This bedridden man invented a cure for his own disease
Here are the best things I found on the internet this week!
Hello friends and readers!
Thanks for the well wishes about the throat swelling thing I was dealing with last week. It was kinda scary, but I’m feeling much better now. Praise the Lord for antibiotics.
I forgot to mention last week the colossal loss of the writer Joan Didion, a mistake I’m correcting now by recommending my favorite of the many amazing tributes written over the past few weeks. I’ve now read three of Didion’s books, and her writing voice is definitely a major inspiration for my style in this newsletter. More importantly, she’s helped me understand and think about the city of Los Angeles in profound and provocative ways. She might be gone but she won’t soon be forgotten.
Now that we’ve corrected for last week, let’s hop into another packed week of the best, most interesting, funniest, and most enriching content on the internet this 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.
Several weeks ago in this newsletter, I recommended this fantastic and engrossing feature by Reeves Wiedeman about a mysterious book thief who was taking the literary world by storm. Well this week, months later, the F.B.I. have arrested the infamous manuscript stealer! The New York Times uncovers everything investigators learned about the crimes, but the motives are still unknown.
In media news, nothing was bigger this week than The New York Times announcing it was buying The Athletic for $550 million. There’s nobody better to explain what this means and why you should care than The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis.
The hardest I laughed this week was unquestionably when I stumbled across the Twitter phenomenon of Elmo’s feud with a rock. Yes, old clips of “Sesame Street” resurfaced this week of Elmo ranting about one character’s imaginary pet rock friend. This savage main video, and the videos in the replies, will make you crack up guaranteed.
For the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, “America’s Girls,” their cardinal rule has always been a “no fraternization” policy with the players. So how did this idyllic photo of a cheerleader kissing a quarterback during a Super Bowl celebration, the juiciest of juicy, get buried from all media for 25 years? Texas Monthly magazine digs deep to find out the story behind the photo.
Netflix programmed a robot to “watch” over 400,000 hours of stand-up comedy, then write its own stand-up special. It’s funny from the premise, and mostly confusing, but I won’t lie there’s one line in there that actually got a real laugh out of me. Still, I don’t think human comedians should feel threatened at this point.
I know I must be an old person now because I look at Gen Z sometimes like they’re a bunch of aliens. Now, Gen Z-ers are getting old enough to join the workforce, and they’re bringing a whole bunch of changes to office culture with them. LA Mag puts it into perspective in this funny and thoughtful essay.
New Yorker writer Helen Rosner turned 40 this week, and went viral on Twitter dishing out a thread of simple life advice. Good stuff.
The other internet phenomenon this week was Wordle, the simple word game that you play just once per day (then tweet out your results, because if you ain’t braggin’ you ain’t playin’). How did it get so popular so quickly? Allow me to introduce you to your new daily obsession.
Thanks for reading and sharing! We have so many movies to talk about on Friday I can’t wait! Talk to ya then.