PicoBlog

Long before "cunt" became an epithet, before it was a misogynist insult or a vulgar verbal weapon, it was a term of respect. And why wouldn’t it be? We all came from one. Cunt is both useful — a snappy word to describe a trifecta of parts — and fun to say. Cunts make for great architecture, and beautiful floral arrangements. And yet it wasn’t until I was… ncG1vNJzZmiilajAqq%2FAm5ynppWpwW%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xop2ivmJbBtHnSqGSbmZRirqO71K1kraCVYrBuw86rm2ZqYmJ%2BcXmPag%3D%3D

I’ve been writing film reviews professionally for over 20 years. According to my Rotten Tomatoes page, the current tally is over 1,600 reviews and counting, though that’s surely well short of the total number, given broken links or lost web pages or other holes in the net. And while objects do tend to shift during flight—no critic (or human) has a fixed opinion on anything—the review I’ve always wanted to take back, for virtually that entire period, is my rave for Sam Mendes’ American Beauty, a film that would go on to win Best Picture in 1999, a year so legendarily great that Brian Rafterywrote a book about it and the rest of us spent 2019doingretrospectivepieces and podcasts about it.

I like emojis. I’m even trying to create one. One summer I spent two days using only Emoji for my personal communications. It was rather challenging - but something I still think about. What, one may ask, does this have to do with Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year and one of the holiest days on the calendar? Everything. What is Rosh Hashanah? A day of repentance? Perhaps, but is that role not also filled by Yom Kippur — the day of atonement?

Today I launched the campaign for Nexalis, my solo/coop bright fantasy RPG about exploration, growth and camaraderie. I had a vision for what kind of tone this game should have, but I couldn’t quite name it. And although I don’t believe in clear boundaries between genres, I felt I needed a way to quickly communicate what I was talking about. So I stumbled upon the term bright fantasy, and decided to adopt it.

Several years ago I became a bit obsessed with ‘non-words.’ I think I was puzzling through a dictionary for some type of word game—and probably deep in a mystical study of apophatic theology—and found a listing in the N section of words beginning with ‘non-’. I bring this up because I just did a little googling around the antonyms of “technocratic” and found these: ANTONYMS FOR technical unmechanical untechnical It’s easy to imagine a straight swap of the ‘un-’ for a ‘non-’ here; and it’s probably needless to say that I was a bit disappointed to find these (what’s the opposite of rich?

¡Hola Papi! is the preeminent deranged advice column from writer and author John Paul Brammer, now living on Substack! If you’ve ever wanted advice from a Twitter-addled gay Mexican with anxiety, here is your chance. Support this column by sharing it and subscribing below. Send Papi a letter at holapapiletters@gmail.com¡Hola Papi! I’m a young gay in his mid-20s, and I was wondering: What is it with the kink some gay guys have for daddies?

Seed oils are the new sugar, which was the new gluten, which was the new animal protein, which was the new carbs, which was the new saturated fat. It’s the latest nutritional boogeyman being blamed for the ongoing public health catastrophe that is our diabesity epidemic. The anti-seed oil influencers are everywhere, and they’re becoming mainstream. Here’s a few of the prominent influencers that have made an impact on popular culture:

I’m Paul Musgrave, a political scientist and writer. This is Systematic Hatreds, my newsletter about my thoughts regarding politics and how we study it. The newsletter takes its title from a line in The Education of Henry Adams: Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds. This week, while I recover my writing schedule, we’re overthinking procedural television. Think of this as the amuse-bouche while I prepare tastier meals for you later.

“Uh, huh, huh What's wrong with being What's wrong with being What's wrong with being confident?” - Demi Lovato Nothing wrong with being confident, if you're right. I am, and I am exhausted from debating the inflation fearmongers. Every interview of Larry Summers makes my blood boil. His remarks this week caused me to yell uncontrollably at my screen. That’s my version of “overheating.” In addition, I have done and watched countless interviews in which Larry is invoked, forcing us to engage with him as the ‘Oracle of Macro.