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    Hannity visits Assange

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    On Tuesday evening, Sean Hannity, a Donald Trump adviser and foot soldier who moonlights as a host on Fox News, further escalated his love affair with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.In the hour-long love-in, pre-taped at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Lo...

    The Fox News host, who once accused the WikiLeaks founder of ‘waging war against the U.S.,’ sat down with him in his London hideout for an uncritical ‘exclusive’ interview.

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    Congress and Russian hacking hearings

    Congress Seeing Red After Russia Hack

    Congress Seeing Red After Russia Hack

    Call it a “Red January.” Russia will be subject to a flurry of investigations, hearings, and a renewed effort for sanctions over the coming weeks—and that doesn’t even include the coming confirmation vote on Rex Tillerson, a secretary of State nom...

    The Senate is back and is poised to punish Russia for its attempt to influence the presidential election.

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     Omarosa is the new Kal Penn, office of public liaison

    Omarosa Is the New Kal Penn

    Omarosa Is the New Kal Penn

    Omarosa Manigault (or simply “Omarosa,” as she prefers, much like Cher or Gallagher) is reportedly headed to the White House, again—this time to serve President Trump.Her executive experience dates back to the ’90s, when she had a brief stint in t...

    The infamous ‘Apprentice’ star is on her way from the boardroom to the White House—in a role expected to be similar to what actor Kal Penn did for Obama.

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    Hannity visits Assange

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    On Tuesday evening, Sean Hannity, a Donald Trump adviser and foot soldier who moonlights as a host on Fox News, further escalated his love affair with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.In the hour-long love-in, pre-taped at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Lo...

    The Fox News host, who once accused the WikiLeaks founder of ‘waging war against the U.S.,’ sat down with him in his London hideout for an uncritical ‘exclusive’ interview.

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    Bill Mitchell

    Alt-Right Turns on Its Psychic Pollster

    Alt-Right Turns on Its Psychic Pollster

    Members of the alt-right, a loosely organized network of individuals with primarily white nationalist beliefs, have picked a new target for their wrath: the silver-haired, Trump-loving radio host Bill Mitchell.Mitchell, who is perhaps best known f...

    Pro-Trump radio host Bill Mitchell is being called a ‘cuckservative’ and ‘goofball’ by pro-Trump white separatists because of a disagreement over a cartoon frog.

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    OCE GOP

    GOP’s First Move: Gut the Ethics Office

    GOP’s First Move: Gut the Ethics Office

    Full control, and the first thing they do is gut the independent ethics office?Here’s something to put this in perspective for you. Back in 1995, when the Republicans took back the House after 40 years of Democratic control, on their first day in ...

    Even Newt Gingrich tried as speaker to show that the law would apply to his members. Today’s caucus isn’t even bothering to pretend that it cares.

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    Entertainment

    IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA -- "The Gang Turns Black" –

    ‘Always Sunny’ Takes on White Privilege

    ‘Always Sunny’ Takes on White Privilege

    It’s a hell of a feat for any TV show, but especially a live-action sitcom, to reach its 12th season in such fine creative form. It’s all the more impressive when that show is a no-holds-barred spectacle of human depravity like FXX’s delightfully ...

    The gang is back—and yes, they’re black.

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    Hannity visits Assange

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    On Tuesday evening, Sean Hannity, a Donald Trump adviser and foot soldier who moonlights as a host on Fox News, further escalated his love affair with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.In the hour-long love-in, pre-taped at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Lo...

    The Fox News host, who once accused the WikiLeaks founder of ‘waging war against the U.S.,’ sat down with him in his London hideout for an uncritical ‘exclusive’ interview.

    Keep Reading
    Jersey Boys

    I’m the Person Who’ll Miss ‘Jersey Boys’

    I’m the Person Who’ll Miss ‘Jersey Boys’

    I’ve never had any real desire to see the Broadway musical Jersey Boys, based on the story of the band the Four Seasons. I assumed the musical would simply regurgitate their best hits peppering in sparse dialogue and the occasional jazz hands. Per...

    The popular Broadway musical will close in a fortnight. A longtime doubter finally decides to go, and is surprised to find it so delightful.

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    feature on Netflix's new Latina spin on Norman Lear classic

    The ‘One Day at a Time’ We So Badly Need

    The ‘One Day at a Time’ We So Badly Need

    Gloria Calderon Kellett is scrolling through pictures of her mother with Rita Moreno on her phone, and she is beside herself. “She looks just like Rita Moreno,” Calderon Kellett, the co-showrunner of Netflix’s revival of Norman Lear’s One Day at a...

    The showrunner and star of Netflix’s spectacular and crucial remake of Norman Lear’s classic ’70s sitcom on why their unabashedly Hispanic family comedy matters so much today.

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    Hannity visits Assange

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    On Tuesday evening, Sean Hannity, a Donald Trump adviser and foot soldier who moonlights as a host on Fox News, further escalated his love affair with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.In the hour-long love-in, pre-taped at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Lo...

    The Fox News host, who once accused the WikiLeaks founder of ‘waging war against the U.S.,’ sat down with him in his London hideout for an uncritical ‘exclusive’ interview.

    Keep Reading
    Fox screengrab

    Megyn Kelly: I’m Joining ‘Journalists’

    Megyn Kelly: I’m Joining ‘Journalists’

    Megyn Kelly waited until the final two minutes of her broadcast Tuesday night to address the news that had her at the top of Twitter’s trending topics for most of the day: her departure from Fox News.“After more than a dozen years at Fox News, I h...

    In her first broadcast since announcing she will leave Fox News, Kelly shared details about her new position at NBC News.

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    Who Is Rebecca Ferguson, singer who agreed to perform at Trump inauguration

    The Singer Who Wants to Fete Trump

    The Singer Who Wants to Fete Trump

    When most Americans heard that Donald Trump’s inauguration committee had invited a singer named Rebecca Ferguson to perform as part of the festivities in Washington this month, their first reaction was most likely, “Who?”No, she is not the privile...

    Will British reality-TV contestant Rebecca Ferguson actually perform a song about lynching at Donald Trump’s inaugural?

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    2017 Movies Preview

    2017’s Most Anticipated Movies

    2017’s Most Anticipated Movies

    It wasn’t just movie revenue that was bullish this year, with the North American box office raking in an estimated $11.36 billion in 2016 (up 2.1 percent from last year), but the quality was top-notch as well. It was a year that gave us a thrillin...

    If you thought 2016 was a good year at the movies, wait till you get a load of this one.

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    Fox screengrab

    Megyn Kelly: I’m Joining ‘Journalists’

    Megyn Kelly: I’m Joining ‘Journalists’

    Megyn Kelly waited until the final two minutes of her broadcast Tuesday night to address the news that had her at the top of Twitter’s trending topics for most of the day: her departure from Fox News.“After more than a dozen years at Fox News, I h...

    In her first broadcast since announcing she will leave Fox News, Kelly shared details about her new position at NBC News.

    Keep Reading

    World News

    Picture of a TV set taken while TV Globo News shows the car of Greek ambassador in Brazil, Kyriakos Amiridis in Nova Iguacu, Baixada Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro on December 30, 2016. 
The car was found burned by police, under a bridge with an unidentified corpse inside. / AFP / VANDERLEI ALMEIDA / Brazil OUT / BRAZIL OUT        (Photo credit should read VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

    My Big Fat Greek Murder

    My Big Fat Greek Murder

    Greek diplomat Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, hadn’t even been ambassador to Brazil for a year when he was murdered, stuffed into his rental car, and set on fire by Sergio Moreira, a 29-year-old military police officer who confessed to killing the ambassa...

    The ‘crime of passion’ murder in Brazil of one of Greece’s most respected diplomats has sent shock waves from the Copacabana to the Parthenon.

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    Isis social media

    Fatal Facebook Blowback for ISIS

    Fatal Facebook Blowback for ISIS

    “No computer is safe,” Donald Trump told us over the weekend. And nobody knows that better than the world’s terrorists. But at the end of the day, just like the rest of us, they still stay online—and in many cases, fortunately, that costs them.As ...

    From the Taliban to the so-called Islamic State, computers, cellphones, and social media are used as vital weapons—and offer critical vulnerabilities.

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    Is Russia Helping the Taliban?

    Russia’s New BFF: The Taliban

    Russia’s New BFF: The Taliban

    More than 15 years into America’s war in Afghanistan, the Russian government is openly advocating on behalf of the Taliban.Last week, Moscow hosted Chinese and Pakistani emissaries to discuss the war. Tellingly, no Afghan officials were invited. H...

    In its latest ploy to undermine NATO, Russia is urging cooperation with the Afghan extremists even as their ties to al Qaeda grow deep.

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    Relatives react at the funeral of Ayhan Arik, a victim of an attack by a gunman at Reina nightclub, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 1, 2017.

    ISIS’s Jihad on Turkey

    ISIS’s Jihad on Turkey

    Ten days before the New Year's attack on an Istanbul night club for which the so-called Islamic State now claims responsibility,  it posted a grisly video on social media showing its forces burning two Turkish soldiers alive—and coupled it wi...

    The nightclub shooting is the first time the terror organization has claimed credit for striking in the country.

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    Isis social media

    Fatal Facebook Blowback for ISIS

    Fatal Facebook Blowback for ISIS

    “No computer is safe,” Donald Trump told us over the weekend. And nobody knows that better than the world’s terrorists. But at the end of the day, just like the rest of us, they still stay online—and in many cases, fortunately, that costs them.As ...

    From the Taliban to the so-called Islamic State, computers, cellphones, and social media are used as vital weapons—and offer critical vulnerabilities.

    Keep Reading
    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem May 10, 2015.

    Police Grill Netanyahu on Corruption

    Police Grill Netanyahu on Corruption

    TEL AVIV—The cold, hard realities of Israeli politics often are out of sync with American headlines. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s expansive speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last week was greeted by the public here not with a bang...

    The criminal case against Israel’s prime minister has been opened. But the specifics are secret and the politics complicated.

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    Finding the Explosive Secrets of Egypt's Western Desert

    The Explosive Secrets of Egypt’s Desert

    The Explosive Secrets of Egypt’s Desert

    CAIRO—World War II was terribly unkind to Egypt. Never keen to partake in hostilities to begin with, the country nevertheless found itself thrust into the conflict as the European powers battled one another across vast swathes of its arid sands.Wh...

    When foreign troops packed up and left the Sahara after World War II, they left behind a diabolical maze of landmines.

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    Militias in Iraq

    Inside Iraq’s Militia Madness

    Inside Iraq’s Militia Madness

    ERBIL, Iraq—Two injured Iraqi soldiers stretched on hospital beds were still in their uniforms, a haphazard mix of mismatched camouflage in the military ward of a hospital north of Mosul. The walls were peach-colored, as if painted for some other ...

    Officially, the Shiite militias are under presidential control, the Iranian clients are behaving themselves, the Sunnis and Kurds are being respected… officially.

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    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem May 10, 2015.

    Police Grill Netanyahu on Corruption

    Police Grill Netanyahu on Corruption

    TEL AVIV—The cold, hard realities of Israeli politics often are out of sync with American headlines. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s expansive speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last week was greeted by the public here not with a bang...

    The criminal case against Israel’s prime minister has been opened. But the specifics are secret and the politics complicated.

    Keep Reading

    U.S.

    MyPillow is bad

    Customers: Pro-Trump Pillow a Nightmare

    Customers: Pro-Trump Pillow a Nightmare

    Trump supporters’ favorite pillow brand is going flat.MyPillow, a pillow and mattress-topper company best known for its infomercials and outlandish medical claims, came out swinging for Donald Trump during the presidential election. “I’m here to g...

    The Better Business Bureau this week accused TV-famous Mike Lindell of swindling consumers, which comes on top of multiple lawsuits and burned partners.

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    Man reading books at prison yard

    From Convicts to Criminologists

    From Convicts to Criminologists

    Ryan K. Ramnarace got out of a Wisconsin prison last fall after serving 14 years for a cocaine conspiracy charge. Upon his release, he immediately enrolled in college at the University of Wisconsin to study criminology of all things.It was through...

    Two professors are trying to revolutionize the study of crime by bringing their own experiences behind bars to bear. And they’re finding a following among prisoners.

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    Picture of baking sprinkles.

    Is Sugar the New Smoking?

    Is Sugar the New Smoking?

    When I was in graduate school, I was looking for a scenic, quiet place to live. My university was on Long Island, 50 miles east of New York City, and I decided to explore communities that were farther out on the eastern tip. It wasn’t the fashiona...

    Thirty years ago, we were blind to the dangers of secondhand smoke. Now it’s our addiction to sugar and processed food that will shock future generations.

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    MyPillow is bad

    Customers: Pro-Trump Pillow a Nightmare

    Customers: Pro-Trump Pillow a Nightmare

    Trump supporters’ favorite pillow brand is going flat.MyPillow, a pillow and mattress-topper company best known for its infomercials and outlandish medical claims, came out swinging for Donald Trump during the presidential election. “I’m here to g...

    The Better Business Bureau this week accused TV-famous Mike Lindell of swindling consumers, which comes on top of multiple lawsuits and burned partners.

    Keep Reading
    Bride-To-Be Crushed To Death By Robot

    Bride-to-Be Crushed to Death by Robot

    Bride-to-Be Crushed to Death by Robot

    Regina Elsea was just starting her life. The Alabama bride-to-be had a new job, bought a brand-new car, and was two weeks from her wedding day.But in June 2016, the 20-year-old was crushed to death while trying to fix a machine at the automotive p...

    Regina Elsea was killed just two weeks after U.S. inspectors found two dozen safety violations at a South Korean-owned plant.

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    Passages from Frederick Douglass' Brooklyn speeches

    Frederick Douglass Vs. The White House

    Frederick Douglass Vs. The White House

    In his memorable post-election monologue on SNL, Dave Chappelle spotlighted black access to the White House. He recalled attending the BET party there a few weeks prior to the election, “where everybody was black, except Bradley Cooper, for some r...

    “No man of my race, color or previous condition, had ever attended such a reception, except as a servant or waiter… we found ourselves being conducted through an outside window on a ...

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    Tech

    Bride-To-Be Crushed To Death By Robot

    Bride-to-Be Crushed to Death by Robot

    Bride-to-Be Crushed to Death by Robot

    Regina Elsea was just starting her life. The Alabama bride-to-be had a new job, bought a brand-new car, and was two weeks from her wedding day.But in June 2016, the 20-year-old was crushed to death while trying to fix a machine at the automotive p...

    Regina Elsea was killed just two weeks after U.S. inspectors found two dozen safety violations at a South Korean-owned plant.

    Keep Reading
    Men inspect the damage after an airstrike on the rebel held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria September 25, 2016.

    Putin TV: Aleppo Slaughter Is Fake News

    Putin TV: Aleppo Slaughter Is Fake News

    It’s been less than a week since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for helping “liberate Aleppo.” But that isn’t stopping Russian propagandists—and their allies on the American fringe—from denying that civil...

    All of those horrific images coming out of war-torn Aleppo? Totally bogus, say Kremlin mouthpieces and American conspiracy-mongers, who are now calling aid fundraisers ‘professional ...

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    Dark Matter

    The Underground Hunt for Dark Matter

    The Underground Hunt for Dark Matter

    By Anthony Williams, Professor of Physics, University of AdelaideDark matter is believed to be five times more prevalent in the universe than ordinary matter.But it interacts so weakly with other matter—like the protons and electrons that make up ...

    Although dark matter is believed to exist in large quantities, the best way to find and measure dark matter continues to elude scientists.

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    cell phone

    Your Cellphone Isn’t Frying Your Junk

    Your Cellphone Isn’t Frying Your Junk

    A minor craze in men’s underwear fashions these days seems to be briefs that shield the genitals from cellphone radiation. The sales claim is that these products protect the testicles from the harmful effects of the radio waves emitted by cellphon...

    It turns out you really don’t need special undies to shield your genitals from cellphone radiation.

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    Men inspect the damage after an airstrike on the rebel held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria September 25, 2016.

    Putin TV: Aleppo Slaughter Is Fake News

    Putin TV: Aleppo Slaughter Is Fake News

    It’s been less than a week since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for helping “liberate Aleppo.” But that isn’t stopping Russian propagandists—and their allies on the American fringe—from denying that civil...

    All of those horrific images coming out of war-torn Aleppo? Totally bogus, say Kremlin mouthpieces and American conspiracy-mongers, who are now calling aid fundraisers ‘professional ...

    Keep Reading
    Facebook News

    Did Facebook Just Start a Real Infowar?

    Did Facebook Just Start a Real Infowar?

    Facebook detailed a new plan Thursday to target the rapid spread of fake news across its site, a phenomenon that received renewed attention in the weeks following the 2016 election, with accusations that it may have influenced the behavior of vote...

    To combat the spread of fake information, Facebook is stifling intentional fake-news writers while sparking a fight with people who view such a move as censorship.

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    Why Our Tech Moguls Will Bend to Trump

    Why Our Tech Moguls Will Bend to Trump

    The oligarchs’ ball at Trump Tower revealed one not-so-well-kept secret about the tech moguls: They are more like the new president than they are like you or me.In what devolved into something of a love fest, Trump embraced the tech elite for thei...

    With resistance to the so-called sharing economy now centered in big blue cities, the bosses of those companies may find common cause with Trump’s regulation-demolishing approach.

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    Yahoo

    Is Post-Hack Yahoo’s Verizon Deal DOA?

    Is Post-Hack Yahoo’s Verizon Deal DOA?

    It was revealed Wednesday that over 1 billion Yahoo accounts have been hacked, which is not good news for a company that had 500 million accounts hacked in 2014 and in the midst of negotiating a $4.8 billion sale to Verizon.This is the biggest kno...

    Yahoo is in the process of being sold to Verizon for almost $5 billion, but Wednesday’s revelations about 1 billion hacked accounts could put the deal in jeopardy, according to one e...

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    Facebook News

    Did Facebook Just Start a Real Infowar?

    Did Facebook Just Start a Real Infowar?

    Facebook detailed a new plan Thursday to target the rapid spread of fake news across its site, a phenomenon that received renewed attention in the weeks following the 2016 election, with accusations that it may have influenced the behavior of vote...

    To combat the spread of fake information, Facebook is stifling intentional fake-news writers while sparking a fight with people who view such a move as censorship.

    Keep Reading

    Arts + Culture

    Hannity visits Assange

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    Hannity & Assange’s Embassy Love-In

    On Tuesday evening, Sean Hannity, a Donald Trump adviser and foot soldier who moonlights as a host on Fox News, further escalated his love affair with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.In the hour-long love-in, pre-taped at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Lo...

    The Fox News host, who once accused the WikiLeaks founder of ‘waging war against the U.S.,’ sat down with him in his London hideout for an uncritical ‘exclusive’ interview.

    Keep Reading
    Goodbye Christmas

    The Dull, Thudding Goodbye to Christmas

    The Dull, Thudding Goodbye to Christmas

    Must it end like this? Me and my super wrestling my Christmas tree, my beautiful Christmas tree, into a large plastic condom, ready for disposal? “It won’t fit,” he says, as the lower branches struggle free of their imminent tomb. We tussle and ji...

    It’s Jan. 3. Your Christmas tree may be coming down, it’s back to work for many, and a farewell to that strange and necessary time of year of joy, pleasure, and magic.

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    Who’s To Blame For Goop? Vincent Price

    Who’s To Blame For Goop? Vincent Price.

    Who’s To Blame For Goop? Vincent Price.

    To paraphrase the great American novelist and beloved proto-lifestyle blogger F. Scott Fitzgerald, the very rich are different from you and me.When Fitzgerald wrote those words in 1925, he was trying to describe the psychological character of the ...

    Gwyneth and Blake make millions off the notion that the ultra-rich can impart their lifestyle to the plebes—but the first man to conjure that dream was none other than a Hollywood ho...

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    Tala Raassi

    Here, Fashion Shows. In Iran, 40 Lashes

    Here, Fashion Shows. In Iran, 40 Lashes

    I met Tala Raassi at a nightclub in West Hollywood. She was a friend of a friend. At the same table sat Marilyn Manson. The alcohol was seemingly unlimited. The club’s strict no smoking policy rapidly began to be ignored as party goers clustered a...

    Tala Raassi grew up in suburban Washington, D.C. and then in Iran. She knows both cultures—but wasn’t ready for what happened to her one night in 1998.

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    Goodbye Christmas

    The Dull, Thudding Goodbye to Christmas

    The Dull, Thudding Goodbye to Christmas

    Must it end like this? Me and my super wrestling my Christmas tree, my beautiful Christmas tree, into a large plastic condom, ready for disposal? “It won’t fit,” he says, as the lower branches struggle free of their imminent tomb. We tussle and ji...

    It’s Jan. 3. Your Christmas tree may be coming down, it’s back to work for many, and a farewell to that strange and necessary time of year of joy, pleasure, and magic.

    Keep Reading
    Lost Masterpieces:Claes Oldenburg’s never-realized bridge

    The Pop Art Bridge That Never Was

    The Pop Art Bridge That Never Was

    In 1996, the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam was officially unveiled in a ceremony presided over by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. It is a beautiful work of design—a sleek and modern expanse of cables sweeping in an upward arc from one shore to rea...

    The drawings are stunning--a design of two massive screws, one on either shore, that were bent in an arch so the narrow tips would meet in the middle—but Oldenburg’s amazing bridge r...

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    Contemporary overuse of the word 'very,' pegged to Trump.

    Trump's Very Very Very Bad Verbal Tic

    Trump's Very Very Very Bad Verbal Tic

    Perhaps because there are so many casualties already accruing and so much damage already being done, it has gone less noted than it should that among the incoming Trump administration’s most endangered victims is the English language itself. Nouns...

    ‘Very’ is one of Donald Trump’s favorite words. What does he hope to achieve using a word that may be insistent, but is often empty of meaning?

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    Clean’: A Short Story

    ‘Clean’: A Short Story

    ‘Clean’: A Short Story

    Have you ever committed a crime? This was what they’d asked her, in her exit interview, after the firing and before her pivot. “Pivot” was a euphemism for “recovery” in that world. When they’d asked her that question her response had been rage.Whe...

    They met in grad school, a place some people go when they want to change, become new.

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    Lost Masterpieces:Claes Oldenburg’s never-realized bridge

    The Pop Art Bridge That Never Was

    The Pop Art Bridge That Never Was

    In 1996, the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam was officially unveiled in a ceremony presided over by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. It is a beautiful work of design—a sleek and modern expanse of cables sweeping in an upward arc from one shore to rea...

    The drawings are stunning--a design of two massive screws, one on either shore, that were bent in an arch so the narrow tips would meet in the middle—but Oldenburg’s amazing bridge r...

    Keep Reading