FRIDAY FOURTEEN ISSUE 170

An important investigation into why the houses on Selling Sunset have so many bathrooms

Elliot Page’s memoir Pageboy is being released next week – here’s an extract from the first chapter

Just what the world needs: Anna Delvey is dropping a podcast – and a debut single

Aussie HECS debt has just indexed by a massive 7.1% – the highest in two decades amidst a cost of living crisis. If you feel bad about your growing debt this TikTok might help

In tech news: Photoshop has launched its new generative ai tool, which can seamlessly remove eyesores from your images and add new elements into a photo in just seconds. Professionals fear this may cost them their jobs, while others joke this is how clients thought Photoshop worked all along

We absolutely devoured this behind-the-scenes look inside the Succession writers’ room, especially the bit about HBO hiring a super-rich consultant (“Rich people don’t wear coats, we were told. Their shoes only ever touch carpet, as they move seamlessly from their cars to their jets to their buildings. Also, crucially, they don’t duck (when getting out of helicopters).”)

A young writer gets vulnerable about the humiliation of writing fiction

A thought-provoking interview with an abortion doula (“I don’t know what, exactly, I thought a book by an abortion doula would be like. I do know that I didn’t expect it to feel like an embrace. A call to action, absolutely, but also filled with tenderness. If that surprises you, as it surprised me, you probably don’t know enough about abortions or the people who have them.”)

Meet the vegetarians and vegans who went back to eating meat after decades of omnivorism

Four suggestions for meeting people that don’t involve “the apps”

This piece on ambivalent relationships had us rethinking pretty much all the friendships and relationships in our lives (“It’s the in-laws who volunteer to watch your kids but belittle your parenting. The roommate who gets you through a breakup and then starts dating your ex. The manager who praises your work but denies you a promotion.”)

This week we learnt there’s such a thing as professional mermaids

We love this petition to make cooking another love language (“It’s not just about the food as sustenance, it’s about the effort and care the cook puts into the dish that the person receiving will not just taste, but feel”)

And in other news: Hot girls love artichokes, this is so real, Gen Z in film, if women acted like men, this guy has nailed dating in Australia, no but we’re obsessed, your swiftie friend, same person different fonts, adults going to see The Little Mermaid, this TikTok user’s onto something, ouch, the cutest kids furniture and knick knacks, Blockbuster shaded Netflix hard, using ChatGPT as a personal stylist, an incredibly impressive karaoke sesh, the quintessential museum walk, something to think about before you say "she's let herself go”, and the way we talk about periods is bloody important