Friday Five: June 19, 2026
Greetings Consumers! Happy Friday.
I’ve been experiencing a wave of self-doubt and waning confidence in myself as a writer, which is why I’ve kept recent newsletter ledes short and sweet. I know this is a phase, and it will pass like any other. It’ll pass more quickly if I just embrace the discomfort and get back into the rhythm, so here I am, attempting to share something beautiful and something slightly less beautiful. I can’t outright call it ugly, but it’s certainly… curious.
Something beautiful: I believe jasmine shrubs and vines should be an urban planning intervention in cities everywhere. It is a public good. Wafting jasmine should be something every city-dweller experiences every summer. Walking, running, and cycling around town, I get whiffs of it and it’s beautifully cloying. It’s so sticky-sweet I want to be consumed by it. I love being engulfed by the scent first and then having to scan for the source of it.
If I were ever a Mayor, mandatory jasmine planting would be part of my campaign platform. Editors Note: I ran for Mayor of my second grade classroom on a slogan that centered on my name backwards — ayoR for MayoR. I lost.
My lovely friend Radhika taught me the most common varietal in the UK is called star jasmine, for the stunning, sharp, asterisk-like shape the blossoms take. The Royal Horticultural Society describes it as a vigorous, evergreen plant that’s also a woody climber. I taught Radhika a special Iranian trick I learned from my Grandmother and Mom: pick off a few jasmine flowers and stick them in your shirt pocket or bra (if you’re wearing one). You’ll get the wafting sent of jasmine for hours from the warmth on your chest. At the end of the day, you’ll forget until you change your clothes and the spent flowers fall to the floor. Pick them up and give them one final sniff before bed.
Something less beautiful: I’m slowly developing an addiction to Lucozade, a British sports drink. For the Brits reading, I’ve actually yet to try the fizzy orange formula that’s the original and most popular flavor, I’ve been enjoying the ‘Sport’ line which has less sugar than the original.
There’s no Gatorade in this country to my knowledge, I believe they tried a launch in the early 2000s and couldn’t beat the incumbent Lucozade (has this two word phrase ever been written?). According to a retail insider quoted in 2007, “The colour is too lurid.” And honestly, they’re right — the neon yellow is a bit much.
Like many other good things, the Lucozade kick started after a run. I was looking for a thirst quencher, popped into the local bodega and grabbed two bottles (one for myself and one for my partner, I’m not a complete freak), running the last few blocks home with one in each hand like an Olympian relayer. Cue the Kylie Minogue, it was love at first sip… and I just can’t get it out of my head.
I assume certain food dyes and sweeteners are banned here by regulation, which probably explains it — to me, Lucozade tastes like the Gatorade of my youth crossed with Guzzler lemonade, something my mom bought us for the rare sporty occasion: the school field day each summer. And now, like Pavlov’s dogs, I’m conditioning myself to expect this reward after a sweaty summer run. I love the tail-end of a run, jogging in place in the bodega while getting my phone out to pay, strutting like a fool with two bottles in hand for a few blocks, smiling gleefully.
A Worthwhile Read: Kaitlyn Greenridge’s latest for Harper’s Bazaar is about Juneteenth and a new short-documentary Power to the People, Y’all, which is co-directed by the brilliant Tressie McMillan Cottom. She interviewed a few members of the party and there are several quotes I wanted to pull, but this one is sitting with me:
Knicks-tory: If you’ve made it this far, here’s a snapshot of my state of mind this week.
Here is a tiny sampling of Knicks content that’s sustained me:
Joyful Internet Content:
This is so perfectly stupid, I love it and would like to recreate it for England featuring M&S, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and perhaps Morrisons.
Running towards a jasmine bush, Lucozade in hand,
Roya
The Madagascar Jasmine has the most beautiful flower and lasting aroma. This is the one I was getting from good old nursery at our neighborhood, Benkei.