Dear World: If You Need a Ballsy Brand Name, I Have Some Ballsy Advice
12/02/2025
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hi, i'm ash!
Creator of the New Travel & Design Series, 'OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES.'
Travel writer & host, cultural explorer, and architecture & interiors freak.
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I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈
I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈ I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT ✈
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You had me at “unseasoned linguine energy,” Ash—This is some peak jealousy-inducing wordsmithery on how to create evocative brand and product names.
“Unseasoned linguine energy” should definitely be on a T-shirt. To wear to bed. When you’re tired. LOLLLLLLLLLLLL. 🤣
Congratulations Ash! Now ALL the good names are taken!! I’ll have to take drugs to come up with some half-way decent business names. Luckily I secured thisisyourmom… Can be used to send advice emails that people (my kids) will open, eventually…
Because getting high on cheese with a cheese-slicer is impossible. I know, I tried… I grew-up in the Netherlands where everybody seems to get one at birth. It must have been invented by a Dutch person. They are “zuinig” -frugal. A cheese-slicer makes sure you don’t put big chunks on your sandwich and the block of Gouda last a week in an average household. When I moved to France I couldn’t find one. So I had to bring one from Holland. Now you can buy them here as well, I think it’s more a sign of bad economy than gastronomical life-style choice. However, I advice against trying it on Brie or other soft-cheeses!
My dear Ash, I can’t have you eat unseasoned linguini, not on my watch!
Here’s a way to make delicious linguini with minimal seasoning (a.k.a. empty fridge…) you’ll need a couple of garlic cloves (if you don’t have that, use garlic powder), olive oil and linguini:
– Cook your pasta in water with lots of salt. Meanwhile chop the garlic (the more the better obviously) add it to the olive oil in a frying pan. Don’t let it burn! (If you do it with garlic powder then add that after the pasta!)
– 2-3 minutes before cooking time, take the pasta out and add it to the garlic-oil pan. Do not throw away the cooking water of the pasta!
– Add a scoop of cooking water and let it absorb, keep stirring and keep adding water. This cooking water contains the starch from the pasta and will create a creamy flavorful sauce that gets one with the pasta while finishing the cooking of the pasta. Do this until you’re happy with the consistency of the sauce and the “bite” of your linguini.
– Serve it with fresh ground pepper or chili flakes.
Now this is the bare minimum. If you are lucky and have a couple of cherry tomatoes you can add them to the garlic. better yet: add a splash of white wine before adding the pasta. And if you happen to have some Parmesan or Pecorino (I like to add slices or grated Gouda because it melts so nicely, but please don’t tell an Italian person !)
Back up, Miss Swiss. By “cheese slicer,” do you mean standard plastic handle with a metal wire on the end–or do you mean ingenious new cheese contraption the likes of which you’ve never seen, which will bamboozle your brain and change your life forever?! 💃🧀
BAAHAHAHA. Welllllllllllll – this one was a gorgeous dark wooden board, with a slicing wire that raised up on an arm and came down as if it were chopping off its head. It’s definitely not something novel or unusual (I don’t think?!)—I am just naive!!!! 🤣
I’m absolutely obsessed with Everything I Never Told You (Stationery Brand) – it’s so good I almost want to steal it (emphasis on almost).
Great ideas! It got the juices flowing. It has been awhile. Thinking of the new year, I need a “Hard Reset” or a banging the keyboard “Ctrl Alt Del” over and over until it starts beeping at me. There was a saying I would blurt out “Just Push F2” at a place I worked. This would override the warning on the screen so I could continue my work. Feels good to think like this again! Thanks Ash!