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Digging In to The Great Gatsby

I walked into Clementine’s Naughty & Nice Cream on a mission one spring afternoon. Actually, I was there on business—I needed to taste Jay Gatsby. You see, in celebration of 100 years of Fitzgerald’s novel, Clementine’s has crafted 4 Great Gatsby inspired scoops: a rose sorbet; a chamomile and apricot ice cream in pale green; a golden turmeric and cacao nib concoction inspired by the opening epigraph; and one inspired by 1920’s cologne notes, swirled with floral ripples, butterscotch shards, and a woodsy base. This last one, called “Old Sport,” was the green light I was after. In fact, I was promised by Clementine’s Goldbelly listing that one bite “captures the essence of embracing Jay Gatsby or Nick Carraway.” Through a scoop of ice cream and a spoon, I somehow would soon know what it was like to hug Gatsby and Nick, as well as taste what such an embrace would be like. This truly was a Great Gatsby experience unlike any I’d encountered before. I’ve read The Great Gatsby many time,...
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Why Red (Taylor's Version) is So Much Better

 Like so many Taylor Swift fans, I have a particular soft spot for the 2012 album Red. I remember when it came out. I was 13, and I was working on my eighth grade science fair project and had just heard "I Knew You Were Trouble" for the first time on Pandora during class. This is hardly the kind of context that would make a person fall in love with Red, an album that has become a sort of seminal heartbreak anthem. But nonetheless, I loved it. It was one of the only physical CD's I owned growing up, and I felt so cool for having a Taylor Swift album. As time went on, this became less cool. Liking Taylor Swift became something you were supposed to hide or preface with something like "I used to..." or "She's just ok." Her work was "juvenile" or nothing but catchy pop.  I'm very happy to say that we, as a cultural group, have moved passed this vein of thinking. In fact, it was never true. How could someone who is only writing for money or...
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I'm Falling Again for Fine Line

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 If you know me, you probably, or rather, definitely know that I'm a big fan of Harry Styles. Now, this is an outcome I had never anticipated. I didn't hate Harry Styles, but I was not a One Direction person, and I had very wrongfully assumed that to love one was to love the other, that they were the same. And before the fans come for me, no, I also don't dislike One Direction. They were just never really my thing. But Harry Styles is very much my thing.  So how did I go from being completely ambivalent to being in the top 1% of spotify listeners? Well, I guess it started when I went to London and heard about the Fine Line release concert. I wasn't there--I was already leaving London, but the hype piqued my interest, so I decided to listen to what singles had been released and then finally the whole album once the pandemic hit. What I found wasn't frivolous pop but something that felt really genuine and oddly pertinent to my life. Fine Line is the perfect mixture of...
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The Best Ice Cream I've Ever had...thus far

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If you are friends with me, maybe even just a casual pal, you have probably been asked to get ice cream with me. In fact, you probably weren't just asked to get ice cream and make plans like a normal person, but asked if you wanted to get ice cream, like, today, maybe right now, or anytime in the next 6 hours. If this describes something that has happened to you, congratulations, you are part of an elite group of people that I have invited to partake in ice cream adventures. It also means that 1) you are my friend; I like you or 2) I like you; let's become better friends. Whether I want more friends or just really like ice cream is up for debate, but needless to say, if there is an interesting ice cream flavor, I will be the one to make impromptu plans to go try it. After that needlessly long intro, let me tell you that I will try just about anything. Goat cheese ice cream? Sure. Black ice cream? Sounds divine. If there is something weird or unique, I will make it my mission ...
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When an Author Dies

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Today Toni Morrison died. Now, I have never read any of Morrison's works, but they are on my list of literary intendeds and I've heard from many about how powerful her works are. Today, this latter fact has crystalized in front of me. I have heard from so many people about how moving Morrison's works are and the impact she has had on them. That's a rather special thing. And although we usually focus on an author's works over the author themselves, we all feel something when an author we particularly cherished passes. There are a few reasons we are saddened by an author passing. Obviously, the thought of death is always a chilling one, but it goes deeper than that. Even if an author hasn't written anything new in a very long time, when they are alive, we always hold onto some little hope that perhaps they will write something new, impart some undiscovered wisdom to us. My own experience with author deaths has been most keen with Harper Lee. She only wrote one b...
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Useless Holidays: Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

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A cookie not from M&F and not as good  that I might tell you about later Did you know August 4th was Chocolate Chip Cookie Day? Of course you did; that's obviously one of the most important holidays of the year. I mean, it doesn't matter what religion you practice, a chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate cookie which is delicious. Naturally, I celebrated, and I made it a two day affair because we can't limit ourselves to one cookie or one day. Basically, I'm here to tell you about a lovely day that I had because I'm trying to appreciate the little good days. My celebration began on the 3rd. In case you haven't noticed, this summer I've kinda had a thing for celebrating holidays on the wrong days. But this time I knew it was the wrong day, I promise. Markham & Fitz just happened to be celebrating a day early, ok? Ok. After what had been a taxing excursion to Walmart during tax-free weekend (but fun, as I was with my niece and nephew and sister...
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The Importance of Rereading

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There are just so many books. There are thousands upon thousands of novels, adding up to what must be a limitless number of pages. There are so many that it is impossible to read every book, even every good book, no matter how much I read. I will never be able to read every book on my ever expanding list, and sometimes coming to terms with this is difficult. There will be conversations I can't participate in, symbols I won't analyze, authors I may never meet. With so much page turning, I used to think that I had to constantly keep moving forward. That is, continually reading books I had never read before, expanding my repertoire of "have reads." But as I've grown older and read more books, including some that are really important to me, I have found that is not the case. Rereading a book can be just as important and transformative as discovering a new one. I have thought of books as friends, and I think about them often, but I hadn't been a very good frien...
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