A blessed Labor Day weekend to my fellow Americans. I hope your celebrations are safe and fun!
In other news, I am so weary of having to start all of these posts with something along the lines of, “this week was terrible because of X,” but X keeps happening, and so we press onward. I hope those of you who were in the path of Hurricane Ida are safe and dry (and have power). The New York Times rounded up ways to help hurricane victims and, as always, we welcome other suggestions in the comments.
In the wake of the news of Texas’s incredibly regressive new abortion bill — Slate’s take on this is Of Course This Supreme Court Ended Roe v. Wade by Doing Nothing — I personally donated to this Act Blue amalgamation of Texas abortion funds. (They take your donation and split it among ten different groups.) This site, run by Avow and the Lilith Fund, which was shared with us by a reader, also helps women in Texas who need an abortion, and includes a place to donate as well as a lot of practical and logistical guidance.
Related, this is a fascinating story: They Called Her “the Che Guevara of Abortion Reformers” [Slate]
This was very interesting, and obviously somewhat harrowing: Covert Evacuations and Planned Demolitions: How the C.I.A. Left Its Last Base in Afghanistan. [NYT]
Well worth your time and really interesting, at The Ringer: The Reclamation of Shang-Chi. To wit: “On Friday, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ will mark the arrival of the MCU’s first Asian American lead character. But it’s not just a triumphant moment of representation—it’s one that aims to reverse decades of comic book stereotyping.”
This story is WILD. WILD: The Red-Pilling of Kitson: The boutique that defined early-aughts L.A. style has taken an … unexpected turn. [The Cut]
Do you need to cheer yourselves up with cute autumnal items? Well, I rounded some up. (And looking at our sales analytics, the answer is YES and also I might need to write a post that’s literally Just Cute Pumpkin Stuff. I get it!)
This is a super interesting piece about the new (yet also old!) Bond movie that’s maybe finally coming out?! I remember they did a really early promo event for that at the very beginning of 2020 and I was like, “oh, this will be a fun press tour this year” HAHAHAHAHHAHA OMG I hate a pandemic! [Lainey]
I hadn’t thought about this promotion in ages and then it all came flooding back to me: The Mysterious Vanishing Act Of The AMC Popcorn Guy. There is something sincerely entertaining to me about the fact that there is definitely someone working at/for AMC who has a Popcorn-Guy-sized headache for a while now. (Sorry to that man.) [Mel Magazine]
Is Kiki Dunst gonna win an Oscar? I VOTE YES (even though I haven’t seen her movie yet. I just love her). I will never forget, many moons ago, when Heather and I did the post-Oscar fashion wrap up with Joan Rivers and Joan told us that when Kirsten got to her place on the red carpet, she opened her purse and she had torn one of the M&M ads Joan had done — remember those? — out of a magazine and asked Joan to sign it. Joan was delighted, obviously. [Lainey]
This is very interesting: How ‘Parent Trap’s’ Hayley Mills survived kid stardom, bulimia and losing her Disney money. I must have seen her version of The Parent Trap one hundred times (all due respect to the Lohan one, which I also love). Her memoir sounds good! [LA Times; that last link there is an affiliate one to Amazon]
This is a good read: A stunning second act! Meet the people who changed course in midlife – and loved it. [The Guardian]
Very thoughtful, at the LA Times: 20 years after 9/11, an American Muslim recalls the costs of war you didn’t see on TV
I feel like I support this pairing as a couple: Zoe Kravitz and Channing Tatum are ‘having fun’ in new romance. (I need to confess that, last week, I was on drugs because I am recovering from a surgical procedure — I’m fine! — and I saw a photo of the two of them where Zoe looked SO MUCH like her mother that I was thrown into a maelstrom wondering how I missed the news that Lisa Bonet had broken up with Jason Momoa. Then I was like, “damn, Lisa Bonet, good for you!!!!!” But I am happy it’s Zoe and not her mother.)
Really interesting: ‘He’s All That,’ Addison Rae, and Turning TikTok Stars Into ‘Real Celebrities’ [Pajiba]
Fascinating: What I Learned When I Rented My Parents’ Former Home as an Airbnb: “They’d tried to escape the future by building a home off the grid. But the future found them anyway.” [The Atlantic]
Eater takes on the Times Square Margaritaville, with intriguing (and amusing) results. There is a LOT I could pull from this story — it’s really smart — but I’ll leave you with this: ” Something was happening with the giant Statue of Liberty. Dan and I jumped out of our seats and ran to see a light show projecting onto her majestic margarita, choreographed in time to the music. There were neon dolphins, erupting coral reefs, flames giving way to ice cubes fading into a shimmering mirror ball. It was overwhelming like Times Square is overwhelming, and for the first time I understood how this level of light and noise could be awe-inspiring rather than just annoying. It forced all other concerns and worries out of my head and replaced them with the phrase DISCO MARGARITA. It was aggressive, it sent me to the edge of my joy and had me teetering on panic, but I couldn’t think of anything else — the taco-induced, work-is-killing-me crisis of moments before was gone. No thoughts, just Buffett.” [Eater]
Tennis! Drama! Stefanos Tsitsipas’s long potty breaks have become an international story. (Also, if you missed it, we had a rollicking chat about this year’s kits this morning.) Tennis drama is some of my fave drama, generally. [Celebitchy]
We had a fun chat about the items we’re brand loyal to, and it’s more interesting than you might anticipate just from reading that sentence.
