HELLO and welcome to the 292nd installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about Judge Judy! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Pawhuska or Bust: A Journey to the Heart of Pioneer Woman Country, by Khushbu Shah for Thrillist, October 2017
Honestly cannot believe people travel all the way to this town to eat chicken fried steak when Cracker Barrel has so many convenient locations all over the land but okay. Also didn’t realize how rich these guys already were.
The Hidden Cost of Gofundme Healthcare, by Nathan Heller for The New Yorker, June 2019
What our broken healthcare system has wrought, and who the replacement system favors and who it leaves behind and how it operates behind the scenes. It’s kind of wild that they name conference rooms after popular campaigns? Like do you want to have a meeting in the Saving Eliza room? I don’t. I also learned a lot about Canavan disease from this!
“The Day After” traumatized a generation with the horrors of nuclear war, by Sean O’Neal for The AV Club, August 2017
I was watching The Americans and they had one of those scenes we never have anymore where it feels like the entire country is watching the same thing at the same time and that thing was “The Day After,” which has a really fascinating backstory!!
The Why of Cooking, by Sarah Miller for Popula, December 2018
Wow did I ever love every minute of this (and everything she writes, but especially this), like there are so many sections I wanted to quote to convince you to read it and I didn’t know which ones to pick, but here’s one that’s unrelated to the topic at hand (which is: “cooking, why?”) but good nonetheless: “She was beautiful, and quiet, and grew up on Fifth Avenue, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whereas I was only decent looking, and loud, and grew up in a small, boring town, behind a Talbot’s.” Also: “My mother was always saying she just wanted to be alone with her book but it seemed like whenever this dream looked as if it might actually become a reality she would decide to make a pie.” UGH JUST READ IT.
Queer Food Is Hiding in Plain Sight, by Kyle Fitzpatrick for Eater, June 2018
It has been nearly A FULL CALENDAR YEAR since Laneia put this link in an AAA but I get an extra hot dog this week for doing something perhaps you didn’t even think I’d ever do: reading this! Wow it was good. It’s hard for me to think of stuff like this because everything about my life is already queer so like, what does it look like outside of me? I’m not sure. Kyle knows!
The Pleasure of Clapping Back, by Roxane Gay for Gay Magazine, June 2019
Oh this is so comprehensive and good.
A Scout’s Honor, by Dave McKenna for Deadspin, June 2019
How a decorated pro basketball scout managed to build a career despite a rape conviction that he also managed to basically get away with and not do much time for.
The Wild Ride at Babe.Net, by Allison P. Davis for The Cut, June 2019
YIKES!!!!!!!!
Babe took a shit on the shibboleths of media, not to mention feminist thought. For a moment, readers were eager to engage in scat-play. But what was always unclear was how much the site’s writers — often with little or no journalistic experience or training — understood the traditions they were turning inside out or ignoring. Nor was it clear whether staff recognized the parallels between the gray-area #MeToo themes of its Ansari piece and the complicated sexual power dynamics of their own office, the ones that would partly lead to the collapse of the site.
Judge Judy Is Still Judging Yo, by Jazmine Hughes for The New York Times Magazine, June 2019
I’m just super fascinated (?! that might no the the right world) by her perspective on systemic issues and how that enables her to be the unconflicted and decisive person she is in court. And how her present life enables her to hold that perspective relatively unchallenged. I mean we all like the show or whatnot but damn.
Epcot World Showcase, by Kristen Arnett for Hazlitt, July 2019
Do you ever stay and watch the movie means: I will not take you to dinner after this, we won’t go home together, I did that in another life with a woman like you but that tenderness is gone now, sixteen minutes is all I can offer, please, I’ve already given the other parts of myself away, do you understand?
