HELLO and welcome to the 249th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about the Oprah Cruise! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
One Week on the Oprah Cruise, by Allison P. Davis for The Cut, October 2017
The thing about me is that I will read any article at all about any cruise ship, especially a themed cruise! I can’t help myself
An Interview With Mackenzie Davis, by E. Alex Jung for Vulture
Remember two weeks ago when I told you to watch Halt and Catch Fire? WELL I hope you did! This is such an interesting interview and she talks about Halt and San Junipero and so many things relevant to our interests.
eBay Is Playing Catchup, But Will It Work? – Racked, by Chavie Lieber for Racked, October 2017
You know I used to sell stuff on e-bay all the time, it was my side hustle. But then it got very professional and all the goods were new with tags and sold by eBay stores, not just individual sellers. Anyhow that’s not really important, I just wanted to share my eBay experience with you. I think they should double-down on vintage and antiques — there are better places to buy clothes, but when I need an obscure lesbian magazine from the mid-90s, eBay is my e-BAE. Get it?
As Goes the Middle Class, So Goes TGI Fridays, by Elizabeth G. Dunn for Eater, October 2017
This goes broad to go deep and specific and I love it. Another factor which is briefly mentioned at the end of this piece that I think we often underestimate when pondering the demise of family dining establishments is the enormous role played by Yelp, TripAdvisor, and the internet in general w/r/t the ease of eating at a non-chain restaurant. I remember waiting for restaurant reviews to come out in the newspaper before trying a new place! And now when you’re traveling it’s so much easier to figure out which local places are good and therefore not fall back on a chain. More importantly, I can’t believe that endless apps is permanent now
The Delicate Art of The TV Series Finale, by Todd VanDerWerff for Vox, October 2017
Now I really hope you’ve watched Halt and Catch Fire ’cause if you haven’t you can’t read this yet because of spoilers!
The War To Sell You A Mattress Is An Internet Nightmare, by David Zax for Fast Company, October 2017
Wow last week we talked about Casper’s weird brand experience event situation and now we’re talking about mattress review sites! So much mattress content for you. My mattress is terrible FYI, whatever it is I would recommend against it.
The True Crime Story Behind a 1970 Cult Feminist Film Classic, by Sarah Weinman for Topic, October 2017
I didn’t know a damn thing about any of this but now I wish I knew more
The Boomtown That Shouldn’t Exist, by Michael Grunwald for Politico, November/December 2017
This Florida town created itself and enticed residents with buckets of lies, and somehow despite all of that, and despite the storms and the lack of commercial development and social services and the environmental havoc wreaked by its canals, it thrives! What a world!
Cher’s Era, by Mayukh Sen for Hazlitt, February 2017
I know this wasn’t the point of this (very good!) article about Cher’s acting career, which was flourishing when I was a kid & teenager, but obviously when it said she played a lesbian in a movie based on a true story — Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep — I had to climb into that k-hole for a minute and damn it’s an interesting story.
Four Quitters Walk Into a Bar… , by Lydia Polgreen for The Huffington Post, October 2017
Lydia Polgreen talks to four government employees who quit during the Trump Administration for various reasons mostly that they could not take it anymore. Contains new information of terrible things I didn’t even know about as well as reminders of terrible things I’d forgotten about because of newer more terrible things happening. AMERICA!
The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis, by Christopher Glazek for Esquire, October 2017
Yannow another thing that really sucks about this is that a lot of people actually do need these medications, and the way that it was promoted to doctors in order to make money and cause addiction, which then led to a lot of addicts who didn’t need it, is going to hurt the people who really do need it. Just a thought.
How Queer and Trans Women Are Healing Each Other After Hurricane Harvey, by Yvonne Marquez for Autostraddle, October 2017
Yvonne spent about six weeks on this story, traveled to Houston and interviewed queer and trans people of color about how they’re putting the pieces back together these days. We’re really proud of it and I hope you have a chance to check it out!
‘Tiny House Hunters’ and The Tiny American Dream, by Roxane Gay for Curbed, October 2017
Whatever Roxane Gay wants to write about is what I want to read about.
I regularly yell at the television during Tiny House Hunters. I have a vivid imagination but it is not so vivid as to let me imagine living in a home with a compost toilet, nor is it so vivid as to make me comfortable with using the kitchen sink also as the bathroom sink. I don’t want to stand up and hit my head on the ceiling of my house. I don’t want the kitchen table to transform into a bed. I don’t want a climbing wall on the side of my tiny house.
Loved the true crime article! I remembered watching the film the crime inspired, Wanda, as an undergrad, and HATING it….it was excruciatingly slow and boring to me at the time. Now, with about eight years distance, I feel like I’d love it. Thanks for including this article.
The New Yorker published a piece in its Oct. 30th issue about the Sackler family! I’ve been working my way through it this week and it is wild. Hype for the Esquire piece on them!
Also here’s the New Yorker one: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain
What a great piece on Cher, she is long overdue for a Broad City cameo.
Cher is my absolute favorite human being so when I saw that Cher piece on the list, I did a dramatic double-take in the workplace and had to take a moment to calm down before presenting this list of CHER TRIVIA that y’all may or may not care about:
– IMO, her performance in “Suspect” is woefully overlooked. It made me want to be a public defender when I grew up.
– I am weirdly proud of being born the same year Cher won her Oscar. I have never known a world in which she was not an Oscar winner, and for this I am grateful.
– IIRC, in her son Chaz’s days of being a Poster Lesbian, he would recount a time in his early teens when Cher was preparing for “Silkwood.” There’s a scene in which Cher’s character (Dolly) and Meryl’s character (Karen) basically talk in circles around Dolly’s unrequited feelings for Karen, and Chaz said he would read that part of the script over and over, and that’s how he realized he identified with it.
– Cher and Meryl are working on the “Mamma Mia” sequel AS WE SPEAK and I’m so excited that they’re working together again I can’t even.
– Cher nearly played Thelma in “Thelma & Louise” but turned it down.
– For “Mask,” Bogdanovich wouldn’t let Cher contribute any suggestions and threatened to remove her role from the movie entirely if she didn’t follow his orders (which, if you know the story, really isn’t possible to do). So one time he touched her on the shoulder while on set and she was all “DON’T TOUCH ME” and totally put him in his place as much as she could within the power dynamic. What a badass. Anyway I like her a lot.
I would really, really like it if articles could talk about the opioid crisis and the impact pharmaceutical companies have had on it without shitting on chronic pain sufferers.
Ditto.
Riese, you should check out this true-crime longform graphic journalism piece! https://thenib.com/reported-missing-part-one-the-disappearance?t=recent
thank you for the tip!
I hate watch Tiny House Hunters, so I loved the article. I too yell at the TV, “You want a tiny house AND room for a couch and large screen TV?!”
Plus, Roxane Gay brought elements to tiny house buyers that I hadn’t considered.