Just read a hilarious interview with Bill Hader on the Billfold. This has to be one of his best impressions:

Tears at work, tears at WORK

"You would tell your younger sister, or your daughter, that she was beautiful. And you wouldn't be lying, because she is. And so are you."

Trolls

"Does free speech tend to move toward the truth or away from it? When does it evolve into a better collective understanding? When does it collapse into the Babel of trolling, the pointless and eristic game of talking the other guy into crying “uncle”? Is the effort to control what’s said always a form of censorship, or might certain rules be compatible with our notions of free speech?"

Interesting stuff, this. 

Home Reno

I'm getting pretty sick of the dingy, beige walls in my otherwise charming apartment, so I'm using my three-day weekend to repaint. So much work after you've moved in! Fortunately since the background is so light I won't have to prime but I will 1) clean the walls with vinegar and water, 2) tape the window/door frames and 3) put down two coats.

The color I'm thinking? Grey.

Julianne Moore's Home via Emily Henderson via CasaSugar

With the glossy white paint on the two window frames, double closet doors and main door, I think it will pop like this photo. Plus, can't wait to get down to some manual labor! It's the greatest cure for boredom!

The Billfold

Billfold is a new-ish blog in the Hairpin/Awl family. They do a great job of posting on a variety of finance-related and topics and best of all - it's relevant in the day-to-day. I think it's the first finance journalism I've read that applies to my life and experiences directly. Read it! 


Coming Soon: Pay to Pay!:

Last week, the two payment processors and major banks agreed to pay at least $6 billion to settle a suit that alleged they conspired to fix the fees that retailers must pay them whenever customers pay with credit cards. These “interchange” or “swipe” fees are typically a portion of the amount that customers charge to their cards, thus reducing the amount that retailers ultimately pocket.
As part of the settlement, stores such as Kroger and Rite Aid for the first time will also be able to charge customers a fee for paying with a credit card.
The idea is to discourage customers from paying with credit cards, and instead pay with cash, so that retailers wouldn’t have to fork over any fees to the card-issuing banks.

—This happened on Friday. And then American Banker asked a bunch of industry experts and analysts what the settlement means. A lot of them said a lot of things! But one of them said something that spoke to ME AND MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND LIFE (e tu, maybe?).

Overall, surcharging is a bad idea for merchants. Surcharging can cause consumers to think twice about their purchase at the checkout counter, but there’s more to it than that. … Forcing consumers to use a given payment type makes them consider how much money is on-hand in cash, in a [checking] account, and available to pay for the purchase, a mindset that can reduce the amount of goods and services consumers will buy and lower the average ticket price of sales for merchants.

—That’s Madeline Aufseeser, senior analyst at Aite Group (great website), explaining that it’s bad for everyone, except, if you read between the lines, maybe for people who might have spent an amount of money with a credit card without thinking, but once forced to think about that same purchase in terms of dollars, will decide: Not worth it.
I asked myself, what do I think of this? And: I will happily (“happily,” okay, not happily—resignedly?) pay a surcharge to use my card instead of using cash. I never have cash, so the choice is really: Go to the ATM across the street and pay a fee to get cash, or stay here, don’t move and pay to swipe? I’ll stay, thanks. I would do this right now, FYI. Cash-only is terrible and also the worst. And bad, too.

I like this lady

Ms. Caitlin Moran, regarding a survey in which 71% of American Women did not identify as feminists:


"To all those women who recoil from the word feminist, she asks, 'What part of  ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? ‘Vogue’ by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?'"


I've just pre-ordered her book. 

Getting psyched for the Olympics!

Photo: