FRIDAY FOURTEEN ISSUE 156

ICYMI McDonalds UK released a new ad this week that doesn’t show any stores or products and here’s why the ad is raising so many eyebrows

Being jealous of your friends is totally fine

If you’re the type of person to look at a menu hours (days?) before you visit the restaurant, you’ll love reading this

This compelling interview with the Chinese translator of Sally Rooney’s books delves into the complicated (and rarely talked about) relationship between author and translator

Hello we’d like to move into Solange Knowles’ loft please (that bathtub 🙌)

The New York Times has done an interesting look into the trend of married couples “living apart together” (driven by women, no surprises there)

Not sure how we stumbled upon this list of 48 lessons that the writer MaryBeth Bonfiglio wrote on the eve of her 48th birthday but from the very first sentence we were hooked (“I watched a video of Francis McDermott talking about ageing and how if we don’t look old then nobody will know who the elders are.”)

Waleed Aly’s raw reflection on his mother-in-law’s death is an important reminder that our priorities in life are rarely the things we value on our deathbeds (warning: this one’s a tear-jerker)

Actually helpful advice for when you get stuck (“I forget that I go through phases, too. And that I deserve to show myself that same unconditional love”)

Hello diversity, goodbye outdated standards. It’s 2023 and Miss Universe is (finally) 100% women-owned and run

Could someone please try Tom Hanks’ two ingredient cocktail and report back?

An incarcerated writer’s thoughts on enduring the winters of a life sentence (“No longer is your name what warrants attention; a prison number marks who you are.”)

The writer Annie Ham was asked to try out a no-needles lip filler and the resulting product review in The Cut is a hilariously wild ride from beginning to end (and heralds what we hope is a new era of personal essay writing)

And in other news: How people are feeling about Twitter these days, we’re extremely into the idea of chaotic brunch, eating at Grill’d, shopping at Cotton On, an extremely accurate impression of a Triple J presenter, professionalism needs to die, we really can’t fault this review of Pride and Prejudice, singer Ellie Goulding thinks bees make their sound by saying ‘buzz’, turning people into trees, tell me you’re in you’re approaching 30 without telling me you’re approaching 30, a window into our brains this week, are you the delegator at work, can we all just agree that pizza delivery isn’t really that good, women have actually started diffusing their curls with pasta strainers (Naturally Curly journo Cristina Cleveland is the OG), ok Thomas, what inner monologues really sound like, and people don’t want unsolicited advice