salon vs. slate vs. atlantic

yeah, Stephen Metcalf is such an artisansal pie-finding douche on that podcast. But they did have my friend on a weeks ago to talk about Superman

Metcalf used the phrase "well-oaked California wine" and I thought he was just leaning into the perception of him

i guess this is supposed to be kind of funny and i sympathize with the basic problem expressed but my gut reaction to reading this was 'ugh, fuck you.'

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2013/07/kids_and_dogs_if_you_re_having_a_baby_do_not_get_a_puppy.html

I would say it's pretty good advice to not get a dog before your first child, because on one hand a child is a LOT more demanding than a dog, and on the other hand the child after a few years starts to become less demanding, whereas the dog will kind of peak early and stay there.

Anyway that's my plan, get a dog around when the kids are finally in school.

I mean maybe there are other people who are more efficient than I am, actually I know they are, but when you're home with a baby in the first year you feel like there is something you feel like there are demands on you pretty much all the time. So I can relate to how hard it would be to also deal with a dog under those circumstances. And the fact is, time IS a zero-sum game, and most people are going to put baby before dog.

Any time there's a decision to be made and one of the choices is "don't have kids," that's the option you take.

um, nope

Dog > baby x1000

do u have a baby

No. I have been in the presence of babies, and that was plenty.

puppies vs. babies-- everyone's taking sides

no it's probably good advice, the tone of the article is just insufferable and whiny

my gut reaction to complaints that revolve around multiple children close in age is "gee, maybe you should have stuck to one, huh?"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1GRwGjHv-L._SL1500_.jpg

xp while i kind of agree with that in theory, i must admit that it also causes a gut reaction that you are a prick

'oh these crazy people with their babies, what will they burden my life with complaints about next'

It's equally prickish for a well-educated person or couple to complain about how their life/ves revolve around the kids. That's what you signed on for when you made three babies in four years. I've got a lot more sympathy for first-time parents or, god help them, people with twins.

it's also prickish to think that no one has the right to complain at all about anything they "sign on for."

Who said that?

lol carry on then

so many of the Slate writers/editors have between 3-5 kids. It's like they're breeding the next generation of link-bait generators.

I guess this a continuation of Slate's war on dogs:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/a_fine_whine/2013/05/i_hate_dogs_they_re_lounging_in_our_offices_and_licking_us_at_our_cafes.html

manjoo is a sociopath for real

My first thought upon on reading that article was definitely not "this woman is right about dogs" and more "hahaha she has three kids, whatta dumbass, poor dog having to deal with this narcissistic asshole."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/08/15/canned_beer_is_better_than_bottled_beer.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drink/2012/03/don_t_believe_coors_and_budweiser_colder_isn_t_better_.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/drink/2013/05/hoppy_beer_is_awful_or_at_least_its_bitterness_is_ruining_craft_beer_s_reputation.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/scocca/2010/08/02/mosquitoes_prefer_people_with_beer_in_them.html

this is some jilted lover shit

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/27/new_york_times_noise_essay_man_needs_quiet_in_order_to_think_great_thoughts.html

in which slate presumably accidentally publishes onion parody of slate

That one almost had me applauding. There had to be a bet involved, like lunch for whoever could turn the most innocuous article into a think piece on male privilege and female oppression. Katy Waldman is a very versatile writer and she ate free that day.

this is a reprint from business insider but slate's editors obv realized its rightful place was with them:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/08/31/new_york_city_s_next_mayor_shouldn_t_be_afraid_to_say_no.html

slate's headlines have gotten SEO'd to death in the last year. e.g.

The Only Air Travel Tip That Matters
The Clearest Graphs You Will Ever See Refuting the Idea That Women Are Bad at Math
I’ve Read 500 Cover Letters for Entry-Level Media Jobs: Here are 12 tips your career counselor hasn’t told you.

If you've written 500 cover letters seeking entry-level media jobs, would that not mean you've read the same number? By the logic of that headline, wouldn't this experience then qualify one to give advice?

Oy, that cover letter article, totally screams "dysfunctional office DO NOT APPLY HERE"

i dunno that i'd call that SEO'd per se, seems more huffpostified with the ~information gap~ thing happening

its not SEO'd at all its social'd

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/09/03/the_onion_not_funny_a_slatepitches_special_report.html

The Onion is no longer funny because not as afraid as Slate of charges of liberal bias says local Dave Weigel

i love that it ends with a "c'mon guys" about the SEO op-ed

"your coverage of syria is fucked up, oh and what was the joke in your description of our economic model"

tbf the onion on Syria has been p fucking dark

hes not wrong exactly, feels like theres been a preponderance of wish-fulfillment borowitz-style "Like If Your Liberal!" stuff. (all much higher quality than borowitz or the currant it goes w/o saying). my sense tho is that theyre as good and diverse as ever and i (& maybe wiegel) just *see* more of it b/c thats the stuff that blows up facebook/twitter

imagine how much of a jerk u had to be to arrange pro-war demonstrations in college in 2003

Last week, a group of students at Northwestern University in Illinois showed up at an anti-war protest to make a point that there is more than one viewpoint on this issue and that the media hasn't covered both sides.

Northwestern University junior David Weigel — also editor-in-chief of the campus' weekly Northwestern Chronicle — organized a group of about 25 people over e-mail to counter an anti-war protest on campus last week.

Weigel said students who want to oppose the anti-war — what he calls an "anti-American" movement — should invite speakers to campus and should take part in rallies to get the message out to the media that there is another corner of the debate.

"Being there at an anti-war protest, it may seem silly," he said, "but that has the effect of not letting the media treat it like a burgeoning anti-war movement …if there is no pro-America presence whatsoever, it's very easy for American reporters to just toe the anti-American line."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,79954,00.html

related: thread needs maureen tkacik's classic http://thebaffler.com/past/omniscient_gentlemen_of_the_atlantic

this slate redesign is terrible

Ha, I came here to post those words verbatim.

cover story in two days: "everyone hates the new slate redesign. here's why they're all wrong."

haha assumed the hate above was just standard complaints anything gets after a redesign but wow this really is a mess

Slate's mechanic "you're wrong/you're doing it wrong" contrarian tic of a stance as of late is so clearly a dictum from up high it's embarrassing.

The homepage is fucked, but it's always been bad. The one article page I read (on an iPad) seemed fine though.

I'm not sure why people keep wanting responsive design to happen! Don't think I've seen it done well for a magazine site yet.

it looks better on ipad than a computer screen

well i guess i can stop visiting slate. they've been pretty bad for a few years now, and this pretty much cements their worthlessness.

Has the writing for Salon.com always been this bad? Never been a heavy reader but I recall being impressed and feeling smart for reading their stuff 10-12 years ago and now I find most of it awful. Has it degraded or have I gained/lost taste?

balls otm. Buzzfeed meets tetris.