Happy Birthday, Ben! CEBro of Thrillist Media Group Ben Lerer celebrated his birthday this week. His coworkers reminded him what a spritely young brosefstein he is by mocking up an old fake ID on a cake. Team Thrillist was also nice enough to honor their overlord by throwing him a surprise party, but, judging by the picture, they only ordered a single cake.
His week got even better when he was one of the few humans in the world get his hands on a gold iPhone 5S. So big week for you, Ben! You don’t look a day over “21.”
Gimme shelter Everyone in America is either a) loudly very very excited about the series finale of Breaking Bad or b) silently very very excited about Breaking Bad ending so we don’t have to hear about it anymore. It would seem that blogger/oft entrepreneur Jason Calacanis falls into the former category. “So the lesson of breaking bad is that entrepreneurs should not screw each other out of their founder stock? Makes sense,” he tweeted after last week’s episode.
Pretty sure the lesson of Breaking Bad is actually: Don’t cook meth.
iOS 7 by Bravo. Either it’s an unintended perk or some crafty subliminal advertising, but users of iOS 7 have noticed that the default ringtone sounds like a Real Housewives melody. Someone on Twitter brought it to Bravo Andy Cohen‘s attention and apparently you’re not going crazy if the light, melodic theme reminds you of a table-throwing housewife. He hears it too!
“@hellocalla: The new iOS7 default ringtone sounds like scene transition music on Real Housewives @andy @Bravotv” I KEEP HEARING THIS!
— Andy Cohen (@Andy) September 24, 2013
Sniffles Don’t get him wrong–Vimeo founder Jake Lodwick loves New York. He really does! But there’s just one little problem, he recently complained via Twitter: “have to use my Neti Pot constantly here. So much dust, grime and cocaine.” No city’s perfect, Jake.
Two groans, one eyeroll Former president and perpetual rake Bill Clinton tweeted a pic of himself havin’ so much fun with Bill Gates this week. And the similarity in their first names was not lost on Bubba, who, in tweeting, “Two Bills, one selfie,” took the opportunity to punnily reference that triumph in scatological cinema, “Two Girls, One Cup.” Ugh, Dad, do you even know what that means?
Two Bills, one selfie. Already having fun at #CGI2013 MT @BillGates A @billclinton selfie as we sat down to talk http://t.co/iK4Y7tGFIY
— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) September 24, 2013
Cover your mouths Vanity Fair and Netflix—well, their social media editors—engaged in a playful Twitter spat earlier this week. VF tweeted a link to a gem-filled blog post of theirs entitled, “The 25 Worst Movie Covers on Netflix.”
Netflix, apparently failing to realize that “8,000 Miles 2: Girls Rapper” is just begging to be lampooned, opted not to let them have the last word on weird covers, responding with:
@VanityFair @michcoll Just sayin 😉 pic.twitter.com/hmKVKKp0yo
— Netflix US (@netflix) September 24, 2013
Considering that photo itself was a spoof of the magazine’s own 2006 cover featuring Tom Ford, Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley, it’s pretty clear VF won this round–ability to laugh at oneself goes a long way.
Undiplomatic Someone please go bring Dick Costolo back down from the clouds before the upcoming Twitter IPO makes him entirely too full of himself: “I feel like i’m witnessing a tectonic shift in the geo-political landscape reading @HassanRouhani tweets. Fascinating,” he tweeted this afternoon re: these dispatches from the president of Iran. True enough but also chill, dude. Also, maybe verify the guy if you’re so impressed.
Barely legal We did it, everyone: Tumblr has finally made it to the Supreme Court–and NOT in a case about the free speech rights of high school students to post naked photos. Imagine that!
The Daily Dot reports that, you see, constitutional scholar Lawrence Lessig recently started a Tumblr, in collaboration with Elizabeth Warren. It’s called “Corruption,” Originally, and it’s “a place to collect 325 historical uses of the term ‘corruption’ by Founding Fathers George Mason, Patrick Henry, and signer of the Constitution Charles Pinckney.” (Must be a real gas to discuss at cocktail parties.) Well, Professor Lessig has filed an amicus brief in the case McCutcheon vs. the Federal Election Commission, which is about restrictions on political contributions. The Tumblr is cited as evidence that “the Framers [of the Constitution] meant more by ‘corruption’ than simple ‘quid pro quo’ (this for that) corruption.”
Just don’t let Scalia look at the #NSFW tag, or he’ll stage some sort of coup and personally suspend free speech entirely.