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Towards a Unified Theory of Peloton by Anne Helen Petersen
This is the weekend edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here. If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing. This piece is an experiment. I’ve been wanting to write a long feature on the various components of Peloton for more than a year — and have repeatedly found myself intimidated by the scope. Like a lot of deceptively complicated media texts, it deserves a book. But a book of Peloton analysis is not happening. This newsletter-bound serialized analysis is.
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Coward Trump Didn’t Defend ‘Replacement Theory’?
Now that Tucker Carlson and our other most trusted sources of news and opinion are telling us that “replacement theory” is the real deal—i.e., that rootless, cosmopolitan Democrats are trying to replace light-skinned Americans with dark-skinned immigrants—I’m so disappointed to learn that Donald Trump totally cucked out over the white-nationalist replacement-theory proponents at the Charlottesville […]
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'Critical race theory' roils a Tennessee school district
Robin Steenman, an Air Force veteran and white mother of three, is fed up with the way public schools in her community of Franklin, Tennessee are teaching kids about race.

It seems we have another instance of mistaken critical race theory. I’d propose a slow-down of this 9-month-old campaign so advocates can make sure they’re catching instances of actual critical race theory or even critical race theory adjacent concepts and not, say accounts of historical racism, but in order to do that I’d have to assume that all of this is actually about critical race theory. I do not assume this. incidents like this one, and the Central york PA incident, and the deafening silence on the part of those sounding the critical race theory alarm regarding incidents like this, force the conclusion that all of this is about parents attempting to create themselves a safe space and pundits who are more than willing to profit from same.

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Employers Are Baffled as U.S. Benefits End and Jobs Go Begging
Emergency unemployment benefits in the U.S. expired two weeks ago, but employers who expected an increase in job applications are still largely waiting for them to roll in.

but I keep being repeatedly assured, on a somewhat regular basis by Republicans, that stopping the unemployment benefits is what needs to happen to get people back to work!

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In Central York, kids rose up to save books on MLK, Rosa Parks from their parents by Will Bunch
Parents yelling about masks or demanding book bans over 'critical race theory' isn't really about their kids, who have different ideas.

I’m glad these high school students won. But they should never have had to fight this battle in the first place, especially with the same people who have been who have been preaching against the evils of safe spaces for the past 30 years but who have suddenly decided that well actually they need a safe space of their own within the last 9 months.

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Fresh Disasters (Stone Barrington, #13) by Stuart Woods
With "Dark Harbor," Stuart Woods proved yet again that he is the master of the popular crime novel. Now he outdoes himself with the newest addition to the series. Stone Barrington embarks on his most dangerous adventure yet when he takes on a job as a lawyer for a sleazy and clueless con man-and ends up getting embroiled in the underworld of the New York mafia. It started out as just another late night at Elaine's, where Stone was eating a porterhouse steak and enjoying the company of his friends. But when Herbie Fisher, a notoriously not-so-sharp swindler, walked in, the pleasant atmosphere turned to ice. Herbie convinces Bill Eggers, the managing partner of Woodman & Weld, to sign him on as a client-with the goal of taking down the infamous mafia boss Carmine Datilla. And even though Stone doesn't want to have anything to do with Herbie-or the mafia, for that matter-he is soon coerced into being Herbie's lawyer. With the help of his ex-partner, Dino, Stone investigates "Datilla the Hun," and the rest of the mob family, encountering intrigue and danger at every turn. Will Stone finally take a stand, or will he end up at the bottom of Sheepshead Bay? With the swift action, razor-sharp characters, and crackling dialogue that are Stuart Woods's hallmarks, "Fresh Disasters" is Woods at the very height of his storytelling powers.
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Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington, #12) by Stuart Woods
Stone Barrington and Holly Barker, Woods' busiest heroes, pair up again, this yarn finding Stone traveling to Dark Harbor, Maine, after his cousin, Dick Stone, and his family are found murdered at their house. The local police think it was a murder-suicide, but when Stone learns from his CIA contact, Lance Cabot, that Dick was working covertly for the CIA and had just received a big promotion, Stone decides to look into matters himself. Accompanied by Lance, Holly, and Dino Bacchetti, his trusted former NYPD partner, Stone heads up to Maine.