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Coffee Break: Alessi Card Case

Nordstrom currently has a ton of cute card cases right now if you're on the hunt — this card case on a lanyard caught my eye, though, especially because some colors are part of the 2021 Nordstrom Half-Yearly Sale. (The pictured color is marked down to $17, but the solid colors and other animal prints are full price at $29.) You can see all our picks from the sale here!

I think this could be great to keep in your bag if you often have to show an ID at work — you could also keep business cards in it, frequent rewards cards for lunch/coffee spots near the office. If you're the person who's really minimal in which cards you carry in general (license, insurance card, credit card) you could just use it as your wallet in general, too.

Readers, how many cards do you keep in your wallet currently? (Am I the only one who also keeps cash, a few blank checks, a page from my check register, multiple credit cards and store cards? I even keep a few paint swatches in case I'm ever out and about and wonder if stuff will match the few rooms we've painted, which I actually have used once or twice…)

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144 Comments

  1. Ugh — more things not working, fashion-wise. I am short-waisted and narrow-shouldered, but a pear. When I used to easily find mid-rise pants, I had a bunch of jackets that would have been cropped on a longer-torso’d person, but fit me perfectly. Now that I’ve gone up a pants size, I am only finding higher-rise pants, which end in a way that now the jacket looks weird. But a longer jacket also looks bad (big-hipped kid lost in grown-up clothes). I need a jacket b/c my office is too heavy on the A/C and to look a bit more profesh on video calls.

    I think that part of my issue with longer jackets is that at a longer length, it has to clear my hips to zip and then it is often too large overall and completely obscures my waist. It’s like adding 30 pounds. Is there a cheap Loft or something like completer piece I can get just not to freeze that is good for someone with my shape?

    1. Is it possible that it only looks “weird” because your eye isn’t used to the jacket/high rise pants combination? Maybe poke around Pinterest or Instagram and see if any bloggers or influencers or whatever are wearing similar proportions and your eye just needs time to adjust?

    2. Check out Macys. I have a couple of structured, knit jackets from there that I use as topper pieces. I think one of them was from Karen Kane. Look under the Jackes & Blazers section.

    3. With a short waist it’s always worth trying on petite size jackets, to get correct waist placement in the garment. That might help you out with the longer jackets. I totally get what you mean by high waist and wrong length jacket, with a short waist (I have one!) we might end up just looking like legs with a chest on top, no actual torso.

      Does peplums work for you? If you look at The Fold, there are always pronounced or subtle peplum jackets and tops. I think the true peplum jackets there might have too low waist for you, but a top like the Dovercourt or jacket like Astwood might work. Anyway, might work for inspiration. :)

  2. Random Elizabeth Holmes observation (feel free to scroll by) — she is almost not recognizable in the pic I saw in the weekend paper. No more very blonde hair pulled back + black turtleneck. This picture featured loose mid-length dark blonde hair + basic gray maternity dress. If it hadn’t been for the caption, I would not have even noticed it — it was a very inconspicuous look.

    I can’t even think of any high-profile women of note where I can even recall their clothes, so maybe looking unremarkable is what one does. I recall we had a new hire who moved here from a city known for being flashy and called the women in our office stylish as if it were a dirty word. [FWIW, I do not think we are especially stylish or not, but there were a few women who were very petite and they could have worn a sack in a stylish way, so maybe she was thinking of them.]

    1. Why are you so interested in Elizabeth Holmes? You’re allowed to post whatever you want, of course, but I just don’t get how it’s fascinating enough to post all the time.

      1. Eh I find the whole thing fascinating still and I think I’ve posted here once or twice. Because her appearance was so much a part of her mythos, it stands to reason folks are intrigued about her court clothes.
        I haven’t been following the trial super closely but I’d imagine her lawyers want her to look absolutely harmless – like she’d never say a swear word, let alone con investors out of millions of dollars. I hope she dropped the fake baritone, too.

      2. I don’t get how mommies posting about kids and childrearing is fascinating enough to post all the time, but women here do it here all the time. Since when is this hive bullying over Elizabeth Holmes interest?

        1. Omg, it’s not bullying. I’m starting to think it’s all the same person who is extremely interested in Elizabeth Holmes, camping tips, and college admissions to the point of posting on each subject weekly in a stream of consciousness style. There are some seriously weird trends here and we’re allowed to comment on them.

          1. Except my comment from the weekend thread was not stream of consciousness and the same presumption was made. (I did not post today, but I do think this story is fascinating on many, many levels).

          2. I think the person also has a pandemic puppy and was at one point renovating her kitchen.

          3. Yeah, your responses on this thread are totally bullying, but hey, as you said, I guess “you can post whatever you want, of course.”

          4. “We’re allowed to comment on them” is such a classic tr0ll response to getting called out.

      3. The super-blonde hair + fake baritone + Steve Jobs look says “fake” all around, which does not really do wonders for you when you’re on trial for fraud.

        Anyone read about the questions her lawyers have for prospective jurors? Seems like they are trying to weed out anyone with a brain.

      4. I find her case to be really interesting. She had a lot of people fooled by creating this big persona that was clearly fake yet people ate it up.

        1. Agreed! Fascinating stuff, especially reading as a woman in the start-up space (not that I’m taking notes or anything ;)

        1. Now that I’ve finished Mare of Easttown, I need something else to watch. Is this good? Even though we know how it ends? Good enough?

          1. I’ve listened to The Dropout podcast a couple times, it’s fascinating. The movie isn’t made yet.

    3. Was it the Bloomberg photo? I was surprised–it looks more business attire than I expected after the tweedy knit-looking jacket, flats and weird nylon situation she wore to court in May. If they’re going to try to keep her from looking flashy and make her seem more victim/naive, I would think they would be trying to get her in more traditional frumpy maternity wear or maybe some color. Not surprised by the loosened hair.

  3. I got a pandemic puppy and this winter he was reliably a double- or triple-pooper during his morning walk when it was the coldest and darkest, so needing to get hand out of glove to deal with the poop bag. Now that it is warmer, he poops once in the morning. Just my bad luck re the winter? Or is this something maybe he is growing out of?

    I’ve started boarding him one night/month at daycare in anticipation of taking a longer vacation later this summer to the beach. I love him, but it is nice to sleep in that one special Saturday (the trainer said that the first time he’s boarded shouldn’t be for a week, so I’m getting him used to his place).

    1. My dog goes through phases of double-pooping on walks and not. Why does it matter? You have to pick it up regardless of how many times he goes.

      Boarding the dog one night a month is kind of high-maintenance.

    2. My dog went less as he got older – 3-4x a day as a tiny puppy and now 1-2x a day as a 1 yr old. I don’t have to take my gloves off in winter though…I just open up a couple bags before the walk and put them in my pocket so they’re ready to go when he goes.

    3. I think he’s probably growing out of it. Getting your dog used to boarding so he’s not scared when you go on vacation is really nice (and so is sleeping in once a month)!

    4. Protip–get flip-top mittens (glittens) and you don’t have to take your hand out of the glove to undo the poop bags. And, if it’s really cold, open the bags inside, stuff in your pocket, and easy-peasy.

      Dogs are able to hold all their waste better as they get older. Also, you might have switched kibble from puppy to adult or puppy is changing its own feeding schedule that results in different poops. If they’re good texture, be glad and don’t overthink it.

      I consider any double-poop days lucky days, and it makes me laugh and turns my thoughts from “AGAIN?” to “Woo-hoo, lucky day!!!”

  4. I was chatting with friends over the weekend, and it occurred to me that I don’t actually know anyone who has been divorced and regretted it (or at least admits to regretting it). I don’t mean to suggest they’re glad it happened, just like you can’t be glad your husband abused you or cheated or spent down your life savings; but exactly zero people I know say things like, I wish I was still married to him, the person he had become by the time it ended. The older I get, the more odd I find the stigma against divorce. No one does it hastily. No one thinks 5 years later, I should’ve just tried harder and everything would’ve been ok. Have you noticed the same thing among your divorced friends and family members?

    1. I know a person majorly Catholic-guilted about a failed marriage even though it was an abusive marriage (abusive wife, which is doubtlessly hard b/c it runs counter to the machismo narrative).

    2. I know several people who were blindsided by the divorce and didn’t want it, but I guess that isn’t really the same thing.

    3. I know one guy who regrets it. He’s 48ish never married again, no kids and lonely. He treated his wife poorly from the get go and they broke up within 1 year of marriage in their mid 30s. He was very — my way or the highway, this is how MY family does this, you have to adjust to how MY mother wants things (even though his mother didn’t live with them). Both were Indian American, born and raised in America, yet when he married he suddenly became an old school Indian man from the 1950s in terms of his expectations of a wife — after dating her for 2 years and totally not being like that. She basically was like I can’t live like this/don’t need this and left. Now he regrets how poorly he treated her and other women along the way and how if he didn’t, he too would have a marriage, family, home etc. now. She I’m sure has 0 regrets getting rid of a guy ASAP who was showing her how life would be.

      1. this story is terrifying yet not remotely surprising – I am Indian American and we have some family friends with similar stories. I ultimately married out of my race for many reasons, but stories like this always gave me pause when I was dating Indian guys.

        1. Do you watch Shahs of Sunset? Not about Indians, about Persians, but MJ got excoriated for saying she preferred to marry a white boy to avoid the stereotypical relationship with a persian guy. Sounds very similar.

          (I meant there’s a time and place to say something like that, and she got that part all wrong – see: reality TV – but overall she wasn’t wrong. Sad to say, though, her actual white boy is hardly a prince either.)

    4. I know men who didn’t initiate the divorce in their hetero marriage, and now wish it hadn’t happen. I don’t know anyone who initiated it who regrets it. I certainly don’t.

      I think the initiators generally do all the hard mourning work around the relationship while they figure out it’s unsalvageable, and sometimes the other partners really never do that mourning.

      1. This. I know guys who didn’t initiate (like the guy above treating his wife badly) who thought everything was going swimmingly, so yeah now they regret whatever they did that made their wife leave though they don’t necessarily still understand what they did and just paint the ex wife as crazy.

        1. Yep. Nearly every guy I’ve met who’s been divorced hates his ex and has nothing but ugly things to say about her, and sadly they tends to seep into their feelings about women in general. I did have a male coworker who did seem a little stressed during the process, but he insisted he had no hard feelings, he and his ex were two people who realized they shouldn’t be married anymore.

          1. I know so many of these men. They did basically zero to negative to respect their marriages, much less work to save them, but the ex is the b1tch because she finally got fed up with their BS. Therefore, all women are b1tches.

            good riddance to these men.

    5. I know one initiator who regrets it but it’s because he blew up his marriage for some pretty young thing that was no longer interested once he was divorced.

    6. I know some couples who divorced with young kids who found that divorce made them single but didn’t really otherwise fix their problems. If anything, it was harder to expect things b/c while the ex has visitation rights, you can’t make that into the expectation that they actually pick up their kid from school, don’t lose the winter coat, etc. High conflict parenting seems to be even worse when done out of two households.

      [Not saying they don’t regret it, but that it wasn’t living up to expectations, which were perhaps too rosy.]

      1. Yeah, this is true. I sometimes wish my ex would just go enter the priesthood and disappear, because it seems most days that that would be preferable to his inconsistent, occasionally destructive involvement. If he’s a bad parent while you’re married, he’ll still be a bad parent when you’re divorced.

        1. It sounds like you don’t regret divorcing this man, you regret marrying him in the first place.

          1. I mean, you’re not wrong. That’s just hard to say since my kid came out of it, and I don’t regret that at all.

          2. It’s an impossible calculus. I know as I also don’t regret the child I had with my ex. But it doesn’t change the fact that he and I should never have been married, and remaining married was the thing that would have led to real regret.

      2. I have noticed this, too. Basically, if you have young kids, think really hard about what problems you’re trying to solve because life is not necessarily going to be easier. It’s going to be a different kind of hard. (I’m definitely NOT saying that anyone should stay in a miserable situation or marriage that’s actively harmful, but I am saying that being divorced with young kids looks pretty freaking difficult from an outsider’s perspective.)

        1. +1 I have noticed this as well. I’m not sure if they regret divorcing or not but I do think several thought that divorce would solve a lot of problems that it didn’t, particularly as they relate to raising kids.

          1. Exactly. We all know that moms carry more of the mental labor (and actual labor) and hands-on caregiving. If someone is not lifting that burden from his partner, divorce may solve the spousal frustration but it sure isn’t going to reduce the mom’s workload. Instead, she’s very likely to have to tackle the mental labor and logistics for her children’s two households, one of which she has zero control over.

          2. I think this is right, but for me and a lot of my divorced hetero mom friends, part of the mental labor was trying to wrangle your partner in to showing up on time, getting the kid their on time, getting them to care about kids’ schools, etc. Now the “parenting/nagging my partner into giving a shit about me/our kid” is taken off my plate, and it is way, way, way easier.

    7. Of course. Most of us don’t get divorced unless things are unbearable, so it’s a huge relief when we finally do. No regrets at all.

      There are lots of people puttering along in ok but not great marriages that will never pull the trigger. Maybe you’d have some regrets in that group if they did get divorced (but based on my experience, also probably not.)

    8. Actually, I know people who divorced hastily or regretted it later. Universally, they got married for selfish reasons (or to appease their girlfriend/boyfriend who said “fish or cut bait”), divorced for selfish reasons, completely ignored the devastation left in their wake, and, years and years later, looked back on what could have been instead of the wreckage of their lives.

      Perhaps staying married would have helped; the larger issue is that if they were the type of people to have worked through the issues in the marriage, they would not be the type of people who would be 65, twice or thrice divorced, with kids who don’t talk to them.

      1. Yes. I was kind of thinking that I don’t know a lot of people who regret their own divorces, but I definitely know people who regret other people’s divorces. Unfortunately the stigma is probably felt primarily by those who haven’t earned it.

        1. That is a great point. Mostly I was getting at the idea that some people regret the way they behaved when they were younger because they behaved in objectively regrettable ways; their marriages and divorces are but one manifestation of this.

        1. Certainly caught my attention! I love the sentiment. In the first year of getting over my failed marriage, I got over it by getting under it as often as I could. It turns out one of the things I got under was my next (now current) husband.

    10. I know one guy who is sort of wistful about the end of his marriage, but I genuinely think he’ll never understand why his wife divorced him and (at some level) doesn’t really want to understand the reasons for the divorce. To be frank, I think that there is a certain amount of “catering to man-baby” that happens in a lot of straight marriages, and several of my divorced women friends were surprised that they actually have more free time and fewer domestic tasks without their husband.

      A friend who was blindsided by an affair was still in love with her spouse for a long while, but she’s also someone who isn’t really happy as a single person and is finding the dating scene really challenging.

      I feel like the stigma against divorce is such an old-fashioned attitude that hopefully is going away. My boomer parents and in-laws are way, way into shaming people who get divorced, even though one set is the second marriage for both.

  5. Let me preface this by saying I totally believe in masks for providers and patients in a medical setting so I’m not anti mask, but are any doctors (or patients) finding it hard to communicate with drs. with masks on? I mean obviously you can speak about whatever, but now that we are to the point were people are vaccinated and not looking to rush out the door in two seconds, I’m noticing that so much communication used to happen just by looking at the person’s face. Like some people have expressive faces — you can tell if they have a question or if they are doubtful about what you’re saying or if they are actually in pain even though they’re saying no they’re fine. I mean with some people you can still tell — they’ll either verbally tell your or they have expressive features you can see w/ a mask like raised eyebrows or whatever. But with some people, the mask hides all emotion.

    Anyone else feel this or have any work arounds? I wish I could read people’s eyes — some people can, I cannot at all.

    1. I feel like I am speaking a non-native language in a mask. Every word is annunciated and said loudly and a bit too slow. Like. I. want. to. make. sure. the. mask. doesn’t. muffle. what. I’m. saying. It’s almost like the auto-phone-attendants: press 1 to hear the menu, press 2 to leave a message.

      I am fully vaccinated, but honestly can’t keep up with the rules changing so quick at the various places I go, so I’m in a mask unless I’m outside generally, including drive-throughs.

      1. Yes! Thank you for articulating why I hate wearing a mask. I am not anti mask and happily wore one (and still do when others are despite being fully vaccinated) but really never understood people who were like “they are no big deal” because they annoy me so much and you’ve explained it so well. I also similarly have a very hard time understanding some people when they have masks on – similar to as if I were speaking to someone with a heavy accent. I can understand them but it takes all of my focus.

    2. This is an issue for some doctors, yes. Being able to read a patient’s non-verbal cues and pain signals has been limited by masks. However, there are ways to work around that. There aren’t ways to replicate the benefit of masks without actually using masks.

      1. there are no benefits of a cloth face covering that necessitate actually wearing one. full stop.

        5. This person is a troll. Ignore them. They were trolling in earlier threads too. Anonymous, I hope you are able to get the attention you are craving from friends and family instead of trolling people on the internet.

      2. I suspect doctors have always been overestimating their ability to read patients though. Often I’ve wished I could see a veterinarian (i.e., a doctor who focused on my symptoms and my health, and didn’t try to read my mind).

    3. Yeah, I definitely feel this a little bit (was just at the doctor this morning!), but the obvious workaround if it really bothers you is to do a telemedicine appointment for the talking to your doctor part of the appointment. My doctors’ offices are still really pushing telemedicine and I haven’t taken them up on it in a while since everything I’ve needed has required an in-person procedure or exam, but I don’t know why you couldn’t schedule a follow up online after you’ve had an exam.

      1. or just get the kind of masks that show more of your face that were created for people who need to lip read

    4. I went to the doctor today as a matter of fact. I would have liked it if we had taken our masks off once we were in the exam room but she didn’t take hers off so I didn’t take mine off. She has little kids and I get it, she sees dozens of people every day.

      I have learned over the last year exactly how much I lip read rather than actually hearing someone so I appreciate the referral to an ENT she provided.

      For what it’s worth, my difficulty understanding someone wearing a mask is much harder in a noisy place like a restaurant or the grocery store. It wasn’t as big of a deal in my doctor’s office.

  6. Going to be in Michigan for the first time this weekend! Any recommendations in/around Grand Rapids for things to see/do/eat. Will have a car. TIA!

      1. Sorry, food & beer rec is not at the Gardens, they just have okayish cafeteria food. These are scattered all over Grand Rapids but it is a very easy city to navigate if you have a car:
        Roam
        Linear
        Sovengard
        One Bourbon
        Knickerbocker
        Donkey
        Winchester

  7. Does anyone more knowledgeable than me about tennis have views about the Naomi Osaka thing with the French Open? I was really surprised that she was forced to have to attend press conferences rather than being allowed to pay fines. Is there something that I am missing? I am sure no one wanted her to have to drop out of the tournament.

    1. I think she should call up Marshawn Lynch and get some pointers and do her next tournament in Beast Mode. I play tennis, but obvs don’t follow the drama. I’m an idiot and an extrovert who errs on the side of candor first, thoughts second, so no doubt I’d be a disaster as a tennis pro.

      1. Yes!! “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” on repeat. Man, I love Marshawn Lynch so much.

        1. My claim to fame is that I was at the Cal game where he did the impromptu joy ride in the golf cart.

      2. Holy fing f. I read to the bottom and it’s like these folks don’t get how Marshawn Lynch schooled the world in just this YEARS ago. I am not a football person or from Seattle and even I know about him.

    2. All grand slams have obligations besides just the tennis. Media is one of those obligations, as are charity events before the tournament and a winners gala after (in regular times). No you can’t just pay a fine and say I won’t talk to the press or like she wanted to do say I’ll talk to the press one time whenever I exit the tournament. You are expected to do a press conference after every match. Sorry but I think “mental health” is a BS reason but it’s everyone’s BS reason du jour so I’m sure she has a bandwagon of millennial and Z younger support. You know how you get over anxiety and mental health concerns — by getting back on the horse and doing what makes you anxious and then it becomes routine. Or just bow out of the tournament, that’s fine too.

      1. Why can’t she just pay the fine? Isn’t that the point of the fine? It was the pre-established consequence for breaking the rule.

        1. Because if every high ranking tennis player then said ok I don’t want to talk to the media either, here’s my daily fine money — what robust press conferences would you have? All you would get would be low ranked/unranked/challenger type players who couldn’t afford to pay 15k per press conference. To people who follow the sport, hearing from the players matters. If you can’t play by the tournaments rules, don’t play, there are dozens who’d want to talk your spot.

          1. Well, when the result is that one of the stars doesn’t play, it is time to come up with a new system.

            A clip of Serena Willliams at a press conference is making the rounds on Twitter. A male reporter asks her why she isn’t smiling (Ugh). Her answer is that it was 11:30pm, she was tired, and she didn’t want to be there. The reporters laughed. Is this really the kind of press that is interesting to people who follow the sport? Wouldn’t the player’s analysis of what went well and what didn’t be better the following morning, after they slept and processed?

          3. No Face, I agree that the press conferences are awful. I usually end up turning them off because I can’t stand them. But there has to be a better way to change the press requirement. It seems like some sort of players’ association would be useful here, now wouldn’t it, ha?

          4. Waaaaaah. I worked in sports for a long time and am an avid fan of many sports teams and athletes, but I couldn’t care less about the press conferences. Half the time, the questions are stupid, surface level, and are obviously meant to get a rise out of athletes – that’s garbage IMO (whether the stupid question is pointed at an athlete or someone on a red carpet, same thing to me). I would love a real in-depth analysis, but I do not expect athletes or coaches to come right off the field, track, court, pitch, and tamp whatever kind of emotional roller coaster they are on to answer idiotic questions. I agree with the poster who said it’s time to figure out a new system. Press conferences made more sense before the internet and social media, and the 1,000 other ways to get information from and about athletes.

        2. It is not only about the fans hearing from players at all levels, though that is certainly relevant, but also that it is a competitive disadvantage to players who do commit the time to the press for other players (likely the higher ranked and more financially flush ones) to be able to just skip out and spend their time relaxing, recovering, training,etc.

          1. But maybe the press conferences are bad for all players, and it will only change if the successful ones push back on them. I saw the clip of Serena Williams – why are they at 11 pm? Couldn’t they be earlier? Couldn’t they be organized to avoid repetitive questions?

      2. Yikes. Yiiiiikes. That’s really cruel. I hope you’re kinder to the people you know in real life.

      3. She did manage to take questions from a broadcaster she has a contract with. Hmmm.

      4. Screw you for saying that about anyone’s mental health. Maybe you can get some therapy to figure out why you’re such a jerk.

      5. This is a bit harsh, but I don’t disagree with the premise. She’s an extremely well-compensated professional and can find coaches to teach her how to handle the media. It’s part of her job and she has, on many occasions, done interviews with the press. G—gle search lets you do custom date/time searches, so you can find plenty of YouTube clips from before this last week talking to reporters and journalists.

    3. You’re missing that this is professional tennis aka a job. In exchange for the prize money and incentives she signed a contract agreeing to do press.

      I don’t agree with how it was handled but it’s not how you’re describing it either.

      1. I don’t know. Once I’ve landed in a job, I regularly negotiate things I don’t like after the fact. This job said I could never have flex hours. I took the job but never accepted that and now I have flex hours. I know my stupid corporate job is not the same as a professional tennis career, but I don’t think even ‘normal’ people accept objectively dumb things at work without question.

        1. The tournament’s interest in having robust press coverage that results in broad public interest and viewership (more ad dollars and ticket revenues) plus an even competitive playing field is not trivial to the tournament. The hours during which you do your desk job probably is to your employer.

    4. I guarantee that at least some of the conservative, white, male critics are just upset that she’s an uppity black girl.

      I think I agree that she should expect her obligations at this point are more than just showing up to play tennis. I hope she can get help working on her anxiety and I think it’s fantastic that she’s recognizing that and not getting steamrolled.

      1. She knows that. That’s what irks me. She full well knew exactly what her obligations were and what the result would be.

        1. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she knew that and wanted to fulfill the obligation but has found herself unable to, and that’s why I hope she’s working on it.

    5. I don’t know much about Naomi Osaka, but I do know that avoiding things that make you anxious makes anxiety worse. I hope it doesn’t for her because as someone who has experienced anxiety, anything that makes it worse when it’s already bad enough to interfere with your professional obligations is a slippery slope.

    6. I don’t know, but I feel like the press has gotten more and more exploitative as we’ve gotten older. I was in high school during Columbine, and I have distinct memories of the news reporters shoving microphones in the face of teenagers who had just survived a true tragedy. Those videos and sound bites were everywhere for the next year, and I think that only drove the push to continue to do that with the next school shooting or natural disaster or big sports injury.

      I think media is overdue for a grand reckoning of what is acceptable behavior. This feels like small potatoes compared to filming the crying families outside a school, but it’s a step in the right direction. Those sports press conferences are mean-spirited and a minefield of traps, and it’s not healthy to expect young or naive sports stars to navigate those constantly. I root for Naomi because I don’t know how else to change this without the players themselves speaking up. Look at Kevin Ware’s horrific injury during March Madness. They played that clip over and over, and it was truly disturbing. His teammates were horrified, as were fans, and yet all of the post-game coverage made each of his teammates relive it again, interspersed with fans tearfully talking about their trauma. That’s not okay. Exploiting people’s pain, visible or not, for views, is not okay.

      1. Right. Yeah, maybe she agreed to do press, but the media hasn’t exactly acted in good faith during these press conferences.

      2. +1. It seems like they’re expected to take an unnecessary beating, often at a very young age. The press does not seem to be behaving in good faith.

    7. By exercising her privilege to simply walk away and refuse to do something that’s difficult for her, Osaka is trivializing the challenges that ordinary people face every day. Plenty of people have to do scary, difficult things for their jobs every day, but aren’t rich enough to be able to just opt out.

      There are also a whole lot of people out there with actual diagnosed mental illnesses (don’t know whether Osaka’s claim of anxiety is associated with a diagnosis or not) who have to grit their teeth, put one foot in front of the other, and get on with life because they have no other choice. By whining and running off in a huff when she doesn’t get her way, Osaka is simply contributing to the stigma surrounding mental illness. She should either remain silent about the issue or speak about it in a dignified and productive way.

          1. It’s not about race and gender in this instance. It’s about the actual harm she is doing to people with mental illness. If she weren’t blaming it on mental illness, I wouldn’t care what she did.

          2. She’s not harming people with mental illness. She’s one of them. Goodness the empathy is in short supply around here today.

          3. No one should be gate keeping mental illness and I say this as someone diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses. Her actions bring awareness to the issues. It in no way trivializes my issues.

        3. Exactly. This is more “how DARE she” than anything else. She, having excelled in a historically white sport, being a “minority” woman.

      2. Are you out of your mind? A lot of people can’t afford their daily life-saving medications. Should I forego mine so as to not trivialize their struggles? Of course not. You don’t have to risk your health – including your mental health – because other people have it hard. I can’t even with this comment.

        1. She doesn’t have to risk her mental health. She can pull out and then make a dignified statement or just cite “personal reasons.” But she doesn’t get to complain that it’s not fair that she has to do things she doesn’t like in order to make bucketloads of money. And she doesn’t get to go around reinforcing stereotypes about mental illness.

          1. Maybe she wants to send a message that we all don’t have to accept toxic aspects of our jobs just because that’s how it’s always been done. I would really examine whether your reaction is rooted in racism or internalized misogyny. Something seems off in your comments.

          2. Actions like Osaka’s are what cause people like Anon at 3:32 to say that mental health is everyone’s BS reason du jour.

          3. Yes, thank you Anon at 4:34! Exactly that. JFC! I can’t even believe the comments on here.

          4. There are a lot of people and organizations with agendas that hurt people with mental illnesses. Naomi Osaka is not one of them. Get a grip

          5. And if she hides it or doesn’t talk about it she’ll be accused of contributing to stigma. She can’t win for losing.
            Also – she’s a 23 year old minority athlete in a pressure cooker sport that is at times openly racist (see coverage of the Williamses). Give her a damn break.

          6. Or she could do what she is legally entitled to do and ask for reasonable accommodations.

    8. I think what she is doing is fantastic. We don’t force movie stars to do press conferences in between takes of filming a movie, or confront opera singers at intermission – a tournament is the same thing and it totally makes sense that the press would be disruptive to ones’ performance or even wellbeing. Plus, who cares? Does anyone remember an athletes press conferences as more important than their actual performance?

      1. Good point. At classical music performances we don’t even clap between movements to allow the musicians to retain their focus. I think we could afford to extend a little grace to people in an unquestionably stressful situation. And also take someone at their word when they admit to mental health issues, which some commenters here seem to be unable to do today.

        1. Not clapping between movements isn’t for the benefit of the performers. It’s to avoid breaking the mood for the audience.

      2. You may not care but people do. Fans sure. But the next round opponent is definitely watching — sure they’ll watch the match but they also watch to see if the player says anything about whether their backhand is working, their confidence, their general demeanor after the match – do they seem exhausted or still lot of gas in the tank after a 3 set match for women/5 for men. It’s not at all the same as putting on a play or shooting a movie. The game is over after you’d walked off the court – you then have 1-2 days off to prep for your next match which starts AFTER you talk to the press. This is how it works, if she doesn’t like it, no one is forcing her to be a pro. She can go work on her anxiety 24-7 for all anyone cares.

        1. Why do you seem so invested in press conferences? Are you a member of the press? Just because this is how it works doesn’t mean it’s how it has to work. Were you also burning certain football player’s jerseys because no one was forcing them to be pro and standing for the national anthem is part of the job?

          1. Yeah, exactly. It’s weird how all these commenters are super into professional tennis press conferences. It’s almost as if this issue is really more about power and control…hmmm

      3. These are not the same thing at all. And you’d better believe actors and opera singers are forced to do press to promote their work all the time, whether they feel like it or not. There is likely more flexibility, but in those situations you don’t have the issue of competitive fairness. If Osaka wants the big prize money, she’s got to participate in making the enterprise profitable.

    9. I think this is more complicated than it appears on the surface. Doing press IS part of the job at the professional level, and not just in tennis. I sympathize with her having anxiety/mental health issues, AND I think someone is failing her by not providing her with media relations training so she could feel more at ease in those situations. It’s the press’s job to tell the story, AND some of the tactics used can be problematic. Dropping out of a tournament is a drastic solution to the problem.

      And, it may not be the actual reporters that are the problem; it’s all the sh!t-talking that happens on social media among the fans that’s driving her anxiety and unease. Cruelty on social media is a societal problem.

      1. As someone who has been a professional spokeswoman, I never, ever, ever read the comments or social media reactions. Often, I don’t even watch the clips. There’s no point in letting that hate get to you.

        1. I bet you’re not quite as famous as Naomi Osaka, though. It’s probably very hard for her to avoid.

          1. Obviously not, but it actually doesn’t change very much. My roles were for extremely controversial subjects, for which the hate was regularly off the charts, in environments that were, shall I put it mildly, hostile to our position.

            Osaka is famous whether or not she does press conferences. Media training will only help her and even if she weren’t required to do the press conferences, she should have that training.

    10. I know very little about tennis, but one thing that struck me from following this story was that it sounds like the people in charge of the French Open reached out to her after she said she wouldn’t participate b/c of her mental health issues (presumably to get more information about why), and it sounds like she never responded. I’m curious why she was unwilling to at least talk to them and see if there was some kind of compromise to be had (which, admittedly, maybe there just wasn’t), or at a minimum, start a dialogue about this.

      “In the statement signed by Jayne Hrdlicka, the head of Tennis Australia; Mr. Moretton, president of the France Tennis Federation; Ian Hewitt, the chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club; and Mike McNulty, chairman of the United States Tennis Association, the officials said they had reached out to Ms. Osaka to open a discussion about both her well being and concerns she had about news conferences and mental health.

      Ms. Osaka, they said, refused to engage with them, leaving them with no choice but to pursue significant penalties to help ensure that she did not gain an advantage over her competitors.”

      https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/sports/tennis/naomi-osaka-quits-french-open-depression.html?searchResultPosition=4

    11. She’s an athlete, not a public speaker. In fact, it’s obvious that public speaking causes her great distress. I don’t see why she should be forced to suffer so that the media can profit off of her. Huge respect to Naomi for opting out of this circus.

      1. She isn’t being forced to speak to the press by the press or for the benefit of the press. She is contracted to speak with the press by the tournament because the tournament needs press to get spectators, which it needs to make money so they can pay Osaka and the other players. There are other questions worth exploring, but you’ve got the calculus wrong on this one.

  8. Another thank you for the chickpea salad recipe! Just made it for lunch and it’s delicious.

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