A Few Things

Hello, Friends. How are you? Did you have a good week? We are headed to Lille this morning. It’s a city in the very north of France — not far from Belgium and The Netherlands. We are taking a tour of the Winckelmans tile factory this afternoon, and we’ll be confirming our custom tile designs for the bathrooms. I LOVE factory tours and am really looking forward to this.

Lille is about a 4-hour drive from our town, and since we’ve never really been to that part of France before, we’re going to use the weekend to explore. Based on our searches, it’s a gorgeous place! Have you ever been? We’d love any recommendations you might have.

Before we head out, here are a few things I wanted to share:

-The Los Angeles Times wrote about my twitter thread on guns + god.

-Please, please watch the full speech of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in response to Representative Yoho. It’s nine minutes and it’s remarkable. She is so good at this. (Transcript is available here.)

Toxic masculinity is killing us.

-Elizabeth Warren: To Fight the Pandemic, Here’s My Must-Do List.

-Outstanding interview of one of my all-time favorite couples, Chris & Lisa Clark. (Christopher is my friend who died last month, just as this interview was going to press.)

What is the ideal marriage age?

-A new study of nearly 65,000 people in South Korea found that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the coronavirus just as much as adults.

-“It’s as close up to the line as you can get to actual war without live rounds.”

-“Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.”

-My nephews’ super cool tween bedroom.

-I think the first time I ever wrote about #blacklivesmatter was July 2016. I re-read the post, and I was interested to see my thinking on police officers has changed.

-I lost of pair of earrings when we were in Brittany, and I replaced them with these (the Light Colorado color). What kind of jewelry have you been craving lately?

And here are some tweets I saved for you:

RIP John Lewis.

Do you agree?

-People with big noses (like me) unite!

https://twitter.com/lilsoybeanbaby/status/1285000492905447426

-Important thread on motherhood in America. Click through to read the whole thing.

https://twitter.com/lyzl/status/1285200099992379394

-I keep thinking about this tweet.

-A thread of companies doing massive layoffs but giving millions in bonuses to their top execs.

-I love this.

URGH.

-I am anti-death penalty.

-Did you know what sorts of jobs were out there? I hadn’t heard of graphic design until I was a sophomore in college, and it ended up being my major.

-I couldn’t stop laughing. Click through to read the responses.

-I thought I had a sense of corn in food, but this thread taught me otherwise.

-A thread that taught me about how museums overlap with white supremacy.

-Depression isn’t always being sad.

Hahaha.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

P.S. — Haras du Pin (the photo at top) is the oldest horse breeding and training site in France. It’s about 20 mins from our house. Last week we got to visit the beautiful grounds to see an art exhibit. You can see a little report of our visit in my Instagram Stories.

13 thoughts on “A Few Things”

  1. Katrien Dehestru

    Unfortunately the weather forecast is a bit rainy for this weekend, but try to stroll around in the “Vieux Lille”, the old part of town with cobble streets and nice shops. A visit to the patisserie ‘Aux Merveilleux de Fred” – 67 rue de la Monnaie is a must – very specific meringue biscuits in several sizes and colors – and you can see how they make them ! Lots of Flemish influences still in the buildings in this town- visit the Vieille Bourse with books stands, the bookshop “Le Furet du Nord” on the place Général de Gaule, the Palais des Beaux Arts Museum, the cathedral Notre Dame de la Treille,…lots of cafés and estaminets in rue de Gand… And dont miss Maison Meert – 27 rue Esquermoise – they make gorgeous small waffles and chocolats since 1849 : the shop on itself is a beauty. The story says General de Gaule who was born and lived in Lille, came here with his mother to buy the small waffles ! Enjoy your stay !

  2. Ugh. It doesn’t surprise me that someone on Twitter would say we don’t need civil discourse, as Twitter has relentlessly shown itself to be a bastion of toxic mob mentality. Something like 7% of the world is on Twitter and people act like it’s 75%. Can’t wait for the day when it’s 0%.

    1. The problem is that the right calls the left “uncivil” for being loud and angry, whereas the left calls the right “uncivil” for being racist, sexist, and homophobic.

  3. I second the visit to Aux Merveilleux de Fred, we went several times! You can’t miss it as there is always a line out of the door. My boys who were 9 at the time enjoyed the small zoo. My husband really enjoyed the relief maps in the basement of the Palais des Beaux.
    Enjoy it!

  4. So much of this weighs too heavily for 2020. I would have placed bets we would have evolved sooner.

    Also, in association with capitalizing the worth of persons with Autism, are we aware that an employer of persons with mental disabilities is legally allowed to pay them as little as $1 an hour for their work?
    I realize that, for instance my niece who is an adult with Down’s Syndrome, does not produce the amount as an average adult her age, however it is still labour and she is still producing the entire time she is at work. Her work *is* valuable, she *is* producing a product for sale, for which she is paid $1 an hour while her employer receives a profit (and civic accolades for the altruism) once sold.
    This is America.

  5. My family moved to Lille from Britain when I was 8. We came for a year but didn’t go back. I’m still here, 22 years later!
    I second the recommendation for Le Merveilleux. One of my favourite treats! I also love the kouignettes (decadently buttery pastries) from George Larnicol (rue Esquermoise).
    The Sunday morning Market in the Vieux Lille is fun (Place du Concert).
    Église Saint Maurice (just by Gare Lille Flandres) is stunning.
    When I lived in the Vieux Lille it felt like every time I looked up I’d see details I’d never noticed on the houses in my street. I’d avoid driving into the Vieux Lille, the one way system can be a bit of a nightmare!
    If you use the metro it’s worth stepping out at the Gare Lille Europe métro station. The decorated walls were done by a local painter, George Pattou.
    Have fun!

  6. Doing Justice is Serving God! Thank you for sharing this quote from Rabbi Ruttenberg. I am sharing with my church.
    I also don’t support the death penalty, and it is one of those things which should have been gone a long time ago.
    I say it so many times, but thank you for finding all of the links you do and sharing wisdom, kindness, and passion!

  7. Hi Gabrielle!

    I would love to hear more about the tile factory (especially if they ship to the US and relative cost). They look absolutely beautiful. I hope you have a lovely trip.

  8. Your congresswoman, Ocasio Cortez is so eloquent! Could be Presdident of your country one day! (now I’m watching all her speeches, wouah!)

  9. I can’t bear to read Senator Warren’s pandemic plan. I imagine it’s full of science-based, practical and compassionate ideas. We won’t get those things, and I can’t even read about them. I would love to read a plan for dealing with the incompetence of the administration – from the White House to my state capital. A plan for tamping down the panic and reassuring my children. A plan for keeping my family safe in the midst of a hoard of selfish, ignorant, science denying idiots. Does somebody have those plans? (Crazy eyed laugh!)

  10. Regarding the tweet about birth control and mental health, my local library opened for picking up books on hold this week and so I got to start reading a book my fitness coach (a woman) recommended: The Period Repair Manual. It is AMAZING! So much helpful information. It does address birth control methods and their effects on mental health. I’m delighted to have this book and also wondering why every gyno doesn’t have this information.

  11. I’m a little disheartened to see one link praising AOC (rightly!) for very civilly but thoroughly calling out her colleague for his atrocious behavior, followed by a link farther down that’s a tweet by someone using the handle “Barack Obama is a Harvey Weinstein Democrat” (which I find offensive) seeming to suggest that an effort at civil discourse in politics should be discouraged. I guess I’d like to have more than Gabby’s linked comment “Do you agree?” with it—Gabby, do YOU agree? Because posting the link without commentary to indicate you don’t (which you usually do when you disagree with or don’t like something–like your “URGH” comment on the birth control tweet) kind of makes me think you do agree, and that’s disappointing.

    My own answer – I don’t think we need to keep anger and disagreement out of politics, but I do think an attempt at civil discourse is important or we all degenerate into people calling each other effing b!tches on the Capitol steps, which is not helpful. I may be reacting particularly badly to the tweet you included here because I’m so disgusted by the tweeter equating Obama and Harvey Weinstein, however. It would be hard for me to not react negatively to ANYTHING he said after that.

  12. How did I ever miss your [prophetic] thread on guns & God? Your mind is so beautiful. And I LOVE love your links to great Twitter threads in general. I am so terrible at using Twitter, and I really appreciate you mining for the gems and presenting them to us. superXOX

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