What to expect when you’re expecting
Pregnant with anticipation.
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.
Life right now feels like a movie filled with “girl who is going to be okay” moments. (I think about my friend Grace as I write this.) The mechanics of moving abroad equals lots of box-ticking, emails, phone calls; deep hugs, “I love you”s and goodbyes. Yet, I’m buzzing for what’s coming next. To supplement my anticipation, I’m reading this, wait, sorry, this, a collection of essays by famous New Yorkers about their early days in the city. I’d recommend it to anyone who simply loves New York. It’s basically a version of this.
AAAAND CUT!
Welcome to Quality Sheet. Let’s dive in.
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A leopard never changes its spots…or does it? According to these medieval illustrations of various animals, artists of centuries gone by had different ideas about what big cats looked like. Their drawings feature eerily human features and a snail that looks more like a pig trapped in a prawn’s shell.
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Head to Morocco to taste the best tagines in Marrakech and Essaouira, according to Something Curated. Or…just read about them, crave them and a) attempt to make your own, or b) book a flight for the real deal.
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Next, jump back in time to 1999 and the frenzy around the release of Thomas Harris’ “Hannibal,” which was an early example of going viral in the internet age. Will the character be back? Possibly, Harris previously told the New York Times.
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Sometimes, you just want a good instrumental, y’know? A track you can freestyle over. If you’re in the market for strings over a trap beat, Michael Prince is your guy.
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The Decadent movement of the late 1800s, characterized by indulgence and thrill often to the point of scandal, is valuable in that its teachings can help us shake off our entrenched views and values, writes Kate Hext, associate professor at the University of Exeter. Hext also considers where an unchecked pursuit of pleasure could go wrong: “If it becomes a way of life, by which to feel only on the surfaces and at the heights of human experience, it can become sex without love, taste without nourishment, wit that takes the place of sincerity for fear of being found out.”
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No one ever thinks about where Ronald McDonald goes when he wants to have a good time. Where does he escape to when he’s tired of being an all-singing, all-dancing mascot of corporate America?? The Paris Review might just have found the place: Clownchella. The one-day festival in Los Angeles happens just before Coachella and brings together the city’s clown scene for a day of performances, bonding and perfecting the craft. “Clown boss” Chad Damiani told writer Rob Goyanes why he goes: “We don’t have permission to be dumb in our lives. We’re told that if we’re dumb we’ll lose our jobs, or that we’re bad parents, or bad partners. Here, we can let go and do something foolish.”
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Russell Reed, Harvard’s first geography graduate in 70 years, talks about the “queer renaissance” of the department as it makes a comeback after the programme was scrapped in 1948 (check out the Harvard Crimson’s 1948 article on the decision). Reed argues now is a better time than ever for the discipline to reemerge as the climate crisis intensifies. “The very factors that made geography vulnerable in 1948—its imaginative power, nonconformity, and perhaps even the queerness of many of its practitioners—make the case for its relevance in 2024.”
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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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