IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Brianna Wu spoke to women in the gaming industry – and found that harassment and sexism can be an everyday occurrence.
(Polyglon, approx 13 minutes reading time, 2591 words)
A male friend of mine that develops AAA games told me, “When a woman criticizes me, it goes to a different part of my brain than when a man on my team does. I get defensive really quickly. I’m trying to get better about it.” I don’t think his is a unique experience.
Kathleen Hale loved animals. But when she was subjected to a sexual assault, this turned to an obsession with dangerous creatures.
(Random House, approx 30 minutes reading time, 6080 words)
My obsession with animals preexisted any trauma in my life. As a five-year-old I wrote a fully illustrated book titled Tigger Maskkirabout circus animals that revolt and eat the clowns. My teachers thought I was becoming deranged but my mom explained that it had been going on since before the divorce.
3. How many mozzarella sticks?
Caity Weaver was set a challenge: eat as many free mozzarella sticks as she possibly could in TGI Friday’s on one night. Here’s how she fared.
(Gawker, approx 31 minutes reading time, 6218 words)
They arrive in herds of six, lightly dusted with shavings of “Parmesan” and “Romano” and flakes of parsley. (Over the course of several orders, this coating will become increasingly patchy, as TGI Friday’s and I stop standing on formality.) An order normally costs $7.50, which means I will have to eat at least two in order for TGI Friday’s Endless Apps to qualify as a “good deal.” Each plate of six contains 1,100 calories.
10 days after his marriage to Kim Kardashian, Kanye West sat down for an interview with Zach Baron from GQ. The result is… so Kanye.
(GQ, approx 27 minutes reading time, 5554 words)
Then they say you gave a forty-five-minute toast to yourself.
And what I talked about in it was the idea of celebrity, and celebrities being treated like blacks were in the ’60s, having no rights, and the fact that people can slander your name. I said that in the toast. And I had to say this in a position where I, from the art world, am marrying Kim. And how we’re going to fight to raise the respect level for celebrities so that my daughter can live a more normal life.
A team of Grantland writers pit the top romantic comedy stars against each other – if this doesn’t inspire you to watch the 25-years-old When Harry Met Sally, or maybe Annie Hall, what will?
(Grantland, approx 42 minutes reading time, 8427 words)
At her most dominant, Roberts cranked out a historic and unmatchable near-10-year stretch of lordship, starting with 1990’sPretty Woman and ending with 1999’s Runaway Bride, highlighted by a God Level three-movie stretch of dominance from 1997 to 1999 with My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill, and Runaway Bride that will likely never occur again. Never. Like, NEVER.
Would you eat cheese made from the microbes from your, er, feet? Some people in Ireland did, as Marissa Fessenden discovered…
(Daily Dot, approx 16 minutes reading time, 3242 words)
One molecule called isovaleric acid appears in reference to Swiss cheese and to the smell of stinky locker rooms or sweaty feet. The two collaborators kept finding more connections between bacteria that live on our bodies and on cheese.
…AND ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 2011, Tina Fey wrote about life on SNL, and how her first day was “how people feel when they really do go to school naked by accident”.
(New Yorker, approx 21 minutes reading time, 4314 words)
Rather than say, “I’m uncomfortable breast-feeding a grown man whom I just met today,” the actor may speak in code and say something like “I don’t think my character would do that.” Or “I’ve hurt my back and I’m not coming out of my dressing room.” You have to remember that actors are human beings. Which is hard sometimes, because they look so much better than human beings.
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