New from me: the shifting senses of "degenerate," "degen," and "degenerative" (notably #degenerativeAI). fritinancy.substack.com/p/words-of-t...
Words of the week: Degenerate, degen, degenerative
Things fall apart.
fritinancy.substack.com
Nancy Friedman
@fritinancy.bsky.social
Name developer, writer, lapsed journalist, bay swimmer. Born in Los Angeles, semi-rooted in Oakland, California. “Queen of retail rabbit holes.” https://fritinancy.substack.com/
Recommended: “Hollywood Does Abortion,” new doc about depictions of abortion in film and TV from “Maude” to “Unpregnant.” Feat. @lizzwinstead.bsky.social, @thehighsign.bsky.social, Eleanor Bergstein, Rachel Bloom, and many more. share.google/S684Tejkbeov...
Take Action Spotlight: Hollywood Does Abortion
Since the 1970s, depictions of abortion in film and television have both impacted and reflected shifting attitudes towards the procedure and those who choose it. This incisive documentary examines the...
share.google
This is wild.
kottke.org@kottke.org · last wk.Here’s where we’re at in 2026: because of federal funding cuts, scientists are turning to OnlyFans to fund their research. Scientists tracking marmot populations launched OnlyMarms on the adult platform, inspired by Margo’s Got Money Troubles. [kottke.org]
"If you don’t let the wealthy throw money at their FOMO, are you even trying to gougemaxx?" www.thebulwark.com/p/why-are-no...
Why Are Noirs Making a Comeback?
Plus: IMAX is great—but not the greatest reason to go to theaters.
thebulwark.com
People who use “singular” (exceptional) to mean “single” (one): Please don't.
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
theonion.com
Emily Wilson's "4,000-plus-word takedown of this year’s most-talked-about movie appeared to temporarily crash The LRB’s website and fueled a debate over balancing commercial success with literary authenticity." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/a...
Emily Wilson’s Pan of ‘The Odyssey’ Ignites a Debate Among Classicists and Commenters (Gift Article)
Wilson, whose 2017 translation of Homer’s Greek classic influenced the director Christopher Nolan, panned his screenplay for the movie version in an essay for The London Review of Books.
nytimes.com
"Eventually I zeroed in on an Australian brand called MAN-TLE. (I have no idea what the hyphen in the middle is up to; menswear brands love to sprinkle punctuation marks around willy-nilly.)" - @shamblanderson.bsky.social NYT gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/m...
Why Does This Jacket Cost $770? Because It Made Me a New Man. (Gift Article)
Lots of men are geeking out over very expensive clothes — and I became one of them.
nytimes.com
“I am interested in this kind of relationship in attempting to offer, some kind of confidant, friend, God, not really sure what it is. But it is not an assistant, and it is not a lover.” -- Avi Schiffman, creator of a $249 wearable thingy. techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/f...
Friend, the lonely AI wearable, returns with a new voice and a much bigger price tag | TechCrunch
Friend, the AI wearable, can now talk to its users — for an enhanced price.
techcrunch.com
"The Lonely Child" is one of several extraordinary documentaries I've seen at this year's San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Thanks to @marcsmolowitz.bsky.social and @alixwall.bsky.social for creating this moving, surprising film. www.13thgenfilm.com/thelonelychild
The Lonely Child — 13th Gen
13thgenfilm.com
For anyone enjoying the odyssey discussions, @fritinancy.bsky.social has links to some you might have missed.
July linkstack
Odyssey critiques, a tuna mascot, AI dread, two-letter restaurant names, and more.
fritinancy.substack.com
Google is now calling my old photos "lore" instead of "memories."
July links! Odyssey critiques, AI dread, World Cup words, and more. Ht @lynneguist.bsky.social @kottke.org @grantbarrett.com @byagoda.bsky.social @howardm.bsky.social @pudding.cool @adweek.bsky.social @danielmendelsohn.bsky.social @norsebysw.bsky.social fritinancy.substack.com/p/july-links...
July linkstack
Odyssey critiques, a tuna mascot, AI dread, two-letter restaurant names, and more.
fritinancy.substack.com
It drives me crazy that so many people don't understand this. The most reliable places, factually speaking, are magazines, then newspapers, THEN books... and in book publishing, not only is the whole burden on the author, many writers don't know how to hire fact-checkers or how the process works
The triumphal music is the extra gilding this lily hardly needs.
Jon Danziger@danziger.bsky.social · 6d agoEven nineteenth-century bordello proprietors are saying, "You know what? A little much."
the media attacked rep. rashida tlaib for four days when she said "impeach the motherfucker" and accused the democratic party of cleaving decorum, calling it "profane," a "crass expletive," "non-family language," "r-rated" and "earmuffs required" saying fuck is only news when a dem does it
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.Moreno to Fauci: "Who the fuck did you think you were?"
Just got out of Greta Gerwig's adaptation of the Odyssey. Opening with Calypso (Saoirse Ronan) was a fascinating choice, especially given the mic drop of Suzanne Vega that centers the opening storm & shipwreck where she rescues Odysseus (David Tennant). Timmy C as Telemachus chewed too much scenery.
@smouritsen.bsky.social · last wk.Just got out of Terrance Malik’s adaptation of the Odyssey. It is one of the most visually stunning things over committed to film. Odysseus (Adrian Brody) remains out of frame for the entire film and is only briefly heard in voiceover. Also, there are dinosaurs for some reason.
"[M]any of the words that were added, such as mortgage, corporation, appropriate, analysis, fairly, and despite, don’t look anything like the ones that were discarded. In fact, they are mostly abstract concepts that don’t look like anything at all." (ht @kottke.org)
The Pudding@pudding.cool · last wk.New project! Two influential word lists made by language researchers define an "essential English vocabulary" for learners: one from 1953 and another from 2023. In this essay, Jasmine Nackash examines the differences between them and what that says about us. link: pudding.cool/2026/07/esse...
In which I learn a thing or two about "bolt" and "bolt upright." | ht @edroso.bsky.social @benzimmer.bsky.social @myl1947.bsky.social @harpers.bsky.social fritinancy.substack.com/p/bolt-upright
"Bolt upright"
And many other such bolts.
fritinancy.substack.com
I just read something that includes that phrase "my Gen X fear of quicksand," and I thought: really? Fear of quicksand is generationally specific and not, you know, universal? And it's important that you advertise your generational label (and make me struggle to recall what that means in numbers)?
The quotes and replies to this made me laugh.
James McLeod@jamespmcleod.ca · 2w agoIt's safe to assume that all major LLMs are scraping Bluesky data to train future models. As an open protocol, Bluesky is one of the few sources of fresh human-generated content that anybody can gobble up. So all this is probably going in the models. There are submarines in the Great Lakes.
The next best thing to seeing "Hadestown" live. bleeckerstreetmedia.com/hadestown-th...
Bleecker Street
HADESTOWN: THE MUSICAL In Theaters July 24, The live theater capture of the hit musical Hadestown, Directed by Brett Sullivan and Starring Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada, Pa...
bleeckerstreetmedia.com
I've been working for months on this post and finally hatched it. Thanks to @bcdreyer.social @byagoda.bsky.social @awolverton.bsky.social et al. fritinancy.substack.com/p/subtitles-...
Subtitles: What are they good for?
A critical look beyond the colon.
fritinancy.substack.com
There is a lot to say about the Nolan Odyssey movie. But one point that I think has not been emphasized enough is: this is a film about living in LA, as Nolan, my erstwhile British compatriot and age mate, has done for years. I gather it’s a strange place.
I had an 8-to-noon window for Sears appliance repair, already rescheduled once because they didn't have the part. Waited all morning. Texted the repairman; no response. When no one showed up I got on the website, where an AI agent was unable to find my project. 1/2