What are you up to this weekend? Today, we’re honoring the nationwide economic blackout — we hope you are joining, as well! And tomorrow Freddie and I are going to see the play English. I love walking into the theater, finding our seats, and wondering if the actors get nervous beforehand (any actors out there, would you weigh in?). Hope you have a good one, and here are some links from around the web…

Yum, cheesy chickpea ziti.

The singular charm of Parker Posey. While playing Victoria, the fifty-something matriarch in The White Lotus, Posey “had been handed an opportunity to draw out the characters of the Southern women she had watched from afar all her life. She felt like an outsider as a teenager in Laurel [Mississippi]…Though she ironed out her accent when she moved to New York, now she reveled in broad Southern cadences, ‘dramatic and funny at the same time.’ Before the shoot, Posey had just a 30-minute Zoom call with White to hash out Victoria’s character. He told her that he thought of Victoria as a younger version of Big Edie from ‘Grey Gardens,’ the mother who smothers her adult daughter in the home as their symbiotic life slips into decline… Posey was taken with Mike White’s women, who ‘look one way in the beginning and another way in the end,’ she says.” (NYTimes gift link)

Laughed forever at this dating-after-divorce spoof.

Touch Grass is a screen-time-limiting app that requires photographic evidence of you actually touching grass to unblock apps on your phone.

Ponytail cuffs are the new it-girl accessory. Thoughts, ladies? Should we? (Elle)

We’re kicking off live conversations — about parenting, relationships, career, books, where to move, botox, you name it — on Big Salad! Subscribe here, if you’d like, to get the schedule as soon as it comes out.

Wow, this Welsh house has a yellow kitchen, the cutest dog, and “mown paths in the meadow.”

What actually goes on in your brain during menopause.

How to make a stranger’s day.

Busted.

Plus, three reader comments:

Says Anon on how do you make your partner feel good: “One cold night, I got out of the shower as usual and found my husband on my side of the bed. I asked him what was he doing there, and he said he was warming it up for me. I almost cried! He’s done it many times after that, but the feeling that it gives to my heart never gets old.”

Says Anon on how do you make your partner feel good: “Every night, after giving me IVF injections, my husband wraps me up in a big hug and tells me he loves me and is proud of me. IVF is gut-wrenching, but, boy, do I love our tender nightly ritual. Sending a big virtual hug to anyone who is going through fertility struggles.”

Says Meredith on how do you make your partner feel good?: “Both of us routinely ask for ‘a minute of nice things’ – at any point, with no explanation needed, if one of us is feeling insecure or sad or whatever, the other person drops everything to say kind things for a minute.”

(Photo by Marco Govel/Stocksy.)

Note: If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission or have a sponsored relationship with the brand, at no cost to you. We recommend only products we genuinely like. Thank you so much.