Link List: In a Daze

Sisig at Grill 21, a really good Filipino restaurant in Manhattan. You mix in the raw egg and it'll cook because the plate is sizzling hot when its served. The dish in the bottom right corner is tocino, which they also do very well.

This comes as no surprise, but a certain head of state has no respect for constitutional due process. And that's terrifying. I'll keep updating as I identify other organizations fighting family separation and representing asylum seekers that I've chosen to donate to.

1. // I'm very new to Twitter , but I've been following Adam Klasfeld of Courthouse News (who covers a range of cases, some of them more obscure, but his retweets of other journalists had been a good way of keeping track of the family separation issue) and Brad Heath at USA Today, who does a particularly good job of tracking dockets in some cases I'm interested in. I also enjoy Courtney Milan's more general interest feed. She was, in her past life, an extraordinarily credentialed attorney and law school professor, so her legal commentary is always on point.

2. // Meanwhile, in my own past life, I briefly had ambitions to be an academic studying Chinese history and politics, but quickly changed my mind. I used to focus my research on Chinese frontier regions. This long-form piece on the Chinese government's tactics in Xinjiang from The Economist is extremely interesting. This may be a part of the world not many people know very well, and it's rare for an article or even academic sources to go into so much vivid detail.

3. // I don't have as many blog links to share as usual. (I'm saving quite a few for bigger posts later.) Ms Ziyou did an interesting post about the "beauty tax", which I think we are all familiar with, and that we probably all feel subject to, to some degree. I thought there was a lot of consistency in how the commenters there, myself included, felt like we'd been able to come to terms with the "beauty tax" in a way that feels comfortable and true to ourselves, and that doesn't take up too much of our time or energy. We're generally able, in most of our workplaces, to omit some things that are known to be expected, but that we don't feel like doing (in my case, daily makeup).

Congratulations to both YAPFB and Sophie on their new jobs!

In my comments at Revanche's and Jess's, I've been previewing some topics I'm thinking about for other big future posts, namely about discrimination in biglaw and my simmering rage about it. Note that the "professional civility" I mentioned at Jess's, and that I truly value, is also an extremely narrow thing. It may well only apply in narrow contexts in the legal profession, where, for example, no matter how much I disagree with opposing counsel, I'll always treat them with respect, no ad hominem attacks (I'll do my utmost to eviscerate their arguments on the merits, and well, because I'm human, I'll complain privately to my colleagues and friends if they're truly awful). I may never understand why Justice Ginsburg and the late Justice Scalia were such good friends, but there's a lesson to be taken, that "anger or annoyance" is not persuasive, and that service of the "mission", of justice (for the client, in the private practice context, which is of course very different from being a Justice), may be more important. This is not at all the same thing, by the way, as the "civility" straw man certain supporters of a certain administration start shrieking about when, on a more personal level, people start pushing back on those known to perpetuate hate and bigotry, to be actively undermining our Constitution, etc. etc.

One typical piece from the jewelry brand Alighieri, which I only recently learned about.

4. // Now for a few non-blog things on social media and Reddit that I've recently found interesting: I have a strange fondness for r/Starbucks, primarily a subreddit where Starbucks store employees chat. The things on their minds are usually pretty mundane. It's usually about difficult customers, wacky drink orders, and commiserating about Starbucks corporate instituting policies that do not work well on the ground. I find the subreddit quite endearing, for reasons unknown. This is one of the less well-known pet Instagrams that I follow, @thedogpiglet has the most darling face and seems to have such a goofy, charming personality. 

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There were some really great discussions on r/femalefashionadvice recently. First was a thread about favorite brands that aren't especially well-known, which introduced me to Vetta Capsule and some small sellers on Etsy. I've bookmarked the thread so I can keep exploring the suggestions at my leisure. Then there was a thread recommending favorite jewelry brands, which introduced me to tons I'd never heard of before. I am now absolutely obsessed with Alighieri, a brand inspired by the Divine Comedy. Only a few retailers I'm familiar with stock their jewelry, including Net-a-Porter and Ssense, but they generally don't have the pieces I find most intriguing. I do find that the brand's official photography generally doesn't give a good sense of the items or of their size, but it's clear that their work is gorgeous, with these unique organic shapes and/or a distinctive timeworn look. I've rarely seen another jewelry collection where I wanted almost everything! 

What are your favorite pet instagrams? Do you have any favorite lesser-known clothing or jewelry brands that you wish more people knew about? Do you feel the effects of the "beauty tax" in your career?