The more you age, the less you rage
A dose of optimism to start the year.
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.
Happy new year. I hope your holidays were spent doing whatever makes you feel happy and rested. Me? I laughed, I cried and I swelled with pride. That’s because I spent a good chunk of Christmas watching “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” for the first time. I wish I could zap my memory and re-start this masterpiece—it’s now my favourite show.
But, back to the present day. Personally, 2024 has some big shoes to fill. See, 2023 was the year I scored a real Ligne Roset Togo sofa at a charity shop for a criminally low price. It was practically a steal. So, this year, I’m going for gold. May the blessings continue and be abundant for you also.
Ready? This week’s Quality Sheet is about looking forward to growing older, wishing on a star, sexy candles and a sprinkle of Travis Kelce. If you’re new here, welcome to the chaos…
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Dreamers! Got your New Year’s resolutions, vision boards and manifestation lists ready? Great. Now, these are the 2024 dates you need to know to head outside after sunset, look up to the stars and make a wish. If you love to admire the beauty of the skies, this year looks to be “sensational for stargazers,” Lonely Planet says.
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I know less than zero about the NFL, but the buzz around Travis Kelce is fascinating. Here’s what you need to know about the crack team of strategists making his star rise, guided by his visionary twin managers, André and Aaron Eanes.
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When it comes to companies taking a public stance on societal issues, the data from stakeholders is glaring: “About two-thirds of employees expect companies to play a role on societal matters. Two-thirds of customers expect and prefer to deal with companies that they can connect with. And about 90% of investors take into account environmental matters and societal matters not for political reasons, [but] because these factors have an impact on business,” says Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy. He speaks to HBR’s Brian Kenny about how business leaders decide when, or if, to speak up.
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Gone are the days when a pair of New York-based journalists could move to Paris and set up an avant-garde magazine that would capture the fantasy and pulse of the city through an expat lens. During its two-year tenure in the 1970s, that’s exactly what “The Paris Metro” did, covering the hot topics, trends and taboos du jour. Read all about the magazine’s rise and fall here. “The more we criticized the French, the more they loved us,” (fair!) editor and co-founder Harry Stein tells The Paris Review’s Adrienne Raphel.
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At 9,000 years old, the Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük is a relic originating from one of the world’s “oldest known human settlements” in Turkey. “She sits like a queen, her back straight, indented rolls of skin spilling out around her like clay waterfalls, with two big cats – possibly leopards – staring ahead from under her resting hands,” writes Angela Saini, author of “The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule.” Saini reveals what this artifact says about the society from which it came, specifically, how power was determined less by gender and more by age. Saini describes the many ways in which ageing as a woman—as challenging as it can be—can be immensely freeing. “Wouldn’t we all appreciate not having to bear the weight of what society expects of us?”
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Speaking of ageing, if you’re in the U.K., do you remember when BBC 2 used to air those “Grumpy Old Women” and “Grumpy Old Men” documentaries in the 2000s? They made me laugh my pre-teen head off. Contrary to the things they’d grumble about, though, studies suggest that as you age, you can expect to become “nicer and kinder, and less depressed and anxious,” the Atlantic’s Arthur C. Brooks writes.
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If you were gifted a candle or three for Christmas, here’s a quick guide on the health effects of burning scented goods. (Sidenote: are we calling Diptyque a candle company or…something else? I discovered the Amber scent over the holidays and, yeah. Oh! Yes. Side effects are unspeakable.)
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“Walking home that night along the Danube, I felt an almost ecstatic relief to be alone again. Free to observe the tourists and the drunks and the couples sitting on benches by the water. Free to make individual choices about my life. Small ones like eating sushi instead of cold cherry soup and big ones like not having a family.” Author Lexi Freiman on shedding the shame around eating out alone. She writes about her summer spent visiting the same sushi restaurant in Hungary every night for a month, which led her to uncover a multilayered freedom. Related: If you get your thrills from eating out alone, here’s a piece I wrote last year about my love of grabbing a table for one on my other newsletter, Colouring Outside The Lines.
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If you’re in London and seeking redemption after a debauched party season, here’s a sensible church activity. St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square is putting on “an immersive sound and light show” called Life, which “takes viewers through life on the planet, from the oceans to the earth to the sky, in a 24-hour period,” according to London On The Inside. On from January 30 to February 3, get tickets 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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