On a recent Sunday, the crowd at the Brooklyn Flea was dangerously under-caffeinated. Blue Bottle Coffee, the only coffee vendor at the popular flea market, had just that weekend decamped, with little fanfare, until spring. The marble counter where their coffee wares were usually arrayed sat empty. The crowd—the weekend shoppers for costume jewelry and vintage iron-on decals—became indignant when told that they would have to go across the street—to a Starbucks—to get their caffeine fix. “Are you serious?!” a woman demanded of the hapless cupcake vendor who had the misfortune to have a spot next door. “Yes, I’m serious,” he replied, affecting the blankness of an airline representative with a line of stranded holiday travelers. “You’re not the first person to ask me that today.” READ MORE

1. Naming baby girls "Layla," "Leila" or "Lila." READ MORE

When I moved from Wisconsin to the Lower East Side in January, I quickly discovered my deep Midwest roots were very uncool. After a few smirks and condescending remarks about how I must be feeling “culture shock” in the big city, I learned not to broadcast the fact that I was raised and educated in, as our license plates proudly proclaim, America’s Dairyland. READ MORE

The best part of the GET READY FOR GAY DIVORCE stories are the anecdotes, like this couple who shared "a love of fur coats and gold jewelry": "The two are now in the messy process of untangling their lives—a web that has grown to include four purebred Rhodesian Ridgebacks, three houses, and one financially dependent parent." (Instead of letting them get gay-divorced, couldn't we just exile them to Antarctica? Won't someone think of the Ridgebacks?) Anyway, gay divorce: pro or con? Totally pro, right?

THIS IS THE PERFECT TREND STORY! This is IT. It is about how young gay men are "increasingly" (!!!) becoming "sugar babies" to pay for college! Let us break down how it works! READ MORE

"Nothing is certain but death and taxes" and, since 2007, "trend pieces about miracle fruit parties." Oh yes: "The miracle fruit party" is the trend piece that just won't die, despite that there have likely been more feature stories about miracle fruit parties than there have been actual miracle fruit parties. READ MORE

Food porn is one of the Internet's veritable viral cornerstones. Pictures of wacky cupcakes, fusion fried chicken or an incredible, competitive array of deviled eggs get reblogged viciously by legions of salivating fans. In an attempt to tap into the zeitgeist and assess what's to be the next "hot thing all the young, hip and/or upwardly mobile people are doing," I filmed my first amateur food porn. READ MORE

Inside.com, launched May, 2000, was owned by Powerful Media, whose backers (to a total tune of $35 million) included Flatiron Partners and Chase Capital Partners. The biweekly print version launched in December, 2000. Then a series of complicated things happened: Steve Brill bought it, for, in part, maybe $8 million in cash. Brill made a marriage to Primedia; six months later, that partnership "unwound." Soon enough: donezo. That's the short version; try the long one. But just like the xoJane launch party last week, Courtney Love also attended the Inside.com launch party! If those eyes could talk! READ MORE

"This is a love story. It began on a hot summer night in Santa Barbara, Calif., when Tamara Langman helped kill the yellow-eyed demon known as Prince Malchezaar. She was logged into World of Warcraft, the multiplayer fantasy game, and her avatar—Arixi Fizzlebolt, a busty gnome with three blond pigtails—had also managed to pique the interest of John Bentley, a k a Weulfgar McDoal." Are you ready to have your world rocked? Happily ever after, those two! (Also a hetero-fellow met a lady World of Warcraft avatar and she actually turned out to be IRL biofemale!) So we encourage you to go out and meet that person/troll/furry that you've been flirting with via computer and do them in person this weekend. Sure, it helps if you're open to all forms of genitalia, but it's 2011, don't be so judgmental. Live a little! Parts is parts! It's like the poet said: What do you say to taking chances? What do you say to jumping off the edge? Let Celine Dion be your spirit animal!

Not just two white men are without jobs, though they're the nice anecdotal evidence for the cover of Newsweek, which announced "The Beached White Male." Oh, you do not say: "Through the first quarter of 2011, nearly 600,000 college-educated white men ages 35 to 64 were unemployed." Oh but wait, do not make fun: "It might be tempting to snark at these former fat cats suffering lean times. But when Beached White Males suffer, so do their wives and children." (There are about 52 million married white men in the U.S., by the way.) But it's still safe to say this thesis doesn't have anything to do with numbers in the real world. READ MORE