The 2017 New Yorker short story Cat Person has gone viral again – but for an entirely different reason
Legally Blonde was released 20 years ago, and here’s a fascinating oral history that will satisfy everyone who practiced the bend and snap in their childhood bedrooms
Can I sit here? Thoughts about seating at home, at restaurants and being a good friend
The best memes of 2021 (so far) explained
GQ’s August cover of Jason Sudeikis (once known for portraying jocular blowhards, Sudeikis has found himself playing a sensitive soccer coach in smash hit Ted Lasso) had us swooning and laughing, all at once (and if you’re nor sure what all the fuss is all bout, check out Ted Lasso’s Twitter account – we promise it’s worth it)
Why it’s time to free the boob (amen)
Last week, 14-year-old Zalia Avant-garde became the first African American to win the National Spelling Bee (she’s a Guinness Book of World Record holder too 🤯). These great pieces in the New York Times and The Conversation break down why Zaila’s win is so important
How the photo dump took over Instagram (“If one photo says a thousand words, a photo dump is practically a novel”)
London friends! For the first time in history, Queen Liz has opened up the gates to Buckingham Palace to the hoi polloi and, for a small sum, you can meander unaccompanied through the gardens of Buckingham Palace and picnic on the lawn. BYO Pret sanger
There’s a new lifestyle in China called ‘lying flat’ and it’s making the country’s ruling Communist Party realllll mad
A fascinating deep dive into why we develop intense one-sided relationships with famous people on the internet (“Performers speak to us conversationally, they let us know about their personal lives, they reveal what are framed as their vulnerabilities. The content is often in domestic settings: in bedrooms, at computers, among family and friends — informal and unpredictable, like real friendship.”)
The future of the handshake (RIP)
The psychology behind why we’re obsessed with ugly shoes
We loved this behind-the-scenes piece from Curtis Sittenfeld about the success she experienced after her debut novel Prep, and how she moved past the dreaded second book slump to write the phenomenally popular American Wife (“‘I thought Democrats wouldn’t read it because it was about a Republican”)
