Five Pick-Me-Ups

Do you have clothes you’ve worn a million times? Mine include this shirt and these flats. So easy and comfy. (Here’s a steal version of the shoes.)

Last weekend, Freddie and I went to see the Amy Sherald exhibit at The Whitney Museum. She paints portraits of Black Americans, both as a way to show people just being themselves and also to correct the omission of Black people in classic American portraiture. For example, this man sitting on a beam nods to the famous photo “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” and the painting of two men kissing (above) references the 1945 photo of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square. They’re stunning in person, and I’d highly recommend seeing the show, if you can!

I sent my friend Alison flowers this week, and the florist, knowing the goal was to comfort, added such beautiful wispy, feathery blooms. I was touched by the idea of women helping women help women.

We talked about Guinness cake and its “damp blackness” this week, but what about mud cake? Jenny Rosenstrach added salted chocolate frosting to her recipe, and, she says, “I swear I almost cried when I tasted the result, I had forgotten how effing amazing it was, simultaneously rich and chocolatey but with a decidedly springy texture.”

Finally, I’ve been reading Keith McNally’s memoir, and I have to say, it’s a banger. The New York restaurateur is unbelievably opinionated about everything from long walks (“I’d rather hike in unspectacular countryside than in the Himalayas”) to his mother (“there was always someone she felt ‘snubbed’ by”) to everyday phrases (“I doubt that I could love anyone who uses the phrase ‘reach out to'”). It’s fun to hear him rave and rage about restaurants, family, and life. If you’re in a memoir mood, here are a bunch of others we’ve loved, too.

P.S. More fun things, and four comedy scenes that made me laugh.