I am having my toddler godson over to my house later today to PARTY PARTY PARTY, and our agenda includes playing on my main bed, which goes up and down with a remote control, and my spare-room bed, which is a loft bed that you climb up to sit upon, and my fancy bean bag chair, which Toddler Godson enjoys to be thrown upon from a distance. I did not deliberately set up my life to have a ton of furniture that’s fun for a toddler, but I do find it curiously validating. Anyway, here are some links!

These GE workers are absolute heroes.

Tiger King represents something fundamental — and grim and doomed — about American culture. Also it’s deeply weird that the show wants to make Carole Baskin the villain. (Except it’s not that weird, because: misogyny.)

HISTORY OF MURDER BALLADS. I love murder ballads. Please share your favorite murder ballad in the comments.

I’m not as mad as some about the How I Met Your Mother finale but it was dumb and unfair and Cristin Milioti deserved better.

“To be a teenager is to be a testing ground for the assembly of your person; to be a young adult is to have free rein to make mistakes. At some point, we make a plan that reflects the self-knowledge we’ve accumulated thus far — I am this, I like that, here are my intentions.” On learning to swim.

Black scholars discuss the film of The Color Purple and its complicated legacy.

Emily VanDerWerff tried Quibi so you don’t have to.

Elizabethans dug true crime. (Sort of.)

“Hoelscher said she’d submitted the puzzle with no men, but wasn’t surprised when the Times editors changed that.” Once again, the white dudeness of crosswords.

“You’re Paul Kinsey, you pretentious fucking fraud.” That “what character are you” personality test has been confronting for some.

Amazon’s self-publishing platform has been a welcome home for white supremacy.

Happy belated Passover if you celebrate Passover! Happy early Easter if you celebrate Easter! Stay safe and stay inside, and one day we will be free of this!

The post Every Coronavirus Link Is Immediately Out of Date: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

It’s not too late to ask me and Whiskey Jenny to pick out books for you to buy your loved ones this holiday season! Fill out our holiday gift guide form and you’ll received personalized gift recommendations on our December 14th podcast.

Rebecca Traister is a writer I’ve come to really respect, and her piece on blaming Trump on the people who fought the hardest against him is fantastic.

Also, here’s Rebecca Traister again and the equally fantastic Rembert Browne talking about moving forward with anger and/or optimism in the age of Trump.

What books were some of this year’s most awesomest writers thankful for? Buzzfeed has your list.

The state of Harry Potter fandom in the conflicted age of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And speaking of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw has some thoughts about queer subtext in that movie and queer-coded villains.

The Merriam-Webster social media team speaks out about their on-point Twitter game.

Long story short, I always thought that Gilmore Girls was problematic and that the Gilmore girls were assholes (but I also love it!), so I’m really enjoying all the thinkpieces that have come out lately reading the revival for filth on those very points.

Also Maddie Myers is one of my fave critics these days, and she has good things to say about the Stars Hollow musical and what a jerk Lorelai is about it. (Lorelai Gilmore is a jerk, pass it on.)

On myths of racial determinism and books like Hillbilly Elegy.

Look up, please: Y’all, this is what I’m talking about. If you witness something like this happening, tell the person to stop. It will suck, but nobody else will do it if you don’t. Be that person.

A history of the concept of political correctness.

On the dearth of famous black writers in sci-fi.

The Atlantic has been doing Trump Time Capsules, but stopped when the election was over. Here’s what they have to say on the future of time capsules.

The post Fantastic Girls and Gilmore Beasts: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.