What's IN/OUT this week

I’m always surprised when people actually do things to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Unless you have kids or a college ID, what is your angle? Corned beef enthusiast? (I’ll allow it.)

IN: A hilarious misunderstanding. I saw a queer flag on a walk and looked up which one it was. The graphic I found had many different flags I didn’t know existed, including one for folks who identify as aromantic. But before I properly zoomed in, I read it as “aromatic” and — without judgement! — I thought, “some people do stink.” (Seinfeld voice) Not that there’s anything wrong with that. OUT: Understanding youthful phrases. I saw a few memes with the phrase “bricked up” and I chose not to learn more. I’m not even going to bother with context clues. I am waving to this knowledge as it passes by my window. Go with God.

IN: Dim sum. I haven’t gone to my favorite dim sum place in months, maybe even a year?? I love that you mark up the menu like a little survey. I love how uninterested the wait staff is in the customers. I love going kind of late to get seated quickly. I love how I’ll keep myself from eating too much throughout the day so I can really load up on pork buns. I really love how many dim sum gifs are available to text to my friend all day before we get dim sum. OUT: Waiting so long to get dim sum.

IN: Martha Stewart (always). Anytime we get a good little interview with Martha, I will eat it up. I’m not going to seek out her recipes or decor how-tos, but I dig her as a person. She is so precise about who she is and what she does. She also clearly never worries herself with things like relatability, which is extremely chic. (Please follow her personal account on Instagram, it is incredible. She once posted the inside of her mouth during a dentist visit and another time she dismissed typos in a previous post by explaining how difficult it is to type while riding on a horse. If Marie Antoinette had social media, this would be it.) OUT: The Adult Braces discourse. I fell into it for maybe a day and now I’m quite done. It sounds like there’s a lot to unpack in this book, which I haven’t and most likely won’t read. Quick synopsis: Author Lindy West takes a road trip as a reaction to her husband wanting to be non-monogamous, and in the end she winds up in a throuple with him and his girlfriend. OK, whatever! But people are rattled. While some folks wrote about the book in a really fascinating way — using it as an opportunity to discuss the topic — others just spiraled over whether West’s choice was really her own. It got annoying fast because, as usual, everyone felt it was incumbent on them to weigh in and now we’re drowning in a sea of takes.

IN: Kopi Café. I really have fallen back in love with this weird little spot. It is that perfect sort of 1990s café where none of the chairs match and the mugs are oversized. it rides the line between cozy and stuffy, and it attracts a really eclectic crowd. I am over the modern, scrubbed-clean, wood-and-white coffee shops. Give me a three menus that haven’t changed in 30 years and a table with the lacquer wearing thin. OUT: Adrien Brody in Peaky Blinders. This is totally unrelated to my IN, I realize, but I just needed to say how much his performance as a New York mobster almost made the fourth season unwatchable. His bad impression of Vito Corleone made me want to scrape the paint off our walls with my fingernails. (I got the chills just typing that, I’m so sorry.)

Tell me what you hated this week!