Spoiler alert: The last couple of years have pretty awful. But if there’s a silver lining, it’s been the freedom for men who secretly used to practice a non-traditional strain of masculinity to proudly say, “This is me, and I don’t give a shit who knows it.” Case in point: Our latest Twitter hero, the Crochet Guy.
Here’s someone who, not even 10 years ago, would have been called “gay” — or worse — for doing something as benign as crocheting beanies and women’s tops, and now, is being celebrated for using his hobby as a positive outlet to address his mental-health struggles. That’s awesome.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that his tops are “wet as hell,” either.
can confirm the fuckin top is wet as hell thank u @BennyWillard ☀️?✨ pic.twitter.com/1hCk1t97v2
— sunny? (@beeruler) March 13, 2019
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“The Perfect Irony That ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Film Was Also a Real-Life Scam”
Leonardo DiCaprio would have done anything to partner with Martin Scorsese and make his dream project, The Wolf of Wall Street, about the greed-filled life of fraudster Jordan Belfort. According to the Justice Department, he did — when he cozied up to Malaysian financier and Wolf bankroller, Jho Low, a man now starring in his own multibillion-dollar conspiracy called the 1MDB scandal. This greed-begets-greed story is so wild, it will probably inspire best-selling books and possibly a movie, too. The only question: Who will play Leo? READ MORE
A Film Critic On… ‘Triple Frontier’
On what it is: “Triple Frontier stars Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac in a story about former special forces operatives who undertake a dangerous heist to rob a despicable drug dealer, leading to disastrous results.”
On what’s ‘good’: “Triple Frontier has action, drama and suspense, as well as a message about the evils of war. In other words, it contains all the film-like elements that you’d expect from a movie.”
On what’s ‘bad’: “Except for the most important one: It doesn’t feel like a movie.”
On the movie’s “haven’t I seen this before?” quality: “There are random elements of Three Kings and Zero Dark Thirty in Triple Frontier, as well as Lone Survivor, The Deer Hunter and Deliverance. The movie isn’t about originality: It merely hopes to lure you into watching by reminding you of films you actually like.”
On how even the music is replacement-level: “The soundtrack choices feel like they’ve been programmed by someone who has no idea how overused Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Run Through the Jungle’ is as a dramatic device.”
On the bottom line: “The movie is very, very, very boring.”
Read the rest of Tim Grierson’s take on Triple Frontier here — including Grierson’s own journey of discovery into militaryspeak; how unintentionally hilarious it was that the bad guy hid his hundreds of millions behind the flimsy walls of his house; and the one line in Triple Frontier that plays a lot different now than when the film was made.
Liquid Candy Bars
Gatorade markets itself as a sports-energy drink, but let’s be honest, very few of us play enough sports to warrant drinking the stuff according to its intended use. We’d all much rather drink Gatorade for its other use: As a hangover cure. And this being the day of the year when many of us are hungover from too much green beer, it’s only natural that we’d want to investigate what’s in the magical thirst-quencher:
It’s never good when “sugar” is the second listed ingredient. As it turns out, Cool Blue Gatorade contains almost 25 percent more sugar in a 20-ounce bottle than an entire Snickers bar. Yikes. That’s not even the half of it, however — as Ian Lecklitner found out, Gatorade’s not even that good at hydrating you.
Speaking of Hangovers…
…if you are a little under the weather today, definitely don’t reach for a bottle of Gatorade (as explained above), but also reconsider reaching for Advil or Pedialyte, too. Both will make you feel better in the short term, but if you really want to vanquish your hangover completely, there’s only one scientifically proven remedy.
Gold-Plated For Your Pleasure
Vibrators are a dime a dozen. Heck, you can even turn your smartphone into a squeal machine. Yet, in the last few years, a handful of sex toys — including the $15,000, 24-karat gold-plated Inez — have hit the market priced so highly and regarded so luxuriously that the orgasm they promise ought to shoot you straight into heaven. So Tracy Moore asked Epiphora, a veteran sex toy reviewer, what kind of high-end toys are worth paying extra for, and which are simply gilded status symbols.
Bro-Chet
Throughout high school, Twitter user @BennyWillard suffered from severe anxiety and depression. That is, until he found crocheting.
Benny crocheted in relative anonymity, too, until one of his tweets went viral last month, and Benny transformed himself from a shy frat boy into the “Crochet Guy.”
Hey yall so i really need money and im lowkey wet at crocheting so if you want a cute top or something hmu (im too scared to talk to gurls so i had to model this myself) pic.twitter.com/1LNpybO6NS
— Sad Liam Hemsworth (@BennyWillard) March 2, 2019
Previously, the idea of even approaching the opposite sex stressed him out (again, see above). Now, he’s got so many girls flooding his DMs ordering crop tops he’s really stressed out. Overall though, the experience has been a positive one. And he’s using his newfound platform to lift up others who sell their crocheted goods for a living.
Bag It and #TrashTag It
These days, you see a hashtag trending and it’s almost guaranteed to be bad news. But one positive hashtag broke through the clutter last week after hitting the front page of Reddit multiple times: #TrashTag, a new viral movement centered around people picking up the everyday garbage we see all around us, and posting their good works on Instagram.
Still Doing It
Not only has sex been found to get better with age, but people also become more comfortable in their bodies as they age and are often more open to trying to new things. It only makes sense, then, that there’d be porn that reflects the demographic and sexual curiosities of our senior citizens. Cue John and Dr. Annie Campbell, a pair of mild-mannered septuagenarians who met on the dating site Spiritual Singles, and now, are the world’s oldest (and bravest) adult film stars. Isabelle Kohn interviewed the pair about how they realized they wanted to do porn, and what it was like to bare all in the face of a culture that’s tried to erase their sexuality.
Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is MEL’s senior editor for social media and content marketing. His daily ICYMI column, which chronicles all things meta on the site, is the quickest way to catch up on MEL, and the funniest thing you’ll read all day. Follow him on Twitter.
