It is weird how the possibility of impending fascism and the ever-present messages of resistance make everything seem political. Like the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl halftime show, and the Super Bowl commercials. Mind you, messages like “Americans: we are nice people who don’t endorse bullying” are not viewed as political any other year and…
Wizards Of The Tribe: Jewish Representation In ‘Fantastic Beasts’
HOLY SHIT, PEOPLE, THERE ARE THREE JEWISH CHARACTERS IN THAT FANTASTIC BEASTS MOVIE. I came out of the movie confident that Tina and Queenie were Jewish because GOLDSTEIN (obviously anyone with the last name Goldstein is supposed to be Jewish) but less certain about Jacob Kowalski, despite the final scene’s establishing shot on Orchard Street,…
The Halcyon Days When Scandals, Gaffes, and Flubs Ended Presidential Campaigns
“In a normal year, this could be a campaign-ending event,” people (mostly in the media) have said as Trump has re-Tweeted neo-Nazis, lied about his charitable donations, casually suggested pulling out of NATO, and most recently (as of this writing) asked a hostile foreign power to spy on us to benefit his campaign. (Editor’s note:…
Armchair Quarterbacking the Super Bowl Commercials
So first off, I just have to say, this was a dud year. There were a shocking number of ads that were completely boring, including the very first ad, which was so dull my notes just say, “boring beer ad.” When I sat down to write this I looked up the ad and failed to…
Daughters Care For Elderly Parents Much More Than Sons
There’s an old saying: “A son is a son till he takes a wife. A daughter’s a daughter all her life.” My mother had a variant on that, noting that the thing that made her bitter about taking care of her own mother was that she had worked so hard to free herself from the…
Hallucinogens For Existential Angst
It was the sort of headline that I initially assumed was a prank article: “Active ingredient in magic mushrooms reduces anxiety, depression in cancer patients.” Even more so when I couldn’t find the study it was referring to over on PubMed. But this is a real study, and a real finding: the researchers presented at…
Yes, You’re Still Unlucky If You Get Cancer
Last year in January a study came out that was widely reported as, “cancer is totally bad luck and has almost nothing to do with your lifestyle choices!” That wasn’t what it said, as we reported, but they did make the case for a lot of cancer being pure bad luck. A new study1 used…
Your Gender Neutral Toy Paradise Isn’t Gender Neutral After All
Target made a big deal last month about how they were taking down the signs designating toys being for girls or boys. I was a little startled by this, because I was pretty sure that I’d never actually seen a sign designating the girls’ aisles and the boys’ aisles: you were supposed to figure it…
Low Glycemic Index Foods Are The Super Bestest For Diabetics! Or Are They?
So, there’s this thing called the glycemic index that was developed at some point as a tool for diabetics. If you’re diabetic (either Type I, where your pancreas makes no insulin at all, or Type II, where your pancreas pumps it out but your body has a lot of trouble using it properly) you’re supposed…
Facebook Is Making Your Sad Life Even Sadder
So, we’ve known for a while that Facebook makes people more depressed. The researchers back in 2013 controlled for pre-existing loneliness and were pretty confident that they were finding cause and effect, and not just that depressed people spend more time surfing Facebook. A just-published study on social networking tested one hypothesis for why. Social…
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