Cheese and whine

When Camembert is on the brink of extinction, you cry, ok?

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.

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Eternal optimists are stretching their limbs and cracking their knuckles this week as the bright side is coming into view. Spring is sprouting and the sun is setting after 6pm in three weeks’ time. Plus, we’ve entered the best period of the astrological calendar: Pisces season. Let’s dive in!

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Aliza Sir and Aja Frost very kindly linked Quality Sheet in the most recent issue of Platonic Love, which made my Monday. Their newsletter is such a joy to read—subscribe below. To new subscribers who came from their recommendation, thank you—and welcome!

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The good news: The full charm of the Seine will be on display during the Paris Olympics this summer, after French President Emmanuel Macron canceled a plan that would have closed most of the booksellers lining the river bank. The merchants, displaying and selling reams of France’s literary history, have occupied the area for 450 years. Lonely Planet breaks down the history of the bouquiniste.

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The bad news: Some beloved French cheeses are at risk of extinction. Camembert and some blue cheeses face being lost forever because of a lack of microbial diversity. Crisis may be averted by introducing different strains of fungi into the cheeses we know and love, according to France’s institute for scientific research. That could mean enjoying a green-tinged wheel of soft cheese in the future, a product that was popular until the mid-20th century, before Camemberts and Bries became exclusively white. “If cheese lovers want to keep enjoying these products, they will have to learn to appreciate greater diversity in flavour, colour and texture,” the institute says.

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“We have to write women back into history, and when we write women back into history, for me, that means medicine, research, sports, advertising, academia—that means everything.” Alexandra Allred, author and former US bobsleigh athlete, talks to Atlas Obscura about the history of women in Western sports, which is also the subject of her book, “When Women Stood.”

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“Why aren’t more men willing to identify as feminists?” After recent research flagged a growing ideological gap between young men and women around the world, Dazed’s Ella Glover asks three men in their twenties how more of their peers can support women’s rights in an age when it’s too easy to turn towards extremist and misogynistic content. 

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Shygirl is one of my favourite artists right now. The singer and DJ shares her club playlist with Interview magazine, which perfectly describes her genre as “smutty, grime-inflected dance music.” Start with Nike.

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Writer Gavin Evans explores different schools of thought regarding historical evidence of Jesus’ existence and how his legend might have grown over time. “If Jesus did exist, we know next to nothing about him” from contemporary records, Evans writes.

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I was happy to be invited on Monday to the premiere of “Garms,” a documentary looking at the influence of Black culture on British fashion from the 1940s onwards. If you’re in the UK, you can stream it here from today.

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The churn of TikTok fashion trends is almost catching up to the speed of light. Beyond consumers, it’s an interesting challenge for retailers looking to cash in on each cycle. Bloomberg’s Andrea Felsted looks at how businesses are keeping up.

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Vanessa Williams—I repeat, Wilhelmina Slater—is starring as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical, coming to London’s Dominion Theatre this October. Ugly Betty’s reign continues. Tickets here.

That’s all.

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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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