I’m down bad at the moment. Three days before I was set to direct a short film I’ve spent the last five months of my life working on—hence the irregularity of this newsletter—I got covid. This is my second time getting it despite being fully vaccinated. Alas. This illness derailed my health, some exciting standup shows, and a bunch of other things. The film got pushed back a bit. #Nevertheless #she #is #persisting.
Feeling rotten and isolated does put your life into rather harsh perspective. Oh, the sheer thrill of merely entering a place of business and possibly making a purchase. I yearn for it. You know how it is in New York City: if you see something, buy something!
I had a lot of time to sit back and contemplate life, which I am unfortunately already prone to doing. I don’t need to be more introspective, I need to actually do things and think about them another time, if at all. I was also enduring what I can only describe as covid brain fog, so if this feels all over the place it’s because it really is.
What have I been up to for the last ten days?
I took the seed oil pill
I got really into reading about the dangers of seed oils (aka vegetable oils) and artificial sugars in the diet. I probably did this for like fifty hours of my life. I got so deep into it that I even went ahead and made my own ketchup from scratch. This process involves making your own curds and whey so that it lasts longer in the fridge without all the preservatives. Why I would do this is absolutely anyone’s guess because the next day I ordered Chick-Fil-A. (They use peanut oil to fry the chicken, but canola oil for the fries. So I didn’t order the fries.)
Vegetable oils are in almost all processed foods and are terrible for your health. I am generally not interested in “wellness” or listening to my body, because it will never shut up. But I will say that since cutting them out I have felt noticeably better and calmer (?) in a vague way I can’t quite put my finger on. If you don’t eat seed oils you pretty much can’t eat anything in a package, so that helps. Correlation, causation, w/e. I don’t think I’m going to be militant about it because I love fried food and potato chips so much, but I think it’s generally good to avoid.
I read about weddings in the 1940s
I came across this quote about how to throw a wedding in an old book of etiquette from the 1940s. This is what I enjoy doing in my free time. I also wrote about it here.
The main thing to avoid in weddings is elaborate perfection at the expense of anything else. […] And better the simplest of weddings than one which might impress the guests as a financial strain on the bride’s family. Nothing could be less in the temper of the times. The days of “show” are happily over. Exhibitions of wealth are not in fashion. And, if fashion is to be is to be considered at all in a matter of such deep concern, it would be far more fashionable to have a wedding less expensive than one could quite easily afford, than a wedding out of proportion to one’s usual way of life.
Can you imagine?
Another one:
The best man is the groom’s support and mainstay on an occasion which most men find particularly nerve-wracking—perhaps because most men lack the sense of drama that most women seem to be born with.
Obsessed w/this.
I watched all of Squid Game
A little gruesome for my taste, but I was hooked after the first few episodes. It was such a let down when the VIPs entered the show, though. Was the acting intentionally that bad????? I couldn’t take the show seriously from that point on. The red hair at the end sent me into orbit.
Also, spoiler, but in the marble game couldn’t everyone have just traded bags of marbles with their partners and no one would have died? The rules stated that you had to get the 10 marbles from your partner but not that you needed 20 marbles total? Idk.
I watched all of Selling Sunset (Season 4)
The twins, who I like to call “The Bezos Cloning Project Gone Wrong,” are cold-blooded sociopaths like the billionaire from which they were spawned. Absolutely nothing behind those eyes. This is the personality that succeeds most in the business world.
Other random observations: Christine looked so good with the long wavy extensions—she’s a Botticelli w/Botox. Christine’s husband is unsurprisingly a monster: “Our weekend trips are things those women will never do in their lives.”
Tarek’s under eye filler and botox make him look like he’s made of wood. (Did you know that Heather got a surprise Valentine’s Day tattoo for him on her ass that says “Yes Sir, Mr. El Moussa”? I just blacked out. To repeat, it says: Yes Sir, Mr. El Moussa. See below & feel free to scream.)
I revisited Heraclitus
Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher (535-475 B.C.). He was a melancholy man who loved word play, so naturally I love him. These little fragments have brought me some solace in the last two years: