A reader brought to my attention that I used the wrong link in an earlier part of this series. If you’re looking for the story on the friendship between Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson and her college roommates, you can find it here.
This New Yorker article (“Personally, my life revolves around the half-dozen things that comfort me, and nothing more. I think I’m just wired that way.”) spoke to my soul.
Speaking of, how was that food tour of Japan last year? Incredible! No, I literally haven’t been anywhere or put anything new in my mouth or my brain since we talked two years ago, at Steve’s wedding. I’ve just been hanging around the same four city blocks, eating the same chipotle-chicken sandwich at the same Panera Bread, and browsing the same three “news” Web sites that reinforce my opinions. It feels great. I also haven’t forced myself to read any new books, like some annoying postmodern novel that I would feel compelled to rave about on Goodreads to prove that I’m smart.
Jennifer Lawrence was so popular for so long, then the inevitable backlash. Now she is back with an indie movie for Apple and giving a series of candid interviews that remind you how she got so popular as a celebrity, if not an actor, in the first place. (Talking about navigating her relationship with her conservative family when she’s newly motivated in her politics because she’s a new mom, calling out everyone who said she slept with Harvey Weinstein to get where she is, admitting that terrible scifi movie with Chris Pratt was a mistake.)
Coming in just under the wire with the funniest yet
For a while, I considered it my civic duty to stay on twitter to watch everyone make fun of its new owner.
The Rosetta Stone of social media
The same week brought dabloons and Goncharov into my life, two internet trends that become funnier the further down you go but that you can’t talk about with anyone not online because they require tens of minutes of explanation and everyone looks at you like you need to leave the house occasionally when actually what you need to do is get dabloons and watch Goncharov. The exact use case for this newsletter, if you will.
There is nothing like twitter for real-time Election Day coverage/freaking out, but credit this year to Bolts Mag for having by far the best up-to-date election coverage, which is even more important as we now navigate a world where we don’t know who won for days or even weeks (the last outstanding race was called December 29!) They made me feel a little better about the possibility of a world where twitter does actually go down.
One peaceful Sunday morning, I was lying in bed when I heard a very distinctive series of rhythmic screeches coming from another room. I yelled, “Why are you listening to the Reddit bad sex song?” and received a response of, basically, “????”
So if you also don’t know this story, first read the post, then play the song.
A loved one (and reader of this newsletter!) sent this adorable and rightfully angry Italian girl to the family group chat, where it was a big hit.
Now I understand why people say Letterboxed is the best social media platform.
In the replies someone is angry that while she lists every time a movie features a piece of chicken or an ice cream cone, she forgot (?) to mention the cannibalism in Bones and All.
The Bob’s Burgers review is also a wild ride (“burger with a bikini on it. Cashmere sweater.") Does the bikini make meat-eating worse?
Wired put out a bounty on one of its writers to see if it was possible to actually disappear in the internet age.
An incredible news story about two women who hunted down a kidnapper and saved a baby’s life.
The California DMV bot just tweets applications for rejected vanity plates and the (often incomprehensible) reasons the DMV rejected them.
Finally: this post
combined with this post
combined with this post
And so we come to the end of 2022! I hope I made up for my sporadic posting this year with this marathon of links. If you appreciate this newsletter, there is no paid tier and I don’t have venmo so express yourself with words, I guess. Send me an email or leave a comment. I will probably send out a couple more roundups in the new year because we haven’t even touched TV or movies. And then — who knows?
Happy New Year!