Happy Summer Friday! Welcome to The Skinny, which will take you 3 minutes to breeze through. And for anyone new here, this is The Skinny, a free newsletter designed to entertain and save you time, which is everyone’s most valuable resource. As one of our subscribers told us: “You’re like my favorite magazine, without all the annoying pop-up ads.” 

What we’re covering: 

• The secrets to happiness, per the ancient Greeks

• How hot dogs are going couture (plus, bacon news including—can it be part of a healthy diet?)

• Life essentials—the power of a bookmark

• Food Hall of Shame: our personal story with St. Louis style pizza 

• Party with us: we’re still celebrating the one-year anniversary of our relaunch/reboot! 

• Plus: the one muscle group you can work out every day, the ‘Birkin x Boat Bag’ hybrid tote, fun pollinator facts & why you shouldn’t throw out your dirty, beat-up baseball cap

💡Did you know: The Skinny editions are online and searchable—so you can easily find topics/links/recipes/items to shop. Bookmark this link.

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Don’t worry

The secrets to happiness (plus, a quiz)

The Skinny: Happiness means something different to everyone. But for those who take cues from the wisdom of Aristotle’s ancient Greece, the secret lies in achieving a balance of eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, according to this report from the NYT’s Well newsletter (a subscription we recommend). 

Hedonic well-being is self explanatory: these are the joy-seekers who seek out experiences that bring intense pleasure. We, here at The Skinny, definitely slightly favor this side of the coin, though we don’t take it so far as to be loyalty members at Jamaica’s Hedonism Resort (or Hedonism “II,” which we guess is double your pleasure, like Doublemint Gum). But, never say never! 

Eudaimonic—the etymology of which is “good spirit”— is more complex and nuanced, but some report that its best definition is “flourishing.” However, not in the sense of health/wealth/career as one might traditionally think: it’s more about the personal virtues that bring you happiness. 

To find out your eudaimonic and hedonic balance, it would bring us great joy if you would take the quiz.

‘Haute’ dogs (& bacon)

The long and pork of it

The Skinny: We’ve included hot dogs in about 80% of our newsletters from the start, evidenced by our sole Instagram story highlight in their honor. Yet, only now are they receiving the recognition they deserve in the cultural zeitgeist. 

Here’s how it started. Because Nicole lives in the heart of street style while on daily patrol in Manhattan and Brooklyn, she spotted a guy on 34th and 8th sporting a white t-shirt with a tiny embroidered hot dog logo on the left breast side—much like your vineyard Vine whale or Lacoste alligator. No luck searching up and finding the brand, but the next day we got a promotional email from Goat USA  announcing their new hot dog collection. Fast-forward to earlier this week, and it turns out all the big dogs of the style world are already eating this up. Case in point are Staud’s “Bad Dog Days” Tommy Bag, Herman Miller’s poster and these hot dog hoops (earrings).

If you’re as excited about this as we are, here is the full story, which offers us the astute observation that “whimsy and nonchalance” are the reasons for its appeal. Much like us, though we are less whimsy, more nonchalance. 

What we love, again: their snappy and savory goodness that can be enjoyed as lowbrow as you want (read: sliced open halfway with a thin strip of yellow American cheese tucked inside, fried in a pan) or as ‘haute’ as you’d like, courtesy of the Mark hotel. If you add the right toppings, it’s a balanced meal that your can hold in your hand. 

Beyond hot dogs, there’s bacon. 

The power wives of the ‘80s knew they could “bring home the bacon” AND “fry it up in a pan”—but we wonder if, back then, our shoulder-pad wearing compatriots knew they could also bake it up in the oven. Because it turns out that chefs say to bake it, and while you’re at it, this is a great time to upgrade the one workhorse cookie sheet with a ceramic (safe non-stick) baking pan.

Further to the bacon superstars: the best bacon for a BLT, according to the experts. 

However, beyond the deliciousness that is bacon, it’s not the best thing for you but because we are eternal optimists, we had to see WebMD’s take on whether it can be part of a healthy diet. Read on, since it includes a chart outlining fat and calorie content of major brands per one ounce, as well as some recipes that use smaller portions of bacon. We also learned that bacon is a slightly better choice than sausage links, so bank that important info the next time you’re at Denny’s.

Life essentials

Being well read is nothing without a proper bookmark

The Skinny: Nicole really wants to write about dental floss in this section as a Life Essential, but since Jill won’t allow such a boring topic, today we are landing on bookmarks (which, arguably, are only slightly more interesting than floss). Case in point to their importance: Nicole is reading Cormac McCarthy’s “All the Pretty Horses” and because of her weak bookmark game, she realized that she’d missed out on a 50-page chunk that forced a double-back re-read. 

For inspiration, some to bookmark on your browser: this insanely inventive book holder-slash-bookmark (file under: things you didn’t know you need) for paperbacks; and a list of unique versions from BookRiot, including a cool sword design that we want (mostly because it’s described as being “stabbier” than your typical book jewelry”).

P.S.: spotted in today’s Morning Brew, current book cover design trends.

Food hall of shame

‘St. Louis style’ pizza hits a sour note

The Skinny: Doing some quick prep for a jaunt to St. Louis, we noticed some articles claiming the city laid claim to its own style of pizza. Really! While pizza snobs we admittedly are—with Nicole in Brooklyn and steps away from Lucali’s and some of the city’s most coveted slices—we are curious and always open to exploring all regional styles (with Detroit being the new fave). Read on for Nicole’s St. Louis pizza story: 

I wasn’t seeking out St. Louis pizza, but honestly might have if I’d had time. Instead, we came across it unexpectedly—and, extremely unfortunately for our soccer tournament group. Long story short of how this regional “team pizza” disaster unfolded: we entrusted our airport hotel waitress with a local restaurant reco, and simply expected (as one would) that “it’s pizza, how bad can it be?” 

Tag-teaming with a soccer Dad, we revved up his gray rental Impala to pick up the 13 pizzas and 4 “salads”. Steps from the airport and down an access road that included Breaking Bad-style “houses” that doubled as accounting offices, we arrived at Massa’s “The Old Place” location—and that it was, an old, white, windowless building. But after passing through its vestibule and pressing a crooked vintage door handle, we were deposited in the middle of a dark dining room stuck in times past: 1974, to be exact. Bathed in red light and accented with curious fixtures, we squeezed through to the bar and past an electric keyboardist singing Little River Band’s “Reminiscing” (quite well). Amid the yellow light of a chandelier tilting over the bar, we inquired about our pizzas. The waitress motioned. They were stacked atop a corral of hightops in an unwelcoming corner. And while we were dying to have a drink and take this ambiance in, it was us vs. that stack of pizza boxes, and the pizzas won. So, pies and styrofoam salad tower in hand, we snuck out the back door past the mop closet. 

As for the pizza, which apparently elicits a high amount of “debate and shame,” we must quote the hotel bartender who noted, “well, look, you either love it or hate it.” We wanted to love it so badly, but no lessons learned came easy. Our St. Louis style pizza education was that it is known for three things: a “cracker-like unleavened crust,” processed Provel™ cheese; and for being cut into squares. Even starving kids couldn’t manage more than one slice (that we forced them to eat) of this cold and congealed mess, and those who did said it sat in their stomach for hours. As for the salads, these were limp, cut up iceberg heads (no shame to iceberg, just THIS particular iceberg) with a sprinkle of cheese (unclear?) and no more than 2-3 slices of white onion. No dressing.

To sum up: we were “singing the pizza blues, St. Louis style.”

Let’s party

Would anyone like to buy us a drink?

The Skinny: We love what we do, which is working hard to serve up our time-saving newsletter each week for your reading pleasure, but even we can use a break—and a little help. If you would like to support us by buying us a drink (we are still celebrating the one-year anniversary of our relaunch!) you can now do so by clicking here (which will also make you a VIP subscriber). 

Whether it’s a coffee, cocktail or mocktail, name your price: any support at all, no matter how small, means the world to us, and we will send you a personal thank you (you'll also automatically be put on the list for any future Premium Content). Cheers!

Last Licks

This week’s newsfeed

• Fitness tip of the day, via Today.com: this is the one muscle group you can work out every day, and here is how.

• Neither a Berkin nor a Boat Bag, this summer’s hot tote is a combination of the two. 

• According to one of our favorite lifestyle news sources, WSJ Off Duty, beat-up and authentically distressed/worn in baseball caps are what’s in (were they ever out?) 

• For “those who celebrate,” Pollinator Week ended on June 22 but why stop celebrating! Who knew that (per Pollination Fun Facts) “in her first few weeks as an adult, a single female blueberry bee visits about 50,000 blueberry flowers, resulting in over 6,000 marketable blueberries worth about $75.”

• Most-clicked, last edition: appropriately, because it was 95 with a 78 dew point here in NYC, this wildly popular “Cooling Dress” from Columbia. Also, a physical therapist’s stretching and breathing routine routine for better sleep and how you’ve been pronouncing IKEA wrong.

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