Friday Five: September 29, 2024
Friday on a Sunday, Again
Hi Consumers! With another hectic work week done, I’m writing this from one of my neighborhood cafes belatedly. I feel like I’m still catching my breath after a whirlwind of work and personal things but I’m happy to be here, writing to you all again. Every comment, text, DM, excited voice note, or enthusiastic email you all send me about this newsletter keeps me going, so thank you all for showing gratitude for this lil newsletter. I’ve been at this for three years now and in that time I published my first-ever cookbook, tried making a more aesthetic but functionally difficult version of the newsletter, published more stories including my first work of fiction, got married, met Oprah (!), and made so many new and wonderful friends. I’m grateful for you! Let’s get into this week’s roundup of joy-inducing goodness.
Newsletter: My dear friend Priyanka runs a newsletter called Shit I Bought and Liked and I consider it a weekly treat to sit down and comb through it. It’s like a Ferrero Rocher in email form — you want to savor it (Ed Note: I eat my rochers layer by layer, if you just chomp into it, I’m afraid of you).
Her recommendations are thoughtful, her writing is engaging and funny, and her range is immense – covering table lamps to the perfect pair of white linen pants to an electronic toothbrush that I’m proud to have in my bathroom! Priyanka interviewed me for her most recent issue which was an honor and a joy: we spent over an hour on Zoom yapping and gushing over one another — the ‘This interview has been condensed for length and clarity’ disclaimer has never been more true. Give it a read, dig into her other posts, subscribe — you deserve these recommendations!
Musical Moment: It’s the 25th Anniversary of Christina Aguilera’s musical debut and nothing has made me feel like more of an elder. Luckily enough for us senior citizens, Christina filmed and recorded her first few singles with Spotify, and I can’t stop listening. If you don’t have the time for the full thing, just start with “What A Girl Wants” featuring Sabrina Carpenter and rejoice in these two superstars uniting in harmony for this killer tune.
Two Bits of News: New York City’s Mayor, Eric Adams, has been indicted. In the middle of a glitzy Glossier launch party, I got a text from a political friend with an early scoop on this and briefly felt like I was a character in a Shonda Rhimes drama. Anyway, I considered making this week’s Consumed just a series of Eric Adams quotes that haunt me but I’ll just give you two goodies instead.
First, from the indictment:
‘You know first stop is always Istanbul’ is going to be in my head for the next year. As if it wasn’t funny enough that this man flew all the way to Turkey en route to France (??), he had to drop this one-liner and completely misspell the city’s name? It’s too much.
Second, a video montage that is best summarized by this TikTok comment: “He gives off J Lo energy- the more he talks about NYC, the less convinced I am that he’s ever lived here”
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Joyful Internet Content:
On my way to shave down some speed bumps,
Roya
Omg!!! Did not expect to see my name when I opened this! Honored 🥹♥️♥️♥️