Sunday recos + reads
Deadlines, dumb DOGE, and Texas Dems eat Chicago hot dogs, maybe.
Welcome back to Sunday recos + reads, your guide to the week ahead, as well as what you should read, watch, and do before your water cooler chats on Monday morning. Normally, this series just goes out to the dearest darlin’ paid subscribers, but today, I need to talk to everyone about Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau’s apparent budding romance—a pairing that simultaneously makes no sense and all the sense in the world, like olive oil + ice cream, or RFK Jr. and the evil spirit animating his corpse. Mostly, though, I wanted to share this weekly ritual with everyone, and if you love it, consider upgrading to paid to get it every Sunday eve!
Weekend highlights over here in LA included a visit from my mom and dad, dinner at Doto, a very cool new restaurant in Silverlake featuring a Californian-Japanese menu, a trip to the Brentwood Farmers Market, which made me feel thoroughly Goopy—in a good way—sampling roughly 29 varieties of pluots, and a pain aux raisin from Clark Street Bakery that made me see God. Yes, I invited my parents here to visit me, but mostly to eat.
Monday, 8/4: National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, according to the internet. Here are some sweet deals that will be available.
Tuesday, 8/5: A slightly shortened day, because Earth is set to spin a millisecond and change faster than 24 hours. It’s the third one this summer.
Wednesday, 8/6: Wednesday: Season 2 Part 1 comes out on Netflix. (Side note: can we stop doing everything in parts, Netflix? Either give us binges or give us weekly. Stop playing games.)
Thursday, 8/7: The new new new Trump tariffs definitely finally maybe but let’s be real probably not go into effect.
Friday 8/8: If Russia doesn’t end its war in Ukraine by today, Trump says he’s going to start sanctioning the country. And if there’s one thing we know about Vladimir Putin, it’s that he responds well to empty threats.
OF NOTE:
READ THIS:
Elon Musk’s so-called Dept. of Government Efficiency turned out (big shock!!!!) to be a huge waste of taxpayer money. According to a new report, nearly $22 billion was spent to force government workers into retirement, “paying approximately 200,000 employees not to work for up to eight months.” I wrote an acrostic poem on my AP Calc exam (true story) and I could have done this math better.
There’s an AI-generated model gracing the pages of Vogue, in an ad for Guess. Vivienne—yes, they named her—was apparently developed by an “AI-driven marketing agency” and based off a real person, but ended up computer generated for “efficiency” and “budget” reasons. And really, what’s more American than “well, we don’t have to give her health insurance.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene is 1) still a racist and generally bad person but 2) may be turning on MAGA.
Trump fired the person responsible for reporting the job numbers because she…reported the job numbers (spoiler alert: they were bad.)
A secret tunnel for celebrities was long rumored to be under the Chateau Marmont hotel in LA—and it turned out to be true. And now I know what I need to see in The Studio season two.
Production and costume designers on The Fantastic Four: First Steps got the retrofuturist vibe on Earth-828 just right, without being too hokey. Inspirations included 1960s ski wear, NASA footage, and the works of famed architects like Oscar Niemeyer.
WATCH THIS:
Texas Democrats fled the state to stop the GOP (for now, at least) from gerrymandering the state in their favor. Most of them are headed to Chicago and will appear at a press conference this week with Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has expressed his support for their efforts and says if Texas moves forward with the plan, Illinois will respond and redistrict in kind. I admire the commitment to democracy, and I hope they all reward themselves with a Portillo’s cake shake (which, yes, is exactly what it sounds like.)
State Rep. James Talarico—a rising Democrat who recently went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and is a religious Christian who believes in the right to abortion—explains what’s going on here and in his caption.
Previously on Hot Tip
