NWDatum

All Stories

Please don’t send me your robot music

I couldn’t help but notice some people on social media dunking on a post from @nicksaraev, a self-described entrepreneur helper, who boldly proclaimed on X a few days ago: “I am not joking when I say this. Spotify, Apple Music,…

October 4, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

I grew up next door to Ted Kaczynski

Netflix’s film “Unabomber” arrived last Friday, and by the weekend it was the most-watched movie on the platform — despite reviews calling it “dangerously simplistic” (IndieWire) and “another box checked on Netflix’s long, long list of true crime content” (Decider).…

October 4, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Christa Pike’s botched execution was not an isolated incident

Lethal injection has proven to be a difficult execution method to get right. It is more frequently botched than any other method. Sometimes, the results are catastrophic, as they were in Wednesday’s failed execution of Christa Pike.  The 50-year-old, who…

October 3, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

Netflix’s “East of Eden” asks if we’ve misread its monster

Before digesting Zoe Kazan’s seven-part reconsideration of “East of Eden,” I never would have suspected that we, as a society, had been conditioned to misread Cathy Ames, the angel-faced succubus at the broken heart of John Steinbeck’s novel. Cathy has…

October 3, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

We’re over restaurant slop – Salon.com

Recently, between medical appointments, I ended up at a grain-bowl-and-salad place in a suburban strip mall, the kind of sleek fast-casual restaurant that looks a little like an Apple Store decided to start serving brown rice and green goddess dressing.…

October 3, 2026 · by Jamie Cook · 0

“Cassie Workman is Witchy AF” is a comic spell for a mad world

While introducing the inaugural subject of “Cassie Workman is Witchy AF,” the host pertly pulls a bait-and-switch. She opens her monologue by describing a hypothetical figure born to great privilege. A small sketch of Elon Musk lurks in the foreground,…

October 2, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

The Cornell case puts “Promising Young Woman” back in focus

It makes perfect sense that Emerald Fennell’s debut film, “Promising Young Woman,” is divisive. In fact, divisive isn’t quite the right word. Since its 2020 release, “Promising Young Woman” has become a lightning rod for heated conversation — quite a…

October 2, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

“The Swan” tested the waters for Mar-a-Lago face

Along with a few other TV critics, I have the dubious distinction of attending the last party at the late Hollywood producer Robert Evans‘ Woodland estate before its storied pool house burned down in 2003. There, I rubbed elbows with…

October 1, 2026 · by Friedrich Arndt · 0

How store brands stopped feeling like a second-best choice

When I was a kid, I was delighted by the brazenness of generic groceries. There was Dr. Thunder, a soda whose name made its ambitions extremely clear. There were chocolate sandwich cookies called Twist and Shout. Somewhere in the cereal…

October 1, 2026 · by Jamie Cook · 0

Pro-Trump “love me” ads paid for by taxpayers

A new political ad airing this week features clips of President Donald Trump pledging to defeat “communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” and promising “America will never be a communist country.” It cuts to flashing text reading the “largest tax…

October 1, 2026 · by LuLu Porter · 0