Reading time: 6.02 1,432 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, If a frog eats you alive, don’t just sit there and get digested, like a wimp. Pick yourself up and start walking. I’m fully serious. There’s a species of Japanese water beetle called Regimbartia attenuata — we’re going to call it Reg — that is the natural prey of frogs. Reg is small, only 4-5mm, so the frogs swallow them whole as a tasty treat. Now, Reg could simply fold its little legs underneath it and succumb to the...
3 days ago • 6 min read
Reading time: 4.40 1,110 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, Gossip. Spinster. Villain. Wench. Hussy. Knave. Mistress. People with power redesignate the words of people without it. Semantic pejoration is a fascinating phenomenon and one of my favourite examples is that of the spinster. When I got married, I was noted as a “spinster of the parish” in the record book and was briefly outraged. Spinster. It does conjure up a certain crazy cat lady, a never-married old maid, living...
5 days ago • 5 min read
Reading time: 3.13 762 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, A typical Monday? You log onto the internet — your emails, or LinkedIn, or Instagram — and instantly get The Ick. The bros are out in force. The girl bosses are co-opting the bro strategies. Everyone is hustling for as much as they can get, and the consequences be damned. You wonder if every single brand out there is this… mercenary? Not that profit is dirty. It’s not. But there must be a way to be profitable and healthy...
7 days ago • 3 min read
Reading time: 3.42 878 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, There’s this podcast called What Did You Do Yesterday? with Max Rushden and David O’Doherty and the premise is splendid. They ask each guest “what did you do yesterday?” Not last week or on their last birthday. Not the greatest and most important day of their life. Yesterday. No matter how dull yesterday might have been. And then they talk about it, from the moment the guest wakes up to the moment they fall asleep. The...
10 days ago • 4 min read
Reading time: 4.17 1,017 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, You should try stand-up comedy. No, you should. I know what you’re saying right now: Fuck no, Vicky. What’s wrong with you? Ha. The eternal question. To which the answer is many, many things, but none of them are important right now. Right now, I want to convince you of something you’re absolutely adamant you’re never going to do. Stand up in front of people and try to make them laugh. You’ve done it before, I bet....
12 days ago • 5 min read
Reading time: 2.20 553 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, July 3, 1947, So’ton. I open up the envelope, carefully, because the paper is so delicate. It’s a letter, from my Grandad’s best friend Jack to my Grandad, Ernest. It concerned the shenanigans Jack wanted to get up to that weekend. “Write to me and let me know if you can get off this weekend. I’ve got a girl and I want to go dancing. Are you still stepping out with that girl you met — was it Bridget?” Another letter from...
14 days ago • 3 min read
Reading time: 5.23 1,279 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, What do you picture when I say NETWORKING ? Is it a dude in a shiny shiny suit shoving his business card at you while he tells you about his boring company history and product you’re not interested in because he didn’t ask you while looking over your shoulder in case he sees someone more interesting to talk to? Cos that’s what I see. That’s what I DID see when I went to my very first networking event as a baby business...
17 days ago • 5 min read
Reading time: 4.14 1,004 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, “Why don’t you enter the Pole Theatre competition?” I’m not good enough. That was my first thought: I’m not a good enough pole dancer to enter this prestigious competition and win. I don’t have the polished skills, the flexibility, the gymnastic or dance background that pole dancing competition winners seem to have. I’m not ready — my second thought. Who am I to enter a well-known comp? The same thoughts pop into my...
19 days ago • 5 min read
Reading time: 1.19 311 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, Whose idea was wisdom teeth? Doesn’t seem very wise to me. They lurk in your skull (which is already super creepy — teeth are so weird) just waiting to slowly emerge and cause pain, like the world’s slowest and most annoying cruise missle. And they serve NO purpose that I can figure out. I mean, there’s not even enough room in my head for the stupid things. My wisdom tooth (bottom right jaw, which you definitely weren’t...
21 days ago • 2 min read