PicoBlog

Hi gang - I’m a bit under the weather right now, so in lieu of this week’s column, here’s an wee extract from UGLY: Giving Us Back Your Beauty Standards I hope you enjoy it… Life in grey South Wales was generally fairly uneventful, but a seismic life-changing event was about to happen: I had been invited to my first princess party. The idea of wearing a fairy-tale dress and feeling like a real princess for the day made me feel giddy.

This is something of a departure for the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything: our first guest post, written by somebody who isn’t me. It’s an extract from James Vincent’s Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement, an excellent book which overlaps with some of the topics I write about – and which, coincidentally, is out in paperback on Thursday 1 June.  This particular section is an edited version of the chapter on how we measure temperature, and asks: how do you construct a reliable thermometer, without already having a reliable thermometer to check it’s reliable?

Late last month a pricey, much-anticipated new vinyl edition of Steely Dan’s 1977 album, Aja, began landing with a thump on the doorsteps of eager Danfans throughout the land. The $150 Ultra High-Quality Record (UHQR) consists of a pair of 200-gram 45 rpm LPs pressed on translucent so-called Clarity Vinyl. (“Deacon Blues” is given the entire Side B to luxuriate in its own mythic loserdom.) The release comes individually numbered (the pressing is limited to 30,000) and packaged in a brown slipcase that calls to mind the bookshelf binders that may have once held your dad’s archive of Playboy.

I’m often asked how to correctly pronounce the word “fentanyl.” I don’t know! I’ve always said “fent*a*nil.” In the clip above, however, you’ll notice that upon second mention I say “fent*a*nol.” That is how addicted users and cops usually say it. It’s not clear to me how a word spelled “fentanyl” can rhyme with “alcohol,” but it somewhat resembles the “Missouri” pronunciation debate."* *The big city way to say it is “Miss*our*ee” while the rural way to say it is “Miss*our*ah.

This is not a home decor newsletter, but it is a newsletter about taking up the space we need and want in this world. Also I just like home stuff, even though of course it’s complicated. But so very fun to talk about! So forgive the slight departure from/expansion on our theme today? Something you may not know about me is that I am the nosiest person when I go to someone’s house for the first time and I absolutely want to hear all the stories about how you found it, what projects you’ve done or not done, and all its little quirks and surprises.

We learn to be in relationships with other people from our caregivers, and within our own family systems. Culturally, our own families have their own norms and values when it comes to relationships (ie. what’s expected, what’s accepted, and so on). So what do we need to think about when it comes to family/culture and friendships? Today, I want to explore: the implicit and explicit social, cultural, and familial norms that we subscribe to

It has been eight years since I interviewed the actor Emily Berrington for her role in Channel 4 sci-fi drama, Humans. I remember so clearly coming away from our conversation in awe of her intelligence — she even taught me about the concept of the Bechdel Test (I, ever the professional journalist, of course pretended to know exactly what she meant). So … ncG1vNJzZmiqk6S9pnrSrpmsrJGYuG%2BvzqZmqWeYpMRusM6eqmarmJp6pbuMoqtmr5mptW6xzKKjsmWSmr%2Bztc2gq6im

For a deeper discussion of this book, check out Hot Take Think Tank episode three. Freddie DeBoer has written the book I wish I’d had when I was trying to figure out if it was possible to be a non-identitarian leftist—that is, someone who cares deeply about alleviating poverty and addressing material inequities but who doesn’t think fixating on identity, representation and language will get us there. How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement offers a clear-eyed examination of recent social justice movements and how they have failed to create lasting material change, before laying out a vision for building an effective leftist mass movement capable of delivering the goods.

To unlock this post and everything this website has to offer (and support the content I create which is an awesome thing to do), please consider paying a small monthly fee. For just $6 a month, you can validate a menswear blogger and fill the void in his heart, even if only for a fleeting moment. I don’t remember exactly when, after joining TikTok last year, I first came across Ethan Glenn.