Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
In a 1997 review, David Foster Wallace referred to John Updike as “a penis with a thesaurus.” Unfortunately, this is my type. I have a propensity to sleep with boys who keep copies of Infinite Jeston display somewhere in their bedrooms. It’s not that this is a prerequisite — I’ve never denied myself a sexual experience purely because my partner didn’t…
Itcan be easy to forget that sexual assault is a crime committed by a very small percentage of the male population. You might think otherwise, considering how many women have come forward in the last year with tales of abuse and the epidemic number of sexual assault victims in the U.S. — one person every 98 seconds. The truth,…
In the late 1980s Ruth Messinger, who was then on the New York City Council, was pushing a proposal to impose rent controls on commercial space to save small businesses from being pushed out by soaring rents. I called her “the most dangerous woman in New York” in a Crain’s editorial opposing her plan. I…
Ian Buruma at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2016. The New York Review of Books editor’s decision to publish a Jian Ghomeshi essay was questionable. His defense of it was far worse. (Awakening/Getty Images) As I read Isaac Chotiner’s perfectly fair, quietly relentless interrogation of the editor of the New York Review of Books…
The inside story of how England’s oldest university picks its students, and why it needs to change The opening scene of the latest Abba jukebox musical, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, is set in one of Oxford University’s ancient panelled dining halls. Lily James is, in flashback, the young Donna, graduating from New College (founded…
The last time I saw Les Moonves was a decade ago at the television upfronts. He was lordly and tiresome. As the president and chief executive of CBS, Moonves boasted monotonously about “Everybody Loves Raymond” to the journalists there to publicize his stupid sitcoms. The show might be a comedic wasteland, he said, but “you…
Nearly half of all cellphone calls next year will come from scammers, according to First Orion, a company that provides phone carriers and their customers caller ID and call blocking technology. The Arkansas-based firm projects an explosion of incoming spam calls, marking a massive leap from 3.7 percent of total calls in 2017 to more…
Kavanaugh’s accuser is credible. Will it matter? Brett Kavanaugh on the third day of his confirmation hearing.CreditCreditErin Schaff for The New York Times Obviously, I believe Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who says that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school while his friend Mark Judge watched and, at moments, egged him on….
With the rise of AI personalities like Lil Miquela, who can be anyplace at any time, the future landscape of fame is here. So where do humans fit into it? Lil Miquela herself weighs in. Michael Jackson and Lil Miquela. Miquela wears hat and vest by PRADA. Photograph from Getty Images from the Getty Images Entertainment collection,…
Soon after Christine Blasey Ford was revealed as the author of a letter alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her decades ago, the responses ran along predictable lines. While some argued that she should be heard, others questioned how much of her memory can be trusted. Amid a spate of…