What happens when you invite your mom to see 50 Shades of Grey? (Well, first of all, don't ever do that.) Here's one way it might go down, from Jez reader Heather: "I invited my mom to go see 'Fifty Shades' for a project I'm working on, but she declined. Not only did she decline, she declined in listicle form."
Look. Let's just get this out of the way. I know this is going to seem like some bullshit listicle about animals doing stuff—and yeah, it KIND OF IS, I GUESS, in that it's literally a listicle of animals doing stuff—but what you have to understand is that I really, really give a shit about animals doing stuff.
The other day, CNN astutely asked its Rhodes Scholar readers whether or not white Americans are racially oppressed. And they were serious!
Scientists are discovering new species at an estimated rate of about two per hour. Keeping this in mind, check out the annual list of the top 10 new species, which includes the delightfully-named Phallus drewesii, pictured here. [Observer]
This origin of this handwritten list is still unknown, but we'd like to meet the child that mocks "geekin' bitches" and "uncreative bitches" in one epic document. If for no other reason than to knock some sense into her. [BuzzFeed]
Stuart Cobb, a student at the University of Denver, has made sure he'll never get a date again by writing a tragically unfunny piece titled "Seven women you'll meet at DU." Stuart is practically fishing for scorn. I'll bite!
Want to track the nation's reading list? Check out Books of the Century, a website created by a Berkeley history Ph.D. candidate that chronicles "a century's worth of best-sellers, itemized year by year." [New Yorker]
Fuck resolutions! Here are a few things we actually plan to do in '10.
Warning: Scrooge-y thoughts ahead.
Michelle Obama's royal cardigan incident, Sarah Palin's glasses, Aretha Franklin's hat, and Sonia Sotomayor's judicial collar — "Oliver Cromwell meets Whistler's Mother," in the New Yorker's inimitable parlance — all make this list of 2009's memorable fashion statements. [New Yorker]
In our experience? Not too many. But we've compiled the definitive "safe word" list, cause we're servicey like that! (Note: never, ever look up "NSFW." They take it very literally.)
What do you think of this list of Top 10 Feminist Icons...From A Male? And can we get rid of the arbitrary "top ten" designation? How about just "10...amongst many." [Nerve]
Beware, you guys, for the Ides of March has come. And while the soothsayer's warning failed to save Caesar from his fate, perhaps we can save each other from lesser dangers on this treacherous day.
About.com just posted a list of the "Top 100 Women in History." Jill Zimon Miller thinks women deserve better; what say you? More to the point, how to limit a list to 100 icons? [Feministe]
According to a recent survey, Obama has beaten out Jesus as America's most admired person. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, the top ten heroes were nearly all men, with Mother Theresa coming in at #10.
Someone wrote into the Wall Street Journal to ask if Cynthia Grossen could recommend another fictional hero as swoony as Twilight's pallid Edward Cullen. Grossen gives some picks, but we think we can add to it.
