The occupation of Wall Street has been heralded as a passionate grassroots movement (now beloved by celebrities) that is spreading nationwide and claiming to reflect America’s non-wealthy 99 percent (even if that same bracket includes most of the wealthy bankers on Wall Street).

To put greed into sharper focus, a nostalgic story of berzerker Borders employees joining a labor union seems apt:

We were unlikely candidates for unionization. There was Carlotta Tendant, a famed drag queen who introduced me to gay bingo. There was Jim, a crackhead who dated my best friend and stole her television set.… We were a bunch of low-wage misfits who joined the union of miners, Pullman car operators, and auto workers. 

When you go from unemployment to full-time work, the bridge you cross is called “dumpy sweaters.”

Cher’s still working, and so am I. She’s making movies that prove Christina Aguilera can act, and I’m proofreading at an ad agency. Her name may be up in lights, but I’m the one who’ll make sure it’s spelled right.

And for those new to the protest movement, may we recommend this enjoyable interactive guide to determining your favorite Bob Dylan album.

Oh, and here’s a gallery of William Burroughs’ stuff. We imagine Burroughs would be all in favor of #occupywallstreet. Then again, he’d probably be all for #sharktank, too.

Long before The Wire came along, Prime Suspect exposed the mental ant-farms of both criminals and police. The stories were great (top-notch casting), and also lasted very long, three hours or so, which is a feast for those of us in the Netflix age, who binge on crime stories in six-hour spells with no commercial breaks. Continue Reading

And yet, I sat in the dark theater and felt a planetary pull toward him. I went all hot and melty during a scene in which he did little but stare at his love interest, a mysterious smile flickering on his lips. The movie was hypnotic, strange, but I noticed myself noticing him: The fit of his tight jeans, the arch of an eyebrow, tongue tracing over lip. Continue Reading

The weekend of Sept. 17 the Hamilton Grange was being rededicated to coincide with Constitution Day. I won’t condescend to tell you who Alexander Hamilton was or why he’s such a big deal for the United States; we all know him principally as the founder of the New York Post. However, the Grange, for the uninitiated, was supposedly his dream home, his Xanadu. The home, which Hamilton referred to as his “sweet project”—which he most presumably followed with “bro”—was built in 1802 in what is today the Hamilton Heights neighborhood in Harlem. Continue Reading

Five years ago, I joined MetaFilter. MetaFilter began as—and primarily remains—an online space for members to share interesting links and comment on them. Period, end of sentence. But a few specialized subgroups have developed, including one of my favorite places on the entire internet: AskMetaFilter.

The concept is simple: Post a question, and people will answer it. The variety is as rich as MetaFilter’s main page: People use Ask to get recommendations for lawn mowers, figure out if they should dump their girlfriend, diagnose that little rash on their knee, learn how to negotiate a raise, discover a better way to track widgets in Excel. It’s a universal help desk. Continue Reading

That election saw the defeat of a right-wing coalition which, allied with the far-right Danish People’s Party, earned Denmark the label of the Arizona of Europe, due to immigration policies and xenophobia. Here in Denmark, most people are happy that time’s over. A left-wing coalition has the opportunity to show what they can do, particularly in terms of growing the economy. But this isn’t just happening in Denmark, and a rising left could shape Europe’s next decade just when everyone was writing it off. Continue Reading

The two obsessions merged in my head around midnight, on day 162 of the baseball season. I actually wasn’t in bed, but sitting at my desk listening to Steve Somers hosting on WFAN while switching the TV back and forth between the Tampa Bay Rays pulling a miracle comeback over the Yankees, and the Red Sox losing to the Baltimore Orioles. Continue Reading

“Get the nerve,” she wrote back. Actually she wrote: “GET THE NERVE.” Continue Reading

Perhaps bigamists have it the worst:

“You must refrain from changing your relationship status to “It’s Complicated,” regardless of how true it may seem. To monogamists, a status change signals marital instability. This will only attract inquisitive wall posts and potential temptations from ex-paramours and those meddlesome divorcees from your kids’ elementary school. For crying out loud, you’ve already got two beds to fill—don’t be greedy.”

Francesco Masci’s portraits of intellectuals being seduced by Twitter birds also comes to mind.

In “Photo Finish,” Jeffrey Essmann recounts finding his dead father on Facebook, very much to his surprise.

And to those who write open-ended letters on Facebook, bemoaning the new redesign or Justin Bieber’s latest haircut, Teddy Wayne has some advice:

Intervention by letter is an emotionally unhealthy way to address something. If you’re upset about something, therapists often do recommend writing a letter to the person who has upset you—but not sending it.

Finally, when the internet’s got you down, just remember, it does contain 100 ways to say I love you, by Paul Ford—and maybe we’re biased, but isn’t Paul one of those people whom the entire internet agrees it loves?

Benedict Cumberbatch—the man sounds like his own classification of mania. “But I can’t go outside, darling, Sherlock’s on, my cumberbatch is acting up again.” Continue Reading

Marcus Garvey

Garvey had a stroke in January of 1940, and he becomes incapacitated. George Padmore, who was a columnist for The Chicago Defender, had heard a rumor that Garvey had died and instead of confirming this, he published a premature obituary.

The obituary described Garvey as a man whose followers had deserted him; a man who died “broke, alone and unpopular.”

When Garvey reads it, he lets out a loud moan and he collapses. He suffers a second stroke and next morning he dies.