1. It has been a WEEK: There were layoffs at work, my gym schedule is interrupted, I’m not sleeping well, we have extremely bold rats under the front porch,  etc. etc. Looking forward to a workout tomorrow.

2. I came across this Jung quote yesterday and, based on the work I’ve been doing in therapy versus my past attempts to feel better with yoga or Zen quotes, I can say it is 100% accurate:

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.”

1. I had no idea Maurice Sendak did set and costume design for opera and ballet in the latter part of his career. Some of his sketches and obejcts will be on view at the Morgan Library in NYC until October 6th–it looks wonderful.

Maurice Sendak, Design for Temple of the Sun, finale II (The Magic Flute), 1979-1980. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation.

 
2. This has been making the rounds, for good reason: Whole 60, or Laura Lippman talking about finally, at age 60, deciding she looks just fine.

I recently listened to an NPR show — NPR! — with a series of punchlines about granny panties, Angela Lansbury, and what was intended to be a gross-out image of an old woman in a crotchless thong. Every day, everywhere I go, the culture is keen to remind me how repulsive I am.

I thump the culture on the chest, push back and say one of the most infuriating things a woman can ever say: Actually, I like the way I look.

(The essay also includes this brilliant aside, to ponder for your weekend: “What would happen to the global economy if all the women on the planet suddenly decided: I don’t care if you think I’m fuckable”)

1. Austin Kleon on violence and Bach:

… I’m not just trying to raise “gentlemen,” I’m trying to raise gentle men, men who have a full range of emotions and expression available to them. But it’s just so hard. Even if they’re home with me all day right now, I can’t protect them. They were born into a country steeped in violence. A country where killing machines are sold in convenience stores. A country that has a longtime habit of dropping bombs on innocent children just like them. A country that sees kids their age shot to death in classrooms and won’t do a thing about it.

The only thing I feel like I can do is make my home a haven, a place where we celebrate things of beauty and rationality and love and peace. Bach’s music is one of those things.

2. From Buzzfeed (I know), 3 Anxiety Tips You’ve Heard, And 7 You Probably Haven’t. Number 7 is genius (“I keep photographic evidence of my [locked] door and my oven’s knobs when I leave for vacation“) but the suggestion to watch horror movies to channel anxiety is just right out for me.

1. It’s “max effort” time at the gym (they go in six-month cycles) and I got a new max for deadlifts last night–175 pounds!! Yes, I am telling everyone about it: friends, coworkers, people on the street.

2. It’s Lughnasadh, the Celtic beginning-of-the-harvest festival and the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. Just this week I noticed the evenings are coming a little sooner and the mornings are getting a little darker. (Throw the comb away…)

3. This is perfect:

(via a friend, by New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail.)

1. I felt personally attacked by this article about creatives dressing alike (sewing helps with looking the same, but, um, I do look at fashion at work):

During the day when I’d walk through the office on my way to the kitchen for a snack, I’d peek at people’s computers and at any given time, about a third of my coworkers were shopping for clothes. It seemed to me that people worked in order to buy clothes that they wore to work, where they sat and bought more clothes.

2. Speaking of clothes, here’s some tips on how to assess the quality of a garment, to ensure that what you’re buying will last.

3. Oh no!

1. Learn all about synthesizers at Learning Synths! (super fun)

2. I had no idea Ludwig Bemelmann (of the Madeleine books) wrote a book about decorator Elsie de Wolfe. From that book, she announces:

 
3. Same:

I unironically love pull quotes in essays. that sentence I just enjoyed? here it is again, but HUGE. hell yeah fuck me up

— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) June 18, 2019

1. Via the Smitten Kitchen newsletter, this account of a dinner party in your 30s vs. your 20s is great.

You’re not a 20-something playing House. You’re not “adulting”; you’re a goddamn Adult. And inviting people over to your place for food and drink and good-time having doesn’t have to be a thing.

(Of course, the “dinner party” in your almost-40s ends up as takeout and one other person. But maybe that’s just me.)

2. INDEED:

We clearly need to start a support group for people who watched Today’s Special and have since worried they might have imagined it. pic.twitter.com/RGhfwJOl1C

— Scafe for America (@erinscafe) June 26, 2019

1. It’s the Summer Solstice, the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere. Get some sun/star damage today.

2. Adding to Wednesday’s post about not putting your own story in the middle of someone’s grief:

(by Carissa Potter Carlson)

3. I just learned that The Paris Review has an “advice” column that matches poems to people who write in looking for guidance. Check it out: Poetry Rx

1. There is a mass of something metallic in an impact crater on the Moon?! Cue the Transformers (or Armageddon) movie jokes.

2. Via Kottke, who was appreciating the manners of Keanu Reeves, I learned about “manner hands” in South Korea, aka not actually touching someone in photos, just hovering your hands above them. Manner hands for everyone!

3. Scanned pages of a French “how to draw animals” book (via Austin Kleon). Who else wants to print some out and just spend an afternoon practicing?