Welcome to Quality Sheet, a weekly assortment of outside-the-box news, events, trends and offbeat oddities to indulge your curiosity. Subscribe for a midweek treat each Wednesday that'll make you hummm with intrigue and amusement.
My evening Hot Girl Walks have resumed in earnest over the past two weeks, thanks to the days getting longer. As luck would have it, I’m already getting bang for my buck. Last Tuesday, I spotted a pair of ducks mating by the small lake in my favourite park. Didn’t even think to take a picture. I just stood and watched in admiration. Is that creepy? Anyway, nature is healing.
Welcome to Quality Sheet! Let’s jump in.
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“Dysregulation” is the therapy-speak phrase of the moment. But what does it actually mean—and how did the clinical term gain mainstream popularity? The Cut’s Rachel Sugar gets to the heart of it. “The fundamental appeal of regulatory language is the idea that there is a calm stasis to return to, a “you” separate from your acute distress,” she writes.
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Yes, Marks & Spencer has a decent biscuit aisle. But did you know the retailer was once instrumental in developing women’s clothing measurements? The Economist delves through the 20th century archive of one of Britain’s most famous brands, outlining how the 140-year-old company has helped spur social and domestic changes.
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Sociologist Erving Goffman’s ‘interaction order’ idea looks at the “complicated norms” brought about by the way we interact with each other, and how they can exclude people who don’t adhere to them. “Goffman showed us that life is social all the way down—nothing we do is untouched by the norms and expectations of our community,” Lucy McDonald, lecturer at Kings College London, writes in Aeon.
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Fake flowers in restaurants: For or against? Whatever your preference, meet Carlos Franqui, the man behind some of New York’s sprawling faux-tanical displays.
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Over to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where adults are playing with crayons. The Happy Medium cafe swaps pastries for art supplies, allowing customers to create art and express themselves through craft. Also, the story format is just lovely. One patron tells the New York Times about her reason for going: “I just wanted to try something different. Something I didn’t have to think about and make perfect.”
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This November, London’s Royal Festival Hall will showcase art made by people in detention. The show is thanks to the Koestler Arts foundation, which puts on a similar exhibition every year featuring artists held in “secure mental health facilities, immigration removal centres, young offender institutions, and [people] on community sentences across the UK.”
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Spain’s labour minister recently suggested the nation’s enviable late dining culture is “not reasonable” in promoting a healthy work-life balance. Here’s why her comments caused uproar—and why the custom is a staple for Spaniards.
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Thank you for reading. Share to sweeten someone’s day—and have a lovely rest of your week!
Isabel :)
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