Watched RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK for the first time since childhood and whew, the orientalism in this movie, but also completely blown away by how much it operates like a Douglas Fairbanks silent pic
Just remembered that this, along with the rest of the trilogy, was one of the first VHS movies my family ever owned — obtained through a detail at McDonald's (!) where you got each copy for like $5 (?) with purchase of a combo meal
The McDonald's VHS sales trend is so fascinating, in hindsight — a way to make a visit "special" but also helped popularize/normalize VHS ownership.
In 1992, McDonald's was the third largest seller of VHS tapes in the country—beating out Blockbuster:
They were selling Dances with Wolves for $6 — and sold *millions* of copies before it was made available at video stores (and then for $14.98)
The two other McDonald's holiday season VHS picks: Babes in Toyland (that movie is so weird) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Honestly brilliant promotion strategy for Addams Family Values and Wayne's World II
And here's the specific Indiana Jones promotion: each week, for only three weeks, you could get one of the three movies. So I guess we went to McDonald's three times in three weeks, because we sure as shit had all three
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Earlier this year Steve was fetching the ball in the field where people go to throw the ball for their dogs. The speedwalker was cutting across the field, and Steve ran up to her to give her his ball.
She yelled at him and started windmilling her arms.
(Caveat that I know some people are scared of dogs who are off-leash, but this is a known dog-ball-throw field, and she was cutting across it)
Slack's Remote Employee Experience Index has been surveying 10k+ employees in 6 countries over the course of the pandemic; tons of really interesting insights — like the fact that 21% are currently looking for a new job:
I am so excited to be working with @curioio to provide audio versions of my newsletter. You can find an audio version of the latest, The Back to the Office Maximum, here:
Muscle Milk, The Rock, Creatine, Brad Pitt's Abs, Men's Health, Ripped Tobey Maguire, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — here's food & gender scholar @EmilyContois on the suffocating image of swole that surrounded young Gen-X and millennial men:
"Teen girlhood is a site of constant contradictions. It’s celebrated and derided, sexualized and overprotected. But teen boyhood barely exists. It’s viewed as a life chapter to rush through in order to reach manhood, the stage that matters."
I thought there were a lot of "how to get Britney's abs" articles, but they're nothing compared to "how to get Brad Pitt's abs" in men's mags. People are STILL WRITING THEM.
If that line from my own newsletter about "the idea of how I could have lived if I had allowed myself to just weigh what I weighed" smacked you in the face, then you, too, should subscribe to @sarahlovescali
Or if you a cried a big puddle under your chair reading The Bridge Dog
The digitization of Seventeen is very haphazard and weirdly catalogued but I was so thrilled to find the Letters to the Editor re: that cover; if you're one of those college girls from Wheaton who debated this in your dorm, let's chat
A reader just sent me this (fairly heartening?) screenshot that's been making the rounds in her 14-year-old daughter's Snapchat world