all of the above
Multiple choice
This newsletter tool uses some newfangled computer language that does not support lettered lists. There are ways around it, but I never learned CSS blah-blah-boring-blah so just imagine I'm using letters instead of numbers.
The best part of the Grammys 50th anniversary of hip-hop performance [which you can watch here (CBS) starting around the 1:46 mark] was:
That the backing band included a tuba.
Instead of Snoop/Eminem/Dre, we got Too $hort blowing the whistle.
Lil Uzi Vert’s earnest/deranged body language.
Tiny Missy Elliot in a bodysuit that also covered half her face, surrounded by backup dancers, and yet no spotlight needed.
How much Jay-Z was enjoying all of it from the audience.
Method Man, a real-life Negroni Sbagliato With Prosecco In It, coulda just been sitting there doing his taxes and we'd still be fanning ourselves. Wikipedia says he will be 52 in a few weeks. Why are we cloning sheep?
A medley that wasn't corny. Didn't think it could be done.
All of the above.
An introductory pickleball lesson in Washington, DC includes:
Wearing two sweaters, two pairs of pants, a coat, hat, scarf, and gloves because it’s 23 degrees outside.
Spending an hour and a half on the upper deck of a parking lot attached to a long-shuttered Lord & Taylor department store.
Having to restrain yourself from going full Hulk Smash on what is essentially a wiffle ball.
Trying to wrap your brain around the needlessly over-complicated scoring system.
Receiving instruction from a champion “pickler,” a man in his 60s or 70s with a heavy New York accent, who quizzes you on the score. When you get it wrong, he says “no” and looks at you with contempt. Then he follows it up with “don’t worry about it.”
Coming away with the conviction that this is an outdoor parlor game, not a sport. Sorry not sorry, don’t @ me, etc.
All of the above.
Tuesday morning’s gastro-intestinal episode that I won’t describe (why bother when Samantha Irby does it better, etc.) may have been caused by:
The cup of coffee I chugged before Monday's 8pm tennis class. During which I was messing up my serve because I was moving too fast, and seemed "kinda hype,” according to the instructor.
Multiple NPR-ish stories over the last few weeks about how food expiration dates are bald-faced lies, so I made and ate lasagna with Trader Joe’s spicy pepper marinara sauce and cottage cheese that had expired 6 weeks ago, but still looked, smelled, and tasted fine.
The chunk of weed chocolate I swallowed when I got home after tennis because I was too wired to sleep.
Hormones.
Age.
Method Man.
Pickleball.
All of the above.
Links
"Many studies have shown a strong association between workaholism and the symptoms of psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and it has been common to assume that compulsive work leads to these maladies. But some psychologists have recently argued reverse causation—that people may treat their depression and anxiety with workaholic behavior." (Atlantic)
For anyone else who's wondered why all those big apartment buildings that got built over the last few years are just sitting there, completely empty, while rent prices are soaring: "Warehousing (is) the practice by which landlords keep unrented apartments off the market to create artificial scarcity." And those landlords are going to hell. (Curbed)
"In men over the age of 29, there was no correlation between their perception of their penis size and their desire to buy luxury goods... unless those luxury goods were sports cars." (Jalopnik)
Half my feeds are about the power, glory, and threat of AI tools right now. Usually my eyes glaze over. But these AI-generated purse designs are genius. (Instagram)
Architectural Digest's tour of David Harbour and Lily Allen's Brooklyn townhouse. (YouTube)
Amazing cardboard animal sculptures. (My Modern Met)
A man hired women to sit behind him to make him more productive. And decided it would be a good idea to tell the world all about it. (personal blog)
San Francisco hasn't changed much? (Twitter)
Made me laugh: Why white people love A Tribe Called Quest so much. (The Root)
Dong-shaped lipstick. (Isamaya)
What punk documentary interviewee needs you to understand is that at this point Reagan was in the White House. (Hard Times)
Potato masher FTW. (Mastodon)