The Scammers, Food Diaries, and WNBA Rivalries That Got Us Through the Week

The sports story on everyone’s lips this week was Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, but I am so hyped for the WNBA playoffs this year. The Las Vegas Aces are pummeling the Dallas Wings despite the Texas women’s best efforts. Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart of New York Liberty are making the Connecticut Sun work for a spot in the finals. Friday night (Sept. 29) is both Game 3s, with Game 4s on Sunday (Oct. 1). But! It’s likely that the Aces will win on Friday and advance to the semifinals, so only plan for one Game 4 on Sunday. Join me in screaming about a sports story that actually matters: The Aces trying to be the first team to win back-to-back championships since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002. —Caitlin Cruz

In which Redditors who receive those weird, out-of-the-blue messages that purport to have texted the wrong number (like that’s even a thing!) take back the power and fuck with the scammers mercilessly. There are too many that have made me cry laughing to recommend one, but you could start here for a recent example. Look, there are obvious disparities that lead people to be gift-card desperate (while begging you to switch to an encrypted texting app like Telegram), but we are all living in a system and if someone wants to try to steal money right out from under you, they deserve to have their time wasted. It’s e-karma. —Rich Juzwiak

In case you hadn’t heard: Stacy London and Clinton Kelly have reunited! If those names don’t ring a bell, well, clearly you never feigned illness between 2003 and 2013 so you could spend a day channel surfing. The former hosts of TLC’s What Not to Wear didn’t speak for 10 years after the show was canceled, but fear not, they’re back and are going on tour to reminisce about their—tumultuous?—time filming the beloved series for a live audience. Now, if they aren’t coming to your city (which is likely given the tour is just nine dates), I’ve just discovered What Not to Wear is on Amazon Prime. Does it hold up? Of course not. Has that stopped me from binging the entire first season? Not at all. —Audra Heinrichs

How do I even begin to relay the grandness and magnitude of this story? For starters, this is one of my favorite things I’ve read (articles, books, tweets) in recent memory. It begins with a distraught widow hiring a lawyer to stop someone from taking away her horses, a relationship which reveals an unthinkable betrayal and sparks a series of events explaining the vast fortune of the Wildenstein family—a family that isn’t just a giant player in the secretive underground world of art collecting, “they helped pioneer it.” (Picasso was given two floors in one of the family’s buildings in 1918 in exchange for a first look at his work.)

The sprawling epic spans three centuries and includes jaw-dropping deceits, inconceivable amounts of money, free ports, tax havens, multiple “compounds” spread across the world, the Rockefellers, Nazis, two children (Guy and Alec Wildenstein) who weren’t allowed play dates, and a father (Daniel Wildenstein) who took them to brothels when they were teens, in hopes they’d be happy with prostitutes instead of wives—to avoid pricey things like prenups and divorces. And a lawyer at the center of it, Claude Dumont Beghi, trying to unravel it all.

Not only is it a remarkable story, but it’s also a remarkable piece of reporting by Rachel Corbett. And, frankly, it makes Succession look like the Roy family was fighting over ownership of a family coffee shop. Except the Wildenstein fight is all true. (And not over yet.) —Lauren Tousignant

As the federal government careens yet again toward shutdown, I heartily recommend a Veep rewatch—or first watch, if you are somehow, inexplicably, a Jezebel reader who has never indulged in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ masterpiece. A government shutdown is, in fact, a fun little storyline in Veep’s Season 2. And as our impending real-life shutdown shows, D.C. politics is fundamentally unserious, rooted in egocentrism, theatrical stunts, and reelection.

Veep—the tale of a perennially unlucky, hilariously hateful vice-president-turned-first-female-POTUS and her equal-parts bumbling and ruthless staff—is unrestrained in portraying just how terrible everything is. It’s also teeming with such classic lines as, to quote Louis-Dreyfus’ President Selina Meyer while watching her press secretary get grilled on CNN: “Somewhere in the world there’s a woman exactly my age getting her pussy eaten and I’m stuck here watching this.” Relatable! Between the simmering tensions of the 2024 presidential campaign trail and the ongoing fuckery on Capitol Hill, I cannot imagine a more appropriate time to be watching Veep than right-freaking now. —Kylie Cheung

On weeks I’m feeling particularly listless, I like to indulge in backlogs of Grub Street’s food diaries. The better ones are romantic tales of a person’s most intimate relationship: their own with food. Reading about the idiosyncrasies and thoughtfulness with which people choose their food or cook is very comforting. And depending on whose diary you’re reading, it can be a nice reminder that even the most accomplished writers and artists are still just trying to find a decent turkey club at a diner that doesn’t cost $22.

This week’s diary is by New York Times book critic Dwight Garner. It’s incredibly detailed and varied—and examining him through his stomach, it seems like he lives a good life. I’m not sure I’ll ever get the following description of a frozen sandwich out of my head: “The frozen version can’t compete with the sandwich you get in the restaurant. It’s like nibbling the corner of a photograph of your college girlfriend while she’s away for the summer.”

There’s also some great cookbook and cooking app recommendations in this piece if you’re looking for inspiration in that arena. —Kady Ruth Ashcraft

This is not a new movie! But in a year of great evil, what’s more timely than the eternal struggle between God and the Devil??? Literally, that’s what this movie is about: After a fearsome cosmic battle for the souls of all of humanity, God and the Devil have agreed to a détente, with Earth serving as a sort of in-between DMZ where they cannot meddle. But as we humans blunder our way towards heaven or Purgatory, their angles and demons, respectively, sure as hell (pun!) can.

Keanu Reeves, playing the most Keanu Reeves character of all time, is our dark hero, who, after getting a glimpse at the horrors of hell, is determined to reach heaven; he thinks he’ll get there if he exorcizes enough demons on Earth. Rachel Weisz plays twins who see dead things (the woman does twins well). Tilda Swinton is archangel Gabriel, which is just insanely good casting.

So yeah, crazy premise—but this gothic horror comic book film about Catholicism justifies it. Can’t recommend it enough. —Sarah Rense

If you would like some more memes in your Instagram feed, I humbly suggest that you follow Jill, a Toronto-based culture writer. She loves Succession and Barbie, yes, but also the cult fave I Think You Should Leave, and the music of the Talking Heads. Jill has an uncanny ability for crossover memes, like Ken meets Kendall, and Succession meets anything else, and Barbie meets politics, but there are also one-offs about beautiful, internet-friendly garbage, like the Shrek x Crocs collab. And she’s delightfully pro-union to boot. —Susan Rinkunas