Bong Joon Ho Interpreter Sharon Choi Relives Historic ‘Parasite’ Awards Season in Her Own Words by Sharon Choi Of the many pleasures of this Oscar season that concluded with a wonderful, history outcome, one of the most satisfying was the … Continue reading Outside Reading — Translations Are Sacred edition
The Original Renegade by Taylor Lorenz There’s a long, miserable history of pop culture appropriation that swipes innovations from their creators to earn riches for performers more immediately palatable to the masses. Digital interconnectivity has only turbo-boosted that process as … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Jalaiah Harmon School of Dance edition
The Third Rail of Calling ‘Sexism’ by Rebecca Traister The endless frustration of the media’s coverage of political campaigns continued this past week as policy discussions (not to mention the ongoing criminality of the amoral marauders currently occupying the White House) were largely set aside to eagerly pursue an inconsequential squabble between two candidates who almost entirely agree. Even putting aside the likelihood that the reportorial astonishment about freshly unearthed behind-the-scenes discussion was likely hogwash, there was an especially nettlesome aspect to the need to contrive drama. Think pieces and cable pundit pontification proliferated, all musing about the electability of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Gender Specific edition
The Christmas Eve Confessions of Chuck Todd by Jay Rosen Earlier this week, Rolling Stone gave a platform to Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, interviewing him about an upcoming special edition of his venerable program. Todd and his producers … Continue reading Outside Reading — America’s Press Conference of the Air edition
Big Calculator: How Texas Instruments Monopolized Math Class by Maya Kosoff My time in high school math classes predated the introduction of the TI-81, the graphing calculator that serves as the starting line for Maya Kosoff’s article, published at GEN. … Continue reading Outside Reading — Big Numbers edition
The cleverness of stupidity by Tom Whyman Drawing a few sharp illustrative examples from classic literature (including a ruse that leads to escape from the military for Orr in Catch-22), Tom Whyman shows how defiant rejection of learning is a … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Orr Stratagem edition
The “Cancel Culture” Con by Osita Nwanevu Prompted by Dave Chapelle’s wrong-headed defense of Michael Jackson in his new Netflix special and the immediate dismissal of a new Saturday Night Live cast member after the exposure of his blatant, repeated, … Continue reading Outside Reading — Using Words Wisely edition
Why I Love Kids’ Books in Translation by Rivka Galchen I recently listened to a podcast segment that was almost entirely comprised of the wonderful writers Rivka Galchen and Jia Tolentino chatting excitedly as they browsed through children’s’ section of a … Continue reading Outside Reading — No Room for the Baker edition
‘NO EXCESSIVE BARKING’: A Chevy Chase dog park divides the rich and powerful by Jessica Contrera Writing for The Washington Post, with a strong sense of playfulness fully engaged, Jessica Contrera examines a social skirmish taking place in a … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Twilight Bark edition
Americans Are Sad About Politics. Who Could Blame Them? by Clare Malone Writing for FiveThirtyEight, Clare Malone explores the exhausting nature of the current culture for politically attuned citizens, defined by a cascade of norm-shredding outrages and out-and-out criminal actions … Continue reading Outside Reading — Red and White and Black and Blue edition
Coffee for Two 