22 March 2025

Good morning.

BOO

• rest in peace Metro Cards (1993-2025). less romantic than tokens, they’re still iconic and it’s sad to know they’re getting phased out. the decision will save the MTA $20mil/year though. according to my NYC —> Paris trend time difference theory, tap to pay will be available on the métro sometime between 2030 and 2035.

• they’re really going through with the Tesla restaurant in Los Angeles, an idea conceived ages before the company’s CEO was elevated to the position in the American government he currently is. for fear of political imprisonment and for the sake of my Tesla stock, I’ve nothing to say on this matter other than I hope it goes swimmingly.

• this year, Americans find themselves at the lowest position (#24) on the World Happiness Report they’ve ever been since the report first came out 13 years ago. in first place was Finland, as it has been for the past eight years.

YESS

• an Inside Hook editor says we should expect more if we’re paying $20 for a cocktail, pointing to a recent experience of “spectacular service:” when she was halfway through her martini, her bartender poured what remained of her cocktail into a new, ice-cold glass.

• astronauts on the ISS are responsible for growing the first flower in space.

LIT

• Lapham’s Quarterly is relaunching this year.

MIAM

• chef and owner of Bonnie’s, Calvin Eng, has a cookbook out called Salt Sugar MSG.

• the Yankees announced they’ll be serving tiramisu in helmet-shaped bowls. this is a reminder that people never evolve past their palate at three years old.

• dying to try this salad recipe.

• I already know you don’t know the Fishwife lore, so let me break it down: in 2020 two americans discovered tinned fish, put them in the most IG millenial packaging you’ve seen in your whole life, called themselves Fishwives, got that shit on shelves of overpriced cafés in gentrified neighborhoods and Whole Foods. they charged like triple their COP (cost/tin = $2.09, avg retail = $7.99). ANYWAYYYY. the point of all this is that the two Fishwives got into a big ugly divorce about a year ago. one of them just wrote a cookbook with her new little fish girlfriend. it has an anchovy oil martini recipe, which simply confirms all I need to know.

Have a good day ★