John Cox

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Mental Floss

8 Expressions Our Grandparents Used That Are Disappearing

A tour of eight idioms common to our grandparents' generation that are fading from use, including "the bee's knees," "cooking with gas," "mind your P's and Q's," and "you make a better door than a window." Each gets a short origin story: 1920s animal slang, a 1930s gas-stove ad slogan, a Frank Robinson baseball quip, and a Jerry Lee Lewis song. The piece also argues that "peanut gallery" is better left behind, since it comes from the cheap vaudeville seats where Black Americans and other minorities were typically seated.

Permalink culturehistory

The Independent

Carrie fever is gripping teenage girls – and exposing an uncomfortable truth about their lives | The Independent

Amazon's 2026 Carrie remake has become a hit with teenage girls, and this opinion piece reads that success as a response to current anxieties about female friendship, bullying, social media and powerlessness amid threats to women's rights. Drawing on a media lecturer who prefers the 1976 film (where the power belongs to Carrie, not to social media as villain), an author on teenage friendship, and quotes from 15-year-olds, the writer argues that girl-on-girl cruelty squanders power that would be better spent on alliances. She cites research linking close female bonds to better mental and physical health, and reads Carrie as showing that girls' power can be either destructive or positive depending on how they treat one another. The author runs The Respect Project, which works with adolescent relationships, and her piece ends as a plea for kindness over cruelty.

Permalink culturetelevisionhorrorentertainment

The Art of Manliness

50+ Old Fashioned Insults We Should Bring Back

This piece catalogs 50 colorful 19th-century insults drawn from historical dictionaries, arguing that modern English has lost vivid, inventive put-downs in favor of tired expletives and generic slurs. The insults range from creative descriptors of character flaws (like "afternoon farmer" for someone who misses opportunities) to observations of physical awkwardness ("duke of limbs"), with bonus examples of Theodore Roosevelt's particularly colorful invective. The author suggests these bygone terms deserve revival for their cleverness and specificity compared to contemporary name-calling.

Permalink culturehistoryvintagehumor

Fast Company

Companies fire employees for these personality traits, but maybe they should be getting bonuses

Rather than treating nonconformity as a liability, companies desperate to innovate should actively recruit and strategically integrate "Rare Breeds"—rebellious, obsessed, audacious individuals whose refusal to accept conventional wisdom drives breakthrough thinking. These misfits, whose traits parents and bosses once derided as character flaws, need careful organizational management to channel their disruptive energy without destabilizing the broader team, but their presence fundamentally shifts how an organization thinks about problems and risk. The article argues that innovation isn't a mystery but rather the direct result of prioritizing unconventional talent over cultural fit.

Permalink cultureleadershipcreativitybusiness

Alex Murrell

The age of average

# Summary The article argues that across virtually every creative field—from architecture and interior design to fashion, film, branding, and personal appearance—a homogenizing aesthetic has taken over, with everything converging toward safe, indistinguishable mediocrity. Drawing examples from the "AirSpace" style dominating coffee shops worldwide to the rise of "Instagram Face" among influencers, from five-over-one apartment blocks to flattened corporate logos, the author demonstrates how optimization, globalized inspiration sources, testing-driven decision-making, and consolidation in creative industries have eliminated distinctiveness. The piece concludes that this "age of average" paradoxically presents an opportunity for bold companies to stand out through originality, since breaking from convention now offers genuine competitive advantage.

Permalink designminimalismculturecreativity

www.vox.com

How to look at art — and really see it

Most people feel disconnected from art because they approach it passively, spending mere seconds with each piece and treating it as something to decipher rather than experience. The piece argues that "getting" art requires building a regular habit of museum visits and engaging actively with works by connecting them to your own memories and experiences—recognizing that meaning emerges from the triangle of the artwork itself, the artist's intent, and the viewer's response. Rather than seeking one correct interpretation, viewers should embrace discomfort, sit with unfamiliar emotions, and look for personal reflections in art, understanding it as an interactive process of imagination that transforms how we see our everyday lives.

Permalink artculturecreativitymuseums

CNN

A looming ‘tsunami’ of church closings is poised to remake America | CNN

A PBS documentary series examines the crisis facing American churches, with experts projecting that roughly 100,000 will close or be repurposed over the next decade due to declining membership and attendance. The film follows struggling congregations like one in Michigan forced to shut its doors, while also profiling churches that have adapted successfully through technology, welcoming community service roles, and making worship engaging for younger generations. Though Christianity remains dominant in America, churches face a fundamental tension between preserving the familiar rituals that comfort longtime members and making the changes necessary to attract new worshippers and survive.

Permalink cultureunited statescommunitynews

WIRED

Justice for CSS | WIRED

CSS has evolved from a simple styling tool into a genuinely powerful programming language capable of building 3D engines and query databases, yet it remains culturally undervalued and dismissed—a dismissal rooted partly in it being coded as "feminine" frontend work and associated with beauty rather than serious computation. The language's accessibility to beginners and its traditional association with decorative styling have contributed to lower salaries, less rigorous job interview scrutiny, and worse diversity metrics compared to backend languages, while also resulting in a homogenized internet where frameworks like Bootstrap and Tailwind create visual sameness rather than distinctive design. Modern CSS, with features like container queries, custom properties, and upcoming conditionals, has become sophisticated enough that the philosophical arguments against calling it a "real" programming language no longer hold much water.

Permalink designcultureprogrammingcss3

apple.news

apple.news

Volunteering To Build Global Community

Global Learners | Discovery Education

Building a more peaceful, healthy, and mutually respectful world begins at the level of personal interactions. Peace Corps Volunteers not only work alongside communities as partners and learners, but act as emissaries for their own communities here in the United States in each one-on-one interaction in their host country.

Permalink culturecommunityeducation

Moss and Fog

Six Places Where Autumn Is Still (Somewhat) a Secret | Moss and Fog

Rather than visiting overcrowded autumn hotspots like Kyoto or Vermont, this guide traces the season's ten-week migration across the Northern Hemisphere, starting in September at a volcanic plateau in Hokkaido and ending in a Hungarian wetland in November. It highlights six spectacular but relatively uncrowded destinations—including a walnut forest in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia's wine harvest region, Michigan's Lake Superior shoreline, and a desert poplar forest in Inner Mongolia—each at the precise moment when autumn peaks there. The article emphasizes traveling slightly off the beaten path to experience the season's full drama without the crowds.

Permalink culturetravelnature

apple.news

Bari Weiss Blew Up 60 Minutes. Now She Has to Fix it. — New York Magazine

Bari Weiss, hired as CBS News editor-in-chief in 2025 to modernize 60 Minutes, clashed with the show's insular, hierarchical culture and ultimately engineered a purge of its long-standing leadership—firing executive producer Tanya Simon, several producers, and correspondents including Scott Pelley in what staff called "Black Thursday." Weiss and her replacement for Simon, tech journalist Nick Bilton, are rebuilding the show with new hires like conservative columnist Ross Douthat and are pursuing innovations in digital strategy and story formats, while critics argue she was either exercising political interference on behalf of the Trump administration or simply mismanaging a complex institution she didn't understand. The piece suggests that whether this overhaul vindicated Weiss's vision or exposed a show worth dismantling will only become clear as the reshuffled 60 Minutes moves forward.

Permalink culturetelevisionnews

www.cntraveler.com

The 9 Best Cities in Mexico: CDMX, Guadalajara, and Beyond

# Mexico's Best Cities Beyond the Capital Mexico City remains the cultural epicenter with over 150 museums and a packed annual calendar highlighted by Art Week in February, jacaranda season in March, and Day of the Dead festivities in October, but the country offers numerous other destinations equally worthy of exploration. Guadalajara has emerged as a rising creative hub hosting major art galleries and the influential International Book Fair, while also serving as the gateway to tequila distilleries and hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside Mexico City and Monterrey. Oaxaca, Mérida, La Paz, San Miguel de Allende, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Campeche, and Taxco each offer distinct experiences—from Oaxaca's exceptional culinary scene and pre-Hispanic archaeology to Mérida's slower pace and cenotes, Baja California's celebrated gastronomic offerings, colonial charm in San Miguel de Allende, Mayan heritage in San Cristóbal, coastal tranquility in Campeche, and silver craftsmanship in Taxco.

Permalink foodculturetravelmexico

www.npr.org

'Raising questions' isn't enough. The best films of the year took a stance

This essay surveys 2025 films that tried to grapple with the current political climate, arguing that success depends on commitment rather than neutrality, nostalgia, or deliberate ambiguity. It sorts its examples into those that failed through vagueness or smug defeatism (Ella McCay, Eddington, Bugonia, Good Fortune) and those that succeeded through clear stances and emotional honesty (Sinners, The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident). Its closing claim is that art now need not change the world but must help audiences make sense of it.

Permalink culturefilmpoliticsreviews

www.travelawaits.com

10 Things Solo Travelers Should Know Before Going To South America

A first-time solo traveler recounts her 2019 journey across seven South American countries, challenging her preconceived fears about the region with practical advice for future visitors. She covers essential logistics like bus travel safety, altitude sickness management, and language preparation, while also addressing cultural expectations around social interactions and local customs that differ from North American norms. The piece emphasizes that despite South America's negative reputation in Western media, the continent offers welcoming communities and unforgettable experiences for those who approach it with respect and an open mind.

Permalink safetyculturetraveladvice