T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

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Kittens, a small sampling of the articles and essays that caught our eyes or tickled our fancies this week. Why? Because we love you and we hate the idea of leaving you for the weekend without bestowing the results of our astonishingly good taste on you. Enjoy!

The color and flair of traditional ceremonies give brides and grooms a way to express a vibrant cultural heritage.

The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings by Adenike Olanrewaju at The New York Times

“You’re going to die, I’m telling you,” Michelle says of the long-awaited series. “Just know we are celebrating all things British. I’m obsessed with your country so I was in my element.”

Michelle Visage spills the T on Drag Race UK in her first exclusive interview for the series by Sam Damshenas at Gay Times

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“When I receive a box, it feels like my birthday.”

Stitch Fix Gave Me the Confidence to Shop as a Wheelchair User by Esme Mazzeo at Marie Claire

Why do the over-priced, weirdly-posed portraits of our youth hold such sway over us now?

The money and stress and failed hairdos of school picture day/a> by Kaitlyn Tiffany at Vox

The Amazon rainforest is on fire. This year, between January and August, almost 73,000 fires have been recorded, which is nearly double 2018’s total of nearly 40,000 fires. It’s a record high. Since Thursday, almost 10,000 new fires have started.

Here’s what you can do to help the burning, ravaged Amazon rainforest by James Pasley at Business Insider

Like Popeyes fried chicken, the chicken sandwich comes in two versions, classic and spicy, both of which are beautifully simple. They both arrive in a foil-lined bag (the better to keep the sandwich piping hot, its optimal eating temperature). They both have the same bun—as Smith promised, it’s buttery and sweet and light. They have the same pickles, sizable rounds of cucumber crisp with vinegar. They have the same exquisite slab of chicken breast, hefty and juicy and snow-white, in its crenellated armor of that uncommonly crisp fried batter.

The Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich is Here to Save America by Helen Rosner at The New Yorker

In the absence of such entertainment, I’ve found myself gravitating more and more to baking shows, where I’ve unexpectedly discovered a genre that shines a light on those very writerly frustrations I longed to see dissected on screen. Watching things like Nailed It! and The Great British Bake-Off—not to mention the likes of Martha Bakes, Milk Street and America’s Test Kitchen—has become a comforting distraction; one that’s as much about improving my own baking skills as it is embracing the messiness that come from wanting (and oftentimes failing) to make something perfect. Currently, no show does that better than Bon Appétit’s Gourmet Makes.

Baking Shows Are Secretly Reality TV for Frustrated Writers by Manuel Betancourt at Electric Literature

The “Lover” music video dropped yesterday and included a bunch of its own Easter eggs: the “Cruel Summer” lyric “Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” is written on a board-game box. Lover song title “Afterglow” is spelled out in Scrabble letters. “King of Hearts” is written on the Scrabble board, which likely references the actor in the “Lover” music video, Christian Owens, who is the dancer Swift danced with while performing “King of My Heart” on her Reputation Tour. Then there are the numbers on the dice on the game box that add up to 19, but the album only has 18 songs. So, maybe there’s a bonus track, and maybe it’s called “Breakable Heaven,” which is written on another game box, but is nowhere to be found thus far on Lover.

What Is Every Song on Taylor Swift’s Lover Actually About? by Jill Gutowitz at Vulture

It seems likely that a similar conversation played out earlier this year in the Back Bay offices of Great Hill Partners, the private-equity firm that now owns the company where I am on the payroll until the end of today. The managing partners—all of them men, white, and members of the one percent—agreed to buy this company at a steep discount, and to bring in another white male one percenter as co-owner and CEO. This company had a good platform and strong brands; all they needed to do was hire a few people who could make it profitable. All they needed was adults in the room.

The Adults in the Room by Megan Greenwell at Deadspin

[Photo Credit: The New York Times]

• T Lo’s Weekend Homework