Hey APW,
Did anyone catch the Daily Show episode this week where Jon Stewart opened with a really long not-at-all-satirical love song to the Daily Show staff after the Colbert Report broke their decade-long Emmy streak with a well-deserved win? That, but without the Emmys. APW has been a tornado of insanity this month as we get ready for the relaunch, and I’m so grateful to the entire team over here. Each one of them is ass-busting, kind, and funny. It’s such a joy and privilege to get to work with them every day.
And with some general cheers-ing, it’s your open thread. Hop on it.
xo,
Meg
Highlights of APW This Week
Elisabeth’s love letter to K made me sob. Sorry if it made you a weepy mess at work when you were pretending to do expense reports.
Emily’s fabulous post on how to get married at San Francisco City Hall makes me want to go get married there. Yes, I know, I’m already married. Details people. Details.
Jackie makes a strong, sweet case for getting married young and figuring it all out as you grow.
We asked you what you’re doing for the holidays, and almost two hundred comments later I have thirty new traditions I’d like to steal from you guys.
Reclaiming partner. Because sometimes the term “wife” comes with too much baggage.
Link Roundup
This letter from Erin to her daughter, Bee, is as important as it is beautiful. Because, as she puts it, “You’ll have your own dreams to chase someday, Bee. And it will be your time to type in a coffee shop or a courthouse or a classroom or a third world country. And I’ll be right there, ready to plant your tree with you, brushing your fine curls behind your ears with the same hands that reenact finger puppets time and time and time again.”
Here’s an article that uncovers a deep, dark hole in the world of parenting books: raising a kid without your family (or Meg translation: support of loved ones) is difficult.
What does manhood mean in 2013? “What’s striking isn’t the lack of consensus on what defines masculinity now, but the utter confusion about how to go about doing so. That’s because America is finally getting around to having the conversation about what it means to be a man that, decades ago, feminism forced us to have about womanhood.”
Related: as a dedicated Esquire subscriber, I particularly enjoyed “The Life of Man” project in their eightieth anniversary issue this month. Eighty men, aged one to eighty, photographed and interviewed.
Louis C.K. tells us why he hates cell phones, and at 1:30 you’ll learn how internet trolls are born. I started laughing to the point of almost crying, because it’s so…exactly right.
Speaking of, Popular Science is shutting down their comments section, because studies show that comments affect the way a reader views a story. I want to tell you that with generally awesome APW commenters I have an uncomplicated relationship with this, but I don’t. Comment moderation is the hardest thing I do.
This bride has gone around the world in her wedding dress, and the pictures are to die for.
After calling off their wedding, this couple decided to donate their reception to feed the hungry—they even brought in a clown for the kids. Talk about turning a negative into one awesome positive.
If you’re like me and enjoyed reading every single ending in a choose your own adventure novel, then You Chose Wrong is your new favorite single-serving Tumblr.
Some of Project Unbreakable’s photos have been lined up with lyrics from Blurred Lines, and the results are unsettling, scary, and enraging, to say the least. Also from Project Unbreakable, twenty-six male survivors of rape quoting those who attacked them.
The newsflash is that atheist churches are a thing now, though atheist shuls are a thing everyday, so nice catching up on that one, Christians.
We’re pretty sure that cooking isn’t going to automatically turn you into a 1950s housewife, but that doesn’t mean I do it (cough). This article coming to terms with said activity is worth a read.
