Let It Be Sunday, 383!

Apologies to anyone who thought I wasn’t going to spend 40% of this post talking about The Bear. Listen, here’s what you need to know about me, I love a bandwagon. My love language is hype. It’s the same reason I watch Love Island UK every year. 

Unrelated to my terrible taste in television, I’m thinking about expanding my pet family from 1 cat to 2 cats. Please leave me advice in the comments. I have no idea what I’m doing. Also, if you watch Love Island, holler at me. So far it’s just me and Joy.

Yours in questionable taste and potentially more cats,

Kim

• You know how sometimes you need to look to someone for permission — permission to be yourself, permission to be fat, permission to be loud? Here’s a piece about the joy of watching Lizzo’s show Watch Out for the Big Grrrls while reckoning with a very different competition show that did a lot of harm. Oh, and surprise, it’s written by me. (Nashville Scene)

• First of all, Helen Rosner is one of my favorite writers. Anytime you have the opportunity to read one of her pieces for The New Yorker, you will not regret it. Helen, who grew up on the south side of Chicago, wrote about The Bear and it’s everything I wanted someone to write.

• Speaking of The Bear, if you’ve watched it then you know, but this piece in Bon Appetit by Genevieve Yam about how many chefs can’t watch the show because of the trauma they’ve faced in professional kitchens should give us all pause.

• I’ve been recommending this book to everyone talking about The Bear. It’s a few years old, so you can grab it in paperback. One of my friends has already finished it and is now recommending it to all of her friends. Yes, Chef  by Marcus Samuelsson is an insightful, and a smidge less traumatic, look at what goes into becoming one of the world’s top chefs. (Bookshop)

• I’m so inspired by Julia Turshen – her cookbooks, her Sunday cooking classes, her newsletter, and her podcast. Recently she had Virginia Sole-Smith on and Julia said something at the end of the episode that really stuck with me. They’re talking about appetites and Julia brings up the appetite for ambition and what that looks like for her right now. I won’t spoil it, but I really needed to hear this and you may too. Listen here. (Apple Podcasts)

• I’m closer to 50 than I am to 40, but a lot of my friends are turning 40 this year and I’m sending them all this great piece by Mira Jacob in Harper’s Bazaar. Send this to every elder millennial in your life who’s starting to feel invisible.

• Last week a friend of mine was voluntarily sterilized (outside of pregnancy) and she wrote about it for one of my favorite newsletters, Leave it to Leonor. If you’re curious about tubal ligation, or what Nicole ended up having, bilateral salpingectomy, this newsletter is a generous sharing of knowledge. P.S. If you have any questions, ask them below and Nicole will be more than happy to answer them. (TinyLetter)

• Don’t tell anyone I’m linking to something a man wrote, but this piece by Issac Fitzgerald for Esquire about how he chose not to have children so that he can be a literal and figurative uncle to all the great kids in his life is so tender and powerful. Related, Isaac’s memoir came out last week and you can pick it up here. (Bookshop)

• This weekend Joy is doing a little jewelry collab promotion for this cherry necklace. It’s 15% off with code cherryjoy15 this weekend only (sale end Sunday at midnight!) and $10 of every purchase goes to Second Harvest New Orleans. It feels good to give back and gift oneself at the same time, you know? (Delicacies Jewelry)

• Am I going to mention The Bear one more time? And will it be in a TikTok? Yes, chef.

See you in the comments!