Friday Five: December 12, 2025
It's beginning to look a lot like Friday
Hi Consumers! We made it to the end of another week… and we lived to tell the tale. I’m back with your Friday Five, your weekly roundup of joyful, cathartic bits and bobs from across the digital universe. This week, we’re starting with:
An ode to jam: My goodness, Samin Nosrat created a beautiful video of Saba Parsa and her beautiful jam company. Watching it feels meditative! I giggled, I drooled, I thought about living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Saba is a joy and I long to be in the kitchen with her one day, turning some kadota figs into incredible jam. Give it a watch and enjoy the gift guide that follows.
Art you want to live in: I’ve just encountered Phoebe Wahl’s work and it feels like a cozy, grown-up version of the Richard Scarry universe: magical, warm, and deeply comforting. I want to know what your favorites are, here are two of mine:
A beautiful tribute: Author Sophie Kinsella (real name: Madeliene Wickham) passed away this week, two years after a glioblastoma diagnosis. The Shopaholic novels were a foray into a fun, fizzy new genre of literature as a teen, I devoured each one even though I had little in common with the protagonists. I’ve never actually seen the movie so I might have to give that a go. I’ve been consumed by this touching bit of her obituary in The Guardian:
On her first day at university, in true romcom style, she met Henry Wickham, a choral scholar, and they married in 1991. It was a notably happy union; they did everything together, including many of her publicity tours, and as their family grew to five children, he eventually gave up his job as a headteacher to become her manager and run the household, which allowed her freedom to write unimpeded. It was in part this marital act of love that allowed her to be so prolific – she wrote more than 30 novels and was planning a new one even in the summer of 2025.
Metaphor for 2025: Shout out to J Wortham for introducing me to a video that made me cry laughing three times in 48 hours. It’s perfect.
Joyful Internet Content: I’ll lead with another angle of the above video, with the perfect commentary: get her in congress immediately.
DJ AG is one of London’s sweethearts, who became known for bringing musicians out for surprise performances in Kings Cross. He’s been spending his holiday season djing in care homes, so here’s more happy tears for you all.
These talented queens aren’t just blowing glass, they’re blowing minds. Relatedly, did anyone else have an irrational belief that they’d be glass blowers one day or was that a result of watching too many specials on the the topic?
Another meditation, just not in jam form:
I’ve never watched Glee or Wicked, but this Cameo may haunt me into doing both:
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Wrapping out with more happy tears for a child I’ve never met, and admiration for a random school in Atlanta that I have zero connection to. Thank you, TikTok.
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Writing in that grandmother’s name on my ballot,
Roya
Fantastic roundup! That glass ramen bowl totally caught me off guard. I've been watchin glassblowing stuff for years but seeing someone actually make functional tableware instead of just decorative pieces feels kinda revolutionary. Makes me wonder if there's a whole world of everyday objects waiting to be reimagined through that craft.
The ramen bowl!!? 😧😍