🍲 Issue 1: It is OK.

🍲 可口可樂公司在1993年推出「敵托邦」風格的汽水「OK Soda」：

International market research done by The Coca-Cola Company in the late 1980s revealed that “Coke” was the second most recognizable word across all languages in the world. The first word was “OK”. Zyman (who also conceived Fruitopia) decided to take advantage of this existing brand potential and created a soft drink with this name. He conceived of a counter-intuitive advertising campaign that intentionally targeted people who did not like advertising.

針對目標是那些對普通廣告不信任的边缘個體。口號是「Things are going to be OK」。

插畫由漫畫家 David Clowes 和 Charles Burns 創作，風格令人不安。其中 David Clowes 还是视觉小说 「David Boring」的作者：

The book depicts the misadventures of its eponymous character, whose main interests are finding the "perfect woman" and learning more about his father, an obscure comic artist whom he has never met. All this occurs in a nameless American city, against the background of a looming conflict involving germ warfare.

🥣 Adam Tooze 对「Liberalism at Large: The World According to the Economist」的書評：

All too often, democracy has come second to the rights of property and commerce. During the American Civil War, the Economist’s support for free trade meant sympathy for the slave-holding south. The cotton planters, unlike their Yankee industrialist opponents, were fundamentally dependent on export markets. Meanwhile, back home in Britain, the newspaper was far from enthusiastic about the expansion of the franchise. It was not until the early 20th century that it accommodated itself to democracy. And, even then, the question was what democracy meant in practice. Keeping economic policy out of the hands of the masses was all important. During the Cold War this dictated a hard line. In one of the most powerful chapters of the book, Zevin reconstructs the Economist’s unabashed role on the frontlines of anti-communism. After cheering on the murderous Suharto regime in Indonesia, the Economist also welcomed the bloody right-wing coup in Chile in 1973. When news of Marxist prime minister Salvador Allende’s suicide reached London, an editor cavorted through the Economist offices proclaiming “my enemy is dead.”

反對廢奴，支持血腥獨裁，如今作爲理性之聲的經濟學人也曾經瘋狂。

According to lore, when one young recruit was facing the challenge of composing their first leader, the advice they received from a senior editor was simple: “Pretend you are God.”

🥣 Wirecutter 的 沙發購買指南

🥣 What Everyone is Getting Wrong about the Toilet Paper Shortage

2020-04-09 #1