In the world of Save. Spend. Splurge.: How a Jewish Mobster became the leader of the Nazi Punching Gang in 1936

1. K.O.

I very much enjoyed this article on how Meyer Lansky, a Jewish mobster in 1936, led an initiative to punch Nazis. The mafioso even did it for free, and trained teams to strategically infiltrate their demonstrations stateside. I have always thought that the Mafia was particularly intelligent and organized, mostly because it has been run by fear and fear is a great though terrible motivator for people. On the one hand, it terrorizes them, but on the other, it could also be used for good as shown in this article. I also feel like loyalty based on fear is not one that is sustained easily, versus loyalty grown from love.

If you haven’t gone into the Mafia world yet, and want to learn a bit more, I can recommend this documentary: Fear City: New York versus the Mafia and this book Mafia Prince: Inside the fall of La Cosa Nostra. Both were simply FASCINATING accounts of the discipline, fear, organization and bloodshed. Quite violent, but interesting.

2. Saddle up

I like double-duty bags, like this one from Madewell that is a foldover Transport tote, that could be worn as a tote or as a crossbody bag. Feels like a good errand-running piece!

3. Kinetic

These art installations are just stunning. So calming, so relaxing to look at, in my opinion. It would even be better if they had light wind chimes that tinkle… My favourite is the first white one in this video that looks like a beautiful wave:

4. Denim blues

My friend recently picked up this Madewell denim jacket and has been raving about it. She says it is PERFECTION in a denim jacket. I will take her word for it because I think I am more a leather jacket kind of girl. There is something about denim that I feel is too casual for my personal tastes, and any outfit I can think of where denim jackets would work, I would rather throw this All Saints leather jacket I own and adore on. I have it in black, navy blue, grey and brown. All the colours needed for any sort of topper required.

5. Ducking out

A drone follows a team of ducks going in to ‘clean up’ a rice paddy of all the insects. This is eco-friendly farming at its finest.

I would love to see more of these kinds of initiatives. We eat less meat in general, less waste, less food, and we do not need as much as we think. We are already overproducing for a world where the very rich have a ton of wealth & food, and the very poor are starving without basic resources. Why? How does that make it fair? Shouldn’t we aim for a more integrated, cooperative world?

6. Itched out

My mother recently complained about having dermatitis, which is basically very dry, irritated skin that can turn red, rash, be itchy, and so on. She was trying to use medicated stuff on her skin to kill the bacteria, but she basically ruined her moisture barrier in doing so, and there are also things like GOOD bacteria in your skin that she was killing at the same time. So I bought her a massive tub of this skin cream, that my doctor recommended to me years ago for eczema and anything skin-related, and it has never let me down when I truly needed relief at the time.

I no longer use it because my skin is now healed and I use these Ethique concentrate bars for body lotion instead as they are plastic-free, but desperate times call for desperate measures and that skin cream is reasonably cheap ($25 CAD or $22 USD for 450 grams), and it works. It also works as diaper cream in a pinch, or when your son also picks up eczema / dermatitis.

7. Milestones

From all that has transpired and come out of the shadows in the past 2 years, I am overwhelmed but happy that I am starting to learn and see a lot more that was not so evident in the past (when people had less time, were working, not all stuck at home climbing the walls).

From learning about Indigenous peoples (the stories about those child graves they are saying could end up being a final tally of 25,000 or more dead children made me truly sick to my stomach) to then seeing rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, I started digging into their history as well. These are 11 Asian American moments you should know. They are powerful and significant milestones I had no clue about. Please read.

8. Drama

WOW. The drama in this puff-sleeved white sweater from Wolf & Badger is kind of … perfect. I love the tight sleeves that go into this bishop sleeve. It is dramatic while not hindering your ability to type with lots of fabric in the way.

I am always on the hunt for interesting white sweaters, even though everyone thinks I am crazy for wearing anything white with a small child or just in general.