On Footnotes of Mad Men: Mrs. Draper, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
While I think that commenters have added a whole new level of depth and, obviously, discourse, to sites like Gawker, I think it's pretty asinine and arrogant to say that commenters provide the "standard of excellence" rather than the editors and mods. The editors don't have the luxury of speaking solely for themselves without any real thought toward consequence or style. Their livelihoods depend on simultaneously pleasing their superiors and the masses, with the added pressures of previously unheard-of deadlines and time constraints along with instantaneous criticism, commentary, and the all-powerful pageview-counts. If you want anarchical commenting privileges, you should probably go to sites with absolutely no editorial at all.
0
On Five Memes That Are Mostly Just People Laughing at Working-Class African-Americans, in Order of Views
Why do people laugh at Soulja Boy? I don't get it. The song is just in the grand ol' tradition of "I made up this little dance and now everyone's doin' it." Everyone's having a good time, Soulja Boy confirms that yes, he really does crank n' roll every day, everyone's wearing sweet-ass, albeit too-big graffiti clothes, getting signed, and dancing in the streets. Do people laugh at people who dance awesomely in the streets? Seriously, because when I see people doing awesome dances in the streets, I'm totally jealous.
0
On Footnotes of Mad Men: From Lubricated to Morose
I'm pretty sure that Roger didn't hire Don and Don just took advantage of the blackout situation and told him that the next day (note the little twinkle in Don's eye on the elevator-"It worked!"). The guy that Don is forced to hire because of his own blackout mirrors the way that he was hired, and offers the pretext for the inclusion of that particular flashback in this episode.
0
On The Worst Summer Ever?
It drives me crazy that everyone forgets last summer so quickly! IT RAINED FOR TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT. Seriously, it seemed like it rained every day. Yeah, it's been incredibly hot and sweaty, which sucks. But the constant rain was sooo much worse. And as far as being poor and the world sucking, I see no difference from last summer and likely all the summers of my life, so I vote that this summer is awesome.
0
On So Daddy Drinks A Little. So What?
I went and read the article, and I'm gonna say that anyone who wakes up and wants whiskey every day and counts their drinks religiously is one day going to wake up sick of having the coffee instead of the whiskey and bored with managing their intake. It's not the 25 drinks a week that make this guy an alcoholic, it's the fact that he's fighting the urge to have a drink all the time. I can say from experience that even if you manage to "fight the urge" for a really long time, which most people can't, it's no way to live. You're thinking about booze constantly, when you could be thinking about way awesomer things with all of that time.
0
On Letters to the Editors of Women's Magazines
Ediiiiiith I love you!!! I tell everyone you're my favorite writer, and no offense, but when they're like "Who?" I'm all "Fuck you."
0
On 'Kids,' 15 Years Later
I was 14 and growing up in the suburbs when this movie came out, and I definitely thought it was the coolest thing in the world, as well as appropriately terrifying in some ways. It's really interesting to look back on the film right now, because I've been giving a lot of thought recently to my 14-year-old self and wondering what the fuck I was thinking when it came to a lot of things, but when it comes to Kids, I realize now that a lot of the grown-up types of things they did weren't something I wanted at the time. HIV wasn't the only terrifying thing about the movie to me, and it's kind of a relief to realize that maybe I did have some brains in my head at 14, because I remember feeling like all the freedom they had (which is pretty much all I wanted at the time) wasn't really freedom at all. It seemed scary and sad, even if it was "cool."
On a side note, I recently worked at a restaurant in Brooklyn with a couple people my age who went to school with Rosario Dawson at the time the movie was made, and were some of those "East Village skater kids." And as far as I can tell from knowing them, the New York in the film certainly existed, but the matter-of-factness of what it means to actually be one of those kids basically lost its luster the second the tape stopped rolling. The follow-up documentary would basically play out like you'd expect: addiction, gang violence, broken homes, teenage pregnancy, jail time, death, etc. Hardly glamorous, and certainly not something that the current New York City is looking to sell itself as.
0
On AT&T's New Data Charging Scheme: It Is Explained!
Ohmeegosh the article this links to says that in London, they INTENTIONALLY give you the cheapest subway-rates deal depending on how much you use the subway. This is in direct opposition to the NY system, in which they intentionally leave you with a bunch of cards with 50 cents on them or something if you don't buy an unlimited pass!!! I might just move.
0
On Photo: Gawker HQ's Telescreen Displays List of Most-Successful Blog Posts
The idea might not be a bad thing, but the implications of success or failure in these terms are the problem at Gawker. It's a fine line between being shrewd and just being an asshole, and I think this blog knows where Denton and the screen in the picture fall.
0
On Toward v. Towards
British usage is "towards" and American is "toward." There really is no argument or "choice," like there is with countless other words that you would have in a house-style guide. Unless you just feel like using "towards," in which case, okay. (That's a good example of a style choice-okay vs. OK vs. O.K.-actually so is that: versus or vs. But I digress.) Then there's always the option of taking whimsical liberties because you run a website and you can do whatever you want. In which case, having coined the Knifecrime Island thing, you might just want to use British styling whenever you feel like it. And...I've obviously spent far too much of my life thinking about these things.