Weekend Open Thread: Brooks Brothers
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Brooks Brothers' summer sale is on, and they've got a lot of cute things, including this 100% supima cotton cardigan with variegated stripes — I've shown the black one but there's also a khaki and red one.
Because it's clearance, inventory varies by color, but they all have a good amount left. I like that the 100% cotton cardigan is machine washable, and has a bit of banding at the bottom for shape.
The cardigan was $138, but is now marked to $69 at Brooks Brothers. They actually have a number of cardigans in the sale that look great as well as a number of 100% cotton sweateres. I'd also trust them for short sleeved sweaters; this cashmere/wool one looks like a great basic.
Psst: there are a ton of striped cardigans in the Nordstrom sale too if you want to see what's trending!
Sales of note for 7/19:
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale has started! Here's our big roundup of the best workwear, as well as everything we've selected thus far. Don't forget to check to see if their daily beauty deal is a good one for you – e.g., 7/23 Lancome; 7/24 YSL; 7/29 up to 40% off select lip products; 7/31 Bobbi Brown; 8/1 Jo Malone
- Ann Taylor – Semi-annual sale, 60% off sale and 40% off everything — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Banana Republic – Summer sale up to 60% off sale styles + extra 20% off
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns
- J.Crew – 50% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lululemon – Summer sale!
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added)
- M.M.LaFleur – 25% off jardigans (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the rack, extra 25% off clearance! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – Red Door Sale! Prices start at $15
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
Anyone have a good podcast recommendation for a transcontinental flight? I’ve got about 8 hours to fill with something other than my typical political and news shows. I like a series but am not big on m_rder shows.
You can download episodes of Fresh Air as podcasts.
I always recommend “The Rewatchables” – fun discussions about movies. There are a lot to choose from but the episodes with Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, Chris Ryan, and/or Van Lathan are my favorites.
I love The Rewatchables, but it’s best when you’ve recently watched the movie, so I’d either pair this with some movies or look for episodes of movies you’ve seen recently enough for the episode to work. Also a fan of other Ringer podcasts like The Big Picture and House of R.
I love the Sex and the City recaps on Every Outfit. I also like podcasts with tips on how to have fun (gasp) and squeeze in things you enjoy in life, so I’ve been listening to Gretchen Rubin lately.
Gretchen Rubin is a great source for learning how to live a perfect life. If you can just do what she does, your life is going to be imminently better. I know because she told me so. It won’t be as good as hers, because for her it is effortless, but I am sure it is still worth a try.
I truly don’t get what you guys are getting out of smacking down anyone who is trying to be happier.
Probably the smugness of believing that you’ve figured it out and are in a position to lecture others.
But no one is making you listen to her. I get that some of you are really struggling with how to be happy and you’re feeling insecure that other women who are just as busy as you are also enjoying life while you’re not, but you literally don’t have to sh*t on happy people. Find what makes you happy and do it – for all our sakes.
I’m not listening to her. I can still find it ridiculous how so many of you need this external validation in order to be happy.
The NYT podcast The Idiot was pretty fun.
My son loves the Fall of Civilizations podcasts and they tend to be long. I always enjoy the Holderness family. New Ali Hazelwood novella about that long just out now too (Unbound, on Spotify).
Not a podcast but, I watch the entire original star wars trilogy on my last long haul flight. Never have time to spend a day watching them, and if I dosed off for a bit, it’s not like a I missed anything.
Extremely niche question, but I have no idea where else to turn: I just realized I messed up the math for an estimated quarterly tax payment and scheduled a payment that represents a significant overpay (to the tune of $5,000). I can’t modify or cancel the transaction in the IRS payment portal because the payment is still pending; it’s scheduled for Monday. I’ve called the IRS individual help line three times and can’t even get in the hold queue, my call keeps getting declined due to high volume.
Fortunately I can cover the payment but I will not lie, I had some plans for that $5,000…damnit. This is fixable, right? Or will I be waiting until my 2026 tax refund? Or have I just front-loaded all my side hustle tax payments for 2026?
Can you cancel it from the account you’re withdrawing it from?
I doubt you can get it back right now, but you can offset your 3rd and 4th quarter estimates by the amount you overpaid.
IANAL or an accountant, but I believe that the excess will reduce your next quarterly estimated tax payment. The IRS will penalize you if you pay late but it doesn’t penalize you for paying early. Verify this information before relying upon it, of course.
Can you ask your accountant? I’d guess you could take it out of the next estimated payment in September.
Just pay less on the Q3 payment. Get your CPA to give you the amount to pay then. People mess up their quarterly payments all the time and it washes out at the end of the year.
you can revise it and then you will have front loaded for 2026
I’m a sucker for stripes. I think 99% of my tops are striped.
Want to talk about the immaturity and dependency of men? It’s apparently perpetuating.
I don’t even have access to the following article but I’m interested. Anyone have a gift link? I’ve read that unemployment is unusually high among young men who should be entering the workforce these days (for multiple reasons including the fact that physical labor like manufacturing has decreased & women are more likely to have higher educations for white collar work.)
This article is actually titled something like “Call Her Mommy: The Gen Zers Bankrolling Their Boyfriends” https://www.thecut.com/article/young-women-earning-more-money-boyfriends.html
Gen Z women aren’t the first to bankroll hobosexual significant others and won’t be the last. I know both men and women who paired up with a slacker they struggled to shrug off in their early and mid twenties. Tale as old as time!
Yup. I bankrolled my college boyfriend in the early aughts and even put him on my insurance. I finally got fed up and vowed to never again date anyone who paid for beer in quarters no matter how nice/funny/sexy they were.
Unfortunately the average caliber of woman is just so much higher than the average caliber of men. The math just doesn’t allow all wonderful women to have an equal partner. So women are left with the choice is being single or dating down, and some people would rather date way down than be alone.
We clearly don’t know the same people. What a weird statement.
Nothing new under the sun. Gen Z is not the first generation to face this but I also don’t think it’s as wide spread as this article implies.
Trying again today because I posted too late yesterday: does anyone own items from LilySilk? If so, what is the quality like?
thanks!
I replied late if you did not see
Found an accessible link for the article I wanted to discuss about women supporting their boyfriends: https://archive.is/n9E2E
Maybe a pedantic Q but – When cooking what % lean do you prefer for ground beef? Do you use different % for different recipes? What about ground turkey and more? I’ve always been a 93% ground beef girl and 99% turkey… we only use ground pork for an egg roll in a bowl recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever used ground chicken.
No. And I always add duck fat to ground turkey.
For ground beef, I use a higher % fat for burgers than for recipes where the meat is crumbled or mixed with other ingredients.
I don’t use ground turkey anymore because it’s so dry. For ground chicken, I usually only have one option for fat content. When there are two options, the extra option is a super lean version that’s very dry. I avoid that one. I usually buy organic or at least the most “natural” option available for meat, but for ground chicken the cheapest least “natural” variety from Perdue seems to have the fewest bone fragments.
I use 80/20 for beef because it tastes better. My DH doesn’t eat turkey so I don’t make it. For ground chicken I just use regular chicken (like whatever 1 lb package I have) and grind it in the food processor.