SoHo long 👋🏾: A short love story

It was over in a New York minute.

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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I once told a guy I was seeing that, if I were to have children, I’d name one Greene and the other Mercer after my two favourite streets in SoHo, New York. It would have brought the romance full-circle: we first met at a crossing along Broadway and, well, that’s not exactly a bully-proof name for a kid, so I thought I was doing us both a favour. In the end, it wasn’t in the stars for us. About two weeks after that conversation, we were no longer talking. Maybe the outcome would have been different if I’d suggested Prince and Wooster?

Anywho, Happy Valentine’s Day. In this week’s Quality Sheet: 

• A bird with a romantic preference for human men over her own species.

• The story of Ed Dwight, who almost became the first Black man in space.

• Julianne Moore.

• And more!

Let’s dive in.

🍭

Walnut was a special bird. The crane preferred humans over her own species. Her preference ran deep enough that conservationists believe she may even have seen herself as human. In her prime, she managed to woo a human “mate,” a move that was critical to the survival of white-naped cranes. Who was the lucky guy, you ask? A Crowe—Chris Crowe, to be exact, a keeper at the Smithsonian National Zoo. “Crowe was able to artificially inseminate Walnut, using a syringe and a semen sample from a male white-naped crane. As a reward, he’d give her a mouse and some verbal praise, and they’d move along with their day. Sure, the whole thing was weird, ‘but it was kind of the job,’” The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey writes. RIP to Walnut, who died on Jan. 31 after two decades of being Crowe’s bird.

🍦

New York Fashion Week ends today, but rumbling underground the week before was Berlin Fashion Week. The collections, from lesser-known yet highly innovative brands, have clear and intriguing stories to tell, Dazed’s Elliot Hoste reports.

🍬

My girl Robyn is hosting a night of “connection, creative expression and other sparkles of joy to lift your winter spirits” in Berlin tomorrow. I’m sad I can’t make it, but if you’re in the city, you’ll regret missing it! Info + location below:

🍪

Discover the weird and wonderful “satirical sketches” of Stephanie Orma. If you’ve ever felt like a dog hung out to dry, you’ll love ‘em. Orma’s approach? "I mash what I see in reality with what I want to see and/or how I experience the world—with a wink from the lighter side,” she tells Creative Boom’s Dom Carter.

🥠

As a boy, Ed Dwight dreamed of flying. He was set to make history as the first Black man in space as part of a U.S. mission, but a series of setbacks in the 60s, including racism during his training, held him back. His story still inspired Black astronauts in later years, such as Bernard Harris. Dwight’s story is now being told to a new audience for National Geographic’s documentary “The Space Race.” The Associated Press’ Jake Coyle spoke to Dwight about his path—and his career as a sculptor, now in his nineties. “My first flight was the most exhilarating thing in the world. There were no streets or stop signs up there. You were free as a bird,” Dwight tells Coyle.

🍯

Beyoncé’s country era has deep roots. While we wait for the album, Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom breaks down the symbolism of the icon’s artistry for Act II of Renaissance, from her hair to her Texan identity. “Beyonce has always been very, very country,” McMillan Cottom notes.

🍫

Edward Enninful’s final cover as editor-in-chief of British Vogue “wasn’t just a totem to these celebrities, it was a totem to Enninful,” writes Amy Odell. The 40 women featured are a testament to the diversity his era ushered in—and prioritised. Click here for Odell’s insightful analysis. 

🥞

Last month, developers broke ground on a plot of land that lay empty for more than 20 years across the road from my flat. The site once housed a cinema that has long-since been demolished. But the abandoned rubble stood like the ghost of a community past for an entire generation. What, and who, could that space have inspired if it had been repurposed faster? “It's easy to write off the loss of a single building, but the unraveling of a community happens a thread at a time,” Matthew Christopher writes in Atlas Obscura, who makes the case for preserving long-forgotten buildings.

🍩

Here’s what to know about LA’s controversial graffiti-covered high-rise that recently brought an abandoned billion-dollar residential project into the headlines. Related: If you’re a graffiti fan, check out “Infamy,” a documentary about some of America’s top street artists.

☕

And, finally: Jazmine Hughes’ profile of Julianne Moore for The Cut is perfection, as are the images.

💝

Thank you for reading. Share as a last-minute Valentine’s Day present—and have a lovely rest of your week!

Isabel :)

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