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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
The book Don’t Ask Alice purported to be the real-life story of a young girl addicted to drugs. But none of it was true.
(The New Yorker, approx 17 mins reading time)
The narrator is unidentified, too. She is not named Alice; the book’s title, chosen by a savvy publishing employee, comes indirectly from a reference in the diary to “Alice in Wonderland” and more directly from the lyrics of the Jefferson Airplane song “White Rabbit.” Early entries dutifully record the nothing-everythings of teen-age life. The narrator frets over diets and dates; wishes she could “melt into the blaaaa-ness of the universe” when a boy stands her up; and describes high school as “the loneliest, coldest place in the world.” She’s from a middle-class, overtly Christian, ostensibly good family, with two younger siblings, a stay-at-home mother, and an academic father whose work takes the family to another state.
In this audio ‘longread’, a look at what happened when a crude oil tanker sent out a distress call about stowaways.
(The Guardian, approx 28 mins listening time)
By mid afternoon, coastguard helicopters were circling over the ship, and by about 7pm, there was a full-scale military operation. Suddenly, a story that should have been about the asylum claims of seven desperate stowaways had been recast as a national security incident. Behind the political posturing and the media commotion, however, there remained seven men looking for a new start in life.
A man named Glen McCurley strangled a young woman in 1974, but was she his only victim?
(Texas Monthly, approx 41 mins reading time)
He seemed to be a good man leading a quiet life. One woman had even sent a letter to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram praising him and Judy for returning her lost wallet. “The world needs more folks like this,” she wrote. But detectives had developed an entirely different perspective on McCurley. They had compelling evidence that he was responsible for the notorious unsolved murder of a teenage girl in 1974. And they suspected that wasn’t McCurley’s only heinous crime. They considered him a “person of interest” in at least three other killings of young women during the seventies and eighties.
Is there an ‘exercise gap’ between the genders, and if so, why?
(Women’s Health Magazine, approx 6 mins reading time)
A Gyms and swimming pools can also be intimidating places – I know from experience. I find it daunting to go to these places as a relative novice and a beginner, someone who is not very fit and cannot pound the treadmill or do countless miles in the pool. Unless you have the right clothes, and the right body, it is very easy to feel like an outsider. And this lack of inclusion – in activewear design, and the culture that has developed in some of the gyms and pools- can lead to not only embarrassment but also lack of motivation to go to the gym, go running or swimming.
A look at the actor Bruce Willis’s career, and how his roles in later life might have contributed to his aphasia going unnoticed on set.
(Vulture, approx 13 mins reading time)
Over time, though, Willis started moving away from the thoughtful Everyman action hero he had incarnated in Die Hard and toward more retrograde macho-man roles. The Die Hard sequels were far more typical of the era’s R-rated action blockbusters, stressing McClane’s sour cynicism and lethal skills instead of his humanity. It was hard to tell if Willis was trying to put Moonlighting even further in the rearview mirror, if the stone-faced-killer parts spoke to some need in him as an actor, or if he was just doing the thing he knew audiences would pay to see.
The story behind the 1968 episode of Star Trek where the late Nichelle Nichols kissed William Shatner, in the first onscreen kiss between a Black woman and white man on US television.
(The Conversation, approx 5 mins reading time)
The episode’s plot is bizarre: Aliens who worship the Greek philosopher Plato use telekinetic powers to force the Enterprise crew to sing, dance and kiss. At one point, the aliens compel Lt. Uhura and Capt. Kirk to embrace. Each character tries to resist, but eventually Kirk tilts Uhura back and the two kiss as the aliens lasciviously look on. The smooch is not a romantic one. But in 1968 to show a Black woman kissing a white man was a daring move.
…AND ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES…
Love Island finished up last week. (We took a look at it for this week’s The Explainer podcast). Here’s a story from Vanity Fair in about the many controversies that have dogged the show.
(Vanity Fair, approx 28 mins reading time)
On the season four premiere of Love Island, an effervescent Flack arrived with an engagement ring, which the islanders oohed over. The next season, Flack’s diamond was gone. Though her success grew as the show’s did—she was able to renegotiate her contract every season—at 40, her colleague says, “She was desperate. Desperate to settle down, desperate to find the right person. It just didn’t happen. I don’t think she had the emotional makeup to deal with a grown-up relationship.” Love Island made Flack’s fame, and the attendant interest in her personal life, explode. It was the perfect match.
Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.
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The US is the epitome of do and I say not as I do.
@Ger Whelan: as
@Ger Whelan: agreed to an extent about that statement, only thing is that tik toc is a danger the tik toc in China and Asia as a whole promotes education, music instruments tutorials, math ect, the European and American versions promote life distractions and dumbing down of children, I see it myself with my grandchildren they have little attention span zero social skills there schooling gets affected by constant distractions on that app particularly and of course there is the security issue of privacy but all in all tic tok would not amend their app in America so the ban has to be done.
@Darran Macken: Naive parents giving children phones is the real problem here, but you are correct, apps like tik tok turn children into zombies.
@Darran Macken: interesting that you comment about tiktok being different in other locations as when I initially joined tiktok most of the content was from Asia but over time that changed and the content became more local Irish, UK and USA based. I actually preferred seeing how other cultures lived and farmed etc.. and I think tiktok is no worse than google or meta in data collection. The USA is practicing isolationism and censorship by the action of banning tiktok and hypocrisy by also not banning Google and Meta for the information they collect
@Ger Whelan: Most powerful country in the world…it’s like a mom smoking a cigarette and telling a child not to….do it kid and FAFO!!!!
@Darran Macken: Hi Darren what your seeing in your grandchildren wasn’t as a direct result of TikTok it’s as a result of social media in general especially Snapchat. Often heard my friend saying about his 4 daughters sat in the same room and my friend asking what you all doing and they reply messaging each other. I said to him the art of conversation is gone on the younger generation. It’s so so sad.
@Darran Macken: So Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc have no negative effects on your grandchildren? Pull the other one. The only difference between tictok and all the other social media apps is tictok is Chinese and they get your data and the rest are American and they get your data.
@Darran Macken: our version has all and every bit of the educational vids too you know. People just choose to watch daft influencers dancing.
@Darran Macken: the thing is that this could be said of any social media app. If they’re being banned for rotting minds then ban them all. I’d have no issue with that. But the current reason for banning it is made up because it’s hurting the profitability of American competitors
@Niall O’Cofaigh: When did you join out of interest? If you were an early adopter of a new app it’s not surprising at all that over time as it became ubiquitous in the West you saw more content generated in the West. However, if you know when you joined and it is much later than when it became popular that might be interesting.
This is amazing, all the “content” creators in America won’t know what to do!
@Eoghan Augusta: They do and many have started doing it.
@Eoghan Augusta: what about Daniel Larson? He is the greatest US creator and it will be sad to see him go.
@Eoghan Augusta: ironically tens of thousands of them have already switched to Rednote, which is similar to tiktok but is directly owned by the Chinese government, and they’re quite happy to give their data. So it is already back firing on Congress. Mark Zuckerberg pushed for this ban, no doubt thinking that Americans would switch to Instagram reels but that isn’t happening and Metas share price has been dropping in the last week and a bit.
Can we not ban the United States instead. Think most of the world is sick to the teeth of the constant warmongering BS.
Don’t use tok tok so have no opinion should it be banned. Would however agree to a EU ban on X and possibly Facebook. The amount of dangerous propaganda and lies spread on these sites is outrageous!
@Barry Gallagher: you must be wrapped in cotton wool
@Barry Gallagher: Any examples of this “dangerous propaganda” that you’d like to share with the rest of the class?
@Barry Gallagher: just crawl under your sisters bed and put your fingers in your ears Barry. No one can hurt you there.
@Freda Peeple: so you agree with weirdo Musk that he can use X to further his own agenda with disinformation and lies to achieve world domination or whatever the hell his aim is. He certainly doesn’t care about you or me or the plain people of America. Worse than Goebbels but far bigger audience. Would love to see Zuckerberg the spineless coward get his comeuppance after firing his fact checkers. Facebook will become a bigger sewer than it already is. Thank God I never joined it!
@Barry Gallagher: why don’t we ban Jewish owned media while we’re at it as they push their own Zionist agenda too? For example – Sky, BBC, Pretty much every single news outlet in the United States I’m not going to list all of them, Facebook, Instagram, ChatGPT, Google, YouTube etc. Should be van all these sites? That’s almost all the internet that people use.
@Barry Gallagher: now where did you hear his plan is world domination? Its almost like its media driven. That’s ironic isn’t it
@Barry Gallagher: agreed. Both platforms are toxic way beyond anything on Tiktok.
@Barry Gallagher: You seem to have an in-depth knowledge of it despite never having joined it. Strange. Almost like you’re talking out of your hole.
@Joe Willis: neither sky nor BBC are “Jewish owned”. And I would never watch American news broadcasters because I am not a child that needs to be told what to think.
@Chop Chop: Alright cowboy! Never read Mein Kamph either! Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a load of Bollix..
@Joe Willis: Sure agree with you to an extent, no media is perfect which is why I would treat a lot of it with a pinch of salt. But I have never heard Sky News or the BBC etc promote wild conspiracy theories such as FEMA and hurricanes, Pizza Gate, stolen elections and California wild fires to mention a few. He sets the algorithm too which favours pro far right. Tens of millions of Maga nuts believe this stuff which you know full well.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: Sky is owned by Comcast. Comcast founder and CEO is a Jew, Brian L. Roberts.
Does Trump think the expendables was a documentary?
@Freda Peeple: Your first three words would have completed your query…
@Freda Peeple: retired and dangerous
@honey badger: Touché mr badger
@Freda Peeple: Miss Badger
@Peter Connaughton: How did you check?
Very wrong and a continuation on the American return to isolation
So much for freedom of speech…
@Gerry Dornan: Wasn’t Musk vilified when he said a couple of weeks ago that he is upset at the child gang rapes in the UK? They said he was ‘interfering’ in another countries affairs. So much for freedom of speech then.
@Joe Willis: he was vilified for posting lies about it.
Now, instead of the CCP all up in their stuff, Americans will now have the NSA all up in their stuff.
@David Guiney: The only reason they want to ban Tic Toc is because NSA does not have backdoor access.
Good news for RedNote, Lemon8 and Clapper though.
So much freedom…lol.
Most controlled society in the western world, but as long as they have enough guns for several mass shootings everyday they’re happy.
Tiktok is a fantastic source of global political soundbites and video. That’s why butcher Biden banned it. The US is becoming the most censored and controlled media in the world.
If the chinese ever spy on my phone, they’ll find that half the time I’m on the phone to a Chinese anyway, ordering me queen chicken with chips and coke
@Conor Mc: I have a Chinese made phone. I make sure no one ever speaks bad about them around me in case they’re listening. Great bunch of lads the Chinese.
Someone’s gonna make a fortune from this eventually, Who tho? they aint publicly traded
US Politics consumes itself with some complete bullshit to be fair. How is TikTok being allowed or not, going to help the average american that both sides kept bleating on about helping on the campaign trail? Every social media site spies on you. Basically just an exercise to have the right people controlling the surveillance.
So the court decided the ban is valid. Time for US teens to wake up and learn that “tik toker” is no job. Wonder what happens to the social media influencer courses offered by some irish universities now. Will those who started it finish or look for something “real” instead
@no no no: The US Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in Ireland. But you’re 100% right they should get real jobs
@no no no: yeah I tend to agree. another job title that grinds me in ‘content creator’. say one person describe themselves as a ‘social media presence consultant’.
@no no no: many tiktokers are making more in a week than we make in a year. It’s time for boomers and my fellow Gen Xers to accept that social media influencer IS a job, whether we like it or not.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: Might be the next big economic bubble…
@Diarmuid Hunt: might be but it’s been going on since the early 00s with YouTube. Plenty of people have made foutunes, there, and on Vine, Instagram and tiktok too. A quarter of a century on there still seems to be an appetite for it.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: It has grown exponentially since then. Many previous bubbles grew too fast, that’s why they burst.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: Not fair on GenX, we’re the original internet age… we were their at the start, we built the chatroom, forum culture. Would agree tho, a real job is one that pays you real money, simple as that.
Great news if this happens. It’d be great if the same happened here.
Should be banned here too
Time is def ticking, tick tock….
Biden had a chance to do one good thing before he left office on January 20th, but he couldn’t even do that. He signed the bill that banned TikTok, why couldn’t he just enforce the ban that he signed now that the Supreme Court has officially signed off and blocks the appeal? It’s a pretty disappointing image of weakness that Trump is projecting by opposing the ban on the app as well, despite the overwhelming evidence that TikTok not only spies on Americans, but deliberately pushes pro-CCP and anti-West propaganda onto users. Hopefully someone talks sense into Trump. Rescinding the invitation to the CEO of TikTok to attend his second inauguration would be a start, but I won’t get my hopes up about such a move happening.
It won’t be banned. Biden has said that he won’t close it on Sunday and will leave it up to the next administration to do it. Trump has invited the CEO of tiktok to his inauguration. Not Trump likes more than compliments, so if he says nice things about Don the Con tiktok will continue as is
Oh what will they do
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