The new vocabularies of meaning

Plus: an instant classic groupchat game for your most name-droppy friends.

After a summer almost suspiciously devoid of mosquito encounters, I have been getting bitten up and down by the late September bloomers. Being chilly and itchy, what a sensation.

Today’s links involve a fun parlor game to find out which of your friends are actually “cool,” NPC discourse, advice from the spiciest art newsletter in New York, and the case for whole-scale adoption of the concept of “jollies.”