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Pipe Wrench is a nonprofit reader-supported quarterly magazine. Each issue features one great longform piece surrounded by a constellation of reactions, digressions, asides, and ephemera. It’s the unforgettable story, the excited conversation about it, and the 3AM internet rabbit hole all rolled into one.
As you read, we’ll help you out with links and margin notes that highlight the ways pieces connect and overlap with each other. And everything you see here was created by people who were paid fairly, given contracts created in partnership with the National Writers Union, and supported editorially.
Learn more about what we make, how we’re making it, and how to support or participate in the internet’s best magazine named for an A-ha song, and join our mailing list to get notes when new issues publish:

The Late-Nite Special:
A Medium Bucket of Popcorn Trivia
January 19th is National Popcorn Day. Plan your observance accordingly.
Need fun family Popcorn Day activities? If you try Popcorn Air Hockey, please send video.
Wise words from TikTok: “The medium is always a scam.” Plus: your buttering woes, solved.
Counterpoint: save cash at the theater by “using your kid as a candy mule.”
The world’s only popcorn museum is still only the
7th most popular attraction in Marion, Ohio.
Your popcorn is too damn expensive because of
a SCOTUS case from 1948.
The Power Pops are “an elite team of popcorn superheroes who all work for the good of the popcorn crop.” Stay on your toes, Marvel.
Act II pops the most efficiently according to a very scientific study. Citations include “My Mom.”
Netflix, chill, and charge your friends $9.
Make your own ranked grid of movie theater snacks. Compare with your friends! Gloat in your rightness!
“I’m not a real film buff. Unfortunately, I don’t have time. I just don’t go. And I become very nervous when I go to a film because I worry so much about the director and it is hard for me to digest my popcorn.”
David Lynch
A Big Fat Bevy of Art
Five illustrators who will bring more fat representation to your life. Early versions of the home page layout for issue six included a section that would require a handful of small drawings or photos. Michelle’s…
Waiting-room Reading
Because our next issue doesn’t come out until May 17, and because your to-read book pile can never be too high. The best way to choose a book is by spending four to five hours…
Happy Almost-Birthday, Us
The Ellie ceremony was last week, and Pipe Wrench was there. What will we accomplish in Year Two? We can only assume a Nobel. If you hadn’t heard the first dozen times, this barely-one-year-old magazine…
“I don’t think that movies are too violent. But I do think that popcorn is too expensive, and this can often lead to violence.”
Oooh, you scrolled almost all the way down.
You must like us! The feeling’s mutual.
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