Home
BostonGlobe.com •

The stifling paranoia of MAGA on the Danube - The Boston Globe

I knew the rule. I was a regular at the pool. It was reflex — pants first, then socks, then shoes. It was the summer of 2023, and I had just stepped out of a stall in the unisex locker room of Budapest’s Duna Arena pool, thinking of a chicken schnitzel on a kaiser roll, when an elderly janitor interrupted me. What was I thinking, putting shoes on like that? Shoes aren’t allowed in the locker room. He’d have to report me now. What was I thinking?Pants first, then socks, then shoes. Take the laces...
Secret Structures •

At the Laundromat

For the length of one wash cycle, New Yorkers are mercilessly tossed into each other’s lives. They are forced to tolerate each other. Some even have to interact. At 7:15 a.m. on a Wednesday morning on the Upper West Side, licensed manual therapist Peter C. Green stared with intensity at his darks as they swished around and around in sudsy water, clockwise and anti-clockwise, anti-clockwise and clockwise. The surrounding washing machines buzzed monotonously as they no doubt shrank another unsuspe
Columbia News Service •

The Unorthodox World of Orthodox Jewish Comedy

Elon Altman saw more than he heard the fedoras and shtreimels shake with shy giggles. Orthodox Jewish crowds tend to be quiet laughers.

Altman, donning a kippah, was at a Hasidic show for a Sheva Brachot — the seven blessings recited during an Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony — in the heart of Brooklyn. A panel of rabbis, “big bushy rabbis,” Altman described, stared at him blankly. His set was in English; the rabbis, who spoke Yiddish, understood very little.

In keeping with the Orthodox Jewis
Peel NYC •

City Comedians Fight a Two-Front War: The Industry and Themselves

Comedian Dean David battles a rising wave of humorless influencers and his own anxiety to keep comedy authentic.

Under the harsh glare of a naked lightbulb hanging over the entrance of Brooklyn’s Tiny Cupboard Comedy Club, Dean David bounced his right leg.

He fiddled with his headphones. Sat up straight, crossed his legs. Uncrossed them. Slouched – folded his 120-pound-self in half. Started bouncing his left knee.

David took a drag of his joint as water dripped metronomically from the AC unit
Peel NYC •

It’s Stealth Comedy — And It’s Challenging the Nightclub Model

The success behind Don’t Tell, which does pop-up shows with no drink minimum.

The modern gray building on the corner of Ten Eyck and Bogart in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Williamsburg, three floors tall and almost oppressively cubic, stood out among the weathered brick garages and warehouses. The building was clean and corporate while everything around it was graffitied with bubble letters that spelled out things like “Cry, cry cry” and “Opaque Silk” – in-jokes, presumably, for youth arme
Telex •

A Hungarian student spoke out for a better education system – now, she's switching schools

Lili Pankotai, 18, delivered an impassioned – and profanity-laden – slam poetry performance during a teacher demonstration on October 23 in front of tens of thousands of people. Her original piece was a call for better teacher salaries and increased education funding.

“Dear Hír TV, I will never care who sucks whose dick, but I do care about who owns their opinions,” she said in her reading. “The 12 points taught me to speak up now – you won’t believe I, and all of us, are the present and the f*
English •

Hungarians take to the streets to demonstrate for the future of education after decades of erosion – English

For weeks, students, parents, and teachers have been organizing demonstrations after five teachers were fired from Budapest’s Kolcsey Ferenc Gimnazium, allegedly for civil disobedience action. Hungarians have taken to the streets to protest poor living conditions for teachers and a failing education system.

Demonstrations were held across the country on October 5, 11, and 14. Teachers have also launched the “I Want to Teach” movement. In the most recent action on October 14, protestors formed k
Mancunian Matters •

Footballers' transfer values continue to rise - but the high fees might not be the problem

If global football star Kylian Mbappe is worth £177 million, and a Greggs sausage roll costs £1.25, how many Greggs sausage rolls is Kylian Mbappe worth?

The answer, of course, is 141.6 million sausage rolls. Quick maths.

The short answer is supply and demand.

The long answer? That’s where the CIES Football Observatory comes in – a research group within the International Centre for Sports Studies – with a model estimating players’ transfer values across Europe’s big-five leagues.

The model p
Mancunian Matters •

Belonging nowhere: transgender athletes face an uphill battle against regulations to compete

In March 2022, American swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender D-1 athlete to win an NCAA title – and she sparked a heated debate.

On the one hand, many claim that the inclusion of transgender athletes – particularly those who transitioned from male to female – compromises the safety and fairness of competition.

But others argue that an advantage does not necessarily mean unfairness. Some basketball players have height advantages, and some tennis players are left-handed – but these do
Mancunian Matters •

Comment: Maybe it’s time to extend an invitation to the South – level up

The red, white, and blue décor worked hard to evoke a sense of authentic Britishness. As deep-fried soft power goes, the battered fish is one of the most powerful vessels to ever sizzle.

But all was not well in this London chippy. Glum faces paid £15 – £15, that’s not a typo – for a barely-battered fish and a small cup of chips. Unsalted. Sans vinegar.

And it got worse – mayonnaise. No gravy.

At a time when Boris Johnson is pushing the “level up” mantra, the acute disparities between the Nort

CV