Taco Truck-onomics, Why Life Is Better With a Comb in Your Back Pocket and Awaiting the Vape Plague

I consider the taco truck consistently parked outside my apartment building as more of a public service than a business. The fact that every day, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 a.m., I can reliably stumble out of my apartment and procure fresh tacos for a buck fifty apiece is nothing short of a godsend. I don’t know how they do it, though. The food is so cheap, and they’re operating a freaking gas-fueled truck with at least six people behind the counter (and/or grill) at a time. So to evoke God one more time, it’s why I pray nightly that it doesn’t befall the same fate as many other food trucks that very much struggle to make ends meet. 

The Combs They Carried

Maybe the whole 1950s greaser look is over, but that doesn’t mean every aspect of it should be abandoned entirely. Case in point: Keeping a comb in one’s pocket a la James Dean or Marlon Brando is a pretty practical move (and let’s face it — your hair is a mess without it). Andrew Fiouzi tried carrying one around with him for a week, and now he’s a serious convert (why is everything about God with me today?). 

6 P.M. = Pants-Off Time

You get home from work, and suddenly your clothes feel like sandpaper — and must come off immediately. Here’s the psychological term that explains why. 

Getting Up In Them Guts of “Up In Them Guts”

TIL: The phrase “up in them guts” doesn’t simply refer to having penis-in-vagina sex. No, it actually refers to the act of having such extreme P-in-V that the woman’s uterus becomes ruptured, and the penis actually enters the “guts” territory of her body. Of course, not literally, but still. I can’t decide if I like the phrase more or less after reading Madeleine Holden’s cultural history of it. 

Puppet Nostalgia

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a 10-episode prequel to Jim Henson’s 1982 cult favorite The Dark Crystal, arrives on Netflix in two days. According to Tim Grierson, it’s tortuously corny and complicated. Which is exactly why it’s that pure, uncut fantasy-nerd shit.

Doctor Do-Little

Rather than seeing a primary care doctor as part of routine health maintenance, many Americans see their general practitioner as simply a funnel to specialists — and more expensive procedures. In fact, in the U.S., one in three visits to a general practitioner result in a referral to a specialist, which is twice as many as in the U.K. So what’s the point of a primary care doctor, anyway?

The Notorious M-C-G

Conor McGregor hasn’t fought anyone in a ring (or octagon) in almost a year. Yet he remains a topic of conversation because of all the dumb shit he does — e.g., punching an old dude in the head for refusing a drink. It didn’t have to be this way, though. McGregor could be making headlines for his in-octagon exploits, but instead, he’s decided to lean into a heel turn typically reserved for professional wrestlers.

Vaping Sickness, and You

The scariest thing about vapes is that we don’t yet fully know how bad they are for you. But now that 200 teens have been hospitalized and one person has died from “vaping sickness,” we’re starting to get an idea. How much should the average vaper worry about it, though? Well, we’ll know in a few years… 

Bowl Cuts, Baby

They’re back, and somehow, they’re sexy. 

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Magdalene Taylor

Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.