There’s nothing we love more than blaming shit on astrology, so these star sign guides over on The Cut speak to us deeply. Taurus, Virgos and Capricorns, apparently you guys are earth signs (“real and corporeal”); Aries, Leo and Sag, you passionate humans are fire signs; Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, you fall under air signs (“intellectual and communicative”); and Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, well, you’re just water babes, aren’t you?
The creepiest property listing ever (keep clicking, keep clicking)
Former child star Mara Wilson (Matilda, Mrs Doubtfire) has shared her thoughts in the NY Times this week about Britney, youth and fame, and the way Hollywood takes advantage of young women (Mara is, also, incidentally, an excellent person to follow on Twitter)
…and over on The Cut, former Rookie editor and now actor Tavi Gevinson has also penned a fascinating piece about being a famous teen girl, and the ways that “empowerment” doesn’t map to actual power
Dream home alert
An eggplant parm recipe that involves no frying, no salting and a delightful amount of cheese and breadcrumbs
This website that shows you what the internet looked like ten years ago is perfect procrastination fodder (also, seeing the news frozen as it was a decade ago is WILD)
Why is it so hard to know what to call your “significant other”? (ew)
In praise of cold-calling your friends
We loved this brilliant, searing, candid chat between writer Roxane Gay and Monica Lewinsky about finding a way to write about terrible things and we think you will too
Hotel quarantine around the world
If you’re in a job with deadlines, regularly miss deadlines, rage against deadlines, secretly love deadlines… this wonderful essay by Lauren Oyler will get you where it hurts
What’s in a (restaurant) name?
Vanessa’s short story rec this week is this quietly wonderful, quietly devastating piece in The New Yorker about a woman who loves a dog, but can’t find a way to live with him, and what it is to be a human who loves an an animal, knowing they can never love you back
