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Lessons From The Movies

Lessons From The Movies

Movie
Mary Poppins
Purported Lesson
Everyone who works in finance should quit their jobs to spend more time with their kids; suffragism
Actual Lesson
If you feed a pigeon ever, even once, your life will become absolute garbage and you will become a shabby, decrepit old wanderer because pigeons are disgusting. More »

When Is It Okay To Be Late?

When Is It Okay To Be Late?

The Hairpin has raised an important question for debate: is it worse to be late or to be the kind of person who insists that other people’s lateness is a reflection upon their moral turpitude? The answers were surprising!

I had no idea so many people felt so strongly about the concept of punctuality, so I conducted a highly informal poll of the people who happened to be on Gchat at the time. For what it’s worth, there seemed to be about an even split of people self-identifying as “often late but trying to get better” and “always on time.” More »

Les Misérables: French Revolutions, In Order

Les Misérables: French Revolutions, In Order

If you’re anything like me, all this talk about the Les Mis movie, with its glancing attentions to the Paris Uprising of 1832, has reignited your long-dormant interest in French military history (I assume you’re already all talked out on Anne Hathaway’s weight loss and Russell Crowe’s singing voice). Between 1789 and 1905 the French tried to have a revolution at least once a year, to keep things fresh. Here are a few of the best ones. More »

Which 2012 “Word Of The Year” Candidate Do You Hate The Most?

Which 2012 "Word Of The Year" Candidate Do You Hate The Most?

The good people at the American Dialect Society have narrowed down the most execrable portmanteaus we have managed to invent this year into a barely tolerable list. Whether it’s an example of just how lazy memes can get or a reminder of some of the most brutal, least compassionate aspects of our society, every one of these phrases is more hateable than the last. Which one do you think we should feel the most ashamed for creating? More »

Emma Stone Thinks It’s ‘Hilarious’ Vogue Named Her Best Dressed, As She Does Not Dress Herself

Emma Stone Thinks It�s �Hilarious� Vogue Named Her Best Dressed, As She Does Not Dress Herself

Best dressed lists are silly. The reason they are silly is that 99.9% of all famous people have people called “stylists” whom they pay to pick out their clothes for them, to whom the credit really belongs. But nobody outside the fashion industry wants to buy a magazine featuring a “best stylist” list consisting of people they’ve never heard of, so we continue this charade of looking at pretty celebrities wearing pretty dresses and pretending they played any part in putting together those outfits themselves. More »

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