Marissa (Bialecki) Bridgen

Hands down one of THE coolest experiences I’ve had: seeing @CNBCFastMoney live and getting to meet @timseymour @SullyCNBC @karenfinerman & Dan! 🤩 Thank you @GuyAdami for making this investing nerd’s dream come true!

We lost something as a society when we stopped being able to subtly (or not so subtly) communicate via an away message.

@VivaLaAmes11 I have the exact same experience when I visit family in Portugal. I eat mostly organic in the US and it's still not the same.

As an American who lives in Italy now, I feel I can speak on this topic. Is the food quality different in Italy versus the US? Yes, wildly different. I’ve noticed it in pretty much everything. The fruit and vegetables taste stronger and sweeter. Yes, zucchini, broccoli, potatoes and cauliflower have a sweetness that I never knew about. Meat tastes “meatier,” and carbs never ever bog me down. In the U.S. I’d eat a serving of pasta, or bread and feel like I was bloated or needed a nap. Here, I eat pasta, or pizza or bread and I feel nothing out of the ordinary. The eggs have a totally different consistency. They’re very “creamy.” Even the American Cheese here is so wildly different. It’s so creamy that it sticks to the wrapper, it’s a mess trying to get it out. Clearly, they don’t use the stabilizers we do in the U.S. Another difference is the salt and sugar levels in processed foods. Nothing, not even the cookies and cakes are too sweet. It took me a while to get used to the Heinz ketchup here, because it’s nowhere near as sweet as the U.S. product. And crunchy snacks are not overly salted. The wine here is on another level. Even the “cheap stuff” is really good. You rarely, if ever will wake up with a headache, even if you’ve over indulged. The olive oil here has this peppery almost slightly spicy finish to it. It’s so good, unlike anything in the U.S. and another thing I noticed, I haven’t eaten “greasy” food since I’ve been here. And yes, I order fried and batter-dipped foods, but nothing ever feels heavy or greasy and I can’t figure out why. Aside from the taste of food, my overall feeling is healthier. I know part of that is because I’m much more active, walking so much. But I honestly can’t recall the last time I felt “bloated” - that feeling hasn’t happened here, but in the U.S. I had that “bloat” feeling all the time. Also, I had a lot of stomach issues in the U.S. I remember always having heartburn or a churning stomach and chewing on TUMS. So much so, that I actually brought a huge container of them with me when I moved here. Oddly enough, I haven’t had one single tablet in almost 2 years. Don’t get me wrong, I think so much of the food in the US is amazing. I love recreating US-style food here for my international friends. Im proud of my American food culture. I just think we’ve been screwed over by weird seed splicing, creepy fillers and stabilizers, artificial junk, and dyes, among many other unhealthy things.

The best way to find typos is to reread the draft you’ve already circulated.

The separate ledger people are the same husbands/wives venmoing each other for dinner, groceries, vacations, etc. Lost causes in my opinion! So many couples today have become so...ticky tacky. Keeping score of every little thing, practically with one foot out the door the entire time if anything should go slightly awry (or more simply, not to their liking). Hitching your wagon to someone else is a risk, giving your heart over to your spouse is a risk. But nothing risked, nothing gained.

This comparison ("well then women staying home is a 'subsidy' to their husbands") is so revealing and sad. First, there's a huge difference between that kind of interdependence and the government literally writing a check to cover the costs of your family's chosen lifestyle, which is the sort of subsidy I was pointing to in my essay, and of which I give a series of examples from direct to more indirect. Second, as SameMeme points out here, *you're on the same freaking team*. Your work as a wife and mother goes towards your own children, marriage, and household, and you participate in the fruits of it. There's not (or at least, there shouldn't be) a separate ledger for each of you!

@InezFeltscher Excellent piece. The point re: what we've lost socially when women went into the workforce (e.g., church volunteering, dinner parties, community events and organizations) is something I think about often.

Women are not choosing between a more traditional life and careerism on an even playing field. Our policy and law shoves practically shoves them into the workforce. Cut the girlboss subsidies and legal punishments for the traditional family, and then we’ll truly see “free choice.”

Watching @AskTOH on a Saturday morning with coffee is my happy place.

My mom had a 1976 bicentennial commemorative glass Folgers instant coffee jar that we used throughout my childhood. The fact that we’re not seeing that kind of packaging from every consumer brand this year makes me sad.

@DylanoA4 my company pumps in music in our bathrooms, kitchen areas and outdoor dining spaces. It's mind-numbing and annoying. I got rick-rolled in the bathroom the other day. That one actually did make me laugh, though.

The constant pumping of music into every public space, every idle second of sport, every supermarket and café, speaks to an underlying sickness, a kind of cultural mental illness. As a society we are allergic to silence, terrified of spending even one second with our own thoughts

Upon seeing the following silly and utterly useless subject line in my inbox tonight--"Hillary Duff is a Diet Coke truther"--I remembered why I unsubscribed from Bon Appetit magazine years ago.

The only "CEO eats his own product" challenge video worth watching. Love that he's willing to do another take at the end.

respond to this tweet with an image from a movie that always cheers you up, but don't name the movie. just the image. or gif.

How it feels to send an email with no exclamation marks

Until recently, I used a Filofax as my planner/calendar that I received as a high school graduation present. I no longer use it (difficult to fit in many purses!), but I do have a planner I write in weekly to keep myself straight on top of a digital calendar. I like being a Luddite for the right tasks.

I’ll take even one person like this over a million people yelling at you to “use AI or get left behind.”

@PAHoyeck It hasn’t even been that long and I’ve grown tired of people trying to shove AI down my throat. I love writing. I love how humans are clever, emotive, imaginative in our writing. All I’ve ever seen AI produce is generic slop, some of which is completely false or meaningless.

Is it just me or is this explanation of my result somewhat grudging and oddly biased?

@TheCinesthetic Anne Hathaway. I just can't.

What actor/actress instantly ruins a movie for you?

How do I really know 90s/2000s fashion is back? J. Crew is selling grommet belts. GROMMET BELTS. I haven't seen those since Urban Outfitters in 10th grade.

The only writing advice you need, really.

I do *not* want an AI "summary" of an email, or a book, or a life. I do not want an AI summary of a winter sky, or my father's hands, or the hope in my child's eyes. I do not want an AI summary of the human heart, or the first little shiver of lust, or the long good work of love.

I, too, would like to see this. And they have to do it in a full suit. And their carry-on has to get gate checked, maybe lost. Maybe throw in a delay. I want them to have the *full* flying experience we pay them for.

@tomfgoodwin Was thinking about this today. If you survive multiple layoff rounds, it starts to feel like you’re in a mafia movie. Am I next? Am I gonna get whacked? Why does the boss want to talk? The paranoia, anxiety spiral is so, so real.

People forget that if you work for a 10,000 person company and they get rid of 2,000 people, you don’t feel remotely good if you make the cut You feel guilty You have lots more work to do You lose friends You fear the next round The culture dies and is replace by paranoia