Every time we sat down to record an episode of The High Low, I would sing to Dolly, “Hello darkness, my old friend”. She didn’t really like it - who would? - and yet the compulsion to open every single letter with that same Simon & Garfunkel line, endures. I’ve no idea why. What does this mean? Is my haunted psyche trying to tell me something? Budding (or actual) psychoanalysts, let me know.
Below the paywall today: a podcast my daughter and I loved listening to together, a few book recs for dog lovers, emotional cartology for frazzled humans, an adorable audio story on the dildo, a brilliant piece on Bari Weiss, an interview with Marina Abramović, and a strong case made for why Meghan Markle and Kim Kardashian are the same person.
Two legends died this week: Diane Keaton and Jilly Cooper. The latter I knew a little - I narrated the audiobook for her collection of newspaper columns, Between The Covers, hosted a podcast for Rivals, and wrote a prologue for the 40th edition of Riders - and I shed a little tear on Monday morning, gutted I’d never taken her up on her offer to come visit for tea (I was afraid of taking advantage of her generosity) before going onto Times Radio to waffle about her genius, with Fi Glover.
Here’s a wonderful piece on Jilly by Caitlin Moran - who changed her name to that of a Jilly Cooper character, Caitlin O’Hara, as a teenager (she was born Catherine.) I’m also obsessed with the ever staid New York Times calling the Rutshire Chronicles “sometimes racy” - they were utterly filthy! I then found this amazing interview from 1980 on YouTube - someone asks Jilly if she struggles to be ‘disgusting’ now she’s “a suburban housewife”.
A lot has been written about Gen Z and tech, but this is the first piece I’ve read on smartphone brain by a Zoomer - and it’s extremely good. Writing for The Atlantic, Elias Wachtel explains that “most of us realize that our attention span is shot and our screen time is out of control” with the average Zoomer spending eight hours a day on their phone, but that to get rid of a smartphone feels like a ‘Byzantine leap’ when you can’t remember life without (great phrase, this) ‘digital gavage’. The most insightful paragraph:
“My generation is often described as lacking a monoculture, because what we see on our screens is algorithmically siloed according to our interests and affiliations. But the screen is our monoculture.”
I think The Atlantic might have found its new Derek Thompson.
The funniest thing I read this week was an interview with Brit model Calum Harper by Michael Segalov for The Observer mag, from a few weeks back. Harper is a TikTok supermodel (known for their gsoh as much as their cheekbones) and he’s a riot. Gucci ‘hated’ his vlogging, Thom Browne ‘blacklisted’ him after he accidentally filmed their casting board before they’d confirmed it, catwalk models are grossly underpaid and Paris is “boring and stagnant”. “[W]hen I stop modelling, the way I’m bashing fashion week will be insane”. If this is him being cautious, I can’t wait.
Speaking of fash, Adidas is making streetwear for pets. You’re welcome.
I haven’t listened to Taylor Swift’s new album (I basically only listen to Norah Jones, Nina Simone and classical music) but I’ve read more on The Life of a Showgirl in the last week than I have on anything or anybody ever. If you’re going to give one thing a go, I rec this ep of Today In Focus, with pop and rock critic Alexis Petridis. Incidentally, I watched Swift on Graham Norton and her and Jodi Turner-Smith were very wavy. Apparently (and this was cut from the subsequent broadcast). Turner-Smith leaned across the couch to ask Swift if she wanted kids - which is an incredibly rogue thing to ask anyone on national TV, let alone the most famous popstar in the world.
This is a brilliant interview with Malala Yousafzai by Sirin Kale for The Guardian, which left me feeling rather sad. Now 27, the world famous peace activist talks about the pressure of providing for her extended family (during her time at Oxford, her tutor had to write to her parents to ask them to stop booking her on corporate gigs during term time), the difficulty in cultivating relationships with world leaders in order to run the Malala Fund (her critics, who fail to understand how diplomacy and activism works, accuse her of ‘selling out’), and how those world leaders - Biden, Macron, Johnson, Trudeau - who had lined up to use her “as a photo op”, would not answer her calls when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021. (Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls cannot go to secondary school, or university.) Who did take her calls? Female politicians.
A plague of loom bands has descended upon my house. Tiny rubber bands line the splinters in the floorboards. My children are so obsessed they’ve made skipping ropes out of loom bands. I half expect to be garrotted by one draped across the bannisters. That said, they are the most wonderfully self-regulating activity - much like PlusPlus. I recommend to agitated adults.
My daughter won’t take off this t-shirt that my sister bought her from a bookstore in Brooklyn Heights called Books Are Magic. I’m jealous.
