It’s Friday! Or, described to align more closely with my experience of this week, Monday Part Five. (That is a joke I cribbed from my brother-in-law, so please enjoy it and praise me as if I had coined it myself.) Litrally nothing has happened this entire week. Only time has passed, at an agonizingly slow rate. What is time? What is truth and goodness? Is there a future? I don’t know, and neither do you! To distract us from the existential dread we all feel, here are some links!
Advice on how to dress professionally hits marginalized women so, so differently than men or even women with more privilege.
Toni Morrison died this month at the age of 88. The Guardian has a round-up of author tributes to her. Hannah Giorgis considers her legacy in American writing.
The interlibrary loan system (in America) is the apex of human civilization. It just is.
Jay-Z’s deal with the NFL is giving them cover for Colin Kaepernick.
Here are the creepiest sexist film reviews ever. (I am delighted that the Wonder Woman review is included here, because Jesus Christ.)
How did escape rooms become such a phenomenon? (I went to one once and I couldn’t stop coughing and it was rather stressful. The game master person came on the intercom to be like “….do you need a cough drop?” and it was like the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me, although it did not cure my cough, in the end.)
A pleasing trend in time-traveling lesbians has emerged; please everyone read The Psychology of Time Travel.
I enjoy it when people get mad about colloquialisms. (I say this as someone who sometimes gets mad about colloquialisms.)
“Rereading Jane Eyre recently, I was struck by how witchy it is.” On the resurgence of witches in pop culture.
These are tiny dollhouse renos. I have nothing to add to that.
The 1619 Project is an initiative by the paper to observe the 400th anniversary of slavery coming to America. It’s a massive undertaking under the leadership of Nikole Hannah-Jones, and if you have NYT access, you shouldn’t miss it. The Guardian is running a week-long series to commemorate the same event, which you can find here.
In many ways things are incredibly bad and getting worse, but here’s a bright side: Looks like humans cured Ebola???
This is a very pure video.
I hope that you have glorious plans for the weekend. It is Thursday as I write this, and I have already used up a rewatch of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, but if you haven’t yet done that this week, I recommend it. However charming you remember it being, you are exactly right. It is that charming. I might watch it another time this weekend. It’s in my top three movies and I mean that, along with Clueless and 10 Things I Hate about You YEAH YOU HEARD ME AND I STAND BY IT.
This has ended on a strangely combative note. I wish you all good luck in this cold dark world.