ICYMI, this week paying subscribers got a missive on one of my favourite novels, a love story set in Malaya and Australia.
I sense a significant amount of you subscribing to this newsletter follow Nicole Cliffe on Twitter. If you do, you’ll know what I’m referring to in a few sentences time. If you don’t, the dive won’t be deep. Go for a stroll/scroll.
Anyway, to be less vague, she’s helping air some truths about an actor who memes and content farms love. A man we’re meant to think is cool. A man we’re repeatedly told is cool. Maybe you think he’s cool. Chat show hosts love him. He’s in a few franchises that won’t be leaving the cultural bloodstream anytime soon.
When someone people like gets ‘cancelled’, there’s sometimes a cry of ‘why can’t we have one nice thing’. But the thing is, we have so many nice things left! Also, don’t worry about a famous and rich man. He’ll be fine. I got to tell Dan this week that Andrew Wakefield, the man responsible for you defriending your older female cousins on Facebook after they posted another anti-vaxxer video, is dating Elle MacPherson, the Australian model the Friends were all mean to. He lied, those lies have endangered lives and he is now dating a supermodel.
And so, to the nice things. Streaming sites where you can watch wtf shows like Riverdale, coat shows like Mrs Maisel, women challenging catholic leadership shows like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Black yoga leggings as casual wear. Irish libraries getting rid of fines. Henry Goldman going from presenting some sort of No Frontiers show to Hollywood star. Old movie nights. Episode 7 Season 1 of Outlander, which is basically feminist porn. If you want to read a book about a female millennial who hates capitalism, you should check out this thing called publishing. Lodge 49 is a television show more people should watch because its pace is therapeutic, its issues timeless. Last weekend, I went to see a horror movie during the daytime and it was about a woman who married into a boardgame empire and then they try killing her in an elaborate game. Lots to think about. Emma Thompson has written a Christmas movie script based on the songs of George Michael and it stars Henry Golding and is out in a few weeks. Ruth Wilson in the Golden Compass reboot. Dev Patel’s hair playing David Copperfield.
Genuinely this is a golden age of nice things. Look around, we don't need handsy men to stan. Trust the compost to do its thing.