Maybe you have to leave your home to fall in love.

But let’s look at the lesson from each story included in the campaign: Relationships rarely happen the way we think they will.

The wait for a table is longer than stated. The train is delayed between stops. Someone’s phone goes out, someone’s grandmother dies, and someone faces a work emergency. Lights flicker on and off, but what people don’t tell you is that sometimes they flicker again.

In the case of these specific (real, success) stories in Hinge’s campaign, leaving home and meeting someone on a dating app involves all the unexpected moments I mentioned above (the cancellations, the months between each other see, bad timing) but it also comes with pink light in autumn evenings that turn into bottles of wine and end up in each other’s bed. And wake up happy. In all the stories, Hinge was a small part of the story: the tool to ignite the spark.

What I really liked about these stories is that the subjects didn’t just find love for one person. They discovered which cocktails they liked to order, new neighborhoods, and experimented with the depth of their cupboard. I think when you’re dating and falling in love, you’re also experimenting with other parts of your body and environment than just your heart and your bedroom. Sometimes the right sweater for makeup is the one you haven’t worn in a while.

I won’t tell you everything about my love life because I didn’t get paid enough for it. But what I will tell you is that I have had very successful experiences with Hinge. I think dating apps go wrong as people to search turn-offs, chatting on the app for too long (GO MEET SOMEONE!!!), handing their phone over to too many friends, or taking it too seriously.

I have been in relationships of many lengths, shapes and forms. Most people who know me (including observant Feed Me readers) know that I love Love. The kisses, the champagne, the awkward tin foil-wrapped cookies for strangers that might turn into something else, the blowouts, the playlist on the walk home, navigating the subway together for the first time, the time between one person’s arrival and the other – I want to tell you something. The personal stuff, no matter how messy or temporary, is so much better than smiling at a text on your phone. I get excited because I haven’t expressed these feelings in a long time.

If you want to talk dating, I’ll be in the comments.

• write about young people who don’t like drinking, but spend time in wine bars because they like the atmosphere. “To be completely honest, that’s how my brother and I started with it in the first place. We said, ‘Oh, these labels are so cute and fun. ”

• Axios reported this earlier this year The New York Times’ subscription revenue rose nearly 10% to $418.6 million in Q3 2023 – with revenues from digital products (cooking, games) rising almost 16% to $282.2 million, partly driven by bundles. This morning, Semafor reported that The Times is doubling the number of games with a new game called Zorse. The report also highlights the impressive staff growth of the Games team: “Over the past ten years, the Games department has grown from a staff of just over a dozen employees working on the crossword to an operation of 100 employees.”

• Meredith Hayden of Wishbone Kitchen bought a house in the Hamptons, which means she is now neighbors with the people who used to hire her to grill steak for them and cook pancakes for their children.

• Backpack bans have made it miserable to be a teenage girl. With gun violence on the rise in schools, some administrators have turned to backpack bans as a solution. But many girls also keep their hygiene products in backpacks so they don’t have to take one out in the middle of class while walking to the bathroom. “On a Facebook page where a mother raised the issue of the backpack ban, more than 200 comments offer suggestions from menstrual underwear and menstrual cups to pouches that can be hidden in a bra or attached to a leg. A few people mentioned zippered scrunchies that could store small tampons or crumpled pads.

• It’s clear that II’m going to inject this into my veins and report to all of you.

• TikTok has been obsessed with Gracie Abrams’ abs since the start of her tour. The singer is torn. This week she told WSJ that she really enjoys lifting weights. “I love lifting weights. I like watching survival shows. ‘Alone’ is my favorite show of all time. So perhaps lifting weights subconsciously prepares one for life in the woods.”

• Friend of the Letter Joe Weisenthal is changing his Odd Lots newsletter (which he co-writes with Tracy Alloway) from weekly to daily. That’s possible subscribe to Bloomberg. Big news for the Daily Newsletter Mafia.

• Drama of the day that I’m not worried about: Ron Burkle, a 71-year-old Californian businessman who runs Soho House, is accused of trying to build a Disneyland-style mansion in a small village in the Cotswolds . where the plans are described by residents as ‘grotesque’. The house will have an armory (I wouldn’t want to mess with him), stables and an elevator. The mock-ups of the new house are pretty brutal. Sad.

• “All my friends hate him.” Hell Gate (what you should do.) absolute subscribe) did the hard work of interviewing people going in and out of Zero Bond and Casa Cipriani about their former class clown, Eric Adams. Someone at Casa Cipriani said: ‘The reputation: you see it in places where you normally don’t encounter politicians. It’s the frequency that’s the problem.” So funny. This is an A+ assignment.

• Diageo reported this in June Casamigos turnover fell by 20%. I heard a rumor this week that they recently cut many jobs on the leadership team, including the brand’s president, Lee Einsidler (the press spin was that he was retiring). According to my source, “George is furious.”

• Chef Max Rocha (Simone’s brother) agrees with many of us — the restaurants in the big cities are becoming too similar. “I think there is a formula for a lot of these places: the sharing style, small dishes with natural wine. All these big cities have those restaurants, and I think (they can be) very special. But I think there are a lot of really similar ones, and then it becomes difficult to stand out. My favorite type of restaurant is: starters, main courses, dessert… When there are a lot of small plates and stuff, I get a little overwhelmed.”