bylines

“While all these videos tend to look similar — flat-screens, vague ‘self-care’ vibes, condos — their emotional framework varies, and the stated reasons behind the creators’ solitude ranges from mundane to traumatic.”

“Any activism that does not require you to engage with how you treat your community is not activism at all, and any social progress that is being pushed mostly by market-driven forces has the ability to simply, one day, disappear.”

“I have people that are getting quoted north of a grand to get a kitten fixed, which would be unheard of not too long ago. That’s not attainable for most families that have a pet.”

“There is something so visually appealing about the strawberry, between its zaftig shape, slatternly color, and frilly little hat. But all that sweet, shy charm hinges on the object itself being bite-sized enough that you could imagine the woodland creatures from the Redwall series carrying them overhead.”

“This denial of solitude goes some way towards explaining why, of all the questions viewers have about the behind-the-scenes workings of the show, one of the most persistent is ‘How do Survivor contestants poop?’”

“I mentioned the irony that so many older white people were already poised to profit on the legalization of cannabis—the long-running prohibition of which has been responsible for the incarceration of many others, disproportionately people of color.”

“The landscape is gorgeous, but it’s eerie in its benevolence—and the creepy statues scattered around the island don’t help. They remind me of Pompeii, the bodies immortalized in ash at the precise moment of impact.”