Friendmendations 10.4.21
Starting your life in your 30s instead of your 20s, being horny for M&Ms, a whole bunch of good TikToks
Hi again! I'm back! Gosh it was nice to take some time off. So nice that I feel kind of guilty about it. I had a couple weeks on end where I didn't have to worry about even one thing! What a concept! I do need to find a job now, and I am worrying about that a lot, but I can focus on it now that I've had some time for my brain to relax.
I saw family and friends and made some progress on setting up my nice new apartment. I finally got into Succession. The rumors are true: it really is the best show of all time. I've also really been enjoying Only Murders in the Building and binged the LuLaRoe documentary with my mom. (On the subject, I loved Anne Helen Petersen's "What Got Left Out of LuLaRich," particularly her callout that the doc doesn't get into the factories that manufactured their products!)
Britney Spears seems to be on track to leave her conservatorship! Her dirtbag father is OUT!
What a month! But we're back on track and that means it's time for some recs!
Stuff I read (on the more serious side)
- "Advice: How Do I Make Up For My Lost Years?" – this one hit hard!
- "I feel weird about Dear Evan Hansen"
- "Tammy Faye, Tonya Harding and the Rise of Image Rehab Cinema" – I especially appreciated the line about how I, Tonya "wound up getting laughs at the expense of the same Harding-as-bumpkin persona it set out to debunk," as I found that movie so cruel and so tonally confused
- "Her Name Is Not Honey Boo Boo" – on the topic of cruel mockery of stereotypes! This profile reminded me of the Onion piece "You Do, Of Course, Realize That This Is Going To End Very, Very Badly" and I'm glad she's doing better than they predicted
Stuff I read that's ridiculous
- "What Is A Good Gift For My Very Serious Nephew?"
- "The Cursed History of the Sexy Green M&M" – I have a thousand thoughts on this. Everyone just thought the green ones were an aphrodisiac? This was a known thing? Into the 90s?
TikToks that killed me dead
- Barbara's Fosse tutorial
- An Irish romcom
- Local news coverage of emo culture in the early aughts
- Does Noodles have bones?
Okay, that's it for recs, except for two extremely specific fall beverage tips. If you're in New York, try the butternut maple latte at Maman. If you're in Raleigh, try the campfire mocha at Jubala. That one would be best on a particularly crisp day, and don't order it ahead of time or the toasted marshmallow will melt.
Please follow me on Instagram so I can apply for affiliate links and look like a real internet personality, and follow me on Twitter for observations like this. See you later this week cuz I've got an essay cooking for ya, oh boy!!
Good stuff from last year:
Allison Driskill
Allison Driskill