The China seeds mystery, solved. (link)

IDK maybe we shouldn’t have poured so much money into mercenaries who are now wandering around doing coups, just a thought. (link)

Roxane Gay offers some theories for why people are so awful online. (link)

The Dear America books taught (mostly white!) girls that they had a place in history. (link)

Jenée Desmond-Harris, AKA New Dear Prudence, has a new column called Race Manners at the Times, and the first column is excellent. (link)

Star of Rutherford Falls Jana Schmieding discusses her passion for food and its place in indigenous culture. (link)

Soraya McDonald considers Recy Taylor and the history of interracial rapes of Black women. (link)

How did colonialism get to be such a popular premise for board games? (link)

One of my favorite genres of online writing is parents who have developed a white-hot passionate hatred for some piece of media their child consumes. Here is a ranking of all the trains in the Thomas and Friends Storytime podcast, based on how much the writer hates them. (link)

“I have the feeling that I am supposed to root for it, somehow, because LeBron is firmly established in the culture as A Good Dude, and because it can’t be very harmful to have a little fun with nostalgia, and what kind of asshole evaluates Space Jam: A New Legacy on its merits as a movie? Have some fun!” (link)

“But it never occurs to them that Whitehead and Gay come from a very different class to begin with, and are not necessarily standing in real solidarity with me.” On Black pop culture and who gets to shape it. (link)

Let’s celebrate LeVar Burton Jeopardy! week with this Esquire profile of LeVar Burton, a true American icon. (link)

CONFEDERATE VAMPIRES LITERALLY WHY (link)

“But, like, did Driver become the horse, or was he always the horse, deep down?” Ashley Reese, asking the important questions. (link)

“Aragorn occupies a unique position in the canon of formative crushes in blockbuster cinema in that he’s absolutely a sex symbol, while the actor who portrays him is absolutely not.” The analysis of Aragorn that my heart desired. (link)

“Uncle Sam first needs to get a grip on the problem. It needs to begin collecting hard data on the application and enrollment processes facing citizens, putting numbers to the time tax and analyzing it through the lens of race, gender, income, state of residence, and health and disability status.” This is such a good idea I almost cried when I read it. (link)

I am also so happy to report that the ?first? annual? TRANSreadathon is happening tonight! It’s a 24-hour readathon in which we’re celebrating trans and nonbinary authors by reading for 24 hours in a row, starting this evening at 8:00 PM EST. Amazing, no? You can read whatever you’d like! And meanwhile our social media accounts will be highlighting trans and nonbinary authors, so you can get plenty of recs for amazing books. I have a certain number of books to read by trans and nonbinary authors. Never you mind how many! It’s a normal, sane number of books! SHUT UP.

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These are just some motherfucking snails inside some motherfucking dollhouses.

Why casting Nagini as an Asian woman is so offensive.

Ron Charles considers whether we still need Banned Books Week, and reaches no real conclusion.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a writer I adore, talks about Howard Zinn and why it matters that his work was essentially and fundamentally collaborative.

I can’t wait to read Rebecca Traister’s latest book, Good and Mad. Here’s everything she was reading while she wrote it.

I typically click straight out of articles that bewail how easy it is to “cancel” somebody, but Wesley Morris has a lot of interesting, thoughtful things to say about art and morality. He also, in my opinion, missed some nuance — as people who complain about cancellation culture often do. Vulture put on a terrific round-table of responses from critics, including another forever-fave of mine, Angelica Jade Bastien. Their conversation helped me to understand something I believe but have been struggling to articulate about artistic disagreement.

What your favorite Shakespeare play says about you.

Roxane Gay reflects on the Kavanaugh hearing and harassers who claim themselves as the victims.

How to tell a good made-up language from a bad one.

Reese Witherspoon peddles a version of Southern femininity that isn’t available to everyone.

Here is a (very spoilery) superb appreciation of Practical Magic, my favorite Halloween movie.

Happy weekend!

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