Catherine Tan

One burger is filled with beef and the other with chapstick.

I am tired of creative restroom signs. How am I supposed to know that the highland cow with a peony in its hair is the women’s room?

I should schedule blood draws immediately after assembling IKEA furniture. Nurses usually have a hard time finding my veins. But right now, as I struggle with this shitty little screw driver, my veins are popping.

I was surprised with a pop spelling bee at the gas station. The cashier was writing an email.

“Spell consciousness.”

“C-o-n-s-c-i-o-u-s-n-e-s-s. Consciousness.”

After all that I still didn’t get a discount on gas. In fact he charged me more for using a credit card.

Would You Pay $13,000 to Rid Your Blood of Microplastics? Yael Cohen thinks her new procedure could be revolutionary.

The new leeching? 😐
www.thecut.com/article/yael...

Faculty Support of George Mason’s President Draws Federal Investigation

Faculty who wrote to defend their president and object to a DOJ investigation of their university...are now being investigated by the DOJ.
The most banal defense of free speech and academic freedom will trigger the full wrath of the US government now.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

How am I to eat this in the same house as my dog without her thinking I am eating her treats?

Sometimes I can still hear the nerve-aching squeak of a cheap Bic 0.7mm mechanical pencil on paper.

Starting a new research project with my former student at Vassar. We are interviewing researchers working on Lyme disease prevention to understand how they are thinking about/navigating its contentious history and vaccine skepticism. Our first interview is today!

At the train station. There’s this psycho here from Missouri who is just making friendly conversation with random strangers. Just chit chatting and asking people about their families. Is she trying to figure out answers to our security questions? What is this?

There is nothing more fun than letting the dog think I am about to leave the house without her and then, at the last moment, surprising her with “Do you want to go?!”

Huh… when they say a traffic area is photo enforced they really mean it. 🚦😐

I don’t think I can afford to have children. Forget the cost of childcare. Someone tell me why a “Jelly cat” stuffed animal costs a million dollars. Why. Why?!

I just stumbled across a Facebook group for people hoping to reunite with the horses/ponies their parents sold years ago. +80K members... thats a lot of girls holding grudges.

A picture of the toronto skyline

🚨 Job alert: The Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto is hiring an Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

I'll be at ASA and would be happy to chat with interested candidates. Please share widely! #Socsky

Is wordle running out of words or something?

Why aren’t any of these Vietnamese restaurants in Poughkeepsie called Phởkeepsie? I feel like it’s a real missed opportunity.

It's hot. I can't focus on my work. So I am engaging in some delusional online shopping. Pricing out local goats, commercial retail space, and vacation homes in the south of france.

Childhood vaccination rates drop across 1,600 US counties The 74 reports childhood vaccination rates have dropped in 1,600 US counties since the pandemic, risking herd immunity amid rising measles outbreaks.

"Childhood vaccination rates ... declined across the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,...78% of more than 2,000 counties reported drops, and the average immunization rate had fallen to 91% - below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity."
www.nbcrightnow.com/national/chi...

Like watching someone dunk Prometheus's flame in a lake.

Exclusive: NIH to dismiss dozens of grant reviewers to align with Trump priorities The move would undo years of work, leaving advisory councils understaffed, and without the full expertise needed for reviews.

"When it comes to replacing council members, NIH staff members were told to keep admin. priorities in mind...

...some... are screening candidates’ social-media presences to check whether they have expressed negative views abt the Trump admin. or been involved in (DEI) efforts..." 🛟🧪😷 Medsky

Federal Workers’ ‘Emotional Roller Coaster’: Fired, Rehired, Fired Again

Most of this story is about what happens when healthcare coverage is tied to employment... and your employer is chaos.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/u...

Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreesen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI Tech investor and Trump adviser Marc Andreessen in a private group chat attacked colleges for promoting diversity, saying they had discriminated against “native born kids.”

Universities, whatever their faults, are one of America's most successful products. A massive exporter, they generate innovation and middle class jobs in places where people like Marc Andreessen never visit.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

I know it’s been an especially hot summer, but… I think men should be fined for exposing their feet. It’s indecent. It’s grotesque. We have enough problems in this country, in this world.

Need to get my life together. Eating oatmeal with a fork.

this article continues to be relevant
www.hbs.edu/ris/Publicat...

They fired the people answering calls for help. Hundreds of them. During the crisis.

Guh. I hate finishing a really good memoir and then being left in the quiet to reflect on my own little life.

New issue just dropped | get it while it's hot 🔥 #sociology @asanews.bsky.social

I have procrastinated a lot today. I might have read the entire internet. There is nothing left for me but my commitments.