feasting on sunday ny times articles

Photo illustration by Jen Davis for The New York Times

i recently started taking baths, because our shower is in the other house and the hot/cold flow doesn’t work properly (alternately scalding and freezing) (nyoh), so baths are now my default (though let’s be real, bathing is pretty low on my priority pole). sometimes i’m just like, get me outta this dumb bath, but sometimes it does offer a real reset. really liked this ode to baths by molly young (also a recent convert) in this week’s ny times:

A short time later I was at work when I was called into an unexpected meeting with my boss. It was grim, as unexpected meetings tend to be. Afterward, I went back to my desk and sat still. At 6 p.m., I walked home, drew a bath, remembered the Kneipp [bath oil], poured it in, got in the tub and took a deep breath for the first time in five hours. My heartbeat returned to being inaudible.

It has been a year now since my first Kneipp bath, and I’ve gotten in the habit of a weekly braise. Physical envelopment is soothing in almost any form: swaddling yourself in blankets on a winter night, driving through a fog bank, being hugged. The appeal of fondue, I’ve always suspected, is less about the flavor of kirsch mixed with cheese than the pleasure of watching a surrogate bread cube embraced in melted Emmentaler.