“Twenty years after its release, [it] enjoys the gilded status of America’s second-most popular song of all time, right behind Chubby Checker’s The Twist and right above Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife, according to Billboard. Its potency derives largely from the fact that it is impossible to not react to—whether with excitement, exasperation, derision, or muddled, semi-ironic affection. It was meme bait before memes even existed: the rare cultural product whose very existence morphed into a sort of provocation.” Esquire: How the Santana and Rob Thomas Song ‘Smooth’ Became as Essential as Sex. (I miss the days when we just hated songs, not each other…)

+ An Amazon employee made an AI-powered cat flap to stop his cat from bringing home dead animals.

+ Taco Bell’s first hotel may not be its last. (It seems like a shell company to me…)