Tea With Chris is a roundup of recommended links, posted every Friday. Here are a few of our favourite things from the Internet this week:
Margaux: Chris and Carl are at the Pop Conference in L.A. this week so I will attempt to cover tea alone.
Mainly – I highly recommend the latest New Yorker magazine. It is action packed.
So far I have just read two articles, the first: An incredibly cautious and thoughtful article on Scientology by Lawrence Wright. The article is framed through the story of a movie director’s eventual descent from Scientology after 35 years as an active member. The most hilarious thing about the article is the lack of nuanced lying, there is a lot of “I wasn’t even in that country!” or “I met no such person!” rather than the more expected, subtle massaging of the truth. This made the hunt for truth seem kind of hilarious. The saddest thing about the article is that, with the collected and convincing evidence mounting, it is appearing very likely that anyone supporting Scientology through services or donations is helping to support (however unwittingly) the continuation of human rights abuses.
The second article: Tiny Fey, who turns out to write a fine New Yorker article, ponders the dilema of either making things a tiny bit better for her family by having another child or making things a tiny bit better for the entertainment industry by staying around long enough so she can make sure older female comedians will continue to be hired rather than continue to be deemed “crazy” and unemployable. As she explains:
“I have a suspicion – and hear me out – that the definition of “crazy” in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to fuck her anymore.”
I went, “hahahahahahahahahaha”. Tiny Fey continued:
“The only person I can think of who has escaped the “crazy” moniker is Betty White, which, obviously, is because people still wnat to have sex with her.”
I thought, “True enough”. And then I thought about Betty White. And then I thought about Tina Fey some more.
Chris: Carl and I are indeed in L.A., but here’s some very quick links before I race over to the Pop Conference:
Flannery O’Connor, another secret cartoonist.
The funniest gimmick-Tumblr concerning the British class system you will see this week: 
http://davidcameronpretendingtobecommon.tumblr.com/
I haven’t actually finished watching this vintage documentary about rap in Toronto yet – Pop Conference papers tend to be written at the last minute – but it looks pretty great:
(Via Noz.)
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