Note: no Thanksgiving content here. Very thankful for all of you but I’m sure you can find your seasonal content elsewhere. gobble gobble.
I’m an alpha Aries, so Lord knows I’m always down for a fight. For a while in middle school I spent my afternoons at Rebecca’s playing Mortal Kombat until it was time to feed her brother’s lizard. (Down for a fight but not for a feeding.)
This week’s articles are fighting the good fight, against the erasure of Tex-Mex, against Robocalls, against a schism in the Catholic church. In a world where it feels like we are all losing all the time, it’s fun to throw you hat into a scuffle that isn’t a fight for your rights or basic human decency.
Good Reads
Tex-Mex > Everything
The Myth of Authenticity is Killing Tex-Mex - Meghan Maccarron
It’s only a little masochistic to read about Tex-Mex when I have no way to eat it.
Meghan Maccaroon is a vet of the Texas food wars. She covered the chili and bbq beat for Eater for years. She knows her way around an enchilada plate. She’s the perfect ringside partner for such a delicious battle.
See, where I come from, it’s all about ground beef, Mexican blend shredded cheese, and salsa like your mom makes it. Tex-Mex is pretty much the only cultural food I can claim (and even then, I obviously lean heavy on the Tex part of the combo). But Tex-Mex is a food culture all it’s own. It’s one of the few things that’s hard to explain to a Yankee. (Other things: Chick-fil-A, Dr Pepper, pep rallies.)
Maccaroon defends Tex-Mex from it’s critics who, lazily, discredit it as cheap and inauthentic. For Maccaroon, and for homesick Texans like me, Tex-Mex isn’t trying to be Mexican food. While it draws influence heavily from Northern Mexican flavors (because they’re fucking delicious), it is an art of Tejano and Mexican American culture, a culture that many would like to reduce to either simply American or Mexican. Like David Pumpkins, Tex-Mex is definitely a part of something but mostly it is it’s own thing.
In an era when queso and BETO shirts are popping up in Brooklyn bars, Texas culture is serving as a kind of microcosm for bigger issues, including who’s food is prestige. Maccaroon gets right down to it, calling out the thing criticisms of Tex-Mex:
”Texas brooks no insult, especially one originating from New York City. What gives? If the narrative of a cheap, lovable-but-irredeemable cuisine boils down to banal racism, resulting in a systemic undervaluing of Tejano and Mexican-American restaurateurs, cooks, and chefs, the flaw is in the attitudes, not economics or changing tastes.”
Fix that ‘tude and send me a Taco Villa combo burrito with green sauce ASAP.
Read this if you will be seeing me for any Thanksgiving festivities because I will certainly have a dish that includes melted cheese and a handful of jalapeños.
Me > Robocalls
(also low key Republicans vs. ever actually governing)
Why Robocalls Have Taken Over Your Phone - Colin Lecher
I swear to Ariana Grande if I get another phone call from that bitch Sarah who uses a Texas Panhandle area code I’m going to have a heart attack and start a class action lawsuit. I am an anxious person at rest, so when I get a phone call that could be from someone who lives closer to my parents and elderly grandma than I, I’m going to answer it! And, according to my research, that means they will keep calling me ad infinitum.
The thing that really got me in this article is the way they bring the FCC into it. Colin Lecher is right that the FCC has a responsibility to respond to this mushrooming phenomena, and he’s also right to low-key roast the shady word gymnastics of Ajit Pai and Co.:
“Still, Pai, who has presided over an FCC that consistently pushes deregulatory measures, has also expressed skepticism over other tools meant to help consumers. Pai has suggested that the TCPA, meant to give consumers a way to legally combat the callers, has been overused, and has pointed to cases that he argues are excessively litigious. But consumer advocates have argued that strong rules under the TCPA are a crucial protection.”
You can’t call on companies to adopt this technology and make the right choice, dude. They don’t give a shit. That’s what we hire you to do for the American people. (I’m learning that I’m not only against Trump’s Republicans but even the “good ones” because of their love of deregulation that somehow always benefits big companies rather than consumers and constituents.)
Read this if you’ve given up blocking spam numbers because there are so many. (This article won’t really make you feel better, but it will make you feel less alone.)
Francis v. Benedict (don’t make me choose, it feels sacrilegious)
Pope Vs. Pope: How Francis and Benedict’s Simmering Conflict Could Split the Catholic Church - John Cornwell
Some context for those of you who met me after 2013. I was so zealous about my Catholic faith that, in high school and some of college, I wrote exclusively with a pen that said “Catholic Church Est. 33 AD.” In my mind, this served two purposes: to show my devotion and also piss off my protestant peers who’s churches were so ~flashy~ and ~new~. I have since realized that an institution telling people they’re inherently sinful is a damn good way to control them, but I do still love the high drama of the inner workings of the Catholic church. So I’ve been keeping up with this dual pope shit for a while now. You could call me an honorable pope-watcher.
Here’s the skinny for those that don’t know. The Catholic church is unified by two things: shame and loyalty to the pope. After iconic Pope John Paul II died, the guy that brought the Catholic mass to the people in their native language and pardoned Galileo, Pope Benedict was elected (by, like, cardinals) and was pope for only a handful of years. Then, suddenly and under much suspicion, Benedict announced that he was RETIRING. That’s not really a thing pope’s are supposed to do. It’s like if Queen Elizabeth were to retire. It’s just not happening like that. But in 2013, it did. Pope Francis was elected and has since been ruffling the red feathers of the Vatican.
But the reason why this article is so fucking great is the level of pettiness and drama involved with all of these holy men. Imagine the Young Pope but with no hot people.
“Against the background of a Church at war with itself over clerical abuse, Gänswein has emerged as the promoter of Benedict’s alternative papal agenda. On May 20, 2016, he declared that Francis and Benedict together represent a single “expanded” papal office with one “active” member and one “contemplative” one. Francis rejected that notion out of hand, saying: “There is only one Pope.”
Francis literally dismissed that bitch Gänswein by saying “There is only one Pope.” (Another amazing detail, Gänswein’s nickname is Gorgeous George. You can’t make this shit up.)
It’s like the Cardi B/Nicki Minaj beef for nuns and monks. Nicki is the old hat, has some hits, is undeniably a part of history. But Cardi B is the new comer shaking things up with realness. (If you don’t come to this newsletter for top 40 analogies for Catholic church drama then what do you even come here for?)
Ok, last quote about Benedict’s pettiness because I know no one is going to actually read the whole article:
“In July 2012, moreover, he appointed the conservative bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller as the new head of the orthodoxy police, formally known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Benedict must have known, even at this point, that he was planning his resignation and therefore saddling his successor with a hard-line doctrinal watchdog who would be difficult to replace. (Francis replaced Müller last year.) In another striking pre-resignation maneuver, Benedict appointed Gänswein not only to be his personal secretary but also to remain as head of the papal household. This meant that Gänswein would run the new Pope’s apartments and offices in the Apostolic Palace, where Popes have resided and worked for hundreds of years. This would have positioned Gänswein to monitor the conversations and meetings of the new Pope. And since this was one of Benedict’s last big appointments before his resignation, it would be difficult for the new Pope to countermand it without seeming disrespectful.”
He elected his own people so he could keep tabs on the new pope!!! Shit is wild. But I mean, what do you expect from this handsome devil*?
*not actually a devil. please don’t come for me Catholic darknet
Read this if the REAL WORLD: THE VATICAN sounds like a show you’d watch.
Hate Read
How to Play Long Video Games When You Have No Time
I just don’t get why we need these articles. It’s not just for video games, this format is for reading books and watching movies and everything in between. Why are we so obsessed with doing thing “when we literally have no time”? Why aren’t we interrogating why we don’t have any time for the things we love? Why do we feel like we have to quantify our enjoyment of our hobbies by how much we get to do it?
The other reason this article pisses me off is just because I’m a much better tv watcher than video gamer. I just don’t get it. Not my bag. And that’s probably cool because from what I’ve read, they’re not really made for me.
Rec of the Week
This is the kind of info-tainment I live forrrrrrrrr. Give me that Russian Tsar drama with a hint of English smugness and a lot of wild palaces.
A historian named Lucy Worsley guides you through a few hundred years of Russian monarchy history. As the only hot historian, Lucy is a good guide. She wears coordinating red lipstick with all of her red dresses (an ode to the Red Square or communist party? who knows).
Come because of your curiosity about Putin’s play thing, stay for the absolute savageness of Cathrine the Great.
Hope you all are warm and well. Happy Thanksgiving.
This is the best thing on the internet. Second only to this.