The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List

Roasts, our future's future, weight-loss drugs, and a new game-changing kitchen gagdet

It’s a Friday in 1997. You wore your new Limited Too tank to school, it was chicken nuggets for lunch, you had a substitute teacher and got to watch a movie instead of doing equations, and your new Titanic game you started at recess was a hit. You get off the school bus and walk home, knowing that Pizza Hut is on the menu for dinner and there’s a full TGIF line-up starting in a few hours.

Life is good.

I want you to take that feeling and try your damndest to re-create for yourself tonight. Order in the pizza. Watch something nostalgic. Lean into the sweetness that Friday used to hold for you as a child and soak it up.

Oh, and if you’re a paid subscriber, check your inbox tomorrow morning around 10am for a special Saturday letter!

But right now, let’s all talk about some things.

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WATCHING 📺

We watched all three hours of the Tom Brady Roast, but we did it in two sittings because that shit was long as fuck. The first half was pretty fantastic; the second half jumped the shark a bit. There were good jokes in the second half, to be sure, but it just went on for-ev-er. Ben Affleck was weak, Gronk was… scary?, Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer’s bit was not up to snuff, and there was a very awkward, forced moment between Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. BUT Nikki Glaser stole the fucking show (and is a fellow Jayhawk, WHAT UP), Kevin Hart I feel was in raw/rare form, Sam Jay was stellar, Tom’s teammates did pretty good, and Tony Hinchcliffe literally hit every single offensive joke one could possibly hit so, all in all, I’m glad roasts are back. I personally don’t think I’d ever bounce back from being roasted, but maybe I underestimate myself. I’d probably have to take a personal day a la Michael Scott, then come back and roast everyone else.

IMO, Scott Galloway has prick energy for sure and lacks nuance, but. This TED talk he just gave is enraging, eye-opening, sad, and extremely important to watch to understand WTF is going on with the general population. It’s worth 18 minutes of your time.

LISTENING 🎧

Still going hard on Chappell Roan, but have been getting into her older stuff. Her style has changed quite a bit; a few years ago, she sounded way more like Florence + The Machine. Very deep and sultry. This song in particular really does it for me:

A man named Johann Hari just released a book called Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs and is making the rounds on some podcasts, including Bari Weiss’ “Honestly.” He has been on Ozempic for the last year, so his research and experience is firsthand, and his insights and arguments for both sides of the coin are very intriguing. It’s such a massive topic right now and the drugs themselves are so prevalent and only going to become more so, so I like to hear people talk about the implications of it all. Listen to the episode here.

MAKING 🔪

On Monday, I followed the instructions on this crispy garlic potato recipe to a T, and they turned out almost perfect. They were crispy as all get out. The only edit I would make next time is to add the delicious olive oil/garlic/parsley/thyme mixture to them and NOT bake them for an extra 10 minutes. They don’t need it. Toss them in that gorgeous garlic concoction and eat them immediately. Maybe make extra of the concoction, too. You’re gonna want the potatoes covered.

I made an old favorite this week: Chana Masala. It’s a vegetarian dish, and we scooped it up with warm naan and it was a delight. So easy to make, too. Do it!

SHOPPING 🛍️

This week’s big purchase was this 11-in-1 Air Fryer Oven that both my mom and sister have. We have a big red thing that only acts as a convection oven. This guy air fries, bakes, broils, roasts, defrosts, keeps warm, toasts, “pizzas”, “bagels”, and dehydrates. LET’S FUCKING GO, ya know? It arrives this weekend, and I cannot wait to play (I’ve never air fried anything before!!! So this should be fun).

I ordered these flat straw slides from Abercrombie. They haven’t arrived yet, but I have high hopes for them. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Adornmonde keeps advertising these tiny little bow earrings to me on Instagram, and I clicked. I’ve never heard of this brand, but they have SO MANY dainty pieces and I’m kind of into it. I have my eye on a lot of things, including these that look like two piercings in one, which I dig. I also really love this ring, especially because it’s called “Anxi,” which feels like a cute nickname for Anxiety. Tee hee.

I got a new phone case from Casetify (I have a thing for roses and loved this so much) and, while I was at it, shopped their Apple Watch bands, which I’ve never noticed before. I am a sucker for tiny florals, so immediately added this to cart.

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That’s gonna do it for today, y’all. Again, have a TGIF kind of Friday and we’ll talk soon.

— EGM