The Slatest for Dec. 8: The Best Gifts Under $25
If you’re scrambling to finish up your holiday shopping and you’re getting stressed about how much you’ve spent (in this economy!), don’t worry—Slate is here to help. We put our heads together and came up with this list of the best gifts under $25 that we’ve ever received, from pasta monsters to squirrel tables. Oh, there’s a bologna face mask, too.
And ICYMI: Luke Winkie makes an impassioned plea for couples to adopt his indisputably brilliant new Christmas tradition.
An appeals court upheld Trump’s gag order in his federal 2020 election interference case—and now the Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in, if it wants to. Robert Katzberg argues this is a chance for the court to repair its destroyed reputation.
In her new bestselling memoir, Liz Cheney calls out Trump and his cronies with bracing candor. Laura Miller reviews the book, and has one question: Why did it take her so long?
Republicans are saying they won’t vote for Ukraine funding unless Democrats back a bill that would put the southern border of the U.S. on intense lockdown. If this doesn’t get resolved by the end of next week, when Congress goes on holiday recess, it could mean Ukraine runs out of ammunition. In other words, Fred Kaplan writes, this could be “a holiday cork-popper for Russian President Vladimir Putin and all of our other adversaries.” He lays out what’s at stake in this alarming game of chicken.
In the wake of a pair of lawsuits that blame Panera’s Charged Lemonade for causing two deaths, Mark Joseph Stern asks a very good question: “Why should Americans rely on a law firm, and the eventual decisions of a judge and jury, to decide a national standard for caffeinated lemonade?”
He explains why the story of Panera’s “lemonade that kills you” is really a story about our broken country. And by the way, we don’t know if it kills quite yet either.
When a Texas judge ruled in Kate Cox’s favor this week, it was a historic win for abortion rights—but the state is still targeting her. Mary Ziegler explains what’s going on.
It was a strange year in television, but at least we still had these gems. Here are the Slate staff’s favorite TV shows of the year.
… much like GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley claims to be. But in this week’s debate, somehow Chris Christie was the voice of reason.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend, one that is relatively chaos- and vendetta-free!
Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you on Monday.
