'Height psychology,' French Bulldog paranoia and the crazy story behind TikTok hit 'Jiggle Jiggle'
Here's the best things I found on the internet this week!
Good morning internet friends,
It’s been a long week to be inhabiting these here interwebs. Exhausting, even. So I found myself getting more “analog” than usual. I bought a bike, and have been replacing as many car rides as I can ($7/gallon in LA was my breaking point). I’m reading books, playing tennis, and cooking, plus I’m learning a language (though admittedly on this last point, my primary tools are a smart phone app and online tutoring).
But I’m not here to tell you that the internet is evil. This newsletter is proof that there’s some fantastic stuff out there, if you know where to look. So here’s my roundup of the funniest, most interesting and most thought-provoking pieces of content I found throughout the week. Enjoy!
What’s the coolest story or thing you found on the internet this week? Reply to this email and shoot me a link. Would love to hear from you.
After the Roe v. Wade reversal came down last week, people on both sides of the issue were left wondering, “what’s going to happen next?” The best explainer I found this week came from The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino, who expects sweeping changes in a post-Dobbs America. It’s this week’s Long Read of the Week.
I really love this investigation of “height psychology” in The Atlantic. It begins with the analogy “Being tall is a bit like having a puppy, in that it forces you into a lot of fairly standard interactions with strangers” then questions why everyone wants to know what you’ve done with your height, like it’s an obligation.
This week in obscure sports — two guys at a Renaissance Festival (I think) are smacking each other in the head with a frying pan until one falls off the log they’re sitting on. That’s it, that’s the game. Incredible stuff.
An American artistic swimmer lost consciousness during her performance at the world championships this week, and her life was saved by the quick reaction of her coach, who dove in fully clothed and dragged her to the surface.
This video of two guys making a resort-style house with nothing more than a shovel literally put me in a seven-minute trance. I have no context, no additional details, just amazement.
These days, owners of the trendy French Bulldog breed are walking around in terror of armed robbers, who are doing everything they can to snatch the dogs now worth $30,000 or more. Lady Gaga’s dog walker got shot over her two Frenchies, for goodness sakes. “I don’t care if you’re going to the mailbox,” one owner told the New York Times. “Nope, they just can’t take the dogs out by themselves.”
TikTok has proven its incredible ability to vault just about any song into mainstream popularity. But no example is stranger than the sensation of “Jiggle Jiggle,” an accidental ultra-viral parody song by a 52-year-old British-American journalist who is definitely not trying to make a career as a rapper.
All hell broke loose on Reddit after right wing types discovered that the Homelander character in “The Boys” was actually a Trump stand-in, side-dooring the site’s no-politics policy. It’s confusing when the mass-murdering pure villain begins to “make some good points” in a speech about fake news.
Turns out, people in the 1700s also indulged in the ADD habit of having “too many tabs open,” except they did it with a revolving desk windmill contraption that held eight open books at once.
This one is kind of hard to explain for those uninitiated in the world of Twitch/YouTube streaming. But basically, TimTheTatMan is one of the biggest content creators in the world and mobilized his massive audience to contribute to a relatively unknown streamer who beat him in a video game. The act of generosity brought the younger gamer to tears. Warms the heart.
On Friday I’ll be back to talk Elvis. Thanks for reading and sharing! Or should I say, in my slickest Elvis voice…thank you, thank you very much.