We have all been talking about the nail salon investigation, and Part Two is just as horrible as Part One:
In the nail salon she owned in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, Eugenia Colon spent years molding sometimes 30 sets of talonlike nails a day in a haze of acrylic powder, ignoring a persistent cough that grew more pronounced over time. She was found to have sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease, in her lungs. In scans, they appeared as if covered with granules of sand, streaked by tiny scars.
The doctor who diagnosed her condition asked Ms. Colon what she did for a living. When she told him, he was frank: As she beautified other women, she inhaled clouds of acrylic and other dust, tiny particles that gouged the soft tissue of her lungs.
Laura Ortberg Turner on the hilariously terrible Dinesh D’Souza and being embarrassed by him as a Christian:
D’Souza has a long and storied history of anti-realistic thinking, and this is just the latest example. He accused the federal government of ‘selective prosecution’–without evidence. He tweeted about President Obama “YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE GHETTO…” for using a selfie stick. He did product placement for his pal who was just trying to sell pre-made Christmas trees.
Our own Christina Tesoro wrote about being a bitch for Cosmo.
New York Magazine is trying to figure out what the hell is up with Penelope Trunk (it helped me understand her a bit more):
I’m not sure what exactly made me turn away from Trunk’s blog. I don’t think it was any one specific post, but the gradual realization, upon closer reading, that my friends and I were mistaken in assuming that Trunk’s brazen careerism was a feminist project in any meaningful sense. Some of her posts read more like trolling than genuine advice. Where before it was tips for getting a raise and feeling more fulfilled in your work, now it was posts like “Blueprint for a Woman’s Life,” in which she advised that women should get plastic surgery, rush off to business school, and then get married early, because men like smart women but not women who make more money than them. It was still brazen — honest, raw, and vulnerable — and that was always a major part of its appeal. Only now it wasn’t really at all relevant to the empowering career advice my friends and I had read her for. And when someone advises you to get plastic surgery in order to do well at work, it’s really hard to take their tips for salary negotiation seriously.
I am SO HAPPY that Agent Carter has been renewed, and I also hope the showrunners listen to some of the great suggestions in #diversifyagentcarter. Did you know federal jobs were integrated in 1941? Let’s get some POC up in there.
Claire Zulkey interviewed my best friend, Amelia Lester. I am her Ann Perkins, she is my Leslie Knope:
What do you listen to when you run?
I am not even embarrassed to admit in a public forum that the Spotify Top 50 gets me through the Prospect Park loop most mornings. This has the added benefit of allowing me to quote Pitbull’s more philosophical lyrics to friends in conversation about their current life quandaries, which I think they really find useful/powerful.
Meaghan O’Connell on her first Mother’s Day as a mother:
My family growing up always sat in that (largely Catholic) part of the Venn diagram where we’re unable to express our feelings but also very sensitive and easily offended; we procrastinate, but we also take things personally; we say we’re chill, laid-back, who cares, it’s just a holiday, then that holiday rolls around and we end up, or I end up, crying in the shower because my family will never understand me, or doesn’t care enough to plan ahead. Holidays, growing up, were for making cynical jokes about the hell of it all. We laughed a lot! We always tried. But we were dismissive, and we weren’t posing for any Christmas card photos. Having a little baby family of my own, with someone who has none of this baggage, has been a new start.
Deleted Comment of the Day (his username was “Really!”):
