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9d
ways to live
Storing a complete sheet set in one of its pillowcases
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I assume I was the last person to start doing this, but just in case, sweet Cthulhu it's a grab-and-go time-saver. Turn the storage-pillowcase inside out before filling it with the rest of the sheet set if, say, your two cats can open the linen closet and lounge all over the clean stuff.
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20
4
16d
ways to live
Resetting your browser to AI-overview-free results
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Adding "&udm=14" to your default search string (per the instructions and explanation at the link, it's a few steps) gets those pesky lyin' robots out of your search results for good. De-enshittification: So satisfying!
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201
4
25d
ways to live
My little rescue grubs
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I've posted them here before and I'll do it again. If you can scratch two curled-up cats at the same time like a fuzz DJ, something's going right.
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22
1
5w
ways to live
Keeping a big old Sharpie in your tote for AI ads
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You know what to do.
185
12
5w
ways to live
Have marinated, am a spicy spear
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Immensely satisfying to share advice and recs that land; that's possible at any age, of course, but it's much easier when you've Seen Some Things. Follow-ups with time-brined folks where you swap links/titles/recipes/allies/nemeses are thee best.
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16
6w
ways to live
Juice + lemonade with ALL THE PULP
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Join me in flavor, texture and fiber country. Straining isn't living.
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2
2
6w
ways to live
The Order of the Good Death
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A death-positive collective that believes conversations about death and dying are the cornerstone of a healthy society; think Jessica Mitford teaming up with Harold and Maude and Siouxsie and the Banshees to fix American culture's dysfunctional relationship with mortality. They're smart, hilarious, curious, and indefatigable; I've turned to them a bunch in my Spooky Reporting (I'm sometimes a science writer who talks about sustainable death practices). Your one-stop shop for everything from human-composting legislation info to history lessons to mortuary-themed video-game recommendations.
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32
7w
ways to live
Sponsor a Landmine-Detection Rat
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APOPO trains African giant pouched rats like handsome Imeldo here (born in Tanzania, now working in Cambodia) to safely locate and help humans defuse unexploded landmines in former war zones; in 30 minutes they can scan a space a human would take 4 days to clear. Adopt a HeroRAT and you'll get monthly updates on their training, play, and lifesaving work; I've followed a few through their entire careers and triumphant retirements and they are a much-needed reminder that in some places the world is actually getting better. From time to time APOPO also sells goddamn adorable, life-size plush versions of their rats (complete with little HeroRAT harnesses), which make an excellent gift. Rats are the best!
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90
7w
ways to live
(Virtually) Adopting a Fruit Bat
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At some point my IG feed became 99% nonprofit wildlife rehab centers and it's never been more delightful.* Florida's Lubee Bat Conservancy has so many sky puppies in their care I don't even know what to tell you, and they are both essential to their environments and essential to my happiness, no pressure, you perfect flying foxes. Anyway, give them like $35 and feel like a goth auntie, it's the bargain of the century. *Bonus: No AI slop!
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25
12w
ways to live
Amy's Bread Zesty Lemon Bar Recipe
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Amy’s Bread was down the avenue from us when we lived in Hell’s Kitchen and changed how I bake. Cut 1/3 cup of the granulated sugar and get all the lemon pulp you can in there; skip the individual wrapping and keep the whole pan in the fridge. A cold lemon bar at midnight won’t just turn your week around; it’ll drop-kick you into a better timeline.
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8
12w
ways to live
My Petfinder pudding pops
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I would be incomplete without their hollering.
11
2
12w
home-fripperies
Ina Garten's Beloved Anti-Fatigue Kitchen Mat
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My husband the endurance cook* noted after we visited our friends' place that he didn't feel like dying after standing around in their kitchen; could we look into a mat like theirs? Enter this long boi (we got the 20"x48" version, though if I had a do-over I would abandon modesty and go for the 30"x72" version), a substantial investment that paid off immediately and dramatically. Does interacting with it while shoeless feel like walking across a giant's bare ass? It does. Is that somehow a good thing? It is. Christ on a bike, my middle-aged feet love this thing. *who regularly spends 5+ hours making dinner on Saturday nights, it's more of a lifestyle than a task for him
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7
13w
ways to live
A Big-Ass Bucket of Maldon Salt
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Know what's better finished with a hit of Maldon salt? Literally everything (except snails and slugs, don't salt living friends). Realizing and accepting that we were Bucket People was TRANSFORMATIVE.
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82
8
13w
ways to live
Hammam Madrid Plaza Mayor
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I ended up visiting Madrid for the first time shortly after visiting Istanbul for the first time (when/where it was first demonstrated to me that I could be treated like a potentate’s beloved pet carp) and I’ll tell you what, when you’re spending most of your time haunting art museums and climbing all over a city and stuffing yourself at mercados (also do all of those things and buy yourself a beautiful pair of scissors in Toledo, they are famous for their knives) going to a hammam (to this hammam, in fact) is THEE BEST. Splurge on an oil massage or don’t, that’s less important, but the soaking and the plunging and the navel contemplation: imperative.
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14
1
13w
goblinhood
Displaying Your Mani Like a Goblin, III
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This is Sally Hansen's DISTRESSED DENIM, a steel blue with an aftertaste of royal blue iridescence. The magisterial labradorite is from an indoor antique mall in Glasgow, one of my favorite cities on this planet, my honeymoon destination and also the first place my mother and I coincided and traveled together after lockdown. We nearly got stuck there because we had to get COVID tested exactly 24 hours before getting on the plane back to the US and it was a Whole Thing to find an open testing center in Scotland on a Sunday, and when I told my therapist this story and she observed that Glasgow would be an absolutely dreadful place to get stuck I briefly reconsidered our whole relationship.
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4
15w
ways to live
C.O. Bigelow Lemon Body Cream No. 005
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Non-greasy, fast-absorbing, crazy-hydrating, compounded with lemon oil (no added fragrance, baby) so you smell like a patisserie. Sail past the West Village girlies fighting over the Carolyn Bessette tortoiseshell headbands and get you some of Bigelow's OG body cream, a banger since 1870.
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6
15w
goblinhood
Displaying Your Mani Like a Goblin, II
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This is Death Valley's INGLORIOUS BUZZARDS, a thermal polish with iridescent flakes that turns purple-dark as it gets colder, sort of like if Lisa Frank was turning evil right in front of your eyes; I have learned a lot about my circulation this week. I got this magisterial Mexican fluorite orb in Sedona when I was in town for my stepsister's wedding; I suspect her name is Vanessa (the fluorite, not the bride; that's Caroline).
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3
16w
ways to live
Perfect Days (Wim Wenders)
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I couldn't explain to you how the stillness of a methodically near-plotless movie about an almost-silent man cleaning beautiful public toilets in Tokyo fixed something in me that I didn't know was broken and broke something else in me I hadn't known was fragile, but here we are. If one day I am hoisted from the ocean like a tiger shark and marine biologists of the spirit rummage around among my license plates and tires, they'll find PERFECT DAYS intact, carried with me whole ever since I saw it, in here always.
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32
2
18w
ways to live
Treating The Dance Floor Like THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1929)
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The Reaper is the only move I need
11
1
18w
ways to live
Tom Holland, "Umbrella"
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The wheel, electricity, the internet: meh. This is the way forward.
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22
2
19w
ways to live
Remembering That Above All, He-Man Is Fabulous
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The world is on fire and the resource wars will soon begin everywhere they haven't, but it's important to remember that James Jean created this version of He-Man and Battle Cat and they can be yours. Skeletor and Panthor, too; they're covered with coral and they eat.
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2
19w
goblinhood
Displaying Your Mani Like a Goblin
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This is Death Valley's THE SINK AFTER HE SHAVES, a chunky thermal nail polish I applied with the zeal and fine motor control of a Twizzlers-addled toddler, and an ocean jasper orb I treasure (I treasure a lot of orbs). Sharing your nail situation with, like, a polish bottle or ice cream cone is cool, but join me in flavor country; it gets better.
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11
2
19w
ways to live
Henry Rollins - The Boxed Life
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Henry Rollins's 1992 comedy album was my equivalent of green noise when I discovered it as an insomniac college student several years later; something about his voice lands like ASMR to me, lulls me into sleep like a marsupial curled up in a motorcycle's saddle bag, and I think he was the first person who planted ACAB in my brain. It's weird, it's very funny (I still quote him in my own head whenever I'm traveling), and I basically got into Black Flag through HR's spoken word? I would trade him for most of my uncles.
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1
19w
ways to live
Making Hilma af Klint Your Whole Personality
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Is it time to be a conduit? Throes before bros, WITHOUT PRELIMINARY DRAWINGS AND WITH GREAT POWER.
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12
20w
ways to live
Shacking Up With the Goblin King
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Everything that you wanted he has done. You asked that the child be taken; he took him. You cowered before him, he was frightening. He has reordered time, he has turned the world upside down, and he has done it all for you! He is exhausted from living up to your expectations. Isn't that generous?
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20
20w
ways to live
Overruling One's Partner
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I cherish this vintage Harry Sternberg Maidenform lithograph and my husband does not. Thoughts and prayers for him.
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20w
ways to live
Googling "Artichoke Dress"
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It's important to manifest the aesthetic you want to see in the world, and even if you don't have $4,200 for the designer version of slipping one arm out of a really big sweatshirt, grabbing the empty cuff with your other arm, then poking your unsleeved arm back between the joined sleeves so it looks like a creature is trying to burst through your chest, it's important to think on a regular basis about what your life's version of an artichoke dress would be. This particular search will also take you to some magnificent Church Clothes, especially if you've disabled AI.
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3
20w
ways to live
Running Until the Feelings Go Away
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America makes me so anxious and angry! I call my representatives and tell them exactly what I expect them to do if they want my vote in the future. Then I go downstairs and run at least four miles on the treadmill in my building's weird old exercise room, and I usually end up so sweaty and tired that it takes me at least a couple of hours to get anxious and angry again. I also pay myself $1 for each mile I run and then buy things like Werner Herzog novelty tees.
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12
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