“Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.” 
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Howdy kittens, it’s been another full week of news and I’m just avoiding most of it in this week’s links because I need a happy place. I love short work weeks, but when you have to cram five days of To Dos into just three, you can head into the weekend frazzled. I have spent the majority of the day sleeping after putting a major work event to bed after several weeks of work yesterday, and have zero regrets. Tonight I’m going to a podcast live show with a buddy, and am otherwise having a very chill weekend at home.

Come, let’s dive into the gorgeousness of the Met Ball, debate over the meanings of This Is America, and delight in some wacky creativity.

How the Met got vestments from the Vatican for the annual Met Ball.

Speaking of, Racked dives into the tenure of Anna Wintour at Vogue, her time at the helm of the Met Ball, and how one of the most iconic platforms in the world is changing with the times…sometimes.

Only one more season of Kimmy. But more importantly, only one more season of Titus.

Ever wonder how chicken became a mainstay? Wonder no more!

An essay on the lost pleasure of shopping with other people instead of online. Most of my personal shopping is still vintage or second hand so I have to go out and physically try things on to see if they work, but it is pretty solitary. Going to markets with X. when she was in town last Thanksgiving was the first time I’d been shopping with a friend who wasn’t my husband in years!

I absolutely loved the Chanel cruise collection this year and will commit murder to get my hands on one of those berets!

David Fahrenthold is doing some of the most extensive reporting on Mr. Trump’s finances and his latest piece in the Washington Post is worth a read to get a sense of the weird side of property development and how it can be manipulated. But the salient point is that Mr. Trump made a change from debt-based financing to cash just under a decade ago, and he started spending that cash pretty lavishly. This is a very elaborate way to avoid the words “money laundering.” If nothing else, I feel like the narrative around Mr. Trump and his various business partners is revealing how much white collar crime has been winked at in the US, and for how long.

This longform piece in New York Magazine contends to understand Mr. Trump you need to understand Mr. Roy Cohn and how the New York intelligentsia and glitterati incubated the graft that eventually put him in the White House.

So maybe let’s not give this guy that new show his shopping around?

I’m grateful (though still terrified) at how the radicalization of young men online is finally getting some sunlight. Grateful that it’s happening, scared at how deep and widespread the ugliness goes. This piece in Rolling Stone makes for scary but important reading. “[These men] have been portrayed as disturbed young men with emotional “challenges.” Had they been nonwhite Muslim extremists, this would almost certainly have not been the case, notes Pete Simi, an expert in far-right extremist movements at Chapman University. “U.S. law enforcement and policymakers and the general public tend to perceive right-wing extremists in ways that de-emphasize their relevance and diminish the threat they pose,” he says. “We find it more difficult to frame those who are closely tied to the status quo as a threat.”

I have loved Donald Glover since his Community days, and the breadth of his work in acting, comedy, and music is downright extraordinary. He dropped a new track and accompanying music video last week that is uncomfortably good and provocative. It’s a heavy piece of art.

It’s my pet topic, I know, but I enjoyed this piece about Livia Firth’s take on sustainable and responsible consumption.

Um, there’s some parallel journalism going on that should be getting more traction than it is as time of writing. The New Yorker. The Guardian. Making threats like these seem…not coincidental?

The Bluths are back!

Sometimes it feels like there few champions left to cheer for. I’m not sorry Mr. Schneiderman has resigned, but I’m disgusted that the Governor of Missouri has not.

I loved this exchange between writers Leandra Medine and Pandora Sykes on brand new motherhood.

THERE IT IS. THERE IT IS. THERE IT IS.

And finally, this guy’s channel is whimsical and fun and an overall delight. Enjoy!