cory booker 🤝 me: yapping for 25 hours straight

+ Lando Norris sent a message to a kiwi classroom, Shit You Should Cook About, and wtf even is a filibuster?

My angels!! To celebrate there being 200k of you, I’m running a 50% off sale for annual plans (the biggest sale I’ve ever run) so that as many of you can access our bonuses (like access to the SYSCA’s ‘close friends’ list, membership to our book club, bonus essays etc) as possible!

I love you so much xxxx

Mōrena my babies!!! I wish I had things to fill you in on, I really do, but atm my life is so quiet/ chill/ content (touch wood) that honestly, all I do is read my little books, hang out with my little housemates, and write this little newsletter for you.

I feel like I haven’t had a period of quiet like this in quite a while so honestly I’m lapping it up, because times like these don’t tend to last very long!!

Oh, and I watched ‘The Life List’ last night and it sucked.

That’s all,

Luce xxx

Cory Booker yapped for 25 hours straight

Cory Booker - longtime U.S. senator - just broke the record for the longest speech in U.S. Senate history by speaking for 25 hours and 5 minutes straight. Why? He was filibustering to protest proposed budget cuts and what he called a “shameful erosion of dignity” coming from the Trump administration (especially around Department of Energy funding, public housing, and education).

First: what even is a filibuster?

A filibuster is basically when a politician talks for so long that they delay or block a vote from happening in the Senate. It's like holding the mic at karaoke hostage, but instead of belting Halo by Beyoncé, you're reading legal documents, letters, or in Ted Cruz's case once, Green Eggs and Ham. Lol.

Helpful to note: There’s no time limit — that’s the whole point. You keep talking to stall a bill you don’t want passed, or to draw attention to something you really care about.

Also! Filibusters aren’t in the Constitution. They’re a loophole.

What did Booker do during those 25 hours?

He read stories from constituents. He shouted out teachers, nurses, single mums, and kids growing up in communities being left behind. He didn’t sit down. He didn’t eat. He didn’t even take a bathroom break (I know).

Also, a gentle reminder that the last person to break this record was filibustering against civil rights. Ew.

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Sport You Should Care About: Lando Norris: confirmed good guy of the grid

Shoutout to Bridgit and Matt for giving me this story at dinner the other night 𓆩♡𓆪

In today’s most wholesome segment: Room 3 at Oceanview Heights School in Timaru (my hometown FYI) are now lifelong Lando Norris stans after the Formula One driver took three minutes out of his world championship-winning schedule to react to a book they made about him.

The book - laminated, illustrated, and titled Dear Lando (kill me) - was compiled by the class after Lando won his first-ever Grand Prix in Miami last year, ending a 109-race dry spell and giving McLaren fans worldwide an emotional reset. Their teacher, Shannon Beatson, had been using motorsport to sneak science and social studies into the curriculum - and when Lando crossed that finish line, she turned it into a kindness lesson too.

(Can I just point out that this is very SYSCA of her.)

The kids each wrote a letter congratulating him, talking about kindness (his quote: "Use kindness to enjoy life and be kind to everyone.") Shannon said it was also a response to the not-so-cute online hate he’d been copping at the time — proof that sports + softness doesn’t have to be an oxymoron.

Now, nearly a year later, McLaren have posted a video of Lando reacting to the book. And the kids? Fully back on their F1 bullshit. The classroom now features posters, assigned drivers (there are 21 students, 20 F1 seats, so someone is a reserve hehe), and I can just imagine their playground chat about tyre strategy.

You know me. I love a narrative arc. I love a laminated fan project. And I love when people with massive platforms actually use them for good - even if it’s just to say thank you to a bunch of nine-year-olds in Timaru 𓆩♡𓆪

The cast for the Beatles biopics are just the internets fave white boys

See? Thoughts?

shityoushouldcareabout

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Shit You Should Cook About is our weekly recipe column written by 🌞(not so) London Laura 🌞our resident ray of sunshine. She’s just had the first ever SYSCA baby (my niece), is chief of romanticising literally everything, and will definitely ask you all what your love language is at some stage.

Kia ora honeys!!

Please excuse the short entry this week but things are pure chaos in our house as we prepare to fly across the world next week to be back in the UK for a little while - but this time with a baby 😵‍💫 ANY tips for flying / travel in general are very very appreciated, particularly any packing tips, as the three of us are going to attempt to share one suitcase...

ANYWAY that means that this weekend I’m cooking for a group of my besties for our last Sunday dinner 🥺 Over a year ago we started doing dinners together at ours on a Sunday, which turned into a weekly ritual in an attempt to battle the Sunday Scaries. We went on hiatus after I had the baby, but slowly over the summer have resumed weekly dinners in the park / beach / playground and I am going to miss them so much while we are gone 😭 So I have put a lot of thought into the menu of my dreams for this final instalment 🫶🏻

I’m really squeezing every last drop out of the end-of-summer produce so there will be some kind of peach tomato burrata thing, of course a pasta (maybe Amatriciana?), Stanley Tucci Lite will be slinging some flatbreads and I think to go with them will be this whipped feta slow roasted tom dish I have been playing around with all summer long! Now I say whipped, but it’s really just feta and yoghurt blitzed in whatever I had on hand in the kitchen I was in (blender, food processor, hand-held whiz stick thing?) with some seasoning, citrus and herbs for good measure. With the tommies it’s the perfect blend of tangy, salty and sweet and pretty incredible when served with the focaccia (I’m yet to serve this and not have the plate come back basically clean 🧼).

Pics to come from our dinner, lots of love to you and yours 💘💘💘

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Whipped feta and roasted toms

• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
  Olive oil
  1 block of feta
  Half a lemon
  3 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
  1 clove garlic (finely minced / grated)
  Basil or Italian parsley, chopped
  Salt & pepper

Prick each of the cherry tomatoes with a knife and pop into a small oven dish. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and a few sprigs of thyme if you have it! Roast in the oven at 120 for 30 minutes, until the tomatoes start to burst and get a bit of a golden colour on them. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

In your blender / food processor crumble in the feta, add your yoghurt, garlic, a squeeze of lemon and a few grinds of salt and pepper to taste (feta is already salty so you may not need much!). Blitz until it is creamy - kind of the texture of sour cream. Add more lemon / yoghurt to get a runnier consistency if needed, and spoon onto the dish you want to serve it in.

Spoon your roasted toms on top, adding some drizzles of the olive oil they were baked in and top with basil / parsley and more salt & pepper if needed!

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