there must be a better way

nervous cuz

i can’t believe i never wrote about jonathan gold, the amazing food writer who “wrote ‘to try to get people less afraid of their neighbors'” and won a pulitzer for criticism in 2017. gold passed away in 2018 from pancreatic cancer, and his obituary is a wild ride:

With cello proficiency in his favor, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles. Although he got his degree in music history, in 1982, he had a sideline in art; he took a class with and worked as an assistant for the guerrilla performance artist Chris Burden. For a brief time, Mr. Gold thought of himself as a performance artist, too. “A naked performance artist, to be specific,” he told an interviewer.

His materials for one piece were two bottles of Glade air freshener, a pile of supermarket broiler chickens, a live chicken at the end of a rope and a machete wielded by Mr. Gold, who wore only a blindfold. The chicken survived, and may have come out of the ordeal in better spirits than Mr. Gold, who later said, “The few minutes after an art performance are some of the most depressing in the world.”

valhalla, i have arrived

cleaning out my photos and found this lil bit from reggie jones’s obituary, “Reggie Jones, Jones Beach’s Longest-Serving Lifeguard, Dies at 93”:

Albert Reginald Jones was born in Manhattan on April 8, 1927, to Mary Kate and Adam Jones, Irish immigrants, and grew up on Long Island. As a wrestler at Baldwin High School, he won a Long Island championship in 1944.

That same year, his son said, he began lifeguarding at Jones Beach to escape working at his father’s gas station.

“He never had a formal swimming lesson, but he was so strong he could have passed any test,” the younger Mr. Jones said. “Once he got the job, he said, ‘Valhalla, I have arrived.’”

and it was game over

cleaning out my phone and found this great bit from nancy whang from lcd soundsystem talking about 2017 new year’s eve:

We headed home around 9 p.m. to change and walk the dog. On our way home, I told Nick that if he wanted to go out to Walter [their friend], he couldn’t let me sit down or else I’d lose momentum. We had to get in and get out. We took Doris around the block and then decided to give ourselves a moment to drink a beer before going out again. I took about three sips from my can of Modelo with my feet up on the couch and it was game over. Nick woke me up to give me a kiss at midnight and I instantly fell back asleep.

best news in a long time

man eff this

I love beauty stuff as much as the rest of the world, but damn there’s so much bad in the world — shaming us about our (perfectly lovely, if older!) necks is such bullshit. i mean good grief.

*I think jessica defino’s newsletter is impacting me (in a good way)

today grateful for

• the smell of roses
• hot showers
• mom’s house selling
• nba game pass!!!!!

best name in sports

MOOKIE BETTS

ok ok also this purse but it’s a fever dream

these chanel looks are grooving me

courtesy of harper’s bazaar, October 2025