Does your week begin or end on Sunday? We have usually been in the Sunday is the end of the week camp, but post-pandemic days and weeks are all fading together. Today is Saturday either way; you fall; it’s the end of the week. We are also willing to bet that this is the only newsletter that talks about a book and a new album that have frozen treats on the front of them. Welcome to the |Rabbit Hole| Jungle with us!

In her book Joyful, Ingrid Fetell Lee writes about how design and colors can affect joy. Lee has worked in many areas of design, including as Design Director at IDEO. Color might not be the first thing you think about when thinking about joy. Not the first thing, but it would not surprise you to know how color impacts the things you think about when you think about pleasure. A person, a place, a thing, in all those cases, visual cues and colors play a role.

Bright colors can be exciting; style says a lot, a visual language that helps you determine where you are and who you might be. Think flashy hair and makeup or bright socks as a way of arriving. According to our unscientific interoffice poll, most grumpy people don’t wear snazzy socks.

Sometimes joy can come from a pattern interrupt, something that takes you out of rumination, or a downward spiral. The interruption must be loud enough to wake you up and break the thought cycle and remind you to breathe again. If you ever remember a time when a friend said something off-the-wall, you had to say WTF? Then you find out they were trying to snap you out of it—the mark of a true friend.

We first read about Joyful in our friend Nik Goke’s 4 Minute Books. Nik is a great writer, and we highly recommend his blog and 4 Minute Books.

A bag of Starburst candy last Halloween would have cost around $3.00; this year, it’s $4.00, an increase of more than 30%. What could increase the price of candy by 30%, inflation, supply chain, or straight-up evil? Pushing the boundaries on what we are willing to spend to celebrate refined sugar, an industry might see Halloween as the Superbowl of candy sales. Axios wrote about the numbers this week, and you can put down the WSJ for just a minute to read this. $102.74 billion that’s what we spent on Halloween last year. Billion with a B; anyone remembers plastic costumes worn over your clothes and that crazy neighbor who gave out apples? What’s next, pot gummies?

The article does mention Starburst could be susceptible to supply chain and hurricane season. The jokes write themselves.

In both a light-hearted and frightening write-up, Kate Lindsay who writes Embedded on Substack, wrote about rabbit holes people are falling with of all things Taylor Swift. When speculation doesn’t fill the void, conspiracy seems happy to step in. Everything from album titles, live shows, dating, and sexual orientation seems to be on the table. Hey Swifties, Shake, Shake, Shake It OFF!

Music Notes

Tegan and Sara dropped a highly anticipated album, Crybaby, this week. This album comes out around the same time as High School, a new TV series based on the memoir Tegan and Sara released in 2019. We have recommended I Think We’re Alone Now, Tegan, and Sara’s Substack newsletter and podcast. It’s a thoughtful, behind-the-curtain look into the process and thought of rock star living and the poetry of creating songs and music. Forever honest and inspiring, the sisters continue to grow and impress.

As an example, here is what they both say about a song on the new album called I Can’t Grow Up:

We hope we never grow out of the brats that bring the noise, indie spirit, and volume to all we do!

Secret Links to Cool Stuff:

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

The only regret is to grow up, go ahead and get old, but never grow up!

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout Team