July’s 10 things of interest below! We have some new readers joining us this month, welcome welcome and thank you for subscribing to On the Verge. At the end of each month, I do a brief 10 things of interest roundup that consists of fun (and intriguing) articles, videos and recipes that I’ve read that month.
On a random weekday afternoon, skimming the explore page on Instagram, I stumbled across this really odd video: people riding hobby horses in a competition. Yes, it’s a real thing, and although I can’t find any proper information about it, you can watch the video yourself below. Someone commented that this was the new vegan horse riding, I couldn’t help but laugh.
I recently discovered the Dear Sugar advice column and have been making my way through each of Cheryl’s pieces. In “Tiny Revolutions,” she responded to a reader who — in her mid-fifties and divorced — felt vulnerable in her body. A favourite quote: “There are so many tiny revolutions in a life, a million ways we have to circle around ourselves to grow and change and be okay. And perhaps the body is our final frontier. It’s the one place we can’t leave. We’re there till it goes. Most women and some men spend their lives trying to alter it, hide it, prettify it, make it what it isn’t, or conceal it for what it is. But what if we didn’t do that?”
On a really boring work day, B sent me this article which I found truly fascinating. The corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) also known as titan arum, reeks of rotting flesh and death when in bloom. But it also so happens to have one of the largest collection of flowers (inflorescence) in the world. The flower warms up to about 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius) to trick insects. Insects think the flower may be food, fly inside, realize there is nothing to eat, and fly off with pollen on their legs. This process ensures the ongoing pollination of the species. Once the flower has bloomed and pollination is complete, the flower collapses. It’s primary pollinators are dung beetles, flesh flies and other carnivorous insects. Read more about it here.
Another fellow substack writer shared this great writing tool and I felt it would be worth re-sharing. AudioPen AI is a great speech to text tool that you can use while walking. It translates your thoughts into clean sentences. I’ve used it a handful of times while walking and when I’m just looking to think out-loud. I currently use the free version, and I’m considering upgrading!
Writer and Author
from The Truth about Everything wrote about what it’s like to return to a place that is no longer his. He describes as as so: “Like exes, we sometimes expect the places we’ve loved to remain frozen in time during our absence. But they have moved on without you, the timbre of their laughter has changed, they glow from the inside. Being a tourist in a city you could once navigate blindfolded is somehow worse than being lost somewhere completely new.” It reminded me of my own piece, “sg”.I loved
from Burn This House Down write about supporting her writing life. She talks about her writing space (a little IKEA Desk) and her advice is to just “find a place that makes sense for you—a desk or a chair or a corner of the couch—and write there whenever you can.”- needs no introduction as she’s always featured on this list — she describes the perfect summer in summer’s slipstream.
In “When Are you Really an Adult?” by Julie Beck, she explores how we define a ‘grown up’. In the end, it depends on what measure you choose — do you choose age? mental maturity? or our ability to pay bills and vote?
I have this incredible ginger cake recipe by
from Too Many Forks saved and I’m dying to try it out. If you’re a fan of cake, I hope you try it out: Ginger Cake.Down a Youtube rabbit hole, I was reminded of this song which I’d long forgotten about and, once again, became obsessed with. Diary of a Song reconstructs how Taylor Swift turned a late-night idea into “Lover.”
“Asking for a Friend”
thanks for reading and mentioning :) <3
Thank you so much for the mention.