Special Friday Edition!

‘We Are Lady Parts’ on Peacock

The political news has been pretty bad! There was Biden’s alarming debate performance, the ensuing no-win debate about whether he should step aside for an 11th-hour candidate, and all the Supreme Court judgments hoarding power for the executive and judiciary branches. I would normally hoover up a piece like the Vanity Fair exposé of RFK Jr., but I think I stopped reading when a source referred to Brain Worms Jr.’s “pathological need for attention,” which the article clearly feeds.

Summer has begun in earnest, and I’ve embarked on a new obsession/distraction: planting herbs. It’s put me in a surprisingly good mood these days. So I’m trying something a little different in this newsletter by adding some recommendations of products I enjoyed recently to the usual roundup of news and reviews. None of the links are commissioned; I won’t be receiving a cut for anything I suggest below. They’re just things I’ve been recommending to friends and family and thought more people might like.

-Inkoo

—But first, the obligatory self-promotion. I reviewed the new season of The Boys, whose political satire (especially of Trumpism) once felt electrifying and now feels rote and repetitive. I wrote as well about the new season of The Bear, which is, simply put, terrible. Also, it was very nice to be on this list!

—I dug how long my colleague Justin Chang went on his review of Furiosa, which is, unfortunately, not at all good.

—But what IS very good: The second season of We Are Lady Parts (pictured above), a UK comedy on Peacock about a group of Muslim women who start a punk band. The first season was cute; the second season is riveting.

—“A.I. Is Getting Better Fast. Can You Tell What’s Real Now?” I did very poorly on this NYT quiz.

—OK, briefly back to politics. The headline-grabbing news out of the Supreme Court last week was the presidential-immunity stuff. Probably just as if not more important, especially to ordinary people, is the overturning of the Chevron deference, which now means that judges, rather than subject-area experts and regulators, will have final say on all matter of niche issues and interests. Here is a brief but context-rich analysis of the decision, which will probably be a gift to industry.

—FINALLY, THE STUFF I LIKE!

• I had some laughably bad food during my three-day visit to Berlin after Paris. On Day 2, I ended up at a Vietnamese/sushi joint — long story — where my tuna roll came with cooked fish and my pho came with baby spinach instead of basil. But I did have the presence of mind to get some German chocolate bars before I left. Some of it I purchased at a fancy confectioners shop, but my favorite thus far is something I picked up from a random convenience store outside of a train station: Ulker Dark Chocolate With Whole Pistachios. (Ulker is a Turkish brand.) It tastes exactly like chocolate should — velvety and creamy and popping with subtle flavors — and the pistachios have actual crunch and presence.

• Charcoal is not a one-size-fits-all skincare ingredient, but I was really happy to try the Sumi Haigou Settuken Charcoal Bar Soap that, if I recall correctly, I bought on impulse at a Japanese supermarket while in Honolulu last year. We had a brief heat wave in the Bay Area earlier in the week, and while the squeaky-clean feeling that this charcoal soap provides might be overly stripping in the winter, I found it perfect for the sweaty season. Plus, it’s black and foams gray, so it looks pretty cool in the shower.

• One more skincare rec! I’m almost done with my current bottle of CosRX Propolis Light Cream, which I’ve been pushing on friends. It feels rich without feeling heavy, is fragrance-free, and has just about the perfect texture: somewhere between a gel and a cream, resulting in super-fast absorption. I just ordered my second bottle, from YesStyle. (It’s also pretty cheap on Jolse, but with both sites, shipping tends to be on the slower side as the packages may be coming from Korea/Asia. I advise avoid getting skincare from Amazon, whose listings are full of fakes.)

• I have tried over the years to grow basil and mint plants from Trader Joe’s and was convinced I had a pitch-black thumb. But apparently grocery-store herb plants are just bred to die? (Am I the last person to learn this?) One of my summer projects is to start an herb garden in my kitchen, and so I’m trying several different tacks: an Aerogarden, getting plants from a nursery instead of the supermarket, and starting from seeds. They’re actually all going well, while my latest Trader Joe’s mint plant (that I got as a sort of control for the experiment) died pretty much instantly despite repotting. In addition to basil and mint, I now have sprouts or baby versions of chives, parsley, thyme, and lavender. And, of course, nothing is easier to grow than scallions on a window sill.