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Daniel Johnston: 1961 – 2019

The eternal optimism of a fractured mind


Cult favorite musician and songwriter Daniel Johnston died at 58 Wednesday at his home in Waller, Tex., just outside Houston. Johnston was known throughout the '90s and aughts as a unique, no-frills voice whose earnest lyrics were compared to the style of William Blake.

Review: ‘Cold Warriors’ by Duncan White

Anti-communist writers didn't just describe the Cold War; they were part of it


When he fled Spain in the summer of 1937, one step ahead of the secret police, George Orwell lost his personal copy of a pamphlet by Stalin with the ominous title Defects in Party Work and Measures for Liquidating Trotskyite and Other Double Dealers.

Review: Brittany Runs a Marathon

Running in place

Brittany Runs a Marathon


There's a movie called Brittany Runs a Marathon and never has a title been more accurate. It's a movie about Brittany, and yes, she runs a marathon. When she's not running the marathon, she's training for a marathon.

Slate Calls ‘IT Chapter Two’ Racist Because the Critic Didn’t Notice the Ending

The racist component to the lie Mike Hanlon tells himself is the point of the movie


You may have heard that the second installment of the movie adaptation of Stephen King's IT is subpar. You may have even heard that Pennywise, the evil interdimensional space clown, is, alas, not a gay ally! But did you know the movie is also racist? So sayeth Slate pop critic Jack Hamilton in "It: Chapter Two Adapts a Storyline About Racism Into a Storyline That’s Racist."

The Mystery of the Missing Husbands

New study shows jarring 'mismatch' in American 'marriage market'


A startling number of young women are unable to find a spouse, and new research from a group of economists suggests their would-be partners are just not up to snuff.

Review: It Chapter Two

It’s Not Good


Until I saw It Chapter 2, I would have given the prize for the Worst Scary Movie Ending to Sphere. In Sphere, released in 1998, Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson develop dangerous powers on an underwater spacecraft.

Kansas University Faculty Council Attacks Chick-fil-A in Letter

Calls the restaurant a 'bastion of bigotry'


A Kansas University faculty council blasted the school's administration for moving a Chick-fil-A restaurant into a student union on campus. In a letter addressed to the school's chancellor and its community, the council described the move as "insulting, counterproductive, and unacceptable."

Review: ‘Primal Screams’ by Mary Eberstadt

Youth use identity politics to cope with boomers' mistakes, family breakdowns


In her new book Primal Screams, Mary Eberstadt manages the nearly impossible: finding something new—and worthwhile—to say about identity politics. It'd be fair to wonder whether we really needed one more take on the topic. Plenty already exist, many of them either to virtue signal or take swings at the easy punching bag that millennials are. But for all that's already been said about identity politics, there's one big question nobody's answered: Why do young people find it so appealing?