#Ferguson (really looking forward to when we don’t have to start our day with this hashtag, as are the people in Ferguson, I imagine)
Completely into “How to Be Polite”:
Most people don’t notice I’m polite, which is sort of the point. I don’t look polite. I am big and droopy and need a haircut. No soul would associate me with watercress sandwiches. Still, every year or so someone takes me aside and says, you actually are weirdly polite, aren’t you? And I always thrill. They noticed.
A trustworthy friend is evangelizing about this recipe, so.
John Leavitt sent me this thing on gay birds and it made me so happy:
However, if you look at a male and female swan necking with each other and say “aww, they love each other and they’re gonna have babies!” and then look at a pair of male swans doing the same thing and say “THEY’RE JUST BROS. BROS RAISING CHICKS TOGETHER. ONE HAD SEX WITH A GIRL ONCE SO IT’S NOT GAY,” I say… that’s a pretty unbalanced definition.
(In other words, nature doesn’t queerbait.)
Anyhow, when I talk about homosexual behavior here, I include behavior that’s used to attract a mate and/or maintain a pair bond as well as directly sexual behaviors like mounting.
It’s important to note the distinction between gay behaviors and gay individuals, as well. I can’t ask a bird what her sexual orientation is, right? All I can do is observe her behavior and say “those particular behaviors are pretty gay, Meredith.” To which Meredith responds, “Yes, Koryos, you sly little hoopoe, but remember that we can’t apply the human definition of orientation to an animal and vice versa.”
How to build a feminist workplace.
deleted comment of the day brings me such joy:
I hate him completely already, please break up with him.
If you are in LA on Friday, you better be going to this:
US maternity leave is horseshit, just a reminder.
(Straight) women who get shit from trolls online talk about/with their partners’ exposure/awareness:
“Part of hating someone on the internet is avoiding thinking of them as a real person who is loved by others and has a full life,” he says. “If her trolls started to think of me as real, and our relationship as real, then how could she be a disgusting harpy who could never get laid? How could she be a wanton slut addicted to the free birth control that keeps her from constantly being impregnated by random dudes?”
I really do think that unmoderated open comment sections are a moral wrong, and a shitty thing to do to your writers. I love you guys, and I think we have a good thing going here, and this works for our space, but COMMENTS as a THING are an abomination. Down with free speech.
