Allison Otting

My comfort cheese streamer

When my wife is out of town, I text screenshots of discord conversations to tell them about the funny things my friends say. Then I remember that I have to explain who “Gregor Samsung” is, and why “rounch” (who has a psychedelic avatar of a toy rat in a tank top) has a little purple “⚡️ rat” tag

If Taylor Swift and that football man ever break up, it’s going to be so embarrassing that she announced her next album on her ex-boyfriend’s podcast. It also brings the sincerity of the album into question—is it art or a commodity?

Gilmore Girls in 2025: Rory and Lorelei are talking on the phone and Lorelei is ranting about how she doesn’t understand Labubus. After half a dozen beanie baby references she vows to never get a Labubu because they’re ridiculous.

Lorelei, still holding the Labubu, stands alone next to the drink cart. She sighs, drops the Labubu into the trash and follows them into the dining room. Fade to black, Executive Producer Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Gilmore Girls in 2025: Rory and Lorelei are talking on the phone and Lorelei is ranting about how she doesn’t understand Labubus. After half a dozen beanie baby references she vows to never get a Labubu because they’re ridiculous.

“Mom, no!” Rory says. “I thought you said you’d never—” “I almost named him Tom Selleck because he was the hairest guy I could think of, but then I remembered the avocado farm scandal and—“ We hear Emily’s Gilmore’s voice: “Oh my god, what is that?!”

Gilmore Girls in 2025: Rory and Lorelei are talking on the phone and Lorelei is ranting about how she doesn’t understand Labubus. After half a dozen beanie baby references she vows to never get a Labubu because they’re ridiculous.

Luke turns to walk away and a Labubu with a backwards baseball cap, a flannel shirt and a tiny ordering pad and pencil is clipped to his belt. Lorelei yells “not you too!” Luke responds “Oh this thing? April gave it to me. It’s actually kind of cute” and Lorelei screams.

Gilmore Girls in 2025: Rory and Lorelei are talking on the phone and Lorelei is ranting about how she doesn’t understand Labubus. After half a dozen beanie baby references she vows to never get a Labubu because they’re ridiculous.

Lorelei spends her week running around doing her typical town things. One by one she sees the townies with their Labubus. Michel’s is decked out in Gucci. Babette and Maury are pushing theirs around in a stroller. Kirk is trying to resell obvious Lafufus after buying them thinking they were legit.

Koosh balls of mass destruction

There was a year where I started writing poetry to perform at slams with my friends, and I’d often write at whatever computer I was currently studying at on campus. So, my digital notepad for poem ideas (or whatever things you usually jot down) was my Gmail drafts folder.

And I was thinking of actually finishing it, purely for myself because it rang with me as I was reading it. But what if I just forgot to attribute it? I don’t want to plagiarize, even if it’s for no one else but me.

There was a year where I started writing poetry to perform at slams with my friends, and I’d often write at whatever computer I was currently studying at on campus. So, my digital notepad for poem ideas (or whatever things you usually jot down) was my Gmail drafts folder.

Now I have an iPhone with iCloud, so I haven’t used Gmail drafts in that way for a long time. Once a poem was done, I would move it to a Microsoft word document to print for a poetry slam, and the draft was deleted. (please know, I didn’t think my poems were great—it was truly a social event).