im so mad bc “atlas shrugged” is such a raw fucking title. thats an EXCELLENT name for a book. a man holding the weight of the entire world on his shoulders is so moved by his disdain for the current state of things that he exerts the force to shrug. indifference to the nth degree. that’s fucking metal. then you read it and it’s just about hating poor people.
Barnes and Nobles is gonna start serving food and alcohol.
Everybody’s cracking jokes about how it’s a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.
But you know what? Props to them. This is exactly what Blockbuster didn’t do. At no point was Blockbuster like “Hey, movie rentals aren’t the lucrative enterprise they once were. Perhaps it’s time we become known for our cheesy garlic bread.”
Okay but…if someone wants to take me on a date to a Barnes and noble and get me dinner and a drink and then let me peruse the stacks like I’m not saying no. A sandwich, a beer, and 2-5 books on various topics I hope I’ll someday read about? Good night.
The Swedish equivalent of Blockbuster is now best known for its candy, snacks and sodas.
This is El Ateneo Grand Splendid, an old theatre turned bookstore in Buenos Aires:
The stage itself was turned into a cafe:
You can’t even begin to comprehend the massive amounts of money this place makes, despite the fact that they turned the theatre boxes into reading nooks like this:
I’ve literally spent days holed up in there reading books for free while also consuming massive amounts of coffee and pastries.
Adapt or die, people.
holy shit
Could you imagine the ghost that haunts this theater?
“We had dorm rooms next to each other freshman year. We mainly just played a lot of board games: Risk, Scrabble, Scattergories, a Trivial Pursuit game from the 1980’s, which everyone sucked at. But we became best friends, and the next year decided to get a house together. That’s when things started to get tense. We began sitting closer together. We were touching more. We’d play with each other’s hands. Never holding hands, but playing with hands. And we’d even fall asleep in the same bed together. There was a time that she told me goodnight, and I swear I felt her brush my lips, but by the time I opened my eyes she was out of the room. Neither of us had ever dated a woman. And I was terrified to try anything. We were such good friends. There was always this fear that if I voiced the desire, it would ruin our friendship. But one night we were out for drinks at a hotel where Al Capone used to stay. I was feeling pretty drunk, so I leaned over and said: ‘Sometimes I feel like I want to kiss you.’ And she replied: ‘Sometimes I do too.’ I didn’t say a thing. I wasn’t even sure that I’d heard her correctly. I just kept thinking: ‘Oh my God, it’s happening. It’s happening.’ Then once we finished our drinks, and started walking home, I stopped her in front of a bridge. I said: ‘Shall we do it here?’ It was December 12th, 2002. And even though we got married five years ago, that’s the day we celebrate as our anniversary.”
“My great, great grandmother was a vaudeville dancer. Her husband would do the backstage work. And that’s what every man in my family has done since. My grandfather was the head of the NBC electric shop. My father was a carpenter for Ed Sullivan. My uncle was lead carpenter for All My Children. And anything you see on CNN, me and my team put together. It’s something different every day. My favorite part of the job is the emails I get from producers and directors, thanking me for a job well done. Recently they were doing a story on the chicken tax for CNN Money, so I brought in my chickens from home. That earned me an email with the subject line: ‘You’re the fucking man.’ Once I know somebody’s happy, I move on to the next show. If the audience doesn’t think about my work, then I’ve done my job correctly. Years ago I was working at the opera and we were putting on a performance of Figaro. One of the buildings collapsed during the storm scene. Wasn’t supposed to happen. The whole thing came down right as the curtain was closing. Almost hit the lead singer. Luckily the audience thought it was planned. The critic for the New York Times said it was the best storm scene he’s ever seen on stage.”
Now, the term “criminally small” gets thrown around a lot on this blog. But I ask you… are you ready to behold true tininess?
This baby Mozambique rain frog [Breviceps mossambicus] was found and phtoographed near the Vis-Agier resort in Sodwana Bay, South Africa. These frogs require no water source to reproduce, instead laying eggs underground which then hatch by direct development into tiny frogs like the one you see above. These frogs inhabit a wide range of central and southern Africa, and are most commonly found after brief periods of rain. Images by Vis-Agie Resort on Facebook.
So I have a friend that used to be in the tumblers troupe at the renfaire as a contortionist
We were chatting online and she told me to tell you all this story.
I love Kat dearly
but she forgets that she’s stupid strong and hypermobile
so one day she throws her back out
bad enough that she needed painkillers and couldn’t stand upright
“But also I needed Tampons and like. A Burrito, real bad.”
she’s flat on her back in her apartment when she decides this
and, in an
impeccable
leap of reasoning, decides
“I can’t roll my back forward to sit/stand up like normal.
But I can ARCH my back just fine.
SO
I’m going to do that and get on my hands and feet in a stomach-in-the-air this-shit-belongs-in-a-horror-movie-type pose,
And amble on down to the 7-11”
“And get me that Burrito”
It is,
for context,
after midnight in July during a wildfire so it’s hot as satan’s own asshole and the moon is red and shit’s already generally cursed.
Imagineyou are some poor sap working nights at the world’s deadest 7-11, and you hear the door jangle but you don’t see anyone’s head over the counters.
Whatever.
Except you keep hearing noises like there’s someone in the next aisle over.
Fucking around in the burrito section
It’s also worth mentioning that Kat
1. sings whatever earworm is currently running through her head when she’s not paying attention
2. sounds EXACTLY like some kind of creepy child from a horror movie when doing so
tonight’s song is something from veggietales.
DUDE ACTUALLY STANDS HIS GROUND
and/or is really fucking high and isn’t sure if he’s tripping balls or notanyway
Kat goes up to pay for her burrito and tampons
She realizes the counter presents something of a challenge, and then demonstrates for me on her kitchen table at 4AM during a different july wildfire,
exactly
how she used the shelves to climb up the counter
like one of the boston robotics beasties
dude stares at her for like, five minutes and says.
“Register’s broke.”
“Oh No!” Says Kat. “Just Take ‘em.” “Really? I can leave cash-you don’t have to give me change I don’t want you to get in trouble with your manager.” “…Nah.” “Oh! OK! Thank you!” “Yeah ok bye.”
Shortly after she arrived back at the apartment, she got a text on her phone from the campus security about "A Suspicious Individual” at tle 7-11.
