Keen eyes alerted me to the 404 error in that calendar link from last week, and keener minds found the link updated in the Substack archive -- thanks to all who pointed it out! Anyway, we’re all already at inbox overload; I didn’t want a corrective notice to contribute to the damage.
Call them dog days or doldrums, this time of year always makes me want to go somewhere. Two years ago, it was a mid-South road trip with a friend: kicking around Memphis at a duck hotel, followed by the most surreal time of my life in the bizarro gambler spa town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Last year, it was readying for London and Paris.
And this year, it’s all about just trying not to sweat too much and hope for the best at home. Think positively about a Pacific Coast Highway adventure still on the books. Itching to get out and feel dumb and fresh again.
WE TAKE CULTURE TRIPS ON THE INTERNET BECAUSE OUR PASSPORTS HAVE GONE BAD :c
The real estate & interiors that gave me goosebumps this week ...
the French country home of Irish cookbook author Trish Deseine;
the astonishing on-brand-Call Me By Your Name Italian chateau of Luca Guadagnino;
in-depth coverage of a UK country estate once owned by a diamond smuggler.
Solace in the form of a Swedish record store for mice.
“New experiences are indeed important for planting a rich crop of memories. But, by itself, that is not enough. A new physical space seems to be important if our brains are to pay attention.”
When it’s safe: the first week of my post-pandemic social calendar.
I drank in this long piece from 2003 about food writing, coinciding with having just finished Luke Barr’s Provence, 1970, a loose view into the mid-careers of luminaries like Julia Child, James Beard, MFK Fisher, Richard Olney (a real eyeroll of a human in this book, IMO). Anyway, it’s all pretty whitewashed, so keep that in mind.
How 12 female cookbook authors changed the way we eat.