Perspective

It all depends on how you look at it; plus, a French lesson, a dad who sings his toddler's songs, Tayari Jones is back, and a few things I'm enjoying.

Hello readers,

How are you this week? Hit reply and let me know. If you have it in you, I'd love it if any of you would brag about something good in your life. Really just hit reply and let it rip so I know your self-esteem is good. I also want to celebrate everyone's wins, whatever they may be.

Here's my win for the week: I went to the dentist and didn't have cavities. And I got a fluoride treatment just in case any potential cavities get any bright ideas. So how do you like that? Pretty brag-worthy, eh?

Surely you have something better than that.

When I haven't been working on what I hope will be my next project, I've been knitting a two-tone woolen wrap that should be finished by the time it's too warm to wear it. The good news about knitting something of this size is that a. I need to stay focused, and b. being up to my elbows in yarn makes it damn near impossible to doomscroll. So that constitutes my next brag: positive redirection with knitting needles.

Mmhm, look out.

So what's up with the picture of angry French soccer fans, then? I'm glad you asked. One of my other positive redirections has been to follow the recent fate of the Olympique de Marseille (OM) soccer team. I've written about them before because I've become a fan in recent years. If my math is correct they've been through about nine or ten coaches since 2021, which is perhaps not typical in any sport, especially curling.

In the photo up above, taken at a match a few years ago, the team's supporters held up banners decrying the club's shame and imploring upon maybe the coach, maybe the club president, maybe everything to "Cassez-vous." I was being smart and drinking a beer at the time, so I interpreted the verb "casser" very literally as "to break." So I was like "wait a second...that doesn't make any sense. People are so mad they're setting things on fire in one endzone and this endzone is saying 'go break yourself.'? That can't be right." Because it wasn't, Paige. I mean, what angry soccer fan in their right mind would say "go break yourself."? I learned that what they were actually saying was the rudest, most awful way of saying "could you please leave" or, um, you know what you can do.

There's your French lesson for the day.

Anyway, OM's fortunes took a turn for the better last season, with the Olympiens finishing in second place under whatever number manager they were on at that point. This season, things got off to a good start with that same manager...until they didn't. About a month ago, OM lost 3-0 on the road against a team they should've beaten, and the fans (who I happen to love, and on whose good side I hope to remain) started getting restless. I think they won the next game at home (the locals had a banner about the team lacking...something I'd rather not say), and then they lost on the road to the new Paris team. After that, there was some confusion about whether the coach had resigned. Not so, he said. He could coach this team for another six years, he said. And then they played Paris Saint-Germain and lost 5-0. Gone was the coach with the six-year plan. Gone was the sporting director. Gone was decorum.

The next home match, the "cassez-vous" signs were back out in full force and the team tied, which was not a people-pleaser. Apparently some supporters tried to force their way into the presidential suite to do God only knows what. Then, the sporting director decided to come back to the club and be the good guy through the end of the season, or something. The team president, who is now in a reduced role, is still expected to represent the team throughout Europe. And there's a new coach. And the next match is today at 2:45 p.m. Eastern time. And the American owner who has given this team all sorts of money, and who the locals would prefer to "cassez-vous", says no, the team is not for sale.

Yes, this is tangled. Yes, this is messy. Yes, there are aspects of this that are curious, to say the least. Some of the events may be slightly out of order, but they would have caused an uprising anyway, whatever order they were in. And because I can't look away from any of it, doomscrolling is impossible.

Merci, OM. I love you so much. Keep your chin up.

Here's hoping all of you are keeping your chins up too.

Paige

Writing prompt: Write about a time when you couldn't look away from something. What was it and why did it hold your attention? What did it finally take to get you to move on to something else?

Part of what existence means to me is knowing the distance between what I am now and what I was then.

– Alice Walker

Endnotes

The Dad Who Singed About It

If you haven't encountered Stephen Spencer on Instagram yet, please go encounter him as soon as you can. Spencer, a professor of composition and music theory at Hunter College in New York, has been turning his three-year-old daughter's stories into yacht rock tunes and posting them on social media. What I love about it: Spencer is utterly deadpan as he sings about things like important mermaids with beach shirts (I can't get this damned song out of my head), and snowmen who pee in litter boxes. What I also love about it: Spencer has grown such a following with his delightful bops that The Guardian featured him in a story this week. He's good fun, so check him out!

The Bard of Atlanta

This Sunday, I'm going to Tayari Jones' book talk for her latest book Kin. I can't wait. The event is two days before the novel's official release, which means I'm going to start reading Kin the second I leave the event (hello Lyft), so I can know things. I can't wait! The New York Times published a wonderful feature on Tayari this week, as well as a glowing review of her "lush, beautiful" latest, which you can order here. What are you waiting for? Go get your copy!

The Makeup Magnate

William Lauder knows the feeling you get when you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle and hunting for one specific piece. You search and search, but you can’t find that little cutout. That is, until someone else peers over your shoulder, plucks it from the scramble, and snaps it into place.

“And you realize you’ve been staring at it all along,” says Lauder, the 65-year-old board chair of Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), who spends time at his home on Palm Beach during the winter. This feeling, he adds, has propelled him throughout his career. “You may be thinking about something, and it’s bubbling in your mind. Then, in conversation with somebody else, they mention something that may be completely tangential to whatever it is that’s occupying your mind, but it sparks a fuse that gives you an idea. I find that very stimulating.”

I spoke with Lauder recently about growing up Lauder and building upon what his grandmother started (among other things). For the rest of the piece, which ran in this month's Palm Beach Illustrated, please click here.

A Few Things I'm Enjoying

Jill Scott's latest album To Whom This May Concern. Julie Klam's wonderfully entertaining dog rescue newsletter Other People's Dogs. Former Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles' Substack about books, authors, and literary culture. Looking at European real estate.

Please Consider...

...visiting your local, independently owned bookstore this weekend and treating yourself to a couple of new releases. Number one, you're supporting the authors, who worked really hard on that new release. Number two, you're supporting a small business and not a billionaire, which is another very good thing. And number three, reading is good for you in so many ways, one of them being that it gives you the upper hand on the enemy. If that's not reason enough to run out and add to your to be read pile, I don't know what is! Have a good weekend!