Weekend Reading

  • Did blogs ruin the web? Or did the web ruin blogs?
    Here are three essays that make very different arguments but are worth reading, and (I think) worth reading together.
    Introspective time for bloggers.

  • Why Women’s Friendships Are So Complicated
    When Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, was in grade school, one of her best friends abruptly stopped talking to her.
    Genuinely offered without comment. Because I … just can’t.

  • HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT IN 4 EASY STEPS
    I’ve spent the past year losing 80 lbs and getting in shape. A lot of people have been asking me how I did it; specifics like what diet I was on, how many times a week I worked out, etc etc.
    Subtitle: Not what you think from the title. If you are in any way looking to get in shape, give it a read.

  • It’s Time to Admit You Love Muse
    Muse is one of the biggest bands in the world today. They’re also kind of a joke. A light joke. A ribbing. For a long time, I identified firmly as a Muse fan, then allowed myself to shed that label and to fade, but I was only kidding myself.
    Fuck yeah Muse!!

  • Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras
    In the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a police officer wearing facial recognition glasses spotted a heroin smuggler at a train station.
    1984.

  • You Feel Like Shit Because You’re Drinking Your Morning Coffee Too Early
    I spend every workday bouncing between feeling like I just shotgunned a gallon of crack water and feeling like I need a month-long hibernation period (normally only about an hour apart).
    Important information! Coffee is life.

  • Doctors Diagnose The Injuries In Home Alone
    Doctors explain every way Harry and Marv would have died in Home Alone.
    Brilliant! One of my favourite movies ever.

  • More Recycling Won’t Solve Plastic Pollution
    The only thing worse than being lied to is not knowing you’re being lied to. It’s true that plastic pollution is a huge problem, of planetary proportions. And it’s true we could all do more to reduce our plastic footprint.
    BIGGER action needed. Government level action.

  • Stanley Kubrick’s Annotated Copy of Stephen King’s The Shining
    The web site Overlook Hotel has posted pictures of Stanley Kubrick’s personal copy of Stephen King’s novel The Shining, which is normally kept at the Stanley Kubrick Archive, but has been making the rounds in a traveling exhibition.
    Peeking behind the curtain is always fun.

  • Use of ‘smart drugs’ on the rise
    The use of drugs by people hoping to boost mental performance is rising worldwide, finds the largest ever study of the trend. In a survey of tens of thousands of people, 14% reported using stimulants at least once in the preceding 12 months in 2017, up from 5% in 2015.
    Hmmm yes. On the rise. So much I’ve not even heard of any of these. Am I in the wrong circle of people AGAIN? Sheesh.

  • Why Does Every Soccer Player Do This?
    Goals in soccer games can be few and far between, which helps explain the delirious nature of most scoring celebrations. Some players yank off their jerseys or drop to their knees and glide across the turf in glee. They all often end up at the bottom of a pile of jubilant teammates.
    But what does it say about the players that don’t do this?

  • Nearly 400 years later, the fork remains at the center of American dining controversy
    When the fork was first introduced to the dining table in the US, it caused controversy. Fast forward nearly four centuries later, and the small-pronged utensil still causes international arguments over dining etiquette.
    Wonderful. Silly Americans.

  • Unicorn Hunting as a Widely Recognized Thing
    Wish we could find someone near [town], NV, there must be a lady out there somewhere that is looking for a loving couple. I see all the other comments from other couples looking for the same situation let me tell you there is probably more chance of you winning the lottery.
    Poly article: doesn’t cover being ‘unicorned’ too much but be alert! (our country needs lerts, hahaha!)

  • “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language
    There are some words out there that are brilliantly evocative and at the same time impossible to fully translate. Yiddish has the word shlimazl, which basically means a perpetually unlucky person. German has the word Backpfeifengesicht, which roughly means a face that is badly in need of a fist.
    Have I linked to this before? I think I have but it’s deep in the pile of articles… hey is there a word for that?

  • On Semicolons and the Rules of Writing
    Kurt Vonnegut’s caution against the use of semicolons is one of the most famous and canonical pieces of writing advice, an admonition that has become, so to speak, one of The Rules. More on these rules later, but first the infamous quote in question…
    I am fond of the semicolon. But I won’t use one here.

  • Inside the Radical, Uncomfortable Movement to Reform White Supremacists
    One of Shane Johnson’s pals pushed through the front door of his trailer and announced that “a bunch of black guys” had just “said some shit to him.”
    Knowing these people exist is one thing, reading about them another.

  • ‘Find Your Passion’ Is Awful Advice
    “Almost all of them raised their hand and got dreamy looks in their eyes,” she told me. They talked about it “like a tidal wave would sweep over them,” he said. Sploosh. Huzzah! It’s accounting! Would they have unlimited motivation for their passion? They nodded solemnly.
    Personal take: those who follow their passion can afford to take that risk. Which means it’s about money (on some level) and emotional ability (on another).

  • A Complete Guide to Getting What You Want
    Note to reader: This is a long post – 2200 words – so bookmark it if you need to, but I think you’ll find it a worthwhile read if you apply this strategy even a single time. It’s not always polite to say it so plainly, but we all want things.
    All. Of. This.

  • The Intersection of Language, Gender, and American Politics
    What happens when the dominant, privileged voice excludes women, LGTBQ people, people with disabilities, people of color, and immigrants? It would be difficult to miss the fight over these issues currently taking place on the national political stage.
    Language is always important.