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The Brunch round-up for December 13: The week and how it made us feel
This week, we’re catcalling in Russian, hating on Y/N, digging into the Epstein emails and kicking rocks around
Grabbing joysticks. Uncle, please sit. Gamers are not nerds, introverts or violent incels. Tim Sweeney, who created Fortnite, has spent billions buying up forested land just to protect it. Now, Gabe Newell, Steam owner, has modified a superyacht for marine ecology research. We like this leaderboard!
Cat-calling Moscow. Kitty, catto, meowster? Go Russian when you next see a cat. Tiny, delicate fluffball: Kotik. An elegant madam who treats you like her personal butler: Kisunya. Fat, lazy males: Kotyara (our fav). No term for orange cats, but we’ll use Kotoyd — a silly idiot constantly underfoot. Purrfect.
Changing our POV. Has the internet turned against Y/N, aka Your Name, aka the pick-me, not-like-everybody-else main character? She tends to go for overprotective, over-romantic partners – and it’s the side characters who pay the price. They get kicked out of the restaurant when he books the place for a date. They get fired for upsetting her. Why ruin so many lives for love?
Scraping data. The Epstein emails have so much Big Info Energy, it’s confusing us all. Give thanks to Riley Walz and Luke Igel’s site JMail, a mock Gmail interface that logs you in as Jeffrey Epstein and sifts through the 23,000 documents via keyword search, datestamps, subject folders and his VIP inbox. This is tech for Chaotic Good.
Skipping the bros. Science confirms it. Most podcasts are just men going blah blah blah to other men. Out of last year’s 100 most popular podcasts, nearly two-thirds were hosted by men. Researchers say it’s a bigger boy’s club than movies, TV and music. Break the spell with Gastropod (food science and history), Ologies with Alie Ward (trivia and news) and Wordy Wordpecker (the origin stories of everyday words).
Getting a kick. Instagram user @ShirtZenPantz has been kicking a rock he found for more than 169 days — with the simple goal of whittling it down into a sphere. Haters called it a useless and impossible task. But he made it happen, after kicking for hundreds of miles. Thanks for the sped-up lesson in erosion. And hurrah for low stakes and big dreams.
Working from home. JPMorgan Chase got trolled on X for its new HQ in Manhattan, with its rows upon rows of soulless four-monitor setups (An Industry x Severance aesthetic mashup). The design accommodates “30% more daylight and double the amount of outside air”. With the hours analysts work, that might be the only contact with the world they get, anyway. Boo!
Feeling the itch. How much upcycling is too much upcycling? Some fashion brands are trying to make Indian innerwear a thing. So, underwear made from old dupattas, lingerie sets stitched from frayed saris, thongs with Kutchi mirrorwork. Their heart’s in the right place. But we’re not playing with textures down there, thanks.
From HT Brunch, December 13, 2025
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