- Musings on the Nature of Feminine Perfection: “Honestly, gender is the worst kind of bully because where as bullies can only hurt you so much, gender teaches you to hurt yourself.”
- Living and Dying on Airbnb: “The irony is that amateur innkeepers who couldn’t be trusted with the banal task of photographing and marketing their properties are expected to excel at hospitality’s most important rule: keeping guests safe and alive.”
- How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive: “My hand, trained by the ballpoint, expected that lessening the pressure from the pen was enough to stop writing, but I found I had to lift it clear off the paper entirely. Once I started to adjust to this change, however, it felt like a godsend; a less-firm press on the page also meant less strain on my hand.”
- Sometimes Writers Block is Really Depression: “The biggest thing to say to you though, is that if you are having trouble writing take a look at what’s going on. Ask yourself if something is wrong with the story, or if the thing that is wrong is outside the story.“
- “It was very clear the weighty treatments of any topics in science fiction did not include all people as serious and worthy of interesting consideration.”
- How Apple is Giving Design a Bad Name: “Good design should be attractive, pleasurable, and wonderful to use. But the wonderfulness of use requires that the device be understandable and forgiving.“
- “The youthful breeziness of the Jersey Shore goofball is gone, and in its place is a woman made by the repercussions of being herself for an audience that wasn’t particularly kind to her.”
- There Once Was a Dildo in Nantucket: “What could more perfectly complicate the image of starched, buttoned-up, nineteenth-century Quaker women—the ones pacing the widow’s walks and stitching around the stitching circle?”
- “These student protesters were not a government entity stonewalling access to public information or a public official hiding from media questions. They were young people trying to create a safe space from not only the racism they encounter on campus, but the insensitivity they encounter in the news media.“
- “In other words, if someone’s story about enduring racism is not sufficiently appalling, listeners are likely to dismiss it entirely. But lots of Duara’s experiences wouldn’t make for satisfying sound bites. ‘Most of it’s quieter. How do you know it’s racism then, my friend asked, and not just somebody having a bad day?’ he wrote. ‘And that’s the thing of it. You don’t. You never do. It’ll drive you absolutely crazy.'”
- A lost poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley has been found! This is super exciting, as Shelley is my very favorite of the Romantic poets. Have I ever talked about the time I accidentally read all of “In Defense of Poetry”? Because I did. And it was great.
- Speaking of other things that are great: HAMILTON.
