It's been a long time coming // Jun. 2, 2023
Smells, shots, and spiders.
Hello, good evening, happy Friday. Shorter one this week. I had a rough week, but I’m excited to finally see Taylor Swift on Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes. Also, it’s pride month, so we’re breaking out the high-quality LGBTQ memes. Also also the Ted Lasso finale was great, I cried a lot.
Something smells
I guess that’s the point:
One afternoon earlier this month at a convention center in Hamburg, Germany, fragrance influencer Jeremy Fragrance runs out on stage dressed in all white and begins leading the crowd in a chant. “Kraft,” Fragrance yells (it’s German for “power”). The crowd yells it back. Minutes later, in the middle of being interviewed, Fragrance leaps from his seat and starts doing one-handed push-ups.
An onlooker turns to GQ: “People who act like this have something very wrong inside of them.”
Panic! at the Court
Things are bad and getting worse:
Although the Supreme Court has been deciding cases at a glacial pace this term — and that with an almost comically small docket of only 59 merits cases — the justices have found other ways to keep busy. They have been spinning their ethical lapses (Justice Clarence Thomas), blowing off congressional oversight (Chief Justice John Roberts), giving interviews whining about public criticism (Justice Samuel Alito) and presenting awards to one another (Justice Elena Kagan to Mr. Roberts).
In the cases it has decided, the Supreme Court has gutted an important provision of the Clean Water Act and made it easier for private litigants to mount constitutional challenges to an administrative agency’s structure or existence. Opinions still to come threaten to strike down everything from affirmative action in education to student debt relief to the Indian Child Welfare Act.
Shot through the heart
Over the years, Microsoft Corp.-owned video-game developer Arkane Studios has cultivated a reputation for releasing games that are beloved by fans yet don’t sell very well, such as Prey and Dishonored 2. By contrast, the studio’s most recent game, Redfall, has achieved something new. It has managed to be, at once, a commercial and critical disappointment.
Redfall, a multiplayer shooter set on a fictional Massachusetts island full of vampires, debuted on May 2 and was promptly panned. Fans and critics slammed the game’s bugs and shortcomings. On the review aggregation website Metacritic, Redfall has earned a paltry 54 out of 100, ranking it among the year’s worst-reviewed games.
Missing the timing
I really cannot stand this man:
A week ago, Elon Musk’s Twitter seemed to be taking shaky footsteps toward a new phase: Mass layoffs had subsided, Musk had hired a new permanent CEO and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had chosen the site to help launch his Republican presidential bid.
Over the course of a day, though, the turmoil that has marked Musk’s seven-month ownership of the social media platform came roaring back.
Leopards eating faces
Truly shocking, really, no one could have predicted:
In August 2021, the Fox Corporation board of directors gathered on the company’s movie studio lot in Los Angeles. Among the topics on the agenda: Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against its cable news network, Fox News.
The suit posed a threat to the company’s finances and reputation. But Fox’s chief legal officer, Viet Dinh, reassured the board: Even if the company lost at trial, it would ultimately prevail. The First Amendment was on Fox’s side, he explained, even if proving so could require going to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Dinh told others inside the company that Fox’s possible legal costs, at tens of millions of dollars, could outstrip any damages the company would have to pay to Dominion.
What’s up danger
I need to go see the new Spider-Man movie, but this is fun:
Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
For years, one meme in the Spider-Man canon has appeared far and wide across social media. Even the least chronically online among us have probably encountered the Spider-Man pointing meme. In the animated TV still, two people dressed as Spider-Man are pointing at one another. The meme is often used when someone is making fun of two similar people or things or pointing out a comical similarity. And since it’s become ubiquitous online, every Spider-Man property has found some way to incorporate it into their storytelling. In 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, past Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield made surprise cameos with a reference to the meme. A few weeks after the movie premiered, all three Spider-Men (Maguire, Garfield, and current Spider-Man Tom Holland) recreated the meme for a promotional image.
You deserve some good animal content
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/27/1178478110/service-dog-college-diploma
https://twitter.com/CincinnatiZoo/status/1664664176944455680
https://twitter.com/PetPalsUnite/status/1664850205051695104
https://twitter.com/RedPandaEveryHr/status/1664839918990893056
https://twitter.com/ServalEveryHr/status/1664824826106724354
https://twitter.com/raccoonhourly/status/1664791522598846464
https://twitter.com/itimaliasof/status/1664739008113528833
https://twitter.com/weirdlilguys/status/1664719846460870658
https://twitter.com/raccoonhourly/status/1664700924701429766
Have a good weekend.
Addendums
Chicago Police officer busted at bar with crack cocaine in squad car, records say. ChatGPT took their jobs. Now they walk dogs and fix air conditioners. Arkansas librarians sue to block new law that could jail them over explicit books. Serving Memes in a God-Honoring Way: How Online Were You in May? Elon Musk’s new Twitter pronoun rule invites bullying, LGBTQ groups say. The Succession Survey.