Stuff I saw on the internet last week: "I love it when it's hard, and bad"
Happy Monday! I’m cat sitting my sister’s cat Mickey this week, and while he and my cat Moe aren’t best friends yet, they’re slowly getting there. Here’s Mickey in all his tuxedo’d glory:
Onto internet things!
If you’re not a paid subscriber, you missed out on a bonus post from the weekend about a surprisingly sweet horror-comedy-romance movie called Spontaneous, about a town where the high school seniors keep suddenly exploding:
Yes, this is a movie about exploding people, but it’s also about moving forward, and doing all the things you want to do before it’s too late. Does Spontaneous lean a little hard on the “carpe diem” messaging? Sure, at times. But thanks to the good writing and excellent performances from Plummer and especially Langford, it all pretty much works. (Langford is wearing a wig I don’t love for this movie, but I can forgive it, because I assume it’s because she’s in so many scenes of characters exploding that they didn’t want to have to keep washing fake blood out of the actress’s hair.)
If you don’t have a paid subscription, it’s just $5 a month, or $50 a year, which is two months free! Click below to check it out.
This month, my podcast, I Hate It But I Love It, is doing a whole month of baseball movies, and last week, we talked about the delightful film Bull Durham, which I’d actually never seen before! And this Wednesday, we close out baseball month with The Sandlot. You should subscribe, if you wanna be cool. (You can find I Hate It But I Love It in all the usual places, including Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Pocket Casts.)
TWEETS!
REDDIT!
AAHHHH OH MY GOD LET ME PUNCH THIS MAN:
My phone ended up dying, and I spent the last two hours there alone, terrified I was losing my baby, and being told to stop crying by the nurses because I was going to stress baby out. When they finally discharged me I had to drive myself home.
When I got home I told him I was upset that he left me alone with no support like that. He argued that he didn’t have a way there. I reminded him about our boss offering and that’s when he told me that I was ignoring his fear of hospitals and doctors and it was unfair that I expected him to just get over it to come sit with me. He said that next time he sees a big spider he’s going to push me to it and tell me to get over it.
An update that somehow makes me angrier than the original post:
I had a word with him about the family calender and people's suggestions about if it's not on the calendar it doesn't exist. Making sure my time away was on there. He seemed to go along with it and said he would reschedule his cycle trip - great I thought!…
About midday I get a phone call. He had gone on his trip. Tells my to check the calendar. He has tipexed out my writing and written in his trip. I say a few choice words to him. He basically says it's my fault as I should have got up earlier. So I told him that he won and he is now free to go on as many cycle trips as he wants now.
A fascinating AskReddit thread about weird things that people saw at their friends’ houses that the friend’s family treated as normal:
When I was in high school, a friend asked me and two other friends to his house for dinner. His mom served homemade bean soup, which was very good. Toward the end of the main course, she brought out chocolate cake for dessert. She cut each of us a slice and plopped it into our bowls... in which we each still had about an inch of soup. Us guests exchanged puzzled glances, but the family dug right in, so apparently chocolate cake soaked in bean soup was an ordinary thing for them.
I can’t give any response to this AITA post that’s better than the very first comment:
YOU DON'T. 👏 BABYSIT. 👏 YOUR. 👏 OWN. 👏 KID. 👏
And this video of The Disappearing Bicyclist illusion is deceptively simple, yet mind-boggling.
TUMBLR!
(via so-lo.)
(via pea-shooter85, thread found here.)
(via wlwriot, thread found here.)
(via grimeclown, thread found here.)
And it’s too long to screenshot for this newsletter, but here’s a really good Tumblr thread about a painting.
TIKTOK!
“I can get you a man. A quality man? No. But a man.”
This is a very sweet video.
Learning things the hard way when you teach a classroom of kids.
A meeting of the Buffy season 3 costume designers.
"My dog will not let me blow-dry my hair.” She’s not kidding.
“We are close, but we are not THAT close.”
“Why are French people so mean?”
When you can’t unsee it, but it’s permanent.
There’s a lot of lead-up to the juicy part of this TikTok, but I promise the wait is worth it.
ARTICLES!
The Spine Collector: The Mysterious Figure Stealing Books Before Their Release, Vulture
“A Smile With Sharp Teeth”: Mike Richards’s Rise to ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Sparks Questions About His Past, The Ringer (this was obviously published before Richards stepped down, but still a great read)
COVID, Catharsis, and the Radical Power of an Ali Wong Blow Job Joke, Vanity Fair
You’ve Never Heard of the Biggest Digital Media Company in America, New York Times
The history of the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, blogTO
OnlyFans Creators Are Trying Not To Panic, BuzzFeed News
Serious Question: Does Nicole Kidman Have a 'Real' Voice?, Jezebel
That’s all for me today, gorgeous. Talk to you soon.
Love,
Kat