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Welcome to the
Pop Culture Happy
Hour
newsletter!
Every week, we
bring you a fresh
mini-essay about
something that’s on
our minds, whether
it’s an old show
that feels new
again or something
in the news that we
can’t stop thinking
about.
We also feature
fresh
recommendations for
your reading and
viewing in the days
ahead, and gather
up all our work
from the week — in
writing and on the
microphone — in one
place. And if
you’ve ever
wondered where you
can find links to
all the things that
we feature in our
signature What’s
Making Us Happy
This Week segment,
look no further: We
round them up right
here.
So get ready for a
weekly read that we
hope will leave you
navigate your week
and build on what
you hear on the
show.
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Opening Argument:
The Bugs Are
Screeching, And
Other Reflections
On Time
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As you’ve probably
heard, the Brood X
cicadas who burrow
underground and
emerge every 17
years have recently
come out to play in
some parts of the
country. While I
don’t want to brag,
I have to say
roughly 25 percent
of the national
population of them
seem to be in my
yard. They love the
tree in the front
yard, the screen on
the screened porch,
and especially my
recycling bin.
(Apparently,
they’re attracted
to anything I might
accidentally touch
with my bare
hands.)
A couple of days
ago, they started
coming down my
chimney. Down my
chimney! Actual
giant flying bugs!
This was the point
when I concluded
that this was not
the fun kind of
weird anymore. It
was the “oh, here I
am at the beginning
of this horror
movie” kind of
weird. This is on
top of the fact
that there is a
high-pitched hum
outside every day
as a result of
their apparently
needing to yell
back and forth to
each other “I HAVE
EMERGED AFTER 17
YEARS!” and “OH HEY
ME TOO!” and doing
it in the form of a
song that sort of
sounds like a
cricket crossed
with a chainsaw,
except it’s a
billion crickets
crossed with a
billion chainsaws.
Naturally, this got
me thinking about
the passage of
time, particularly
in light
of the Friends
reunion
that aired this
week. There are
times when I look
at a show like that
and think, “Wow,
that was a long
time ago.” But I’m
not sure how that’s
affected by the
fact that almost
nothing goes away
anymore. I continue
to believe one of
the reasons why
people had a lot of
fun
talking about The Nanny
when it came to HBO
MAX is that it had
actually receded
from memory in a
way that a lot of
things never do.
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The Nanny
, as it were, is a
cicada. It goes
underground (not
really, it was in
reruns, but it was
underground
relative to
streaming services,
so bear with me)
for a long time,
and then it
emerges. Uh,
screaming. Friends,
on the other hand,
coincidentally was
gone for exactly 17
years before this
reunion. Friends is
on actual cicada
time! Gen X, Brood
X … you see where
I’m going with
this, right? But Friends
didn’t seem like it
had ever been gone.
You’ve always had
access to it if it
was the kind of
thing you cared
about.
Imagine if cicadas
came down my
chimney every year.
Imagine! I would
not tolerate it. I
would put up some
kind of cicada
barrier so that
they couldn’t get
in. I would also
probably move. To
Mars. But because
they come and then
they go away for
such a long time, I
am able to find in
my heart a certain
tolerance for their
scattered
exoskeletons and
their screeching
and their
occasional
appearance actually
clinging to the
living room
curtains, where
they should not be.
If you go away and
I get a chance to
miss you for 17
years, maybe I’ll
be a little bit
more okay with your
quirks when you
return. Maybe I’ll
be more psyched.
What I’m saying is
that cicadas are
lucky they’re not
on Netflix. That’s
the point.
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Newsletter
continues after
sponsor message
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Before we get
started, we’re
still taking your
votes on the best
and worst Friend on Friends,
plus your favorite
three auxiliary
Friends. (Your
Gunthers, your
Janets, your
Mikes.) Vote at
npr.org/friends
!
NPR has an
excellent,
excellent new
podcast called
On Our Watch
, produced with
member station
KQED. It takes
advantage of a law
that unsealed
records of internal
police
investigations, and
to say it’s
riveting and
disturbing would
undersell how
riveting and
disturbing it is.
Please
go watch this guy
play the guitar
while his
bird sings along
. It sounds like
one of those
internet things,
and I suppose it
is, but please
don’t deny yourself
this pleasure.
I haven’t seen
the HBO film
Oslo
yet, but I did see
and admire the
Broadway play it
adapts, about the
Oslo accords. The
leads are Ruth
Wilson and Andrew
“Hot Priest” Scott,
and I’m curious to
see how it turns
out.
When you think
about the
best baseball plays
that have ever
happened — and by
“best,” I mean
“strangest” —
please spare a
thought for the
wild entry from
this week’s MLB,
and don’t miss out
on
the Pirates’ radio
call
.
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On Monday,
Stephen sat down
with Alex Ramos to
talk about Olivia
Rodrigo’s album Sour.
On Tuesday, Aisha
and Joelle Monique
checked in with the
new season
of
Master Of None
.
Wednesday gave me
the opportunity
to sit with Stephen
to talk about his
annual ranking of
the season’s
Saturday Night Live
musical
performances, from
the top to Morgan
Wallen. But by all
means, don’t just
listen to the
episode. Read the
whole, very
entertaining thing
.
On Thursday,
Stephen
continued his
musical week
with a chat with
Haeryun Kang in
which they offered
a very brief
overview of K-Pop,
well beyond BTS.
And Friday’s show
brings Glen and
Aisha together with
Cyrena Touros and
LaTesha Harris to
talk about the new
movie Cruella,
which brings two
great Emmas
together on screen.
I
wrote on Thursday
about the Friends
reunion, which I
thought was …
better in some
aspects than
others.
I also wrote about
the excellent new
film
Plan B
, which is on Hulu
as of this weekend.
And
don’t forget to
find Stephen
over at NPR Music
doing New Music
Friday.
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Every week on the
show, we talk about
some other things
out in the world
that have been
giving us joy
lately. Here they
are:
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Stream your local
NPR station.
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Visit NPR.org to
find your local
station stream.
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What do you think
of today’s email?
We’d love to hear
your
thoughts, questions
and feedback
:
pchh@npr.org
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