The Weekly Wrap: July 28, 2024

I know this probably exists already but, if not, I need some academic to do a serious research study on the semiotics of what restaurants use as bathroom signs.

Yes, there is the universal man/woman icon but I've seen so many others. Pirates/mermaids, dogs/cats, witches/wizards, wine glasses/bottles, the gender symbols, phrasing like "standers" and "sitters" - you name it, it's been a bathroom sign.

But here's the thing, all of the non-traditional versions require some knowledge of broader cultural norms. Why is that we tend to know that mermaids mean women and pirates mean men? Pirates and mermaids are ungendered things - men and women can be both. But, in the bathroom context, we, of the white/US culture, know that mermaids are where are the women go. How much of culture and literature and society do we need to soak up before we understand that? How difficult do these kind of signs make it for others of different backgrounds? Why do we presume that these visual tropes will work?

I find this all fascinating which is why I would like to read a dissertation on it.

But, also, can we do away with single gendered bathrooms? They just make it harder for everyone. 

Just wash your hands, please.

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• Wine words. [Wine Folly]
• I didn't know a lot of things about celebrity book clubs. [Esquire]
• Capturing the Tour de France in photos. [AP]
• Bouillon - way more interesting than you might think. [Serious Eats]
• How to deal with mosquitos. [ParentData]
• Don't put these things down the drain. [Real Simple]

• How Pantone came to standardize color. [Planet Money]
• That's probably a scam. [Life Kit]
• A very​ old tree grows in California. [Atlas Obscura]
• The organ western medicine overlooked. [Radiolab]
• The early Olympics sounded like a hoot. [99% Invisible]
• The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders... kind of a cult. [Culture Study Podcast]
• Betting has changed the culture of sports. [Radio Atlantic]

• We've entered season three of our binge watch of Felicity. I do not like the theme song change. Yikes! Also, they've made everything far more dramatic than it needs to be. We just watched a whole series of episodes with a Chekov's gun. It was all entirely unnecessary. I liked the first season but this series seems to get worse the further along it goes. [Hulu]
• Now that they've started, it's all Olympics, all the time over here. We put on the main Peacock stream at 8PM every night. I know that essentially just spoon feeds us content, but I don't care. I catch the other random sports here and there when I can. I love the Olympics because I end up watching sports I don't care about at any other time. As for the opening ceremony, I like that Paris tried something different. It was a nice refresh of how to open the games. [NBC]

• Our farm share this week came with a small bunch of leeks. That's the first time they've showed up this year. Leeks aren't something I cook with often. I do know, however, that they taste really good sautéed in butter. I made two separate side dishes this week. The first was leeks sautéed with corn (cut from the cob) and cherry tomatoes. I used butter in this one. The second was leeks sautéed with zucchini. I used a herbs de Provence flavored olive oil for that. The butter sautéed veggies were better!
• My lunch meal prep was eggplant parmesan again. It was tasty but not as filling as I like. I dove into my desk snacks for a filler item and came up with a good dessert. Belvita dark chocolate creme sandwich biscuits are marketed as a breakfast but they are dessert. They're kind of like a bigger Milano cookie. [Snackworks]