PicoBlog

I saw Poltergeist when it first aired on network TV. For those who weren’t around in the early 80s, there weren’t a lot of ways to see a movie if you missed its run in the theater. Poltergeist didn’t predate VCRs, but it DID predate Blockbuster and even the small rental stores. But the biggest movies often had a showing on television. Edited for content and with regular commercials, but still.

The Prada slingback from fall 1995 made a clack heard ‘round the world. You know the shoe. There’s the little bra strap that hugs the back of the heel, while the pilgrim loafer front adds a dose of office-ready reserve. The combination renders the shoe both ugly and sexy; somehow modest and titillating. To me this slingback has always epitomized the quality of jolie laide—there’s an incredible “this fucks” raunch to this shoe.

Cocktail Barflies today are spoiled. They are not only well-watered, they are fed on a diet of top-notch bar burgers, salads, fried chicken sandwiches, hand-cut fries, shishito peppers, crudite and marinated olives. Many of them may assume it’s always been this good, that drinkers have never not had easy access to house-recipe deviled eggs and curated plates of cheese and charcuterie. Let me tell you, that is not the case. For much of the 20th-century, food and bars were not something that married well together, if they got together at all.

(Today’s report is a 6 minute read) BLUF: SMARCH helps Green Berets save lives by listing in priority order the steps necessary for treating life threatening wounds in combat. It was introduced as part of a new methodology for treating and evacuating casualties called Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), and addressed not only the type of wounds soldiers were experiencing, but the environment in which they occurred. Brady here. As many readers of The Quartermaster know, I spent my formative years within the confines of military schools.

“Shockingly sharp rebuke?” Hardly. Outer played a role in pushing dangerous drugs on her fellow citizens and family. She played a role in people being fired and banned from society. Now she plays “poor me, people are so mean.” I actually believe in forgiveness, but she equates that with amnesty. No. Those who abused their power to do this deserve criminal investigation and trials. And sentences, if found guilty of any of the multitude of crimes that were committed.

Want to stay up to date with all things PopPoetry? Follow the new dedicated account @pop__poetry for news and extras! Happy Halloween! Been enjoying these themed posts from PopPoetry? Next week’s subscriber-only post will focus on a staple of Halloween and winter holiday viewing: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. We’ve got a delightful creepy appetizer on offer today, but if you’d like to read next week’s post on the animated holiday classic and the poem it was inspired by, upgrade your subscription today!

California got roasted on social media this week as news of their new “Ebony Alert” system circulated. You see: Ebony Alerts are Amber Alerts, but for Black kids. If you’re thinking “weren’t Black kids covered by Amber Alerts?” the answer is “yes, obviously”. And it gets dumber: California also has a system for finding missing indigenous people called “Feather Alerts”. Please note: “Feather Alert” is California’s terminology, not mine; I would be banished to Antarctica if I proposed that any system for indigenous people be called "

💥 The advice Chappelle gave a young Bill Burr after a set: "Your point of view is so dope. But it's gonna take you a lot longer to get there. But when you do, you're gonna hit hard." 💥 Comedian + Audience: Comedy is the most collaborative artform there is (along with DJing) since you and the audience are building the art TOGETHER as a collective. A guitar player can practice at home alone.

If you’re a TV person, you might be following along with the drama surrounding Netflix’s new hit show, Baby Reindeer. A dark psycho-drama following a failing comedian and his stalker, the new series has sparked an interesting conversation about how trauma is portrayed on-screen, and how media attention impacts trauma survivors off-screen. Content warning: the rest of this article contains a discussion of how this show portrays sexual abuse. If you’re not in the right mental or emotional place to engage with this material right now, please skip this piece.