Meet the mute-cute.
The Truman Show meets 50 First Dates meets Mr Bean.
Pardon the cliché about the tension between the coffee shop customer and the barista. It’s been my reality for a while now, with someone who works at my favourite bakery. Mine, however, is a specific type of agony (🎻) for which I coined a term this past weekend. Meet the mute-cute. It’s like a meet-cute, but instead of introducing each other and launching 1,000 Cupid’s arrows into a heart formation around you, the mute-cute drags on for absolute months. Neither of you says anything—you just exchange timid smiles, darting eye contact, and then silently vow to break the silence next time you see each other. Rinse and repeat.
I’ve accepted that this is the limit of our relationship and, honestly, the thrill is secondary to my need for sweet treats from this very shop at least three times a week. Small mercies. After all, I can’t bear to lose access to my chocolate & hazelnut bun if our entanglement were to go tits-up. Also, it’s probably all in my head. Anyway, stick around this week for humourless babies and the secret to being photogenic.
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“People actually show me their babies because I’m known to be able to tell how smart the baby will be. You can make a baby laugh, but a baby that won’t laugh? Forget it. Trade this baby in for another baby. Get a better baby.” The inimitable Fran Lebowitz on Vogue’s The Run-Through podcast made me snort multiple times. Baby agelasts aside, the conversation covers bespoke clothing, the state of the world and being twenty in 1970s New York vs. being seventy in 2020s New York.
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These portraits by Burkinabe photographer Sanlé Sory remind me of pictures of my parents when they were younger. Coinciding with a newly-independent Burkina Faso, the models snapped in the 1970s and 80s in Sory’s hometown of Bobo-Dioulasso portray a timeless self-confidence, self-possession and self-expression that will make you smile.
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Do you also read the New York Times’ Modern Love section like a bible? If so, you may recall this one from 2021 (one of my favourites). Diana de Vegh is 83, legally blind and just wants someone to help her pick out a toy at a SoHo sex shop. Her piece is freeing and perfect, imho.
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They’re not escape routes, nor are they maps to hidden treasure. Whenever I spot one of these labyrinth squares on the London Underground, I vow to find out what they are, once and for all. Unfortunately, I forget about it as soon as I’m overground again. So I was happy to stumble across this Atlas Obscura piece all about these mysterious displays (yes, they’re works of art!).
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It’s the question that boomerangs around social media every few months: Would you pick lunch with Jay-Z, or $500,000? This week, Mr Carter decided he’s heard enough. He’s whacking you lot ‘round the head with a copy of 4:44 and saying: “TAKE THE MONEY.” (“I'm tryin' to give you a million dollars worth of game for $9.99”). Now, please just stream “Story of O.J.” and let’s all move on with our lives!
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Speaking of Jay-Z: “Déjà vu may be an eerie shadow of the mind at work, and a window into the mind’s evolutionary past,” writes psychology professor Anne Cleary, who researches how mental glitches in the matrix occur. It’s a fascinating dive into how the mind can trick us into believing we’ve experienced a specific scenario before. Apologies if you’ve already seen this.
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From misogyny to divisive outrage and racist trolls, the internet sure can be a bed of roses 🙄! i-D’s Adele Walton compiles 10 books to a) get you off your phone and reading for a few days and b) maybe convince you to stay offline forever.
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“Animal use of plant poisons transcends us, but our uniqueness as human beings enables us to use and abuse them in ways that extend far beyond what any other animal could do.” Noah Whiteman, professor and author, on how poison laces our human experiences for better and for worse.
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If you’re obsessed with how you look in the mirror but balk at pictures of yourself, fear not. It turns out that being photogenic has less to do with attractiveness and more to do with how at ease you are in front of the camera, as well as biases in the way camera tech has historically been developed, The Atlantic’s Michael Waters writes. If you’ve ever been victimised by a flash (🙋🏾♀️), this one’s for you.
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Finally, I’ll just leave this here. Because this? Oh, I’m tuning in. Deadline with details about Wicker, an upcoming film starring Olivia Colman and Dev Patel: “On the outskirts of a village by the sea, lives a Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman); smelly, single and perpetually ridiculed. One day, fed up with her stuffy, small-minded neighbors, she commissions herself a husband to be made from wicker (Dev Patel). In an otherwise conservative town, this unconventional romance sparks outrage, jealousy and chaos.”
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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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