Coset The Table

why does this seem much more divorced from our current reality than the recent piece about the willy wonka class action?

Headline of a Q&A in New Yorker formatting Headline: A panicked middle-aged man refuses to tell me directions to the bathroom. Subhed: Please, I just have to pee. I'm in a hurry. By Isaac Chotiner March 4, 2026

Excuse me. Oh, God. Oh, no. Holy shit. Get away from me. I was wondering if you knew where the bathrooms are. Look, I'm ... it's not a crime to scroll through your high school girlfriend's Instagram account. We remained friends after high school! I was at her wedding! It's only natural to see how she's doing.

I'm in a bit of a hurry, and I'm afraid that if I choose the wrong corridor, I'll be late for my train. I think they're down that way, but I'm actually from out of town. Please stop talking to me.

Real quick, though. I agree that it's natural to be interested in an old friend, but aren't you afraid about the message you might be sending by liking a picture of her at the beach from 2015? If that did happen, and I'm only going off your word, it was probably an accident. They put the ... scroll bars or whatever ... close to the thumbs up button. People have been complaining about that for years. I've been complaining about that for years.

i cannot stress enough that if you know anything about how kristi noem found out she was fired you must tell me

I’m convinced I’m going to find out about that fucking guy’s death through that Supernatural meme, and maybe I kind of hope I will???

[Exit Murderer.]

I’ve seen enough. … No, I don’t have an election call or anything, I just want to stop seeing any more new things in general.

The team hopes enough chicks will survive this year to bring the world Kākāpō population to 300—a major milestone for a species that was teetering with just 51 individuals in 1995.

A massive bloom of rimu berries in New Zealand fueled a mating surge among the critically endangered Kākāpō. spklr.io/6044E87xp

📸: New Zealand Department of Conservation

Let me be clear: I’m glad Kristi Noem was fired. But we still have to abolish ICE.

Chotiner: You've made the claim that no one has ever fed you in your life.
My Cat: Maow.
Chotiner: Yet there's food in your dish right now.
My Cat: Maow.
Chotiner: Let's change the subject to the ripped-open bag of sandwich bread on the floor.
My Cat: Maow.
Chotiner: I have read different things.

The profile of a cat who knows better than to do an interview with Isaac Chotiner.

My pitch for Heated Rivalry, Season Two: Isaac Chotiner interviews MHL Commissioner Roger Crowell.

if I ever disappear there's a good chance it's because Chotiner invited me for an interview and I grabbed my go bag and fled society

Odysseus had his crew lash him to the mast to keep him from doing an interview with Chotiner.

There are only few truisms in this world.
1) Don't cross the men's wear guy
2) Never fight a land war in Asia
And 3) Do not get Chotinered

'those movies where people watch a video because it's supposed to make you die in a week are unrealistic' I say as I watch another person take a Chotiner phone call

sorry, you post too many good pics for this to sound fake :(

Reading 'Good Energy' So You Don't Have To | Shouldn't Need to Be a Lawyer by Matthew Cortland Get more from Shouldn't Need to Be a Lawyer by Matthew Cortland on Patreon

Today's Shouldn't Need to Be a Lawyer is a guest post from @cosetthetable.bsky.social who read "Good Energy" — the book by the Trump regime's Surgeon General nominee — so that you don't have to....

www.patreon.com/posts/152088...

and a lot of perspectives from *other* characters- so, yes, their friends/coworkers/groupchats, but also imagining what social media/legacy media would be saying at various points.

there's a LOT of exploration of "what if something had happened slightly differently"- if communication had gone better or worse, if injuries happened at different times with different severity, if someone hooked up with someone else before ending up with their preferred partner, etc

absolutely no idea, i've been spending all my time reading heated rivalry fic 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Yes! I will go to my deathbed trying to get people to stop conflating nonjusticiable with legal.

(yes, it's more novellas than usual, but also they're all novellas I always intended to (re)read around now- ie- rereading Murderbot before the new one comes out)

ao3's been down on and off for like two days and now i'm only one book behind on my reading goal for the year, so that's interesting.

Yes! I rewatch most easily when I really ought to actually *watch* the episodes the first time, but can "second screen" in a rewatch. Feels like a lot of tv is either going "watching totally optional" or "watching mandatory every time", and both have a time&place but..... not every time?

But I’m sure I’m missing stuff, since I read more than I watch. What am I missing???

Not always, not every show. But some of it was truly interesting art. And it feels like we’re mostly getting art on short streaming seasons and filler on boring broadcast tv.

AND I also don’t want all of my TV to be either High Art or Reality Trash.

Sometimes, I want weird stuff created out of constraints. I want bottle episodes due to budget, I want a focus on a side character to get the overall arc in the right spot for sweeps week, I want the Christmas episode.

Can I confess that I miss “filler episodes”?

I get that *many* stories are better served by tight pacing and editing, and that 6 or 8 or 10 episodes are often better than 20+ from a craft perspective. I celebrate it.

If toaster pastries became contaminated with fecal bacteria, the resulting lawsuits would be known as Pop Tarts Poop Torts

The most funny they ever are is when they try to make each other wildly uncomfortable and I’m just not sure that’s a particularly compelling example of talent???