Tuesday tidbits #004

Extremely good dumplings, my locket, meditations and more.

(Screenshot via @cookingwithalia)

Hi, all. It’s Tuesday, and so I have a selection of tidbits to share, what I think of as wanderings from my time on the World Wide Web. What have you been reading and admiring? What’s been inspiring you? Please share in the comments — I’d love to know.

• This wildly popular TikTok recipe looked so good, I had to try it. I’ve now made it twice, and I can say I highly recommend this process for making not-quite-dumpling dumplings. I love how crisp both the meat and the wrappers get.

• I got a locket for Christmas — thank you, Joe! — and I wear it every day. It has a tiny photo of our family on one side, and a tiny photo of my son, Cyrus, dressed as a bumble bee (from last Halloween) on the other. Periodically while sitting on my lap, Cyrus will play with it for a few minutes before asking me to “op?” (open it). He enjoys peering at the tiny photos, and seems a little pleased and proud when I say, “See? Baby Cyrus is always close to my heart.”

Exuberant Flâneuse, 2020

• I wish I could wallpaper my home with the stunning paintings of Kamrooz Aram, now on view at the Alexander Gray gallery in New York City.

• I’m a fan of Oldster, a magazine that “explores what it means to travel through time in a human body at every phase of life.” Here’s the backstory.

• I was stopped in my tracks by this gorgeous poem, so I knew I had to share it here. Meditations in an Emergency by Cameron Awkward-Rich:

I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart. There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.

[Dessert]

🎧 “White Snow in Spring” performed by Wu Man
📺 Alysa Liu: 2025 U.S. National Championships Exhibition Gala
📖 “Jobs Evaporated Unexpectedly, a Troubling Sign for U.S. Economy” by Sydney Ember in the New York Times (gift link)
👀 The perfect cylindrical shape of these glasses is pleasing to my eyes.
🐸 Caveat frog
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[See you tomorrow!]