The Meta Mullet: You can now get your Christina Hendricks topless photos on the distinguished web site Slate.com. Except not quite. It’s all empty foreplay with these intellectuals! … . … And, in a clever SEO play, they misspell her name. … P.S.: If you’re going to go mullet, go mullet. Otherwise Arianna will always have the drop on you. …
Update: A friend emails:
“The first thing on [The New Republic’s] web site at the moment is a lot of high-minded [blather] in honor of the new owner (‘we will continue the great tradition … since 1914 …etc. ….’) immediately followed by “Is Female Masturbation [really] the last taboo?”
Even that’s less annoying than Slate’s apparent strategy. The word “taboo,” after all, is a time-tested tipoff that we’re in for something dry and semi-academic. Presumably there are things to say about female masturbation. (Turns out it is not the last taboo. Who knew?) But Slate‘s not saying much of anything about Christina Hendricks. It’s just half-heartedly dipping its toe into the daily celebrity-sleaze froth while relying on a generic form of mild ironic detachment to prevent it from getting wet before it scurries back to shore. ( See “How to dilute your brand without getting pageviews.”) …