Rollins's Review, November 4

On my favorite Substack columns this week

Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash

Yassine Meskhout is a hilariously evil-minded public defender with his own ‘stack, which he doesn’t post to enough. This article, which he posted to Jesse Singal’s blog, is (like are most of the bangers he writes) a romp with practical utility. Read it, laugh your ass off, and then soak PayPal for arbitration fees.

I Fought The PayPal And I Won

I’m always a little conflicted about asking people where they get their memes. It feels like a faux pas on a visceral level even when it actually isn’t, like asking someone in the ‘90s for their weed connection’s contact information. I don’t mind sharing one of my sources, though: Malignant from Dissident Army. His material is free-range, spicy, and satisfying.

Why not?

If I may put on my “publishing industry professional” hat for a minute, I know some of my readers are writers of fiction. Aristophanes of Aristophanes Athenaeum dropped some good links this week, including to a podcast he was on by Bizarchive, which is apparently in the top ten publishers for sales volume, and who specialize in pulp horror and sci-fi. If that’s what you write, you may want to check that out.

Podcasts & Commentary

Libs of TikTok is one of my favorite muckrakers on Substack. They’re a tabloid that revels in outrage, but damned if they don’t break stories.

Private DMs, scantily clad students, and police: Meet the trans teacher who has parents alarmed

I worry about Delicious Tacos from Delicious Tacos. Genuinely. Like, is he okay? Much like a derailment of a train carrying the Ringling Brothers Circus, I can’t not check out his posts as I drive by.

50 Ways to Get a Girlfriend

Erik Hoel of The Intrinsic Perspective is so fucking smart it doesn’t seem possible. I’ve been devouring his articles about aristocratic tutoring for a while. I think he’s a fantastically interesting writer, and as how to learn things effectively is one of my interests, I’m enthusiastically boosting this article. Read it, and read the ones before it in the series.

How geniuses used to be raised

Read Holly Math Nerd. I’m serious. She’s so compassionate and so on point.

In the Library, with William

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