Why Gen-Z is ruining the mafia
These are the best things I found on the internet this week!
Good morning!
If you’re looking for someone to blame for this Tuesday edition of the newsletter coming a day late, point your pitchforks at GEORGE WASHINGTON, whose birthday I celebrated a little too completely on Monday with a day off work.
Wanted to give you another opportunity to join my fifth annual Oscars picks pool, which is free to enter and has a prize of $2/entry. Get those ballots in!
In the meantime, different day same “conversation starters,” my roundup of the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet in the past week. Hope you find some time this week to read, watch and enjoy — then share with others!
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 favorite magazine writer working today is New York Mag’s Reeves Wiedeman. During the celebrations around the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” he wrote what I think is the definitive profile of Lorne Michaels. Required reading for fans of the show, and an incredible story for everyone else (one anecdote about Lorne standing up to Taylor Swift had my jaw on the floor). Of course, it’s our Long Read of the Week.
Did any of you all watch SNL50 on Sunday night? What did you think? I felt like it was more celebratory and featured far-more back-patting than funny jokes.
In my opinion, the guys at Almost Friday TV are doing SNL-style sketch comedy at a much higher level. This week’s video—an homage to Once Upon a Time In Hollywood through the lens of an extra on a porn set—had me dying laughing.
By now, it’s undeniable — protein has taken over the grocery store. Americans have become obsessed with maximizing their protein intake (myself included!), so this exhaustive NY Mag story on why the trend started, and what it actually does for you, feels essential (short answer, it’s good, with an asterisk!).
Apparently corporate recruiters aren’t the only ones complaining about Gen Z. Mafia godfathers in Sicily have been caught on wiretaps lamenting the caliber of new recruits. “The calibre these days is low, a miserable level,” said one. “We used to be number one, now it’s others… we’re just gipsies.”
If there’s one thing the internet is extremely good at, it’s turning very bizarre and mundane stories into a firestorm of content. This week’s example is the story of an angler fish — one of those fish that lives deep in the darkest parts of the ocean and produces its own light (you might know them from Finding Nemo) — who mysteriously found its way swimming just below the surface of the ocean and died soon after. A nice little story, but over on TikTok, it’s become an epic drama that fans are saying should inspire the next Pixar classic (shoutout to Sarah L. for bringing this to my attention!).
A woman in Australia is living without money. Literally. She doesn’t have or use money in any facet of her life. The Guardian explains how (the power of “social capital”).
The production values on social media skits has gotten absolutely out of control. There is more thought and intention going into this random 1-minute Instagram video about a returning soldier’s lost mother then that new $200 million Captain America movie in theaters.
Thanks for reading and sharing! Bit of an odd movie week (if you couldn’t tell by my Marvel comment above), so not sure exactly what the plan is for Friday but I will be back in your inboxes then!