PicoBlog

Some minor spoilers If someone asked me to describe Game of Thrones and they hadn’t heard of it before, I would say “imagine the adult, non-censored version of Lord of the Rings”. George RR Martin’s epic book series A Song of Ice and Fire and its TV show adaption A Game of Thrones thrusts us into an alternative medieval world of Westeros with dragons, sex and magic. From the beginning of this epic series, you are dragged into a world full of violence and treachery as families battle over the Iron Throne.

TW: Sexual assault, sexual coercion From 2004 to about 2008, I identified as asexual. I was out to friends and people I dated, and in many cases I was the first asexual person they had ever met. I experienced a lot of erasure, hostility, and ignorance when I wore that identity, yet most of it was un-nameable and therefore impossible to do much about. Since I didn’t know any other ace people, I didn’t realize how common my experiences were, and could not see them as part of a larger tapestry of aphobia.

I can’t get Billie Eilish out of my head this week. I did a deep dive on her Instagram after the Grammys and serendipitously was on her page seconds after she posted a selfie of her new blonde hairdo. The photo rocketed to one million likes in under six minutes (a second blonde selfie did the same—actually they might not even be selfies, who knows) and is now the third most liked photo on Instagram.

Where would I be today without Drew Barrymore? I usually wake up at three or four in the morning and work for a few hours. It’s a perfect time to write. While the world sleeps, my sense of privacy is complete. Nothing distracts me in the wee hours. But I haven’t been up early this week. I’ve been sleeping like the dead and far too late to work properly. I write from my childhood home in Virginia.

Peak: #1 on the country chart (#16 on the Hot 100) Streams: 7.8 million Like so many genres, country music can be obsessed with the notion of authenticity: Who has it, who fakes it, who used to have it and gave it away. If they’re deemed truly authentic, then artists are granted a lifelong aura that shines off everything they do. The exact criteria are al… ncG1vNJzZmikn6jBtLvNoKpnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1ww8eyZKadXaC%2Fqr%2BMpKmiq6Sks6ex0aymp2VhboR0

Here are some things we know about Pfizer’s brand-name antiviral elixir Paxlovid™: It makes everything taste terrible. “Paxlovid mouth” is discussed from Reddit feeds to scholarly journals. (“Dysgeusia” is the fancy medical term for this persistent foul taste in one’s mouth.) It’s rapaciously priced. It’s now five times more expensive per gram than gold. Once upon a time, Pfizer sold a course of Paxlovid™ for $530, and as I noted back in October, by then we had already spent upwards of $18 billion for it — more money in a single year than had ever been spent for a pill in human history.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I sent out a newsletter? Is this true? It seems to be true. I know you’ve all been waiting with absolute bated breath to hear about what’s been on my mind, and I am pleased to report that you can now exhale.  As you all know, we’re now over a month into—say it with me—HOT! VAX! SUMMER!, a term that means precisely nothing and also makes me want to claw my eyes out.

Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: an American actor meets Page 3, the royals make plans to talk to Oprah, and Bradley Cooper wears a disguise. Does the phrase “Page 3 girl” mean anything to you? Until yesterday, I was unaware of the concept, but apparently it’s a super feminist tradition in the British tabloids where the editors run a photo of a topless gal on … page 3.

Warning: This post contains some mild spoilers for the new Barbie movie. So Barbie happened this weekend. (You can read my review here.) I genuinely loved it and I’m thrilled that it has been both critically and financially successful. But shocker, a certain contingent of men were shocked to discover that the movie really didn’t cater to their perception of how the world is supposed to work.  Comments on articles about it, nearly hour long rants about it, review bombs - all declaring that Barbie is anti-man.