Three Fun Things for April 14, 2024
1. “You’re Wrong About” on the OJ Simpson trial.
I was 16 when OJ Simpson went on trial for killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, and like a lot of people tuning in, I internalized the media narratives about what the murders meant, the prosecutorial blunders that preceded OJ’s acquittal, and the standard line on many of the characters involved—prosecutor Marcia Clark (cold and incompetent), Judge Ito (hapless and incapable of keeping his court in order), Kato Kaelin (a clueless himbo), Johnnie Cochran (a meme in human form).
The story of the trial got periodic cultural reassessments (including in 2007, when his arrest for robbery led to a 17-year sentence generally viewed as belated punishment for the murders), and two movies I liked quite a bit, but my favorite by far is this 16-part series, unfortunately never finished.
The series takes an empathetic, human-scale approach to the tragedy, telling the stories of Nicole Brown Simpson, Paula Barbieri, Marcia Clark, Kato Kaelin, and Ron Goldman—among many others—in greater detail than you’ve probably ever heard them told. (It’s also, at many times, hysterically funny.) The series ended after Michael Hobbes left the show, which co-host Sarah Marshall has since retooled with a rotating cast of very funny guests, but I learned so much in “just” 16 hours—for example, did you know that Paula Barbieri’s life, prior to and including when she met OJ Simpson, was basically a Greek tragedy? You will, and much more, when you listen to this riveting series.
2. If doing the New York Times crossword is your equivalent of a hate-read—how the FUCK is “padiddle” even a word, much less the answer “game played on road trips”?—or even if you solve it daily without complaint, Rex Parker’s daily NYT crossword blog will make you feel seen. Okay, his “easy” and “hard” solves are sometimes the exact opposite of mine—I banged my head on “Cinderella’s calling card,” which he called “common terminology,” for a good hour before hitting “reveal”*—but the experiences of figuring out a tricky rebus or being frustrated by five golf clues in a row are universal to solvers of the nation’s most self-consciously clever crossword. This blog will make you a better crossword solver, and it may even make your smarter.
*The answer: “BIG UPSET,” because “Cinderella” is a team that comes from behind and a "big upset” is, I guess, their calling card? Get some female writers, NYT Crosswords, I am begging you.
3. Hannah Pilkes
This LA-based comedian was the surprise hit at a recent Paul F. Tompkins-hosted variety show at the Neptune; her Cole Escola-adjacent characters included a bridezilla with literally fantastical demands and a twerking, flammably wigged contestant on British Love Island who aggressively harassed every man in the first few rows. Her energy is somewhere between “frighteningly manic” and “do I need to call 911 for this woman immediately,” and while the ping-pong physicality of her performance is something you really have to see in person, her Instagram videos will give you a flavor; start with this one, about strategies for cleaning the house with ADHD.
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