What happens to the stuff you order online after you send it back?
These are the best things I found on the internet this week!
Hello my loyal and faithful readers!
I’m honestly finding more and better content for this newsletter with each passing week. This week’s crop is a little heavy on the funny video side of things, but it seemed like a welcome antidote to the stories about people abusing local health officials, a couple different murder stories and China’s breakthrough in missile technology.
My hope is that this list of things helps improve your media diet each week. I encourage you to bookmark the email, or come back to my webpage throughout the week and read all these stories. They’re all pretty incredible.
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.
My Covid-tracking team at The New York Times published a large investigation today into the perilous state of local health departments. Death threats, 500+ resignations, new laws that would make the next pandemic response harder. And almost every day for a month my job was to find and watch these insane videos of people screaming and throwing tantrums at local health meetings. Democracy is MESSY.
The best thing reader Dale saw on the internet last week was this Tik Tok of a Toy Story-themed semi-truck “trick shot” set to “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” that’s guaranteed to make you smile. Thanks for sending it in!
When I first saw this Robin Williams short film, it legitimately blew my mind. What Jamie Costa is doing is less impression and more sorcery, as if he’s somehow conjured up Williams from the grave, with exact mannerisms and intonation. It’s the type of magic performance that makes your skin tingle. This five-minute test is an obvious attempt to generate interest and potentially funding for a Robin Williams biopic, and after seeing it I can’t imagine anyone getting a project off the ground that doesn’t involve Costa in the starring role. (For some unexplained reason, Costa took the original version down from his YouTube channel, so the version linked above is a lower quality re-upload from a different user).
Another mind-blowing story in The Atlantic. What happens to the stuff you order online after you send it back? Last year alone, U.S. retailers took back more than $100 billion in merchandise, and almost all of it is either destroyed, stripped for parts or sold quietly overseas. The reasons why are fascinating, and complicated.
Nancy Meyers is an iconic filmmaker. Her movies are almost all huge hits — The Parent Trap, What Women Want, The Holiday, It’s Complicated, Something's Gotta Give, to name a few — and more than that, they all share some very specific Nancy-isms. Jimmy Fallon and Chris Stapleton nail them all in this hilarious parody song.
A group of 43 high school students commandeered a school bus in 2014 to take to a protest in Mexico City. Little did they know, the school bus was being used by the cartel to smuggle large amounts of heroine across the U.S. border. The children went missing, until new evidence was uncovered this week that found out the cartel worked directly with corrupt police officers to intercept the bus and murder at least 38 of the students. Absolutely insane story (in the Hollywood version, one of those five will survive and come back and go full John Wick on their asses).
Can you tell which tweets are from Kanye West vs. Elon Musk? It’s much harder than you think.
If you’ve been watching and loving the Steve Martin-led Hulu show “Only Murders in the Building” like me, then you’ve got to see this. At an apartment building in Brooklyn, there was quite literally a serial killer in the building. And due to the neglect of the low-income area and senior populace, it took almost a decade for anyone to do anything about it.
Ok I have a new suggestion for an Olympic sport. Quite simply, it’s who can stick a sticky note the highest on a wall. One caveat: there has to be an audience full of screaming gymnasts girls present for every contest.
I hope you’re watching all these videos and having a good time, because China successfully launched a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System that can bypass the United States’ missile defense systems and strike at any time with very little notice. Five U.S. officials confirmed they were caught totally off-guard. Which is great, just great.
But hey, the brilliant Jason Gallagher recut the recently released trailer for “The Batman” using “Ted Lasso” footage. Which is hilarious.
And you know what else is funny? Texts from you mom. This compilation of texts one person got while their mom was watching the new season of “You” is sure to make you laugh (and forget about those suborbital missiles for a few minutes).
Thanks for reading and sharing! Friday’s newsletter will feature one of the best movies of the year, and the reason why it makes me so pessimistic about the future of movies.