are you trying to seduce me?

Well the internet has gifted us today, as Joseph Gordon-Levitt somehow bested his previous SNL opening monologue by bringing less clothes and more dancing, Magic Mike style. Turns out in 2012 we have an awful lot to thank Channing Tatum for (Vulture thinks so too). And for those of us outside North America (thanks for nothin', NBC), Jezebel has gifs for days.

Then there was the incomparable Anne Helen Petersen breaking down the timeless appeal of the Boss.

And because good things come in threes, Kat Dennings looking like a goddamn bombshell at the Emmys:

the half-life of love is forever

Earlier this year The Hairpin linked to an incredibly absorbing interview with Junot Díaz in the Boston Review - read here, read it! And then get his latest collection of short stories, because they're everything a follow-up to The Brief Wondrous Life (or more pertinently, the raw and beautiful Drown)ought to be. Sometimes it's just such a relief to hear an intelligent, articulate man address issues of race and sexuality in a thoughtful way - consider it an antidote to the general world at large.