May I recommend
Sunscreen
Look, this week’s recommendation isn’t exactly innovative but honest to God it bears repeating… Put on sunscreen.
The hot weather is bearing down on us and with it, our great enemy, the sunshine. My husband milked cows on a kibbutz for a year (weird flex, Amy, but sure), and when it’s hot he puts on an Israeli accent and intones one of his major takeaways from the experience: “The Sun is not your friend.”
The Sun is not your friend, people. The sun is a mean girl who is nice to your face only to tell everyone that your boobs look like bananas in your Suzy Shier tank top. The sun makes you feel warm and happy in the moment, but the next thing you know, your arms are the colour of a boiled lobster and hunks of your skin are literally peeling off your body like a horror movie. That’s your skin, which the mother trucking sun has just burned from your body!
The sun is the asshole who wants to give you wrinkles and then skin cancer. You don’t need the sun’s bullshit. Put on some damn sunscreen.
I don’t think what kind matters, though obviously if you can get Australian sunscreen, that’s the best. That continent is heaving with white interlopers who lived directly under the ozone layer hole when that was a thing and they are not messing around when it comes to protecting their skin. European sunscreen is also better than North American for some reason that is probably related to politics and money and the tobacco lobby. Still, even lousy North American sunscreen is better than nothing. Chemical or physical? I don’t know! I don’t care! Both are probably fine! Just get it on. Haven’t I just told you that the sun is trying to sizzle you up?
I will say, that for my face, I enjoy this kind… It’s not too thick or sticky. But honestly bargain basement stuff is perfectly fine. Just get it on! … Then plop on a hat while you’re at it.
Give us your sunscreen recs in the comments below!
Van Life?
I lived the #vanlife. It wasn’t pretty
In 2010, whilst on parental leave, our little family lived the #vanlife for a week in New Zealand. That was enough.
Somewhere in New Zealand, 2010
This article from very funny writer Caity Weaver talks about her very funny experience van living with a friend in California. It is very funny
“Michael?” I whispered, and kept whispering — “Michael? Michael!” — until I heard him wake up. “Are you awake?” I asked innocently. It turned out he was. I explained that I needed to open one of the van’s doors — an action that would instantly flood our sleeping area with frigid air. “Are you OK?” Michael asked. “Oh yeah,” I shrieked. I clambered over the driver’s-seat armrest and hurled myself, sock-clad, onto the frozen dirt outside.
Changing your mind
You Were Right about Covid, and then you weren’t
So difficult to abandon beliefs that you hold dear, or that form your identity, but it’s useful to at least interrogate them every now and then.
Confessing that we’ve changed our opinion is hard, and not only because we don’t like feeling stupid, or looking stupid, or being exiled from certain circles of Twitter. “If I admit I’m wrong, then I have a harder time relying on my own judgment every time I make a decision or have an opinion,” says Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the author, most recently, of Think Again. “I’m admitting that my convictions about the world are often incorrect, and that that makes the world a little bit scarier to live in.”
Struggle care
You don’t have to fold your laundry
As someone who is not very good at being tidy or keeping an aesthetically pleasing house, I found this article reassuring.
There’s a lot of content out there for home care and self-care, but it tends to be really aspirational and aesthetically pleasing and curated. And there’s this large segment of the population that was not being helped by that and, maybe even more, actually feeling ashamed at not being able to keep up with that—everyone from people who are neurodivergent, disabled, have a chronic illness, parents of small children, people without a good support system, people who are chronically stressed or overwhelmed. I started talking about this idea of care tasks being morally neutral, and the idea that you deserve kindness, regardless of your level of functioning.
Book news
Book clubs a go go! The Honeybee Emeralds is a great book club book. There is lots of good stuff to talk about… Paris! Fabulous historical ladies! Vintage clothes! Whales! Iceland! Perfume! If you want me to come for an hour I can attend via Zoom or in person if you’re in the Ottawa area or if you want to spring for my airfare - ha ha!
Also, if you’ve read and liked Honeybee - thank you! - and please tell a friend! Word of mouth is literally the best book marketing tool - you don’t have to tweet about it or anything crazy, just tell a friend who you think might also like it, or ask your library to pick up a copy.
I’m now starting to gear up for my NEXT book - out September 27th. It’s a mystery set in the archives in Ottawa but also involves Paris (I can’t quit that place) and art and shenanigans aplenty. Keep your eyes peeled for THE FOULEST THINGS this fall! Also, this is its new cover, which is different from the one I shared a while ago…
TikTok
Oh no - Ears Edition
Three best friends
Friendship goals
Premium Air
The male body
The great escape
Oh my
Food for thought
So hungry
Strike a pose
Suspicious list
Sea cucumber
Tights on your dog
Tumble out of bed
Sandra! I haven’t seen you since high school
Map lies
How to get out of the car
We all have the same 24 hours
Thanks for reading my weekly newsletter.
You can follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here and now check out my website (I’m reposting my old Belgian blog Beer+Waffles there, if you want to take a trip down memory lane! )
Amy Tector, The Honeybee Emeralds (March 2022)
I will never forgive you for that sea cucumber video. Wtf!?