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☆ Tell-all book lifts the lid on troubled beauty brand Glossier
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Leah Dolan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Glossier, a direct-to-consumer cosmetics company launched in 2014 by US businesswoman Emily Weiss, pioneered this new aesthetic. At Glossier, beauty marks were celebrated, freckles were lionized and makeup application became as free form as finger painting. Beyoncé, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and Reese Witherspoon have all been pictured wearing the makeup brand to red carpet events like the Oscars and The Grammys. For Meltzer, the brand fell victim to something that often trips up companies leading the zeitgeist: an evolving landscape. But “Glossy” isn’t just a beauty brand biography — it’s a forensic cross-examination of an era-defining company and how it embodied a moment in wider culture.

Persons: ”, Emily Weiss, freckles, Paloma Elsesser, Glossier, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama, Reese Witherspoon, Lila Moss, Sydney Sweeny, Gigi Hadid, Marisa Meltzer, “, ” Meltzer, Richard Levine, Weiss ’, Meltzer, ” Glossier, Sophia Amoruso, John Sciulli, Weiss, Leandra Medine, Audrey Gelman, Nasty Gal, Manrepeller’s Leandra Medine, ” Audrey Gelman, John Phillips, Selena, Hailey Bieber’s, ” Marisa Meltzer's, Simon, Simon & Schuster, Schuster, Meltzer didn’t, It’s Organizations: CNN, The, Teen Vogue, Getty, Rhode, Simon & Locations: overhiring, New York, Glossier, SoHo , New York

☆ ‘Black’ Like Each Other
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Early in Hulu’s “The Other Black Girl,” Nella (Sinclair Daniel), an editorial assistant at the august and very white publishing company Wagner Books, is delighted to meet Hazel (Ashleigh Murray), the new hire to whom the title refers. She’s talking publishing, but she could be talking TV as well. So it’s fitting that “The Other Black Girl” isn’t alone. It’s one of two ambitious new series about young Black culture workers, in different countries and with different goals, dealing with the tension between representing one’s people and representing one’s self. The British import “Dreaming Whilst Black,” on Showtime, follows the aspiring filmmaker Kwabena (Adjani Salmon, who cocreated the series and the web comedy it is adapted from).

Persons: ” Nella, Sinclair Daniel, Wagner, Hazel, Ashleigh Murray, “ It’s, we’re, ”, Kwabena, Adjani Salmon Organizations: Showtime Locations: Hulu’s, one’s

☆ In Florida’s History Lessons on Slavery, Context Matters - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

For example, at the same time that white supremacist authors were writing slavery apologia for student instruction, scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois were taking note of the skills and agency of enslaved Africans for a very different purpose. Continually runaway slaves are described as speaking very good English; sometimes as speaking not only English but Dutch and French. The difference between these accounts and those of the slavery apologists, however, is that Du Bois, Woodson and their contemporaries never implied or suggested that chattel slavery was anything less than a crime. Where apologists dismissed or disparaged the efforts, radical and otherwise, to end slavery, Du Bois, Woodson and others gave them pride of place in their histories and narratives about the peculiar institution.

Persons: ”, Du Bois, Carter G, Woodson, apologia Locations: Florida

☆ Helen Mirren transforms into Golda Meir in 'Golda' trailer
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Meir served as Israel’s prime minister between 1969 and 1974. “Do you know how many people died?” Schreiber is heard asking Mirren in the trailer. Former Israel prime minister Golda Meir in 1973 in Tel Aviv. AFP/Getty Images“Golda” isn’t the first film in which Mirren portrayed a notable Jewish figure. She added, “there’s a lot of terrible unfairness in my profession.”“House of Gucci” star Camille Cottin co-stars in “Golda” alongside Schreiber and Mirren as Lou Kaddar, Meir’s personal assistant.

Persons: Helen Mirren’s, Golda Meir, Golda, ” “, ”, Mirren, Liev Schreiber, Henry Kissinger, Meir, ” Schreiber, Golda ” isn’t, Maria Altmann, Ryan Reynolds, Oscar, Queen Elizabeth, ” –, Golda ”, Guy Nattiv, who’s, Gucci ”, Camille Cottin, “ Golda ”, Schreiber, Lou Kaddar Organizations: CNN, Israel, AFP, Getty, Daily Mail, ” “ Locations: Israel, Meir, Kippur, Yom, Tel Aviv, Queen, “

☆ Opinion | The Stagnation of Ron DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Pundits have to hope so, since otherwise our advice-giving beat becomes a bit irrelevant. For Ron DeSantis, currently engaged in a campaign reset after months of stagnant polling, there’s no way to sell these case studies to his restive donors. And it’s easy enough to list things that DeSantis could be doing differently. But any benefit from these shifts is likely to be incremental rather than dramatic. Meanwhile, the reset that’s so often urged on DeSantis — the idea that he needs to go hard after Trump’s unfitness for high office — is a theory supported by exactly zero polling evidence.

Persons: John Kerry, John McCain, Joe Biden, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz’s, DeSantis, unfitness

☆ Robert Downey Jr.’s Post-Marvel Balancing Act
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

So from where you’re sitting, do you feel as if you’re able to make sense of the business right now? Robert Downey Jr. in “Oppenheimer.” Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal PicturesIs it right that you’re remaking “Vertigo”? Downey on “Downey’s Dream Cars.” MaxDowney with his son Exton Elias and father, Robert Downey Sr., in “Sr.” (2022). I’m saying that doing the right thing for the right reasons gives you an advantage in spirit. You know, there’s part of me that thinks I should be a writer or an entrepreneur or I could blah, blah, blah.

Persons: Robert Downey Jr, ” Robert Downey Jr, “, Oppenheimer, ”, Christopher Nolan, Nolan —, Downey, Lewis Strauss, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, —, Tony Stark, “ Oppenheimer, “ Perry Mason, ” Melinda Sue Gordon, ” Max Downey, Exton Elias, Robert Downey Sr, there’s, Chris Nolan, I’m, I’ve, he’s, Strauss, Oprah, Taylor, we’re, ” Downey, Holly Hunter, Mariana Trench, don’t, you’ve, Marisa Tomei, “ Chaplin ”, Jami Gertz, Andrew McCarthy, Sherlock Holmes, David Marchese, Emma Chamberlain, Walter Mosley Organizations: Marvel, Atomic Energy Commission, Universal, Netflix, Paramount, Everett, Little League, Carolco, Getty, Century Fox, U.S, Marshals, YouTube, Cal Newport Locations: Thunderdome, “, “ Sr, what’s, America

☆ Chasing a World Record, They Endured Storms, Sharks and Freak Waves
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Douglas Preston | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eight days later, another Briton, Tom McClean, pulled his dory up a deserted beach in Blacksod Bay, Ireland, having rowed solo across the Atlantic in the opposite direction. While Fairfax was acclaimed and feted, McClean walked to the closest pub, alone. During his ordeal, Fairfax had no idea someone else was rowing across the Atlantic in the opposite direction, thousands of miles to the north. McClean, on the other hand, was acutely aware of his rival and brooded about him the whole way. While celebrated in nautical circles, neither man became well known, nor have their stories been told together in a single book, until now.

Persons: Tom McClean, John Fairfax, James R, Hansen, John Fairfax waded, dory, Fairfax, McClean, “, —, ” Locations: British, Hollywood Beach, Fla, Blacksod Bay, Ireland, McClean, Caribbean, Central, South America

☆ Opinion | Flamin’ Hot Propaganda
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Adrian J. Rivera | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

“Flamin’ Hot” says “no,” that only through the gospel of ganas may we enter the kingdom of heaven. But, oh, how “Flamin’ Hot” tries. “Flamin’ Hot” isn’t even effective propaganda. There can be a successful Latino, the movie says, but only one; the people who serve him must also be Latino. A movie can depart from the strict truth and capture a broader, deeper truth, so I hoped “Flamin’ Hot” would surprise me.

Persons: hasn’t, Montañez, ”, “ Locations: America

☆ Opinion | ‘Doing the Work’ and the Obsession With Superficial Self-Improvement
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And when you notice something like this on social media, it’s a safe bet that there’s an aspect of performance at play: “Do the work” isn’t just about doing the work; it’s about being perceived as a person who does the work. The colleague wondered, “Why didn’t she just say she was sick?” That’s because until very recently, saying “I need a mental health day” wouldn’t have been understood as an acceptable motive for missing a class. But now, focusing on your mental health is more normative. Tannen agreed with Smith that when you’re talking about “doing the work” and tending to your burnout, there’s “a sense that this makes you a good person,” Tannen said. But when we talk about introspection and reflection as work, it cheapens the whole enterprise.

Persons: Mychal Denzel Smith, ” Smith, “, ”, Deborah Tannen, Smith, Wright Mills, Tannen, ” Tannen, it’s Organizations: Georgetown University, Wright

☆ A Vigilant Steve McQueen, a Misguided Maïwenn and Other Cannes Scenes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Presumably Johnny Depp, a heat-seeking target for the armies of paparazzi amassed here, helps explain the movie’s presence. The king is played by a powdered and bewigged Depp, who looks suitably indolent, though perhaps because he’s underused. The king is mainly there to look gaga at Jeanne, which he does a great deal, though it’s a tough call whether Louis lavishes as much attention on Jeanne as Maïwenn does. Among all the close-ups of Jeanne giggling, Maïwenn folds in some palace intrigue and the briefest nod at the terror to come. There’s some comfort that “Jeanne” isn’t contending for the Palme d’Or, which would be an embarrassment, but is being presented out of competition.

☆ Opinion | How to Use the Debt Ceiling to Inflict Cruelty on the Poor
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( David Firestone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In 2021, 61 percent of the 25 million people on Medicaid were working in full- or part-time jobs. The bill would also require many adults 19 to 55 to work 80 hours a month to receive federally subsidized health coverage from Medicaid. Republicans couldn’t repeal the act through the front door, so they are using the leverage provided by the debt ceiling to try to achieve their ideological aim. It’s been clear for years that these kinds of work requirements don’t actually put people back to work; they just pry people away from the benefits they need. In 2018, Arkansas became the first state to impose very similar work requirements on Medicaid, before a federal judge ended the experiment the next year.

☆ The Deep State Is All Too Real
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( David Bernhardt | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Wonder Land: Joe Biden and Donald Trump ignore a mother’s wisdom to the detriment of the country. Images: AP/Getty Images Composite: Mark KellyThere are two competing conceptions of American governance: the version students are taught in the classroom, and the one that exists in the real world. In practice, however, power has become concentrated in the executive branch and largely wielded by unaccountable career bureaucrats. The notion of a “deep state” isn’t a conspiratorial talking point but a manifest political reality. As the Constitution outlines, the U.S. has three distinct and coequal branches of government: a legislature that passes laws, an executive branch that implements them, and a judiciary that interprets them.

☆ ‘Chile ’76’ Review: Resistance and Paranoia Under Pinochet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Aline Küppenheim Photo: Kino LorberA woman is choosing colors in a paint store when there’s a disturbance outside. After some sounds of struggle and another, unseen woman crying out, everything goes silent again. There is an awkward pause. Then customers and clerks carry on with their business. None of them discuss what they have just heard.

☆ ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ Review: Battles Royal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

India Amarteifio Photo: NETFLIX‘Bridgerton” isn’t exactly “Downton Abbey,” or Coca-Cola, but it is certainly a brand, one poised to provide ample opportunities for prequels, sequels, different flavors and, to judge by “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,” even a diet option, if storylines had calories. The original series, based on Julia Quinn ’s fanciful period novels, has thus far been Royalty Lite, but has included a colony’s worth of characters, many of whom could be the subject of their own spinoffs. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Thursday, Netflix“Queen Charlotte,” developed by star producer Shonda Rhimes , concerns the imperious sovereign (Golda Rosheuvel) who ruled over the first two seasons of the original “Bridgerton” and has reason to be tart: Her husband, George III , is mad. Her feckless son is running the country. And she distracts herself by manipulating the social hierarchy, atop which she presides with her outlandish headpieces aspiring further heavenward, like the spires on a cathedral.

☆ Opinion | The Future Is Going to Be Weird. Are We Ready?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s this: The future — shaped by technologies like artificial intelligence — is going to be profoundly weird. It’s going to look, feel and function differently from the world we have grown to recognize. How do we learn to navigate — even embrace — the weirdness of the world we’re entering into? We discuss how Silicon Valley’s particularly weird culture has altered the trajectory of A.I. development, why programs like ChatGPT can profoundly unsettle our sense of reality and our own humanity, how the behaviors of A.I.

☆ How Did ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Land a Mariah Carey Song? Indies Have Their Ways.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Leah Greenblatt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Beau, the addled midlife wreck played by Joaquin Phoenix in “Beau Is Afraid,” isn’t just afraid, he is terrorized: harassed, beaten, stabbed and even kidnapped in a surreal black comedy that often feels less like a conventional film than a three-hour panic attack. (In the hands of high-anxiety auteur Ari Aster, of “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” fame, consider that a compliment.) Thanks to his monstrous mother, he has become a man resigned to life without love or companionship. For Aster, it turns out, there was never a second choice. There was a feeling like, ‘Look, we’ll try, but we likely won’t be able to afford it.’”

Collisions are more likely in such cases, raising the odds of a devastating oil spill. It’s also harder to tell whether the vessels with murky ownership comply with the strict rules governing oil transfers at sea, according to Kenney. Group of Seven nations have imposed a cap on the price of Russian oil and oil products, and a smaller pool of buyers can also negotiate greater discounts. China’s imports of Russian oil in the first quarter of the year rose 38% compared with a year prior, according to Kpler data. As trade of Russian oil has become more complex, many Western shippers have pulled back.

☆ Opinion | Ivanka Trump Is Pained
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Frank Bruni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

We’ve talked plenty about how Donald Trump’s indictment and arraignment might affect his latest presidential bid. Whither Ivanka? Right here, right now, does she stand by Daddy? At times, the coordinates and calculations have been easy: Daddy’s going to the White House; I will not be left behind. And then Daddy was dethroned, and the traipsing just wasn’t what it used to be.

☆ ‘Liaison’ Review: A Spy Thriller in Brexit’s Shadow
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Global intrigue and international coproductions can go together like socks and sandals, but “Liaison” is a rather delicious thriller and one that’s reality-based—meaning there’s respect for real physics as well as for realpolitik. They’ve all trusted the wrong people, made decisions that endanger national security and committed romantic miscues that have worldwide consequences. But what sets off the bilateral contretemps in “Liaison” isn’t the U.K.’s departure from the European Union, exactly, but a consequent lack of cybersecurity agreements with its continental neighbors. Terrorism is a transnational enterprise after all, and per this story the appropriate treaties have to be renegotiated. And the Brits find themselves at a disadvantage when their vaunted national security apparatus proves to be a bit tatty.

☆ Sorry crypto world, but SEC isn’t backing down on ‘regulation by enforcement’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Right now, Wahi argued, crypto users are simply left guessing about their exposure to SEC enforcement — and that's not sustainable. That strategy, Hodl Law asserted, didn't give token-holders fair notice about whether their coins are securities. Otherwise, Hodl Law said, Ethereum users have no idea if the SEC will swoop in with an enforcement action. The SEC also said that it's not obliged to warn crypto users about its interpretation of securities laws. It also, however, provides the first robust explanation of an argument I expect to see more often in SEC crypto cases: SEC enforcement, according to Wahi, is precluded by the Supreme Court’s recently articulated major questions doctrine.

☆ Walter Mosley Thinks America Is Getting Dumber
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Walter Mosley Thinks America Is Getting DumberWalter Mosley is best known as one of contemporary literature’s pre-eminent crime novelists, but he’s actually four or five different writers rolled into one. You have to tell stories about real people experiencing it and not real people with a Ph.D. People who are not stupid but ignorant, who don’t know things about the world. There are people who don’t know how to spell, they don’t know how to think. You have these people coming out into the world, and they don’t know what to do. That’s going to happen.

☆ ‘Accused’ Review: Beyond Law and Order
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

That show, with its unrelated storylines and many now-familiar actors, was produced by the Paulist Fathers of the Catholic Church, whose teachings were always at the center of the episodes—or, if you like, parables. “Accused” isn’t religious, but it preaches. And in a decidedly secular fashion. Each story (of the five made available for review, at least) involves a social issue, if not a social agenda, told from the point of view of someone facing criminal charges born of moral conflict. “Kendall’s Story” features Malcolm- Jamal Warner as the father of a sexually abused young girl, who is goaded by his friends—and their race-based distrust of police—to take matters into his own hands.

☆ Colorado Governor Halts Sending Migrants to New York City, Chicago
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Erin Mulvaney | Ginger Adams Otis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An emergency response dormitory for migrants on Randall’s Island in New York City in October. Mayor Eric Adams said shelters are at maximum capacity. Jared Polis said he would halt busing migrants from Denver to New York City and Chicago after the mayors of those cities argued that their shelters were already overrun. New York Mayor Eric Adams and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a letter on Saturday to Mr. Polis argued that “overburdening other cities” isn’t the solution to the burden of the wave of asylum seekers. Mr. Polis said in a statement Saturday that no more buses were scheduled to Chicago and a final charter to New York was slated to be completed Sunday.

But too often, this behavior is an excuse for avoiding the mucky work of maintaining relationships, both personal and professional. Many managers and employees want to escape the unchecked animus they experience online, preferring the workplace feel like a safe cocoon. This year we should all work to reverse the trend and lean in to conflict — and conflict resolution — instead. Perfectionism affects and, in turn, limits the ways we feel safe communicating, which makes perfect sense. The pandemic, not surprisingly, is another culprit, exacerbating students’ experience of relational tension.

☆ Do Humans Owe Animals Equal Rights? Martha Nussbaum Thinks So.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

Photo illustration by Bráulio Amado Talk Do Humans Owe Animals Equal Rights? But does it then follow that we think of animals’ lives as being equal in value to humans’? That would lead to redoubling our efforts to make sure animals don’t perish in the future. Just think: Women are often raped, and that has been so all throughout human history. Now, as an incrementalist I want to be cautious here because I don’t think that predatory animals are doing anything wrong.

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