T LOunge for May 4th, 2023

Control Room B Cocktail Bar at Battersea Power Station – Battersea, UK

Today is THURSDAY and we have just decided that Thursdays call for theme LOunges. Pick a spot and let your imagination run wild today.

Jemima Kirke Is One Tough Mother
The star of the new series City on Fire talks murder mysteries, motherhood, and growing up onscreen—and off.
Jemima Kirke speaks about the superficial dissonance between her latest role and previous ones with equal parts awe and horror. “I’m not even living downtown. I’m uptown,” she says, eyebrows jumping. “I’m probably a Republican.” She pushes a crumb of pesto croissant from her lip into her mouth, then mutters under her breath, “So weird.” The 38-year-old actor, best known for playing the maddeningly devil-may-care Jessa on Girls, is talking about Regan Hamilton-Sweeney, the Armani-clad scion of a fractured Manhattan real estate dynasty on City on Fire, a Gotham neo-noir based on Garth Risk Hallberg’s sprawling novel of the same name that premieres May 12 on Apple TV+.

Power Play: Golda Rosheuvel and India Amarteifio on the remarkable Queen Charlotte
When Golda Rosheuvel burst onto our screens as Bridgerton’s feisty Queen Charlotte, she broke the mould; now, India Amarteifio is set to star alongside her as the younger face of the monarch in a new spin-off series. Charlotte Brook meets the two actresses who are rewriting the history books
Until Bridgerton, most people only knew Queen Charlotte of Britain for her namesake debutante ball or as the unfortunate spouse of ‘mad King George’. History has also given the Queen – who moved to England as a German princess aged 17 to wed George III and stayed until her death 60 years later – a reputation that leads with a lack of beauty. Charles Dickens opens A Tale of Two Cities by telling the reader that on the throne is ‘a queen with a plain face’ – probably because one of Charlotte’s courtiers observed, towards the end of her life, that ‘Her Majesty’s ugliness has quite faded’, while the palace doctor described his patient as ‘small and crooked, with a true mulatto face’. The latter adjective is an offensive archaic term, originating from the Spanish for ‘mule’, that was used to insult a multi-ethnic person. For evidence suggests that, having descended from a certain branch of the Portuguese royal family, Charlotte may have been the UK’s first queen of Black African heritage.

Make the Best Old Fashioned You’ve Ever Had With These 15 Whiskies
Your choice of whiskey can make a real difference in this classic, simple cocktail.
The Old Fashioned is as classic a cocktail as exists in the American canon, yett over the generations, the core concept of combining spirit, sugar, and bitters has gotten muddled (sorry-not-sorry for the pun!). Too often, an order of an Old Fashioned results in what I like to call a boozy fruit salad, with mushed-up orange slices releasing intense pith-derived bitterness into the drink, a constellation of neon-hued cherries making the liquid itself little more than a hangover-inducing delivery system for sugar. But a great one can take three standard ingredients and create magic.

The Modern Icon: Gabriela Hearst’s Nina bag
Carried by the likes of Meghan Markle, Amal Clooney and Angelina Jolie, this bag is a celebrity-approved investment
There are few handbags special enough to catch the eye of both A-list celebrities and members of the British royal family, but Gabriela Hearst’s Nina bag has done just this. Favoured by everyone from Amal Clooney to the Duchess of Sussex, the elegant style is rapidly growing in popularity, and not just with celebrities; in fact, we think the accessory makes a truly great investment piece worthy of your forever wardrobe.
The unique style is made up of a distinctive round pouch with a structured handle – it comes in various colourways in everything from nappa leather and cashmere boucle to crocodile and crochet, as well as block colours and prints, and works great both as an evening bag and a day-to-day accessory.

The Most Glamorous Amalfi Coast Hotels (And There Are A Few Of Them)
Live la dolce vita at the most stylish hotels on the Amalfi Coast.
The Amalfi Coast is a haven for honeymooners and it isn’t hard to see why: winding roads precariously hug the coastline, colourful buildings are stacked up above the shore and almost everything is framed by a lemon tree or some bougainvillea. There are secret coves to locate for swims in their turquoise waters, Med-facing terraces for long, lazy lunches of spaghetti frutti di mare, and boats to whisk you over to Capri or Ischia.
Unsurprisingly, celebrities have long admired this spectacular shoreline, and there is an abundance of A-list-approved hotels to accommodate them – famous former guests of Le Sirenuse in Positano include Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Bella Ramsey On Why A Tuxedo Felt Right For Their First Met Gala
Given the entire world watches and discusses the annual Met Gala red-carpet, attending the star-studded event is nerve-racking for virtually any celebrity – let alone someone attending for the first time. The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey admits to Vogue that they did have pre-Met jitters (mixed with excitement, of course). “I was looking forward to meeting up with people I haven’t seen for ages, and seeing a lotta cool clothes,” says Ramsey. “It’s the Met – it’s iconic!”
Though the actor had never attended the Met before Monday, they knew they needed a strong fashion look for the occasion. Dressed by Thom Browne, Ramsey wore a double-breasted skirted tuxedo, covered in pinstripes and pearls (an homage to the late Karl Lagerfeld, who loved a pearl).

The 9 Most Noteworthy Royal Hairstyles Of All Time
The Coronation of King Charles III is fast approaching and, in addition to planning chic Coronation parties and browsing the patriotic paraphernalia flooding stores across the nation, the occasion has inspired us to revisit the royal history books. For the members of Vogue’s beauty team, that means casting our minds back to memorable royal hairstyles, and the women who made them famous.
Not only do royal hairstyles occasionally need to serve as a solid foundation for priceless jewels to perch on, they are also an expression of the wearer’s personality. And while any royal occasion demands a certain level of polish, the style itself – be it a twisted knot or a bouncy blow dry – is, on the whole, a matter of individual choice.
From the Princess of Wales’s voluminous waves to Princess Diana’s now iconic short haircut, below Vogue charts nine of the most notable royal hairstyles through history.

Ahead Of The Coronation, Revisit Queen Elizabeth II’s Life In Photos
King Charles III made his formal debut in Vogue alongside his mother at just 18 months old. The magazine had dispatched Cecil Beaton to capture the then Princess Elizabeth with her son and infant daughter, Princess Anne, at Clarence House, where the future Queen had set up residence with the Duke of Edinburgh shortly after their marriage. Beaton’s aim, that spring day in 1950, was to capture the heir apparent at her most natural and relaxed – playing with Charles in the gardens and cradling Anne in her drawing room.

Escape Into the 20 Best Summer Beach Reads of 2023
No beach required.
There’s a common misconception that beach reads always involve sun, sand, and string-bikini-thin plots. Readers who start summer with a straw tote full of new books know the truth. Whether you’re cracking one open at a private beach resort or a lounge chair at your local pool, the best beach reads are ones that feels like stepping into an absorbing, alternate reality for a few hundred pages. It can be a lighthearted distraction from daily life or a nail-biting thriller: Whatever the specifics, if you don’t want to go back in the water until you’ve reached the last page, you have a quality beach read on your hands.

All Hail India Amarteifio
The star of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story insists that mental health should be addressed on TV.
As a young Black actress, India Amarteifio never envisioned herself playing a woman of power, let alone the queen of England. That is, until Bridgerton reimagined the landscape of period pieces and representation on television. Now, Amarteifio is living out a dream she never even knew she had in Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which hits the streaming giant on May 4.
“It’s a massive honor and such a special moment as a young Black woman, but also as an actor, to get to see it all happen and all come to life,” says Amarteifio, who plays the series’ leading lady.

Check Your Flour: Gold Medal Bags Recalled Due to Possible Salmonella
Certain bleached and unbleached all purpose flour products in 2-, 5-, and 10-pound bags are affected.
General Mills has announced a voluntary recall of some bags of its Gold Medal Unbleached and Bleached All-Purpose Flour, due to possible salmonella contamination. The potentially affected bags of flour were sold in two-pound, five-pound, and 10-pound bags, and all of them are marked with a “Better if Used By” date of March 27, 2024 or March 28, 2024.

The Architect Inviting You Into Lydia Tár’s Apartment
Boryana Ilieva, better known as @floorplancroissant, makes scaled watercolor paintings of her favorite movie characters’ apartments and houses.
Have you ever wondered about the floor plan of Lydia Tár’s apartment? Or perhaps how Neo from The Matrix might furnish his basement-like hacker’s hovel? Maybe not—after all, it’s a niche curiosity. But for architect and interior designer Boryana Ilieva, the floor plans of homes from famous films and TV series are the ideal muses. In muted, artful watercolor paintings, Ilieva has crafted bird’s-eye view layouts of everywhere from Villanelle’s (Jodie Comer) Paris hideout from Killing Eve and the home of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) in Stranger Things—complete with Christmas lights on the walls—to Alice and Jack’s (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles) mod dwelling from Don’t Worry Darling. Each piece, which Ilieva publishes on her @floorplancroissant Instagram and Twitter accounts, bears her signature flair, and uses hues that mirror those of the films.

The Curious Side Effects of Medical Transparency
When we peer into our patient portals, we don’t always see ourselves more clearly.
Physicians are trained to formulate a full roster of possibilities, known as the differential diagnosis, and then to work down the list systematically. We’re taught to cast a wide net—celiac disease, parasitic infections, thalassemia, lead poisoning, liver disease, B12 deficiency, myeloma, sickle-cell disease, G6PD deficiency—because you’ll never make a diagnosis if you haven’t included it in your differential.
But I hesitated before entering my differential into the computer system. Should I include the more serious possibilities, even though they were much less likely? In the past, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, as the chart served primarily as a tool for the medical team to communicate among ourselves. But a new law, the 21st Century Cures Act, had recently been fully implemented, making medical records open to patients by default, in real time, including doctors’ notes. My in-box was already jammed with panicked messages from people convinced that they had catastrophic illnesses, based on minuscule lab discrepancies and panic-inducing Google searches. How would my patient react to seeing my ruminations about possible colon cancer or duodenal ulcer in the note?

King Charles inherited $500 million in assets after the Queen’s death, but that’s just a fraction of his wealth. Here’s how the monarchy makes millions each year.
The British royal family has a vast collection of wealth, including real estate and private assets.
A large portion of King Charles’ wealth comes from the Sovereign Grant.
Charles also receives funds from the Duchy of Lancaster, an estate worth over $815 million.

How to Brew the Best Iced Tea All Summer Long
Our guide includes different techniques, sweeteners, and one of Martha’s favorite recipes.
A thirst-quenching glass of iced tea is a lovely antidote to the summer heat and surprisingly easy to make. All you need to do is combine two ingredients—tea and water—using one of our easy-to-brew methods. From there, you can enjoy your iced tea with plenty of ice and maybe a slice of lemon or tailor each glass by adding a sweetener, seasonal herbs, and fruits. Follow our guide for how to make iced tea so you can enjoy an icy, vibrant, and refreshing sip all season long.

Should You Sell Your Own Home? Here Are the Pros and Cons of Skipping the Real Estate Agent
Real estate experts share what the process of selling a home by owner really looks like.
Are you planning to put your house on the market? While it’s common to work with a real estate agent during this process, you can actually list, market, and sell your home yourself; this is called selling a house by owner. This route gives you more control over when and how you sell your home—and you can even save money along the way by avoiding hidden costs, including real estate commissions.

The equity wars
Equity is everywhere. But what exactly is it — and why is it so controversial?
The term “equity” has spread through left-liberal discourse with remarkable speed over the past decade or so, anointed as part of the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” triad, and taken up as a guiding principle in academia, the philanthropic world, social justice activism, much of corporate America, and now Democratic politics.
Yet its boundaries are blurry, and its exact meaning remains disputed. Is it about guaranteeing equal outcomes for everyone? Is it a “code word” for discriminating against white and Asian American people, as some conservatives claim? Does it mean anything at all?

The baby name boom
“Theodore” and “Matilda” might be adorable, but modern parents are terrified of trendiness. Enter: TikTok baby name consultants.
Baby names, it seems, have never been more crucial to get right. On TikTok, a slew of creators have built followings of tens of thousands discussing baby name trends, and crucially, baby names to avoid because they’re trendy. They reveal baby names they liked but didn’t use, and baby names they never want to see again; they predict famous influencers’ baby names (sometimes with terrifying accuracy) and what names will soon be all over every daycare’s class list. Baby name inspiration TikToks have gone ever more niche: You can find viral videos that suggest “old money” names (Caroline, Elizabeth, Charlotte), “main character” names (Blaze, Arrow, Falcon), or “aesthetic” names (Rowan, Wren, Atlas).

The real Queen Charlotte: revisiting the royal’s remarkable life as Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story arrives on Netflix
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the real Queen Charlotte was a captivating historical figure
Born on 19 May 1744, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, styled as the Prince of Mirow, and Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The family ruled over Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a small north-German duchy situated in what was then the Holy Roman Empire. And while the ubiquity of varied racial representation in Bridgerton is a reimagining of how London high society looked at the time, in regards to Charlotte (brilliantly brought to life by Guyanese-born British actress Golda Rosheuvel in the series), there are theories that she did in fact have mixed racial heritage.

Kate Bush, Missy Elliott and Willie Nelson Voted Into Rock Hall of Fame
Rounding out the far-from-traditional class of 2023: George Michael, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine and the Spinners.
The reclusive (but freshly relevant) experimental pop singer Kate Bush, the one-of-one rapper Missy Elliott and the 90-year-old country stalwart Willie Nelson are among this year’s genre-spanning inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The organization behind the museum and annual ceremony announced the lineup on Wednesday, underlining how the new class reflected “the diverse artists and sounds that define rock & roll.”

Why Monumental Cream Puff Towers Are on the Rise
Croquembouche, the French pastry popularized in the early 19th century, is suddenly back on the banquet table.
THE CHEF MOST often credited with inventing the croquembouche, the French-born confection that towers haughtily over any table it graces, was, unsurprisingly, an architecture enthusiast. Toward the end of the French Revolution, years before he baked the cake for Napoleon Bonaparte’s (second) wedding, Marie-Antoine Carême began an apprenticeship at a patisserie near the Palais Royal. He’d spend his afternoons in the national library across the street, mesmerized by images of architectural marvels. “He copied in ink — and then created in pastry and marzipan, in sugar paste and spun sugar — the ruined castles and hermitages, temples, pyramids and fountains he had seen in the Bibliothèque,” writes Ian Kelly in his 2003 biography of Carême, “Cooking for Kings.”

[Photo Credit: controlroomb.com, ellisdesignstudio.co.uk]

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