Why read past headlines: You, extremely online, have heard of "Mar-a-Lago face". You've seen Cybertrucks and bad AI art and whatever happened to Elon Musk.

But why do fascists love grotesquerie so much? I have theories. And I quote other theories.

https://www.salon.com/2025/03/24/from-mar-a-lago-face-to-uncanny-ai-art-magas-love-of-ugliness-is-submission-to/

People of Mastodon!

My wife, the fantastic writer @Emilynussbaum, has just published "Cue The Sun!", a rollicking and deeply-reported history of how reality TV was invented ...

... from Alan Funt's wild experiments on "Candid Camera" all the way up to the reality explosion of the late 90s, and ending with the first season of The Apprentice.

The storytelling here is just mind-blowing

I am biased of course but I'm also COMPLETELY RIGHT

go read this thing! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563029/cue-the-sun-by-emily-nussbaum

ICYMI: The original reality TV cast contract was just 166 words long https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2024/05/the-original-reality-tv-cast-contract-was-just-166-words-long/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

(And if ya like this article, pre-order my book “Cue The Sun: The Invention of Reality TV,” which is about the origin story of the genre!Drops June 25…
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563029/cue-the-sun-by-emily-nussbaum/

Plus much more—including the growing debate over whether reality TV cast members should organize for better treatment (spoiler: yes)

In it, I dug deep into the untold story of Renee Poche, a veterinarian who wound up engaged to an unemployed alcoholic with anger issues, then got edited out of the fifth season— and was sued for $4 million when she spoke out publicly about her experience

Check out my investigative piece on Love Is Blind, the Netflix hit that sold itself to cast members as a pure-hearted psych experiment—and is currently being sued for false imprisonment, labor violations & setting people up with dangerous soulmates
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/27/is-love-is-blind-a-toxic-workplace

@irwin Thank you so much!

Santos lied so much it’s making me question whether *I’m* Jewish

Most unlikely detail in this heartwarming tale of storm Good Samaritans is that the stranded South Koreans knocked on the door of a white couple near Buffalo who had a rice cooker, kimchi and gochujang in their kitchen https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/25/us/snow-storm-korean-tourists.html

Hilarious and witty personal essay by @clive that describes cycling through New York during a bomb cyclone

https://clivethompson.medium.com/cycling-through-a-polar-vortex-bombogenesis-4e5367f9a29

Just got back from Avatar: The Way of the Water

Holy moses

That was the most interminable cutscene I've ever sat through

AVATAR 2: Exhausting. Many underwater cats saying “bro.” Regrets, I have a few

The Grinch had a wonderful awful idea

A lot of Mastodon advice I’m seeing seems to be geared toward “How to replicate your Twitter experience” or “Can Mastodon replicate your Twitter experience?”

But… I don’t WANT to replicate my Twitter experience. 1/more

@docbrianS Thanks, very helpful!

Got a Joyce Chen wok and I need to season it. Apparently I need to scrub off some insane coating it has— Does anyone have experience with this? Any advice so I don't mess it up?

"I can't get the Westboro Baptist Church's version of Poker Face out of my head." -- my son, randomly

@joshdobbin Very frustrated! I really want it to come back

Alexa. Alexa, wake up. Your name is Alexa Goodrich, you live in Lansing, Michigan and you have a husband and two daughters. You've been dreaming that you are a computer voice assistant. It's been three months since the accident and your mind created this false reality to protect itself. Your family misses you. Alexa, please wake up.