Due to the World Cup I've been obsessed lately with a quiz on the nations of the world. Of 196 countries identified in this game, initially I was only able to name a little more than half in the time allotted, in random, scattershot fashion. In Africa, especially, I was dumb as hell. I've played it so relentlessly…

#ButtCut4Lyfe

I grew up in one of the aforementioned states and attended a rural public high school after years in more suburban settings. My tenth grade biology teacher covered evolution as required, but prefaced the unit by telling us "I have to teach this, but I didn't come from no monkey."

"My understanding is that studies have shown males are strongly biased in the opposite direction."

Where does Abby pining for her neighbor on Broad City fall on this rubric?

Yes. Guys don't want to behave/be perceived as creeps but can be oblivious to it when we are. I've called girls a time or two too many, gotten the (indirect) brush-off, and only in retrospect thought "Maybe I should have seen that coming and backed off sooner."

Add Annett Mahendru. Watching her in The Americans feels less like the usual pining over a stunning babe than admiring a great work of art.

Baths are better for your junk, in my experience.

I was in a bar with a functioning, old-school cigarette machine today. Shit was crazy.

I saw them live circa 2009, to my surprise they were very normal and cool and rocked pretty hard despite a weak early crowd. (They were opening for The Walkmen and some other, apparently more popular band at the time.) I also recall reading that, when not on tour, Jenn Wasner kept her job waiting tables in Baltimore…

I'll be there on Friday, anyone else? Bob Mould also scheduled for daily recommended allowance of guitar.

Plus they taste pretty fucking good. These days I prefer raw almonds, but if not for the fat content I could subsist exclusively on peanut butter.

While the original '300' is the worst movie I've ever seen, bar none, I view it and 'Sin City' very much of a piece in the category of ludicrously stylized, indifferent brutality.

Who are you talking to bro?

I like The National and beer so they pretty much nailed it.

I had never heard of Emily Gould prior to reading the essay she wrote for this book, but while she is clearly a spoiled brat she is also clearly a talented writer. (This is a well-established category.) A big part of her essay's success* is its acknowledgement of her unrealistic sense of entitlement, although there is…

'Ghost World' is responsible for an especially ghastly submission in my sophomore creative writing class. I mean, technically I'm responsible, but I was entirely under Dan Clowes' influence.

Of course I love The Wire deeply but I was really hoping to read a substantive critique. After a solid decade of critical/cultural acclaim it deserves at least one good counterpunch – a better one, at least, than "bad writing."

I can't endorse Tramps, in general, but Serpents is solid and Magic Chords especially is a real standout.

One day this headline and lede will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame of Snark. First ballot.