Swipe The Nose Like A Credit Card

The No. 1 song in the country -- "WAP" by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion -- seems to make just one concession to commercial decorum: its acronym title, which I won't be spelling out for you here. It's being called the "gloriously filthy song of the summer" and subversive "in almost every way, even as it plays with the limits of explicit expression."

Speaking of troublesome songs: Does The Band's classic "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" belong in the same category as bits of culture like Song of the South and Gone with the Wind?

And finally: Has it turned out that Kevin Costner's 1997 box office bomb, The Postman, is "the most accurate dystopian movie?"

Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take:

• CAROLE BASKIN Debunks Facebook Group's Theory ... MISSING HUBBY'S NOT IN SEPTIC TANK!!!
• Second City Is Trying Not To Be Racist. Will It Work This Time?
  For more than 60 years, the premier home for improv was a bastion of whiteness where performers of color were consistently demeaned. Now it is trying to remake itself entirely.
• An Airline Employee On TikTok Is Calling Out All The Celebs Who Were Rude (And Nice) To Her, And It's Wild
  "She wouldn't get off the aircraft until everybody else got off."
• Two men charged with the 2002 killing of Run-DMC legend Jam Master Jay
• On Percival Everett's Almost Secret Experiment in a Novel in Threes
  David Lerner Schwartz on the Tripartite Puzzle That is Telephone
• How the Criterion Collection Crops Out African-American Directors
  The prestigious line is coveted by cinephiles and taught in film schools. The company's president blames his "blind spots" for largely shutting out Black Americans.

GUESTS:

• Cara McDonough - A freelance writer; you can read her blog at caramcduna.com
• Brian Slattery - Arts editor for the New Haven Independent and a producer at WNHH radio

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Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.

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