New year, old me
Hello 2024! We’re back. After two weeks of daily ice cream cones, swimming pools, sleep regressions, and precisely 31 pages of a beach read, I’m feeling refreshed and ready to convince myself that January is the best month. Here’s what’s been on my mind this week:
Well Read
I like reading The Guardian columnist Eva Wiseman because her voice is confident and bold, in a way that’s refreshing and (not to use an already overused word) authentic. Today, in the early days of 2024, I share with you a piece she wrote a year ago, but one that remains relevant so long as New Year’s resolutions are still a thing. In it, she says a big no thanks to the notion of “New year, new you.” Her argument:
“At some point the effort of conceiving, producing and birthing yet another new you becomes treacherous. You run the risk of destroying the original you, now simply a host to all the prawnish enhanced versions emerging annually from its ruins with their abs and therapy words. Enough. Enough of all this – enough self-help (let’s help each other), enough self-improvement (find the joys hidden beneath the rocks in our existing if flawed little lives), enough struggling to be better when most of us are almost absolutely fine exactly as we are.
Would you care to join me in a nap? Or a gentle stroll through the arcade, or up the high street? Would you like to sit comfortably for a while here on the sofa and marvel at the telly, and the comfort of our slippers, and the way our bodies instinctively know when to breathe in and out, and the gentle setting of the sun through the curtains, and the fact that both of us have lived to see another January? New year, old me – and I promise, that’s absolutely fine.”
As I lounge in my favorite sweatshirt, preparing to watch yet another old episode of Brooklyn 99, I’m sold! How about you?
Well Watched
I didn’t watch the Golden Globes! There, I said it. But I did catch red carpet highlights and my favorites were: Hunter Schafer (in Prada), Ayo Edebiri (Prada), Greta Lee (Loewe), and Greta Gerwig (Fendi). And I was tuned in enough to know that host Jo Koy delivered a terrible monologue. That didn’t keep certain talented artists from winning big and saying something worth hearing. Like Lily Gladstone, who stars in Killers of the Flower Moon as an Osage woman in 1920s Oklahoma. Gladstone made history as the first Indigenous woman to win the award for Best Female Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. After speaking briefly in Blackfeet, she said:
“I’m so grateful that I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I'm not fluent in, up here because, in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English and then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.”
And then there’s Edebiri, who won for her role in The Bear, and is probably the first person to ever thank her agent and manager’s assistants. Yes!
Well Fed
I’ve never really gotten the hang of Instagram Reels, but my mom most definitely has; I receive toddler tips, genius Amazon finds, and easy recipes from her regularly. I can’t possibly watch them all. Which is why I didn’t pay too much attention (sorry!) when a recipe for one-pan couscous and chicken made it into my DMs recently. But I was so wrong. Boston-based Hebrew teacher and recipe creator Ruhama Shitrit might just turn me into a Reels person after all. Here’s the recipe in question, which I made last night for some friends who came over (just weeks before they’re due with twins! Ah!) As mentioned, it’s a one-pan chicken and ptitim (otherwise known as Israeli couscous) and it’s genuinely very easy to put together and very tasty to eat. If I invite you over in the foreseeable future, chances are we’ll be having that for dinner. I paired it with Ruhama’s sugar snap pea and avocado salad—yet another crazy easy and flavorful recipe—and a tahini carrot dish from Sababa (as if I haven’t already professed my adoration for Adeena Sussman enough yet). And there! A whole meal, made in the midst of bath and bedtime routines, with little clean up afterward. Thanks, mom!
Well Worn
The idea of being a walking billboard for a brand, store, or restaurant feels icky. But at the same time, if you love the institution, why not? Lately, I’ve found myself drawn to this kind of “merch,” so to speak. Or maybe I always have been. After all, Coby and I changed into matching Jon & Vinny’s tees in the late hours of our wedding (see below; for the uninitiated, J&V is a beloved LA restaurant). So this renewed interest is just more of that. Here are the pieces I would be glad to tote around these days:
It probably all started with this Diner tee, which I saw on chef Eden Grinshpan on Instagram a few weeks ago. She was wearing it as pajamas, but I quickly realized I would wear it everywhere! And if you haven’t been to this Williamsburg spot, there’s a wonderful burger waiting for you there.
I love Fish Wife’s beach mermaid hat, for all the anchovy lovers out there, which I first saw on my friend Adrea. I have wanted one ever since.
Also in the realm of hats: Mother Tongue, an excellent magazine centered on motherhood, makes a cap I love in colors I didn’t realize worked so darn well together: purple and red. And SoHo pizzeria with ridiculous wait times Rubirosa has a new corduroy hat emblazoned with its famous tie-dye pizza.
Glossier may have been the first makeup brand to foray into hoodies, but I’m partial to Violette_FR’s Bisous tee, made in partnership with a Parisian skate brand.
I love buying mugs from coffee shops I love, but this Canyon Coffee sweatshirt is a good one too. (I have an old plain Canyon sweatshirt that they sadly don’t make anymore, but is my absolute favorite. It was dyed in coffee, giving it the greatest off-white color.)
I know, I know. It’s not cool to be a proud goop fan, but whatever. I’m doing me. Plus, the bell sleeves and the simplicity of this sweatshirt are wonderful.
If you’re cooler than that, this Brooklyn Museum crewneck is just as simple, but with greater cultural cache. I initially liked the classic gray one, but since that’s sold out, I’ve convinced myself that the black-on-black is better anyway.
Chef Alison Roman knows how to sell a cookbook—like with this “Table for One” long sleeve shirt, which embodies her quirky/casual vibe well.
I share this one reluctantly because of how popular it’s gotten, but Ralph’s Coffee does make a great latte and a good tote. Also, Russ & Daughters, purveyor of top-notch bagels and lox, has a great vintage canvas tote bag that isn’t like all your other canvas tote bags.
Keeping with New York institutions, this NYC Ballet youth tee, featuring five ballet positions, is amazing. I’m in denial that it only comes in kids’ sizes because I convinced myself a Youth Large would work for me. It kind of does?
Some images are just etched into memory and, for no good reason at all, one of those for me is a photo of Sophia Loren taking an iconic glance at Jayne Mansfield’s cleavage. Jon & Vinny’s sister wine shop, Helen’s, has this wonderful Hollywood throwback on a t-shirt.
Signing off with this totally glamorous shot of Diana Ross, the new face of Saint Laurent:
More next week! x
Thank you for this beautiful newsletter as always! Well done!!