isn't it divine we still love a good rhyme (sorry) (actually no im not)
Plus: Is FOMO the best kind of subscription drive?
I recently visited Trader Joe’s for the first time in…four years? It brought back vivid memories of when I was an intern on a tiny wil $25K/year stipend living next to the one in Foggy Bottom in DC. What a memory palace. Thai Frozen Dumplings, you’ve seen me through the worst, and you’re still here when I need you.
Not to betray certain Concerns of My Age, but I’ve been clawing around a lot to find beginner-friendly coverage (and skepticism!) of the egg freezing industrial complex—that $10K elephant that’s now automatically in the room with me and the girlies any time we’re discussing life stuff. This Business Insider piece by Eve Upton-Clark, The egg-freezing industry's shady sales pitch, threw welcome cold water on the usually panic-inducing Google results. (I also enjoyed Allure’s ASME-winning package from last fall on this, though uh “enjoyed” is not really the right word, is it).
Slate’s Luke Winkie looked into the batshit hustle of TikTok breakup coaches; each successive paragraph will make you pop an eyeball vein. Something extra insidious about those $60 emergency breakup “kits” being sold…like I can’t tell if $60 is offensively high or offensively low…
“It’s at that price because that’s what people pay,” said Lichtenwalner, when asked if he possessed any hesitation about charging such a hefty cost for his services. “My schedule is packed back-to-back all week. Think of the worst breakup you’ve had. Would you try to solve it for the price of a PlayStation? I think if their ex said, ‘Hey, give me a PlayStation and we’ll be back together,’ they’d do it. I can sleep at night just fine. Because I love that I’m helping people.”
You’ve almost certainly seen the multi-hyphenate comedian/artist Kareem Rahma pop up on your feed as New York’s most actually interesting “on-the-street” interviewer. He’s the guy behind TikTok-famous “Keep The Meter Running” series (which his former employer, the NYT, seemed….mmm….shall we say was clearly inspired by), as well as “Subway Takes” (you can see me pop up in an episode from last month hehe).
Both of those shows make obvious not only Kareem’s talent for viral engineering in the current content landscape, but also his clearly anthropological eye for both subjects and storytelling—something most of these “hey can I ask you a question” lavalier punks do NOT possess in the slightest. You and I would both do well to keep an eye on his growing oeuvre with “The Last Stop,” a new 30-minute talk show series that Kareem just launched this morning (featuring everyone’s fave art curmudgeon Jerry Saltz. Obviously, he needs to get Fran next, right). (TBD when the NYT will premiere “Subway Interviews In A Totally Original Format Tee Hee”).
From The Atlantic: Social Media Broke Slang. Now We All Speak Phone. Dan Brooks takes a crack at the death of “exformation” we once communicated via the slang we deployed to give hints about our context, backgrounds, class, etc. Nice historical anecdote about Obama’s use of “folks;” I especially liked how Brooks described what the internet feels like here:
But I live under unnatural conditions—conditions dictated by social media and its delivery system, the smartphone. Like most internet users with access to X, Instagram, TikTok, and so forth, I routinely spend two to 22 hours a day competing in a metered popularity contest that rewards, among other things, whoever can deviate the furthest from standard English and still be understood.
My sort of wholesome take is that that incentive system—whoever can coin the next BDE/Instagram face/millennial pause/hawk tuah gets to go viral and maybe even gets rich—means everyone (and, to more loser extent, brands) is motivated to have more fun with words??? Is that so uncool to say??
For example, I will say I am enjoying how we as a society still clearly love a good, old-fashioned rhyme. Why else would phrases like “normcore” or “rawdogging [flights]” (great job Kate) or even Sabrina Carpenter’s double rhyme of i guess so w/ me espresso feel so good and sticky?
Do you guys subscribe to Cake Zine? It’s another one of those smart, lushly styled publications that bloomed up in post-pandemic New York from the brains of a pastry chef and former Bon App editor. Their new candy-themed issue just dropped, which also means another one of their sceney launch parties is just around the corner, on July 18. (If you’re in NY you can try to snag one of the last tickets here! dessert is included!) Now more than ever before, indie outlets are understanding that the party is half the point…Think of FOMO as the best kind of subscription drive…
Reminder: I’m doing a digital etiquette advice column with Steffi Cao for Fast Company later this summer. Want (1) millennial and (1) Gen Z perspective on a specific dilemma re: How To Conduct Yourself Online? Hit reply and ask away, and we might run it in the column!
^^I feel like you guys know the answer to that one…right?
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