Jess Lahitou

Welcome To #RavsRecs, a look inside the lives (and minds) of your Ravishly staffers, with a list of things that are probably unnecessary but definitely awesome.

If you’ve heard recent Internet claims that The Salvation Army doesn’t deserve your money, and you are now wondering whether or not to toss a few coins in the red can on your way to stock up on Christmas goodies, here’s a thought experiment:

The 2016 election has, for a while now, felt eerily akin to 1984 (lots ‘o doublespeak coming out of Trump and his supporters). Or The Hunger Games, to take a more recent example of dystopian genre fiction. Wherein, government becomes solely about politics and the media spectacle, rather than actual policies and ideas.

There were two stories that emerged from last night’s Republican debate: 1. The matchup between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, arguing over immigration policy and foreign policy (Cruz: no amnesty, build a wall, bomb ISIS while somehow not harming innocents. Rubio: eventual legalization of illegal immigrants, strengthen borders, work with Arab partners to defeat ISIS, more troops).

While watching the third Republican debate last night on CNBC, I thought to myself: Self, you’re going to have to write a straight review of this thing. The candidates are too wonky tonight to be caricatured, and even Donald Trump has reigned himself in significantly. The debate was billed as “Your Money, Your Vote,” and the questions hewed pretty close to the economy. Read: not many social-issues gaffe bait.

If Hillary Clinton has major medical concerns, now is the time to tell the American public.

The blatant promise of a career in the spotlight has stripped the Bachelor/Bachelorette of its beautiful, benign lie: that we could watch “regular” people navigate the perils and pitfalls of modern dating, that such a quest was in and of itself enough, and that a happy ending was a real possibility.

Yesterday was a smashing success for Donald Trump in the Presidential Primary. Of the five voting states – Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, & Pennsylvania – Trump won all five, with his biggest non-NY margins yet. I

It's finally Friday, which means it's time to have a little fun.

This is the first time I’ve seen a sitting president “spin” a clear military defeat to save his own ego, and use a bereft and heartbroken wife in order to get away with it. Disgust is not the right word. Horror, maybe. Disbelief and revulsion crashing into each other.