Newsletter #66: 2 March 2025
swans, whiskey, fresh air, and more.
Hello everyone.
Happy Oscars Sunday. Naturally, I’m reminiscing on my favorite look, Bjork’s swan dress from 2001.
Nobody will ever do it like her. Maybe except for that one person who dressed up as a swan wearing a Bjork dress for Halloween. So, let me specify that no Academy Awards attendee will ever do it like Bjork.
Anyhow. I’m really craving those cherries covered in chocolate from Trader Joe’s and an iced Americano in a to-go cup. Added to my list of small things I miss from NY.
Thank you for joining me for another Sunday. Enjoy the letter.
5 Not Headlines
The sparkle in my eye comes from never having used ChatGPT. I probably should, just to familiarize myself with the landscape of artificial intelligence before technology modernizes so much more drastically that I get left behind. My resistance started out as a worry I had in my senior year of university that the ease would become a plagiarism-adjacent crutch I’d lean on for every project, a fear most British students apparently do not share with me. The FT reports that in the last year, 90% of UK students admit to using ChatGPT to help them complete assignments.
Noting brands’ recent embrace of it to drive consumer loyalty, Vogue Business declares gatekeeping cool again in a recent article. As a hater of anything bearing a remote semblance to copying, I venture to say it never went out of vogue.
Does anyone wish they could mute Candace Owens and her aura of general lameness? The Cut says her coverage of the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni drama is a gateway for many centrists into right wing commentary. Her jejune positions that are a transparent effort to prove she can hang are less a gateway into right wing commentary and more a masterclass in how to make it obvious you’re trying too hard to be interesting.
If you feel like red light therapy is everywhere, it’s not just you. Proponents cite dermatological benefits as well as mood equilibration, and even weight loss as some benefits to the practice. If you’re considering it, remind yourself the market is kind of like Wild West, as the collagen market currently is: Little regulation means lots of shortcuts, zero wavelength standards, and high costs.
After years of sustained growth- a doubling in sales from 2009-2023- Americans find themselves in a whiskey glut. Will Trump and his nearly autarkic policies be enough to direct consumers back to whiskey? It could be an interesting indicator to watch.
Bordeaux Notes
I think my longing for quiet and fresh air is a part of why I fell in love with Bordeaux as quickly as I did. I watched swans float idly around on a pond, biked through the vineyards, said hi to playing goats, spotted a couple rainbows, and breathed in the almost-spring country air. The quietude felt nearly medicinal, so did listening to birds and smelling bonfire all day.
The time I spent spa-ing was a treat. It restored my mind to pre-move peace levels for a blissful, too-short stretch of time and my skin to clarity. But the highlight for me was going on a winery tour, where I saw barriques being built and a really tremendous wine cellar. I wrote notes like the student I am, and I’d call those five pages some of the coolest souvenirs from a trip ever.
Weekly WRAP
Watching: The Pitt, which I mistakenly thought was completely over last week !! Imagine my joy opening HBO to see NEW EPISODE beneath Noah Wyle’s comfortingly stoic expression.
Reading: my beautiful giant book of Bordeaux wines :)
Admonishing: dry skin season. FREE ME.
Pondering: how possibly we are 1/6 of the way through the year. Wasn’t it just October :’)
XO,
Natasha
And now, the last word: FOLD