Category Archives: News & Opinion

Hypebeasts Save the USPS

It’s a cultural phenomenon unseen since the iPhone lines of the late 2000s.

Roughly 200 people line the sidewalk on a brisk winter morning on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Some, packing away camping gear, have been here since 6 the previous evening. Only minutes past 8 a.m. now, hundreds more are expected to join the queue by the end of the hour. Continue reading Hypebeasts Save the USPS

Consider the Mansion
A critical reading of “WAP”

What ever happened to the subtle art of innuendo?

“WAP” opens with the persistent and ever-classy chant, “There’s [sic] some whores in this house!” Ironically, this is the most musical part of the so-called “song.” A monotonous bass line burps and growls while the performers recite their softcore pornography lyrics over tinny drums and intrusive sound effects. Rhyming “charge” with “hard,” “stroker” with“smoker,” “wet it” with “diabetic,” and “pussy” with “pussy,” a libretto this is not. Continue reading Consider the Mansion
A critical reading of “WAP”

My Octopus Overlord

In 2010, with just five words and a few mathematical symbols, Jaron Lanier changed the course of science forever. In his book You Are Not a Gadget, Lanier offered the following equation for contemplation:

Cephalopods + Childhood = Humans + Virtual Reality

Scientists everywhere were flummoxed by the calculus, which appeared to have been handed down from somewhere beyond our own realm. Gradually, it inspired a frenzy of outraged disbelief and panicked confusion. As the equation destabilized centuries of natural science, researchers everywhere began questioning the relevance of their lives’ work. Ever since, bands of feral biologists have roamed forests the world over, undone by the sheer brilliance of Lanier’s discovery. Continue reading My Octopus Overlord

Scary Nutter and the Half-Baked Ideas!
There’s no J.K.-ing about Rowling’s stupid opinions

I’m going to say it: I have never liked Harry Potter! I know, I know; you’re thinking to yourself: “…but Megan, you’re a mother of three beautiful, intelligent, sweet daughters and two hunky sons—and you’re looking great for it by the way—surely you appreciate what Harry Potter has done for young readers?”

Continue reading Scary Nutter and the Half-Baked Ideas!
There’s no J.K.-ing about Rowling’s stupid opinions

Top 10 Surprisingly Unhelpful Ways to Fight COVID-19

A lot has changed since the coronavirus hit America. We met Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s real life McDreamy and head of the C—wait, not the CDC? Is it the WHO? No—wait, what? We pulled out of the WHO?! Jesus…Well, it’s basically something like the CDC—and Dr. Deborah Birx, who’s spent months sending us all secret messages encoded in colorful scarves.

Continue reading Top 10 Surprisingly Unhelpful Ways to Fight COVID-19

The Tenth Circle
Motherhood in the Time of COVID-19

As a middle-aged white woman with socially progressive but fiscally conservative politics and a fashionably cosmopolitan sensibility, I have spent the last two years aggressively surveying the media landscape, honing my editorial voice, waiting for my moonshot. Some nights I lie awake in bed imagining my name immortalized in print, anticipating Maureen Dowd’s looming retirement or Jennifer Rubin’s untimely death.

Continue reading The Tenth Circle
Motherhood in the Time of COVID-19