Ft. Shark Week & Peach Sorbet with Crushed Blackberries

August 14, 2020 by Sydney Grant

Happy Friday, but more importantly, happy Shark Week everybody! We’re halfway through August, meaning summer is almost over. Normally by now, I’d have a decent tan going and an Instagram or two to show from the vacation my family takes each year. Instead, I have a tie-dye sweatsuit I made back in May, and some mosquito bites from the one time I managed to venture outside this week. Yay 2020!

However you’re planning on spending your weekend, enjoy these quarantivities! And as always, please add your own activities to the list!

Quarant-streams

Shark Week 2020

Watch this if you still can’t get “Baby Shark” out of your head (doo doo doo doo doo doo):

It’s the best week of the year! It’s somehow already mid-August, meaning I was beginning to lose hope that Discovery Channel would air their annual Shark Week this year. The way 2020 has gone, could you blame me? Perhaps when we needed it most, however, Shark Week’s returned for another eight days of (nearly) 24/7 socially distanced, shark-centered programming. The 2020 edition of the event boasts 24 specials (more than ever before!!) and features everything any shark fanatic could possibly want, from a special 20th anniversary Air Jaws special to an hour of Snoop Dogg delving deep into the congregating patterns of Great Whites. Sharkadelic!

This year also sees Shaquille O’Neal’s triumphant return to Shark Week, as he once again faces his fears and comes face-to-face with a 30-foot whale shark. If watching one of the biggest men on the planet square off with the biggest shark on the planet isn’t prime television, I honestly don’t know what is. Shark Week 2020 ends this Sunday, but make sure to check out the full schedule via the Discovery Channel website, because there’s still plenty of content left to sink your teeth into!

Stream it via the Discovery Channel or Discovery GO

‘Never Have I Ever’

Watch this if you want to laugh, cringe and cry (potentially all at the same time):

You’ve probably heard of Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever by now, as it was a huge success when it was released back in April (aka when the pandemic was still fresh and literally all we had to do was sit inside and watch TV). For those of you who haven’t, the coming-of-age series follows fifteen-year-old Devi Vishwakumar, who had a less-than-stellar start to high school and is determined to turn things around for her sophomore year. When we first meet Devi, she’s praying to the gods on the morning of her first day in front of her household shrine, as she also happens to be a first-generation Indian-American. She doesn’t want much: just a boyfriend (but not a nerdy one from her A.P. classes, duh) and to be invited to a party with plenty of drugs and alcohol, just so she can decline the offer to partake. Oh, yeah, and she’d also like less arm hair and to eventually get into Princeton. I mean, who doesn’t??

Although I may never be able to relate to my mom forcing me to wear a sari rather than jeans to a family holiday, I certainly had my own fair share of awkward high school fumbles. This show is the teenage dramedy I didn’t know I needed as badly as I did until I watched it, and believe me when I say, Never Have I Ever binged a show so quickly.

Stream it now via Netflix.

Quarant-reads

‘The Guest List’ by Lucey Foley

Read this if you’re mourning all of the weddings you were supposed to go to this summer :

Among the worst places to hold one’s wedding, I would argue that a creepy island full of buried dead bodies would be pretty near the top. That doesn’t stop the young couple in Foley’s latest thriller, though! Pretty early on, the worst thing that could possibly happen at a wedding happens. No, the bar doesn’t run out of alcohol, but close! A murder goes down and in proper whodunit fashion, the book flashes back and takes the reader through the events leading up to it. If you’re one of those people who gets a kick out of playing Sherlock Holmes and figuring it out before the reveal, pay close attention to all the clues Foley drops throughout. The Guest List will have you captivated all weekend, and actually thankful that your college acquaintance’s destination wedding was canceled due to COVID.

Purchase now via Amazon.