Because of accessibility and user-friendliness via cell phone, Twitter has become the social media platform of choice among young people, and those who would otherwise have difficulty accessing the Internet. That brings us to the lazy (and complicated) shorthand “Black Twitter,” a term used to describe a segment of Twitter users who are black and participate in black culture online—though it should be said (and it should be obvious) that not all black people use Twitter in the same way.
Prom season is upon us. A whiff of cologne carries on the warm spring breeze, and before you know it, photos of friends’ kids and younger siblings, draped in formalwear, are popping up on your newsfeed.
Prom is a generally nostalgic tradition, but like everything else in the lives of teenagers in 2013, it's now a more complicated affair than it was during the Sixteen Candles era.
Did H&M Hide Plus-Size Swimsuit Model Jennie?
The mystery behind the Swedish clothing company’s latest marketing.
H&M is a retail giant. No, more like retail Goliath. A Swedish company, it operates more than 2,600 stores in 43 countries, employs more than 94,000 people and is the second-largest global retailer. That's one giant corporation. So, you’d think they’d have a pretty sophisticated corporate structure, right? In researching a recent ad campaign, I wanted to get a few facts straightened out so I called H&M's U.S. headquarters in New York. H&M New York oversees 200 stores in the States. Finding a number for them, however, was no easy task. There is none listed on their corporate website so I started with customer service until I got someone to cough up a number. When I called, it rang for a while and then went to this message:
“The mailbox you are trying to reach is full. Call again later. I’ll transfer you.”
The Magic of the Doritos Locos Taco
5 best quotes from Fast Company’s extraordinary history of Taco Bell’s hit product.
If you want to understand nearly everything that’s both great and awful about modern American capitalism, take a close look at Austin Carr’s story about the creation of Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco—yes, that—in the May 1 edition of Fast Company.
Love-Hating and Hate-Loving Gwyneth Paltrow
On one hand, there’s Iron Man. But on the other, there’s GOOP.
When we think of steakhouses, we imagine expensive food, lush booths and men in business suits. But it turns out these restaurants are not just for customers who want fine dining but are a favorite place to take your mistress.
Arianna Huffington Wants You to Unplug
The HuffPo editor also invited 800-plus guests at last night’s Drexel talk to blog for her empire.
A popular feature on the iPhone 5 (also available as an app on older models) is "Do Not Disturb," a program that blocks texts, emails and phone calls. Yes. An app that does the same thing that, well, the user can. My friend Janel said they should have called it "Will Power."
Babysitting College Kids Just Got Easier
New technology lets professors know when students have been bad.
Ask any Penn student holed away in the bowels of the library this week for finals: There’s nothing quite as anxiety-inducing, in student life, as the fear of being unprepared. I still remember it. Listening to neighboring pencils scratch through pop quizzes while I sat there, shaking my knee and gnawing at my fingers like the answer to number four was surely written somewhere under this cuticle.
What It Means When Catherine Zeta-Jones Says She’s Getting “Bipolar Maintenance”
The actress has checked herself into a hospital for treatment.
Catherine Zeta-Jones, who has bipolar disorder, has checked herself into the hospital for treatment. Her publicist has explained this a proactive visit, and a source told TMZ the hospital stay is "maintenance." As a result, the National Alliance on Mental Illness' medical director has commended Zeta-Jones: "It's great that she is getting help for herself and serving as a role model."
What Chris Christie Gets Right About Video Games
And what he gets completely wrong.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is pushing for legislation to ban retailers from selling violent video games to minors without their parents' permission—a plan that flies in the face of a 2011 Supreme Court decision that shot down a California law of similar context.
The Following Finale: Who Lives, Who Dies (or Could it All Be a Dream?)
Plus: A look ahead at season two of Kevin Bacon’s hit series.
For those of us trying to guess how The Following would wrap up its first season, creator Kevin Williamson shared a clue with Entertainment Weekly. “People live, people die,” he told the mag, coyly. But the real hint was in his explanation of what makes for a good TV ending. “I loved finales as a kid. Knots Landing had the best finales.” And so it should be no surprise that, in the tradition of those campy 80s soaps like Knots and Dallas, we’ve been left with a whopper of a cliffhanger. Williamson had suggested that the Joe Carroll story would draw to a close, and it did. Or did it? The only thing I’m sure of is that the season is over, Kevin Bacon will be back, and my eye is still twitching from that interrogation scene.
Wall Street Journal: Male Golfers Want Clothes That Won’t Embarrass Them
Then why are they playing golf?
Thank God for weekends. If there weren’t weekends, my house would never get clean. I’d never get to the post office. And I’d never get to catch up with the Wall Street Journal, a.k.a. the paper of record for White People’s Problems. Friday's Journal brought a shining example in the form of a long story, in the Fashion section, called “Is It Tee Time, or Martini Time?” Because, uh, for the Wall Street Journal, those are the only two choices, I guess?
The first time I saw the ad I thought it was joke. Surely it was merely a composite photo — put together for some failed movie pitch — that accidentally got released somehow, right? After all, how could the insipidly titled The Big Wedding ever attract Oscar-winners Robert De Niro or Susan Sarandon? Sure, Katherine Heigl is believable (she of the 27 Dresses debacle), but Diane Keaton? And Robin Williams playing a priest in a wedding movie, again? Come on! The poster's designers must have simply cut him out of a production photo for the 2007 travesty License to Wed and plopped him in this one. Right?
Mayor Nutter’s initiative to get 10,000 Philadelphia teenagers hired for summer jobs—beating last summer’s number of 6,000 working teens—is admirable and ambitious. Teen employment means much more than pocket money; summer work has a direct correlation to future employment. Not only do learned skill sets transfer to future jobs, more nebulous traits like work ethic are developed.
12 Great Moments at the Penn Relays
Philly’s annual track and field event has it all—from star athletes and fallen heroes to world records and lots of mud.
Leave Gwyneth Paltrow and Her Bikinis Alone
Why we shouldn’t make little girls think there’s something dirty about two-piece bathing suits.
I was at a bat mitzvah a few years ago, and when the music started, the eighth-grade boys awkwardly grabbed the girls from behind and started grinding, and the girls were pushing right back as though they expected to feel something (later, girls, later). It seemed very music video-inspired and enormously embarrassing for them—as they'd learn 10 years later when they'd unearth the DVD. Some adults were disturbed by the pretend-adult sexuality in the dancing, but it just made me laugh.
