Kendom Smell

My Kendom For A Horse

Lawrence Freedman | Comment Is Freed | 6th August 2023

Barbie, a strategic analysis. Why does the revolution of the Kens collapse, allowing the Barbies to restore their matriarchy so easily? Not because of hard power. Neither coup is violent. Ideology is the decisive factor. "Ken does not understand the patriarchy. He believes it has something to do with horses. The Barbies understand the matriarchy because they have lived it before" (1,500 words)

That 1980s Bowling Alley Smell

Jason Diamond | The Melt | 25th August 2023

Why don't ice rinks, and bowling alleys, and everything else, smell the way they used to when "we" (read "people turning 50") were kids? Is it just the lack of struck matches and cigarette smoke? Are different chemicals used for cleaning the ice and waxing the lanes? Or do our memories mislead us, insisting that the world of youth smelt (and felt) richer and stranger than the world of middle age? (1,580 words)