What are you up to this weekend? We’ve been taking neighborhood walks on all the crunchy fallen leaves, and we’re also watching the movie Freaky Friday. But we were talking about how, if you swapped bodies with someone, you’d fall down immediately because your legs would be longer or shorter than you were accustomed to. In every body-swap movie, there should be a half hour of them just crashing around the place. Hope you have a good one, and here are a few fun links from around the web…
Cup of Jo’s 2022 holiday gift guide starts this Monday, drumroll please! Here’s the 2021 gift guide, and we have many fun new finds.
There are six seasons, not four.
Kind of into dark green nail polish. Thoughts?
In defense of a bland Thanksgiving. “In my earlier longings for a ‘different Thanksgiving,’ I see a genuine desire for newness, but also anxiety over what the meal said about me and my family. A more interesting family, a more sophisticated family, maybe even a more high-class family would enjoy radicchio. Instead, I was stuck with cabbage.”
WHAT?!!!! A stranger secretly lived in my home: “Late one night, I noticed the attic hatch was open. All the puzzle pieces fell into place.”
All fall and winter, I’m excited to wear these trusty favorites (and they’re on sale).
Who wants to stretch out on this bread sofa?
The new show Fleishman Is in Trouble — starring Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes — looks great.
My grandfather’s death party was a gift to our family. “People often talk about death as if it’s the worst thing that can happen to someone. As if it’s something that must be avoided at all costs. Better to age, however painfully, however diminished, than to ever admit that we are mortal. But at the end of a long, full life, my grandfather was done. He died with power and agency, love and support. To have that death, he had to acknowledge and embrace his mortality. At our death party, he gave his family a chance to accept that fact, too.” (NYTimes)
How romantic is this drawing?
Home is where your friend is. “A best friend is a different kind of home entirely, one that reveals itself to be more miraculous with the passing of time. Even the words best and friend feel like they should have outgrown each other — too youthful, too indulgent, too clinging to something that should have expired with girlhood. But they are the only ones I know that can capture the bewildering magic of being loved as your fullest self just because. Because your girl pulls up. Because she listens. Because she sees your most complicated self and does not flinch.”
Catherine Newman (of house tour fame) just came out with a novel about two friends and it’s wonderful.
Plus, four reader comments:
Says Oja on how do you throw an easy birthday party: “Our beloved neighbors, who are in their mid 90s, celebrate their birthdays by inviting 10 to 12 people over for chocolate cake and champagne at 7:30 pm. It’s brilliant! You get to see your loved ones and you don’t have to cook dinner as everyone has eaten already.”
Says Louise on how do you throw an easy birthday party: “Round number birthday parties are PRESSURE. My solution is to have the party the year before. I have lovely memories of my 29th birthday cocktail party at home — I can still taste the cucumber martinis. And for my 39th, I hosted a small catered dinner party at home and had the best meal of my life with none of the pressure of throwing a 40th.”
Says Alex on how do you throw an easy birthday party: “For my 30th, I took my closest friends to a trampoline park. We met at my apartment bright and early, carpooled to the trampoline park 20 minutes away, jumped our hearts out, and ended up having an impromptu lunch at a local pub. It was so fun, and there was no attention on me because we were all just doing a great activity! Bonus: this plan also works for random Tuesday nights! People never say no to a trampoline park.”
Says Jenny on these three poems made me gasp: “Family Med doctor here to say I’m here for you ALWAYS. I’ll be here postpartum when everything feels emotionally loud but it’s still the same hot, sharp, cool you in there to post menopause to that time you wonder about that mole to the time we figure out together how you might leave this world in power. Here when you are poor. Here when you need an abortion. Here when you need antidepressants. Here for you ALWAYS.”
(Photo by Mariela Naplatanova/Stocksy.)