The newsletters in New York are thick and nutritious. [Clare please come up with something better to put here. –Sarah] [Okay. What about, “Newsletters are fun and this is one and we hope you Like it and we know we haven’t known each other very long but we’re ready to say it: we love you.” —Clare]
To-do list:
Follow us on Twitter, follow the Washington Review of Books on Twitter and subscribe to their newsletter, and reply to this email to let us know if you would play the Wordle board game (see below.)
Links:
They’re making a Wordle board game [Absolutely Would-le. —C]
[This was largely over my head but still a good read on a topic I posted about this week. Thanks to the managing editor for sending it my way. –Sarah]
Clare Coffey writes for Gawker on the new Persuasion movie. They have taken away Anne and replaced her with Mia Thermopolis: “Cracknell’s Anne has no problem speaking up for herself; when she is not delivering a sassy one-liner to another character, she smirks and snarks at the camera. This transformation may be due to a belief that the photogenic virtues are the only real ones, or at least the only ones that sell subscriptions. It may also be due to an inability to deal with the fact that for much of the novel, Anne is in severe and unrelieved emotional pain.” [Mr. Coffey and I have been very happy together. Haha! Just kidding! I wait on the Lord. —C]
Tweets:
[I’ve never seen a link I wouldn’t click to “save for later.” –Sarah]
[We expect answers to this question. —Clare]
Shapes:
Bet you guys forgot about this section, huh? Anyway, Sarah learned about ingots last week (not technically a shape but kind of.)
Nails:
Sarah has short and stubby nails that she is trying to grow long and healthy before the editors’ retreat in two weekends. She’s going to paint her toenails a color called “mint candy apple” before vacation.
Clare has always felt kind of self-conscious about her hands but got a gel manicure with small extensions this week and feels very feminine. She has no idea how to take decent photos of her hands though so you’ll have to deal with this one. Her toes are a really fun bright orange color that makes her happy to look at. She got that shade at Target, a retail establishment that was recently maligned by her associate editors.
Weddings:
This week, the Girls discuss Alexandra Daddario’s wedding, which Alexandra Macron wrote about in Vogue.
Sarah loves the flower detailing of Alexandra’s dress straps and veil. She thinks the wedding was adorable but the photographer really did them dirty with that filter. And the reception looks like the total package: food looks yum, glamorous but cozy setting, and swing dancing.
Clare was refreshed by the story of how these two met. In person! What are the odds, honestly? But then she thought that it was odd to get married in a city just because you think it’s cool, and not because it represents a kind of home or place of origin for you. She loves Alexandra’s eyes, and thinks her dress, though perhaps it could have used a hair more support or coverage at the top, is the most striking one she’s seen in a while. That photo of the B and G in front of the green wallpaper? Stunning.
Food:
Sarah made some dinners this week. She also went to two cookouts but did not make any interesting contributions, food-wise and made mini cherry pies but they were Not cute.
Clare took a bit of a break from cooking. Well, she made her church dinner again this past Tuesday. Enchiladas. But other than that she has been taking it easy. What seems like a lifetime ago she made some excellent chicken thighs and spicy Italian sausage.
Chris (not a girl!) cooked up a wish this week. [Those vegetables, fish, and meats would have to be spectacularly interesting. —C]
Music:
Clare danced to a lot of fun music at the wedding of a friend last night. Also, check God’s timing: last week, she let us know that she memorized the “Salve Regina.” And what did they sing at her friends’ wedding? The “Salve Regina.” She wasn’t expecting that. Yay!
Poem:
[Not a poem this week, but a selection of prose that is poetry in all but name. The following passage is from a novel about a family in New Zealand, one of whom, arguably an autofictive representation of the author, is placed in a mental institution against her will. In this scene, her doctor and nurse examine her. —C]
So Daphne thought and did not speak, and the chief of the white tribe, who wore spectacles, and carried in his pocket the sprout of a rubber tree to listen at the underground door of the heart and its beating of secret, walked forward and smiled encouragingly, saying
—Now now, Daphne, speak to me, like a good girl. We are going to make you better after all this time. You’ll be home soon.
And still Daphne did not speak, so the chief tried a different subject, forgetting how and why and where, but a question, all the same.
—How are your bowels, he said. And your water?
Flora Norris moved impatiently and pulled hold of Daphne’s shoulders,
—Can’t you understand? she said. You’re being spoken to.
And then Daphne moved and slapped the face of Flora Norris, digging her hands in the barbed wire, yet feeling for one instant the velvet and warmth of the dream nasturtium; and turning to the white chief she pushed him back to the door so that, almost toppling, he cried out a protesting
—Now now, my dear.
And with a sideways glance at Flora Norris, a curious look at the new flower growing on her right cheek, he whispered, pointing to Daphne,
—She’s dangerous. Give her a sedative.
Flora Norris, recovered and withered, said swiftly,
—Certainly doctor.
And both left the room, locking the door, and peeping finally with the eyes of the world, through the hole in the door, to see if any evidence of storm remained in the small mountain room.
And after they had gone Daphne crept to the door, and poking her finger through the hole, waited there, many hours it seemed, for someone to come and hang upon her finger, a gentian or snowberry or a penny orange, or one stalk of snow-grass plucked from as high as larks fly to sing.
Janet Frame, from Owls Do Cry, 1960
Poem:
What we’re reading:
Sarah’s copy of The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis arrived this week, and she is bringing it on vacation this week. She also packed that book of Flannery O’Connor she has been picking at forever and Hind’s Feet on High Places. She is in the mood to be really swallowed up by a novel- please send her suggestions.
Clare is still on her writing kick so not much reading has been happening for her! At the suggestion of a friend she began listening to some lectures by the poet Jack Spicer who is just the right brand of nutjob for her to really respect him. She read a passage from scripture in the Wisdom of Solomon that has really stuck with her these last couple days.
Exhortations:
Intercede for those you love before the Father, as is your duty!
Request for approval:
Is this okay?