#29 The Offcuts
Collectable toys, more holiday reads and vengeful towels
I’ll make this snappy as it’s turned into a bit of a long one today. I am posting this from Nice, now half way through my little trip. The rain is lashing down hard. I’m trying not to let it ruin my mood but I’ve never been to the south of France before and I leave for Paris early afternoon tomorrow. My experience of sunshine and blue striped parasols along the promenade has been robbed from me. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to book another trip back again soon.
I do read a lot on my Kindle. The books are often cheaper and I keep my eyes peeled for the 99p offers. But unquestionably, I prefer to read paper or hardback when I’m on holiday. I smashed right through Kala by Colin Walsh in Crete. It was a firm 5 star read for me. It beautifully threads in Irish charm and magic to a story that explores how effective communication can make or break relationships. I also got through the audiobook of The Voyage Home, Pat Barker’s newest release and 3rd installment from the Women of Troy series. It’s a fictional retelling of Agamemnon’s return to Mycenae after the Battle of Troy with his trophy prize Cassandra, and the fate that awaits them at the hands of Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra.
I’ll admit I haven’t read any of these yet, but they’re at the top of my list to read next:
Juliane Diller was 17 when the aircraft she and her mother were on exploded - she was the only survivor. Truly unimaginable. This really reminds me of Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano or the TV show Yellow Jackets (can’t wait for the next season). It’s stuff of fictional nightmares. And real ones too. The Andes plane crash (and especially all that unfolded in the aftermath) still captivates us 50 years on.
Nick Cave’s thoughts about loneliness
Why we need that yearning feeling of nostalgia
“When my husband turned 80 he agreed I could see a younger man - our 34 year age gap was showing”
Anna Delvey is going to be on Dancing with the Stars. The new season airs in 2 weeks and I need to find somewhere to watch it in the UK. Delvey’s been busy since her release from a detention facility after prison in 2022. The dream of the Anna Delvey Art Foundation ceases to die, as she’s been making a shit load of money selling her own paintings in the meantime. Reminder of this iconic interview and photoshoot of her riding the subway to a parole meeting.
Jelly cats are great and all, minus the price tags, but whatever happened to the hoards and collections of Ty beanie babies that girls in my class at primary school had? Where are they now? Did they just get rid of them all? Do you think there will ever be a collectible beanie baby museum exhibition? I have so many questions.
As some began selling for thousands, counterfeit beanies started doing the rounds. All of which was taken very seriously. It feels surprising given this is children’s toys we’re talking about. But even now, it’s still thought that select beanies are worth hundreds of thousands. Aha! Finally an answer as to why millennials can’t afford to buy houses, it’s not the money spent on avocado toast - it’s all tied up in beanie investments somewhere in a box in the loft.
It all came crashing down on 31st December 1999 (how unnecessarily dramatic) when Ty announced they’ll be stopping production… only to resume very shortly after.
I wasn’t beanie baby mad. Although I always loved looking at their birthdays in their tags, hoping to see one with the same as mine. But it’s okay, I can just find that on Buzzfeed now. You can get TY beanie “boos” but it’s not the same. For some reason they’ve all got eyes wider than the likes of those stumbling out of the club onto the streets at 5am. Alas not the comforting reassuring you want from a toy. I did end up with one myself a few years ago. It was a mouse eating some cheese. I’ll relent, she was quite cute.
My questions led me down quite the rabbit hole. Other people are searching for answers too. There’s a documentary about “Beanie Mania”, an Apple TV comedy-drama called The Beanie Bubble (adding straight to watch-list) and even a book by Zac Bissonnette called “The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute”.
The simplicity yet beauty of Greek salad. Eaten in Greece of course. Crumbly feta sprinkled with oregano. Tomatoes slightly warmed from the heat exploding juices on your tongue. Olives soft, cucumber crunchy. I have devoured so many this week I have lost count. If you are what you eat, then I’ve never felt feta.
People who leave towels on sun loungers early in the morning before dawn hours before they head to the pool can all find the nearest wheelie bin and fling themselves into it. I just assumed that as a society we’d collectively grow out of this at some point. But people can’t be trusted, can they. It’s not even that I want to be in the sun loungers they’ve picked. If anything I’m grateful they’ve identified themselves for me so that I can avoid them. I just get infuriated by the childishness of it.
It’s always interesting to get inside the minds of those you admire, especially when they’re able to impart words of wisdom. So, why did Joan Didion write? “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” Oh Joan, so do I.
