Plus: Japanese Breakfast, Severance, Lucy Dacus, blondes and supermarket salami
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Diabolical cult
Michael is off next week! He will be in Thailand delivering snarky asides.

 Alyx Gorman and Michael Sun
We can't stop talking about...
The life-changing magic of lightening up
Blondes  
The life-changing magic of lightening up
When Elle Hunt first dyed her hair, the difference in how she was treated made her assume life got better the more flaxen your look. Lately she's come to realise regular bleachings are both expensive and perhaps a bit racist?
Bleach aglow  
How a cassette tape of Courtney Love and a bottle of Sun In transformed a painfully awkward teenage girl into an unashamedly angry one.
Beach no-go  
Australia's oceanside culture used to feel off limits to notable non-blonde Sarah Malik. This summer she claimed the sea for herself.
Bitch trio  
Triggered by the White Lotus's gaggle of fair-haired frenemies? Here's how to do Thailand without running into them.
Eat this
Supermarket salami
Supermarket salami
We made our writer brave sodium overload to taste test his way to a killer charcuterie board.
Extremely online
Extremely online
Asking the real questions: why do all Irish men look Australian now? How much do Severance employees earn? Why do rock biopics look like that? Why does the new Snow White suck? What makes a difficult novel? What happened to social skills? What happened to art critics? What happened to this art critic

Good reads: on Rick Owens and Chlöe Sevigny; on new Japanese Breakfast and old Courtney Barnett. Here is the craziest White Lotus take and here is the craziest White Lotus scene. The Dare fell over and Lucy Dacus is dating the little one. Big week for bisexuals! Remember getting paid $166k for one magazine story? Neither! Renting is a nightmare but so is home ownership. At least we’ll always have bathhouses

Bad news: we’re all getting dumber
The funniest things on the internet
Sez's tour of her tabs
Sez's tour of her tabs
'One day I will be able to rot my brain,' she prayed as a child. Now her wish has been granted.
Top of the list
A show – more sad  
You have certainly seen, heard of, or read one of 1000 articles about Netflix's Adolescence. But what to watch afterwards?
You have certainly seen, heard of, or read one of 1000 articles about Netflix's Adolescence. But what to watch afterwards?
Another show – swish pad  
Shondaland's latest, The Residence, is eight gleeful hours of murder mystery set at the White House – with a Kylie cameo. On Netflix.
Shondaland's latest, The Residence, is eight gleeful hours of murder mystery set at the White House – with a Kylie cameo. On Netflix.
A book – work mad  
Sarah Wynn-Williams used to be Facebook's director of public policy – and now she's written an exposé. Careless People is out now, and it's the story of a 'diabolical cult'.
Sarah Wynn-Williams used to be Facebook's director of public policy – and now she's written an exposé. Careless People is out now, and it's the story of a 'diabolical cult'.
Another book – big bad  
Suzanne Collins has released a second Hunger Games prequel, titled Sunrise on the Reaping. It's even crueler than the originals.
Suzanne Collins has released a second Hunger Games prequel, titled Sunrise on the Reaping. It's even crueler than the originals.
This week's weirdest story
Bucolic chic
Bucolic chic
How a New Zealand cattle farmer amassed one of Australasia's most outré fashion collections.
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