Quick Notes To Myself This Week - 6/17

Just so we're all on the same page

Hi everyone,

Just checking in because I feel like everyone is…not OK? I know that’s obvious, but worth saying. Things are heavy. A lot of people are collectively traumatized while trying to move through it.

I mean, just look at Justin Bieber’s Instagram. I already have notes to myself:

• Should I talk about Justin Bieber, weed, and trauma?

• Why do I feel so parasocially invested in Justin Bieber’s stoned, crying PTSD meltdown?

Today was particularly weird. New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was detained by ICE for the crime of standing up for an immigrant. DHS accused him of “assaulting” law enforcement and “impeding” a federal officer.

“Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers face a 413% increase in assaults against them—it is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment. No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

I don’t know about you, but the guys in scary masks with guns strike me as a much larger threat than the guy who’s latest campaign ad was about fixing the MTA so people with disabilities can get around. Oh, and since he is the current comptroller, he understands how finance works and how we can pay for it. But yes, ICE. So brave. What a threat to society.

As Lander was being dragged off to detention, a war continues to rage in the Middle East, where Iran has now joined the digital front of this ongoing conflict, where the misinformation online feels like its own kind of battleground. As I was reading yet another post (with over 1,500 likes!) from some confident idiot (D.L. Hughley) mislabeling Iranians as Arabs on Threads, I got the news that Chef Anne Burrell had passed away.

AGAIN, THIS WAS ALL HAPPENING ON THE SAME DAY. I feel like I’m on an emotional rollercoaster that never ends so help me god.

I felt instantly gutted. I had just had brunch with her last year with Melba Wilson of Melba’s Harlem, when Anne headlined the second annual Catskills Cuisine Festival in Sullivan County.

Anne had this radiant, warm kindness to her. She and Melba made time to talk to every single person in the room. They respected each other deeply as chefs and creatives—and it showed. Their joy in taking care of others felt sincere, not performative.

I was never a Food Network girl. I mostly knew Anne from food trade shows and demos. She had media presence, of course, but you could tell she genuinely loved food and hospitality. She was good at what she did, without any toxic ego, and that’s why she was such a great educator.

She earned her flowers, writing two bestselling cookbooks to help home cooks “become rock stars in their own kitchens.” That phrase feels a little corny now, but coming from her, it felt like mentorship. After all, this is the woman who helped the Worst Cooks in America believe in themselves. (Even though there was some quiet drama about her not returning this year).

I started thinking about her tonight as I air-fried some zucchini I picked up at a roadside farmstand in Long Island. I realized I’d been mentally checked out on trying to make something nice for myself. It’s easy to neglect yourself as a single woman. I thought: Would Anne approve of how lazy I’m being? Would she want me to arrange these zucchinis a little more neatly, to create something beautiful—even if it’s just for me?

Then I burned my arm on the air fryer. So, I poured another glass of wine and got back to it.

Will send a proper dispatch or two soon. Hope you’re coping.

Stay lifted,

-C