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Substack Reads: Resurrecting Villanelle, join the funtervention, and rogue passengers
The apartment is on the fourth floor of an anonymous, apricot-coloured block in St Petersburg’s western suburbs. It overlooks a four-lane highway beyond which the expanse of the Gulf of Finland extends to the horizon. At the rear of the building is a small park, once part of the estate of a Grand Duke. There’s an ornamental garden, a long-dry fountain, and a ruined greenhouse overrun with bindweed.
Oxana runs here most days, following the paths beneath the spreading chestnuts. It’s June now, and the overgrown lawn is dotted with daisies and wild violets. She’s tempted to lie down on the grass, to close her eyes and simply breathe the scent of the summer morning. But she has to keep going, to maintain her endless shark-like patrolling. It’s when you feel safest, Konstantin used to say, that you’re in the greatest danger.
Jesse Paris Smith shares reflections from the stage and the end-of-year trio of shows that she plays with her mother, Patti Smith, as a member of her band
The other night at my mom’s birthday show, she paused during a song for some water and said, “I need a moment. Something I’ve learned is when you need a moment, take it.” She also said, “My version of rock ‘n’ roll is one where you’re allowed to f*** up as often as you need to.” Both of these made me so proud, and reminded me of the lessons I’ve learned through my mom and the band and crew, this family I was born into as any other. So while I might still be getting my footing with the scheduling of weekly Substack posts, and while I might need to take a moment or I might falter here and there, you can know that I am still here, and we will always pick up where we left off before.
Pilots on shrooms, passengers weaponizing urine, planes without windows, emergency exit mishaps, Tiffany (of course), and everything you never expected to happen mid-flight
On July 2, 2023, a video of a woman exiting an American Airlines plane went viral. As she walked away, she yelled: “I’m telling you right now, I’m getting the fuck off. And the reason why I’m getting the fuck off—and everyone can believe it or they can not believe it—I don’t give two fucks. But I am telling you right now, that motherfucker—that motherfucker back there is not real.”
As she pointed to the back of the plane, the other passengers turned around to look.
“And you can sit on this plane and you can fucking die with him or not. I’m not going to.”
Critics are calling our attention to the first problems with the use of AI in legal practice. In New York, two lawyers cited cases that turned out to be “hallucinations.” Some judges now mandate that documents submitted to them have a certificate that they were not generated by LLMs or, if they were, that they have been thoroughly checked.
It seems reasonable to believe that sooner or later, AI used in legal practices will, if not eliminate, then significantly reduce the occurrence of hallucinations. Importantly, AI seems to be ideally suited for digging through large databases in a process of so-called discovery, which until now has been particularly labor-intensive.
When their friendship bloomed over Taiwanese food, Trigg Brown and Josh Ku opened a bakery with Taiwanese-American flavors where everything tastes incredible. Paris-based pastry chef and author David Lebowitz speaks with Trigg Brown of Win Son Bakery in Brooklyn
Bottom: toffee chocolate chip cookie and apple nian gao; top: twice-baked red bean and almond bolo bao, and mochi doughnut, via David Lebowitz Newsletter
The bakery and menu items take cues from familiar favorites, such as chocolate chip cookies and donuts, but I was delighted at how brilliantly they incorporated mochi, candied red beans, red rice, and scallions, along with raclette cheese, heritage bacon, and mortadella. It was the best of both (or many) worlds.
I was especially drawn to the Fan tuan, rice rolls filled with eggs, bacon, and a crispy cruller in the middle. It was a great combination, and I could easily give up baguettes and croissants for breakfast if I lived closer.
Lawyer and political commentator Helen Dale got a jolt of déjà vu when reading the recent case of a canceled author, and thinks we’ve lost our way when it comes to managing public disagreements
Stephen Fry gets shitcanned and cancelled for his Christmas message. University students get doxxed after signing pro-Palestine petitions. Journalists are sacked over tweets. Jewish-owned restaurants are covered with racist graffiti. Everyone starts contacting everyone else’s professional associations.
On the last point, I’m looking at you, fellow-lawyers. The legal bush telegraph is currently thrumming with cancellation-derived toxicity. If you’re pro-Israel and loud about it, don’t try to get a job in human rights, the European Union, or employment law. If you’re pro-Palestine and loud about it, look away now from commercial, corporate, and private clients. [...]
Like the tourist asking an Irish farmer how to get to Wicklow and being told, “I wouldn’t start from here if I were you,” we’ve lost our way when it comes to managing public disagreement. The sort of world I prefer—where people speak their minds and are responded to by other people also speaking their minds and everyone just deals with any hurty words—is receding from view at speed. And as with the parlous state of higher education, I don’t have good fixes to offer. All I can say is this is a shite way to organise civil society and, yes, it makes everything worse.
Science writer Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, wants to help you start the new year with more joy, laughter, and delight. Listen and read more about what habits you can start today
Notice (and share) something that delights you each day. As some of you know, I just had an op-ed essay in the New York Times about the practice of noticing and sharing daily delights—meaning anything that you encounter that sparks delight (it doesn’t matter how small or absurd). As part of the January funtervention, I encourage you to make a point to notice and share at least one delight a day. When you do, put your index finger in the air and say, out loud, “Delight!” (yes, even if you’re alone). I go into more detail in the article about why this last part is important; for now, just trust me!
Missed this week’s Golden Globes, or want to remember some of the best moments from the TV and film awards? Illustrator Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell has you covered
Maggie Smith announces her new children’s book is available for preorder:
Recently someone asked, “What is your big hope for this book?” My answer was that my hope for this book is actually very small. Small, but meaningful. I hope this book makes bedtimes calmer, sweeter, and just a little bit easier for other families.
Hi, Friend. Somehow it’s the new year. 2024 sounded so futuristic to me when I was a child, but alas we’re still waiting on the personal jetpacks I thought we’d have by now. And I work from home, so where would I would be blasting off to each day, anyway…
Garden designer Jo Thompson is in the AMA hotseat on Notes next week:
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AMA on Gardening with @Jo Thompson next Wednesday! Whether you have questions on what to plant, how to grow stuff, or planting design ideas, Jo will live answer your gardening-related questions for an hour. Subscribe to Jo’s publications to get notified when she starts the conversation on Notes.
Morning beauties, what is everyone reading on this fresh winter’s morning? I found THE LANGUAGE OF TREES in Crawford Art Gallery at the weekend, the gorgeous anthology from Katie Holten I had the honour of contributing to, and I’ll be dipping into that before starting into a review that’s due soon. Has anyone read it? 💚
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Tom Cox advocates the creative power of a good walk:
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I think it’s important, no matter how confident you grow with your writing, that an element of fear and self-doubt is still there, keeping you sharp, prompting you to push and prod and question yourself. But yesterday the fear had ballooned to that size where I couldn’t quite see over it to what was on the other side, if there even was something - something worth seeing - on the other side. What I was trying to do…
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Ben Le Fort shouts out to writers in his category:
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Recent Substacks in my Niche (finance) that I just subscribed to and look forward to reading. They have a different approach than I do to thinking about investing and personal finance and.. GASP Even holds views contrary to mine… … Which is good for me to read, both as a writer and to sharpen my own views. They are The Psychology of Wealth by @Alejandro Lopez The Pragmatic Optimist by @Amrita Roy and Investment Talk…
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And Sarah Fay kicks off a thread of great books written by Substack writers:
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Favorite book by a Substack author traditionally published?
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Inspired by the writers featured in Substack Reads? Writing on your own Substack is just a few clicks away:
Substack Reads is a weekly roundup of writing, ideas, art, and audio from the world of Substack. Posts are recommended by staff and readers, and curated and edited from Substack’s U.K. outpost by Hannah Ray.
Got a Substack post to recommend? Tell us about it in the comments.
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