This week was a lot and, once again, I’m not sure what there is to say. Breonna Taylor’s life mattered. Black women’s lives matter. We’ve been doing this same shit for years. No, really. Our opponent doesn’t have a conscience.

Here’s what else I’ve got tonight.

Writing

Also wanted to re-up this one, from a couple of months ago: Self-Care Tips for Black People Who Are Really Going Through It Right Now.

Reading

The Election That Could Break America, The Atlantic.

The Prophecies of Q, The Atlantic.

What we can learn about QAnon from the Satanic Panic, Vox.

The N95 shortage America can’t seem to fix, Washington Post.

How We Survive the Winter, The Atlantic.

Amid the Outpouring for Ginsburg, a Hint of Backlash, The New York Times.

Her Lawyers Say She Was Coerced To Plead Guilty To A Crime That Never Happened, The Appeal.

This Is the Casual Racism That I Face at My Elite High School, The New York Times.

How a Marriage Survives a Cult, The Cut.

The Long Golden Age of Useless, American Crap, LitHub.

Guess I Gotta Write This Goddamn Diversity Article Again, Transom.

Is It Okay to Have Hope?, ¡Hola Papi!.

Donating

This week, I donated to Movement Voter Project, Forward Majority, and Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. I’m also writing letters for Vote Forward.

Have a good one. ❤️

Sign up to get these links each week in a newsletter.

🍑

Just Good Shit: 09.20.20

Hi, friends. I wish I had something eloquent or helpful to say about RBG’s passing but I’m kind of at a loss for words. But I’ve re-read Rebecca Traister’s latest piece for The Cut a few times now, and I have been thinking a lot about this sentiment in particular:

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg matters, now as much as she ever has, but her survival alone couldn’t have saved us, any more than getting rid of Donald Trump will save us. We are facing something far larger: a desperate, life-or-death fight to rebuild, reimagine, reform (and in some cases raze) enormous apparatuses, including our criminal justice, electoral, health-care, and education systems, labor and capitalism, education, housing, the courts themselves, and, most urgently, the health of our planet. It will call on us to fight as fiercely and with as much determination as Ginsburg herself fought, through her life and career.”

Here’s what else I had going on this week:

Reading

A pandemic, a motel without power and a potentially terrifying glimpse of Orlando’s future, Washington Post.

We Could Lose Roe v. Wade Next Year. What Now?, The Cut.

Housekeepers Face a Disaster Generations in the Making, The New York Times.

Buying Myself Back, The Cut.

What Happened Inside Ed Buck’s Apartment?, The New York Times.

How to track your ballot like a UPS package, Washington Post.

It Took Divorce to Make My Marriage Equal, Glamour.

The Consequences of Your Actions, Design Mom.
Go OFF, Design Mom!! I loved this.

Watching

Becoming on Netflix; The Source Family on Amazon Prime (just OK imo, though three people I trust spoke very highly of it); and more Real Housewives of Potomac.

Donating

This week, I donated to Jaime Harrison, who is running against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, and Mike Espy, who is running for Senate in Mississippi (where he’d be the first Black senator since 1881). I also have recurring monthly donations set up for Sister District, along with Black and Pink and Food Bank for New York City.

Have a good one. 🤍

Sign up to get these links each week in a newsletter.

🍑

Just Good Shit: 09.13.20

Hello again! Here’s what I was up to this week…

Writing

I also contributed to this guide to voting by mail in all 50 states.

Reading

I’m currently reading The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness.

Also:

America Is Trapped in a Pandemic Spiral, The Atlantic.

They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won’t Anybody Listen?, ProPublica.

“9/11 changed my family forever. I'd like to tell you about that day from my family's perspective.”

‘May rent. June rent. Late fees. Penalties.’ Tusdae Barr, on being evicted from her home during the coronavirus crisis, The Washington Post.

The Electoral College Will Destroy America, The New York Times.

Every COVID-19 Death Has Devastated a Family, Slate.

I’m Unemployed and Trans. Getting the Help I Need Has Been a Nightmare, them.

N.Y. Will Move Homeless Men From Liberal Neighborhood After Backlash, The New York Times.
This makes me so fucking angry.

Coronavirus, Charity, and the Trolley Problem, Crooked.
This funny and moving essay about donating bone marrow during a pandemic is one of the best things I’ve read in recent memory.

The DMV Reviewed Thousands of Hilarious Vanity Plate Applications Last Year. These Are Our Favorites, Los Angeles Magazine.

Watching & listening to

We’ve been watching The Vow and Real Housewives of Potomac (starting with Season 2 — it’s so funny and fun to watch). I also highly recommend You’re Wrong About’s Tuskegee syphilis study episode.

Other shit

I recently got a lap desk ($40 from Amazon) and am thrilled with this purchase; I wish I’d had this ages ago. (Bonus: this one is wide enough that I can actually use my mouse with it!!)
I’m transitioning to fall with this cozy blue sweatshirt ($29.90 at Uniqlo).
We’ve been doing this beginner bodyweight workout for the past two weeks and it’s just what I needed in a home workout — challenging but doable, and fairly quick.

Have a good night! ✨

Sign up to get these links each week in a newsletter.

🍑

Just Good Shit: 09.06.20

Hi! Here’s what’s new around here this week…

Writing

The Biggest Sorority Insurer Made a COVID Waiver for Members to Sign

On the blog

Important: pumpkin butterscotch cookies

I was also quoted in a New York Times article about being there for a friend who just lost their job.

Reading

The Rent Eats First, Even During a Pandemic, The New York Times.

The Eco–Yogi Slumlords of Brooklyn, The Cut.

On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic, Vanity Fair.

Dolezal 2.0 — The Audacity of Cosplaying as Black, Bitch.

Schlitterbahn’s Tragic Slide, Texas Monthly.
A horrifying longread from a couple of years ago that I’d never read.

Off the Rack (comic), The Nib.

Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy Answer Every Question We Have About Best in Show, Vulture.

Watching & listening to

Class Action Park on HBO, which is absolutely worth a watch — I gasped so many times. Also this CNN segment about evictions in Houston. And I really enjoyed the Stepford Wives episode of You’re Wrong About.

Have a good evening! 🍪

🍑

Important: pumpkin butterscotch cookies

Now that we’re all simply proceeding as though it’s fall, outside temperature be damned, it seems like a great time to re-up this old recipe, which is so goddamn good. I posted it to my old old blog when I was living in Texas many moons ago, and then to my old blog in 2017…and now I’m posting it here, because it’s that important! (I *believe* I got it from the Libby’s Pumpkin website way back when, but I’m not 100% sure.)

The cookies are a big hit every time I make them, and while I typically bake them in October as a Halloween treat, they’re also great for Friendsgiving/Thanksgiving/whatever (in normal years).

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola or corn oil

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup butterscotch chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer.
Add the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla and mix until blended. It will turn the color of Halloween and smell like cake batter.
Add the flour mixture slowly, until it is thoroughly blended, and the batter is thick.
Stir in the butterscotch morsels.
Line two baking sheets with wax paper and spray with cooking spray (or just use a silicone baking mat).
Using a small spoon, scoop globs (there’s no other word for it — you’ll understand if you make them) of the dough onto the lined sheets. ***Do not make the rounds too big! I did that at first, and ended up with massive pumpkin pillows. It still happens to be occasionally. Try to keep them neat and cute.***
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for five minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 🍁

🍑

Just Good Shit: 08.30.20

Hello! Here’s what I had going on this week…

On the blog

Go on, live a little — get yourself the giant pasta-shaped garlic peeler

Writing

How to Talk to a Friend Whose Posts Have You Worried

Reading

This week, I put down the galley of The Lying Life of Adults so I could read Finding Freedom, the new book about Meghan and Harry. The heart wants what the heart wants!! Finding Freedom reads like an Elin Hildebrand novel (in a good way) and while the book, like, absolutely needs to calm down in some places, I really liked it overall.

Also:

What if It All Goes Wrong?, Slate.
Election worst-case scenarios.

We’ve Seen New York’s White Flight Before, The Atlantic.

‘How is this possible? What are the odds?’ The Graveson family, on what the coronavirus has done to them, Washington Post.

Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful, Elemental.

Tune in, drop out, Rest of World.
“What constitutes being ‘alone’ can be fuzzy, but it ultimately comes down to the physical and psychological boundaries one draws around oneself. Honjok might partake in leisure activities alone, maintain a single-person household, avoid a workplace or office setting, limit social circles, abstain from sex or romantic relationships, or reject marriage or children.”

Dear Fuck-Up: I Think I Ruined My Ex's Life, Jezebel.
”There are certain relationships in which one person holds so much sway over the other that the obligation to do the right thing lies solely with that party.”

15 California Getaways, Design Love Fest.
If you want to play make-believe.

A Reminder to Enfold Yourself in Small Comforts, The New York Times.

Also! If you’ve been wanting to learn to knit, you should pre-order my friend Alanna’s new book Knit a Hat: A Beginner's Guide to Knitting, which will be out September 8.

Have a good evening! 🧶

Sign up to receive these links each week in an email.

🍑

Go on, live a little — get yourself the giant pasta-shaped garlic peeler

Photo of oversized piece of (fake) penne on wood surface in front of a vintage yellow glass bowl holding heads of garlic

When my girlfriend bought this giant fake piece of penne from GreatBigStuff.com — along with some bowtie pasta pot grippers — I expected it to merely be decorative. That alone would be great! But much to my delight, it’s also a surprisingly effective garlic peeler.

Hand rollng oversized piece of (fake) penne on wood surface next to a vintage yellow glass bowl holding heads of garlic

Gif of peeled clove of garlic being removed from oversized piece of (fake) penne

Peeling garlic by hand is a fairly annoying task, and putting it in a plastic tube — that, it cannot be overstated, looks like a giant piece of penne — and rolling it around is a nice alternative that doesn’t take up a lot of kitchen space.

I highly recommend it! Get it from GreatBigStuff.com for $19. 🍝