"Of course, there was always the ubiquitous defense of irony—no, look, we’re getting drunk and harassing women, but we’re doing it ironically!"
The making of "the perfect hour."
"At his best, Mr. Chappelle weaves long stories, finding laughs before and after the joke. When he introduces a bit as one of the worst he’s ever written, he seems to use it as a challenge, establishing the premise of a friend who pitches him terrible movie ideas with precise characterization and a sense of suspense."
“‘Okay,’ I said, getting started. ‘This blow job represents Syria.’”
A guide to the real people in Michael Hastings' The Last Magazine.
“We had tried to get to Jesus, but there was no room on the trains.” Brian Philips’ World Cup dispatches are not optional.
On reading music, basketball statistics, and how languages work their way inside us.
“Amongst the many things I would go back and tell my past self if I had access to a time machine: ‘There is no such thing as a light-hearted reference to cannibalism.’”
"The key to the telephone as miracle, metaphor, and medium for ghosts lay in what Hubert and Mauss called the 'numerous slits' in reality and rationalism that allow the mundane to commingle with the mystical, and mortal matter to be infused with a spirit which lures our fancy with the prospect of something eternal."
