I am a little terrified about mostly getting off the Internet this week. If I stop shouting about The Sicilian Inheritance at the top of my lungs on social media will sales slow down? Maybe….but I need a breather so I am prioritizing rest for this week.
But before I go some delicious things and some thoughts.
Has everyone read this delightful piece in McSweeney’s about tradwives?
GOOD NEWS HUSBAND, I’VE BECOME A TRADWIFE.
Hi, sweetie. Remember how you told me that your childhood crush was Laura Ingalls Wilder? And that you think America is in the toilet? Well, you’re about to have all your home-churned-butter dreams come true, because I’ve decided to become a tradwife.
Like the other pretty, milk-fed traditional wives on Instagram and TikTok, I want to return to the glory days of the 1960s. Or the 1940s? I’m not entirely sure, but whatever time it was when women served their husbands homemade Pop-Tarts and America was a better place for white men with weak chins, I want to return to it. That’s why I’ve quit my six-figure job: to take better care of you and all of your needs. I’m going from breadwinner to breadmaker.
It is perfection.
You know what else is perfection? This Instagram account solely devoted to bread rising!
You are welcome my friends.
So as I said, I am taking off this week. I have all the podcasts scheduled. I will not be checking my Amazon number constantly. I will not be sending out newsletters. I shall be in Puerto Rico with only one child and Nick Aster celebrating his 50th birthday!
But before I go I do want to talk about a couple of things.
I’ve been hearing from so many of you that you wish I’d extend the free lifetime subscription offer to this newsletter when you purchase The Sicilian Inheritance.
You ask and I answer and I know books are expensive and I appreciate you. SO FUCKING MUCH.
We will be extending it for two more weeks. Just email me your new receipt starting today (Jo.piazza@gmail) or DM me on Instagram.
You can also buy a copy for a friend and I’ll add them for life! Makes a truly excellent birthday, baby shower or teacher gift!
I am adding a ton of pieces to my essays archive this week from all different stages of life and careers and it is so fun to see them in one place as the Internet starts to get rid of a lot of the old links. Love this piece on THE MILLENNIAL WOMEN WHO CREATED GRITTY and HOW PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN WAS MY UPSTAIRS NEIGHBOR AND GAVE ME DATING ADVICE IN THE AUGHTS.
Now I want to talk about this profile of my friend Virginia Sole-Smith in the New York Times.
Many of you are big fans of Virginia and her Substack and podcast Burnt Toast and her book Fat Talk. I was psyched to read this profile because the work that Virginia is doing in the world of fat activism and her conversations around feeding children are both so important. We had a wonderful talk on the Under the Influence podcast about the dangers of kid food influencers and its impact on feeding kids awhile back.
And then I read it and was sorely disappointed by the many missed opportunities to start real conversations around this topic. I also, and I never say this lightly, feel like Virginia was left out to dry for the trolls who are always eager to cut mothers down and rip them to shreds. I had several issues with the piece. I wish they had spoken to more fans of Virginia and allies of Virginia who have been incredibly helped by her work. I was also curious about why Ozempic was mentioned in the subhead of the piece but Virginia was not properly quoted about it, despite talking extensively to the Times about it.
But I also understand very well how editing works and the constraints of space in a newspaper. No article can be everything to everyone. No journalist ever gets to do all of the things in a single piece that they want to do. Things get cut. Things get moved around.
My biggest issue is that the piece seemed to invite criticism about how Virginia mothers with the closing paragraph….a criticism many of us know all too well…..the easy and vicious criticism of mothers when someone can hide their identity behind a fake name.
This is what was written:
As Sole-Smith considers all the ways she is enjoying her release from what she calls “the hyper-competent oldest daughter in me,” she notices that Beatrix is beginning to shiver in her thin T-shirt. Another rule to which Sole-Smith fails to adhere is appropriate outerwear, she said, with a laugh. Her girls are always either overdressed or underdressed. She yells toward Beatrix. “Are you done with your chicken?” But Beatrix, wearing headphones, doesn’t hear. Sole-Smith leans down and gives Beatrix’s dinner to the dog.
Here were just a few of the doozies that were left (735 of them) before the paper shut down the comments section.
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