Listen: No Beef by Homeboy Sandman
When you glance at the title, what do you think this song is about? A feud, maybe? Peacemaking? Joke’s on you— it’s a four-minute rap rant against the meat industrial complex. And where another artist might bury a message under metaphor, Homeboy Sandman tells you just what he’s thinking, miserly-uncle-style. “They pump ’em with hormones. It’s horrible. They’re poisoning your spirit. If it weren’t for the seasoning, you’d never go near it!” It’s hard not to smile at the deadpan delivery— not because he’s wrong, but because it’s so earnest. Listen and see.
Schlimate Shrange
The crops are dying, the water is rising, the heat waves are here. So what are climate deniers to do? Launch a weather channel to tell it their way. Fox News is gearing up to run their own meteorology programming with a free-speech spin on science. In advance of the launch, they’re already drumming up clicks by inciting a twitter beef with the real Weather Channel (“The Failing Weather Channel?”)— just a holdover tactic before they start 24-hour weather coverage. 24 hours! That’s a lot of time and a lot of lies! But that’s how you get Succession-rich in media.
We’re fighting
Speaking of avoidable feuds, did you read the NYMag gossip on the kiddie fight club in Greenpoint? That neighborhood, for those far afield, happens to house the #1 elementary school in Brooklyn, and therefore also a number of invested parents who are predictably active in voicing their concerns in any venue available to them. So, when a group of kids started having parent-sanctioned play-fighting time in McGolrick Park, the parents of morally superior (read: peaceful) children had some things to say. The Facebook group “Brooklyn Baby Hui” (“A group of parents who support, inspire and empower each other in the challenge of raising children by sharing experiences, stories and resources in our neighborhoods of North Brooklyn“) sprouted endless comments about how the supervised fighting was too aggressive for some parents, whose feelings were too aggressive for the others. As for the kids doing the “problem”-fighting, they appear to be at peace.
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If you like digesting online happenings such as the above, you might enjoy Dirt, a newsletter by Daisy Alioto and my buddy Kyle Chayka (who is also The New Yorker’s newest columnist, woo!). It’s a daily thing where writers talk about what they’re consuming online, from streaming TV to TikTok, and kind of dissect the mechanics of digital culture— all in a variety of forms and lengths, which makes for a fun grab-bag situation. Maybe you saw their piece on that annoying new pasta shape, or Daisy’s essay on TikTok and suburban aesthetics? No? What are you waiting for? Subscribe to Dirt now.
Lol what if Laura Ingraham was secretly vegan.
Margot
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