041224: Things that made life special this week
Wide-leg olive pants, cute cordless table lamps, a funny etiquette podcast, the history of women, the history of food, and more
Hello and welcome to Things That Made Life Special This Week, a celebration of the pursuits that add a little something extra to the everyday.
I’ve had an incredibly productive week in terms of work, admin, errands, and researching some fun things coming up later this year. Feeling that spring energy running through my veins!
In case you missed it, the Wednesday newsletter was all about linen! Antique linen versus modern linen, why it’s terrible now and why it used to be great. And a glimmer of hope for the linen lovers: if you want it badly enough, you can find it. And you don’t have to go to France!
Wearing: Cropped, wide-leg pants in the prettiest olive
With the slightly warmer weather here in Boston, I’ve been sporting these lightweight, flattering, stretchy wide-leg trousers. (I ordered the tall; I’m 5’9”) They come in lots of colors but I love the olive; it’s different than other pants I have and goes with everything. Take your regular or smaller size.
Buying: A cordless, rechargeable table lamp with a cute lampshade
Our power company, Eversource, has planned a three-day outage on my street in a couple of weeks, which I find egregious. Leaving customers without power for three days and basically telling them to deal with it? I have some thoughts.
Instead of fleeing to a hotel, we’re going to make it work at home, charging our phones and laptops elsewhere during the day and seeing by candlelight in the evenings like a couple of pioneers. Do I need a bonnet??? At least I had the foresight to buy a lamp we can charge up beforehand.
I’m actually so curious to see how this will go. No fridge, no wifi, no espresso machine, no TV, obviously no lights for three days. We will probably read a lot—maybe time to revisit Little House on the Prairie?—and get a lot of sleep! More to come later.
Listening: Were You Raised by Wolves? podcast with journalist Nick Leighton and comedian Leah Bonnema
I tend to listen to this podcast in spurts, and I recently came back to it since we’re coming up on the season of invitations and parties and weddings and travel and all kinds of social situations that can bring up social etiquette conundrums.
Nick and Leah answer listener questions and give advice that’s modern, direct, and often very funny.
Reading: Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon
This book is so cool! It’s insanely well-researched (the bibliography takes up about 25% of the page count) and also really approachable and easy to read. It’s like taking a university course with a teacher who’s great at making super ancient history relevant to the modern day. I haven’t finished yet (it’s dense!) but I’m having a hard time putting it down—rare for me to be this engaged in nonfiction.
Making: Simple Italian sausage panzanella tray bake from NYT Cooking
This was so easy and savory for a weeknight dinner. Instead of arugula (which my husband famously hates) I used kale and actually baked it on the sheet during the crouton toasting step to soften it up a little bit. This recipe makes a large portion and I was worried the bread would be soggy after a night in the fridge, but it was crusty (and stale) enough that it stayed crunchy!
Doing: “Creative hour” every day
I’ve been feeling a little… unfulfilled… with my regular paid job but have no idea how or where to pivot. So on Tuesday, I decided to book an hour into my calendar every day for seven days, like it’s an important appointment (which it is), set a timer, put my phone away, and sit down with a notebook and pen to brainstorm. Three days in, I have to say it’s been fruitful! At the very least, it’s slowly revealing what I’d really like to be doing professionally. Figuring out how to make that feasible will be another task altogether… but maybe I can do that in four more days of “creative hours”?
Following: @historyeats on Instagram
Lots of history recs today! This account, run by Eleanor Barnett, a British food historian, is so much fun. It covers food preservation, different beliefs about food across time and cultures, controversial foods (like Marmite!), and she shares some really great food art and imagery, too. One of my favorite recent follows!
I’m changing up how I do the recommendations thread on Substack Chat: Instead of starting a new thread every week (which you may have noticed I don’t usually remember to do…), I’ve started ONE eternal thread where we all can drop in and post whenever we think of/experience something that’s making life special. Because I know you guys have great recommendations.
Join the conversation here:
Here’s how to download the app if you don’t already have it.
Have a great weekend!
xx Jane
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