TueDo List: Menopause Retreats + Pretty Ripe + Beautiful Bjork
Plus, a TueNighter essay turned YA novel, pumpkin spice overkill and Margit & Liz as collectibles.
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: Incredible essay: Listening to Taylor Swift in prison. This 52-year-old’s single best online dating hack. Is the at-home menopause test necessary? A bevy of new menopause retreats. Leanne Morgan’s peri hilarity. RIP Smashmouth’s Steve Harwell. A report from Margaritaville. A meditation on Sylvia Plath.
👀 LOOK: The world’s oldest tattoo artist at 106. Best cities for pizza, and places to survive a zombie apocalypse. The epidemic of fake Karen videos. Fashion week goodies: Gen X fashion tips for the youngins. Metallica in midlife.
🎧 LISTEN: This Beyoncé vocal clip 😮 and birthday love from Diana Ross. Gen Z’s music revolution, a thread. The Strike Force Five podcast of late-night hosts is really pretty fun. Eerily beautiful Bjork video.
🤣 LOL: Are you a paragraph texter? This Houston Astro fan will make you smile. The four stages of pickleball. One-stop shop for your Burning Man memes.
🛒 ADD TO CART: Make-your-own Funko pop figure. This book about pockets looks great — and an excerpt here. It’s Fashion Week in NYC — a peek at trends here and here (tl; dr: red, red, red!)
🤷♀️ WHATEVER: Tech jobs.
📺 WATCH:
This week: SNL alum Beck Bennett faces off against Joel McHale for a promotion in Office Race (Comedy Central).
Wed: Never Let Him Go, a heartbreaking true story of a brother's quest to solve the murder of his gay brother in 1989 (Hulu).
Fri: The Changeling, a supernatural postpartum mystery based on Victor LaValle's award-winning horror fantasy novel (Apple TV+). Dreaming Whilst Black, a comedy-drama about a young filmmaker juggling career, love, and disapproving family (Showtime). Sitting In Bars With Cake, a moving celebration of female friendship (Prime Video) and the Portokalos family reunite in Greece for a family reunion in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (Theaters).
Sun: Fan fave Norman Reedus faces burner zombies and an existential crises in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (AMC, AMC+).
STORY: The Day I Visited Dad in the AIDS Ward
Back in 2018, Jenny Laden wrote a poignant, powerful essay for TueNight about visiting her father in the hospital while he was dying of HIV/AIDS. She transformed elements of that story into a captivating YA multimedia novel,This Terrible True Thing: A Visual Novel, releasing today with a launch party next week! Here is her essay below.
By Jenny Laden
In the hospital lobby they looked at me funny when I told them I was visiting the 3rd floor. I took off my headphones, turned off the Pixies on my CD player, wrapped the cord around it and shoved it into my backpack.
In the hallway, the tv’s were showing interviews with Magic Johnson, who’d just told the world he was HIV positive, and Anita Hill, who’d just told a bunch of politicians about how shitty her male boss was and instead of dismissing him, they put him on the Supreme Court.
This was my first, “I’m visiting my super sick parent in the hospital regardless of the fact that I’m only a teenager” hospital visit.
They don’t have special passes for visitors like me. Nobody seemed to notice I’m not even voting age….
TUENIGHT 10: Monica Corcoran Harel, Screenwriter and Founder of Pretty Ripe
Your Age: 55
Basic bio: Monica, an accomplished author and screenwriter, is also the visionary behind Pretty Ripe, a platform celebrating kick-ass women over 40. In her role as a journalist, Monica introduced Pretty Ripe in late 2020, aiming to fill the gap left by women’s magazines that mostly cater to a younger crowd. She's currently developing a sitcom based on her New York Magazine essay “My Mom Has No Friends” for Mandy Moore and 20th Television.
Beyond the bio: For most of my 20s and 30s, I was afraid of becoming middle-aged. I thought it would be the most boring ride at the carnival. But now I know that midlife is the juiciest part of life. Wee!
What makes you a grown-ass lady?
At 55, I am smarter and sexier than I have ever been in my life. I also take no shit from anyone—except my 12-year-old daughter.
STORY: Welcome to the Smelliest Time of Year
By Jennifer Hudak
I love fall. It’s my favorite season. And I know what I’m talking about: I grew up in New England and live in Upstate New York, which makes me a bona fide autumnal expert. It is the most glorious time of the year around these parts. It’s also, unfortunately, the most intensely scented.
I’m not talking about the natural scents of sweet ripe apples waiting to be picked or smoky leaves crunching underfoot. I’m talking about the olfactory assault of artificial fragrance that fills pretty much every public space from September through November.
Normally I avoid stores that specialize in home fragrance or perfumed lotions, but this time of year, the scents spill over their normal boundaries and I have to steer clear of entire wings of the mall. Craft stores display fragranced candles and incense at the front end; bookstores sell autumn potpourri on racks near the checkout. Even my local grocery store has a display of seasonally scented wreaths by the entrance. And the most pervasive seasonal scent of all is Pumpkin Spice.
Don’t sweat the Fall stuff TueNighters…
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