BIRTHDAY BONUS: Love (and chicken) in the air

Like Paul Mescal, Amelia Dimoldenberg, and I, this newsletter is an Aquarius

I KNOW…I just released a newsletter on Wednesday. For someone with a history of publishing sporadically at best, the double-dose this week may come as a surprise. And I promise I won’t regularly bombard you with content, but today is a special occasion for two reasons. First, it’s my newsletter’s third birthday,* and second, it’s the one week anniversary of this Chicken Shop Date, and my life hasn’t been the same since…for reasons you may not expect.

First, I must preface: I cannot call myself a Paul Mescal superfan. I read Normal People - still haven’t seen the show. I LOVE Fleabag (if you missed this show when it first came out, I IMPLORE you to go watch it immediately. Don’t even read this to the end. Worthless content anyways. Just go watch), but still haven’t seen All of Us Strangers (in which Andrew Scott costars, hence the Fleabag ref - to be clear, I know they are two different people). I’m planning on it, as I’ve heard it’s amazing, in the same way I’ve been planning on seeing Aftersun for the past year. No issues with him whatsoever (certainly doesn’t hurt to look at), but not exactly engaged with his body of work in the way ever other woman on the internet between the ages of 20 and 35 seems to be.

And in terms of my engagement levels with Chicken Shop Date: I read a profile of Amelia in The Guardian last year and found her impressive. I watched her viral chicken shop date with Louis Theroux (and, subsequently, My Scientology Movie, which I also recommend), but didn’t tune in after that. Not because of Amelia - I thought she was hilarious and talented from the beginning - but because I am too old to care about/even know most of her guests. i.e First Class by Jack Harlow would be nothing at all without the Fergie sample; who is Aitch?, etc.

But, last Friday, one of her tweets showed up in my feed. Twitter’s new favorite thing seems to be showing tweets from people you don’t follow and, for once, it worked in my favor. “The biggest audition of Paul Mescal’s life” read the caption. As evidenced by the above, I’m not familiar with his work…but I am interested in him as a person (the style! the quads! the immediate, meteoric stardom at such a young age!), and I was procrastinating (has anyone ever logged onto Twitter when not on a deadline?), so I clicked.

You cannot convince me he’s not obsessed. via YouTube.

To me, this interview was everything celebrity interviews should be, and aren’t anymore. I would assume most viewers of Chicken Shop Date fall into the gen z demographic, which means they aren’t blessed with the memory of the infamous M.I.A. truffle fry profile. Just me? Okay. Anyways, while I’m glad the pendulum has swung away from actively disparaging celebrities in interviews and profiles, there is nothing interesting about the sanitized, PR-sanctioned interviews that dominate the media landscape today. “Jacob Elordi pets a dog on the street” now passes for news. And we wonder why print is dead. (journalist and podcaster

Eleanor Halls

writes and speaks on this frequently - and in a far more informed and eloquent way than I do - in her newsletter and excellent pop culture podcast, Straight Up, which is like the High Low, but better, btw).

Amelia isn’t course-correcting entirely away from this, but there’s only so much a girl can do. And, as Paul says in this interview (sorry, date), she’s “brilliant at her job.” She disarms her guests (“I’ve seen all your movies.” “All my movies?” “You haven’t done loads”) without going too far, and she never asks explicitly about an actor’s personal life (yes, we all want to know if he actually runs away from girls after one-night stands), but she does extract information from them that helps us better deduce who they may be as people (considers himself a romantic, loves a good long walk - also, to those suggesting he’s alluding the rumors - 99% sure this was filmed before the rumors began circulating).

Anyways, I thought I’d watch this interview and move on. But for the past week, it’s permeated my life in more ways than I ever could’ve imagined, both tangential and direct. Here’s a by-no-means-exhaustive list of the ways in which this Chicken Shop Date has lodged itself rent-free in my head:

Desperate and frantic search for a turquoise top

via youtube and…hours on mytheresa

Much like Mr. Mescal (pronounced Mess-cull, btw), I have blue eyes. The first exchange Paul and Amelia have on their date is her marveling at the way his eyes pop against his jumper. This revelation has sent me into a tailspin; I will not rest until my own blue eyes are popping against turquoise. I’ve been trolling Mytheresa and Matches for pieces that will do the trick, and have landed on this (20% off and also relevant in the Amelia Dimz universe, because she wears Dries a lot), but am also spiraling a bit as to whether this is a better choice, or even this, despite my extreme aversion to final sale items. Do chime in.

An identity crisis wherein I convinced myself, a 31-year-old, that I NEED a graphic baby tee…and actually bought one

My best friend is worried, darling! Obviously, after I watched Amelia and Paul’s date, I needed more CSD, and one of my favorite features of each episode were her outfits. They’re not my style AT ALL (as evidenced by my BFF’s attempted fashion intervention), but they are fun (Chloe Griffin is her stylist, btw). And her Gen Z aesthetic did, unfortunately, compel me to journey over to Depop (at 31, I must be one of the oldest people on the platform) and purchase this shirt, which is in my package room but I am afraid to pick up because I don’t want it to make me feel even older than I already do. (Did I mention my birthday was last week? Yes I did).

via refinery29. don’t think it’s gonna look like this on me. <333

Inability to stop thinking about this tweet

Watch ANY man’s GQ 10 Things in the context of this tweet and try not to laugh.

New book for the TBR stack: all about love, by bell hooks

Amelia also did a GQ “10 Things I Can’t Live Without” (while wearing a cool holographic turtleneck, yes, everyone worry, I am getting ideas), and I’m not going to drag her for mentioning a book because a. it’s different and b. this one has been on my list for ages. Her recco was what I needed to finally make the purchase. It’s a book about different types of love (platonic, etc) and the concept of love as a verb, not a noun. February feels like the perfect month to jump in.

Sad books by Irish authors named Paul

Okay, I was gifted The Bee Sting before I saw the interview, and the other stood out to me plot-wise and because it won the Booker, not because it was written by a sad Irishman named Paul. I’ve made no secret of my love for Irish authors, but it also works with our theme, so we’re moving forward.

The Bee Sting is a saga about a formerly wealthy Irish family dealing with a challenging economic downturn, and I’ve heard from everyone who has read it that it a) is fantastic and b) has a frustrating ending. It’s a THICK one, but I’m v much hoping to tackle it soon.

I saw Prophet Song on a shelf when I was at Shakespeare & Co. in search of all about love. It was one of the first books in a while where I’ve read the back and immediately purchased (I don’t have a book budget, but they are expensive these days). It’s a dystopian family saga about the Republic of Ireland slipping into totalitarianism. I haven’t been this excited about a book in a while, will report back.

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster

BRAT’s anchovy bread, via the Infatuation

I love a good food podcast, but they typically trend towards wholesome (i.e. Table Manners), so I was pleasantly surprised to discover Ed Gamble and James Acaster’s podcast Off Menu (via listening to Paul as a guest, maybe I am a superfan), which is irreverent and funny (there are a lot of inappropriate asides and celebrity encounter stories in this episode in particular that had me laughing out loud). I can’t say my food tastes are aligned with Paul’s (love ketchup, don’t like soup, sry), but I’ve duly noted his BRAT recommendation for my next trip to London, specially for the anchovy bread.

The Receipts Podcast

I know it’s been around for ages, but I listened for the first time this week, to Amelia’s episode. Is this starting to sound creepy? I promise I’m not a stalker, and that all of this is simply a drop in the bucket of my weekly cultural consumption, podcasts in particular (is that sad? let’s explore in another newsletter). ANYWAYS. The podcast is great, and I love their frank takes and dating gossip, will be tuning in again.

An existential chicken-related crisis for my chicken-loving husband

After I explained the concept of chicken shop date to him (400 times), he asked what the American equivalent of a chicken shop was. We’ve determined that we don’t have an equivalent in America (assuming fast-food chicken places, which are not ubiquitous in nyc regardless, fall under a different category; for e.g., Nando’s doesn’t count as a chicken shop, right? Help two clueless Americans out). We are sad about this, and now I’m on a quest for the city’s best chicken sandwich. Personally think it’s from Bobwhite Counter on Ave C, but it’s too elevated to compare to a shop like Chicken Cottage in the UK…watch this space.

Moral of the story/my most unhinged newsletter yet: procrastinate on Twitter…watch that YouTube video. You never know what inspiration it might spawn…

*Ok, my newsletter’s birthday was yesterday, but I didn’t have time to finish this, and so it’s going out today - coincidentally, Paul Mescal’s birthday, I think he’ll allow it. If you actually got to the end of this newsletter, two words, and two words only: