Never News: The Haunting Returns
[You awaken on the floor of a strange room with a high, vaulted ceiling. Surrounding you blaze dozens of candelabras, casting the space in a warm glow that dances across the stone walls.
How did you get here? And...why does it feel like you've been here before?
As you stand, you see that the candles form a kind of path, flanking the walls toward the other end of the room. And there, propped up on a plinth...is an ornate, black coffin.
The coffin blocks your one chance of escape – a massive wooden door whose ornate doorknob glitters in the candlelight. Seeing no other option but to move forward, you delicately step your way down the path, hoping to make as little noise as possible.
But you hardly get two steps in when you hear it — a muffled groan, and then the sound of scratching from inside the coffin. Frozen in fear, you watch as the coffin door creaks open a few inches.
A small, pale hand emerges from within. In mounting terror you watch as the hand grasps at the door and forces it open...]
What's up ghosts and ghouls?!?!?! Miss me?
It is of course I, Producer Georgia, here with the newsletter you crave. It's October, my favorite time of the year, and I figured I'd celebrate the thinning of the veil by keeping things normal and exactly the way the newsletter has always been the entire time.
ANYWAY! Let's news!
GIZMODO: Turns out, the Cracker Barrel rage wasn't real
I am duty-bound to admit to you all that I have never stepped foot in a Cracker Barrel. But even I had heard rumblings about online rage surrounding the fact that the restaurant chain had plans to modernize its logo from the more folksy branding it had used up until this point. To be sure, the new logo (pictured above) isn't especially good, and, in my opinion, is worse than the original. But as it turns out, most of the online hate about the change...was the work of bots. This genuinely surprises me – the Internet is, if nothing else, fertile ground for yelling about graphic design. It feels weird to hear that apparently, the bots are shouldering in on even this. And yet, something tells me we will see this happen at an increasing rate. If we can't even entrust online rage about restaurant branding to be the product of humans, then we're in a sad situation indeed.
SHOW NEWS: a glorious new mailbag for lovers of ringback tones
In case you somehow missed it, we published a FABULOUS and EXCELLENT mailbag episode in your feeds this week! This time, we covered online recipes, gambling, and spend a great deal of time talking about our summer gab fest on the topic of ringtones. Do you remember ringback tones? And why is "My Humps" the exact song that comes to mind for that particular tech customization of yore? Who can say. But what I WILL say is that our discussion of that – and much more – is a delight for the ears, and I urge you to listen at once.
ALSO!!! We're nominated for the Listener's Choice - Technology award at the Signal Awards! You can – and should – vote for us here.
EATER: the life and death of the "foodie"
There is so much to talk about when it comes to the role of food in our online lives. And this piece in Eater is an excellent examination of the "foodie" and its many predecessors, such as the "gourmand" to describe someone who makes food a personality trait. This piece argues that the term "foodie" has gone the way of the dodo. In an online landscape where food is everywhere and everyone is talking about it, it's not really special to have an interest in cuisine anymore. If anything, this article claims that basically everybody is a foodie now – being online, it seems like everyone has opinions about oysters and bucatini pasta and sumac and the right brand of hot chili oil and and and. But I also think this piece is interesting in the way it makes tension between two tough spots – being given a somewhat judgmental title for a niche interest you may or may not be snobbish for having...and when it becomes a different brand of "uncool" to have that moniker because everyone else is doing it. Somewhere in there is, I hope, a genuine joy about people getting to try new food. I'd like for us to stick with that feeling as much as we can.
THE ATLANTIC: a bad, bad time for free speech
In the wake of the madness surrounding Jimmy Kimmel's removal then un-removal, I felt obliged to include something that addresses the incredibly scary situation around free speech in the United States right now. It's hard to keep up with things when they change so quickly, decisions get made then revoked then remade somewhere else, and I certainly struggle with feeling absolutely paralyzed by all of it. But it's also important to know what's going on – a balance I struggle with in both directions. But this piece in The Atlantic spells the situation out clearly and plainly, and for that I'm grateful (if also completely freaked out).
And that's all from me on this installment of Never News. The weather promises to err on the crisp side come next week, at which point I will finally start to REALLY dress. Shorts be damned!
If you need to reach me, I'll be aimlessly floating through the cemetery under the full moon and scaring the local schoolchildren. Ciao for now!
A perfect October song for you from one of my favorite albums of all time.