What are you up to this weekend? Tonight I’m excited to see Oh, Mary!, the dark-comedy play about Mary Todd Lincoln. It’s supposed to be hilarious, and I can’t wait to see Cole Escola perform in real life. Also, here’s our Cup of Jo Holiday Gift Guide so far, as well as our Big Salad Gift Guide featuring three friends. Hope you have a good one, and here are a few links from around the web…
Would you attend a Jeremy Allen-White lookalike contest?
Love the cable detail on this sweater — and oooooh this skirt!
A very vegetarian Thanksgiving. (NYTimes gift link)
How the Irish came to rule pop culture. Columnist Séamas O’Reilly says that Ireland benefits from being “everyone’s second-favorite country.” Writer Róisín Lanigan says shows and books often depict “a certain type of Irish. On the whole, it seems to be, ‘They’re hot and sad.’” (NYMag)
Would you make a tater tot quiche?
“When I was a teenager, I took the train to go to the record store to find rare stuff,” says filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt. “Spotify is way more convenient, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to get out and to feel like you’re hunting.” I feel this way about Netflix vs Blockbuster Video — I mean, driving with all your cousins and siblings to Blockbuster on December 26th to duke it out over what movie you were going to rent and watch with the entire family? Now that was LIVING!
What a killer Tony Soprano impression.
Cold swimming under ice looks extremely claustrophobic.
John Krasinski was named People’s sexiest man alive, and Hunter Harris has thoughts: “He could be the sexiest man at an airport Panera. He could very well be the sexiest man on the campus of a small midwestern private university. He could be the sexiest man at a Pottery Barn outlet, getting a great deal on a big lamp. No, John Krasinski was not the sexiest man alive in 2024. He was not even the sexiest man in The Office! (That was David Wallace.) John Krasinski is not even the sexiest man in his own family. That’d be his brother-in-law, Stanley Tucci.”
Plus, three reader comments:
Says Emily on what stage of parenting are you in: “I saw something so sweet the other day – reframing the ‘Empty Nest’ phase as the ‘Open Door’ phase, and orienting your parenting for that to be the end goal. Your home has an open door for your grown kids to come and go, through texts, calls, and in-person visits.”
Says Kara on what’s your low-key wish for humanity: “I wasn’t diagnosed with my autism until I was 34. When a grocery cart is empty, it’s SO MUCH LOUDER, and it bounces around a lot more. I always struggled to return the cart because pushing it across blacktop felt like nails in my hands and ears. I didn’t know not everyone experienced this; I just assumed I was lazy human garbage. After I got my diagnosis, I started noticing all the things I had been white-knuckling through. When I was checking out at the grocery store, and the clerk asked, ‘Do you need help out?’ it suddenly occurred to me that I DID. I said, ‘Yeah, uh, I have autism, and the cart is pretty rattle-y; could somebody push it for me while I plug my ears?’ And she said, ‘Yep! Of course!’ When I got to my car, and the person took the cart away, I got in the front seat and sobbed. This was the first time I hadn’t had to return the cart myself and set my nervous system on fire. It wasn’t a big deal for them to help me, but it was a HUGE DEAL for me to know to ask. Here’s the TL;DR: If you ever find yourself asking, ‘Why can’t you just —’ STOP. Do not finish that sentence. The world is incredibly difficult, and you don’t always know what someone’s struggle may be. So, if you are able, yes, totally return the cart. But assuming something negative about a person because they aren’t doing something *you* find easy, actually makes the world a harsher place.”
Says Cyndi on what’s your low-key wish for humanity: “I’m reminded of the sage advice given by our dear Catherine Newman in an NPR interview: ‘[Being an etiquette columnist] has influenced every single aspect of my life. If you write an etiquette column for 10 years, you see that it’s really hard to deal with the fact of other people’s otherness. Every etiquette question could be reduced to that. You don’t like somebody’s wind chimes. Someone puts lipstick on at the table. Do you invite your gay cousin-in-law to your wedding? The thrust of every question is, people are different from me, and I can’t stand it. And then the thing that you have to say to everybody is, you have to stand it. That’s the human condition. You have to approach it with as much grace as is humanly possible, which is more grace than you’re currently mustering.’ I find myself referring to this advice all the time, especially while navigating life with twin toddlers.”
(Photo by J. Anthony/Stocksy.)
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