The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
4 — Wednesday, February 16, 2022

When 
your 
university’s 

president is put on blast for 
flirting through the prover-
bial family iPad, you don’t just 
brush it off.

It’s time to talk about the 

Schlissel memes. They take 
many forms: a Yik Yak post, 
a cheeky affirmation, a spray 
paint installment in the Diag. 
Instead of an outpouring of 
disappointment or grief, stu-
dents are resorting to humor, 
which is easy enough to under-
stand, as joking is the simplest 
way to cope with shame, a 
fact further amplified by the 
absurdity of the situation.

We reached out to a num-

ber of Schlissel memers on 
Instagram for a look into the 
motivations of the students 
indulging in the tomfoolery. 
If you have a pulse and you 
own a cell phone, you probably 
know exactly what I’m talking 
about. @umich_incellectuals, 
best described as a U-M-spe-
cific reimagining of the vastly 
popular meme page @on_a_
downward_spiral, kicked off 
the memes with a series of text 
posts. The earliest read “WE 
JUST LOST THE SCHLUSSY” 
over a portrait of a grinning 
Schlissel. Another said “who 
else up lonelying their ms.” 
My personal favorite from the 
account was an edited photo 
of Schlissel’s twitter with a 
blacked out profile picture 
and “Gone. Don’t text me or 
hmu” in the bio.

@umichcapsbabes, 
which 

popped up fairly recently, 
jumped on the train with a 
similar slew of memes. Their 
most popular, with over 200 
likes, poked fun at the famed 
YouTube 
apology 
format, 

titled “my truth” with Schlis-

sel in the thumbnail. Another 
meme read “me leaving Pizza 
House with 10 extra calzones 
up my ass” over a cheery-faced 
Schlissel.

@umichaffirmations, 

known by almost 12,000 fol-
lowers 
for 
their 
cleverly 

specific 
affirmation-based 

U-M memes, made a carou-
sel post of memes catered 
towards 
Schlissel. 
Some 

include, “I WILL NOT Send 
Raunchy Messages From My 
Work Email,” “WHAT IF WE 
MISSED OUR CONNECTION 

IN PARIS” and “I Will Not Be 
Lured In With The Promise Of 
A Knish.” 

What got to me about @ince-

llectuals and the other pages 
was how fast they respond-
ed to the news and how they 
decided to go about it — for 
some reason, their immediate 
reaction to reading those 118 
emails was to make memes. 
When asked about the use of 
memes as a response, one of 
the 
@umich_incellectuals 

admins responded over Insta-
gram DMs: “I think the memes 
were inevitable, the fuck them 
kids memes were already all 
over campus, we made a few 
too and like rightly so every-
one already had a pretty low 

opinion.” The account’s sec-
ond admin seemed to agree: 
“The way memes came almost 
immediately 
after 
his 
fir-

ing were kind of reflective of 
like the almost comedic rela-
tionship that’s been existing 
between schlissel and the stu-
dent body for nearly 2 years.”

The admin from @umich-

capsbabes had some thoughts 
about the meaning of the 
memes: “What makes them 
funny is that someone took 
time out of their day to make 
an edit for the bursley baits 

loop for absolutely no reason. 
Mark Schlissel is a grown man 
who’s probably at home very 
concerned about his public 
image and everyone else is just 
like yeahhh it makes sense 
that he’s a calzone man.” 

@umichaffirmations’s 

admin ties up the issue with 
a nihilistic bow: “The fact 
that our university president 
is having an affair is an abso-
lutely absurd and unfortu-
nate situation. But so is living 
through a massive pandemic. 
So is the fact that we have 
single-digit weather. We can 
either live life accepting the 
bad things, or cope with them 
via humor.” While I personal-
ly don’t enjoy accepting these 

things with complacency, I 
struggle to find a better alter-
native. But maybe I’m looking 
at it the wrong way. 

Yes, it’s funny — I will never 

get tired of “lonely m”— but 
what exactly is the joke here? 
That our No. 1 ranked Univer-
sity, with its illustrious Board 
of Regents and its $17 billion 
endowment, was spearhead-
ed by someone incompetent 
enough to send hotel receipts 
to Individual 1 over his Uni-
versity email? That our presi-
dent, our emblem, likes his 
calzones with extra mush-
rooms and his salads topped 
with cherries? The latter is 
not so incriminating, but his 
behavior towards Jon Vaughn 
is. Far worse than a string of 
silly emails is the impotent 
response to the Robert Ander-
son case and, most important-
ly, its survivors — Schlissel 
disgraced this institution long 
before 
Communications.pdf 

was in the picture. In fact, 
many might agree that his 
firing in and of itself is hypo-
critical.

There are jokes, but as the 

first 
@umich_incellectuals 

admin says, “At first I thought 
he’d 
been 
fired 
over 
the 

Anderson case, which would 
have been ideal because his 
conduct over that has been 
disgraceful and a huge dark 
cloud over the university.” 

Maybe Schlissel will return 

to the comfort of his tenure as 
a professor. Maybe some right-
fully vindictive MCDB majors 
will heckle him to embarrassment 
during office hours, or maybe he 
will retreat into his 401(k)-pad-
ded cave and never be heard from 
again. There’s also the possibility 
that Mary Sue Coleman won’t do 
a better job. At the very least, the 
idea that our frustrations might 
become a tangible force is reas-
suring.

It’s time to talk about the Schlissel memes

‘The Woman in the 
House Across the 

Street from the Girl in 
the Window’ is just as 
confusing as its title

Now, who doesn’t love psy-

chological 
thrillers? 
How 

about 
psychological 
thrill-

ers with a little bit of satire? 
Netflix’s original series “The 
Woman in the House Across 
the Street from the Girl in the 
Window” is exactly that. At 
least, that’s what it’s supposed 
to be. 

The 
show’s 
protagonist 

Anna is played by the beauti-
fully gifted Kristen Bell (“Do, 
Re & Mi”). After struggling 
with a divorce and the unex-
pected death of her daugh-
ter, Anna spends most of her 
time sitting in a chair drink-
ing colossal amounts of wine 
while looking out her front 
window. But her interest is 
piqued when a hot new neigh-
bor and single father, Neil 
(Tom Riley, “The Nevers”), 
and his daughter Emma (Sam-
sara Leela Yett, “Don’t Look 
Up”) move in right across the 
street. After spending some 
one-on-one time with Neil, 
Anna truly thinks this connec-
tion is something. However, 
it quickly fizzles when Neil’s 
flight 
attendant 
girlfriend 

Lisa (Shelley Hennig, “Mythic 
Quest”) shows up at his house 
for a few days. Back to the 
window Anna goes until, in a 
jarring turn of events, she wit-
nesses Lisa’s gruesome mur-
der. Or does she? 

The trailer frames the show 

as 
something 
serious 
and 

thrilling that plays within its 
mystery and suspense tropes. 
Yet, you can’t help but realize 
that the plot looks a bit out of 
place and is a tad bit cringey. 
But that’s for good reason: The 
show is a parody of both the 
Netflix thriller, “The Woman 
in the Window,” and the film 
“The Girl on the Train.” Unfor-
tunately, it does a terrible job 
of doing so. 

Granted, there are some 

funny moments that attempt 
to demonstrate its dark com-
edy, like Anna appearing to be 
so terrified of the rain touch-
ing her skin that she literally 
succumbs to it in the most dra-
matic way. Or, take the infinite 
amount of chicken casserole 
Anna makes every night, only 
for it to repeatedly burn her 
hands or be dropped and shat-
tered, and then appear again 
the next night.

Regardless, the show strug-

gles to figure out its genre. 
There’s no way to tell it is a 
parody unless you’re familiar 
with the films it ridicules, nor 
does it present itself as a com-
edy, and then ultimately loses 
itself in its assumed genre of 
dark tragedy. However, it does 
hook the audience, making it a 
binge-able show, but viewers 
are only clicking to the next 
episode to find out more about 
Anna’s character and what she 
witnessed.

Overlooking 
the 
failed 

attempt at portraying itself 
as a parody, the show gives a 
true insight into the process of 
grieving a loved one. It doesn’t 
hold back when representing 
what it means to heal your-
self, and how hard that can 
be. Anna’s character is clear-
ly struggling with not only 
the loss of her daughter but 
the pain of a divorce, which 
explains her off-the-wall per-
sonality. It truly establishes a 
sense of empathy for Anna’s 
character which gives this 
show a semblance of realism 
that some satirical psychologi-
cal thrillers lack. 

Overall, this show has no 

identity. It can be a parody, a 
dark comedy, a thriller — hon-
estly, it is whatever you want it 
to be. But one thing is for sure: 
“The Woman in the House 
Across the Street from the Girl 
in the Window” is just as con-
fusing as its title. 

Design by Tamara Turner

LAINE BROTHERTON
Digital Culture Beat Editor

 JESSICA CURNEY

Daily Arts Writer

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By George Jasper
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/16/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/16/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2022

ACROSS

1 Bare-bones
6 Out of concern 

that


concern

14 Early Greek 

public space

15 Excessively: Pref.
16 Aerosol target
17 Mall map 

clarification

19 Half a patio pair
20 Cuban missile 

crisis strategy

22 Uncertainties
25 Even the queen, 

in chess

26 Beat in a hot dog 

contest

27 Like nobility
29 Slow movement
31 Web app for the 

latest

33 What 15 U.S. 

presidents 
formerly were, 
briefly

36 Son of 

Chingachgook, in 
a Cooper novel

37 Be in the red
38 Hustle
40 Shaggy pack 

animal

41 Pre-wedding 

show

43 Frequents dive 

bars, say

45 Pretentious type
46 Key participant
49 NBA tiebreakers
50 Water holder
51 Salad dressing 

brand ... and 
what each set of 
circles reveals

55 Opposed to, in 

dialect

56 Start of a proverb 

for which Ben 
Franklin is 
credited

61 “Star Trek: 

T.N.G.” counselor

62 Do away with
63 Online craft shop
65 Summer Triangle 

star

DOWN

1 __ window
2 Before now

3 Thing of little 

worth

4 Turkey 

neighbor


Sampler 
choices

6 “Freaky Friday” 

actress Lindsay

7 First name in 

daredevilry

8 Saharan
9 Shakes

10 One may be 

sweet

11 Love to death
12 __ line
13 Cereal killer
18 Artfully escape
21 Listening device

guru

23 “Shrek” 

princess

24 Keep in the 

supply room

28 NYC airport on 

Flushing Bay

29 Civil rights 

legend John

30 Blown away
32 What do you 

expect?

33 Put out
34 __ New Guinea


not beneficial

38 Like idiomatic 

skeletons

39 Tom, Dick and 

Harry

41 TV host/

comedian 
with 23 Emmy 
nominations

42 In a suitable 

manner

43 New South 

Wales capital

44 Jeans brand
46 Part of a process
47 __-year
48 “So long, amigo”
49 Skateboard 

move

52 Fluctuate
53 “East of Eden” 

twin

54 Bygone days
57 Stop legally
58 Austin-to-

Houston dir.

59 Star of the ball

SUDOKU

WHISPER

“This is your mes-
sage that you are 
a great person and 

I hope you have a 

wonderful day!”

“Good luck - me 
from the past.”

WHISPER

By Peter A. Collins
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/09/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/09/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2022

ACROSS

1 Kid lit elephant
6 Lend support to

10 Outdoor sitting 

area

15 Love
16 Dunkable snack
17 Leave no trace of
18 Feature that 

4-Down lacks

19 Prefix with type
20 Some pastries
21 Measure used by 

navigators

24 *1977 Rod 

Stewart hit

26 *Difficult spot
29 NYSE debut
30 Versed in 

creative writing

33 Turkish title
34 Semester
36 Usually dramatic 

symphony ending

37 “Miracle on 34th 

Street” hero 
Kringle

38 More than unkind

outfit


document

42 Horse-drawn cab
44 Cuts needing 

stitches

45 *Microwaveable 

turnovers

50 Not out
53 Minor, as a sin
54 Twin Falls-to-

Sioux Falls 
direction

58 Old Route 66 city
60 Gets some sun
61 Army leader 

sometimes seen 
in a bunker?

62 Crest box abbr.
63 Sat atop
66 Bother
67 Wheel edge
68 Petitioner
69 Food store letters
70 Tip of a wing tip

... and where 
the answers to 
starred clues 
might be found?

72 “__ Misérables”

DOWN

1 Humanities degs.
2 Fruit drink suffix
3 1975 Springsteen 

hit

4 No-frills typeface

again

6 Like mind-and-

body medicine

7 __ the Red
8 Horne of jazz

10 Diminutive
11 Postgrad tests

element class

13 Chicago hrs.
14 Bulls and bucks
22 “Yay, the 

weekend!”

23 Tiny bit of dust
24 Snag
25 Soap __
27 Nimble
28 Shocks, in a way
31 Brian of ambient 

music

32 Cold and rainy
35 Interacts well
37 One fond of 

smooching

39 Place to go in 

Gloucester

41 Bit of arm art
43 1981 cable debut
44 Pompadour need
46 Cared for a cat, 

say

47 How stock may 

be bought

48 Movie house
49 “The Big Chill” 

director

50 Maze word

51 Zoom meeting 

component

52 Lover

block

56 Lengthy assault
57 Where to find 

Katy and Austin

59 Part of a foot
61 Colony members
64 “Xanadu” rock gp.
65 Neighbor of N.Y. 

and Minn.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

‘Daughter of the Moon 

Goddess’ has pining 
lovers and dragons

The first installment of Sue 

Lynn Tan’s duology, “Daughter 
of the Moon Goddess,” remains 
engrossing until the final page. 
It is the perfect book to accom-
pany a hot pot of tea and a steady 
stream of snacks — you will read 
it in one sitting, I promise. Tan’s 
novel, straightforward in its lit-
erary offerings, delivers on all 
fronts: adventure, romance and 
xianxia (Chinese mythology/fan-
tasy) genre elements. The novel 
“Daughter of the Moon Goddess” 
diverges from the growing body 
of Asian fantasy series by cover-
ing heavenly immortals rather 
than the archetypal mortal pro-
tagonist. The bulk of the novel is 
set on the Celestial Plane, away 
from earthly squabbles. So yes, 
for anyone familiar with Chi-
nese art history and iconography, 
the immortal characters do ride 
clouds in “Daughter of the Moon 
Goddess.”

As the title declares, the main 

character is Xingyin, a daughter 
born of the Moon’s union with a 
legendary human archer. Howev-
er, because the governing celes-
tial beings have punished and 
mandated that the Moon God-
dess remain solitary, Xingyin’s 
existence must be kept secret. 
Thus, when celestial agents come 
to investigate the Moon’s pal-
ace, Xingyin is forced to leave 
her mother’s side and is spirited 
away in the dead of night. Away 
from home for the first time, Xin-
gyin assumes a new identity in a 
major Celestial city, where she 
comes into the orbit of the prince 

of the realm, accompanying him 
to his lessons and to his military 
practice. As befitting her parent-
age, Xingyin’s fantastic skill with 
the bow helps her quickly start 
attracting recognition. The first 
half of the book opens with the 
promise of upward mobility and 
ambition fulfilled.

However, as the novel pro-

gresses, the overall messaging 
becomes murkier. Tan spins a 
story in which skill and talent do 
not necessarily make for a good 
life and abiding by the oppres-
sive whims of a celestial monar-
chy does not ensure long-term 
security. Xingyin moves through 
the book attempting to create a 
stable life for herself, but she is 
effectively the fantastical equiva-
lent of an undocumented citizen 
in this celestial realm. The threat 
of exposure hangs over Xingyin. 
If she ever were to reveal her par-
entage, she and her mother would 
be horribly punished.

I got too much joy from read-

ing this book. Beyond the novel’s 
plot, what I liked the most was 
how it dwelled on and indulged in 
jealousy and love. The novel was 
not afraid to portray pining lov-
ers, miserable in their separation. 
While similar books might induce 
headaches in their portrayals of 
yearning, “Daughter of the Moon 
Goddess” elicited sympathy — in 
part because the pining lovers 
(their reunion, their separation) 
embodied bigger issues facing the 
protagonist. Xingyin, through 
romance and friendship, takes 
ownership of her skill and, even-
tually, her own identity and par-
entage.

ELIZABETH YOON

Daily Arts Writer

