The Cut - The Return of FOMO

Something happened in May. Or rather, a bunch of things started happening. Again. After spending much of the past year on the sofa, my social life reduced to a few close friends and family members, I suddenly had something to do every night of the week — maskless, outside my apartment — whether I wanted to or not. I was thrilled and afraid to say no to any of it: dinners with people I had not seen in person in months, which could be indoors or out; the opening of a new shop selling trompe l’oeil ceramics and vintage glass (“To release!” two guests toasted, clanking together their White Claws); another friend’s comedy show; a Park Slope after-party; a fancy daylong picnic upstate.

But there were also the things I wasn’t invited to that clogged my phone’s interminable scroll: the rooftop pandemic-baby showers; delayed multi-person makeup birthday parties; and sweaty, hundred-strong club nights. Any conversation might reveal that the couchlock of 2020–21 was no longer in effect. New York City is becoming itself again: crowded, busy, and competitive. “Over the course of the game, texting friends,” a Knicks fanatic I hadn’t seen in a year told me when we ran into each other during playoff season, “it became clear that everyone was at Madison Square Garden but me.”

We really hope these road-tripping elephants are okay. She took her time about it, but Ellie Kemper has finally responded to the “KKK Princess” blowup. Michelle Zauner’s memoir is being made into a film! Read an excerpt here, and a recent interview with her here. The new Fast & Furious installment, F9, is getting the French film festival treatment it deserves. A mom was charged for posing as her middle-school daughter in class; she says she exposed security flaws. Fisher-Price is recalling its 4-in-1 Rock ‘n Glide Soother after it was linked to reports of four infant deaths. Skinny brows have been threatening a return for a while now, but the fact that they’ve reached TikTok is alarming. And seriously, what does Joe Manchin want?

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