Is It Time to Quit Coffee for Good? |
There is perhaps no mind-altering substance as tightly woven into the fabric of daily life than caffeine. Nearly 80 percent of adults in the U.S. consume caffeine, in some form, every day. Coffee is the primary caffeine-delivery mechanism for many people—two thirds of American adults drink it every day—and many consider it an indispensable part of daily life. T-shirts and, naturally, coffee mugs exclaim, "Not before I've had my coffee" or "But first, coffee," as if the travails of everyday living are impossible without a morning cup of joe. So ubiquitous is caffeine in our culture that it doesn't even register to people as a drug. Step out of the office for a midafternoon cigarette and people might look at you askance. Get caught doing a bump of coke in the office bathroom as a midday pick-me-up and it's grounds for immediate termination. But slam a Monster or a quad-shot Americano at work and people will think you're a go-getter. That perception is increasingly being challenged by a small but growing choir of laypeople and experts making a concerted effort to raise awareness about the potential downsides of caffeine dependence. |
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Shawn Fain Is Done Making Nice |
It all started with a handshake, or at least it was supposed to. For as long as anyone can remember, contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Detroit's Big Three have kicked off with a ceremonial handshake between union leaders and the CEOs of GM, Ford, and Chrysler (now Stellantis). A genial show of decorum. This past July, though, Shawn Fain, the newly elected president of the UAW, wanted to set a different tone. Standing in front of a news camera outside a plant before a meeting with CEOs, Fain announced he was snubbing the traditional make-nice. "We don't see a reason to shake hands," he said before cataloging what he decried as two decades' worth of unfair contracts, abusive treatment, and gross inequity. Leaning forward, in sharp-rimmed glasses and a buzz cut, Fain continued, growing visibly more agitated as he went on. "I hear some of the CEOs talk about 'Our workers are like family.' That's nothing but a lie." |
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How Dickie Greenleaf Became a Forever Menswear Icon |
The image is indelible: Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley, sporting a half-open knit polo, pleated white shorts, worn-in sneakers, a mischievous smile, and a cigarette dangling from his fingers. It's so captivating that the picture has seemingly been seared into the brain of every menswear fanatic of the social media age, from elder Millennials to Gen Z, with their fixation on "old money" aesthetics. As proof of its enduring appeal, just look at its frequent appearances on Instagram and TikTok as the Platonic ideal of how men should dress. While Greenleaf's sartorial influence may live on in perpetuity online, it's now back in the broader zeitgeist, thanks to an eight-part Netflix adaptation titled Ripley, starring Andrew Scott in the title role, with Johnny Flynn as Greenleaf and Dakota Fanning as his girlfriend Marge. The premise is delicious: Ripley, a mysterious interloper, penetrates a small group of monied flaneurs idling away in Italy, but when his jealousy of their lifestyle grows, he turns violent in order to maintain the glamour of his newfound friends. |
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What Happens When Your Longtime Therapist Dies? |
I was 25 years old, sitting cross-legged on a couch, unable to stop my foot from wagging. My new therapist sat ten feet across from me, his middle-aged girth swallowed up in a high-backed leather chair, masculine: thick wrists, the wide beige band of his watch, receding silver hair, pale, freckled skin. Tortoiseshell glasses obscured the blue in his close-set eyes. In one of those weird associations the mind makes, when I looked at his face I thought immediately of Bert Lahr, the way his thin lips curled into what might be a smile. Outside that office on Manhattan's Upper West Side, barely audible over the low rattle of a window AC unit and the whir of the requisite white-noise machine, I heard snatches of sidewalk conversation, the din of a car-stereo bass, the faint boop-boop-boop of a truck backing up. It was our first session, and I went all in. I explained my life story in a rush, arms and hands gesturing wildly. When he asked questions, I gnawed on a fingernail. (In grade school, my father threatened to use red nail polish to get me to stop biting them. He decided instead on clear and stood over me as I applied it; when he left the room, I peeled off the coat of polish and continued chewing.) Week after week, and then year after year, and then into decades, I told the man everything. Things I've never told my wife, never told my best friends, won't tell you here. The relationship between therapist and patient is unique in the human experience—I paid him to listen to me, to guide me, to interpret me, and to hold all that shit in his head for me in case I ever needed it again. |
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Jeans That Look Classic and Cool for Guys of Any Age |
We are living through a Great Pants Upheaval. Circa 2020, the cool kids chucked their skinny trousers and embraced voluminous pants. The trend has trickled into the mainstream, most notably when J.Crew—the ultimate purveyor of super-slim pants—released its giant-fit chinos, which sell out frequently. The shift in how we wear our pants is so significant that even The New York Times Magazine wrote a cover story about it. Amid this upheaval, the question you are probably asking yourself is, what kind of pants should I wear? Some people might tell you that's a personal question. Those people are cowards. Here's the answer: You should wear Buck Mason's Japanese Loomstate Selvedge Full Saddle Jeans. Here's why. |
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The Truth About Donald Trump That Only the Courts See |
Over the past several years, all this energy and effort has been employed to use the federal courts to shield Donald Trump from accountability for his alleged crimes and misdemeanors in office. The federal judiciary has been fashioned into a tricked-out getaway car. One third of our federal government has been repurposed into an alibi- production facility, and the other two thirds seem to be reveling in sublime and learned ignorance of what's going on around them. The Supreme Court ruled that states no longer have the independent right under the 14th Amendment to keep insurrectionists off the ballot. (Significantly, it declined to rule on whether the former president* actually was an insurrectionist.) That decision came swiftly, as opposed to a ruling on blanket presidential immunity, on which the court is dragging its feet. In Florida, federal judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, seemed dedicated to monkey-wrenching the case regarding the former president*'s stashing of classified documents all over his estate. The federal courts have undertaken to answer the cosmic, existential questions posed by the previous administration*—the powers of the presidency, national security protocols, conspiracy, and insurrection, questions suitable for deep pondering—and the federal courts are taking every second on the clock as it ticks down to the election. |
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