This article is titled “13 Things That Cost More,” but really, it’s everything. Even Costco gas, which is cheaper than most, cost me $3.71 this weekend, and I saw $3.85 on the road recently.
One of the websites I used to rely on for movie news was Cinematical. I won’t link to it because it doesn’t really deserve it anymore. Cinematical is run by AOL, which bought/merged with Huffington Post, and Huffington Post decided to fire all the writers and employ their own team – but the current writers were encouraged to stay and write, unpaid, for the blog. The editors of Cinematical resigned in protest and a good portion of the Internet is in a fury. One of the former Cinematical writers explains what went down, with the original “you’re fired but will you work for free” email and some entertaining snippets of conversations with AOL goons. I don’t know how much I can really call myself a “writer” at this point in my life, but when writers get the short end of the stick (see: screenwriter’s strike), it rankles. Writing, for whatever reason, isn’t seen as a skill worth paying for, which is baffling considering how many people mix up “your” and “you’re.” Writers work hard, and while writers just starting out may write unpaid for exposure, the professionals at Cinematical have been on the scene long enough to deserve better treatment.
If you made it through that rant, here’s a fun thing: the best mugs ever, plus a luxuriously delicious set of things to serve in them.
Ruby Bastille 
For what it’s worth, I’d pay for your writing. In fact, I aspire to write as well as you.
On a different note, it I was making tea in those mugs and my teabag didn’t line up with the design, I’d steadily go mad.
Haha, yeah, I probably would too. Or else I’d have something bagless in it, like hot chocolate, and then keep trying to grab the “string” to take it out.