Happy Weekend Before Thanksgiving, American Friends! If you are like me, you are making many lists and cleaning things and being vaguely annoyed that it’s happening so early this year and also it turns out that Hanukkah is very early as well so it’s like we’re all in a giant snowball picking up speed as we race downhill! (Don’t worry, the gift guide is en route ASAP.)
Just as an FYI, I’m not sure how much news coverage this is getting in places that are not California, but the fall out from the fires (of which there were many) last week is really REALLY very bad. Air quality here in LA is fine at the moment, but San Francisco today had the world air quality in the world. (That is not hyperbole. It’s literally the worst on the entire plant Earth right now.) There are over 600 people missing in the aftermath of the Camp Fire and I cannot imagine that they’re all going to be found alive. The Wolsey Fire seems like it’s getting under control — a family friend was evacuated and was able to go home this week; her house is still there — but it’s going to rain in SoCal this week and I’m pretty worried we’re going to have mudslides on top of everything else. So keep us in your thoughts! (I mean, we also had a terrible mass shooting last week, so it’s really been…a time.) Mercury News has a good piece on how to help Camp Fire victims; Here are some resources for how to help the Woolsey Fire victims, via our local ABC affiliate.
Related, LAist has a chilling and informative piece about how a nuclear site burned during the Woolsey Fire and WHO EVEN KNOWS!!! what happened there because no one is really answering questions.
I thought about saving this for the pre-Thanksgiving Fugs & Pieces but decided it was too good not to share immediately: The First Thanksgiving: Recently arrived refugees in the United States prepare to cook the most American of feasts.
Can we interest you in some SUPER impractical holiday shoes?
Oh! And we had a good chat this week about our favorite Boring Practical Apps.
I loved this piece at The Cut about the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club Festival.
This is one hell of a story, at Mental Floss: How the World’s Only Feudal Lord Outclassed the Nazis to Save Her People It is…amazing. You really want to read it.
Also INSANE and one wild ride, at The Cut: The Watcher. (I don’t want to tell you any more about it. But you should read it.)
At Lainey: OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING ON HENRY CAVILL’S HEAD?
This is so LOGISTICS-y and so interesting: It’s an interview with Michelle Obama’s stylist. It’s highly relevant to our interests. Here’s a tiny piece of it: “Every outfit involved gaming out every possible reaction, good or bad, that she could imagine. She would go along to meetings with policy experts and the foreign relations team. She would research the countries where the first lady was traveling, target a look and finally show the first lady. ‘I would try to make a case for things: This is why it makes sense, why this designer, this cut,’ Ms. Koop said. ‘Then we’d ask, “Do you like it?” And then we’d think about logistics: What surface are you walking on? How many events? Will you be sitting? Will you be standing?” “(The New York Times)
Also at Lainey, I thought this was a super interesting piece about ScarJo and the People’s Choice Awards. Lainey is good at figuring out Hollywood PR strategies and I think she’s right on this one.
This is amazing, about my favorite guilty pleasure TV show, at Vogue: 48 Hours with the cast of Vanderpump Rules, America’s perfect reality show
Fascinating, at Washington Post: Growing the future: High-tech farmers are using LED lights in ways that seem to border on science fiction
This is a great piece at Food & Wine about The Joy of Cooking. (The cookbook, not the existential feeling.) To wit: “The 1943 edition in my home belonged to my husband’s grandmother and has the duct-taped cover and penciled-in notes to prove it. We also have twin comb-bound copies of the 1997 edition, presents from friends or relatives as we each left our childhood homes. Joy is a standard gift for brides and grooms, graduates, first-time renters and homeowners—a building block for a happy, nourishing life. It’s an unexpected legacy for a book that sprung out of tragedy. ” (I have the 1964 version and I DO NOT KNOW WHY. Did I steal it from my Mom? Super possible, although she is too young to have had that version. Did I buy it at a garage sale? ALSO possible. Regardless, it has great desserts.)
Kinda related except not really, at the New York Times: More Weird Ways to Use Food to Clean Your Messes. (Just trust me.)
Over at Pajiba: The TL;DR On the Damning, Bombshell NYTimes Exposé On Facebook
Interesting, at Rolling Stone: The Neverending Story: Has Hollywood’s Reboot Obsession Gone Too Far?
OMG remember that insanely bonkers interview the Victoria’s Secret people did with Vogue last week, that we talked about here? Via Celebitchy: Victoria’s Secret CEO resigns after lower sales, refusal to carry plus sizes
This is AMAZING, at Hyperallergic: The Untouched 4,000-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb of Mehu Opens to the Public. Go to Egypt!
Two cats have been trying to get into a museum in Japan for two years. LET THEM INSIDE, YOU GUYS! [The Guardian]
And now, your moment of zen:
