    • toby

      July 18, 2022 at 10:23 am

      Well, unfortunately it’s a fairly minor role. But she does manage to sneak in a Nirvana t-shirt.

      Reply
    • Joan Bernstein

      July 18, 2022 at 12:29 pm

      Not surprising there were no cell phone flashes at the Simon and Garfunkel concert in ’81, since cell phones hadn’t been invented yet.

      Reply
  4. Nina P.

    July 17, 2022 at 1:18 pm

    A great offering as usual. I am also not chill enough for an open marriage, though the concept intrigues me. A couple of my friends have been or are in poly relationships. For some reason the article linked above made me feel irrationally angry. Not at the writer or even her husband (ok maybe a little at her husband. How cliche that he asks about opening their marriage right after the birth of their child. Ugh, men.), but at how impossible it would be for me to have something similar. Part of me feels bad for my husband, feeling like I’ve “trapped” him with me forever. But, I just can’t do the open marriage thing. I think it would slowly kill me. But I worry that not opening our marriage might be slowly killing him (though I have no concrete evidence for this.) So I guess my irrational anger comes from a place of jealousy, perhaps. Congrats to this couple and others who have figured it out. Carpe diem!

    Reply
    • toby

      July 24, 2022 at 5:45 am

      yes, the way he introduced the idea of the open marriage six months after she gave birth colored my image of him in a negative way. what a toad! and your husband is *lucky* to be with you <3

      Reply
    • Heather

      July 24, 2022 at 12:50 pm

      The thing for me was….are they really any more content than before? Didn’t seem like it. And I think her guilt about the effect on the other women was glossed over pretty quick. She seems to be the kind of person that would call herself a feminist, but letting your husband sleep around with 20 year olds while you’re 6 months postpartum sounds a lot like upholding the patriarchy to me. If she had asked Joy what to do during a Spiral session I think I know what the answer would have been ?

      Reply
    • Kris

      July 28, 2022 at 6:20 pm

      I love your mood booster, but all I can think is “Your oldest friend must not have kids!” Because this would never work in my case.

      Reply
  5. BL

    July 17, 2022 at 11:47 am

    Ditto to previous comments: amazing lineup of articles, Toby. Thanks!

    Reply
    • toby

      July 18, 2022 at 10:24 am

      Aw so happy you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  6. Stella

    July 17, 2022 at 10:27 am

    Toby, exceptional selections today. I’m watching Irma Vep and can’t get enough of it either! Oh, Simon and Garfunkel, truly a different time. Their music remains one of the joys in the soundtrack of my life. Thanks for the heads up.

    Reply
    • toby

      July 18, 2022 at 10:25 am

      I’m actually saving the last two episodes because I don’t want it to end! And, yes, “the soundtrack of my life” is such a good description for S&G!

      Reply
  7. Linda

    July 17, 2022 at 9:17 am

    This list might be my favorite of yours to date, Toby. So like Joy to invite another distinctive voice into her space that adds genuine depth to the conversation. Thank you!

    Reply
    • toby

      July 18, 2022 at 10:26 am

      Thank you SO much for the kind words, Linda! I really wanted to bring the sunshine this week :)

      Reply
  8. Jill

    July 17, 2022 at 7:29 am

    Wow, Toby! What an incredible list of links this week. I enjoyed every single one. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Toby

      July 17, 2022 at 7:58 am

      Thank YOU xo

      Reply
  9. Ginger S.

    July 17, 2022 at 6:52 am

    Thank you Toby! May I say that I love your ‘voice’.

    Reply
    • Toby

      July 17, 2022 at 7:11 am

      Haha thanks, Ginger, lord knows I got one.

      Reply
  10. Kristiana

    July 17, 2022 at 4:37 am

    Loved the Taylor Kitsch article from Esquire. He’s such a cool guy.

    Reply
    • Toby

      July 17, 2022 at 5:14 am

      He’s exactly as cool as we all wanted him to be.

      Reply

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