Don’t throw that soup can away just yet! In just a few simple steps, you can transform a tin can into a one-of-a-kind pencil holder. What goes on your pencil holder is totally up to you. So grab your supplies and DIY skills to get started on this DIY pencil holder, just in time for school!
Start with an empty tin can and make sure there are no sharp edges!
Get the height of your can and be as precise as possible! It’ll make the finished product look even better.
This will be the paper exterior that covers the outside of your can.
Make sure to do this on your cutting board or mat to avoid damage to your tabletop!
Don’t go overboard with the glue, but make sure the can is fully coated.
Collect your soda cans and turn them into these, for the perfect summer money-making racket #SummerDIY https://t.co/MXWdU3xnul
— DIY Projects (@DIYProjectsCom) July 4, 2017
Press the paper firmly against the can while it dries.
A thin, even layer of Modge Podge is perfect.
Press and hold for a minute or two while it dries.
Repeat steps 7-9 if you want to add more photos. Get creative!
Your DIY pencil holder is now ready to use!
Check out the video below to see this DIY in action!
You probably don't notice, but you're sure to have a few loose pens and paperclips scattered around your desk. But, with this DIY pencil holder, it would be much easier to get them out of the way and keep your desk organized. A frugal project you easily whip in few minutes and the only limit to this is your creativity.
Do you have any other DIY desk ideas? We’d love to hear about them! Leave a comment and let us know!
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Editor’s Note – This post was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
]]>I hold my father's hand as we approach the room that she's in. As of right now, she still hasn't woken up. Tears fill my eyes as we step into her room.
My mother's stroke came out of nowhere. She was one of the healthiest people I knew, so for her to have a stroke was a shock to everyone.
When her stroke happened, she changed so much as a person; losing her memories of my father and I, only remembering up until my second brother was a baby, and having short term memory loss. She struggled remembering a lot of what was told to her after 20 minutes. My mother needed constant care.
At the recommendation of the state, it was best for my mother to go live with her mom. As she walked out the door on my 12th birthday to go get medical help, the hole in my heart got a little bigger.
It's been 11 years without my mom. For three years after her stroke, I had to become a helping hand in taking care of her.
But without her in my life, I had to learn everything from my father. My father taught me how to put my hair in a ponytail, shave, and even how to use period products as I grew older.
Finding friends was difficult. Girls seemed to connect through clothing styles or makeup. I never knew much about that until I found friends willing to teach me or watched YouTube tutorials. I've always felt different from other girls and women around me.
While my father gave me a loving and supportive home and a childhood that I can proudly say is mine, I still missed my mother. I missed the experiences we could have had. The trips to the mall to choose my prom dress or the dress I would graduate high school in. The family vacations she's missed to Cedar Point and Florida.
I wish my mother could know me now and be proud of who I am and want to become. I wish she could see me graduate college, start my career, get married, and have a family. She'll never get to meet my kids or my brothers' kids.
The toughest part is not remembering my mother as the person she was before her stroke and hearing all the stories about her. My father always says that I have all the good qualities of her, and that makes me glad, but I can't remember those. As the years go by, the memories fade more and more.
When her stroke happened my mind struggled to remember her. She never remembered me; she would often think I was her sister. These changes caused me to lose more of the memories I had of my mother before her stroke.
My best friend likes to point out that I talk about my mother like I have two of them. In my mind I do. I have my mom before her stroke, the one who gave me life and raised me for nine years. Then I have the mom who I helped take care of for three years - the one who didn't know me and thought I was her younger sister.
The first time my best friend brought up my "two mothers," I realized that I talked like that. I never comprehended that I truly do have two different versions of my mom. My mind automatically split the versions of her without me realizing.
As a child, that was how I comprehended a lot of what was going on. No one sugar coated this situation for me. How can you sugar coat that your mother doesn't know you anymore?
You can't.
A piece in my heart will always be missing. My mother wasn't there to watch me become the woman I am now or teach me what I need to know about life.
But I learned something along the way.
I learned to appreciate my father more for everything he does. Living a life with a single parent who is so involved makes me see the joy in the little things in life.
It has made me see that the smaller memories are meant to be cherished. Every laugh I have shared with my father and all of our road trips, whether it's to New Orleans or to the store, are cherished memories I'll keep forever.
It's made me see life in a special way where sometimes the time with your loved ones is more important than anything else.
Even though my mother is still alive, I wish I had the opportunity to make more memories with her and cherish them the way I do now with my father.
The missing piece of my mother in my life has brought challenges that I never thought I would go through, but it has made me appreciate the people in my life.
My mother will always be in my heart. Her memories will always make me smile, but the day I stepped through the hospital room doors in tears, I knew I'd have to miss her forever.
]]>Make s’mores, create ambience and warm up with a tabletop fire pit
From CB: Now that I know tabletop fire pits exist I want one! This tabletop fire pit bowl by Nordhaus comes with two skewers, two pounds of smooth peddles, an extinguisher, one fuel canister and a concrete bowl. You can use it to create s’mores, have a romantic night, or just to add a little warmth. It has 110 ratings, 4.3 stars and an A on Fakespot. People say it’s a great addition to their patio. “Got this for daughter’s birthday. Bought the recommended eco fuel. Flame is perfectly beautiful. Kids love it for smores anytime. I found that the eco fuel lasts about 2 hours with pouring a full can and if there is any leftover when you are done, it will evaporate, so just pour what you will use in one session. It’s great for porch ambiance. ” “Purchased this so my Thanksgiving houseguests and I could roast marshmallows and make s’mores. Just poured some alcohol into the receptacle and ignited it with a match. Worked as designed. The flame was small but lasted long enough to make all the s’mores we wanted.”
A foldable, portable table you’ll want to bring everywhere this summer
From CB: This summer I’m looking for things to do outdoors like picnics and little outings. This packable, portable aluminum table comes in three sizes and two colors, all under $40. This would be great for camping, festivals and picnics. It has 6,800 ratings, 4.5 stars and an A on Fakespot. People say it’s lightweight and so useful. “I’ve been using this table for about 3 1/2 years now and it’s held up well. It goes with me on overnight kayaking trips as well as when camping in my SUV. What I love most is the packable size and weight.”
A magnetic soap holder you didn’t realize you needed
From CB: I’ve been watching YouTube compilations of Amazon TikTok videos. Some of the people are annoying, but I’ve found a lot of products I want, like this magnetic soap holder. You stick a bottlecap in your soap (the kit comes with one) and attach it to this beechwood holder to dry. It makes your soap last longer and it’s less soggy when you use it. This magnetic soap holder by Professor Fuzzworthy has 881 ratings, 4.6 stars and a B on Fakespot. People say they love them and often buy them as gifts. “I’ve had mine almost 2 months. The adhesive has held strong and it’s exactly where I put it and my soap is in great shape. Magnet still magneting.” “I bought two of these at Christmas, one to keep, one to give to my brother. He loves it! Uses it everyday and thinks it’s the bees knees! lol”
An outlet with a remote control you can attach to the wall
From CB: I live in an older house with weird wiring. I have a room without an overhead light and have to walk to a standing lamp to turn it on. This outlet with a remote control would help fix that problem. (I know there are smart plugs and I have some, but I don’t want to use an app to control a simple light!) It has a base that looks sort of like a light switch and a magnetic remote control. You just plug in the outlet, attach the base to the wall and the remote control sticks to it. This remote control outlet has over 1,000 ratings, 4.7 stars and a B on Fakespot. People wish they bought it sooner. “If you like to turn on the light before stepping into the room, then this is item for you. I bought it so I can turn on a lamp in the corner of my family room. No more walking in the dark to reach it and turn on.” “I freaking love these things! We’ve always had an issue in our living room where there is no light, and the standing lamp we have is in the farthest corner of the room so not easy to turn on. These things are just stupid easy to set up, like actually no set up at all, and now we have a “switch” to control the lamp.”
An ice roller to reduce puffiness and soothe irritated skin
From Rosie: This ice roller for your face and eyes can be used to reduce puffiness, shrink pores, calm redness, give headache relief, and more. It comes in 12 different colors and has the option for one plastic roller or a one plastic/one stainless steel rollers 2-pack. It has more than 18,000 ratings and 4.6 stars on ReviewMeta. Reviewers love how multi-purpose it is. “I bought this for my migraines…I have used it on my arthritic knees. I roll it on my puffy face and eyes. When I had hives, I rolled it over them and it helped with the itching so much. Great ice roller.” “So far I’ve used [it] to relieve jaw tension, sinus pain, headache, puffiness, inflammation, reduce redness and increase general awareness and relaxation. The product I never knew I needed.”
A vegan nail strengthener for longer natural nails
From Rosie: This fast-drying nail strengthening polish from OPI can be used on its own or as a base coat. It has a 4.6 star rating, more than 5,000 reviews, and a B on Fakespot. People in reviews are very happy with their results. “My nails were short and brittle…the results were amazing!” “I love this product. I use this all the time to maintain strong well conditioned nails.” “I bought this to help strengthen my nails and it works like a charm! … I can grow out my nails and not worry that they will break again.”
A portable, convenient, leak proof dog water bottle
From Rosie: This portable dog water bottle is handy for hot days outside or traveling with your pup and is a good alternative to a collapsible bowl. It comes in 3 colors and 2 sizes and has a 4.7 star rating, more than 34,000 reviews and a B on Fakespot. People love how convenient it is. “This water bottle is SO convenient. The little leak proof push button system is awesome.” “It is so much easier to give our dog a drink than having to tote around a collapsible dish and a bottle of water.” “It’s easy and convenient for travel use and even when walking the dog…Definitely recommend.”
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]]>When you take your dog on a walk, you may wonder what kind of germs are sticking to their paws as they trot along a city sidewalk, open field or hiking trail.
In the city where I live, for example, I often wince when I see my dog do his business on tiny patches of dirt and grass knowing that thousands of other dogs recently used the same area as a bathroom. There’s no denying he’s walking on other dogs’ urine and faeces, maybe some squirrel and goose droppings, but could he be bringing germs into our home that could make us sick?
According to Dr. Jane Sykes, a professor of small animal internal medicine and a board-certified small animal internal medicine specialist at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, dogs — their coats, mouths, paws — are covered in bacteria, but that doesn’t necessarily spell danger. Here’s what to know:
It’d take a very resilient bug — and a lot of it — to cause human illness. It’s not unheard of, but in general, the health benefits of adventuring with your pup far outweigh the tiny risks of getting sick from whatever may be latching to your dog’s paws.
“If you just go out for a walk in an urban area and you are not seeing any gross contamination with faecal matter, then it’s probably okay to do nothing, because you’ve got it all over your shoes the same way a dog has it on its paws,” Sykes said.
The type of germs your dog’s paws pick up depends on where you live, what your lifestyle’s like, and the type of pathogens that exist in your area. For example, dogs in cities are going to be exposed to germs that are different from what dogs are in rural areas or farmland walk on, which won’t look like the pathogens that attach to your dog’s fur when they swim in lakes and ponds.
Most viruses your dog walks and rolls around in don’t survive well in outdoor environments and likely wouldn’t be viable by the time they reach the indoors, Sykes explained. “They’re just not infectious anymore,” she said.
As mentioned above, dogs are already coated in bacteria that they bring into the home, but the bulk of these germs aren’t pathogenic, meaning they don’t cause illness in people and animals, added Megan Jacob, a professor of veterinary microbiology at North Carolina State University.
Furthermore, your dog’s paws probably wouldn’t pick up enough of a pathogen, aka a high enough infectious dose, that’d cause disease, Sykes said. Plus, as your dog continues walking, a lot of organisms will fall off of their paws before you get back to your house.
Say, for example, your dog walked through a mound of faeces deposited by another animal. According to Jacobs, that bacteria probably wouldn’t be stuck to their paws for very long. “Every step that he took after that pile, he’d probably be losing some of the bacteria he encountered,” Jacob said.
That said, it’s entirely plausible your dog could track something into the home that has the potential to make you ill. Any time your dog comes into contact with another animal’s faeces, there’s at least a little bit of a risk that organisms could be crawling around.
This is mostly a problem on farmland or in rural areas with cows or birds as they carry bacteria, like salmonella, and parasites that can be pathogenic to humans, Jacob said. Dogs can also pick up bacteria, like pseudomonas or aeromonas, from swimming in lakes and ponds, which can cause infections in people.
The fungal threats, which reside in soil and dirt in certain parts of the country, to be aware of are histoplasmosis, blastomyces, coccidioidomycosis, and cryptococcosis. “There is the potential, if dogs are bringing a lot of dirt into the home, for them to bring some of those organisms in,” Sykes said. When inhaled, they can lead to infections, though most people won’t get too sick, if at all.
It’s uncommon to contract a parasitic infection from your dog (again: It can and has happened). These critters are often more active in warm, humid environments. The main one is Giardia, which is spread through traces of contaminated faeces in the environment. If your dog brought Giardia home, you could, in theory, come in contact with it and get infected if you didn’t wash your hands before eating, Sykes said.
There are the usual offenders, too: fleas, ticks, and worms (though your vet likely has your dog on a good preventative for these). “There are several reports of dogs bringing ticks and fleas into the home and then those ticks and fleas feed on people and they have pathogens in them that cause human disease,” Sykes said.
As for your dog walking on other dog’s poop, aside from trying to avoid that altogether, steer clear of other dog’s diarrhoea. This suggests that whatever dog excreted it may be sick. According to Jacob, more dogs are eating raw meat diets and run the risk of contracting and spreading salmonella and listeria. They could shed those germs when they go out and do their business, passing it on to other dogs — and, potentially, you. (But, even then, the dog would probably walk off that bacteria, Jacob said.)
You don’t need to suddenly keep your dog squeaky clean. It’s actually good for us to be around all kinds of germs from the environment. “The more we get exposed, we sort of prime our immune system” to respond to bacteria that are pathogenic, Jacob said.
Not to mention, the benefits of the human-dog relationship far outweigh any risks of being exposed to a harmful germ on your pet’s paws or coat, Sykes said. Our furry friends make us happier, reduce our stress levels, help us get more exercise and keep us healthier.
When venturing out with your pup, take a look at your environment because the risk will vary depending on where you’re headed. Going on a walk through your neighbourhood, for example, is a pretty low-risk activity. But if your dog went running through a cow pasture or wading in a creek, it may be worth scanning them for ticks, giving them a bath or wiping off their paws to get rid of any pathogens, Jacob said. Washing your hands before eating can lower your risk of getting sick, too.
All in all, the odds your dog is going to trot over some organism that’s going to make you sick is pretty low. So, go on the hike, explore the city, take your dog to the farm — just keep an eye on them, and if the area felt risky, give them a quick clean. It can’t hurt.
“Business casual” is a term often thrown around, but what does it really mean? Essentially, business casual is a dress code that falls between formal business wear and casual wear. It’s a step down from wearing a full suit, but it’s certainly a notch above your favorite t-shirt and shorts combo.
When it comes to “men’s summer business casual”, we’re looking at the same business casual dress code, but with an added layer of complexity: hot weather. So, the challenge is to maintain a professional appearance without sacrificing comfort.
Summer business casual attire consists of 3 main elements: fabric selection, color palette, and accessories:
Your summer business casual wardrobe should be versatile and easy to mix and match. Here are some essentials:
Polo Shirt: A well-fitted polo or golf shirt in a solid color is a summer staple. It’s more formal than a t-shirt, but cooler than a long-sleeved button down shirt.
Dress Pants or Chinos: Dark wash jeans are perfectly acceptable as business casual wear, but for the hotter months, chinos are a better choice. They’re lighter and more breathable. Go for colors like khaki, navy, or grey.
Dress Shoes or Loafers: Boat shoes or loafers in brown or black can keep your feet cool while maintaining a professional image. Remember to wear socks that match the color of your shoes.
Button Down Shirt: On cooler days or for more formal events, a long-sleeved button down shirt is ideal. Oxford shirts are a classic choice. Keep the sleeves rolled up for a more casual look.
Blazers or Sport Coats: An unstructured blazer or sport coat in a lightweight fabric like cotton or linen can be perfect for those days when you need to dress up a bit. Stick to neutral or pastel colors.
Top Pick: Under Armour Men's Tech Golf Polo | Runner Up: Haggar Men's Premium No Iron Classic Fit Khaki Pants | Best Value: Amazon Essentials Men's Regular-Fit Quick-Dry Golf Shirt | |
---|---|---|---|
Material | 100% polyester fabric | 61% cotton, 37% polyester, 2% spandex | 100% polyester |
Advanced Fabric Tech | Yes, efficient sweat wicking and rapid drying | No | Yes, quick-dry fabric |
Design | Three-button placket with a self-fabric collar, loose cut for freedom of movement | Flat front design, off-seam front pockets, single welt back pockets | Classic cut, convenient button closure |
Unique Features | - | No-iron nature, hidden expandable waistband | UPF 50 sun protection |
Care Instructions | Machine wash | Machine wash | Machine wash |
Size and Color Options | Standard and tall sizes, various color options | Regular and big & tall sizes, various color options including Dark Navy, Dark Gray, Tobacco | Wide range of colors and sizes |
Top Pick: Under Armour introduces its versatile Tech Golf Polo for men, a perfect combination of comfort, function, and style for your business casual summer wardrobe. This Polo is designed in the USA and comes in a lively assortment of color combinations that suit a wide range of styles.
Key Features:
Runner Up: Haggar’s Premium No Iron Khaki Pants redefine comfort and convenience, making them a summer wardrobe must-have. These classic fit pants, available in both regular and big & tall sizes, offer a blend of style, practicality, and a tailored fit perfect for the summer. You can wear these to the office or out to dinner, and you’ll always look great and put-together.
Key Features:
Best Value : The Amazon Essentials Men’s Regular-Fit Quick-Dry Golf Shirt is a versatile wardrobe staple that prioritizes both comfort and style. Made from 100% polyester, this shirt is ideal for a variety of settings, from the golf course to a casual business meeting.
Key Features:
The Nautica Men’s Classic Fit Polo Shirt, with its distinct design and high-quality fabric, provides a blend of comfort and style that’s perfect for summer wear.
Key Features:
Incorporating style, comfort, and practicality, the Amazon Essentials Men’s Slim-Fit Chino Pants are an ideal addition to your summer business casual wardrobe. Available in several stylish colors, these pants are perfect for business casual summer outfits, lending a polished finish to your look.
Key Features:
Upgrade your summer business casual wear with the Dockers Men’s Classic Fit Easy Khaki Pants. Perfect for regular and big & tall sizes, these pants strike a balance between style, comfort, and ease of movement.
Key Features:
The Vineyard Vines Men’s Gingham Stretch Poplin Shirt, with its flexible fit and appealing design, is an ideal choice for your business casual summer attire.
Key Features:
Carhartt’s Loose Fit Midweight Short-Sleeve Plaid Shirt combines functionality and style, making it a solid choice for your summer wardrobe.
Key Features:
The Columbia Men’s Under Exposure Yarn Dye Short Sleeve Shirt blends comfort and style, becoming a go-to piece in your summer business casual collection.
Key Features:
Show off your sense of style this summer with the PJ Paul Jones Men’s Slim Fit Lightweight Linen Jacket. Tailored to perfection, this sport coat serves as a staple piece for any business casual outfit.
Key Features:
Boat shoes are summer staples, and Sperry makes some of the best. Their original boat shoe blends traditional craftsmanship with modern comfort, perfect for a business casual dress code.
Key Features:
Hey Dude shoes are everywhere lately, and with good reason. These loafers are comfortable and fashionable, with enough available colors and patterns to suit every taste! They can go from the office to the park, and almost anywhere in between.
Key Features:
Creating the perfect summer business outfit involves balancing formality with comfort. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
To illustrate how these elements come together, let’s look at two successful businessmen known for their summer business casual style.
First, think about Mark Zuckerberg, the king of casual Fridays. He’s known for his signature jeans and t-shirt combo, but when he dresses up, he often opts for a classic polo shirt and dark wash jeans, paired with casual shoes.
Next, consider Richard Branson. He favors light, breathable fabrics in his shirts and often pairs them with straight fit chinos. He’s rarely seen without his trademark loafer shoes, showing that a business casual look can still carry a sense of authority.
Smart casual is slightly more formal than business casual. For instance, smart casual might require a blazer, while business casual might allow for a polo shirt without a jacket.
This depends on your office dress code. While shorts aren’t typically considered business casual wear, some offices with more relaxed dress codes might allow it.
Choose lightweight, breathable shoes like loafers or boat shoes. They should be clean and in good condition. Flip flops and sandals are usually not suitable for a business casual dress code.
Common mistakes include wearing clothes that are too casual (like Hawaiian shirts or shorts), choosing heavy fabrics, or forgetting about dress codes in favor of comfort. Remember, even if it’s Casual Friday, you still need to look professional.
In most business casual dress codes, a tie is not required. However, a lightweight, knit tie can add a formal touch to your outfit if necessary.
Embracing the business casual style offers benefits beyond staying cool in summer. It provides an opportunity to show some personality while maintaining professionalism. Don’t be afraid to add personal touches like a favorite watch or a unique pair of shoes.
Remember, the goal of the business casual dress code is to make sure all office workers are on the same page regarding work attire. So, while there’s room for individuality, don’t stray too far on the casual side. Always remember that you’re dressing for work, not a backyard barbecue.
This guide to business casual for men in summer should equip you with all you need to know to maintain a professional and comfortable look in the warmer months. Whether it’s choosing the right fabric or color, picking out the perfect polo shirt or dress pants, or navigating the ins and outs of casual Fridays, you are now ready to face the summer in style!
Remember, the heat of the season doesn’t have to compromise your business casual style. Instead, it can enhance it, opening up a world of options that strike the perfect balance between comfort and professionalism. Now, go out there and conquer the summer, one business casual outfit at a time!
This article, "Summer Business Casual For Men: Style Tips and Top Picks" was first published on Small Business Trends
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]]>One Sunday in early May 2022, I went for a walk with my son in Sandycove, a coastal suburb just south of Dublin.
It was a bright and beautiful day, and the first fine possibility of summer was in the air; the beach was crowded with picnicking families and children flinging themselves, shrieking, at the icy sea. We made our way up the hill past the bathing area at the Forty Foot, and when we came to the squat Martello tower in which James Joyce set the opening chapter of Ulysses, we paused for a moment.
As I dutifully informed my son of the building’s significance, and as he dutifully listened, my gaze drifted along the coastline and came to rest on a cluster of three-story apartment buildings on the very edge of the rocks above the bay. I knew this apartment complex well, though I had not been there since childhood.
I pointed the place out to my son, and told him that my grandparents had lived there when I was a child, and that I remembered it very vividly. I remembered in particular, I told him, the view of the bay from the kitchen window, and my grandfather’s insistence that on an especially fine day you could see clear across the Irish Sea to Wales. I was, I said, fascinated by this prospect of seeing Britain from the kitchen window. Whenever I visited them I would always head for the binoculars that hung from a hook on the wall, and I would peer east across the water; but, Ireland being what it was, the view was never clear enough.
I told my son that I wanted to show him the place, and so we walked a further ten minutes or so, past the fine Victorian terraced houses between Sandycove and Dalkey, until we reached the sea again at Bullock Harbour. The apartment complex, which was called Pilot View, was sealed off from the road by a set of large electric gates.
It was the kind of place that estate agents habitually refer to as “an exclusive development,” or “highly sought-after.” In my grandparents’ time, a lot of well-off people lived there: couples whose children had grown up and moved out, or older professionals who had never married. (As a boy I had an enthusiasm for luxury cars, and I remember being deeply impressed by all the Jaguars and Mercedes-Benzes in the parking spaces out front.)
Standing outside the entrance to the car park, I pointed out to my son the door to my grandparents’ building. Like most children of his age, he liked to hear about his parents’ childhoods, and so he listened contentedly as I recalled playing in the garden behind their ground-floor apartment, the lawn that sloped down toward the rocks, and the Irish Sea beyond.
Class and power… were more than mere contexts for these crimes; they are at the center of their enduring fascination.As I spoke, however, my mind was elsewhere. It was not really my grandparents I was thinking of, or even my own childhood as such, but a thing that had happened in 1982, when I was three years old. A murderer had been arrested there, in the apartment building adjacent to my grandparents’. This murderer was among the most notorious in Irish history, and the story of his crimes and their aftermath was one that had haunted me, in various ways, since childhood. It was one that had haunted our country too. I knew that my son would have been interested to hear of this—more interested than he was in James Joyce, certainly, or in my own early memories—but I said nothing about it.
As I continued to tell my son about my grandparents, I was gazing up at a window of the penthouse next door, imagining the murderer gazing down in our direction, an expression of watchful abstraction on his face. This was the window, I knew, in which the detectives who arrested him had seen his face appear as they were preparing to close in. It was as though the image of this murderer—the knowledge of what he had done and of the circumstances of his arrest—had overwritten my own childhood memories of the place.
In this way, too, the murderer and his crimes had come to be superimposed over my experience of the city I lived in. I would go for a run in the Phoenix Park, and as I passed the Wellington Monument I would see him standing there, peeling and eating an orange in the moments before he attacked his first victim. Farther on, I would reach the American ambassador’s residence, and as I stopped to stretch before turning back for home, I would see in my mind what had happened there almost forty years before. I would see this man bundling a young woman into the back seat of her own car. I would see the eruption of sudden savagery with the hammer; the car speeding off down the jogging track, a fine spray of blood across its windows.
*
It was from my own father that I first learned about the murderer, whose name was Malcolm Macarthur. I was about nine, the age my son is now. My father gave me only the broad outline of the events that had culminated in Pilot View, in, as I remember it, that same car park in front of my grandparents’ apartment. One of my grandparents’ neighbors, my father told me, a man named Patrick Connolly, had once been a very prominent political figure. He lived in an apartment on the top floor, and my grandparents knew him—though only passingly, I gathered, in a polite and neighborly sort of way.
Some years before, my father told me, this man and his apartment had been at the center of a bizarre and scandalous incident. A friend of Connolly’s, Malcolm Macarthur, had murdered two people, and for two weeks there was a very public investigation and manhunt, and when the Gardaí (the Irish police) had finally tracked him down and caught him, he was staying in Connolly’s home.
They had arrested Macarthur right there, my father told me, in the apartment complex where my grandparents lived, where I came to stay when my parents went away on weekends, where I played in the hallway and on the lawn and on the rocks along the shore. From then on, whenever we visited my grandparents, my head would swirl with action-film scenes: SWAT teams descending from helicopters on ropes, rappelling down the side of the building. Shoot-outs in the car park. Snipers on the roof of the nursing home across the street.
None of this kind of thing happened, of course, but even now when I think about Macarthur’s arrest, it is hard for me not to imagine it playing out like that, the way I’d constructed it in my mind as a child. But I will try to keep my imagination out of this, one way or another. There is more than enough reality to be getting on with.
*
The people of Dublin know this story well. But we know it only as a story. Although Macarthur was convicted of murder, there was hardly a trial at all. He pleaded guilty, and so no evidence was heard in court. What details emerged in the press about the culprit were largely leaked, or garnered by reporters from acquaintances in the days and weeks after his conviction. The case came to trial very quickly and was over as soon as it began; all of this, along with the involvement of the attorney general, led to lingering suspicions about the government intervening to mitigate embarrassing revelations.
It wasn’t until years later that I came to understand these events more fully; but even then there was something opaque and elusive about the story of Macarthur, as much urban legend as historical fact. When he committed these murders, he was thirty-seven years old, and a well-known figure about the city—though much less so than now, and for very different reasons.
There are Dubliners of a certain age who remember him in those days: a handsome, erudite man with a refined manner of speech, who drank in the city’s more sophisticated bars, and mixed with an assemblage of bohemian and establishment familiars. They remember him as an incongruously suave proposition, sitting alone in a quiet corner, sipping a glass of wine and reading, for some reason, a copy of Le Monde. Emerging from the front arch of Trinity College, contentedly absorbed in his thoughts. The silk bow ties, the tasteful brogues, the Harris tweeds. And the hair—the dark, dense curls, swept back from a high, aristocratic forehead.
He came from a well-off landowning family in Co. Meath, where he had grown up on a large country estate, with a house- keeper, a gardener, and a governess. He thought of himself, and was thought of by others, as landed gentry. In his twenties, he came into a large inheritance, and he lived well on this bounty. His life was a project of refined hedonism. His days were entirely his own. He was a free man.
But the money, as is the way of money, did not last. He had loaned too widely, and spent too deeply, and on the cusp of middle age, having never had a job in his life, he found that he was going broke. And this would not do.
He decided that the quickest and most efficient way out of this situation was to commit an armed robbery. Such heists were often in the news at the time: the IRA had lately been conducting a campaign of bank jobs in order to fund their armed struggle. He was a clever man, he reasoned, and a capable one, and so why should he not be able to pull off something along those lines?
He had, at that point, been living for some months with his partner and son in Tenerife, a Spanish island off the coast of Morocco. Explaining that he was leaving to attend to some financial affairs, he returned to Dublin. Two weeks after his return, he still had not succeeded in pulling off the planned heist, but in the effort to attain a gun and a getaway car, he had murdered two complete strangers.
His first victim was the nurse Bridie Gargan, whom he beat to death with a hammer in the Phoenix Park in the process of stealing her car. His second was the farmer Donal Dunne, in Edenderry, Co. Offaly, who had agreed to sell him a shotgun, and whom he shot point-blank in the face. Both of his victims were twenty-seven years old.
Having committed these murders, Macarthur was still no closer to carrying out his plan. He was further, in fact, than he had been when he started, because the crimes had become the focus of a very public investigation, and a great deal of media interest. Deciding he needed a more suitable place to hide than the guesthouse where he’d been staying, he accepted an offer from his friend Paddy Connolly, who knew nothing of his crimes, to stay in the spare room in his penthouse apartment.
When Macarthur was finally arrested, almost three weeks later, there followed a great and enduring convulsion of captivated outrage: not just because this murderer had finally been caught, but because of where he had been caught, and whom he was staying with. Patrick Connolly was not just Macarthur’s friend: he was also the attorney general. He was the most senior legal official in the country, a significant figure in an already embattled government.
*
Even now, almost forty years after the murders, the public fascination with this story has not abated, and has in certain respects intensified since Macarthur’s release, after thirty years in prison, in 2012. Among Irish people old enough to remember the summer of 1982, he is as close to a household name as it is possible for a murderer to be; though his name is not surrounded by anything like the miasma of malice and depravity that arise from, say, the name Peter Sutcliffe in the UK, or Jeffrey Dahmer in the United States, it carries, in this country, a similar generational weight.
This fascination draws much of its strength from paradox: Malcolm Macarthur, the genteel brute; the savage intellectual. One of the most well-known photographs of him, taken at the time of his trial, captures this faintly surreal tension between the visual signifiers of aristocracy and those of criminality. In it, he is pictured walking out of the court after a hearing; his right wrist is cuffed to that of a Garda, and there is another uniformed officer at his back, but if you were to crop the image just so, you would never suspect that this man was any sort of criminal at all, let alone one who had, over the course of a recent dire weekend, beaten one perfect stranger to death and shot another in the face.
He is wearing a stylish sport coat with a handkerchief in a breast pocket, a crisp white shirt, and a silk bow tie. He is handsome, in a prim sort of way, his expression quizzical, as though he is contemplating some mildly troubling abstraction: an eyebrow slightly cocked, the nostrils nobly flared. He seems both there and not there: handcuffed to the wrist of a cop, and yet aloof and detached from the scene of which he is the center. This is a man not of mere vulgar wealth, but of class.
There is, in its most simplistic telling, something of the fable about this tale of an heir who murders a nurse and a farmer.Class and power—Macarthur’s social class, and his proximity to the political establishment—were more than mere contexts for these crimes; they are at the center of their enduring fascination. Had the murderer been an addict from the inner city, or even a member of the professional middle class gone berserk, it is unlikely that the killings would have made anything like as deep and lasting an impression. There is, in its most simplistic telling, something of the fable about this tale of an heir who murders a nurse and a farmer. As complex and confounding as the story turns out to be, it is always tempting to read it as enigmatic allegory, its meaning hovering just out of reach.
If this man, and the murders he committed, seem still to occupy a kind of mythic register, it is largely because the story has never really been told. Or rather, it has been told, endlessly and luridly, but always in the same tone of breathless incredulity, and with a sullen and persistent silence at its center.
*
It was that silence that drew me toward Macarthur, that brought me into his life, and him into mine. I had seen endless images of him: mug shots from the time of his arrest; press photographs of frenzied scenes outside the courthouse; tabloid shots of him walking the streets in the weeks after his release from prison.
I had read novels based on his life and crimes; I had once attended a play, a one-man show, whose protagonist was based on a version of Macarthur in one of those novels—an adaptation of a fictionalization of a reality that was barely known. I had read countless newspaper interviews with acquaintances and family friends about his childhood, his upbringing, his lifestyle. I had watched television documentaries about the murders, the investigation, the complex political consequences.
And in the years since his release, I had even passed him in the street, many times, as he walked through the city in a state of abject freedom. But I had never heard or read so much as a word from his own mouth about the things he had done, or his reasons for having done them. Not a word about his victims, or their families, or how he lived with the weight of his deeds.
I wanted to pierce that silence, and break through to whatever lay beneath it. As naive as it sounds to me now, I wanted to know the truth of this story that had haunted me for so many years. I wanted to know who and what this man was.
I did eventually come to know him, and there were times when I felt that I had glimpsed this truth. But there were other times, far more frequent, when I understood that such knowledge was impossible, and that I had wandered into a labyrinth of endlessly ramifying fictions.
It was, I think, this uncertainty, this knowing and not knowing, that prevented me, as we stood outside the apartment complex at Pilot View, from speaking to my son about Macarthur. Had I done so, I might well have felt a compulsion to admit that I in fact knew this man, this murderer, and that I had over the course of the previous year spent a great deal of time in his company, that I had been spending my days writing a book about him and his crimes. He would have asked me what this man was like—whether I was afraid of him, whether he was evil—and I would not have known what to tell him. Even now, I am not sure what to tell myself.
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Excerpted from A Thread of Violence: A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder by Mark O’Connell. Copyright © 2023. Available from Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
]]>Vacations in the summer months usually involve traveling to warmer destinations where we can just let go and relax. But preparing for any travel can be anything but relaxing.
So here are some fundamental things to consider that can make the whole process less stressful, and actually kind of enjoyable! Once your itinerary is set and you have a fairly good idea of what the weather conditions will be, you’re already half-way there. The events and climate will give you the parameters for what and how much you need to pack.
What causes a lot of anxiety in traveling is those last-minute decisions that often result in making mistakes… resulting in heavy and bulky luggage! So, here’s my main, and what I consider the most helpful, suggestion: start creating your travel wardrobe two weeks before you leave.
If you have one of those handy dandy rolling clothes racks, use it to display the entire wardrobe you plan to pack. If you don’t have one of those racks, designate a portion of your closet to what you plan to bring. You can add or subtract items to the collection during that time, but at least begin the process two weeks in advance.
The reason for this is that your brain starts to connect what you see on that rack every day with how you see yourself at your destination. The length of your trip and the circumstances you will be in will determine what goes on that rack. During that two-week period anything that just doesn’t make sense for your purposes or that doesn’t contribute to the whole image you want to convey will stand out to be eliminated.
It’s not as important to create entire outfits as it is to be sure that the colors you choose coordinate well with each other. That doesn’t mean you have to go for all neutrals, although neutral basics will make your packing easier and your travel less stressful. For variety you can bring along one or two print items. There should just be a feeling of harmony when you look at all the items on the rack.
What this means is that several items will be in the same color and will harmonize with your neutrals. Neutral colored bottoms and accessories – unless you want to add a pop of color in something like espadrilles, a belt, or a small bag, will make creating a whole look easier. A few tops in your favorite colors will make sure you won’t be bored. But frankly, mono color neutral wardrobes are extremely chic and packable.
If you love prints, a striped top or blouse is perfect for a summer day and can work with both blouses and slacks. And a floral printed blouse or a midi dress in a nice print can be dressed up for dinner or down for an afternoon walk through town.
Another possibility is to pack a pair of loose, printed slacks and wear them with a very simple solid color button down blouse. A simple white cotton or linen one would be terrific in this look. Add some gold jewelry and you’re good to go. It’s a very chic and festive look.
Whether you bring both pants and/or skirts, make sure that the tops you choose can be worn with either type of garment, several times, and in multiple ways.
For most of us, the biggest packing conundrum is about which shoes to bring. One woman I know took exactly one pair of shoes with her for a three-week trip to Italy. They were designed for comfort, had a 1 ½” heel, and went with everything she wore. But our feet tend to be happier when we switch to different heights and types of shoes.
So, here’s the first rule of thumb: wear your bulkiest pair for travel. Every travel expert knows this rule. Since sneakers and trainers are fashionable and acceptable everywhere right now, and are often your most comfortable shoes, that can be your bulky pair. Of course, if you are planning to do some serious hiking, heavier-soled shoes will do.
I know we all see a lot of women wearing sandals on an airplane, especially in those “celebrity airport outfit” photos. Certainly, many styles of sandals are very comfortable. (Birkenstock Arizona sandals are apparently all the rage again in Europe right now.) But frankly, sandals are less hygienic for plane or train rides, and your feet are likely to get cold.
But do plan to bring a pair of comfortable sandals. They just say “summer” more than booties or loafers. If you’re traveling for a wedding, you might think you need to bring a pair of higher-heeled sandals, but they aren’t really necessary when there are so many flat and lower-heeled elegant pretty sandals readily available. Lower heels are less awkward to pack and take up less space.
If you’re going to be going out to dine or attending social events, your sandals should be just dressy enough to look chic rather than just sturdy walking sandals. If you’re planning a poolside or beach vacation slides will serve you well.
Your third pair can be a slip-on casual shoe or canvas espadrille. The latter is dressy enough to make a lot of very simple outfits look very chic and elevated.
And whatever shoes you bring, pack them in bags. I know a lot of women use cloth bags. But shoes accumulate a lot of unpleasant detritus and organisms from the ground. I don’t think it’s a great idea to pack them in cloth bags anywhere near your clothing or toiletries. I save and re-use zip-lock type larger bags when I purchase things like sheet sets or sealed liquids. They work beautifully for packing shoes. Otherwise, large zip-lock food bags for each shoe will also work.
When planning your travel wardrobe, choose items that can be utilized for more than one event. In fact, choose items that can be worn repeatedly throughout your trip.
One multi-purpose, no-brainer garment is a large shawl in a pashmina-type fabric. It can keep you warm on a plane or train and in air conditioned rooms. It can provide a nice finishing touch for strapless or sleeveless dresses. I never travel without one.
As oversized tops are very much in vogue, a solid color oversized button down blouse can look great on its own, tucked into a skirt or slacks, or with the ends gathered up and tied around the waist. You can wear it in all those ways with a skirt, slouchy slacks, jeans, shorts or Bermudas. It can also serve as a jacket worn over a sleeveless top or tank. It can also be your beach or pool cover-up.
Fashionable French and Italian women have embraced the midi dress as a forever summer piece for ages. And the style is now popular worldwide. These are usually looser, flowing garments, which makes them very forgiving if you plan to ditch your diet while on your trip. Dress them up with silver or gold strappy sandals (sneakers won’t work with these), dangly or chunky gold earrings, and your shawl. Or dress them down by adding a button-down blouse, tied at the waist, worn with neutral slides or flats, or colored espadrilles, gold hoops, and a crossbody, or tote bag.
Printed midi dress with ruffle wrap
And especially if you’re going to a tropical climate where it might briefly rain every day, or anywhere with very changeable weather, a hoodie windbreaker or rain shell is always a good idea. These are usually thin enough to slip into your carry-on or checked luggage without creating bulk as would something like a trench coat or heavier parka.
The most comfortable material for hotter destinations is linen, of course. It breathes well and tends to keep you dry. But remember that it wrinkles right off the hanger. Style-wise a few wrinkles are perfectly acceptable in linen clothing.
If you are staying at a nicer resort, it’s likely they will have an iron and ironing board in the room. Ask ahead of time. Sometimes they will deliver an iron and ironing board to your room if it’s not already there. Otherwise, a small travel steamer is a good idea, and they can fold up into a small area for packing.
Woven rayons and other plant-based textiles are also excellent for packing. They don’t take up a lot of space, do not wrinkle, wash and rinse easily, and drape nicely. It’s a great idea to pack a couple of t-shirts or tanks in those fabrics. And as Marie Kondo of “KonMari” fame suggests, I like to roll my tees and blouses instead of folding them. I place them on top of one another and roll them as a group. They are less likely to wrinkle and seem to fit into smaller spaces in my bags.
It’s hard to travel anywhere these days without at least one pair of jeans. Denim is a heavier textile but not an uncomfortable one for travel. And it goes with just about anything. If you don’t already own a pair of white jeans, consider adding them to your collection. White is always fashionable in the summer, but now more than ever.
Wear them with a tank top in the same shade of white or one of the other colorful tops in your travel palette. You can also pair them with a striped tank or tee and add a simple belt, hoop earrings, and slides, flats or sandals for a very chic look. You can also dress them up with a patterned blouse or one of the newer eyelet style fuller sleeve blouses worn with dangling earrings.
If you pack wider leg jeans, either in blue or white, you can also likely wear them with your travel sneakers or trainers.
If the weather is going to be changeable or much cooler in the evening, a cashmere or cotton knit cardigan or pullover/jumper is another very useful addition. Wear it with your white jeans, a midi skirt, or even Bermudas with slip-ons or espadrilles.
Lifestride Kascade Wedge Espadrilles
What used to be called “fanny packs” have gone through a marketing transformation to sound more fashionable. They’re now called “waist bags” or “belt bags.” The latter actually serve as a belt, threaded through the loops on your jeans or slacks. Either type can be your everyday bag throughout the entire trip. Some are also worn as “sling” bags, worn like a cross-body.
The more utilitarian versions, like those from Baggalini, have multiple zippered compartments and are very sturdy. They’re also perfect for your travel days. The more fashionable ones are generally smaller but will likely carry your phone, passport, a few cards, and maybe also a lipstick.
Triple Zip Bagg (baggallini.com)
Another option is a so-called “anti-theft” cross-body version. These have slash-resistant construction and RFID blocking technology so your credit cards can’t be swiped electronically from someone nearby.
But if you are on a beachy-type vacation, you probably also want something bigger and more summer specific. You can certainly pack a straw, raffia, or woven satchel or tote if you stuff it with soft essentials like sleepwear, a small travel pillow, even underwear and socks. But if you’re pretty certain you’ll be doing some destination shopping for gifts, clothing, or accessories you might want to pack a foldable woven or macrame-type tote for your haul.
Wherever you plan to travel it’s a good idea to make photocopies of your essential papers and cards (passport, itinerary, emergency contact, phone numbers, credit cards, I.D.) When you get to your destination, keep them somewhere secure, such as your hotel room safe.
Things like sunscreen, makeup, and toiletries can always be easily replaced, but others, like medications, can’t. Bring those in your carry-on, not your checked bags. And lastly, speaking of sun protection, be sure to pack at least one hat, maybe two!
A baseball cap for casual days at the beach pool or walking around town, and a packable roll up fabric or woven hat for when you want to be more stylish. And large sunglasses will jazz up any outfit.
Bon voyage!
Where are you traveling to this summer? Have you packed your backs? How many days ahead of time do you pack? What about last-minute packing? What have you included as travel essentials?
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I met LaKay Cornell on the Ladies Get Paid Slack in 2019, and though she has been for much longer, she declared herself a writer. Thanks to meeting Lakay early on in my solopreneurship, I found my voice and made the same declaration. She validated that I was worth listening too — THANK YOU! — and something everyone needs.
She did so again in this piece last year, which — she does not know — I have read several times. She probably thinks few have seen it, and maybe that brings her down. Reading the piece, you’ll see this thought is meta.
It’s not just the Medium stats or the challenges with other social media sites that make it hard. She grew up as a woman in America, and that alone makes it easy to be worn the hell out from trying to be heard.
Hot Tip: Leave comments for writers, share, quote, and always give credit!
Lakay’s piece might be long, even by my standards, but you will blow right through it. Why? Lakay is speaking to you, and me, and Audre Lorde as she navigates the hard side of being a creator and empath in a difficult world built for neurotypical white men.
She writes poetically, as she often does, and I was immediately sucked in. Her deeply personal storytelling, interesting and intentional grammar rule-breaking, and her way of weaving in culture and connecting ideas past and present can have that effect.
Another reason you will be hooked: Lakay knows her voice and it rarely wavers — something all creators, leaders, and brands should be jealous of, and many probably are. I have come a long way in finding my voice, but still have so much to learn about owning it and using it unapologetically.
Talking about culture, feelings, and ideas that have value, is important work. Doing so unpaid, for a long time, can be quite depressing — something Lakay’s piece articulates well. Publishing all our heartfelt, well-researched, interesting thoughts for not much more than a teeny dopamine hit sucks. It’s a wonder that working in patriarchal capitalism is not always fulfilling, no?
Sarcasm aside, “posting” is not always an easy or quick process, and it’s usually unpaid work for “The Man.” (If you’re lucky a whopping $9.16 Stripe payment is headed your way this month from Medium). Even thinking about that is more emotional labor, labor with a high cost that remains invisible and unrewarded too. We wish we could care less.
As creators and social justice dreamers, we spend our “free time” caring for others. With little to show for it we get the feeling we are invisible. We who live under the weight of living in a man’s world spend our time strategizing, plotting, and planning what will make the world better for everyone. We do this on top of doing ALL THE THINGS, especially more care and domestic work, for less pay. We wish we had more help, too.
Reading Lakay’s piece about finding work with purpose in a world designed for us to fail, I was struck by how this wears on the soul…the very one dying to create against all odds. It also somehow (sadly) makes the work better, but I refuse to glamorize the struggles of the starving artist; people deserve compensation for their creative labor too.
Having something to say and having it seemingly fall on deaf ears can be soul crushing…Publishing ideas on the internet is like telling a kid to pick up their coat for the 200th time. You think they can’t hear you, that they’re not listening because you keep shouting into a void.
But you know they can hear. The truth is, the internet has got dog ears, especially the big dogs.
I’ve had times when I feel like no one is listening.
Does this sound familiar: 3+ hours to write a post. Find the best pic. Schedule it at the optimal time. Tag just the right person, pick the perfect hashtag. Hit Publish…
2 likes from your mom and partner, (if they even read it this time)?
We lament if we should give up already, and there’s no shame in quitting. With no “engagement” to speak of, except from your karass (from Vonnegut; it essentially means “your people”) or occasional hater, self-doubt creeps in.
All the negativity makes you wonder: “Maybe my ideas aren’t that good after all?” Somehow deep down you still KNOW your work is more than good. You know it and they know it…“The people will come Ray,” and they sure do.
The reality is while we feel invisible… they are listening, a lot. “The Powers That Be” are taking what we have to say to the bank. They debate your points before figuring out how to spin it as their own. For their concept or product they got $1.3 million in a seed round, investment-worthy ideas they got from you. Sure, they didn’t hear that from us.
For plausible deniability, they must feign ignorance, but people are listening. They’re reading. Pressing play. Taking note. Synthesizing. Lifting our ideas and throwing them into academic journals, pitch decks, highly SEO-ed blog posts, Twitter threads, and McKinsey’s Insights.
One of our (outspoken women and non-binary writers) regular readers is the “bro troll.” These guys find ways to disagree with statements like “Women are paid less” or “Our voices are not valued and respected.” Oh the irony! They show up to bicker for attention and simultaneously start to absorb your content. (At least they boost your signal, right?)
Bigger organizations with tons of cash pay consultants to surf the web for new ideas — they might be called trend researchers or cool hunters. They spend all damn day listening to us.
Culture and Business “experts” are reading your work, too…they aren’t amplifying, sharing, or boosting. Your idea is about to be expertly repackaged.
They hold back any support or kudos but they’re ready with tons of virtual high fives for another CEO bro who posted “Fuck Hustle Culture. People should rest,” deemed a genius for a sentence. (The real credit for that, by the way, goes to the creator of The Nap Ministry and Black women activists, not the guy in Seattle claiming he invented fair pay after sexually assaulting several women. The irony of him saying Fuck hustle culture as he hustles his way out of prison or accountability.)
“Thought Leaders” and Brand experts show up to a Clubhouse or Spaces with an entourage, saying a few things that sound awfully familiar about building inclusive brands.
(True story.) After their talking points, a highly paid person(ality) who drew a crowd, evaded answering an audience question: “Who is one woman of color in the brand or startup space you follow or we should know about?” He’s stumped. Asked to back up his soundbites with substance, and coming up empty, his handler pops in to remind him they “really do have to go. One more question.”
This is THE guy? He is innovative? He is the expert on branding, and teamwork, and brains in the workplace, and creating cultures of inclusion, and following your Why!?? Why?! WHY AM I SHOUTING?
Meanwhile, we gifted the world (and these guys) the roadmap to saving the planet and humanity, as we try and claw our way out of another hole, the result of their “innovations.”
We get rejection after rejection, yet keep building “bootstrapped” businesses by leaning on partners or borrowing from family, if we even have that luxury. Others put our vision on hold as we care for others (especially moms).
A lot of us try to make it work, but ultimately we’re forced to go work for The Man again. We don’t have much of a choice. We need insurance (in a pandemic). We need income to cover rent and our small business loan. We also need to get some goddamn sleep.
We apply to hundreds of jobs with demoralizing interviews. We get a job and instead of growing our own brand, we give discounts to give our thoughts away at scale, sometimes under someone else’s name. Some of us end up living in a car with a dog, putting a kid through college, applying for jobs from coffee shops.
Ironically, while we fit our brilliance around everyone else, they have significantly more time to think. They can problem solve for hours. They have the privilege of sitting at a desk instead of hiding in the bathroom for uninterrupted time. We work in fits and starts losing weeks (years) of sleep.
Yet, they get to live and sleep and rest and run and f&%k and parent and dream without the added dread of fitting in paid work…because they’re writing with income through book advances. We’re lucky if we get advanced notice we did not qualify, once again.
Men don’t get DMs to be a guest on yet another podcast, “paid in exposure.” Men get to think and speak and write as their only job. They’re employed by large donors and Think Tanks, musing all day on what would make the world even better…for them. Men get the credit.
The kicker: we have the answers to problems they created, and they grab them and say yoink and we’re too tired and too insignificant (in the eyes of the algorithm Gods) to have any recourse.
We write as if we’re Hamilton daily, because we actually are running out of time, again. It’s almost pick up, dinner, time to call your mom, time to post, to send that email and birthday invite and time to pack for a household to take a “vacation” when you know it’s really a trip.
We do this for free because we really are that passionate about our mission (dismantling the very $%it we write about. It’s so damn meta. Oh they lifted that word too to use as a name brand. Meta was stolen from a small business to cover up huge corrupt failures. What’s that saying about when people show you who they are?)
As I said before, the Takers gonna take. Let them. We know in our hearts our words are worthy; our ideas are innovative; our art is beautiful. As much as we wish we didn’t give a crap, the fact that we care is a feature not a bug. One day all this “work” and caring will pay off. Until then, if you find our work, credit us and pay up. Better yet, hire us first.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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]]>The current Princess of Wales has spent the past eleven-plus years trying to make blue her signature color. Since we know Kate is ridiculously child-like when it comes to fashion, I really do believe that she chose blue as her “signature color” simply because she got Big Blue, Diana’s sapphire engagement ring. She wanted everything to “go” with her sapphire. In recent years, she has mixed up her color stories, especially since she’s been copykeening the Duchess of Sussex so much, so her emphasis on blue hasn’t been as consistent. Which left an opening for Queen Camilla, who has been wearing the same shade of “royal blue” constantly. That’s not the point of the Daily Mail’s latest exercise though – they just wanted to reuse old photos of Kate and Meghan. They’re trying to claim that the Sussexes’ signature color is green, while Peg & Buttons are blue.
When the Prince of Wales posed with his children for that charming Father’s Day picture at the weekend, it drew attention from around the world – not least the decision to be united in shades of blue. But some were not surprised. Because blue has been been the colour for some time, says fashion expert Rosie Harte. The author of the newly published The Royal Wardrobe: A very fashionable history of the monarchy suggests that the colour symbolises both peace and modernity.
Intriguingly, Ms Harte believes that, in contrast, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have tended to favour green in line – deliberately or otherwise – with their environmental interests.
‘Ask anyone what colour they associate with the Wales family clan, and most likely they’ll say blue,’ writes Ms Harte. ‘Starting with her Issa engagement dress and sapphire ring, Catherine has carefully cultivated a link between herself and the colour blue… For their ten-year wedding anniversary photos, Catherine wore a floral dress and William a blue jumper, and for the 2022 Easter Service at Windsor, William, Catherine, George, and Charlotte were all dressed in various shades of blue…The ‘Wales blue’ marks the five young royals out as a distinct unit within a wider familial network, emphasizing their unity and suggesting a commonality of values. Blue is a more palatable alternative to the colours traditionally associated with royalty, being far less aggressive than red and significantly more conservative than purple. It has associations with peace and also modernity, making it a perfect representation of the Waleses’ quest to appeal to both traditional and progressive values in society.’
’
In contrast, the Sussexes appear to have adopted the colour green. ‘The Sussexes certainly don’t use colour in the same way that William and Catherine do, at least not to the same extent,’ she writes, ‘but they seem to have picked a colour to call their own, nonetheless. Green seems to be a common theme in their wardrobes and has made appearances at many of the key moments in their marriage.At their engagement photocall, Meghan opted for an emerald-green dress by P.A.R.O.S.H., which she revealed for the interview after removing her beige coat.’‘Journalists (who were perhaps so used to seeing a set colour scheme emerge for young royals) were quick to note that in the months between the engagement and wedding, Meghan gravitated towards outfits that framed a single green article of clothing with neutral accompaniments.’
I mean, we know now – as should this royal-fashion expert – that Meghan was making a conscious choice to wear neutral colors when she was in the UK, that’s why she often wore creams, black, navy and various browns/khakis. That being said, I think Meghan does prefer neutrals in daily life and brighter colors for big events. I also think Meghan is just… not simplistic when it comes to color stories and statement fashion. Her tastes change, her style messages change, and she doesn’t have a signature color or a signature style. Whereas Kate loves everything to be matchy-matchy, covered in buttons and ruffles and polka dots. I also sort of believe that this is more about Camilla encroaching on Kate’s signature color too.
Note by CB: Get the Top 10 stories about Kate copying Meghan’s style when you subscribe to our mailing list! I only send one email a day on weekdays which I personally write.
]]>Q: Summer beach hat that packs well.
A: People rave about this one from Janessa Leone. I also personally love this striped canvas one but know it’s not for everyone. Would be cute with a white swimsuit! Finally, though I do often pack sunhats and love the overall aesthetic, I’m much more likely to wear a ballcap…
I did want to mention that I’ve also heard people rave about this tote, which comes with a built-in straw hat carrier, though you can get the look for less with this, or upgrade with this monogrammable Weezie one.
Q: Casual white jacket.
A: I love the look of a utility jacket like this or this (the latter is technically off-white/bone colored), although this fleece (sweatshirt-material) topper also turned my head as a cute top layer. For something sportier to layer over athletic wear / athleisure, I really love this $37 style. The bracelet cuffs are so cute (and handy, if you want to push the sleeves up and have them stay put). You can see me in mine here.
Q: The Hay Adams for the 4th.
A: Oo, have fun! I would wear a patriotic cocktail dress like this, this, or this. More Americana summer outfit ideas here.
Q: Bridesmaid dress with light pink background and different colored flowers — floor length.
A: Oo, tricky one! A few options at different price points: this Bardot, this Reformation, this Bernadette, this Saloni, and this V. Chapman. This Self-Portrait is technically more midi-length (tea length?) but might get the bride’s approval?
Q: Tote that fits a laptop.
A: Cuyana makes a great workhorse bag for, well, work. The zippered top is clutch for travel/commute, and it holds up really well. Honestly can’t believe the price — I’ve had one for years. If you’re looking for more of an investment, I would try the Celine Cabas (depends on size of your laptop), Khaite Amelia, or Bottega Arco. I remember the ultra-chic Becky Malinsky claiming the Arco was THE perfect work bag.
Q: Summer family photo outfits for the whole family. Daughter 19 months and son four months.
A: So cute! I would put my daughter in one of the fabulous, heirloom-quality diaper sets from La Coqueta, like this or this, and baby boy in something like this or one of the little La Coqueta knit short sets. I would wear a dress like this, this, or (splurge) this — something that feels ethereal, painterly, but not too over-dressed. Don’t worry about being matchy-matchy. Just pick pieces in the same general color family.
Q: Classic fall coat for wearing to Paris. An early fall version of the travel series?
A: I love this request and will begin to keep my eyes out for chic fall finds for European travel, but not seeing too much out there for the fall yet! In terms of coat, now is a good time to buy last season’s standouts on sale. You must consider this ultra-luxe Toteme, currently 40% off. WOW. Understated elegance. This scarf-trim Toteme (still not on sale) was also crazy popular last season and would be a fabulous statement to bring with. Also love a tweedy option like this. Imagine over trousers, denim; layered with a bit of fair isle peeking through, or with head to toe black.
Q: July in Vail! What evening outfits work that are cute/warm enough?
A: I was just chatting with a friend heading out to Vail about this. We both thought that dress from Doen or The Great with clogs or booties and a cardigan like this or this was the answer. Alternately, your favorite jeans and a fun top like this with clogs/booties and cardigan! Also, this would be such a fun statement (currently heavily discounted) with jeans/white tee/booties.
Q: Everyday bag — crossbody or shoulder. Two young kids but not a full diaper tote.
A: I really love the options from Mansur Gavriel. This shoulder one has lots of space for the essentials and just looks fabulous, and I’m dying over these woven ones. I like the way both drawstrings closed so you can cinch everything in place when bending over to tend to a little one. This one from L’Uniforme is similar but a little less expensive. For something more casual, have seen a few moms at my daughter’s school with this Naghedi crossbody. Seems highly functional, durable, and cute for a sportier look.
Q: Fun sunglasses for my bachelorette beach weekend – under $50.
A: Have you seen these $12 ones from Amazon? They’re inspired by a style from Loewe and SO fun. Come in great colors. I bought them in yellow, as seen here. I also own these fun oval ones in two colors. Really fab. I first saw them on my girlfriend Alison Kenworthy. We were having a coffee date and I ordered them right from the cafe table!
The post Ask Magpie: Packable Hats and Work Totes. appeared first on Magpie by Jen Shoop.
]]>Here are photos from Royal Ascot Day 2. Once again, the Prince and Princess of Wales didn’t bother to go to Ascot. It was Prince William’s birthday, I’m sure he wanted to spend his special day with… someone other than his father and stepmother. King Charles and Queen Camilla were in attendance for the second day (they plan to go every day), and Princess Anne and her daughter Zara Tindall were also in attendance for the second day. Someone new popped up: the Duchess of Edinburgh, who rode in a carriage alongside her husband Prince Edward. No word yet on whether the Sussexes were the hot topic of Royal Ascot’s Day 2.
Fashion notes: Camilla wore a pink coat dress by Anna Valentine, one of her go-to designers. That makes it even more notable that Camilla wore Dior on Day 1. Camilla also wore a Philip Treacy hat, because Ascot is all about hats. Speaking of, Zara’s ensemble clashes – a navy dress with a bright green hat? And silver shoes? These people have no style. That dress is f–king hideous too. Meanwhile, Sophie wore a £3,450 silk dress from Suzannah, which is way too expensive for this frumpy frock. Anne looks like Anne – I bet she’s had that whole ensemble in her closet for thirty years, if not longer (you can tell).
]]>“The Eye altering alters all,” William Blake wrote not long before Darwin extolled the eye as the crown jewel of evolution — an organ of “such wonderful structure” and “inimitable perfection” that it magnetizes us to the mystery of life itself. In On the Origin of Species, he began a section titled “Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication” with a love letter to the eye:
To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated.
But marvelous as our own human eyes may be, they are far from the crowning curio of the animal kingdom. The honor might belong to a creature much lower on the evolutionary ladder of sentience. (“Never say higher or lower,” Darwin exhorted himself in the margins of a book. “Say more complicated.”)
The bay scallop (Argopecten irradians), older than Homo sapiens by some 200 million years, sees with 200 eyes the color of Uranus — bright blueberries bejeweling the ridges of its rippled shell, each equipped with not one but two retinae, containing threefold as many opsins — the light-sensitive proteins in photoreceptor cells, tasked with converting light into electrochemical signals — as ours.
An upper retina covers the scallop’s central field of view, allowing it to see silhouettes moving in the dark. A lower retina is tasked with the animal’s peripheral vision, helping it navigate — unlike other bivalves that live appended to the seafloor, rocks, or vegetation, scallops are fully mobile, moving by a kind of jet-propulsion, clapping their shells together with their powerful adductor muscles as they push water from one end of the shell to the other, swimming in a zig-zag motion.
But the most wondrous aspect of the scallop eye is its structure, more akin to that of a space telescope than to that of the human eye. Images are not projected through a lens that focuses light but reflected onto the retina by a tiny mosaic of mirrors in the back of each eye, tiled with millions of miniature crystals of a shape never seen elsewhere in nature: a flat square.
Although he lived long before powerful microscopes illuminated the wonder of the scallop eye, Darwin was awed by its uncommon beauty visible to the naked human eye — three scallop shells grace the coat of arms of the Darwin family.
Radiating from this alien marvel of nature is a shimmering reminder that there are as many ways of seeing as there are ways of being, and this dazzling difference is precisely what makes our planet a world.
Complement with the science and splendor of seashells and the evolutionary marvel of tetrachromatic vision, then revisit Georgia O’Keeffe on the art of seeing.
For a decade and half, I have been spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars each month composing The Marginalian (which bore the unbearable name Brain Pickings for its first fifteen years). It has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, no assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider lending a helping hand with a donation. Your support makes all the difference.
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]]>
The Nikkor Z 70-180mm f/2.8 and Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lenses are now officially announced and available for pre-order:
*1Excluding tripod collar ring.
*2Thorough dust- and drip-resistance is not guaranteed in all situations or under all conditions.
*3Depending on the subject, ambient lighting conditions, and the focus point selected, the camera may be unable to focus using autofocus or the focus indicator for electronic rangefinding may flicker while a teleconverter is attached.
*1Depending on the subject, ambient lighting conditions, and the focus point selected, the camera may be unable to focus using autofocus or the focus indicator for electronic rangefinding may flicker while a teleconverter is attached.
*2Focus breathing may be noticeable depending on the distance between the lens and the subject due to the characteristics of the lens.
*3Thorough dust- and drip-resistance is not guaranteed in all situations or under all conditions.
Press release:
MELVILLE, NY –Today Nikon announced the release of the NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR and the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8, two new super telephoto NIKKOR Z lenses for enthusiasts that combine outstanding zoom capabilities with lightweight design. The NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR has been highly requested from Z series users, especially those capturing wildlife, nature and aviation, while the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 completes Nikon’s trio of affordable f/2.8 zooms for enthusiasts.
“Within a relatively short time period, we have built an extensive series of lenses for our mirrorless system with a selection of lenses that differentiates itself with options for all kinds of users,” said Jay Vannatter, Executive Vice President, Nikon Inc. “We already have a collection of extremely fast pro-level super telephotos, and with these two new lenses, I firmly believe Nikon builds upon what was already the most appealing collection of telephoto lenses available on the market today for the enthusiast and professionals.”
NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR – Boundless Creativity with an Extreme Focal Range
The NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR is the thoroughly modernized follow-up to the immensely successful and popular F-mount AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6, a lens that won hearts worldwide for its powerful reach and attractive price. The new NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR improves upon this winning formula by once again delivering a lightweight, high-performance super telephoto lens with an even more versatile focal range, sure to become a favorite for those photographing birds, planes, sports and more. With fast focus, superior handling and balance that never shifts thanks to its internal zoom, this lens enables the capture of powerful, up-close shots of fast-moving subjects. It also features a minimum focus distance of 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) at the wide-angle position, which is ideal for capturing close-up shots of flowers and insects, even at the user’s feet. The broad range of focal lengths allows users to enjoy shooting a wide variety of scenes and subjects all with this single lens.
Primary features of the NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR
The NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8: Nikon’s Trilogy of Affordable f/2.8 Zoom Lenses is Complete
The new NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 is a truly compelling option for photographers and videographers looking to step up their lens collection with a fast and affordable telephoto zoom. The NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 joins the recently released 28-75mm f/2.8 and 17-28mm f/2.8, rounding out the trio of ideal upgrade lenses for those looking to take their creativity to the next level.
The new NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 is approximately 40% smaller when compared to the NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8, but offers a similar versatile focal range that’s perfect for weddings, portraits, sports and video event coverage. The combination of fast f/2.8 aperture and telephoto zoom range allows the user shoot in low light scenarios like at a reception or indoor gym, but also gives flattering compression and enticing bokeh that draws attention to the subject.
Primary features of the NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8
Price and Availability
The new NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens will be available in August 2023 for a suggested retail price of $1699.95.*, while the new NIKKOR Z 70-180mm f/2.8 lens will be available in mid-July for a suggested retail price of $1249.95.
The post Nikkor Z 70-180mm f/2.8 and Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lenses officially announced and available for pre-order appeared first on Nikon Rumors.
]]>As an entrepreneur, you’re likely always on the move, needing that caffeine kick to keep your brain fired up. This is where the best travel coffee mugs come into play, bringing convenience, efficiency, and a dose of style to your on-the-go lifestyle.
Travel mugs are not your ordinary coffee mugs. Thanks to advanced vacuum-insulated technologies, these mugs can keep your hot coffee hot and your cold beverages refreshingly cold for several hours. Imagine sipping hot coffee from your stainless steel travel mug in the morning, and hours later, still finding your coffee warm, without a single drop of heat lost to the atmosphere. This heat retention feature is a game-changer for busy entrepreneurs who love their drinks at an exact temperature.
Durability is crucial when choosing travel mugs. The best travel mug for you would be a rugged, long-lasting stainless steel mug, which can withstand the hustle and bustle of your entrepreneurial journey. Many travel mugs, such as the Hydro Flask with its Flex Sip Lid, are made of stainless steel with a vacuum-insulated tumbler design, ensuring they can endure daily use while keeping your hot beverages hot and your cold drinks ice cold.
As you search through our Amazon picks for the perfect travel coffee mug, consider these key factors:
Do you enjoy long sips of hot coffee or do you prefer a quick iced coffee to jumpstart your day? Your beverage preference will determine the size of the mug you need. Some stainless steel travel mugs fit perfectly into cup holders, while others are designed with a simple shape to easily slide into your bag.
Design plays a massive role in your user experience. Some travel coffee mugs come with a wide mouth for easy filling and cleaning, and a twist-off lid for a smooth drinking experience. Some mugs feature a built-in straw or a straw lid for those who prefer sipping their iced coffee with a straw. Others have a flex sip lid or a screw-on cap with a rubber seal for a spill-proof, leak-proof experience.
Maintaining your travel coffee mug should be as easy as enjoying your hot coffee. Look for dishwasher-safe options to ensure convenient cleaning. Be wary of mugs with complex lids as they may be challenging to clean. A stainless steel interior is a plus as it doesn’t harbor any metallic flavors, keeping your coffee tasting as it should.
While you might be tempted to go for the cheapest option, remember that a good quality travel mug is an investment. Mugs like the Fellow Carter and offer remarkable temperature control and retention, keeping hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold for long periods. They might cost a bit more, but their performance and durability justify the price.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t just about managing a successful business; it’s also about being a responsible global citizen. Using a reusable mug for your daily coffee intake can significantly reduce waste from disposable cups.
Every time you fill your reusable cup with hot coffee or iced coffee, you are taking a step towards preserving the environment. Just imagine the pile of disposable cups you’d save from ending up in the landfill if you used a reusable cup daily.
Your conscious choices as a business owner can inspire others in your network to follow suit. Encourage your colleagues to join the movement by choosing reusable over disposable.
Top Pick: YETI Rambler 20 oz Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Tumbler | Runner Up: Corkcicle 22 oz. Triple Insulated Coffee Mug with Lid | Best Value: Fellow Carter 12 oz Move Travel Mug | |
---|---|---|---|
Price Range | Premium | Mid-Range | Affordable |
Insulation | Vacuum-insulated 18/8 stainless steel body | Triple insulated stainless steel | Double-wall vacuum-insulated 304 18/8 stainless steel |
Temperature Retention | High (Exact time not specified) | Hot for 3+ hours | Hot for up to 12 hours or cold for up to 24 hours |
Unique Features | YETI MagSlider Lid, No-sweat design, Dracut color coating, Fits standard cup holders | Ergonomic flat sides, Non-slip silicone bottom, Shatterproof sip-through lid with built-in slider, Detachable silicone gasket | Slim design, Leak-proof seal and quick twist-locking lid, True Taste ceramic interior coating, 12 oz capacity with a wide mouth and thin lip |
Safety and Cleanliness | BPA-free, Dishwasher safe | BPA-free, Dishwasher safe | Not specified |
Available Colors | Multiple colors available | Multiple Colors Available | Not specified |
Top Pick: YETI travel mugs are everywhere and for good reason. A YETI travel mug is an investment – pricier than most travel mugs but worth the splurge if you can afford it. The Rambler YETI travel tumbler comes standard with the YETI MagSlider Lid that employs the strength of magnets to securely lock your drink in place, preventing spills. The Rambler features a robust Dracut color coating, which resists fading, peeling, and cracking, while also providing an extra grip.
Built for convenience, it boasts a no-sweat design, ensuring your hands remain dry while holding. It’s also dishwasher safe, simplifying cleanup, and BPA-free for your peace of mind. The Rambler’s size is compatible with standard cup holders, making it a handy choice for travel.
Features:
Runner Up: The Corkcicle Triple Insulated Coffee Mug is a perfect companion for those who appreciate warm beverages during their work hours. The triple-insulated stainless steel structure of this mug maintains your drink’s temperature, ensuring hot beverages remain warm for 3+ hours.
The ergonomic design of this mug features flat sides and a non-slip, silicone bottom. These characteristics make for a secure grip and prevent unwanted spills. Additionally, the mug comes with a shatterproof, sip-through lid with a built-in slider for an even better drinking experience and spill protection.
Features:
Corkcicle 22 oz. Triple Insulated Coffee Mug with Lid
Best Value: The Fellow 12 oz Carter Move Travel Mug is the perfect partner for coffee lovers, blending beautiful design with flawless functionality. Constructed with double-wall vacuum-insulated 304 18/8 stainless steel, it provides exceptional thermal retention, keeping your drinks hot for up to 12 hours or cold for up to 24 hours.
Features:
Fellow Carter 12 oz Move Travel Mug
The S’well Stainless Steel Water Bottle offers triple-layered, vacuum-insulated construction that keeps your beverages cold for up to 36 hours or hot for up to 18 hours. With its 17 oz capacity, this container is sized to fit most standard cup holders. It features an opening wide enough for most ice cubes, making it easy to refill and reuse. Furthermore, the copper wall layer provides insulation that eliminates condensation, ensuring your hands and bag stay dry.
Features:
S’well Stainless Steel Travel Tumbler – 17 Fl Oz
The Contigo Superior 2.0 Stainless Steel Travel Mug is the perfect companion for on-the-go drinking. Boasting a leak-proof lid for hassle-free travel and a THERMALOCK double-wall stainless steel insulation, this 20oz mug ensures your drinks stay hot for up to 7 hours or cold for up to 18 hours.
Featuring a one-handed drinking design, there are no lids or caps to misplace, providing convenience for those busy mornings or hectic days. The handy carrying handle allows for comfortable transport, and despite this, the mug still fits in most car cup holders.
Features:
Contigo Superior 2.0 Stainless Steel Travel Mug with Handle
This is the updated version of IRON °FLASK’s Grip Coffee Mug 2.0 – a 24 oz, leak-proof and vacuum-insulated stainless steel beverage holder, engineered for both practicality and style. This travel-friendly canteen is designed to keep your drink cold for up to 18 hours or warm for up to 4 hours.
Features:
IRON °FLASK Grip Coffee Mug 2.0-24 Oz
The BUBBA Hero 18oz travel mug will your new companion for hot or cold beverages on the go. With its dual-wall vacuum-insulated stainless steel construction, this mug is designed to keep your drinks hot for up to 6 hours and cold for up to 24 hours.
Product Features:
bubba Hero Dual-Wall Vacuum-Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug, 18 oz.
The Hydraflow Capri is a versatile triple-wall vacuum-insulated water bottle equipped with a handle. Designed for the busy adult, its features include triple-wall vacuum insulation and premium copper lining, ensuring maximum temperature retention for both cold and hot beverages.
Features:
Hydraflow 50oz Triple Wall Vacuum Insulated Travel Mug with Straw Lid
From daily commuting to weekend adventures, the Simple Modern Tumbler adds convenience to your routine while ensuring your hydration needs are met in style. Its tapered shape, comfortable grip, and straw lid are just some of the great features of this reliable tumbler.
Key Features:
Simple Modern 40 oz Tumbler with Handle and Straw Lid
The H2 HYDROLOGY Classic Tumbler, designed for both cold and hot beverages, boasts an impressive thermal efficiency that keeps your drinks icy for up to 24 hours and warm for up to 6 hours. The Hydrology classic tumbler is crafted from premium 18/8 stainless steel featuring an anti-slip powder-coated finish and a laser-engraved logo. The tumbler is accompanied by four reusable straws and a straw cleaner.
Features:
H2 HYDROLOGY Classic Tumbler With Lid and Four Straws
One often overlooked advantage of travel mugs is their potential for branding. A custom travel mug with your logo or brand message can be a walking billboard, promoting your business wherever you go. Consider getting your mug personalized, or add a sticker with your business’s name and info.
Whether you’re meeting a client or working from a coffee shop, your custom-branded travel mug subtly markets your brand.
Branded travel mugs aren’t just promotional items; they’re also conversation starters. They can spark interest and open doors to potential business opportunities.
While some stainless steel travel mugs are dishwasher safe, not all are. Always check the product details or the manufacturer’s instructions. If you’re unsure, it’s best to hand wash your travel mug. This helps maintain the vacuum seal, the outer finish, and the overall quality of the mug.
A high-quality vacuum insulated tumbler can keep your coffee hot for several hours. Many travel mugs promise heat retention for up to 6-12 hours, and some can even stretch beyond that. However, it’s essential to remember that the actual duration depends on various factors, such as how hot the beverage was when you poured it in, how many times you open the lid, and the ambient temperature.
Not all travel mugs are leak-proof. However, many high-quality travel mugs come with leak-proof features, such as a flex sip lid or a screw-on cap with a rubber seal. If you carry your mug in your bag or you often travel with it, investing in a leak-proof travel mug would be worth it.
While some travel mug lids are dishwasher safe, it’s often recommended to hand wash them for a thorough clean. Using warm water, mild dish soap, and a soft brush, you can easily clean the nooks and crannies of the lid. For stubborn stains or residues, soaking the lid in warm soapy water before cleaning can be helpful. There are also special cleaning tablets designed specifically for travel mugs, as well as tools to help get your lids and mugs super clean.
The capacity of a travel mug can vary widely, ranging from small 8-ounce mugs to larger 32-ounce ones. The standard size for most travel mugs is around 16 ounces, which is about the size of a grande coffee at Starbucks. Your choice depends on your coffee-drinking habits and how often you’re willing or able to refill your mug.
Your journey as an entrepreneur is filled with endless meetings, brainstorming sessions, and the occasional road trip. Through all this, a reliable travel mug becomes more than just a container—it becomes a trusted business companion. It keeps your hot beverages hot, your cold beverages cold, and your taste buds delighted. Choose wisely, and you’ll find that your travel mug not only elevates your coffee-drinking experience but also contributes positively to the environment and your brand visibility.
Let’s not forget that a well-chosen travel mug can even save you from that dreadful moment of discovering your coffee has gone cold during your meeting. It’s about time to choose the best travel mug that works for you and your unique entrepreneurial journey. Your next cup of perfectly hot coffee or refreshingly cold iced coffee awaits.
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This article, "The Best Travel Mugs for Entrepreneurs on the Go" was first published on Small Business Trends
]]>The moment when everything changed.
“Dr. Scott, I can’t get the handpiece positioned correctly to refine this distal-lingual chamfer on #3 for Gladys. Can you help me?”
It was just another Tuesday teaching at the dental school. SRPs in two chairs; a three-ring circus of a pedo exam in another; two no-shows; and a crown prep for Gladys who, at 74, had finally lost the battle of biting into Jolly Ranchers daily and had fractured the functional cusp off of her upper right molar.
“Yeah, I’ll be right over,” I said.
I put down my laptop where I had been taking what felt like the 387th mandatory HIPPA training of my life, grabbed my loupes, and headed over to help an enthusiastic albeit overwhelmed junior dental student doing her first crown ever on a live patient.
“Oh, that’s why you can’t see anything,” I said. “You need to have the patient completely supine to get back there, and you can’t be sitting at 9 o’clock. It’s impossible to see if you have her up at 30 degrees and you have to move over to the 11 o’clock position.”
I laid the patient back, swung around to the top of the chair, and showed the sweaty student how to position herself and fulcrum correctly to easily see and refine the area in question.
“Do you want to do it, or do you want me to touch it up for you?” I asked (we were almost three hours into the appointment. There is a reason dental school fees are lower than private practice fees.).
“You do it,” said Gladys and the student simultaneously.
I reached over to grab a new 856-016 bur, and as I turned back to position myself again, I leaned forward just slightly and . . . BAM!!! I winced violently as I felt an intense stabbing pain in my lower back. It felt like someone hit a screwdriver with a croquet mallet from my lumber spine toward my left hip. I flinched so obviously that the only other thing I could hear above the screaming pain was the sound of my own embarrassment. I was mortified. I was sure the patient saw me recoil and grimace, but alas, Gladys had her eyes closed.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to rob you of the educational opportunity we have here,” I said. “You’ve done great so far; this will only take a minute or two to finish up.”
What the heck was THAT?!?
Like any dentist, my neck and back had bothered me at times in my career. I had made an inconsistent yet genuine effort to practice good ergonomics, to stretch during the day, and to take care of myself during the week. I had even been getting twice-monthly massages and going to the gym with the purpose of strengthening my core.
But this was no achy back. Something felt wrong, really wrong.
After a trip to my PCP and some functional testing later, a differential diagnosis started to form. Ankylosing spondylitis, piriformis syndrome, and disc prolapse were some initial suspects. Blood work was done that day to check for a specific gene associated with ankylosing spondylitis, an MRI was ordered for a few weeks later to look at the soft tissue, and I was referred to physical therapy to start working on stretching and strengthening the supportive postural muscles in my lower back.
I hoped that I would be getting a definitive diagnosis soon which would lead to a successful treatment plan, but I left there feeling a bit nervous when my doctor asked, “Dentistry, huh? This doesn’t always end well for you guys. Do you have a disability policy?”
More information here:
People Aren’t Buying Disability Insurance, But They Should
Fortunately, I had been reading The White Coat Investor long enough to know I needed a true own-occupation long-term disability insurance policy. Shortly after graduating from dental school, I got a policy in place with all the qualities Dr. Jim Dahle has taught me to look for: non-cancelable; guaranteed renewable; and riders for partial disability, cost of living adjustment, and future benefit increase option.
The benefit was for 60% of the income the contract from the public health clinic showed I would receive in my first year. I was now the proud owner of a $5,400 per month quality long-term disability policy.
As my income increased in the coming years, I would send in my W-2 and increase my coverage accordingly. However, that also increased the premium. Once I got to $7,000 per month of coverage and the premium was $2,500 per year (up from ~$1,800 originally), that check got increasingly painful to write. We had three little kids and a modest public health income, and that $2,500 was a HUGE amount of money for us. And for what? I was young, healthy, and spry—not some fragile old man. I told myself I was done increasing my benefit and paying the profit-mongering insurance scum more and more of my money each year. I stopped increasing my benefit.
Fast forward seven years later, and I was suddenly wondering if I was going to have to file a claim.
I was unsettled. I didn’t know what I should do next, and just like the other moments of uncertainty in my financial life, I turned to WCI. I ended up reading two very helpful posts that had an incredibly positive impact on the end of this story:
One takeaway from these two guest posts, both written by disability attorneys, was to talk to a lawyer early in the process if you think you may need to file a claim. My first thought was that it was a fairly self-serving bit of advice, but I followed it and I’m so glad I did.
I reached out to the offices of both authors of the posts. I first spoke with Evan Schwartz who was incredibly helpful and generous with his time during the free initial consultation. I had previously emailed him my policy and medical records, and he told me that I had a strong case but that I had a potential problem that needed decisive action.
A few months before this, I had been offered a job as a financial planner. I had already started the process of onboarding for this job, which I had originally intended to be a part-time monetized hobby and a possible pathway to a more substantial step back from dentistry. I had even taken on one client as a trial run and had been paid on a 1099 for that work. I had passed the trial phase, and I was about to be added to the payroll of the finance firm as a W-2 part-time employee in only a few weeks.
I fully intended to stay employed by the dental school and to ask to transition to a non-clinical teaching role while I went through my treatment plan.
Evan told me that if I got added to the financial firm’s payroll or if I transitioned to a didactic position within the school before I had clearly “established a date of disability,” the insurance company would argue that my “own occupation” was that of a financial planner and/or lecturer and that my claim would be at serious risk because I was fully able to work in those jobs—even with my back injury.
If I wanted to strengthen my chances of success, I needed something more definitive in my medical records showing that I could not practice clinical dentistry. He told me I needed to get that MRI as soon as possible and definitely before I transitioned roles in the school or signed on as a financial planner. He also told me to be clear and honest with anyone I interacted with who may be writing a note in my chart that I was a dentist, that I couldn’t work, and that I may be filing a disability claim.
He offered to take my case and his firm would take the lead on the rest of the process. The price was a $5,000 retainer. I said I would think about it, but first, I wanted to use my immediate bandwidth to get my medical records shored up.
More information here:
Leaving Dentistry and Finding Happiness
On Evan’s advice, I immediately called the imaging center and begged to have my appointment moved up. I got in a few days later and then back into my PCP a day after that to review the results.
It was bad, much worse than either of us thought.
A series of bulging discs pushing on my spinal cord; arthritis in my back joints; and, most problematic of all, a severe narrowing of the canals that my spinal nerves run through. There is no consensus why this all happened; the various doctors suppose it was some combination of genetics, dentistry, and bad luck. Regardless of why it happened, I felt old, broken, worried, and validated. I wondered if I was just being overreactive and whiny and if I was just suffering from “man flu of the back.” But at least now I knew I had real structural problems.
For those interested, the radiology report read this way:
In the days between the horrifying moment at the dental school and reviewing the MRI findings with my doctor, I hadn’t slept through the night. Partly because I was terrified about what was happening and mostly because these sudden pains would wake me up every hour or two. I could go about my life just fine most of the time, but once or twice an hour, a subtle bend to pick up a fork or a mild twist to buckle my seatbelt would send the screwdriver back through my back/butt/hip complex. It was seemingly random. It was a game of lumbago Russian roulette just to tie my shoes or dry myself off.
It had kept happening at work, but I had taken care not to hold anything other than a mirror in a patient’s mouth and deflected anything potentially dangerous to other faculty. I had to “run to the bathroom” a lot those couple of weeks.
After talking to my doctor about the next steps in my treatment plan, she said, “Let’s talk about work. You obviously can’t do dentistry right now. It’s not reasonable from a pain perspective and it’s not ethical from a patient care perspective.”
I was disabled from my occupation.
More information here:
A Dental Career Reimagined – I Thought I’d Be Rich But I Found Wealth in Another Way
Evan helped me dodge a major problem. I now had definitive imaging and chart notes to support the reality that I could not be running a drill in anyone’s mouth for the time being and, critically, I had not yet transitioned to any other types of work. My “own occupation” on the date of the MRI and the chart notes was that of a clinical dentist.
I felt so grateful to him and was ready to call him back and pay the $5,000 retainer. But . . . remember how I stopped increasing my benefit seven years ago because I couldn’t swallow paying the increasing premium? Well, that $7,000 benefit no longer represented 60% of my income; it was more like 40%. After years of pay raises and negotiating higher-than-average academic salaries, I was facing the reality of taking a major pay cut to be a didactic lecturer or a flat-fee financial planner. We had recently bought a house in the massively overpriced Salt Lake City market, and we were not in a position to be writing $5,000 checks without thoughtful consideration. We were about to be in a tough financial spot, even if my claim was approved.
That’s when I called Ben Glass, the author of the other post I had read on the blog. For $600, Ben would review my policy and my medical records, and he would provide a one-hour consultation about how to most optimally file my claim. He wouldn’t do it for me like Evan would—I’d have to do it all myself—but he would advise me beforehand.
This was definitely worth the money.
Ben told me that, based on the language in my policy and the clarity in my medical records, my claim was strong. He advised me to lean less on the “it hurts so bad to do dentistry” part of the story and more heavily on the “this is not safe for my patients, and I could really hurt someone” part of the story. The combination of clear medical records with the possibility of patient harm meant that I didn’t need to convince anyone of my pain experience, a subjective finding that anyone who works in medicine knows is difficult to quantify.
I wrote up my narrative to the insurance company with his advice in mind, sent it back to his office for revision, and filed my claim with cautious optimism.
The insurance company was very kind in the days that followed, and at the same time, it became very clear to me that its business model is to take in premiums and do anything possible to not pay out benefits. There were scores of phone calls, emails, paperwork, return trips to the doctor, interviews, and assertions that I was not a dentist but rather a financial planner because I had one paltry 1099 check from a month before my MRI. Then, over four months later . . . my claim was approved. I was told I would start receiving $7,000 every month per my total disability as a clinical dentist.
My disability tale, while still tragic, had a happier ending than it otherwise could have.
Thanks to Evan, I established a date of disability prior to starting as a financial planner, so my financial planning income has not and will not reduce my benefit. I am loving my life now working from home and helping my fellow healthcare providers find peace of mind through comprehensive flat-fee planning.
My back still hurts—a lot. Not as much as it did before, but despite several procedures and many months of physical therapy, there has not been much improvement. The thing that seems to help the most is not doing dentistry. I still twitch violently at work, but now it’s only an Excel formula that gets damaged and not the sublingual tissue of someone I’ve sworn not to harm.
My policy pays out until I am 65, but there is no guarantee that will happen. I will need a physician to recertify my disability each year based on whatever findings are present at the time.
I also have a long-term disability policy provided by the dental school through The Hartford. Despite filing a claim more than eight months ago, I haven't heard anything. Working with that insurance company has been an absolute nightmare. It said that my claim is unlikely to get paid because I was working in one sedentary occupation and moved to another sedentary occupation, so there is no merit to my claim of disability. As if doing a root canal in a 0.2 mm hole bent over for two hours is the same as talking to someone on Zoom about how to execute on their Mega Backdoor Roth. Also, any benefit I get from that policy will be taxable (this is the case with most employer-provided plans), and it would only pay out for two years.
I still have not technically ended my employment with the dental school. I am hopeful that if a future treatment is successful, I can return one day in some capacity and stay connected to this part of my life in a smaller way.
If you've had to claim a disability, was your experience similar to mine? What obstacles did you face? Were you ultimately successful? Would you do anything different? Comment below!
The post A Pain in the Butt — My Dental Disability Story appeared first on The White Coat Investor - Investing & Personal Finance for Doctors.
]]>Our little coat closet has seen a lot of change in the three and a half years we’ve lived here. But, last year I finally installed a DIY built-in organization system, and that has been a game changer for us. The only problem? Pretty shelves only do so much good if the shelves themselves aren’t organized!
A couple of weeks ago, I got sick of the chaos (again), and decided to do something about it. I’m working with The Container Store over on Instagram as an ambassador this year, so I did a ton of browsing and planning over on their website and came up with a plan.
And so far? It’s holding up pretty well!
As we all know, I’m not a pro when it comes to keeping a coat closet organized. But, I have learned a lot of lessons in my time trying to figure it out so far. So, here are five quick tips that will hopefully help you get started on getting yours organized too.
The first (and most important) step to take is to plan out everything you need to store in the closet. Sure, you probably have a general idea in your head of what goes in the space but do you know everything?
I found one of the most helpful steps in the process this time around was to actually write down all of the things we store in here or would like to store in here. This should include the things you don’t technically store in the closet that somehow end up in the closet anyways.
Once you’ve got your list, make a plan. Think about a space inside that closet for each and every category of items. I even took the time to sit down and use Canva to plan out how things would look and fit on the shelves before I even hit the “order” button!
Having a plan is key and you won’t regret taking the time to sit down and plot it all out ahead of time.
When I was creating our built-ins, I planned one shelf for each person in our family. That makes it a lot easier for me to plan and gives everyone a space for all of their random stuff. The boys each have a spot for their backpacks along with a sturdy bin that can hold anything else they want. This usually means hats, books or small toys they don’t feel like carrying upstairs yet, or water bottles. It’s random and I try not to micromanage in – the bin contains their chaos and I don’t have to think about it!
This was a big lesson for me this time around and I think it has made a big difference in how the closet feels! Last time I bought stuff to organize this closet, I used my favorite see-through storage bins. I use them all over my house because I love how easy it is to see what’s inside and find things when I’m looking.
The only problem? They can add a lot of visual clutter to a space, too! In this closet, we mostly know what’s in each bin. There aren’t as many categories as there are in our pantry or the art closet, so I don’t need to be able to see inside the bins. It just stressed me out!
So instead, I opted for bins that would hide the clutter a bit. For mine and Corey’s shelves, I also went with baskets that have lids. We access the things in ours less frequently, so it’s preferable to be able to stack them and keep everything fully hidden away. The boys use their bins on the daily, so they’re super sturdy and don’t have lids on them.
I mean, this tip goes into pretty much every post about organizing, but it’s important so it’s worth repeating again and again and again. I’m a firm believer that storage systems will not last if you don’t use labels. Especially if someone other than you is going to be using them!
Make it so that your family absolutely cannot claim they don’t know where things go. I promise, it’ll make a difference. We’ve got shoe and sock baskets in the bottom of our closet, and each one is clearly labeled with what’s inside. Just adding labels to these baskets increased the likelihood that shoes would end up where they belong by a solid 90%. It was kind of like magic.
It’ll also reduce the amount of times your family asks you “hey where’s X item?” At least, after you show them the label a few times.
A note on this: I also think it’s valuable to spend a little bit of time living with your system before labeling everything. For example, in our closet we have labeled the shoe baskets but the baskets on mine and Corey’s shelves are mostly unlabeled. Why? Because I want to make sure what we have in there works for us first! After we’ve lived with it for a month or two and know we like the system, I’ll go back in and label things.
I think in any organization project, it’s important to remember that what works for one family might not work for another. You could copy and paste my exact entry closet into your home and find it impossible to keep up with. That’s because every family has different systems, needs, and rhythms.
Why is it important to keep this in mind? Because you shouldn’t just go out and buy everything I’ve linked here and try to make your closet look just like mine! It probably won’t work! It’s important that you take the time to figure out what your family needs, how they use your space, and what they can keep up with.
For example – our kids do best being able to toss their shoes in a basket. Maybe you’d prefer shoe cubbies, putting them on a shelf, or keeping them in the garage!
We live in Texas, so we delegate very little space for coat storage. Maybe you need twice what we need. Or maybe you only use your coat closet to store one or two coats per person with the rest kept elsewhere.
My kids come in the front door after school and drop their backpacks in the coat closet right away. Maybe you come in through the garage and a mudroom or wall hooks near that door would make more sense. Or maybe, you need to add hooks to the door because the closet doesn’t have room for a shelf.
You get the idea. Spend some time thinking about your family’s rhythms and systems and make a plan based on how you already move throughout your day. It’ll last a lot longer that way. And finally…
I think this is a key to keeping yourself sane when trying to organize your home. No system is perfect – because your family won’t be perfect about keeping up with it. Over time, various extra things will make their way into the room. Things won’t get put up where they belong, and your pretty organization efforts won’t look so pretty anymore.
It’s impossible to avoid. Just plan for it, accept it, and embrace it. It’s okay!
I generally plan on doing a closet cleanup at the beginning of each season. As our needs shift, it always helps to take a second to reset things. This time, I packed our winter gear up high, cleaned out coats we don’t need anymore, and made a little extra room for sunglasses, water bottles, and pool gear. Before school starts, I’ll take a second to remove all of the summer chaos and leave more room for backpacks!
Going into an organization project knowing that you’ll have to touch it up on occasion makes it less painful when you have to touch it up. I don’t think there’s a family on the planet that keeps up their coat closet organization perfectly all the time. I promise.
Here’s a look at everything I used in this closet. It’s only been a few weeks but so far I’m thrilled with the new setup. The kids are keeping it better organized than they ever have, and I don’t find myself cringing at it when the door gets left open. It’s all so pretty!
The post Entry Coat Closet Organization (Tips & Tricks) appeared first on Love & Renovations.
]]>Before diving into what I love about the newly-released Living Proof Volume & Root Spray and Thickening Blow-Dry Cream, let me give you the rundown on the OG collection.
The Living Proof Full Collection is—as the name implies—designed to impart fuller-looking hair. The collection started with the Full Style Shampoo ($32) and Full Style Conditioner ($32), followed by the Full Thickening Mousse ($32), Full Thickening Cream ($32), and Full Root-Lift Spray ($32). On June 13th, the brand debuted the Full Volume & Root-Lifting Spray ($32), Full Thickening Blow-Dry Cream ($32), and Full Texturizing Foam ($32).
Of these, I’ve tried five: the shampoo and conditioner, plus the three newbies. All of the products feature a subtle floral scent that’s neither overpowering nor tantalizing. Where the shampoo is super thick and gelatinous (which I love), the conditioner is a bit thinner and leaves a bit to be desired on the texture front. Once my hair is dry post-use, though, it looks squeaky clean and lightly lifted, so no major complaints. Now, onto the styling products.
The reason I enjoy using the Living Proof Volume & Root-Lifting Spray and Thickening Blow-Dry Cream so much is because of how the products work in tandem to strengthen, thicken, and lift my strands, all while smoothing them out for a salon-quality blowout at home. Both products deliver heat protection, and are designed to offer long-lasting lift without any sticky side effects. This is thanks to the brand’s Time-Released Styling Technology, which is formulated with its patented Thickening Molecule.
In terms of styling, I like to spritz the Volume & Root-Lifting Spray between the layers of my hair and concentrate the Thickening Blow-Dry Cream on my mid-lengths and ends. Where many thickening sprays leave my strands feeling gritty, and where most creams weigh down my ultra-fine hair, both of these products left my mane looking professionally styled. Best of all, the shaping I created with my Dyson Airwrap Multi-Styler ($599) actually stayed put, so my hair didn’t look flat throughout the day.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that as well as these products volumized my strands and made for a lasting look, they didn’t do anything for frizz. As such, from now on, I’ll pair them with my beloved Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray Anti-Frizz Treatment ($28) to maintain the full lift sans frizz.
Now, if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned the Living Proof Texturizing Foam, there’s a reason. Of all the products, I felt that the Texturizing Foam just didn’t offer stellar enough results that I’d keep it in rotation. It minimally lifted, didn’t do much for hold, and didn’t offer anything for frizz. Plus, when massaged into my damp strands, it made my hair feel so textured and unmanageable, it was actually difficult to comb and style it. As my hair got drier, brushing got easier, but not enough for me to swoon over this newbie. That’s not to say it won’t work for someone else though!
]]>By Anna Kocharian
There’s an unspoken rule that an entryway should serve as a drop-off point for all sorts of gear—shoes, coats, mail, and keys are just the start.
And while some homes have a mudroom, hall closet, or garage with dedicated storage, others lack the necessary framework for concealing clutter.
With that in mind, we turned to professional organizers for their tried-and-true tips for bringing a little more method to the madness that can be a home’s entry.
In a mudroom or entryway, function should always come first, says professional organizer Lucy Milligan Wahl, founder of LMW Edits. “You can make any system look good, but you have to create it first,” she says.
Photo: Linda Raymond/Getty Images
Everything from a home’s layout to your lifestyle and even the climate can affect the way the area is arranged.
If you live in a region where it’s always raining, having a dedicated and easy-to-reach spot for umbrellas and rain gear is important. If your family is involved in a heavy rotation of sports and music lessons, you might want to carve out a nook for the gear they’ll be toting back and forth.
Finally, think about how often you’ll be able to organize the space—and be realistic about it.
“Are you willing to put in a few minutes every day to tidy up or does it all need to be grab-and-go?” Wahl says. Once you’ve figured that out, analyze your space and make a thoughtful plan from there.
If your home is lacking a mudroom or an entryway altogether, you may have to fashion one.
“First, find a space that is a good one-stop-spot for jackets, shoes, bags, and more—a catchall on the way in and out where your family can store things and have easy access to coming and going,” says home improvement and lifestyle expert Kathryn Emery of Be the Best Home. It doesn’t need to be a huge area; all you really need is a little bit of wall space.
Carving out a kids’ zone can be a helpful way to encourage them to stay tidy—or something close to it. Emery suggests dedicating a cubby or shelf for each child, to help them form a habit of stowing their belongings the moment they walk in.
Photo: Tria Giovan/GAP Interiors
“A bench with storage drawers is great for kids, as they are low to the ground and simple to get in and out of,” she says.
Though if you’re looking for a more simple approach, wall-mounted hooks are the way to go. Be sure to install them at a height the little ones can easily reach for convenience when hanging coats and bags.
Swivel hooks, which can often feature three to five movable hooks, are a great option for maximizing a space and keeping one person’s items confined to a dedicated spot, Emery says. And if you have enough wall space, install a few of them in a row.
The Shopping List
• Oversize Hammered Metal Wall Hook, $40 at Pottery Barn
Shop more wall hooks: Amazon, Target, Wayfair
• Safavieh Damien 3-Drawer Wood Storage Unit, $250 at Walmart, $281 at Home Depot
Keys, wallets, and similarly sized items can easily get lost in the shuffle, so it’s always worth having a dedicated spot for them. “Use containers that are just large enough for the items you need,” Wahl says.
Photo: Tria Giovan/GAP Interiors
Keys can go in a small dish or tray, phones can live on a charging station, and mail can be stacked in trays, Wahl says.
Take things a step further and give each member of the family their own tray to make the process a bit more streamlined. The entry is an area that’s already filled with lots of stuff, so avoid adding anything extraneous because it will instantly become clutter.
“The area should be for the things your family uses on a daily or near-daily basis,” the organization expert says.
Shop mail and key organizers: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Wayfair
If you have more belongings than storage space in your entryway or mudroom, a freestanding cabinet can be a good solution. One that incorporates an array of useful features—think a coat rack, shoe holder, and bench—can be a great way to consolidate the basics into one neat zone.
Photo: Kilito Chan/Getty Images
The sort of cabinetry you choose to bring in can include features like a clothing rod, drawers, hooks, or shoe shelves, says certified professional organizer Schae Lewis of Mission 2 Organize. It all depends on your needs.
Play to the weaknesses of the area. If you’re lacking a designated zone for a specific category, be it shoes, coats, or bags, find a storage unit that can cater to that.
“If you are creating the space from scratch without any cabinetry, plenty of hooks and a shoe solution are crucial for this space,” Lewis says.
The Shopping List
• Vasagle 3-in-1 Coat Rack, $68 at Wayfair, from $70 at Amazon
• Godishus Wardrobe, $150 at Ikea
• 6-Tier Shoe Storage Cabinet, $45 at Amazon
Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2023, Consumer Reports, Inc.
]]>Khloe Kardashian filed the paperwork to change her son’s name from Tatum Kardashian to Tatum Thompson. Yeah – Khloe & Tristan are still happening. [Just Jared]
Eva Longoria has been making the promotional rounds this week in NYC (she’s promoting her directorial effort, Flamin’ Hot). [Go Fug Yourself]
Velma got a second season! [Seriously OMG]
John Mellencamp admits he was a bad boyfriend to Meg Ryan. [Dlisted]
Tom Holland’s charming THR interview. [LaineyGossip]
Here’s the disgusting stuff YouTuber Colleen Ballinger was up to. [Pajiba]
Debbie Gibson is back with new music! [OMG Blog]
Conor McGregor has been accused of yet another violent crime against a woman. This is not the first time and it needs to be the last. [Jezebel]
Millie Bobby Brown puts her dogs in a stroller. [Egotastic]
Stories about how the children of the 1% live. [Buzzfeed]
Diane Kruger wore a Jason Wu coat – it’s June, people. [RCFA]
How shocking, Kentucky cops waved armed Klansman away without arresting them. You’d almost believe the cops and Klansman were the same. [Towleroad]
We were sixteen, twenty-six, and then, somehow, forty-six. I wasn’t sure where thirty-six had gone, and on bad days, I thought about it more than I knew to be healthy. Thirty-six seemed to me the ideal age: the drunken confusion and missteps of your twenties far enough behind you as to almost seem to have happened to someone else, but the soundness of your thirty-something body still permitted you to spring out of bed in the morning, if you had that sort of temperament. At 8 a.m., unlike at 8 p.m., you still believed you would clean the entire house and do every scrap of laundry and answer a hundred emails and not eat the rest of the sheet cake left over from the family reunion.
By the time we turned thirty-six, Greeley, my closest friend, had been married twice and given birth to two children. At forty-six, she was still married to her second husband, albeit barely. I’d never married, nor did I have any children. (As a woman, you knew these things absolutely, whereas a man could get by claiming ignorance, a child or two of his possibly floating around in the world, waiting to ambush him with accusations or requests for love and attention, possibly all of the above. I suppose this condition colored the lives of some men with a kind of suspense, and hope too, perhaps.)
It helped to be rich if you intended to marry, let alone divorce. Any indignities you might suffer would be attenuated by new cars and good views and well-equipped kitchens. Greeley wasn’t rich but she was brave, and I suppose in most circumstances bravery was as useful as money, if not more so.
Her husband, Hart, was often sickly. He was also depressed and obsessive about timepieces. I thought the two conditions were related, but for years Greeley scoffed at this, until she started agreeing with me, after he stopped being able to get out of bed before noon and began to lose one job after another.
Hart was a tall, bowlegged man with evasive, watery blue eyes and pale hair that grew in tufts on his head and the backs of his hands. He walked around the house in two pairs of socks, regardless of the season, and wore watches on both wrists. I knew from Greeley that he slept with his watches on, only taking them off when he bathed. His mother had raised him on her own and never told him who his father was. Greeley assumed the watches were an attempt at control after a childhood full of uncertainty. She was patient and kind, one reason why she put up with Hart, and with me.
Every room in their house, including the three bathrooms and the closet in the master bedroom, had at least one wall clock, often more. Many of these clocks didn’t work, Hart having let the batteries run down, and no one—not Hart nor Greeley nor their son or daughter—ever bothering to replace them. I didn’t go over to their house very often, but the year Greeley and I both turned forty-six, I was lovesick and desperately unhappy and began to go wherever someone familiar would let me in and permit me to talk about the man who was at the root of my misery. More often than not, it was Greeley and Hart’s house I went to, fleeing my apartment with its dying houseplants and rattling, leaky windows.
I should have moved out years ago but hadn’t yet been able to bring myself to do it. The ceiling appeared to have developed new cracks in the last few months, and I had new neighbors below me whose arguments I could hear through the floorboards most nights. On the four-lane road our building faced, ambulances shrieked by at all hours. Dogs barked disconsolately from behind the locked gate of the building across the alley, and irate loudmouths often shouted at each other by the dumpsters that were emptied by lumbering trucks before first light on Tuesdays and Fridays. Whenever I was home, and not preoccupied with cleaning or cooking or sleeping, I’d be seized by the ruinous urge to call the home of the man I was in love with and tell his other girlfriend, the one he took around in public, that he was a liar and a fraud, and she should know their relationship was doomed.
Hart and Greeley’s children, Liza and Matt, affably tolerated me when I showed up at their house, which was fourteen miles through city traffic from where I lived. Hart usually hid in the basement during my visits, watching old movies and playing online Scrabble. Greeley was planning to divorce him but hadn’t yet told anyone other than her widowed mother and me. She was waiting for both their kids to finish high school, she said, which was still a few years away.
One Saturday in mid-November, when the sky was hurling down dingy clumps of snow and Greeley was late returning home from taking her mother, who lived a few miles away, to the library, I found myself alone at her house with Hart. He answered my knock and after a moment’s indecision let me inside, and to my annoyance, he announced his intention to keep me company until Greeley’s return. I’d been the maid of honor at their wedding nineteen years earlier. Hart and I had liked each other for a long time, but somewhere in our early forties, our mutual goodwill had turned to apathy on his end, chafing forbearance on mine. Respect, sympathy, curiosity—whatever it was that governed our relationship—had apparently been exhausted. It was similar to how for years I’d found the Peter Sellers movie Being There hilarious, but then unaccountably, it began to seem tragic.
I sat down on their pumpkin-colored velvet sofa, with one of their two cats, the white one named Natasha, curled up on the cushion next to mine. Her green eyes opened halfway as she felt my weight settling near her. Hart sat in a matching armchair across from me, and I smiled at him tentatively, wondering what had gotten into him. It was possible Greeley had ordered him to keep me company while she finished the errand with her mother.
“So,” he said.
I peered at him, anxious and tired. I had no idea what he would come up with next. “Yes?” I said.
“So.” He laughed self-consciously.
We looked at each other some more. Natasha yawned, her throat emitting a tiny squeak.
“Did you know there are literally thousands of strains of the cold virus circulating among us every year?” he said.
“I don’t know if I did.”
“That’s why there’s no shot for the common cold. There are fewer flu viruses, and it’s easier for immunologists to guess which ones will cause the most trouble.”
“Interesting,” I said. This trivia did interest me. For one, I didn’t like colds, but I couldn’t think of anyone who did. “Do you get a flu shot every year?”
“No.”
“I do,” I said. “But not yet this year.”
He looked at one of his watches. He had two on his right wrist today, one on his left. His and Greeley’s son looked like him—blond, tall, and blue-eyed, but Matt didn’t share his father’s obsession with clocks. Nor did he appear to be depressed. He was sixteen and good-looking and girls called him at all hours; Greeley had started to take away his phone after 10 p.m. His sister Liza, fifteen and less popular, took after Greeley; she was petite and dark-haired. She wasn’t interested in timepieces either, which Greeley was relieved about.
“I wonder what’s keeping them,” said Hart. “My mother-in-law must have wanted to go to the grocery store.”
“It’s okay,” I said too brightly. “You don’t have to keep me company. I brought something to read.” Matt and Liza were out with friends. The house was quiet.
Hart had a crumb at the corner of his mouth. I wanted to tell him but worried it would embarrass him. I hoped it would fall off on its own without either of us having to do anything about it.
“I don’t mind,” he said. He looked at one of his other watches, pretending to adjust it, or maybe he actually was adjusting it. If it was the kind you had to wind, he’d probably let it run down.
He hadn’t worked in over a year. Greeley was paying all the bills and resented this enormously. I’d told her the other day that I wished I could take us to the South of France for a month, where we might meet beautiful young Frenchmen who would sponge off us unapologetically while we used them for sex. “I can’t leave my mother for a whole month,” she’d said, thinking I was serious. “Hart could probably take care of the kids, but Mom needs me.”
Hart and I sat in silence, me petting the cat, who was now purring loudly, Hart glancing from his watches to the windows that overlooked the street. Greeley’s real name was Bethany, but she had always disliked it and as a joke had renamed herself after the novelist and Catholic priest Andrew M. Greeley, whose books had almost no sex in them despite their provocative covers, as we’d discovered, to our serious disappointment, when we’d read them in high school. The nickname stuck, but her mother continued to call her Bethany and her father did too, until he died two years ago from a heart attack at the dentist’s office. He was in the waiting room, looking at an old issue of People when he died, not in the chair with the drill whirring in his ear. He had gone quickly, the receptionist later assured Greeley and her mother. He’d stood up suddenly before falling down and dying, a look of terrible surprise on his face, as I imagined it.
“Greeley told me about the guy,” said Hart, his gaze lit by mischief. “The one you’ve been writing poems for.”
A truck rumbled by in the street, but it took me a moment to sort out where the sound was coming from. I should have known Greeley would tell him. Why wouldn’t she? They weren’t divorced yet and continued to sleep in the same bed, probably having sex in it too, once in a while.
I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“It’s good you let him know how you feel,” said Hart. “As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Who says this? I thought, suppressing the impulse to roll my eyes. A second later, I felt like breaking into tears, but I suppressed that too.
“You could always ask him to marry you,” he said. “I bet that would throw him for a loop. And who knows, maybe he’d say yes.”
“That would not be a good idea,” I said, incredulous. “I don’t want to marry him.”
He tilted his chin at me. “That’s what you say.”
“And that’s what I mean.”
We were each taking the measure of the other, he having decided when he let me in, I suppose, that he had something to prove to me, that he was on an upswing or at least was frozen mid-decline. The crumb was still by his mouth.
I felt my own mouth twitch, sending an inadvertent signal that Hart failed to read. The man I was in love with was named Dawoud. He was extremely good-looking, morally protean, generous in bed, and promiscuous with promises. He was ten years older than I was, but still behaved like a college boy, with his cargo pants and blithe cheating and impromptu camping trips. This had been going on for over a year. I had never suffered so much in my life.
I had to make it stop. It was also feasible his girlfriend would murder one of us when she found out what we were doing, mostly on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings when Dawoud would sneak over to my apartment while this public girlfriend was in a water yoga class at the gym we all belonged to.
She had a silky blond ponytail and was purportedly only a few years younger than Dawoud, although she looked my age. She had much larger breasts than I did—I’d seen them in the locker room and tried not to gawk. I was excruciatingly jealous, but also thinner than she was. And I had thunderous orgasms, which Dawoud was very proud of, sometimes speechless over, as was I. We spent most of our time at my place naked and panting and laughing together. I hated when he left, never really sure if he would come back. He might get hit by a train or choke on a piece of apple or his girlfriend really would murder him before she came for me. He might change his mind about me and find someone else.
“But what if he proposed to you?” asked Hart. “Would you say no?”
I sensed something in Hart then that I probably hadn’t ever sensed before in anyone. What it was was this: he had once been a tree—most of the molecules in his body, I strongly felt, had belonged to a conifer in another, very distant age. I felt a wave of compassion for him and smiled tentatively, seeing him differently, more appreciatively. Did he have any idea what he’d once been? I doubted it. “I would say no,” I said.
Greeley came in the door a few seconds later, pausing when she saw us together in the front room. I went over to her and hugged her. She smelled like lavender soap and her cheeks were cold. Hart stayed in the chair. Natasha leapt down from the sofa and ran into the kitchen where her food and water bowls were waiting to be kicked over by the next clumsy human, often me.
“I want Trish to read us one of her love poems,” said Hart. “For that guy. You know, Dawoud.” He pronounced his name da-wad.
Greeley stared at him, appalled.
“Dawoud,” I said.
“Ignore him,” said Greeley. “I’m sorry, Trish.”
“It’s okay. I don’t have any of those poems with me anyway,” I said, trying to keep the peace.
Greeley was shaking her head. She took off her coat and hung it in the closet by the front door. “Have you had lunch yet?’ she asked.
“I haven’t,” said Hart.
“I wasn’t asking you,” she said.
“I haven’t either,” I admitted.
“You need to eat,” she said sternly. “I’m ordering a pizza.”
“No, no, don’t do that,” I said.
“I’d eat some,” said Hart.
She ordered a pizza—spinach and mushroom—along with a dozen garlic breadsticks. She knew this was my favorite order, especially the breadsticks. I wanted to move in with her. It was like this every time I came over. I had known her since we were nine years old, when she had enormous eyeglasses and so did I. The first summer I knew her, we’d put water balloons in the fronts of our bathing suits and stood in the backyard, her mother taking our picture, all of us laughing. Neither Greeley nor I had big boobs, though she did for a time when she was pregnant and she lorded it over me then, but not very seriously.
The pizza was delivered a half hour later. The delivery boy was a man in his seventies. I wanted to ask if he was doing this because he was bored with retirement. I hoped it wasn’t because he needed the money, but I had a feeling it was. I tipped him eight dollars and paid for the order, ignoring Greeley’s protests. I had more money than she did and much lower overhead. It was all a fluke, really. My father had left me some money when he died, the year before her father died. He and my mother had been divorced for years and I was his sole heir. He’d left money to PETA too, although he wasn’t even a vegetarian, and to the public library in the central Wisconsin farming town where he’d spent the last fourteen years of his life. He’d never remarried, but had gone on elderly singles’ cruises a few times a year; he’d said he didn’t want the “hassle” of commitment after he and my mother divorced.
Going through his papers after he died, I’d discovered he’d had relations with women who were probably sex workers. I wasn’t scandalized, but I did think about it fairly often. It was like knowing too much about your neighbors’ sexual habits, except, like it or not, I would never again have to look upon my father burdened with this knowledge.
While we were eating the pizza, my phone started ringing. When I took it out of my bag to investigate, I saw with a stab of alarm and desire that it was Dawoud. If he was calling to say he wanted to come over, I would feel both bereft and angry. Sometimes he did this—call out of nowhere and ask if I was free, always expecting that I would be, but sometimes I wasn’t, and he would hang up abruptly after saying, “It’s fine, Trish. It’s fine! Talk to you later.” It would take me a day to recover from this exchange, mostly due to my fear that he would never call again.
Greeley recognized this as the response of a woman with no self-esteem. And what exactly did I think having an affair meant? She’d say, “Why do you let him have so much power over you?” I’d tell her I didn’t let him, per se—it was just what happened when you were in love with someone who was trying to hide you from everyone else in his life.
I let his call go to voice mail. Greeley patted my hand when I put the phone back in my bag. “Good girl,” she said.
Hart perked up. “Was that him? The guy you write poems for?”
Greeley frowned at him.
“Yes,” I said wretchedly.
“You should have let me talk to him,” he said.
Greeley shook her head. “No,” she said. “Not funny.”
He looked at us, hurt. “What? It could have been a man-to-man conversation. I could ask him the kinds of questions Trish probably never has the courage to.”
I noticed the crumb was finally gone from the corner of his mouth, but he had a small smear of pizza sauce on his chin now. He looked like a giant baby—his face pink-skinned, his thinning, tufted blond hair nearly as delicate as an infant’s fluff.
I smiled at him and shook my head. “Dawoud isn’t big on revealing his hand. But it’s nice of you to suggest this.”
“Do you want to call him back?” asked Hart.
“No.”
“It might have been important,” he said.
“It wasn’t important,” snapped Greeley. “He’s a selfish asshole. He’s only using Trish for sex.”
Her vehemence startled me a little. Even if what she’d said was probably accurate, I didn’t want to hear her say it aloud, especially in front of her unraveling husband who, the other day, had washed his blue jeans with Greeley’s new white bras and turned them all a grubby blue-gray. He had also run over a pile of rocks while mowing the lawn last month and ruined the blades. Their oven had so much food crusted on the bottom that every time Greeley turned it on, the smoke alarm went off, but she refused to clean it herself because Hart had promised to do it, and she was waiting for him to keep his word and swore she would keep waiting until he did.
I was afraid that, like Dawoud’s public girlfriend, Greeley had murder in her heart and would snap in some violent, irrevocable way if Hart kept bumbling along and ruining their expensive household appliances.
“How do you know that for sure? Have you met him?” Hart asked Greeley.
“Hart, honestly. Go away and let Trish and me talk by ourselves,” she said.
I really wanted him to leave us alone too, but I felt bad when he took his plate and went down to the basement without another word.
She squeezed my arm. “If you want to call him back, go ahead,” she said.
I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. Hart said I should ask Dawoud to marry me.”
She looked at me, her face grim. “He’s getting worse, Trish. I don’t know what to do. Yesterday I caught him in a chat room for labradoodle owners. We don’t own a labradoodle, as you know. But he was acting like we did.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. I assumed he was either bored or delusional. I hoped it was the former. Greeley was crying now, her face suddenly wet with tears. I reached over and hugged her and soon we were both crying.
When we stopped, I shared with her what Hart had told me about the common cold. “He does know a lot of trivia,” she said glumly, wiping her eyes. “I’ll give him that.”
A second or two later, she whispered, “I have to divorce him. I’m not sure what will happen to him after I do, and it’s going to upset the kids very much, but I have to do it. I can’t wait much longer.”
I took her hand and we sat in silence, listening to the drone of the TV in the basement. “He seemed less depressed than the last time I saw him, at least,” I finally said.
She nodded. “Yes. But it’s unpredictable. He’ll be okay for a week but then without warning he’ll stop showering and picking up after himself and talking to me or the kids. He won’t exercise, even though on the rare occasions he does, he always feels better.”
“What about antidepressants?”
“He won’t take them,” she said. “Not regularly. Whatever you do, don’t ask Dawoud to marry you.”
“No, of course not. It’s never even crossed my mind.”
“Because if you did marry him, he’d cheat on you too.”
“I know.”
She put her face in her hands. “But I envy you,” she said, her voice muffled. “You have not chosen to marry the wrong man.”
“For a while he was the right man, wasn’t he?” I said softly.
She put her hands in her lap and looked down. I had a picture in my mind right then of her and Hart at Halloween six or seven years ago. He was dressed as a zucchini, she as a chef’s knife. I’d come over to help them hand out chocolate bars to all the kids in the neighborhood, dozens and dozens of them, red-faced and grinning and manic on sugar. One little girl who reminded me of me pointed at Hart and asked Greeley, “Will he get to be the knife next year?” And Greeley replied, “You’re a sharp one, aren’t you.” The girl blinked, not getting the pun, but Hart and I laughed. “I hope this woman will always be my knife,” he said to the little girl, his arm around Greeley’s shoulders. “And that I can always be her vegetable.” Greeley made a comical face. I could see she was very happy.
“Yes, he was the right man for a while,” she said. “But now he isn’t.”
Driving home later, I thought about Hart in the basement and Greeley on the first floor with the crusted-over oven and her ruined bras upstairs in the bedroom and the damaged lawn mower in the garage and all the other frustrations of her long marriage to Hart. I knew he deserved some compassion too—he wasn’t evil, just beaten down and sick and weaker than she was. They’d had some good years, and their kids weren’t jerks. Greeley liked her house too, but right now I knew it wasn’t much comfort when she thought of the failings of the husband she shared it with, a man who was not looking for a new job and had slipped into midlife depression and might not be able to pull himself back together anytime soon, if ever.
And at forty-six, what did I have? I’d tried to keep it simple, as Greeley purported to envy. I’d held myself back from binding attachments when they were offered—I’d turned down two marriage proposals, the first in my twenties, the second in my thirties. Both men had gone on to marry other women and have children. I didn’t regret this, though. You took your chances no matter what you did.
I believed I had been a tree once too. I had lived outside in all seasons, witnessing the comings and goings of birds and rabbits and wolves and people who were always arguing or feeling put-upon or who knew what—maybe not much of anything. I was responsible for the care and upkeep of my own bras and had no lawn to mow. To be honest, this was a relief.
Just before I’d left Greeley and Hart’s place, Hart had emerged from the basement to say goodbye. He must have heard us talking or else simply guessed I was ready to go home. Greeley didn’t care anymore if he heard her saying unflattering things about him. He was like a cement wall now, she said, nothing penetrated him.
He came up from downstairs and stood in the doorway, studying us for a second before he said, “Keep writing poems, Trish, and be sure to wash your hands with soap and hot water. You need to guard against the common cold. It’s almost winter now.”
“I will,” I said, smiling at him as kindly as I could.
I didn’t return Dawoud’s call that night after I got home. When he called again the next morning to confirm our usual X-rated Sunday gymnastics, I didn’t answer. I went out instead and stayed away all day. He called again. Again, I didn’t answer. It’s over, I typed into our ongoing text thread, though I couldn’t bring myself to hit send. I was going to sell my depressing apartment, I realized. I was going to take a leave of absence from work and travel for a while. It was something I’d been intending to do for many years.
The next morning, Greeley texted me a picture of her espresso machine with the caption, The latest casualty of my marriage. I sent back a frowning face, adding I’m sorry, G.
It’s over, I typed again, and this time I hit send. It wouldn’t be enough, but it was a start. I looked out the window, down into the alley, where a man in gray sweats was foraging in the recycling bins for aluminum cans, his bike basket already teeming with his finds. I watched him, drinking my morning cup of strong black coffee, ignoring the urge to check my phone. After the coffee was gone, I got ready for work and the drive to the high school where I was the assistant principal. It was Monday, after all. I was good at this job, despite the chaos of my private life, and liked most of the students and teachers, and my boss, Principal Brynne, who had the same birthday and hairstyle as my mother. At school I was organized and punctual and people came to me when they needed things, which I wanted them to do.
During lunch, I ordered a new espresso machine for Greeley. I didn’t include a gift message. She would quickly figure out who’d sent it, but I wanted it, at least for a little while, to be a surprise.
__________________________________
From Direct Sunlight by Christine Sneed. Copyright © 2023 by Christine Sneed. Published 2023 by TriQuarterly Books /Northwestern University Press. All rights reserved. Originally appeared in The Literary Review.
]]>It can be hard to know which trends have staying power, and what is just tomorrow’s forgotten TikTok aesthetic. But we have a feeling “quiet luxury” isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The term itself might be new, but the style it describes is anything but. Well-made investment pieces that lack bold logos and colors have always been around, but recent forces in pop culture (and a whole lot of social media commentary) have made them undeniably buzzy. The popularity of HBO’s Succession, alongside celebs sporting more tailored, minimalist ‘fits rather than label-heavy apparel, has led to the “stealth wealth” look going mainstream again. Fashion enthusiasts worldwide are now giving it their own spin, either via the opulence of a timeless investment piece or a really convincing dupe. (Now that’s the real stealth wealth).
R29 editors have also embraced the trend, even if we’re more likely to be heading to the L train over the Roy family’s private jet. For a little taste of quiet luxury, check out our picks that range from high-quality basics to classy jewelry and timeless handbags we swear by. You could even curate a whole head-to-toe outfit from our editors’ recs. Ahead, browse through R29 editors’ top quiet luxury list to live out the “old money” aesthetic, starting at just over $50.
“I don’t often have the funds to invest in new designer/luxury big-ticket items, but high-quality basics is a category I feel is really worth the investment. This near perfect — and slightly under-$100 — pointelle tank is on the more attainable side and is something I know I’ll wear over and over and over again.” — Kate Spencer, Senior Affiliate Strategist
“For the typical Rowing Blazers shopper, buying a preppy accessory or sweater may not seem like a splurge, but for me, it was a fun summer indulgence that I love to brag about. I recently wore my last season RB mountains painter’s hat on a vacation out west, and cannot recommend treating yourself with a fun accessory or hat enough. If you’re most suited to the classic RB style, a la the Princess Diana iconic sheep sweater, may I tempt you with the matching sheep crocheted bucket hat that’s almost a little too perfect.” — Clare Palo, Senior Strategist Audience Development
“In my book, quiet luxury items are the styles where you walk past someone in the streets and have to take a second glance because they look so polished, but you can’t quite put your finger on why. Sandro Paris does it for me with all of its Parisian-chic ensembles. The brand recently released a plethora of the latest summer arrivals, and this matching pointelle knit set caught my eye.”
“The delicate details like the pattern, the pleats in the skirt, and the contrasting stripes are all subtle but eye-catching. The best part is that the styling capabilities are endless. Just imagine the set with a sweater draped on your shoulders with mules, or paired an oversized black wool coat and loafers for the fall.” — Vivien Lee, Affiliate Fashion Writer
“If you know me, you know I dream of nothing more than to be dressed in head-to-toe The Row — and essentially morph into the fourth Olsen sister. So it should be no surprise that I was seriously considering investing in this perfectly sized classic black bag as a birthday gift to myself, but ultimately decided to give myself another month or two to save some dollars before I take the plunge into supple leather heaven. Note: if you’re interested in something similar that’s also big enough to fit a laptop. Check out this hidden-gem leather bucket bag from J.Crew!” — Kate Spencer, Senior Affiliate Strategist
“To me, nothing encapsulates ‘quiet luxury’ more than a well-made linen button-down shirt, especially if the material is French linen. I’ve been wearing this striped number from Alex Crane whenever I want to channel my polished side.”
“It’s a very simple item at first glance, but the devil is in the details: the full-bodied organic linen looks good even with a bit of wrinkling after multiple washes, the tips of the collars can be buttoned down like a dress shirt, and the buttons are made from corozo, a compostable nut derived from the rainforests in Brazil. It’s my favorite casual chic item I always reach for whenever I am not sure what to wear, and it looks great on its own (I like to tie a knot at the end for a more retro vibe), or as a layering piece worn over a slip dress.” — Venus Wong, Senior Travel Writer
“What I like about the quiet luxury trend is that it’s allowed understated brands like Polène shine. This bag is the epitome of quiet luxury: well-made, cheaper than actual designer bags, and incredibly versatile and classic. This is actually my work bag since it fits a 13-inch laptop and all my essentials without feeling bulky. Because of this, I’ve worn it with pretty much anything, from jeans and a white button-down to a maxi skirt and tank top.” — Frances Solá-Santiago, Fashion Writer
“As far as statement jewelry goes, you can’t get any classier than gold metal and pearls. I love the size of the Thai freshwater pearls dangling off these earrings (they are certainly big enough to spot from a distance), and the fact that they are permanently secured on a fixture in the middle of the hoops. This gives me peace of mind as someone who has unfortunately lost a number of charms when they were a removable option.”
“The hoops are made from gold vermeil and consist of a thick layer of 18K gold over sterling silver, which means it’s both waterproof and much more longer lasting than gold-plated jewelry. I plan to wear these all year-round, to add a touch of “quiet glamour” to everything from my puff-sleeved dresses to my cashmere turtlenecks.” — Venus Wong, Senior Travel Writer
“Bottega Veneta’s Jodie bags haunt my dreams, immediately followed by Celine’s Triomphe bags. The two are interchangeable. One thing for sure is that I desperately need a new wallet, and I “accidentally” stumbled upon one of my favorite Bottega Veneta shades: raintree. It’s a deep forest green for which you can’t help but fall head over heels. I find it to be elegant, classy, and one that I can use even when I’m a 90-year-old Grandma. I love and want it, and while I’m indecisive when it comes to designer goods, hopefully, one of you lucky people will decide to give it a nice home.” — Vivien Lee, Affiliate Fashion Writer
“I live in elevated basics and am always on the hunt for the perfect white tee. This Lululemon tee is a recent favorite of mine, and for many reasons: For starters, the fabric is a sturdy yet lightweight cotton blend that holds its shape while not being too stiff or awkwardly thick. Next is the fit; it’s ever so slightly cropped, but not so much so that it veers into baby tee territory, which to be clear, is *a* vibe, but not my vibe. The sleeves are also the perfect length, and I love pairing it with everything from denim to a silk skirt.” — Karina Hoshikawa, Senior Writer
“Nothing says quiet luxury like a piece of simple jewelry you can wear every day and eventually pass down (if that’s your vibe). I particularly love a signet, and the bar style from one of my favorite jewelry brands Starling is a unique take on a classic. It’s handmade from certified recycled 14K gold and is versatile enough to wear on it’s own, stack with your other everyday rings, or slip on a necklace chain to add to a personalized charm necklace.” — Kate Spencer, Senior Affiliate Strategist
“A simple button-up is very easy to buy, and to buy cheaply. But this not-so-cheap (OK, outrageously priced) button-up is the one in my collection I love the most. It is juuuust the right amount of relaxed without feeling sloppy. (I don’t want to look like I’m going to the boardroom, after all — I want to look like I’m ready to get on my yacht!) I also get compliments on it all the time, which I feel is how you know a basic is really worth it. I will say that, sadly, Frank & Eileen only goes up to an XL, but the XL fits me well enough and I’m around a 14/16 in most tops.” — Marshall Bright, Affiliate Editor
“To me, quiet luxury is all about craftsmanship and timelessness which means costly. But sometimes that means you’ve gotta drop some coin as you pay for what you get. I’ve never been one for big logos, which is what draws me to this bag, it’s simple, well made, and versatile – something that will last a lifetime and also be able to be passed down to my children. As I usually wear gold jewelry and neutrals, I can easily style this bag with any number of outfits during the week.” — Becca Sax, Affiliate Coordinator
“Your choice in footwear can make or break an outfit (not really, but kind of), which is why investing in timeless yet comfortable, shoes is totally worth it. While Franco Sarto’s shoes aren’t the most expensive on the market, they are comfortable and look good (and I own many pairs that I love). If you’re looking for shoes that will go with multiple outfits while keeping your dogs happy, this is the brand for you.” — Becca Sax, Affiliate Coordinator
“Pups can get into quiet luxury, too. My rescue pomchi Miso adores this beautifully made collar from boutique brand Shaya — it’s hand-crafted from Italian leather and is the most luminous hue of royal blue. In terms of styling, Miso’s lustrous double coat looks pretty good just as it is, but he is known to pair his collar with a silk scarf for an extra dose of luxury.” — Karina Hoshikawa, Senior Writer
At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. All product details reflect the price and availability at the time of publication. If you buy or click on something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.
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There’s Nothing Silent About Quiet Luxury
]]>During a 1999 weeks-long expedition to Antarctica with her adviser, Boston University professor David Marchant, Jane Willenbring says she was repeatedly harassed by him, both verbally and physically. At the time, as an earth sciences graduate student and the only woman on a four-person team on the trip, she feared that if she reported the abuse, Marchant would retaliate and block her from advancing in her career.
Nearly 20 years later, after a poignant moment with her 3-year-old daughter, Willenbring reported Marchant to BU, in October 2016. A year later, when contacted by Science magazine, Willenbring went on the record, allowing the magazine to publish her name alongside the experiences of two other women in a story titled “Disturbing allegations of sexual harassment in Antarctica leveled at noted scientist.” Both BU and Marchant declined to discuss the case with Science. But in 2019, Marchant issued a statement through his lawyer, Jeffrey Sankey, saying he has “never” engaged in any form of sexual harassment, “not in 1998 or 1999 in Antarctica or at any time since,” Science reported. (Sankey did not respond to a request for comment from Mother Jones for this article, and Marchant could not be reached for comment.)
After the Science story ran in 2017, the National Science Foundation, among the largest funders of scientific research in the country, announced a big change: NSF-funded academic institutions would be required to notify the agency if a scholar is found to have committed any form of harassment, so that the foundation can take the information into account when making funding decisions. After an investigation, Marchant was let go from BU. (BU did not respond to a request for comment from Mother Jones.)
I reached out to Willenbring, who is now an associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at Stanford University, for her thoughts about her decision to come forward, how she thinks the MeToo movement shaped the public response to the Science article, and if anything has changed for survivors of sexual harassment in the scientific community in the last 20 years.
After finishing my undergrad in the ’90s, I wanted to help understand the huge change that the climate was going to go through in the coming decades. I decided to do my master’s degree looking at ice sheet history in Antarctica.
I had two options. I had been talking to Dave Marchant at Boston University, where I was accepted. And there was another school where, when I was visiting, a woman took me aside and said about my potential advisor, “Don’t come here. He sexually harasses women.” And so, even though I hadn’t visited BU, I was like, Well, I’ll go to the place where I don’t have to deal with a sexual harasser. Unfortunately, it ended up not being much of a choice.
I was excited about Antarctica. Back then I was really interested in adventure and traveling. I enjoyed physical tests. I liked camping and I was very outdoorsy and loved to hike. I wasn’t too worried about the cold either, because I’m from North Dakota. And I was trying to do my best to impress people in my department and Dave in particular. I wanted to make a good impression.
The farther we went from Boston, the less professional he started to get. He would say, “What happens in the field stays in the field.” And he was really keen on “breaking me down and building me up in his image.” It was sort of like hazing, basically, like sometimes being asked to do push-ups before getting breakfast. Some of it was just to be mean, like calling me a “slut” and a “whore” almost daily.
He was also really focused on my romantic life. He wanted to set me up with his brother. He mentioned how big his brother’s penis was, and that he would be a good choice for me. And I had to sleep in the same tent as his brother. So that was a strange attempt at matchmaking, I would say.
And he would get very ragey sometimes. One time, I was with a colleague, mapping some granites that were found near my field site. I was trying to figure out where they came from, which is routine. But when he caught up with us, I was told that I was a stupid fucking whore. And that he should just send me home. It was an incredibly scary event.
There was another instance where we were looking for volcanic ash in a moraine, which is the edge of a former glacier. If we found glacial material that had ash in it, the ash could be dated to help us determine when the glacier was in place. And so we were carefully collecting this delicate ash, which has little shards of mineral crystals and volcanic glass in it. He put some on a spoon and asked me to look at it, and then he blew the puff in my eye. And my eyes were already super sensitive because I had ice blindness. It was just so painful. After that, he apologized and said it went too far.
Sometimes, I’d go to the bathroom, and he would throw rocks at me. So I tried to limit my water consumption. I would just drink when I got back to camp. I would try to pee only when I had privacy. And I got a really bad bladder infection from that. I was peeing blood.
At one point, he pushed me down on the ground and was kneeling on my wrists, sitting over me. And he actually spit on my face. He was trying to do that thing where the spit dribbles out of your mouth a little bit, and then you suck it back in. But he didn’t suck it back in on time. And it actually fell on my face. On another occasion, he waited for me at the top of a hill, grabbed the back of my backpack, and used the little handle to throw me down. It was a pretty steep hill, and I twisted my arm and hurt my knee. At the bottom of the hill, I just wept.
I’m not one to just take things like that. I imagined different things that I could do to stick up for myself. I thought, well, if I do this, then he’s going to do that. And then I’m not going to have a future in academia. It all led me back to, I just have to get through it, get back to BU, finish my degree, and move on with my life.
If I had reported this in 1999, I think it would have gone badly. I don’t think anything would have happened to punish Marchant. I think that he would have retaliated and made sure that I left science.
I had wanted to do my PhD in Antarctica because it was so incredibly important. But after getting back, I thought, “Even if I’m in a different department, I just don’t even want to see him on base. I don’t want him reviewing my grant proposals and my papers, I just want to move away from that entire community.” And so I applied to do my PhD at a different university where I could work in the Arctic and sub-Arctic.
I went to Dalhousie University, which is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And I’d kind of chosen my adviser because he was a nice guy. He was really great at what he did, but the fact that he was a really nice guy was one of the main selling points.
I always told myself that I was going to do something and report the harassment. That was one of the ways that I made it through, like, I’ll do something about this later when I don’t fear for my future and my safety.
Eventually, I applied for a professorship at the University of California, San Diego, and they hired me with tenure. It was kind of in the back of my head, that I was able to do something. A few months later, I took my daughter, who was maybe three years old, with me to the lab. She saw me in my gloves and lab coat and said, “Mommy, you really are a scientist. I want to be a scientist just like you.” All of a sudden, this precious little person—what if she has an adviser like Dave? And so I started crying. I told her that they were happy tears because I would love it if she was a scientist. But really, I was scared for her.
That night I wrote the first draft of the Title IX report that I would eventually submit to the Title IX office and dean at BU.
I didn’t share my story with the media. Someone else did. I still don’t know who that was. Meredith Wadman from Science contacted me and said that she was doing a story [about Marchant] and she wanted to know if she could include my name in it. I agreed because I thought that it might lend credibility to the allegations if people knew that it was coming from me because I’m not a bullshitter.
I decided that I was fine with all of the possible scenarios that could come from it. One was that people would look at me differently from now on. That happened. And I got some death threats delivered to my mailbox at work, written on my door. Die cunt was one of them.
But I completely underestimated the possibility of just how much of a positive effect telling the story would have on science in general. The Science story came out the day after the New York Times Harvey Weinstein article. I remember Samantha Bee reporting on the Weinstein story. “Is there any place in the world that a woman can go to not be sexually harassed?” [she asked]. And then she said, “Antarctica? Nope,” and referenced the article on the show.
It’s hard to say that the Weinstein thing was positive, but the timing of it was serendipitous. Having something for people in the scientific community to point to, while everybody was talking about [Weinstein] was really, really important for keeping it close to home. I got a lot of emails saying, “I’m so sorry, this happened to you.” At times, just the sheer volume of emails and also the sadness of how many people told me their stories were overwhelming. Even now, years later, I’m still getting emails, asking for advice.
I’m not sure if I’d still worry about my daughter going into STEM or not. It does seem as if things are changing really slowly. There’s more of a cultural expectation that people would report harassment, without there being a similar change in what happens to people when someone is reported. So people are reporting more, but I don’t see that the consequences are really changing much.
The other thing that we saw with the MeToo movement is like, where’s the better job? I mean, it is bad in science. But it’s also bad in journalism. It’s bad in being an actress. I’m sure it’s bad being a meat packer. I’m not sure what to do—what anyone should do—except to try to make it better.
]]>Adding colour to your wardrobe can change your life.
Seven years ago, I was often the woman in black. A few of my outfits were colourful, and I always felt happy when I wore them. However, as I was not at my ideal weight, I believed I should be wearing a more slimming colour. Of course, by slimming, I meant black.
No one can argue the value of a little black dress or a perfectly tailored black suit. Both go with everything, can be accessorised easily and are appropriate nearly everywhere. Unless your little black dress is seriously well cut or is a style that is on the daring side, wearing black is a great way to blend in. However it is hard for anyone to really step into their potential, to really live their best life, if they are seeking to simply blend in. We need to stop shrinking ourselves physically and metaphysically, and a big step in the right direction is to wear colours that make you feel fabulous.
The irony is that black rarely makes anyone look smaller, not that we should be trying to shrink ourselves in any way. In reality, it can do the opposite, and it does not flatter most skin tones. Adding colour to your wardrobe and wearing colours that work with you can help you look your best and feel fabulous at the same time.
A few years ago, having embarked on a fitness and nutrition program that transformed my body, I found myself with a wardrobe full of things that no longer fit. Shopping excursions to remedy this were frustrating because while so many more clothes actually fit me, I could not find anything I believed suited me nor that I felt excited to wear.
My friend and personal trainer Debbie Wyer recommended I speak to Sarah van Dort. As a stylist, Sarah helps her clients step into their true potential by choosing clothes and accessories in colours and styles that really work for them. I always resisted any kind of colour analysis because I felt it would restrict what I could wear. On the contrary, once Sarah helped me find the colours that suited me best, I had a much broader scope of colours to choose from than I ever believed possible, some of which I had never even considered before.
In addition to my favourite blues, I had an array of light, clear, cool colours to choose from. As Sarah explained, most people can wear every colour, but they can’t wear every shade of every colour. For example, a true red with blue undertones looks fabulous on me, but an orangey red makes me look palid. Depending on the colour of your eyes, skin and hair, the opposite may be true.
Think about your favourite colour for a moment. How do you feel when you see it or are surrounded by it? Most responses include happy, relaxed or energised. If you wear colours you love, chances are it will lift your mood.
I feel much more energised when I wear colourful clothes and I firmly believe it energises those around me as well. If I wake up feeling tired, popping on a brightly coloured dress or blouse, or adding a pop of colour like a handbag, scarf or statement necklace really peps me up. Similarly, if I have a daunting task to undertake or a meeting which I am nervous about, colour always gives me that little extra bit of energy and confidence.
I mean no offence to the iconic Coco Chanel, who introduced her first Little Black Dress in 1926. No one can dispute that a little black dress – or a black garment of any kind – is a safe choice. However the comfort one takes in fitting in is, for me, completely overwhelmed by the soul destroying sameness of a room full of women wearing a variation on exactly the same thing. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never accomplished anything that has made me feel proud or confident in my comfort zone.
While I agree it can be terrifying to be the little red dress in a sea of black at a formal affair or the only mum in a brightly coloured trench coat in a sea of black or beige on the school run, I would argue that colour is a secret weapon when it comes to confidence and adds a real joie de vivre to our days. These days, I look forward to being that bright spot of colour in a sea of neutrals.
Of course, there are occasions when wearing black can make you feel amazing. My black Alexander McQueen trouser suit brings me joy every time I wear it and my classic Burberry trench is practical a well as stylish. However, when I do wear black, I always wear with a colourful blouse and accessories to make my eyes sparkle and my skin glow.
To start with, just choose a bright jacket, blouse, handbag or pair of shoes that makes your heart sing. As you gain confidence, you can continue adding more colour to your wardrobe. Or buy just one dress in a bright colour that makes your eyes sparkle.
Even if you think you know the colours that suit you, talking to a stylist who does colour analysis can be so enlightening. Whether they espouse the seasonal colour system or a tonal colour system, you may find that you have some delightful options you never even considered. Personally, I prefer a tonal analysis as it offers a slightly broader spectrum and I feel like it gives me more options. (I am light, clear, and cool.)
In addition, a stylist can help you discover not only what suits you, but also what you love to wear. While there is a cost involved, I found consulting a stylist actually saved me money as I no longer make expensive mistakes nor do I end up with clothes that I never wear hanging in my wardrobe.
If you choose to go with an outfit in a bright solid colour, choose complimentary accessories so that you can wear it on lots of different occasions, in lots of different ways.
If the outfit has two pieces, for example a blouse and a skirt or trousers and a blazer, remember to wear the pieces separately as well as together. Just because you buy something together does not mean you can only wear it as a set.
Once I started to add more colour to my wardrobe, I found that I felt more confident, even in stressful situations. I started to expand my horizons more, networking in real life as well as just online to promote my writing and my website. Seeking out new experiences came more easily, as I searched for occasions to wear the clothes that made me feel good.
I discovered that I like it when people notice me, and embraced my dramatic style personality, something I had been keeping under wraps for years. It was, and still is, incredibly freeing.
Adding colour to your wardrobe is invigorating, enlightening and may even give you more confidence. As for me, I am proof positive that it can even change your life.
The post Adding Colour to Your Wardrobe appeared first on April J Harris.
]]>Designed for photography enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and small business owners alike, this comprehensive guide covers what you need to know about telephoto lenses, their uses, and where to get the best telephoto lens for your photography needs.
A telephoto lens is a specific type of camera lens designed for shooting subjects at medium to long distances. It’s characterized by a long focal length that extends far beyond what the human eye can perceive. Unlike other lenses, the magic of a telephoto lens lies in its unique ability to magnify distant objects, creating a narrow field of view and providing a shallow depth of field.
Telephoto lenses affect the aesthetic of your photos by compressing facial features and producing blurred backgrounds, enhancing subject focus. For instance, using a telephoto lens in wildlife photography makes it possible to capture that majestic eagle soaring above without disturbing its flight. In portrait photography, these lenses render amazing shots without distorting your subject’s facial features.
Canon has been a household name in photography for decades, known for delivering reliable autofocus and excellent image quality. A Canon telephoto lens often features wide apertures, such as f 2.8, allowing more light to reach the camera sensor. This enhances low-light shooting and creates a shallow depth of field that adds a professional touch to your portraits.
Canon’s range includes zoom lenses, like the popular 70-200mm, as well as super telephoto lenses designed for professional wildlife photographers and sports journalists. Their lenses provide a diverse zoom range and maximum focal lengths that can bring even the most distant subjects into sharp focus. Canon’s lens elements, built with meticulous precision, ensure image clarity and sharpness, setting a high standard for build quality.
Nikon is another reputable brand offering excellent image quality and super telephoto lenses that rival Canon’s lineup. Nikon lenses emphasize physical length and optical stabilization, reducing camera shake for those longer focal lengths. A Nikon telephoto lens also features a broad zoom range, giving users flexibility in composing shots.
Nikon’s array of telephoto lenses includes their 70-200mm f 2.8 zoom lens, perfect for a diverse range of applications, from portrait to wildlife photography. They also offer fixed focal length lenses, known as prime lenses, that deliver superior sharpness and image quality at a reasonable price.
If you’re using your smartphone for pictures, that doesn’t mean you can’t access the power of a telephoto lens!
Apple’s iPhone has revolutionized mobile photography, with recent models even incorporating telephoto lenses. Despite their smaller lens sizes, these lenses can capture stunning portraits and distant subjects with surprising clarity.
Several third-party telephoto lenses are compatible with iPhones, enabling users to achieve even longer focal lengths. These lenses usually come with a manual focus feature, allowing fine control over focal points, and offer a maximum magnification greater than the phone’s built-in camera lens.
An iPhone and a telephoto lens make for an efficient, compact, and highly portable photography setup. You can effortlessly switch between your phone ‘s wide-angle and telephoto lenses, giving you more versatility when shooting portraits or focusing on distant objects. Coupled with in-body stabilization, an iPhone telephoto lens delivers exceptional sharpness, even in low light conditions.
Like their Apple counterparts, Android phones have made leaps and bounds in camera technology. Some premium models come with built-in telephoto lenses, allowing users to experiment with a wide range of focal lengths.
Numerous third-party manufacturers offer telephoto lenses for Android phones, too. These lenses bring the power of a DSLR to your pocket, allowing you to capture stunning, high-quality images wherever you go.
Using a telephoto lens with an Android device can enhance your phone’s photo-taking capabilities beyond the built-in zoom lenses. With features such as a tripod collar for stability, a narrow aperture for creating blurred backgrounds, and even weather sealing for durability, these lenses can transform your Android device into a potent photography tool.
To help you search for the best telephoto lens, we’ve rounded up our top telephoto lens picks from the web. Our picks include telephoto lens options from Amazon and Best Buy and represent a range of brands, price points, and features. We hope our list helps point you in the right direction when investing in a good telephoto lens for your business is time.
Top Pick: The Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 is a top-of-the-line lens that delivers excellent optical quality and performance for both photography and videography. Its lightweight and high-speed autofocus capabilities make it a great choice for a variety of shooting situations. Designed with the needs of movie makers in mind, it uses the latest lens technology to reduce focus breathing, focus shift when zooming and axis shift when zooming.
Key features include:
Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II Full-Frame Telephoto Lens
Runner Up: The Canon RF 100-500mm is a high-performance, versatile lens built to capture intricate details even from considerable distances. It is compatible with Canon full-frame mirrorless cameras and offers three distinct Image Stabilization modes (Standard, Panning, and during exposure only) for creative versatility in different shooting scenarios.
Key features include:
Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L is USM Super-Telephoto Lens
Best Value: The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 lens is a versatile medium-telephoto zoom lens designed for Micro-Four-Thirds cameras. Given its focal length range, this lens is excellent for portraits, events, wildlife, and even sports photography, providing the equivalent field of view of an 80-300mm lens in a 35mm format.
Key features include:
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 Medium-Telephoto Zoom Lens
The Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR Lens is ideal for photographers who frequently shoot subjects from a distance, such as wildlife or sports events. Its optical design and versatile features make it a solid choice for image-makers who want to bring vast distances beautifully into frame.
Key features include:
Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR Lens
Designed for compatibility with Nikon F (FX) mountings, this lens stands out for its ability to deliver high-quality wide-angle photographs. Upgrade your photography gear with the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens and experience the difference in your imagery.
Key features include:
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
The Selvim 4-in-1 Phone Lens Kit is designed for photography enthusiasts and professionals, transforming your smartphone into a versatile camera. The lenses are enhanced with a 10-10 multi-resistant coating that reduces ghosting, flaring, and prevents smears and fingerprints, ensuring each shot is as flawless as possible.
This kit is compatible with a wide range of devices, including iPhone 7, 8, 11 Pro Max, X, XS, XR and various Android Samsung models, and it works well with both front/rear and single/multi-camera phones.
Key features include:
Turn your smartphone into a capable camera with the APEXEL High Power 36X HD Telephoto Lens. Compact and portable, this lens offers a comfortable viewing experience and a wide range of compatibility.
Key features include:
APEXEL High Power 36X HD Telephoto Lens
The Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Telephoto Zoom Lens is a professional-grade lens designed for Nikon F-mount cameras, both FX (full-frame) and DX (crop-sensor). It’s well-suited for various photographic scenarios, including sports, wildlife, portrait, and event photography. The lens comes with a lens hood, front and rear lens caps, and a ballistic nylon case.
Key features include:
Nikon – AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Telephoto Zoom Lens for DSLR Cameras
This lens is versatile and can handle different types of shots, from portraits to landscapes, providing high-quality images. Its wide zoom range makes it a great option for those who want a single lens that can handle a wide variety of shooting scenarios. It’s compatible with a range of Nikon APS-C DSLR cameras with an FX bayonet mount.
Key Features include:
Tamron – 18-400mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD All-In-One Telephoto Lens for Nikon APS-C DSLR Cameras
The Vivitar High-Power 500mm/1000mm f/8 telephoto lens is designed for Canon EOS SLR cameras. This lens offers a high-powered 500mm focal length, and with the 2x teleconverter, you can effectively double this to 1000mm, which is great for long-distance photography like wildlife, astrophotography or sports events.
Key features include:
Vivitar High-Power 500mm/1000mm f/8 Manual Telephoto Lens
Every lens, whether it’s a short telephoto or a super telephoto lens, requires proper care to maintain its performance. Always use a lens cap to protect the glass when not in use and clean the lens elements gently with a microfiber cloth to prevent scratching. If your lens isn’t weather-sealed, avoid using it in harsh conditions without proper protection.
Mastering the use of a telephoto lens involves understanding how to manage camera shake, which can be amplified at longer focal lengths. Consider using a tripod or employing your camera’s image stabilization to counteract this. Be mindful of your aperture settings as well; a wider aperture (a lower f-number like f 2.8) allows more light into the camera but can also result in a shallow depth of field. Experiment with various aperture settings to find what works best for your shooting conditions.
While these terms are often used interchangeably, they technically represent different concepts. Zoom lenses, like the 70-200mm, refer to any lens with a variable focal length, while a telephoto lens has a long focal length designed to capture distant subjects. Thus, all telephoto lenses could be zoom lenses, but not all zoom lenses are telephoto lenses.
Key factors include the maximum focal length, maximum aperture, image stabilization, whether the lens is full-frame compatible, and, of course, the price. It’s also worth considering the weight and physical length of the lens, especially if you plan to carry it for extended periods.
Absolutely! Telephoto lenses can be used for video recording to create a cinematic effect by focusing on distant subjects or achieving a shallow depth of field. However, camera shake can be more noticeable while filming, so it’s recommended to use a tripod or a lens with image stabilization.
There are various apps, like ProCamera for iPhone and Open Camera for Android, that give you better control over your phone’s camera settings, improving the use of a telephoto lens.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and see the world from different focal lengths. After all, the best telephoto lens is not just the one with the highest specs; it’s the one that allows you to express your creativity and tell your unique story.
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This article, "Telephoto Lens: Best Choices for Your Business" was first published on Small Business Trends
]]>Wide angle lenses are unique tools designed to capture more in a frame, providing a broader view of your subject. They have shorter focal lengths, typically between 14mm and 35mm, and a wider field of view than standard lenses. This unique feature allows for a better capture of landscape photography, architectural shots, and larger groups of people.
Wide angle lenses are an integral part of photography equipment, popular among both amateur and professional photographers. They offer a distinct perspective, capturing more than what meets the eye. Whether you’re shooting an impressive skyline or a bustling street, a wide angle lens can encapsulate the entire scene with excellent image quality.
One of the prime benefits of such a lens is its ability to create a sense of depth and scale. An ultra wide angle lens, with a focal length less than 24mm, can accentuate the size of subjects in the foreground, creating a compelling contrast with the background.
There are numerous types of wide angle lenses to explore. You’ll find prime lenses with a fixed focal length and zoom lenses with a variable focal length range. Among the most common are wide angle zoom lenses, perfect for a variety of photography styles.
A fisheye lens, often regarded as an ultra wide lens, offers an even wider field of view. It’s characterized by a distinct curvature in the image, which can produce unique and creative effects. The 14-24mm f/2.8, for instance, is an ultra wide zoom lens that can deliver impressive results.
Nikon wide angle lenses are renowned for their optical quality and durability. They offer an excellent lens selection for both their DSLR and mirrorless cameras, providing sharp images across the entire zoom range. For example, the 16-35mm f/4 is a popular Nikon lens that boasts a constant maximum aperture, ideal for low-light situations.
Canon is another well known brand in the lens market, with its wide angle lenses praised for their exceptional performance and image stabilization. Canon lenses, such as the 24-70mm f/2.8, are designed for maximum versatility and image quality. With a Canon wide angle lens, you can expect superior optical performance and reliable focusing.
Choosing between Nikon and Canon wide angle lenses can be a challenge, as both brands offer high-quality products. Both have lens options for full frame cameras and APS-C cameras, with similar features like image stabilization, autofocus, and a variety of focal lengths.
If we compare something like the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 with Canon’s 16-35mm f/2.8, both provide excellent image quality and versatility. The choice often comes down to personal preference and the camera body you have, as each lens mount is brand specific.
Before you can find the best wide angle lens for your needs, there are some important considerations. Among them are:
One of the first factors to consider when buying a wide angle lens is its compatibility with your camera. Each brand has its own lens mount system, such as
Canon’s EF and RF mounts for their DSLR and mirrorless cameras, respectively. Ensure that the wide angle lens you’re considering is compatible with your camera’s lens mount.
The field of view, determined by the lens’s focal length, is another crucial aspect to consider. A shorter focal length gives a wider field of view. For example, a 14mm lens will have a broader view than a 35mm lens. If you aim to capture vast landscapes or architectural structures, consider a lens with a shorter focal length for a more expansive view.
Many wide angle lenses, especially ultra wide angle lenses, can cause distortion, making straight lines appear curved. This effect, while sometimes desired for creative purposes, can also be a drawback in certain types of photography. If you need precise lines and minimal distortion, look for lenses with aspherical elements and lens correction features.
The lens’s maximum aperture affects its performance in different lighting conditions and depth of field control. A lens with a wider aperture (lower f-number) allows more light to pass through, which is beneficial in low light conditions. A fast wide angle lens like the Canon 24mm f/2.8 DG or the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, for instance, will perform better in dimly lit environments than a lens with a maximum aperture of f/3.5-4.5 or f/4.5-5.6.
Consider the lens construction and optical quality. Look for lenses with image stabilization to reduce camera shake, a focus distance scale for better manual focus control, and a minimum focusing distance suitable for your photography style. An excellent lens also features quality elements and coatings for better light transmission and color accuracy.
The ten products below are our picks for the best wide angle lens options available on Amazon. Unsurprisingly, there were many choices, and we pored over specs and reviews to bring you the best. Among our picks are various brands, auto and manual lenses, and even lenses for your smartphone.
Top Pick: Our top pick is specifically designed to elevate the potential of Canon APS C cameras, this lens provides the equivalent field of view of a 38mm lens on a full-frame camera. Achieve your ideal focus manually even in One Shot AF mode, while the circular seven-blade aperture ensures exquisite, softly blurred backgrounds. This lens distinguishes itself as the most compact and lightest member of the EF-S series, allowing you to expand your creative horizons without being burdened by heavy equipment.
Key Features:
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Lens
Runner Up: The Nikon AF FX NIKKOR 28mm f/1.8G lens is a compact wide-angle prime lens with auto-focus capability specifically designed for Nikon DSLR Cameras. This fast f/1.8 prime lens boasts superior performance with aspheric lens elements, Seven diaphragm blades, and more. These features are packed into a compact size that makes it portable.
Key Features:
Nikon AF FX NIKKOR 28mm f/1.8G Compact Wide-angle Prime Lens
Best Value: Our best value pick is a manual focus lens, meaning no auto focus function exists. However, this allows the photographer to adjust the focus to their preference manually. The Brightin Star 7.5mm F2.8 is an ultra wide-angle manual focus lens, perfect for APS-C mirrorless cameras. Specifically designed for Fuji XF-Mount cameras, this lens offers a 180° field of view with minimal distortion. A wide f/2.8 aperture facilitates creating bokeh effects and ensures exceptional low-light performance. All these features and more are wrapped up in a great price.
Key Features:
Brightin Star Ultra Wide-Angle Fisheye Manual Focus Mirrorless Camera Lens
Panasonic LUMIX S Series lens is designed for L-mount full-frame mirrorless digital cameras. It provides impressive resolution from center to corner and produces appealing bokeh effects thanks to its large F1.8 aperture. Ideal for landscapes, astrophotography, and architecture, it offers natural-looking close-up shots with a minimum focusing distance of 0.18m. It also provides excellent video recording support. Plus, its compact, rugged design offers portability without compromising on durability.
Key Features:
Panasonic LUMIX F1.8 L-Mount Interchangeable Lens for Mirrorless Full Frame Digital Cameras
Designed for Nikon Z series mirrorless cameras, this ultra-wide, ultra-compact zoom lens allows you to capture landscapes, cityscapes, night skies, architecture, and environmental portraits with excellent optics and resolution across the entire frame. The constant f/2.8 aperture ensures consistent lighting, and the weatherproof build can withstand various shooting conditions.
Key Features:
NIKON NIKKOR Ultra-Wide Angle Zoom Lens for Nikon Z Mirrorless Cameras
The Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 Fisheye Lens for Canon offers stunning 180° views for all Canon DSLR APS-C cameras. Although compatible with full-frame models, it will provide a more circular “360” image. The high-quality metal construction, combined with a hybrid aspherical element and multi-layer lens coating, provides powerful viewing angles and sharply defined images. It comes with a custom protective case and a 90-day satisfaction guarantee.
Product Features/Specs:
Altura Photo 8mm f/3.0 Wide Angle Lens Aspherical Fisheye Lens
The OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm F2.0 is a compact wide-angle lens designed for Micro Four Thirds system cameras, perfect for starry sky and landscape photography. Its wide compatibility, impressive features, and reasonable price point make this lens a great option for beginners.
Key Features:
OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS M.Zuiko Compact Wide Angle Lens
The HD PENTAX-D FA 24-70mmF2.8ED SDM WR is a high-performance standard zoom lens with a 24mm ultra-wide angle. This weather-resistant lens has exceptional imaging power and features a large F2.8 maximum aperture and a built-in sum (Supersonic direct drive motor) for quiet, high-speed autofocus operation. Its rounded diaphragm produces a smooth, beautiful bokeh effect while minimizing the streaking effect of point light sources.
Key Features:
PENTAX-D Ultra-Wide Angle Weather-resistant Aspherical lens
The Xenvo Pro Lens Kit is a versatile lens set designed to upgrade your smartphone’s camera. This kit includes the TruView 0.45x Wide Angle Lens, a GlowClip Mini Rechargeable LED Light that attaches anywhere on your phone, a TruGrip Lens Clip for secure lens attachment, a quick-release lanyard , and more.
Key Features:
Xenvo Pro Lens Kit for iPhone and Android
The iOgrapher 37mm Wide Angle Len is an accessible, high-quality accessory for enhancing your mobile photography. The clip-on lens allows for the capture of expansive landscapes, detailed panoramas, and the tiniest details with a macro lens. It’s excellent for various photography needs, and it’s simple to use.
Key Features:
iOgrapher 37mm Wide Angle Lens for iPhone and Smartphones
The key to mastering wide angle photography is understanding how to use the lens’s unique characteristics to your advantage. Emphasize the foreground, use lines to guide the viewer’s eye, and utilize the lens’s wide depth of field to keep your entire scene in focus. Experiment with different angles and compositions to create visually impactful images.
A wide angle lens can be challenging to work with due to distortion and the necessity of being close to the subject. But these challenges can be overcome with some practice and an understanding of the lens mechanics. Use tools like lens correction in post-processing to manage distortion, and don’t be afraid to get close to your subjects to emphasize depth.
Proper care and maintenance of your lenses can significantly extend their life. Regularly clean the lens with a suitable cleaner to free the glass from smudges and dust. When not in use, please store your lenses in a dry, cool place and use lens caps to protect them from scratches.
For small business owners and entrepreneurs, wide angle lenses can play a crucial role in commercial photography. They’re perfect for showcasing products in context, capturing the ambiance of a business location, or creating engaging team photos. Given their ability to encompass more in a single frame, wide angle lenses can tell a more comprehensive story about your business.
Visual content is key to a successful marketing strategy. Wide angle lenses offer the ability to produce high-quality, captivating images that can engage audiences, enhance brand image, and drive sales.
Across various industries, wide angle lenses have proven their worth. Real estate agents use them to capture entire rooms and buildings, showcasing properties in their full glory. Event photographers use wide angle lenses to capture the scale and atmosphere of large events. Even in product photography, an ultra wide angle lens can be used creatively to present products in an eye-catching way.
When investing in a wide angle lens, remember to consider your specific photography needs, the lens’s compatibility with your camera, and its optical performance. Whether you’re seeking the best Canon wide angle lens or the best Nikon wide angle lens, prioritize image quality, field of view, and lens construction.
Remember, a wide angle lens is more than just a piece of photography equipment. It’s a tool for creative expression, and for showcasing your business in its best light. Whether you’re a small business owner, a freelancer, or an entrepreneur, understanding and utilizing wide angle lenses can significantly enhance your visual content and help you achieve your business goals.
Below are some FAQs regarding wide angle lens use and care:
The main difference lies in their field of view, which is determined by the lens’s focal length. Wide angle lenses typically have a focal length range from 24mm to 35mm, while ultra wide angle lenses go even wider, generally below 24mm. An ultra wide angle lens provides a more expansive perspective, ideal for capturing sweeping landscapes or tight interior spaces.
Yes, wide angle lenses can be used for portrait photography, but they require careful handling to avoid distortion. By keeping the subject centrally located, you can mitigate the distortion commonly associated with wide angle lenses. A wide angle lens can offer a fresh and creative take on portraiture by including more of the surroundings in the frame.
Absolutely! Wide angle lenses are a staple in landscape photography due to their ability to capture broad scenes and create a strong sense of depth. An ultra wide angle lens, such as a 16-35mm f/4 or a 14-24mm f/2.8, is particularly favored by landscape photographers for its ability to include expansive vistas in a single frame.
This can vary based on your specific needs and budget. For Nikon, the 14-24mm f/2.8 is often regarded as one of the best due to its sharpness, fast aperture, and wide field of view. For Canon, both the 16-35mm f/2.8L III and the Canon RF lens 15-35mm f/2.8 are highly regarded for their excellent optical performance and versatility.
While distortion is a characteristic feature of many wide angle lenses, there are ways to minimize it. Keeping your camera level can help avoid extreme distortion. In post-processing, software such as Lightroom or Photoshop offers lens correction tools that can effectively reduce distortion in your images.
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This article, "Wide Angle Lenses: Top Picks or Your Business" was first published on Small Business Trends
]]>If you’ve ever wanted to attack your phone with a box cutter for fun, this service is for you!
On his way home from work, our reporter Masanuki Sunakoma came across a stand offering a way that “your smartphone can have a surface hardness of 9H without the need for a film in just 5 minutes” regardless of what kind of phone you use.
Masanuki had one of his previous phones coated in the stuff they use on golf clubs when he went to the driving range one time and was satisfied with the results. This offer sounded even better so he decided to try it out on his current model.
Not to be confused with the “H” in your “2H” pencil, the “H” used in the Mohs scale is a measure of a material’s hardness on a scale of zero to 10 with diamond ranking in at a 10H. For further reference, your fingernail is about 2.5H and steel is around a 4H, so when you have a 9H screen there aren’t many things on Earth capable of scratching it aside from rhenium diboride, and good luck getting any of that stuff.
This booth is actually set up by the makers of the coating called Serum Nano-coat Pro II and according to the signs there, one application will last about six years and users will notice improved touch sensitivity and operability.
If you want one side of your phone coated, it will take about five minutes and cost 1,980 yen (US$14.16). A full coating will take 10 minutes and cost 3,000 yen ($21.45). It’s a pretty reasonable price compared to other films with a high level of hardness with the added benefit of getting it professionally applied.
Masanuki decided to give his iPhone 14 Pro a full coating. The screen for this model of phone has been said to have a Mohs rating of about 6H, which is already quite scratch resistant, but cranking that up to a 9H would certainly give our reporter an added sense of security.
The coating specialist started by removing Masanuki’s case and other protective gear.
He then gave it a thorough cleaning.
Next, he applied some drops of Serum Nano-coat Pro II…
…and spread it evenly with an electric brush.
The sides were also treated.
Finally the phone was given a nice buffing.
After about 10 minutes, Masanuki was given his phone back with its new coating. The staff warned him that it takes about 16 days for the substance to fully harden, so until that time, it is still vulnerable to scratches from keys or other hard objects.
But to give our reporter a sense of what the full effect is like. The staff took out another coated iPhone and began whacking at it with a hammer.
In the end, the phone looked completely unscathed.
Next, he started slashing wildly at the screen with a utility knife.
And the phone still looked good as new.
It should be noted that this material improves the screens hardness, not overall strength. So, while it is now very scratch resistant, the phone’s overall structural integrity is far from invincible, which is probably why the guy didn’t just chuck his demonstration model against the wall.
There are also other liquid coatings on the market that can be purchased, but there’s something way more reassuring about having your phone done by the makers themselves. If you want to try it too, this booth will be near the B5 stairs of Shinjuku Station until 18 June and then at the D7 exit of Yurakucho Station between 19 June and 2 July. All smartphones are welcome and they can do tablets and smartwatches as well.
Reference: Serum Nano-coat Pro II
Photos ©SoraNews24
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I’d been dreading going to Nebraska for most of the summer. My trip was set for mid-August, just two months before the ten‑year anniversary of Elissa’s death. In the first few years after she died, any tether to Elissa on the calendar—her birthday, the day she died at just eighteen years old, the date of her funeral—would derail me. But as more time passed, I started feeling like they no longer warranted a breakdown.
Now I was twenty-eight, living in New York City, and working in journalism. The life that I’d been manifesting ever since Elissa and I were children had materialized. And while I felt a profound pull to go to Nebraska, to visit Ponca Pines Academy, the place where Elissa spent her last school days, my fear over what the experience might elicit was even more potent. It could unleash the deeply buried grief that still gnawed at me. Unresolved and uncomfortable.
Elissa and I were infants when we met, going on to attend nursery, elementary school, and temple together. Elissa wasn’t just my first friend; she was my favorite friend. She was boisterous, unabashed, brazen. In first grade, I sheepishly showed her the wart on my finger I’d been hiding underneath a Band‑Aid, only to have her rip her shoe off and expose the ones that lined the bottoms of her feet. When my breasts blossomed before hers in fifth grade, she wore a bra alongside me in solidarity.
By seventh grade we’d started partying together, stealing coconut rum from the bar at my grandmother’s house and taking swigs before logging on to AIM, tipsily IMing our friends and crushes. We shared these early acts of rebellion before our paths diverged, before Elissa was sent away to Ponca Pines, and I stayed behind, forced to forge my own identity within our hometown.
Ponca Pines wasn’t a traditional high school. It was a therapeutic boarding school and part of the Troubled Teen Industry: a network of private, unregulated residential programs that some fifty thousand teens will attend each year in their parents’ hopes of quelling their bad behavior.
A fact I was unaware of when Elissa was first sent there, but has since come to consume me, still unable to shake the feeling that something must have happened while she was in the school’s care, that the time she spent away from the world we co-inhabited, the life we seemed to share, somehow, someway, contributed to the fate that befell her within a year of graduation.
When I finally arrived at Ponca Pines, the school had long since closed, but I was happy to discover I could still walk freely around the fields of sun-bleached grass Elissa had once traversed. I envisioned Elissa everywhere: in the campus’s abandoned, untouched stretch of buildings, painted in a coat of white so old that it was peeling off in sheaths; sitting on the wraparound porch of the residence, or beneath its sloped roof, which gives the house the appearance of a ski chalet; hanging out alongside the other classmates of hers whose lives had also come to consume me: two girls uncannily named Alyssa and Alissa.
I first discovered Alyssa and Alissa on Elissa’s Facebook page; in the days after she died I’d taken to her profile with a fury— looking for solace in the litany of pictures, prayers, and memories that had come to populate her wall—but all I could focus on were the messages from Alyssa and Alissa. Messages like Elissa taught me what it was really like to have a best friend … Love you always Elissa. Save our souls.
Save our souls. The first time I glimpsed the phrase was on Elissa’s body when she showed me the tattoo she’d gotten shortly after leaving Ponca Pines: those three words penned on her ribs in a Comic Sans-esque font. Then I saw the phrase again on Alyssa’s and Alissa’s bodies. Save our souls inked in cursive on the outside of Alyssa’s left hip, and stretched across Alissa’s back, horizontally, over a broken heart with angel wings. The eerie expression deepened my fascination with the girls. And by 2019, you could call it an obsession. By that year, both of their walls had also become memorial pages. Alyssa passed away at twenty-three, and Alissa died four years later, at twenty-six.
Elissa, Alyssa, Alissa, and I were all the same age, and all born into similar circumstances. We lived in suburban communities and were raised by parents with means and access. The four of us all started acting out in middle school and high school. Smoking weed, drinking, dabbling in pills. Rebellious behaviors that were of the socially acceptable, suburban variety—until they became something greater, more fearful. Considering this, I started to wonder, Why are these girls no longer here? Why am I the one left telling this story?
The Elissas is a look at my journey of trying to grapple with how our lives could have gone in such radically different directions. In writing it, I’ve interviewed more than sixty people in relation to the girls. I’ve spoken to those who represent the many facets of the Troubled Teen Industry. Students who feel as if the industry made a positive impact upon them, as well as those who identify as survivors and allege that they suffered abuse and neglect at these programs. Practitioners of these programs, as well as experts, journalists, and community advocates who research the effects of the industry.
I’ve talked with the girls’ friends, romantic partners, classmates. Those they met in the various troubled teen institutions they attended, or the treatment programs they enrolled in once they were no longer teens. People who have recovered from their addictions, along with young adults who still actively use. I also developed relationships with their parents and families, who I’ve come to believe were just as much victims of this industry as their daughters were. And while some opted to remain off the record, they still supplied me with notes about the girls’ lives.
When I finally set out to write this book and tell their story, I knew I couldn’t do it without resolving something in me: I had to see the Ponca Pines campus. Though it closed in 2012, there are many other institutions around the world like it, and I was still hungry to inhabit the space. Going there called to me, as if I could breathe Elissa’s recycled air.
While there, I sat on the swing set where the girls would convene to gossip. There were six swings in total—three were low-hanging ones and another three sat about a foot higher off the ground—all of which gently rocked back and forth to the rhythm of the air. I gravitated to a lower one, and as I started swinging on it, all I could think about was an imagined retort from Elissa. You’re such a pussy, Sami, she’d tease after inevitably taking a higher swing. I thought about what Elissa, Alyssa, and Alissa must’ve looked like on the swing set together. Picturing the girls laughing loudly, in motion, the words started coming to me. Sketching them into a scene I could already see in my head, I kept pumping, smiling, gripping the chains. Going higher and higher in the air.
____________________________
Excerpted from The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia. Copyright © 2023 by Samantha Leach. Reprinted with the permission of Legacy Lit.
]]>Here are some photos of Queen Camilla last week in Suffolk, where she visited The British Racing School and posed with equestrians and horses. It’s no secret Camilla loves horses, and she seemed to enjoy this event and even wandered inside the stables. This was her last event before she retired to Ray Mill, where she’s been staying while her husband was on vacation in Transylvania. Before King Charles left the country, he issued some new “honours.” One of those honors was for his wife and people are NOT pleased.
Queen Camilla was given the highest honor in the King’s Birthday Honors, but not everyone approves of the decision. The 75-year-old royal has been made an additional member of the Order of New Zealand, which is the nation’s most prestigious honor. Membership is limited to just 20 living persons, some of whom include film director Peter Jackson and opera singer Malvina Major. The honor was created in 1987 “to recognize outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity” and carries an extravagant insignia of an oval medallion of the country’s coat of arms.
The Queen Consort has visited New Zealand on multiple occasions during her royal career, with her most recent trip taking place in 2019. Joined by King Charles III, the mum-of-two spent six days in the country carrying out a variety of public engagements. The couple notably visited Christchurch, Northland, Auckland, and Kaikōura, and met with the former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
In an official statement released by the government, Camilla was acknowledged for her engagement “with organizations aligned with her charitable work and interests” in the Pacific Ocean nation.
The King’s decision to give the top honor to Camilla has been met with some backlash in New Zealand. Some people questioned how deserving she was of the award, which has historically been reserved for native Kiwis.
“Queen Camilla’s inclusion in today’s honours hits a bit of a bum note tbh. I’m sure she’s a perfectly fine person but her “services to New Zealand” (visiting 3 times and saying hi to some charities) don’t stack up against the other worthies on that list,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Queen Camilla given highest honour “for services to New Zealand”?! How ridiculous!” another person complained, while one person said, “I have nothing against Queen Camilla, and I wish her and Charlie a nice life together, but there’s no way she deserved to be appointed to the Order of New Zealand.”
Yeah… I realize that royals love to give each other medals and honors, but giving Camilla a special (and prestigious) honor tied to a country she’s only visited a few times? It’s in poor form. Especially since the palace didn’t package it with anything in particular. Like, the palace still hasn’t confirmed anything about King Charles and Queen Camilla’s plans to travel to commonwealth countries now that they’re in charge. Post-coronation, that should have been priority #1 – traveling around to all of the British realms, touring the countries which still use Charles as their head of state. Instead, it’s been crickets. No plans to tour New Zealand, Australia, Canada or any of the Caribbean countries (many of which are in the process of dumping Charles and Camilla). The fact that Charles has instead prioritized trips to Germany, France and now Romania? Sucks to be a British realm, I guess.
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]]>If you’ve ever had the luck of stumbling across a piece of antique wood furniture on the sidewalk, you know how hard it is to pass it up—even if you don’t currently have the space for it. Or maybe you’re more of the DIY type, with grand ambitions of cobbling together your own kitchen hutch or installing a stunning built-in bookcase. Whatever the case may be, there are many reasons why storing lumber and wood furniture suddenly becomes necessary.
But lumber storage is not as straightforward as you may think. You have to be careful where and how to store lumber so you don’t end up with a bunch of unusable wood. If you’re new to woodworking and just starting a lumber collection, you might not realize that incorrectly storing lumber can cause the boards to warp and bow. Sometimes this wood can be salvaged by squaring it off, but this takes much more time and effort. In the worst case, this wood can be distorted beyond repair.
Whether it’s because you’re an avid woodworker or because you’re stashing away antique wood furniture that you want to refurbish eventually, knowing how to store wood of all types is essential. Here are a few key points to remember when storing scrap wood in your basement, garage, or storage unit.
Related: Antique Furniture Values: How to Find Out What’s It Worth
All furniture should be covered when placed in long-term storage, and while you may find products like plastic wrap for furniture storage online and at home improvement stores, you don’t need a specialized product. Simply cover the furniture in old blankets or loose sheets, protecting the pieces and keeping out dust. Avoid coverings that aren’t breathable, such as plastic, which can seal in unwanted moisture.
There’s no hard and fast rule regarding how long you can keep a piece of furniture in storage. If it’s been cleaned and prepped properly for storage and placed in a climate-controlled unit, it’ll hold better than in places where conditions are less than ideal — for example, the attic or garage.
Where and how to store wood all depends on the type of lumber you’re working with. Generally, there are two categories to keep in mind:
If you’re air-drying lumber on your own, make sure to keep it away from other dried, seasoned wood. Any wood that’s destined for the fireplace should be stored at least three feet away from buildings, according to the California Firewood Task Force.
Storing wood vertically is space-saving, but it’s only recommended if the wood is completely dry. Otherwise, store it horizontally until the moisture content of the wood is at its ideal percentage. For dried wood, storing vertically is recommended if you’re able to support the wood at both the top and bottom to prevent bowing. Also, do your best to keep this wood off the ground to lessen the risk of water damage.
When stacking lumber horizontally, make sure that the wood is supported by brackets every 16 to 18 inches at the very least. Supporting the wood at this interval will prevent the boards from bowing.
The best way to store wood is to make sure that the lumber has room to breathe. Stacking too much wood on top of each other can suffocate and compromise the wood on the bottom. The excess weight can also cause the wood to bend in undesirable ways.
Wood furniture requires similar conditions to lumber, but storage can be a challenge in different ways. Along with external conditions like temperature and humidity, you also have to consider how to position larger, finished pieces like bookshelves and china cabinets off the ground. And since the furniture is finished, damage like warping is much more difficult to remedy than with lumber.
According to Vintage Mill Werks, solid wood furniture can last for a decade if cared for properly. Heirloom quality products have an even longer potential lifespan, more the reason to store these pieces with extra care. Here’s what to keep in mind when it comes to how to store wood furniture:
Environmental changes make wood furniture more likely to crack and split, which can be difficult—or maybe even impossible—to repair. To prevent this, apply a coat of wax or furniture polish on all the wooden surfaces a couple of weeks before you put your wood furniture into storage.
Make sure you don’t keep anything inside drawers or cabinets when storing wood furniture. Not only are you likely to forget about the furniture’s contents, but some items can also cause harm if not removed. For instance, a forgotten pen feels insignificant but could end up leaking in the heat, causing irreversible damage.
As with lumber, you don’t want to use bubble wrap or plastic stretch film to protect the exterior of wood furniture. Wood needs to breathe, so use breathable fabrics like white cotton sheets, preventing dust and debris from entering existing crevices.
Accidents can happen. To further protect your wood furniture, raise it up off the ground on top of wooden pallets or cinder blocks—that way, it’ll have a few extra inches in case water ever seeps into the storage area.
When it’s time to store your wood furniture, choose a climate-controlled space. Wood is a notoriously finicky material: Not enough humidity can cause wood to crack, but too much humidity can cause wood components to warp and change shape.
When it comes to protecting lumber and wood furniture, pay extra attention to how the pieces are placed in storage. Remember, wood should always be kept in a cool, dry location. Following these tips will help ensure that your wooden items stay functional and aesthetically sound for a long time.
Do you have experience storing wood furniture or lumber? Share your tips with us on social @lifestorage.
This post originally appeared on the Life Storage Blog on 5/8/18 and was revised on 6/6/23 to provide new information.
This post How to Store Wood Furniture and Lumber Safely for the Future appeared first on Life Storage Blog.
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