The TueDo List: Margit's Birks + Bowie Cosplay + Menopause Q&A
And a special edition "Fleabag" gin
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: A nihilist’s skin care routine. Octavia Butler’s author bio was (also) a work of art. A standing ovation for 46-year-old Oksana Chusovitina at her last Olympics. Three rules for middle-age happiness.
👀 LOOK: A family folded origami cranes during the pandemic and learned “how making art helps people bear the unbearable.” If it didn’t traumatize you enough in the ‘80s: They’re bringing CHUCKY back. Incredible Bowie cosplay costumes.
🛒 ADD TO CART: If you go to the UK please bring us back some Fleabag gin. So we can drink it while listening to Dolly Parton lullabies.
📺 STREAM
All week: LeVar Burton is finally hosting Jeopardy! (ABC)
Wednesday: Turning the Tables With Robin Roberts. Guests include Debbie Allen, Sheila E., Betsey Johnson, and Billie Jean King. (Disney+)
Friday: Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson, a documentary series that “gets inside the sounds that get stuck inside your head.” (Apple TV+)
OBSESSED: I Used to Hate Birkenstocks. Now I Have Three Pairs.
By Margit Detweiler
If you had told 20-something me that one day I would be writing about my fresh pair of Birkenstocks, I would have spat out my Fresca. Back in the ‘90s I was committed to combat boots, black platform slides, anything black and chunky. My Grateful Dead-following best friend/roomie had a pair of fuzzy Birkenstocks which I nastily dubbed her “bear paws” or “birth-control shoes.” She’d protest, “But they’re comfeeeee.”
Well, gulp, here we are.
NEXT FOR X: Gen X Made “Families of Choice” an Everyday Phenomenon. You’re Welcome.
By Anna Davies
“Friends showcased the reality that Gen X was living: family without a marriage at the center of it. Makes sense when you consider that Xers saw their parents’ marriages break up at record levels, and then went on to marry later and later, if ever. And Gen X folks who did marry sometimes decided not to have kids at all. Single moms became more and more visible. And gay and lesbian couples had long been making their own “families of choice,” because sometimes their families of origin wouldn’t have them.”
NEXT WEEK: Menopause Q&A
Got questions about menopause? Dr. Anna Barbieri has answers. Join us Wednesday, August 4 (8pm Eastern) for a one-hour workshop where we’ll cover anxiety, brain fog, sleep problems, hormone replacement therapy, and everything in between. You can even submit your questions in advance — anonymously. The event is $20 and free for TueNighter members! (Just make sure you use the coupon code found here when you sign up!)
Wear whatever the hell you want, TueNighters!