An oasis in the desert
Thanking Jeremy Allen White and Diana Ross for their service.
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.
Respite from a burning world came last week in the form of Jeremy Allen White for Calvin Klein. Impeccable timing for the campaign to drop in the midst of Saltburn-mania, allowing us to quench our collective thirst with a Jacob Elordi bathwater cocktail. If that’s not really your thing, Diana Ross for YSL* is equally life-giving.
*For the last time, if I don’t look like this when I—eh, you get it.
Welcome to Quality Sheet! This week’s newsletter is packed with reads and recommendations to ignite your curiosity about your neighbourhood, style, nature, politics, parenting, film and more. Let’s dive in.
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“What most of us experience during the first week of the year is not a transcendent evolution into the lives we’ve been longing to lead but a clash between expectations and reality,” the Atlantic’s Isle McElroy writes. If you’ve been feeling pressure to overhaul your entire life since Jan. 1, it might help to reframe this time of year and ease up on any unrealistic expectations you place on yourself, especially when it’s dark and cold outside.
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Flowers are being cockblocked by humans, or something. As our use of pesticides drives down bee populations, blooms that rely on the pollinators are increasingly reproducing by themselves, researchers at the University of Montpellier have found. In turn, the affected plants produce less nectar for bees to feed on, the New York Times’ Carl Zimmer writes.
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If you’re in Paris, San Fransisco, Berlin, London or Beijing at any point this year, here are 10 photography exhibitions worth checking out throughout 2024, compiled by Dazed.
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My friend Nic is about to fulfill her desire to become a mother in a beautiful way. She’s having a baby with her gay best friend Tom, which they’ll co-parent. She writes in the Guardian about how they both came to the decision and the depth of thoughtfulness they put into it: “Neither of us can believe this is really happening after years of thinking we might never have children. But there really is a little baby in there – and this spring we will finally experience parenthood, all by ourselves.” This child is undoubtedly in for an incredible life filled with lots of love and laughter! Subscribe to Nic’s newsletter, The Single Supplement.
🗳️
More than 4 billion people across the globe are heading to the polls this year, making 2024 the biggest election year in history. Watchers are already looking to 2025, with one policy expert telling the New York Times that next year will likely be “very different” as the spread of disinformation, AI manipulation, and fraught public debate that amplifies extremist views threaten to shake up democracy as we know it. “Almost every democracy is under stress, independent of technology…When you add disinformation on top of that, it just creates many opportunities for mischief,” Brookings Institute senior fellow Darrell M. West tells the Times.
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Sex and the City stans: the legendary tutu worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the series’ opening credits is up for auction. It’s expected to sell for *checks sparse coin purse* at least $9,000. That’s quite the ROI when you consider stylist Patricia Field scored it for a bargain: “The iconic skirt was purchased by Field, who found it while shopping for the series in New York's garment district in a five-dollar bin,” the listing on Julien’s Auctions says.
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“[Actors] took risks—something that doesn’t often pay off on the red carpet—and somehow, rather than looking ridiculous, they looked like people who made a choice about what they put on, instead of cogs in a fashion sausage factory,” writes Rachel Tashjian in the Washington Post about stars expressing their personal style on the Golden Globes red carpet.
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No matter where you live, there’s guaranteed to be some level of adventure that awaits when you step out of your front door. That’s the belief that led author Alastair Humphreys to explore his neighbourhood and surrounding areas, just outside London, over the course of a year. What he found along his “micro adventures” was a rich wildlife scene, “quirky, characterful communities” and more, showing that a curiosity about the world needn’t cost the earth. You can find “enjoyment in squeezing short, simple, affordable adventures around the busyness of everyday life,” Humphreys writes in Adventure.
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Sabrina Brier is making us laugh with her skits about friend archetypes—and she’s having fun doing it. She talks to Interview Mag’s Emily Sandstrom about going viral and where she gets inspired for her dangerously relatable characters.
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Lovers of both New York City and film, here’s one to make you feel old: These 14 movies set in the world’s greatest city are celebrating milestone Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z birthdays this year (including When Harry Met Sally, which is almost 35 years old). Related: If you’re in, or heading to, the Big Apple this winter and looking for deals on hotel stays, meals or Broadway shows, click here!
🎙️
Spice up your letters with Royal Mail’s limited edition Spice Girl stamps. Britain’s postal service is releasing them from tomorrow (Jan. 11) to celebrate the iconic group’s 30th anniversary. Pre-order them here.
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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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