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How to celebrate Dolly Parton Day with a Southern feast
Over the years, there have been several attempts to give legendary country singer, philanthropist and all-around icon Dolly Parton a commemorative day of her own. In 2019, then-Nashville Mayor David Briley named August 5 Dolly Parton Day in recognition of…
The private equity backlash could start at the drive-thru
Elizabeth Warren’s job doesn’t need to be this hard. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts is leading a cadre of largely left-of-center lawmakers in reviving the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, legislation that would curtail the worst tendencies of private equity…
How the Smithsonian became the latest front in Trump’s culture war
In November 2021, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened an exhibit called “The Electric Dr. Franklin,” describing “Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering contributions to electrical science.” The exhibit explained that, prior to becoming an abolitionist, he had enslaved people in…
You can buy Julia Child’s house — but not her kitchen
For $6.475 million, you can live in Julia Child’s longtime Cambridge home. You just can’t cook in Julia Child’s kitchen. Child lived in the house for roughly four decades and filmed several of her later television shows there, including “In…
How Bill Cosby, America’s dad, used TV to betray us
Through the medium of television Bill Cosby has been intimately influencing American perspectives on race, class, how we think about ourselves and, most crucially, how we feel about him, for more than five decades. Give that information a moment to…
“Dear White People” visits the “Big Brother” Cookout via a pointed parody of reality show racism
“Dear White People” could not have asked for a better concluding coincidence than the parallel between this season’s show-within-a-show “Big House” and the current cycle of “Big Brother,” the CBS reality show it parodies. The 23rd round of “Big Brother”…
Wanting the best school for your kid doesn’t make you a hypocrite
Digital journalism is as subject to fads as any other medium. Snarky fisking — responding to an article line-by-line — gave way to the quiz boom, which was consumed by the personal essay before the long decade of short-form video. But…
A homecoming for “A Different World”
Five episodes into Netflix’s “A Different World” sequel, Hillman gets a bomb threat. This is a very real part of life for students at historically black colleges and universities, but that doesn’t make it any less frightening. Everyone gathers at…
Paramount takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery fueled by foreign cash: report
One of the largest media mergers in history has been given the green light after California and 11 other states settled lawsuits Monday. For most of the year, Paramount Skydance has tried to purchase Warner Bros Discovery for a reported…
We got the original “Resident Evil” films all wrong
In the sixth and final installment of Paul W.S. Anderson’s original “Resident Evil” film franchise, the writer-director — known for his abrasive, nu-metal vulgar auteurism — raises a middle finger of sorts to his detractors. Over 17 years and thousands…