Conversation Piece XXV
A weekly series.
Enjoy our Sunday series, Conversation Piece, a NUVO–curated digest of things on the Internet we think you’ll want to talk about.
What was lost. J.D. Salinger’s short story “For Esmé—With Love and Squalor” appeared in The New Yorker on April 8, 1950. Now, the publication’s Jill Lepore returns to the tale of a serious little girl and the army sergeant she befriends to trace the interest notoriously media-shy Salinger had in translating it into a film. There could only be one director for the job, however, and only one actress fit to play Esmé, and between them, the cinematic project was doomed. Read more, here.
Sweet shortcuts. When it comes to the fervour of holiday baking, batches of bars rise to MVP status—they’re easy to slice up and share, allow for much flavour experimentation, and, best of all, one is practically obliged to eat their perimeters in the name of “prettying them up.” Find some favourite recipes from Vancouver-based chef David Robertson, here.
Be the bee. In response to a review in Functional Ecology, wherein researchers asked what a flower is like from a bee’s perspective, The New York Times has created a sort of choose-your-own-adventure to debunk pollination myths and get inside the head of our busy friends. Get buzzing.
Calling all perfume-lovers. The Drydown, a new newsletter just launched by New York–based writers Rachel Syme and Helena Fitzgerald, explores the emotional side of perfume collection within weekly essays on life and the best scents to correspond with it. It’s wonderfully strange and sweet (the first iteration opens with, “Today I smell like a horse.”) Learn more, here.
