SUMMER FRIDAYS DEP'T.: Easy season
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 102
GOOD MORNING! SCHOOL is not out yet where Indignity operates, but the mandate to be there is getting ragged. And each year, as the leisure months arrive, your Indignity newsletter indulges in the older, more gracious, all-but-defunct traditions of the publishing industry and declares it is time for SUMMER FRIDAYS, in which we deliver a brief digest of the week with a few extra light items, then peel our eyeballs off the screen and go try to take advantage of the liberty and daylight. From now through Labor Day, we encourage anyone else who is self-employed or lightly supervised to likewise head for the exits while you can. We'll all be plunged back into darkness soon enough! Thank you for your continued reading and support of Indignity!
A week of INDIGNITY
MR WRONG
JOE MACLEOD
I spent the day wondering why I was working, more than I usually, do, philosophically, you know? Why am I here? At my desk? I never pretty much ever work more than I usually do, though, in the more literal sense, literally never. Have fun now!
THE WORST THING WE READ™ [paywalled]
Tom Scocca
The Searchlight project isn't trying to make the country safer or more free. It is trying to win an intraparty fight, addressing itself to a narrow ideological band of Democratic donors and politics writers who believe that their own preferences—beating back trans rights, respecting the wealthy, not having to listen to junior employees—are or ought to be "the most effective, broadly popular positions" that "will help them win again."
LOST AND FOUND DEP'T.
Tom Scocca
Recently Missing in America: A rusted 1950s Tokheim gas pump (from the long-defunct Polly's Place gas station in Breckenridge, Michigan, where it had become a landmark for motorcyclists, leading the Eagles of Redemption Motorcycle Club to offer a reward)
ANDY ROONEY 2.0
Tom Scocca
Avis was going out of its way to make it sound as if I had done something wrong and I was being billed for it. The letter assigned the toll an "Incident Number" and it declared "you are responsible for all charges, penalties, and fees related to Congestion Charge incurred during your rental."
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, June 5, 2025
★★★ Summer clothes had gone from being a welcome option to a necessity; out on the street, short sleeves were giving way to no sleeves. The accurate word for the midday air really was "sticky," and there was no case to make against the household demand that the air conditioners come on. By afternoon, though, the humidity had dropped, and the trees inside the Park were fending off the worst of the heat. Calf-length gold pants shimmered in the light. Where the crabapple and an oak leaned toward each other over the Pool, cedar waxwings alternately darted between the trees and perched still and upright, inconspicuous till the eye found their tiny improbably bright bits of color. The water was low and a robin landed out on a stretch of mud that usually would have been submerged. A dog rolled in the thick grass until its leash was tangled around a hind leg. Over on Broadway, out in the open, the heat was considerable, but passing through it made for tolerable exertion, not crushing labor. This was practice summer, not quite the whole thing. The air conditioners were able to get the upper hand and cycle off. From 4 to 6 was when the day truly showed its length, as the afternoon just stayed the afternoon, undiminished.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
HERE IS THE Indignity Morning Podcast archive. If nothing unexpected gets in the way, after we take our leisurely summer Friday, we will talk again on Monday.
TOM SCOCCA
ADVICE DEP'T.
HEY! DO YOU like advice columns? They don't happen unless you send in some letters! Surely you have something you want to justify to yourself, or to the world at large. Now is the perfect time to share it with everyone else through The Sophist , the columnist who is not here to correct you, but to tell you why you're right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net , and get the answers you want.
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of sandwiches selected from The new Annie Dennis Cook Book , by Annie E. Dennis, published in 1921, and now available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
Brown Bread Sandwiches
1/2 teacupful chopped raisins
1/2 teacupful rolled almonds
1 cream cheese
1/2 cupful melted butter
Thin with cream and season with salt and paprika. Cut the bread very thin.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net .
SELF-SERVING SELF-PROMOTION DEP'T.
Indignity is presented on Ghost. Indignity recommends Ghost for your Modern Publishing needs. Indignity gets a slice if you do this successfully!
