What are you up to this weekend? Fifteen-year-old Toby is throwing a party tonight, complete with pizzas and a few liters of Coke. I’ll be hiding out in my room reading my book, in between making flimsy excuses to go check on everyone. Wish me luck! Also, thank you for all the fun comments on our 2025 holiday gift guide so far. Hope you have a good one, and here are a few links from around the web…
I’ve been loving soap bricks — especially this one. Our whole bathroom smells like basil and mint.
The teaser trailer for The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Would you want to sleep in the Goodnight Moon hotel room in Boston?
We’re getting ready for our annual cookie swap. Should we do double-chocolate thumbprints or peanut butter blossoms? Or something else entirely? Would love any recs! (NYTimes gift links)
A beautiful essay on Zohran’s smile. “You know the smile. It is a face-filling, muscle-tensing, high-octane power beam that flares every time Mamdani comes to a podium, every time he is in between sections of a speech, every time he approaches a prospective voter on the street, every time he is filmed dancing in nightclubs in the dead of night, every time he hears someone in the crowd yell ‘Habibi!’ Like every politician’s smile, it is more than a facial expression. It is rhetoric. In his case, it seems to project a mix of things — genuine joy in the process of campaigning itself, confidence and a certain aboveness, accessibility to all comers, refusing to mirror the demeanor of those who traffic in fear of him.”
Gahhhh, this Scottish garden.
I’m halfway through the novel James and am already blown away. Have you read it?
A 420-square-foot apartment in Normandy, France, where IKEA cabinets coexist with historic beams.
Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now? “‘Why does having a boyfriend feel Republican?’ read a top comment, with 12,000 likes.” (British Vogue)
Where are the good boutiques in NYC? Right here. (Big Salad, paywalled)
Plus, two reader comments:
Says Cheryl on 10 gifts for brothers: “Not me falling in love with the J.Crew model pretending he’s Joanna’s brother and since I know her on the internet perhaps this brother and I will meet and possibly kiss and nevermind I’m married with kids and my testosterone levels may be a bit high with all these fluctuating hormones ok bye.” Adds Christina: “Haha I came to say that as well. He is maybe SOMEONE’s brother, but he’s not mine, and he’s freaking hot.”
Says Renee on 11 gifts for kids: “I have quite a story about the book A Very Young Dancer. Like many girls growing up in the 1980s, my sister Gretchen and I took ballet lessons and cherished our copy. My sweet sister Gretchen died of cancer at 13 in 1993, performing in her final ballet recital in our Michigan hometown just a few months before, so graceful in her costume and bald from chemotherapy. In the months following Gretchen’s death, my mom reached out to Jill Krementz to share her gratitude for the book, explaining how much Gretchen loved it and how she continued to dance through her grueling chemotherapy treatments. Jill responded with a gracious letter and offered to come to Michigan from her home on the East Coast, meet our family, and do some outreach events in the community. And indeed she came, sleeping in Gretchen’s bedroom and meeting with our family, friends, and neighbors. And she brought a whole collection of her books with her that is still at my parents’ house today.”
(Photo by Seth Kane/Unsplash.)
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