In most of our homes, Diwali puja is run by Nani or Dadi. She sits cross-legged in front of the mandir, rattles off one mantra after another without opening a book, and the rest of us mumble along half a beat late. Be honest, you probably only know the first line of most of them… Read More »

Every Diwali my phone does the same thing. By 9 AM there are forty “Happy Diwali” forwards, half of them the same golden diya GIF, and at least one uncle has sent a video with music that starts on its own. I love the people who send them. I just don’t remember a single message.… Read More »

I’ve watched the GTA 6 launch trailer about eleven times since Rockstar dropped it yesterday. Not proud of it. Around watch number six I stopped following the story and started staring at the water, the hair, the neon smeared across wet asphalt. I haven’t played it, obviously. This is a gamer’s read of the trailers,… Read More »

Every October I tell myself I’ll pick a costume early. Every October I end up scrolling trend lists at 11 p.m. two days before a party. So this year I did the scrolling for you, and I only kept what the data actually says. Quick heads up: some of this year’s picks are wonderfully weird.… Read More »

I saw “Alex Garland” trending this morning and figured it was more Elden Ring news. Nope. It’s bigger than that, at least for me. Zendaya is going to star in Garland’s next sci-fi movie, and A24 is making it. I’ve been a Garland fan since I watched Ex Machina on a laptop with bad headphones… Read More »

If you’ve seen “Banana Ball” climbing your search trends today, here’s why. Tonight the Savannah Bananas reveal where their traveling baseball circus goes in 2027, and a lot of fans are glued to their phones to see if their city made the cut. Yeah, I’ve been following this thing. The schedule reveal is basically its… Read More »

Bill Ritter’s been in the New York news business a long time. He joined WABC-TV Eyewitness News back in June 1998 and took over the 11 p.m. newscast in October 1999. He added the 6 p.m. show in February 2001. Before he made his way to New York, he was a writer at the Los… Read More »

I’ve been burned by GTA dates before, so I didn’t fully believe this one until Rockstar dropped the launch trailer this morning. Launch trailers are the point of no return. Nobody cuts one five weeks out and then slips again. So, here’s what’s actually locked in — and what’s still just a report. When’s the… Read More »

Dussehra morning arrives and the family group chat is already full of the same five forwards you’ve seen before. The card with the glittery bow and arrow. The one that prints “May Lord Rama bless you” in four fonts at once. Nobody reads them anymore. Nobody remembers who sent what. I sat down and wrote… Read More »