Isn’t it amazing? It seems like all the trees got on the “wood-wide web” to say, “Let’s get this party started,” and then bloomed at the same time. No matter how many springs this miracle happens, it never fails to astound me, and I feel as if I go around with my jaw dropped for days. The tiny, pale-green leaves like lettuce on the fig tree! The buds pregnant with possibility on the Lady Banks rose! The one time of year I don’t curse the evil Bradford Pear trees as they erupt like flower fountains! Yes, Congress is still doing nothing about everything, we’re having a climate emergency, and nuclear war is on all our minds. But the fecund earth, the furious leafing! I don’t know how to witness Ukraine being destroyed and spring arriving simultaneously without feeling the deepest internal conflict. Grief and glory-be, annihilation and celebration, blood and blooms—how do we reconcile these two irreconcilable events? In one of her books, Anne LaMott wrote that there are just three essential prayers -- Help, Thanks, Wow -- and I find that I’m saying them all in the same breath right now. |
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I’ve been tempted to buy a pair of Rothy’s shoes for quite a while because of their eco sensibility (made from post-consumer plastic waste) and the fact that the knit uppers look so comfortable (and you can put them in the washing machine!). Plus, they’re actually attractive. My only hesitation is the price, but I’m wondering if any of you own a pair, and if so, what’s your verdict? Pass or purchase? |
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I first learned about the Welsh singer Cate Le Bon from Austin Kleon’s newsletter and an article in The New Yorker. This moving video for “Home to You” from her Reward album is set in a Roma community in Slovakia. I love the whole album as well as her latest, Pompeii. Her other-worldly music may not be for everyone, but it seems to evoke something lost and mourned and tenderly remembered for me. “…Why is it that music/At its most beautiful/Opens a wound in us/An ache a desolation/Deep as a homesickness/For some far-off/And half-forgotten country…” (from “ Music,” by Anne Porter) |
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Yes, I’d love “bigger, better, full-on glamorous hair” as Oribe promises of its Dry Texturizing Spray, but I’d settle for a little help in the Swamp of Humidity called Charleston in the summer. I’ve seen this cited as a miracle product by several style-setters online, so I’m going to give it a try. (Miracles not included.) |
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I’m not a Margarita fan, but a friend mixed me a drink recently made with Jack Rudy Margarita Mix, tequila (from a ginormous cheap bottle from Costco), soda water to taste, fresh-squeezed lime juice, and a splash of sweet jalapeno juice. It was delicious, and you can adjust the ingredients as you like to make it weaker or stronger. It might even replace gin and tonic to become my favorite summer porch drink. |
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