“In October or November, we went to dinner at Yusor and Deah’s house. Right after we left, Yusor heard a knock at the door and it was Hicks. She told us he was angry and said we were noisy and there were two extra cars in the neighborhood. We used visitor parking but he was still mad. He said we woke up his wife. It wasn’t that dark yet. It wasn’t late. And it wasn’t that loud. We were playing a board game called Risk. I mean, I know I was mad because they were beating me at the game, but that was it. While he was at the door talking to Yusor, he was holding a rifle, she told me later. He didn’t point it at anyone, but he still had it. Yusor called to check on us after we left, to make sure he hadn’t approached us. We thought that was so weird—our neighbors don’t come to the door with guns! So when I heard the news it was shocking, but it wasn’t a surprise that it was the neighbor.
When I heard the news report and drove down there from Raleigh, I hoped it wasn’t anyone I knew. But I saw the apartment on the news and it was his apartment. If it wasn’t a hate crime, what was it? If you have a problem with your neighbors, you write a letter; you don’t shoot people. I think they were targeted because they were different. He was always so annoyed with them for little things. They are talking about a parking dispute online—that’s definitely not true. There’s plenty of space, and Deah had just gotten off the bus. I wonder if he just thought Deah was some white guy before his wife moved in.”
-Amira Ata, My Best Friend Was Killed And I Don’t Know Why
Friend of the Toast Tracy Clayton (Brokey McPoverty to you Twitter types) wrote about anxiety medication and revolutionary acts:
I buckled down and did every behavior-modifying exercise that Gail told me to do. I stopped ordering my groceries and actually went to the store. I actually went inside that gym I had my eye on (I didn’t work out, I just walked inside, which was actually a huge accomplishment). I pushed myself to go out with friends at least once a week. On top of that, I did everything the internet told me I needed to do to beat anxiety. I did yoga, tried to meditate, practiced Buddhism for a while (and by “practiced Buddhism” I mean I read three-quarters of Buddhism for Dummies). I took a multivitamin. I kept a journal. I eventually hit a good stride, and by the time I decided to move back home to Louisville, I felt very proud of the person I’d become. She was cockier, louder now that the boulder had been moved at least partly away.
And then I turned around and she was gone.
Man, remember that old McDonald’s commercial where Chris Meloni plays a super angry, aggro guy on a blind date? I’ve watched it like four times today.
I LIED MY ASS OFF TO GET INVITED TO FOCUS GROUPS
Saeed has (OF COURSE) already brought up the delicious possibility of a crossover episode with The Good Wife, and I now live in hope:
Laverne Cox is going from Litchfield Penitentiary to the courtroom.
The Orange Is the New Black breakout has been tapped to co-star in CBS’ buzzy legal drama Doubt, The Hollywood Reporter has learned…
Cox, in one of the biggest showings of diversity yet this pilot season, will co-star as Cameron Wirth, a role specifically created for a transgender actress. The character is described as a transgender Ivy League-educated attorney who is as competitive as she is compassionate. She’s fierce, funny and the fact that she’s experienced injustice first-hand makes her fight all the harder for her clients.
“When Maxwell Osborne, an African-American designer who is one-half of the men’s wear brand Public School, stood on stage at Lincoln Center with his business partner, Dao-Yi Chow, to receive the 2014 CFDA Award for men’s wear last June, he was, he realized, “the first designer of color on stage accepting this award since Sean Combs won it in 2004 for Sean John.”
“It was mind-boggling,” he said, “both in a good way, because we had won it, and in a bad way, because it was crazy that there had been no one else of color up there in all that time.”
Much has been made in the news media and within fashion itself of the lack of ethnic diversity among models, but in many ways, the situation on the runway simply reflects an even more extreme situation in the power structure of the industry itself.”
GUYS, I saw The Boy Next Door this week and I got what I came there for, but I would not have minded it if things had been a good 40% more campy. I want some REAL SCHLOCK for the next time I go to the movies. Last year I had such a good run. What can I see that’s out now that will rival I, Frankenstein or Pompeii 3D? (First clown to bring up Jupiter Rising to me gets hammerbanned; you know my feelings about the Wachowskis.)
ELLEN CLEGHORN: STILL THE BEST
JET: From which doctoral program will you receive your degree?
EC: I’m getting a PhD in Performance Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. I went back because I asked myself, “If you could do anything what would you do?” And I said, “Go to graduate school.” I’m writing about Black comedy and comedians, specifically and in general; “fancy-schmancy” humor philosophies; and Black humor practices as critical race theory deconstruction methodologies. How do you like me now?
