A friend and I like to send each other pictures of the corniest beach house signs we’ve come across, those pun-pun plaques proclaiming Margaritaville’s state of mind rules this house. The signs are made of painted driftwood and say things like “Sand around me,” “It’s always five o’clock here,” and “If you’re not barefoot, you’re overdressed.” These are all variations on the summer vacation theme: Life is a beach. You are hereby ordered to put on a brightly colored swimsuit, drink an ice-cold cocktail garnished with pineapple slices, and relax.
I think this is one of the problems non-beachers have with beaches. This requires you to stay relaxed, have fun and not worry about the invisible bugs that keep biting you. Non-beachers lament that the beach is one of the few places where everything you want is not always available (which is exactly why it is recommended to others). Therefore, you need to be prepared for any eventuality, such as if you deploy for six months to a remote location (perhaps the moon) with unpredictable climate and terrain.
When I was a kid, the beach was uncomplicated. My favorite thing is sitting in the sand all day long in a wet bathing suit, making drippy castles, and letting soft serve ice cream cones melt on my arms. But as a teenager, body shame and the desire to look as vitamin D deficient as the goth musicians I admired turned me into someone who wanted nothing to do with sunshine, and therefore the brand. Plastic fun peddled on.
It wasn’t until I became an adult that I understood that there are many different ways to be at the beach, and there are many different ways to be a beach person. With inflatable seahorses, economical SPF 75 bottles and ice-cold soft drinks, the beach is perfect for the whole family. Or it could be a solitary stay on a Tuesday afternoon, with just a towel, a hat and a book. The beach is a place filled with so much preparation and expectation that we forget it is just a location. We project all kinds of meanings onto this place, but in reality, if we don’t give it any meaning. It doesn’t require a specific amount of quality time to be spent there. It is land and water, evidence of the earth’s functions, erosion and sedimentation, tides and currents.
The beach today to me is participatory performance art. I love seeing people show off their beach style under the sun’s spotlight. Look at how they decorate themselves, the music they play, the way they occupy territory, their unique rituals and accessories.
I love the community aspect of it all: your music is my music, for better or worse, because you are my neighbor for a brief day and this is our pop-up community. I like to eavesdrop on people’s conversations, watch how they discipline their children, and if they seem interesting, give them some of my chips. I even love that dangerous moment when a strong gust of wind blows and someone’s giant, poorly secured beach umbrella unravels and flies along the beach.
We were all in this together, I thought, in my sun-baked stupor. Today we live here, not in a house or apartment with climate control, Wi-Fi and a roof, but here, outside, exposed to the elements, seagulls and the gaze of others. Today we agree that life is indeed a beach, or at least this beach, and here we are, living as luxuriously as we can.
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📺 “Bear” (Thursday): In the last season of the Hulu show, Carmy Berzatto and his team had just a few weeks to open a fine-dining restaurant. It encapsulates the show’s raison d’être: to depict “the curse and blessing of having a mission,” as The Times’s James Poniewozik wrote in his review.
“Fish,” a flashback episode set against the backdrop of a tense holiday dinner, is the show’s best work. It features thrilling cameos from Jamie Lee Curtis, Bob Odenkirk, John Mulaney and Sarah Paulson, along with heartbreaking relationships, complex characters and a hair-raising plot. It’s well worth rewatching before the new season arrives, or at least reading this review from Vulture .
Recipe of the week
Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad
This five-star recipe from Lidey Heuck knows you want to make some ingredient swaps and additions, and judging by the reader comments, it’s made for them. Add any soft herbs to grilled chicken or canned tuna and serve cold or at room temperature. With just a little assembly, this is a refreshing dish for a hot summer day.
real estate
hunt: They moved to Rome, looking for a two-bedroom apartment with a terrace in the city centre. How much can their $950,000 budget afford? Play our games.
What you get for $1.5 million: In Prague, you can buy a three-bedroom loft in a converted factory, a two-bedroom apartment in a 16th-century house, or a detached villa in a leafy residential area.
fragrance: Photosynthesis is the inspiration for Pharrell Williams’ new fragrance for Louis Vuitton.
Dental Health: Experts say these five habits can do surprising damage to your teeth.
travel: Spend 36 hours in Portland, Maine.
Back pain: Walking is an effective therapy.
Advice from wire cutters
Have a great hair day in 10 seconds
I think of a “mom bun” as a casual hair ring that’s fastened around the neck and worn on days when you have more important things to do than your hair. It’s fast, full-featured, and doesn’t look like it’s good or bad; it is. But after six years of intensive upbringing, sometimes I Do Wish my hair looked like…something. Plastic claw clips and scrunchies are back in style, but I find them bulky and too casual. My solution is this affordable and stylish little hair clip. I just tied my hair into a low tuft with one hand. With my other hand, I drove the tip of the needle down into the object, nudging it back and forth to secure. That’s it. Its steel core means it never wobbles or loses shape, so my updo is just as secure as a mom bun—but more sophisticated. — Hannah Morrill
U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials: Over the past week, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis has welcomed some of America’s best swimmers as they compete for spots on the Olympic team. The United States often has some of the best swimming teams in the world, and it appears to have fielded another strong one this year:
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Seven-time gold medalist Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel, who won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, are both back.
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Two trials saw world records broken: Gretchen Walsh broke the 100m butterfly world record, and Regan Smith broke the 100m backstroke world record.
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Seventeen-year-old Thomas Heilman won the 200-meter butterfly; he was the youngest male swimmer to join the team since 15-year-old Michael Phelps in 2000.
The highlight of the evening was probably the women’s 200m individual medley between Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh, both former world champions in the event. Tonight and Sunday at 8pm on NBC
