Links we sent our friends #35
The perfect weekend, a stay-up-reading book, and special guest recs
Hey friends! How was your weekend? Aliza1 and I tried Yemeni food and saw the band Lucius at House of Blues on Friday night with our friend Julia. I’m now a fan of both.2
This week, we’re excited to feature bonus recs from
.Alex is a mother of four in Manhattan Beach, California and film photographer (she recently started shooting heirloom portraits in her tiny garage studio on weeknights!) Aliza and I love her newsletter, Handpicked: a Wednesday dispatch of links and photographs curated with love and strong opinions.
Alex’s Links:
Perhaps the best way to introduce myself is to profess my abundant love and respect for butter. I’m 100% the type to make a butter factory tour the focal point of a trip to France.
Valentine’s Day is strictly a kid holiday in our family, and this year the elementary schoolers are giving out seed packets. Gotta say it’d be fun to go with vintage cards — “We’d make a peach of a pear,” I can’t!
I read dozens of newsletters, and two of my never-misses are swiss miss and
.Can’t imagine my life without these, and they’re only a buck.
My top 3 favorite things to recommend in Los Angeles: the Getty Center (don’t skip the gift shop), Apollonia’s Pizzeria, and a walk on the Manhattan Beach Pier followed by a slice of key lime pie from Fishing With Dynamite.
Aja’s Links:
A few weeks ago, Lacey sent me this article (paywalled) breaking down the “perfect weekend”: 7-9 hours of sleep per night times two + ~2 hours of hobbies + 0 to 2 social events + 2 hours (or less) of work + 45 minutes (or more) of exercise + 3 to 4 hours of unstructured time… It was a good opportunity to reflect on how I can spend a weekend to feel fulfilled, rested, and ready for the coming week. (Easy.)
Lolol. Also applicable for Boston.
This floss sounded delicious — and I’m always down to throw money at a problem (the problem being my nightly reluctance to brush and floss my teeth). But it was not good. If you’re going to spend $10 on oral hygiene, get a fancy toothpaste instead.
Dolly Alderton’s newest book, Good Material, came out on Tuesday — which was perfect timing, because I couldn’t sleep that night. It was fantastic, and I got to feel rebellious for staying up past 1 AM and reading vs. panicky about insomnia. (Her other books, Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love, are really good too if you land in a library queue.) (I think Aliza coincidentally just started the latter?? (Aliza: True! I’m loving it.))
My latest beverage obsession. You can find them at Target and Trader Joe’s. Thanks, Ariel, for the tip!
Aliza’s Links:
Taylor isn’t the only superstar who announced their next album last night!
Sam and I love going to the movies. That’s slowed down since we became parents, but it’s often still our first choice for a date night. There are a lot of movies in theaters I’d love to see right now, but we chose American Fiction on Saturday, and it was brilliant — an on-the-nose satire with social/racial commentary that made us laugh out loud.
How did you buy your house… but really? (A refreshingly candid discussion for paid subscribers of
.)- (of recipe fame) released a guide last week to being the best newborn dad and husband ever. Share this far and wide.
Last week, I cried my way through author Leslie Jamison’s jaw-droppingly honest essay — an excerpt from her forthcoming book Splinters — “The Birth of my Daughter, the Death of My Marriage.” (Aja: This one was so good.)
Yes, I’m still obsessed with my big dumb cup.
Newsletter we sent our friends:
If you’re looking for additional money content, check out
, a newsletter from founding editor of Refinery29 Money Diaries . She just launched a series on the highs and lows of parenting — which Aliza is particularly excited about — aptly called Division of Labor.One last thing:
This Thursday, we’re kicking off our friendship “training program” — think of it as running club (without running) meets support group for friendship.
The discussion-based series will run through mid-March on Platonic Love and include weekly prompts designed to help you reflect, grow and strengthen your community. You can even do it with your friends. :)
We’re interviewing experts like author
, New York Times “friendship correspondent” , and more. Aliza and I will be co-facilitators each week, sharing our own vulnerable, potentially awkward, and hopefully motivating experiences along the way. Rather than trying to tackle the big, hairy undertaking of making friends or deepening your relationships all at once, you can pick and choose one or two small things each week, while learning from — and being encouraged by! — others.We’ll share more on Thursday…
Platonic Love is an entirely reader-supported, affiliate-free publication — meaning we don’t generate any revenue from the links we share so that you feel 100% confident in our recommendations. If you’re enjoying the newsletter, please consider showing your support by liking, commenting, and/or upgrading to a paid subscription. We appreciate you.
The Dickies came out!! (Aliza: Hah! Next time we need to match.)
Julia, who introduced us to Lucius, recommends starting with “Two of us on the run” and “Turn it around.”
This single newsletter is like a mini magazine! What fun.
Thank you so much for including The Purse! I'm so glad to hear you liked Division of Labor!