Year-End Self Assessments
All the posts were objectively perfect. We're just tough critics.
In the waning days of July 2021, this website launched. We’d been blogging at each other in secret for about two months and we were happy to be making money while laughing every day (it might shock you to learn that many of us here had, for months to years, been a bunch of those unemployed hand-biters you hear the news media drone on about). At the same time, some of our mentors had told us to stay away from the Gawker name, and we were sweating so much, and few of us could find any reasonable apartments to rent that came with regular sized refrigerators.
We understood the dichotomy back then. We could do good work one hour, then less good work the next. Let this pie chart where I polled the staff (including myself) illustrate what I mean:
It’s 33.3 percent complicated, like that movie.
The year’s gotten tougher, and it’s hard to be funny and smart when you don’t know if you’re allowed to eat dinner with friends anymore. I also polled the staff about that:
That 25 percent affirmation that we think our best days are ahead of us is exactly what I like to hear!
In the spirit of duality, here’s our honest self-assessments of our work. I asked each staffer what they considered their best work and their worst work, but I regret phrasing that way. Consider this more of a holistic self-assessment about the blogs that made us grow. There are no bad posts, only bad-faith posters.
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BEST WORK
WORST WORK
All my worst blogs died in my notes app.
-BRANDY JENSEN, FEATURES EDITOR
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BEST WORK
I am very grateful to have had a platform on which to share this correct opinion.
WORST WORK
I want all of my posts to be unimpeachably true and honest; this is clear from my oeuvre. But I feel like this one willfully misread what Harry was trying to say in order to make a joke about his obscene personal wealth and, albeit likely very real, blindspots regarding how normal people need money to live. I didn't really "land" the connection there. But sometimes you just need to get a post up so whatever.
-KELLY CONABOY, SENIOR STAFF FEATURES WRITER
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BEST WORK
Every single post was amazing, brilliant, funny, smart, sad, thoughtful, and life changing.
WORST WORK
Nothing made me unhappy except that the days ended.
-LEAH FINNEGAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF
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BEST WORK
The one and only blog post I did, my first blog baby, my child.
WORST WORK
I would never speak ill about my one and only and first ever blog post. But technically…
-JACK KOLOSKUS, ART DIRECTOR
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BEST WORK
This conveys how much I love pandas while also acknowledging how ugly they are at birth.
WORST WORK
-JENNY ZHANG, STAFF FEATURES WRITER
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BEST WORK
I really loved this Kirsten Dunst post, which took [Senior Editor] George [Civeris] and I about ten years to complete. If I have an affinity for one thing in this crazy little thing we call life, it's under-appreciated actresses. So much so that I do think this Kiki piece is about 3,000 words, and I could probably do 3,000 more if I had to. Or maybe I should turn my eye to another one of the ladies I think deserve a little more respect. Perhaps Isla Fisher? Wendy Malick? Jessica Biel in the first season of the television show 'The Sinner?' We'll see.
WORST WORK
This is easy. It's this blog about an influencer who was murdered by her husband. Mostly because it bums me out and it's hard to be cheeky about domestic violence (which, wisely, I did not even attempt to do). I also distinctly remember that this was an End of the Day post, so I just was not feeling it. RIP to that woman though.
-OLIVIA CRAIGHEAD, STAFF WRITER
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BEST WORK
I wrote this ok thing about the time Timothée Chalamet spat at me. A random person on Twitter told me that I talk about this event too much, but I would argue that if a sharp-chinned A+-list actor adored by millions spat at you, you'd never shut up about it either. Also I left this out of the post for the sake of my dignity, but Timmy did in fact make me cry. Still loved Dune, though. It was so cool! Use the voice!
WORST WORK
This one about how Peter Jackson gave an orc Harvey Weinstein's face in "Lord of the Rings." I wrote it fast and didn't get as many references in as I wanted to, and Brandy edited it and in addition to being a genius whose work I have admired for many years, she knows a lot about LOTR, and I was really embarrassed that she had to see this article.
-JOCELYN SILVER, MANAGING EDITOR
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BEST WORK
It has not been published yet but I am confident my best post of the year will be about my dead pet skunk.
WORST WORK
As above, so below. As I have previously contributed (1) blog post besides my tribute to the dead skunk, worst leaves the blog I wrote about my building continuing to bang pots and pans at 7 p.m well into 2021. Since then, there have been more arguments about it on Nextdoor, with several people begging the pot clangers to stop. I have no bad feelings towards the blog, it's just second best, which in this case, is worst.
-DARCIE WILDER, SENIOR SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR
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BEST WORK
I learned a lot writing this post and I think others did too.
WORST WORK
I was hoping Brandon Blackstock would get canceled after this post but he seems fine :(
-ALLIE JONES, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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BEST WORK
Tie between these headlines:
Epstein Plane Owner: I Hate My Rape Jet
Jeffrey Epstein’s Last Days: I Am Rain Man
WORST WORK
-TARPLEY HITT, STAFF WRITER
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BEST WORK
I must credit Jojo Siwa dressed as Pennywise for much of the visual gaggery in this blog post but this was so so so nuts.
WORST WORK
Sometimes things you think are funny are absolutely ruined by dorks online telling you that you don’t understand copyright law. I never claimed to!
-CLAIRE CARUSILLO, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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BEST WORK
Good wine writing that is also fun is hard to come by and even harder to come up with, but I think I did a good job with that here.
WORST WORK
This one was definitely my most esoteric post. I wrote it on the bus during a press trip in Italy and usually my best work is written in bed.
-TAMMIE TECLEMARIAM, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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BEST WORK
I enjoyed writing about Patti Smith’s poem about suitcases. I did not like learning I had that much vitriol in me, but sometimes enough is enough.
WORST WORK
Probably that time I referred to everyone on Slack as “folksinas.”
-GEORGE CIVERIS, SENIOR EDITOR
