What were you doing the day the president attended the opening of an American concentration camp in the Everglades?

“The Grand Opening of an American Concentration Camp”, Melissa Gira Grant for The New Republic

I wish I could say I was doing something appropriately solemn on the day of the opening of an American concentration camp in the Everglades. But the main things I did were go to CVS to pick up a prescription and hem a jumpsuit in preparation for going out of town for a July 5 wedding—a wedding in Miami, actually, not that long of a drive away from the concentration camp, but it seemed bad form to propose a protest excursion to my naturalized citizen Lebanese in-laws who’d come all the way from Beirut to see a nephew get married.

The Lebanese side of the family was outnumbered at the wedding by University of Miami alumni. The nephew had attended the school on a football scholarship and then stayed for law school, and was marrying a former team cheerleader. The father of the bride gave a toast composed entirely of football metaphors and the DJ played “Mr. Brightside”, which I think is a contender for the white millennial wedding version of “Sweet Caroline.” I didn’t really expect anyone giving speeches or making small talk to acknowledge the concentration camp, but that didn’t make it less weird to note its conversational absence.

I leave here having lost a lot: time, money, several inches of my intestines, confidence, a bit of my self.

“I Prefer Weeds to Ivy”, Shannon Mattern on her blog Words In Space

I have reason to believe Eric Adams doesn’t know who Mobb Deep is, but if he does, he doesn’t fuck with them like that.

Heems, as quoted in Rolling Stone

We are humbled by age in preparation for the great insult of death.

Announcer at the 2025 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, introducing Joey Chestnut, as seen on TikTok

Submitted by Rusty, who said basically every sentence could be a submission and he is right.

She drank Pink Monster Ultra Rosá and had multiple dreamcatcher forearm tattoos.

“Two Days Talking to People Looking for Jobs at ICE”, Yanis Varoufuckice for n+1

“They will hunt you, they are like a cross between a lentil and a velociraptor,” said Sharon Pitcairn Forsyth, a conservationist who lives in the Washington DC area.

“‘Explosive increase’ of ticks that cause meat allergy in US due to climate crisis”, Oliver Milman for The Guardian

Submitted by Angela.

It’s the voice of an overcaffeinated social-studies teacher straddling the back of a chair—that is to say, earnest enough to be unembarrassable and trying very hard to connect.

“Is Technology Really Ruining Teens’ Lives?”, Molly Fischer for The New Yorker

First they grew soil itself: lunar regolith, dead as a doornail, was mixed with carbon from carbonaceous chondritic meteorites, imported nitrates, inoculants, compost, and water, and thus grown to soil, the necessary first crop.

Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson

Submitted by David.

But it turned out that Americans really liked not going to jail for not getting pregnant, almost as much as states loved trying to force people to give birth.

“The American system of democracy has crashed”, Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong for The Verge