Chelsea G. Summers

A problematic business model is the New Coke.

Okay, fair, but that David J. Roth piece on Defector is good.

oooof

Excellent question.

Blessssss

Gimme gimme

Pete Hegseth Blew Billions on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab The Defense Department went on a $93 billion spending spree in 2025.

Some of the frivolous September purchases made under Secretary Pete Hegseth’s stewardship include a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of …

newrepublic.com/post/207555/...

Yeah, this was in the 1980s when I was in my 20s and, no thank you, never again.

Hard agree, and as a person who has done in-home stripping, fuck Emerald Fennell because that shit can get very scary and very real very fast.

I thought the premise, pacing, and visuals of Promising Young Woman were fantastic. However, the candy-coating ending was dumb as hell. Saltburn felt like an extended wank, and by the final salvo I was numb and calloused.

I can see how people can be tricked into believing that Fennell's films are good because she has a killer eye for visuals. Unfortunately, she also appears to have no...what's that word...soul?

the worst feeling. I'm so sorry.

poetic and accurate

I was born nearby and lived in Chicagoland until I was 6. I've returned as an adult, and the city is a real one.

RIGHT?!

Art Institute, baby. Chicago is a helluva town, and you do not want to skip the architectural boat tour.

It's also large, quite long and disconcertingly skinny. Like it's wasting away in the most stolid fashion.

I swear to gods, the next time I am forced to pick a book-to-film agent, I'm going invoke the SALTBURN test. If the agent in question likes it, the meeting is over.

I fiercely love Ivan Albright.

It's an amazing painting.

Quote from ACH: The Art Institute of Chicago is home to a lurid painting of a door. Ominously black yet kissed with a candy-pink-flowered wreath, this door looms almost life-sized, eldritch as Victorian hair jewelry, ornate and vaguely threatening, somehow dripping in blood, though none is visible. From its jamb, a hand reaches out; you wouldn’t accept it. The work of Ivan Albright, this painting’s real name is That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do. Choices are, after all, the things that haunt us. The moments when we could’ve turned left but turned right. The times when we could’ve gone back but forged ahead. The instants when we made decisions that we would live to regret. I don’t regret killing Marco. It was, after all, almost his decision.

It's not a stretch to say I wrote the book so I had a home for this mental image:

That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door) | The Art Institute of Chicago Ivan Albright, 1931–41

No fooling, my memory of this Ivan Albright painting in the Art Institute fueled my writing of ACH.

I misread "automatic reply" as "aromatic reply" and, dear gods, I wish.

I found a first edition for a dollar in a church sale, don't hate me.

WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE (checks notes) WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS?

AHHHHH, I am so sorry, Cari. All the love and healing energy from me and Norman Meowler.

Every day gives me another reason to be delighted by my Defector subscription.

Daryl has had to deal with a lot.

Exactly. And at you, Harvey Weinstein

I ordered an important waxed parka a while ago, and it has yet to materialize, which makes me sad and angry in alternating currents.