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My library card has saved me $1,330 — and I want more

In June, I became briefly preoccupied with the question of what kind of reader I intended to be that summer. This happens to me periodically, usually when the weather changes and I begin imagining that a new season might also…

September 6, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Harry Styles is the antidote to MAGA’s counterfeit masculinity

I walked into Manhattan’s Rawhide one night with four blond supermodels on my arm, and we danced until we were soaked. It was a room where desire moved in the open air and nobody apologized for a body, where sex…

September 6, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

MAGA has entered its arcade era

The White House has found a new way to promote President Donald Trump’s agenda: retro video games. There is, unfortunately for the administration, already a boss battle. The White House launched an online arcade this week featuring five games based…

September 5, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Isaac Mizrahi’s “Unzipped” shows why flawed artists matter

On a cold November morning, designer Isaac Mizrahi gets up, leaves his apartment, and trudges to the corner newsstand to pick up a copy of Women’s Wear Daily. It’s the day after Mizrahi’s Spring/Summer 1994 show, and the ink on…

September 5, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

This disarming Agatha Christie show has great chemistry

Formally speaking, the fall TV season hasn’t existed for years. Not that I’m complaining about our year-round release carousel — I mean, look over your shoulder at this summertime’s TV bounty. “Ted Lasso” came back! So did “House of the…

September 4, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Gloria Steinem, equal rights revolutionary, dies at 92

Journalist and feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem, who co-founded Ms. magazine and spent her life working toward a more equitable world for women and girls, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 92. As one of the most consequential figures of…

September 3, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Ripley burns it all down: On “Aliens” and the dangers of dismissing women’s rage

Every time I watch the 1986 action-horror classic “Aliens,” a film I’ve seen so many times I’ve lost count, it takes on new meaning. I’ve long argued its merits as a metaphor for a woman enduring sexism in the workplace,…

September 3, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Women’s rage is in season again

The ancient Greeks had three distinct words for anger. Until “Furious,” I had no idea this was the case – but then, I’m not a “nut about mythology,” as FBI agent Nora Washington (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) describes herself. Nora explains…

September 3, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

“Death of the Pastor’s Wife” casts doubt on true crime

The dead don’t rest anymore, at least not until someone’s turned their stories into content. A bit of a nihilistic viewpoint? Maybe. But my experience with the new Netflix docuseries, “Death of the Pastor’s Wife,” came only a day after…

September 2, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Netflix’s “Bullsh*t: The Game Show” is the trivial pursuit that fits an era dominated by lies

Before dismissing Netflix’s trivia-based “Bullsh*t: The Game Show” as another passing fancy, remember that it is merely carrying on part of a larger quiz show tradition of lying. If shows like “Twenty-One” hadn’t been exposed for deceiving audiences by feeding…

September 2, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0