This week’s digest is guest edited by of , a weekly sports gossip and culture newsletter. One of Madeline’s most popular posts is interviewing one half of a transatlantic meet-cute romance between the American club chairman’s daughter and the British boy who worked for Burnley F.C. If you enjoy Madeline’s digest today, head over to Impersonal Foul for more great stories and sports gossip.
At the end of the day, all sports news is just gossip. As Substack’s resident Sports Gossip Enthusiast, I really do believe this and will continue telling anyone who listens. A breaking-news NBA trade deadline update? That’s a LinkedIn “Some news” update for professional basketball players. A team is moving to another market? That’s a relocation package. You catch my drift.
If you think about it, a lot of news and cultural analysis across a range of topics is just … gossip. While my newsletter focuses on everything that happens off the court in sports, I love devouring stories from my favorite writers on Substack that captivate me, keep me on the edge of my seat, and fill my gossipy little heart—whether they are actual gossip or not.
I’ve compiled a few of my favorites that I hope you’ll love as much as I did.
SPORTS
Feats
“I’ve been a longtime fan of Katie Heindl’s writing. She describes professional basketball and its highs and lows in a way that feels like poetry. With the NBA Playoffs underway, her recent post about physical feats is so engrossing I forgot we were even talking about basketball as I read it”
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inAs the rounds winnow down, the cheeky hot-potato pass sequences, heady hang time, superfluous shots and sometimes just dudes charging screaming through the paint will subside. So will the bench celebrations, the falling all over each other, the smirks between past teammates on the floor, the offhand or referential podium comments and winking digs. As all this side effect pent-up energy spent getting here gets used up, the mood will turn serious, studied, very pointed. There will still be feats—making it through four rounds of playoff basketball is a feat in and of itself—but they’ll turn solemn, necessary. Energy expended on the floor will have to be accounted for, measured and matched exactly to what is being matched and measured.
GOSSIP
The Tree Paine fan’s guide to ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
“I’m not saying this just because Hunter is my friend, but no one writes about pop culture like she does. On more than one occasion, I’ve had my jaw on the floor, wondering how she could write such a pitch-perfect description of some nonsense that only she could describe with such accuracy and precision. Her recent post on everyone’s favorite publicist to Taylor Swift, Tree Paine, in collaboration with Allie Jones of Gossip Time, is no exception”
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inJessica Chastain has opened Final Draft herself. Isla Fisher has cleared her schedule (and her home). Anne Hathaway is printing out a binder of stan tweets and Hung Up posts, already months into research for a role she hasn’t booked yet. Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos make eyes across the room: could this be her third Oscar? Christina Hendricks confiscates that Yellowstone lady’s phone. Reese Witherspoon deigned to go brunette for that one season of The Morning Show … she texts her colorist in case he has a shade of vermilion pre-mixed. Debra Messing is also somewhere clearing her throat loudly because even though she was the butt of every fourth Other Two joke, at least she was being talked about. Amy Adams is totally fine. Minding her business, even! Because, to borrow a phrase, Tree is back and she’s sleeping real good at night. Devoted Hung Up readers will recall that Amy Adams will win an Oscar for the Tree Paine biopic and not a moment before.
FICTION
Bus kids
“As a former public-school-attending, bus-riding kid, I loved reading the pseudonymous Clancy Steadwell’s short story about all the joys and nonsense that come with riding the bus to school with your peers. In case you’re wondering, I was the kid who sat in the front of the bus, row two on the right”
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inAs a bus kid, you learn more on the way to and from school than you do at school. Which I guess is a cliched allegory for life: it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.
How quaint, but true.
FOOD & DRINK
I went to Paris
“I must admit: I didn’t make Alison Roman’s famous Caramelized Shallot Pasta until about two months ago. Yes—I own multiple of her cookbooks and have made some of her signature dishes (The Stew) countless times, but I held out on that one for some reason. I think part of the reason I held back was the hype surrounding the dish and everyone telling me I had to make it. I can’t stop thinking about Alison’s recent newsletter on recommendation culture. I’m tired of it, and clearly she is too! I will say, that pasta is damn good”
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inThe assumed entitlement that everyone should have the option to have the exact same everything as everyone else has reached a … weird place. Everyone with the same clothes, the same reservation at whatever mid restaurant, the same Instagrammy vacation spot, the same secret summer swimming hole.
COMICS
Writing about writing about writing
“If someone woke you up in the middle of the night and demanded that you tell them what you do for a living or else, what would you say? I always think about this question and almost always hesitate to say I am a Writer with a capital W. I think I’d be quicker to say I am a Sports Gossip Enthusiast than a writer. I guess admitting it to yourself is the first step?! In that case, I loved Zoe’s preview of a comic she made about the perils of describing yourself as a writer and what being a writer means to her, because … as a Writer (!) it hits deep”
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inBeing a cartoonist makes you a writer, artist, and illustrator at minimum. I’m lucky to get to do all of these things. But I only ever felt comfortable calling myself an illustrator, because it’s a technical skill with obvious practical application, whereas “writer/artist” sounded outrageously fanciful and also seemed to require a degree of self-assurance and personal autonomy I didn’t believe I could possess until super-recently.
DESIGN
How mismatched furniture inspired my biggest life decision
“The premise of Natalie’s newsletter is simple: What is that one frame in a film or television program that you can’t stop thinking about? For one of her recent editions, storyteller Jon Paul Buchmeyer shares how success for him looks like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As someone who loves specificity, this format scratches the itch”
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in“As a seven-year-old growing up in Dallas, I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about and learning from Mary Richards and Mary Tyler Moore. Week after week, year after year, Mary and her friends and co-workers in the WJM-TV newsroom formed the foundation of my perspective on life. Mary taught me that things work out in the end—just remember to have on a cute outfit when they do. She became my beacon—great job, supportive friends, and an independent, adventurous spirit that led her to strike out on her own in a new city.”
VIDEO
A perfect Manhattan, from a Substack war correspondent
“You may be surprised (or not) to learn that a war correspondent is well-versed in Kyiv’s bar scene. I loved listening to Peter and journalist Tim Mak’s conversation about covering the war in Ukraine and what makes the perfect Manhattan”
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inI’ve read pre-war accounts of the Kyiv bar scene that call it “cocktail heaven.” More recent reports say the city’s bar scene is still going strong, with a lot of innovation driven by the supply problems and shortages born of war. What happens when the Coca-Cola factory is under attack and you can’t obtain tonic for cocktails? You make your own.
TRAVEL
Milan black book
“You may be thinking: You just said that you are tired of recommendation culture! This may be true, but if I am going to get travel recommendations from anyone, it’s Yolanda Edwards. Her latest edition from Milan is no exception. From splurge-worthy hotels to the best gelato in Milan, I may need to plan a trip back ASAP…”
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inI’ve been coming to Milan for decades, starting when Matt was photographing Salone del Mobile, Milan’s annual furniture and design fair, for Wallpaper* and Grazia Casa, and shooting incredible interior projects like the Fornasetti house on Lake Como. At the time, I had a toddler and spent most of my days in the parks with her, navigating the rough cobblestone streets with a travel stroller. I loved Milan then (the parks are incredible, with little trains, bumper cars and carousels—so much more child-friendly than Rome or Florence!), and I love it now.
Recently launched
Welcoming
to Substack: and —creators of The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling—introduced a brand-new show on Substack about “the strange experience of being human”: offered a new paid subscription tier: relaunched with a new paid tier:More new launches this week:
Coming soon
Congratulations to the following writers celebrating publication.
Food writer
announces her new book, Snacking Dinners:Zen priest
shares first looks at her latest book:New York Times Magazine contributing writer
posts about his new novel Glass Century: posts news of her new cookbook, Real Healthy:Notes from our guest editor
Noteworthy
Inspired by the writers featured in Substack Reads? Writing on your own Substack is just a few clicks away:
Substack Reads is a weekly roundup of writing, ideas, art, and audio from the world of Substack. Posts are recommended by staff and readers, and this week was curated and written by , who writes on Substack. You can follow Madeline on Notes, Instagram, X, and TikTok. Substack Reads is edited from Substack’s U.K. outpost by Hannah Ray.
Got a Substack post to recommend? Tell us about it in the comments.
Thank you for sharing my book news! Available for preorder now and in stores June 18 ☺️
https://a.co/d/8ECcH9T
Doing my first book event today! Wish me luck 🤞🏼
A short play of mine was recently published in The Hooghly Review: https://substack.com/@courtenaywrites/note/c-55521113?r=k9fyk&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action