Gawker - How to fix work: don't do it outside

It's missing some key context

New York Magazine published an 8,000-word cover story yesterday, titled “Canceled At 17,” about the ordeal of a pseudonymous teen boy whom the writer Elizabeth Weil describes as “enormously appealing but also very canceled.” That odd descriptor sets the tone for the piece: an extremely sympathetic framing of one male high-school student’s ostracization — a brutal, but typical adolescent experience — dressed up in the jargon of “cancel culture.”

According to Weil, the canceled teen, nicknamed “Diego,” stumbled into trouble last summer after showing a group of friends a nude picture of his underage “beautiful girlfriend.” When school started that fall, one of his classmates told the girlfriend; she dumped Diego; and within a few weeks, “most of the other students in his grade had stopped talking to him.” This incident happened to coincide with the return to in-person classes, following 18 months of restless online learning, and a reckoning within the school itself over how it handled Title IX complaints. That November, after an unspecified number of similar incidents at the school, students planned a walkout “over the school’s handling of sexual misconduct.” The protest was targeted at the administrators, but at some point in the process a list appeared on the girl’s bathroom wall naming “PEOPLE TO WATCH OUT FOR.” It included, among others, Diego’s name. Continue reading

Despite evidence that says otherwise

We have officially entered our third consecutive pandemic summer. Offices are closed, antiwork sentiment is at an apogee, and all of us are moldering under the societal pressures of bright sunny days. I live in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, the media capital of the world, which means that an infinite tableau of identical coffee shops emanate from my block. One of the perks of this anarchic period in American history is the idea that, in lieu of our daily commutes, we can set up shop on the streetside furniture outside of cafes called like "Bad Mother" — where we may blog under the warmth of God.

Covid-19 has provoked innumerable lifestyle reorientations, and working outside is probably the most basic and essential. I totally bought into the hype. Every Wednesday, usually around 2 p.m., my girlfriend announces that she is taking her computer down the street, as fresh air is supposed to nullify whoever is currently being annoying in your emails. I'm always inclined to join, because we only have so many days on this planet, and wearing sunglasses while working should feel a lot like living.

An hour later, when I'm squinting at my screen to parse through the glare, I realize that I've been duped yet again. Where do you even start, man. Why is every cafe outfitted with the worst chairs in the United States? You know, these ones. Why is the WiFi completely sundered when more than three Macbooks connect to it? I've probably spent entire days of my life watching Google Docs attempt to load while "Songbird_Guest" heaves and chugs. Isn't it cool how every time you press the spacebar your latte wobbles perilously on the table? Continue reading

Radar Online has deemed her a “Karen” after uncovered a confusing 2020 lawsuit

Just one week after things got worse for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Sutton Stracke due to alleged racism, things have also gotten worse for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Diana Jenkins, also due to alleged racism. It’s a shocking update and, frankly, we’re shocked.

Last week, Diana Jenkins — a newbie to the cast, and a rumored sex trafficker — got herself into a bit of trouble after responding to an Instagram post from user philly.diva, who shared an old photo of Jenkins next to a new photo of Jenkins, illustrating how her face has evolved over the years.

Jenkins, who grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, responded in a comment. “That picture was actually taken At UCLA law school talking about war crimes in my country and setting up human rights clinic that i financed Before war criminals were brought to justice,” she wrote. “I was probably 20 or 30 Pounds skinnier and having glam was last thing on my mind. Also looks like picture is manipulated. But shame on you!!!! You and your bullshit shopping!!!”

That’s not the part she got in trouble for. She and philly.diva had a bit of a back-and-forth, during which philly.diva told her to “keep that same energy with the rest of Instagram that thinks you have no storyline and should be fired,” adding in a now-deleted comment, “and not just with the Black content creators.” In response, Jenkins said, “It can’t feel good being a Black content creator.” Continue reading

For £55 a pop, you too can be Stick Girl

I hereby declare an emergency meeting of the shadowy network of rod-wielding freaks that are known to few but rumored to exist by many, The International Stick Girl Cabal: The Queen of England, our syndicate’s primeval girlie girl with that almighty elemental rod firmly in her wizened hand, is now selling sticks for money.

The Daily Mail reports that the gift shop at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk has lined their stick buckets with £55 handmade walking sticks made of locally sourced hazel, ash, and yew woods. They look gorgeous, knobby, pointy, inflexible, and supportive, as any good stick should.

“Not two of the sticks are alike as they both are made of an unique blend, in a stag horn shape that has been favored by the Queen in the past,” wrote the Mail’s Claire Toureille (one of 45 prerequisites of joining the Stick Clique is being bestowed with the name Claire at birth).

To say that stag horn is “favored” by Lilibet Sr. is the biggest understatement of the last 70 years: after a brief I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T moment (She got her own horse! She got her own golf cart!), the Queen trotted out her latest toy boy, a staghorn shaft, to a gala last month, impressing all 600 horses who were in attendance, plus Tom Cruise, which is a real feat. Continue reading 

Turns out he is a brilliant, misunderstood man who is not currently suing his ex-wife

If there’s one thing Brad Pitt is gonna do, it’s be on the cover of GQ and give a “revealing” interview about where his head’s at. Sometimes it’s pegged to a movie, sometimes it’s pegged to his divorce — any excuse to contemplate the nature of existence while wearing a scarf.

Pitt is gracing the cover of GQ once again — this time to promote his new film Bullet Train — and in a move that is both inspired and annoying, acclaimed novelist Ottessa Moshfegh is the one profiling him. (Coincidentally, her latest novel, Lapvona, comes out this week.) These are two freaks meeting each other on the same level (the level is talking about dream journaling and reciting Rumi poems).

Topics covered by Pitt and Moshfegh include: art, his potentially haunted house, how all of his friends have switched to “room temp” water, his pandemic “pursuit of ceramics” as a “tactile kind of sport,” cigarettes, his guilt about his possible face blindness, the feeling of being trapped on this plane of existence.

Topics not covered by Pitt and Moshfegh include: the ongoing legal battle over the vineyard he and Angelina Jolie owned, anything about his children, any critical reading of Pitt’s words whatsoever. Continue reading