So What, Who Cares (vol 2, issue 52) Who wants a hail of follow-up bullets?
Hello! New job re-entry continues apace, so these newsletters may be a tad shorter than you're used to until I'm back in my groove. This may not be a bad thing. Let's get through a hail of follow-up bullets.
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Ikea is doubling down on this whole "in the future, tables will take over the hearts and minds of the household" thing (vol 2, issue 41), predicting that the kitchen of 2025 is going to have a "smart table" that could "recognize produce and meats placed on it and suggest recipes starring those ingredients. It would even teach you how to slice and dice more efficiently, offering up tips for chopping broccoli and more."
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The New York Times has discovered that some Silicon Valley workers are parents (vol 2, issue 31) and they've come to the same conclusion we all reached twenty newsletters ago: Where goes Silicon Valley, so goes the rest of the American workforce:
That Silicon Valley — known for being on the forefront not just of technology but also of workplace policy — creates so many difficulties for working parents highlights a vexing problem for the American economy. The United States is arguably struggling to adjust to the realities of modern family life more than any other affluent country.
As a handy reminder, I have covered the ways modern workplaces and modern family arrangements collide in: vol 1, issue 4; vol 1, issue 18; vol 1, issue 33; vol 1, issue 41; vol 1, issue 54; vol 2, issue 11; vol 2, issue 18; vol 2, issue 21; vol 2, issue 32; vol 2, issue 35; vol 2, issue 37.
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The New Yorker went shopping with Marie Kondo, because why not, and while she behaves in a completely expected KonMari way -- which is to say, she does not emerge from Anthropologie $2000 poorer and in possession of a chair, a tiara and Frankenstein's cereal bowl -- the real fun is how she casually drops the whole "I'm having a baby" thing into conversation and does not elaborate on how she plans to indoctrinate a toddler with the whole "I'm sorry, but if this does not bring joy, we're throwing it out" approach (vol 2, issue 45).
Also, the Billfold recently had a personal essay on the challenges of KonMari (or, as author Megan Reynolds calls it, "KonMarie") and it was refreshing for how it highlighted how emotionally complicated the idea of joyous stuff ownership can be:
My understanding was that the clothes that were left over should have brought me joy, but all I felt was resigned acceptance. It was just stuff, the same rumpled miscellany that had previously filled my drawers, but just less of it.
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Your pop culture note of the day: If you follow me on Twitter, you are sadly familiar with my juvenile glee over really bad Amazon e-book cover art.
This total waste of my time was sparked by reading "Q&A: The Women Who Write Dinosaur Erotica" (interview SFW) back in the fall of 2013, and because the World Wide Web is truly life's rich pageant, my giddy cackles have been fueled by Buzzfeed's helpful roundups (probably NSFW) of books you are grateful exist only for an e-reader because you don't want people to see them on your shelves.
So imagine how thrilled I was to read "Couple Featured on Cover of Erotic Ebook A Gronking To Remember Wishes They Could Forget." In a nutshell: A currently-anonymous author has written a book about the intense attraction a woman feels for New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, and when s/he put together the cover art for the book, s/he used some poor couple's engagement photo. The couple is now suing:
The unnamed plaintiffs argue that the photo was used for commercial gain without their consent, and that its tasteless content has caused them undue embarrassment. The case is set to be heard in federal court, where the couple will argue that their publicity rights were violated.
That case is going to be an excellent, if horrifying, primer about how little control one has over images once they're on the World Wide Web at large.
But! This is the pop culture section, so let me direct your horrified and fascinated attention to the Tumblr Kindle Cover Disasters. And then, after you marvel at how underappreciated good book cover designers are, I'd like to recommend a palate cleanser or five:
Crazy-beautiful Harry Potter covers
Thirty of the most beautiful sci-fi novel covers (Heads up! In a future Unjustly Maligned podcast, I'll be talking about how the Fred Marcellino cover of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong sucked the ten-year-old me into an adolescent obsession with telepathic dragons.)
Beautiful, contemporary YA book covers that do not feature photos of people holding red apples in their hands
10 redesigned book covers that beautifully capture iconic images from the books
What's a book cover that has stuck with you for life? Do you find yourself still marveling at how contemporary Charles Wallace feels in Rowena Morrill's cover for A Swiftly Tilting Planet? Were you piqued at how Amazon just updated the cover art for Cheryl Strayed's Wild to the Reese Witherspoon beauty shot without asking you? Dish with me via Twitter or email.
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Are there typos? I apologize in advance. The only editing class I did not get an A in was copyediting.
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