E-Paper
The Brunch round-up: The week and how it made us feel
We’re cheering girl power, not mourning Kissinger, trying to find out if we have rizz, and rethinking our opinion of start-up heroes
- 1
Bingeing a new fav
Extraordinary came out of nowhere and is fantastic. The Disney+ series is set in a world where everyone gets a superpower at around 18 – strength, flight, channelling spirits, even 3D-printing objects from one’s bum. Jen, alas, is 25 with no powers in sight. Silly adventures follow. Plus, one character named Jizzlord knows more than he’s letting on.
- 2
Still learning from the 1940s.
Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the Light We Cannot See (2014), has been adapted into a four-episode series on Netflix. Watch as a blind girl operates a radio channel to sending coded messages that help the French resist Nazi invasion. Watch to understand the power of simply listening. We could use it in 2024.
- 3
Not too mad about this.
Rizz, essentially charm/charisma/pull, is Oxford’s word of the year. Not too shabby for a word that emerged only in 2022. It beat out Swiftie, beige flag, situationship, prompt and de-influencing. Rizz use peaked in June when Tom Holland was asked about his rizz in an interview. He answered: “I have no rizz whatsoever.” Liar!
- 4
Rethinking girl power
It takes a lot to shut Karan Johar up. But Episode 6 of Koffee with Karan had actor-cousins Rani Mukherji and Kajol do just that. He tried to stir up drama from 1998. They gracefully asked him to move on. Women aren’t circus animals. Their stories are more than catfights. Let that brew for a bit, Karan.
- 5
Here for the naming and shaming
Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list now also includes a Hall of Shame. It lists 10 ‘most dubious’ entrepreneurs from previous lists. There’s Martin Shkreli, the infamous ‘pharma bro’ now convicted of securities fraud. There’s also Cody Wilson, American gun rights activist, crypto-anarchist and sex offender. And Phadria Prendergast, former editor of Women of the City magazine, who charged for coverage, and ran off with the money.
- 6
Prepping for the eulogy
Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State and national security advisor between 1969 and 1977, died last week. He was 100, meaning he outlived Michael Kaufman, the New York Times journalist who’d crafted his obituary, by 13 years. To know why few will mourn, stream The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002).
