Wrung Out, In Brief
Dames Nation, we are living in a truly extraordinary age for Internet Forensics. Political reporter Ashley Feinberg has given us so many gifts — James Comey’s formerly secret Instagram! Mitt Romney’s alter ego, Pierre Delecto! Pete Buttigieg most likely editing his own Wikipedia page! — and now the great Caity Weaver has applied the same obsessively attentive analysis to the (very weird, yet somehow deeply, relatably banal?) details of the relative popularities of the Instagram accounts of the Duchies of Cambridge and Sussex.
Live footage of Your Dames grasping the totality of Caity Weaver’s journalistic accomplishment
This piece has something for everyone: Juicy gossip for royal watchers, interviews with social media analysts for number-crunchers, allusions to Romeo and Juliet for literary nerds, amusingly photoshopped illustrations for humor lovers, carefully considered screenshots for visual learners. It doesn’t draw final conclusions (how could it?) but it limns the contours of both what we know and what is likely to remain forever unknowable, which is most of the story. The Young Royals are just like us — on Instagram! Mindful of their respective brands and invested in maintaining their value! — and yet very much not.
A Note About This Week’s Issue: We haven’t talked much in these pixel pages about our belief in Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy for president, but we sincerely believed in her, and are feeling like wrung-out messes following her withdrawal from the race this week. As a result, we’re serving up a shorter-than-usual issue. Brevity is always the soul of lingerie and this week we’re approximating it for newsletters.
Dame M’s Miscellany
While once again laid low by the contemplation of America’s latent misogyny, I have been finding the original cast recording of Six, the what-if-Henry VIIIs-wives-were-pop-divas musical wherein centuries of misogynist framing get a catchy-as-hell rebuke, distinctly comforting. Therefore the timing could not have been better for this delightful — and primary source rich! — NYTimes account of how the show was conceived by two Cambridge University students. Dive deep on both, you will adore them,
Shopping alert: skincare emporium Dermstore is having its annual "beauty refresh" sale, meaning many rarely-discounted products are 20% off through Monday, 3/9. Join me in wondering if this is the moment you finally splurge on a bottle of Sunday Riley's Good Genes OR grab a bottle of this much more affordable dupe recommended by Sophie OR take a look at this list of recommended items from the editors of The Strategist.
If anyone can convince me to starch and iron my sheets, it's Maira Kalman, who makes an exceptionally (but not, ultimately effectively) compelling case for the singular pleasure of starched bed linens in her contribution to New York Magazine's "What I Can't Live Without" column.
John Paul Brammer’s Hola Papi advice newsletter has rapidly become one of my favorite advice columns on the Internet. He is so insightful and so kind and this recent reply, to an anxious person contending with the fact that someone in their social circle finds them annoying, is a particularly strong example of his work. Read it and feel refreshed.
And, last but not least, please enjoy this wonderful, string-section enriched Tiny Desk concert from one of my favorite Singing Lauras, Laura Stevenson:
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