Fully fall + The best hour of TV

Hello, friends!

What’s your favorite fall album? I think the most quintessential autumn album is Paul McCartney’s Ram. Released in 1971, it was McCartney’s first solo record and was conceived on a farm in Scotland where he’d built a love nest with Linda. All the songs have a cozy, domestically blissful feel. And the song, “Eat at Home,” makes me want to push up my sweater sleeves like Neve Campbell in Party of Five and cook a big batch of butternut squash soup. Below are some lighthearted links for your weekend and happy Thanksgiving!

Xo,

Toby

•  Did anybody else watch  I Hate Suzie? I somehow missed the original airing* of the British show about a former child star who has an affair that tears her life apart. The lead actress twists her face to convey every emotion on the map—something most botoxed American actresses can’t do—and the episode where Suzie’s best friend critiques her sex fantasies was the best thing I watched this year. (HBOMax)

*Oh. It came out in June, 2020. The only thing that got me through that year was watching Cheers every night, which I highly recommend as a coping mechanism no matter what stage of a global pandemic you’re experiencing.  

•  “I felt unusually thankful for the chicken, which had once been alive, and for the arbitrary cosmic reality that I was the person cooking the chicken and not the chicken itself.” Jia Tolentino on The Unexpected Gratitude of Eating Roast Chicken After Taking LSD is an excellent piece of food and drug writing. (Bon Appetit) 

•  This masterful profile of director Sarah Polley ahead of her adaptation of Miriam Toews’ Women Talking is worth using up your one free monthly article. (New Yorker) 

•  They better give Christina Applegate an Emmy this year—that’s all. (Variety)

•  I have such a high regard for etiquette, writing ‘thank you’ notes is my religion. This article on the decline of etiquette goes beyond the whole “zomg things are different” angle and brings up some interesting points, particularly when it comes to the loose strictures of social rules + the need for instilling boundaries in an era of abundant communication. (The Atlantic)

•  Dan Kois always seems like he’s having fun at work. (Slate)

•  My main source of life lately has been going to see live music, so I related 100% to Joy Netanya Thompson’s brilliant post on going to shows solo. Now I just need to gather the guts to do it myself. (Gloria)

•  Speaking of live music, I just bought tickets to see Thom Yorke’s new project, The Smile. It pretty much sounds like Radiohead and I can’t freaking wait. (Spotify)

•  Hunter Harris on Winston Duke is a treat. (Esquire)

•  It’s neat—though kinda stressful—to see how the Who? Weekly podcast sausage is made in this interview with Bobby and Lindsey. They really work their buns off to bring Wholigans the best celeb goss. Crunch crunch. (Transom)

•  The Crockpot has gotta be the dorkiest kitchen appliance of the moment and yet I use mine once a week. Fellow loyalists will appreciate this lengthy ode to how the slow cooker changed the world. (Longreads)

•  Roxane Gay’s long kiss goodnight. (Twitter) 

•  Tehran-born hat designer and artist Maryam Keyhani has been one of my favorite follows for a few years now, since she’s basically like if Kate Spade lived in Berlin. Lately, she’s sharing content on the protests in Iran that’s reliable and up to date. (Instagram)

•  I read every piece of coverage on Joan Didion’s auction and found this one to be the most profound mainly because of its defense of stuff + the art of clutter. (Harper’s Bazaar)

•  Janelle Sanchez’s post on growing up without her dad is so touching and beautifully written. We’re only Internet friends but I wish I could give her a hug. (Cup of Jo)

•  The kids were out of school 200 days this month so we made Joy’s pumpkin muffins, which were perfect for my crew since the recipe is fairly simple. Ofc I let them dump in an entire bag of chocolate chips and the result was delicious. (Joy the Baker)

•  Admittedly, I was suffering from newsletter fatigue until media princess Rachel Syme launched her Hotel Movie Club. Each issue dives into a hotel-specific movie with a treasure trove of history and trivia. It’s a delight. (Substack) 

•  And, finally, S.G. Goodman on the legacy of women in country music includes a playlist that’s perfect for your Sunday morning. (Oxford American)