T LOunge for April 18th, 2023

Jay’s Japanese Restaurant – Barcelona, Spain

Because sometimes, a bitch just wants a banquette to call her own. It is TUESDAY, your manly hosts made the mistake of booking competing doctor checkups today, and our taxes are due. What better time to shut it all out and hunker down. Join us, won’t you?

Toni Collette Never Had a Plan for Her Career
Toni Collette has been through hell the past few years. Well, her characters have, at least.
Ever since her role as a grieving mother in Hereditary showcased sinister new depths to her talents, Collette hasn’t been able to catch a break. After being possessed by a demon and decapitating herself with a rusty piano wire in that film, she played a no-nonsense detective investigating a serial rapist in the Netflix series Unbelievable. She gets her arm sliced off in Velvet Buzzsaw, Bradley Cooper murders her husband in Nightmare Alley, and she’s pushed down the titular steps of The Staircase on HBO.
“I suppose you could say some of my recent stuff has been a little heavy,” Collette recently told Vogue. “I like being involved in all kinds of genres in terms of storytelling, but I had been thinking for a long time now about creating something purely joyful.”

The Death of the Matching Bridesmaid Dress
In the past few years, the popularity of mismatched bridesmaid dresses and outfits has skyrocketed. According to online wedding planning company Zola, more than 69 percent of couples dressed their wedding party in non-traditional outfits.
The idea that being a bridesmaid means spending an entire day (and evening) matching with several other women is almost as old as weddings themselves. The roots of the tradition have been argued as dating back to ancient feudal China.

Katy Perry and Lionel Richie Will Perform at King Charles’s Coronation Concert
Approximately 20,000 people are expected to attend the coronation concert at Windsor Castle, with guests comprised of both members of the public and invited guests. In surreal news, the first confirmed acts include Katy Perry, Lionel Ritchie, and Take That, along with Andrea Bocelli and Freya Ridings. Both Perry and Ritchie have done work with the King’s charities previously, while Take That’s Gary Barlow was responsible for curating the Diamond Jubilee Concert in 2012.

‘I Am the Embodiment of What They Want to Eradicate’: RuPaul’s Drag Race Winner Sasha Colby on Why Her Time Is Now
Sasha Colby is ready. She’s been ready. On Friday, Colby was crowned the winner of season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, coming out on top after one of the fiercest battles in the franchise’s recent history. Yet even before her Drag Race win, Colby—née Sasha Kekauoha of Waimanalo, Hawaii—was considered a drag and pageant legend, having won the prestigious Miss Continental drag queen pageantry title in 2012. She is also known to many as a mother—but not in the way that TikTok has misappropriated the term: Colby has been a mentor to many queer legends in the making, most famously Kerri Colby, who participated in season 14 of Drag Race. But what makes Colby a standout, a star, is not only her polished drag persona and high-octane performance style but her disarming authenticity and vulnerability too.

Peanut Butter Lovers Can Finally Choose Creamy or Crunchy Reese’s Cups
Reese’s is entering the debate with two limited-edition cups.
Every true peanut butter fan has their opinion as to whether creamy or crunchy is the best. Now, Reese’s has entered this epic peanut butter battle with the release of both Creamy and Crunchy Peanut Butter Cups.
Regardless of where you side, starting today you can now experience the best of both worlds with creamy and crunchy versions of the classic candy. Both limited-edition peanut butter cups are still made with the signature peanut butter and chocolate recipe, but offer two unique new textures: Creamy enthusiasts will likely enjoy the smoother filling inside the Creamy Peanut Butter Cup, whereas the chunks of peanuts inside Crunchy Peanut Butter Cup should appeal to those leaning toward something a bit toothier.

Krispy Kreme Is Stuffing Chocolate Chip Cookies Inside Its Doughnuts
The doughnut chain has teamed up with Oreo and Chips Ahoy again for some off-the-chain goodies.
Krispy Kreme’s doughnuts are getting cookie-fied once again. The chain is teaming up with longtime collaborators Oreo and Chips Ahoy to debut a sweet new slate of doughnut flavors rolling out this week.
The Cookie Blast collection features four new doughnuts and, though the brands have worked together before, features two full-sized Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies stuffed inside, the first time the doughnut chain has featured the Chewy version of the cookie brand’s products.

Charity Begins at Home: The Saga of Royal Rent and Monarchs As Landlords
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s eviction from Frogmore Cottage is just the latest installment in a long, colorful history of royal housing drama.
For centuries, monarchs have functioned as royal landlords, using their vast property holdings to punish and reward various members of their family, friends, and staff. Royal dwellings are often occupied for free or leased at a rate dramatically lower than market value, but this has not stopped royal tenants from consistently complaining about their designer digs, and sometimes they have had good reason to protest.
Before modern conveniences, where the monarch sent you to live could be a matter of life and death. In 1533, King Henry VIII, having just divorced his first wife, Queen Katherine, to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn, sent his defiant ex-wife to live in the rundown and remote palace of Buckden in Cambridgeshire.

How I Was Reborn
After my mother’s death, my father plunged the family into evangelicalism, leaving our Jewish faith behind. What, I wondered, would become of our souls?
My father was raised Christian. My mother was Jewish. He converted to marry her (though he later denied it, until I found his conversion papers at my grandmother’s house). When my mother was alive, my parents dropped us into each of their beliefs. We celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas, Passover and Easter, Rosh Hashanah and New Year’s Eve. We hid matzo and dyed hard-boiled eggs. We ate gefilte fish and left cookies out for Santa. We attended temple on Friday nights with my mother and church on Sunday with my father. Neither of them attended the other’s services. Religion was a backdrop in our lives, useful for forging community and filling a social calendar. Much later, my brother and I would see that it was also a cold war between the two of them, one that my mother lost by default.

Why Social Media Impostors Pose a Constant Battle for Stars
Flushing out fakes on social media remains an impossible game of whack-a-mole — especially when experts say platforms “want to have more accounts up, not less.”
Type in any celebrity’s name on Instagram or Twitter and you’re bound to find at least a handful of accounts — if not more — posing as the celebrity, using the same profile picture and sharing photos and videos taken from their real accounts.
Some of them are innocuous fan accounts dedicated to sharing the latest updates on their favorite stars with other stans. But others — the true impostors — can cause much more harm, DMing unsuspecting fans to scam users out of money, solicit nude photos or otherwise exploit a celebrity’s star status.

Blueberries Really Are a Superfood—Here’s What Makes Them So Good for You (and How to Use and Store Them)
These summer berries top every superfruit list, and for good reason.
Equal parts juicy and sweet, blueberries are one of the most popular fruits in the produce aisle. They’re also deliciously versatile and can be easily incorporated into baked goods, drinks, and savory dishes, just to name a few. What’s more, blueberries have been touted as a superfood for years, thanks to their impressive list of health benefits.
To better understand what makes blueberries so good for you, we checked in with nutrition and cooking experts. Here, they share everything you need to know about blueberries—including their biggest health benefits, storage tips, and best applications in the kitchen.

11 Exterior Paint Color Combinations That Will Enhance Your Home’s Curb Appeal
Create a visually commanding color palette by choosing complementary shades for your foundation, siding, trim, shutters, and beyond.
When it comes to painting your home, you likely put a lot of thought into the colors you choose for your bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and other interior spaces. But exterior paint colors are just as (if not more) important. If you choose the right shades for your house’s façade, you can highlight features that might otherwise go unnoticed. That’s why you need to think beyond your exterior’s central color, the one you use to paint your foundation or siding—you should also select coordinating shades that accentuate your trim, shutters, doors, and windows to create a visually stunning color palette. Whether you prefer soft neutrals or bold brights, we have the color combinations you need to make your home the best-looking one on the block.

The Right Way to Make Bone Broth, According to Experts
It’s not difficult, but making bone broth does require lots of (hands-off) cooking time.
Bone broth has been a social media darling for years—and while it isn’t a complete meal (or a substitute for your favorite hearty soup), you shouldn’t ignore it. It has its merits as an enriching food, filled with nutrients and flavor. The best way to reap its benefits is to prepare it yourself at home—you’ll save money by making your own and control the quality to boot. Plus, bone broth isn’t complicated to make, though it does take time. Still, it’s worth the effort: There is nothing quite as soothing as enjoying a rich mug of hot broth—or you can use it as a starting point for numerous soups and stews

Princess Grace of Monaco’s glamorous life in pictures
Her influence is perpetual: she radiated poise, style and beauty. Now, 67 years on from her wedding, Tatler looks back at her best moments
Princess Grace of Monaco’s name has become a byword for elegance and style. To this day, decades after her untimely death, few come close to her legendary status. Her influence is perpetual: she radiated poise, beauty and, yes, grace, in every photo.

The Buggles’ Song Launched MTV. After 45 Years, They’re Going on Tour.
Trevor Horn, half of the group behind “Video Killed the Radio Star” and a producer who helped engineer the sound of the ’80s, will be the opening act for Seal.
In the late 1970s, when Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes were trying to get a record deal as the Buggles, a lot of people in the music business were confused. What kind of band has only a singing bassist and a keyboard player?
“We were like, ‘We don’t want a guitar player, and we use a drum machine,’” Horn recalled recently during a video interview from his Los Angeles home. “There was a lot of suspicion about that. We were a bit ahead of our time.”

‘The Tale of Genji’ Is More Than 1,000 Years Old. What Explains Its Lasting Appeal?
The book is often described as the world’s first novel and a touchstone of Japanese literature. But some of its themes, including its take on gender and power, have echoed over centuries.
In Japan, “The Tale of Genji” has maintained an unwavering grip on the culture. Passages are taught to most schoolchildren. It has been subjected to countless translations, interpretations and adaptations across seemingly every possible art form: paintings, Noh plays, dance, film, television drama, manga, anime, even a rom-com.

The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City
Our critic, Pete Wells, ranks his favorites in all five boroughs.
Here they are, the 100 best restaurants in New York City, ranked.
There are at least two ways to read this list. Obviously, it is a guide, based on my decade of reviewing. If you use it this way, though, be warned that at some of these places you’ll have a smooth leather seat with a full view of the kitchen and at others you’ll have to find an empty patch of sidewalk and eat on your feet. And most fall somewhere in between.

[Photo Credit: dpochstudio.com, gatsbybarcelona.com]

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