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Steve and Sansa like to do old-timey boxing with each other.


There are two excellent pieces on Rodney King right now!

  1. His daughter talks about her dad:

She remembered a father who spent Fridays crisscrossing Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties to pick up his three daughters.

On the long rides, he would map out the plans for the weekend. Sometimes, it was skiing at Mt. Baldy, surfing in Venice, a day at Raging Waters. He also liked to go to places where famous people, including black celebrities and artists, would draw attention away from him.

In school, she tried to keep her father’s identity secret. But he would show up during “Back to School” nights or cheer her from the audience during school plays. Then everybody would know that Lora was Rodney King’s daughter.

2. The brilliant Carvell Wallace:

Twenty-five years ago this week, the rest of the world found out. George Holliday’s video tape of Rodney King’s brutal beating by the LAPD was broadcast on KTLA. My mother yelled at me that they were beating this man on television. It was the most unsettling thing I had ever seen, and I dealt with it the way children do: I pretended it didn’t exist. I spent the entire day that followed feeling antsy, angry, and manic. I was bused to a high school clear on the other side of Los Angeles. I didn’t tell anyone else what I had seen. No one told anyone else what they had seen.

The horror of what was captured in the footage stayed in my body. I felt like it had happened to me. I felt like it could happen to me at any time, and therefore felt as if it was always happening to me. That’s the kind of thing it was, that was how it resonated. An image that replays in your head time and time again, working slowly on your cellular makeup until you forget, after awhile, if you watched it on television or experienced it yourself. When you turned out the lights you saw it, projected in the darkness above your head. Not really there, but never really gone. It changed you. It made you start shoplifting. It made you start smoking cigarettes. It made you switch to Bad Brains because N.W.A weren’t angry enough. It made you tag benches and throw your skateboard at buses crawling down Sunset Boulevard. It made you start huffing on the noxious and magnificent power of not giving a fuck.


This is one of the most moving and beautiful photos I’ve ever seen, and it’s disgusting that there are people using it for their gross, bigoted campaigns.


I woke up yesterday and clicked excitedly on the Ghostbusters trailer and felt totally deflated by what they did to Leslie Jones’ character (amazed that the white ladies can do !science!, because her skills are !streetsmarts!), and wondered if I was just being nitpicky, and then I got on Twitter and saw that a LOT of people felt the same sense of disappointment, and now I’m just a little bummed, and I hope the trailer is not representative of the movie.

Oh, and then this happened:


oh there are SECRET Trump voters among us:

I’m pro abortion and pro equal pay for women. I’m pro gay marriage.

I want to increase the minimum wage and I’m prepared to pay higher taxes and higher prices for groceries and fast food to cover it.

I’m pro death penalty, but against the pro gun rights lobby.

I hate the Republicans’ efforts to restrict voting rights for black people and the erosion of The Voting Rights Act, but I’m against affirmative action.

I’m very concerned about radical Muslims, and liked Donald’s idea to stop all Muslim immigration.


The Guardian’s Food in Books column takes on the jollof rice in Americanah:

She made him the kind of jollof rice he liked, flecked with bits of red and green peppers, and as he ate, fork moving from the plate to his mouth, saying, “This is pretty good,” as he always had in the past, she felt her tears and her questions gathering.


Melissa Gira Grant and Charlotte Shane in conversation:

Charlotte: Your sphere is so different from mine because you’re overtly political, you’re making critiques and publicly connecting dots that make a lot of awful people angry.

Melissa: The Shocking Truth About How Your Sex Work Story Is Already Garbage. I learned it from watching you!

Charlotte: I feel like because I’m mostly in the literary world, everyone actually treats me very gently—perhaps too gently. It’s sweet, and I know it’s coming from a good place, but it also seems entrenched in their (wrong) ideas about sex work, still. Not from paying attention to my non-memoir writing or how I am in public dialogues. Which is cantankerous, surly.


Scenes From Iconic Films Hastily Rewritten So That They Pass The Bechdel Test:

Taxi Driver

TRAVIS: Are you talkin’ to me?

JENNIFER: No, I’m talking to my friend Melinda. Hi, Melinda.

MELINDA: Hi, Jennifer.

JENNIFER: Did you see what happened in the stock market today?

MELINDA: I did. Big morning.

JENNIFER: OK, great chat. Bye, Jennifer. Bye, Travis.


As promised, our lovely Mo Moulton on The Diane Rehm Show!


Seems about right:

Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 1.26.36 PM


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I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL OT YOU GUYS

I WON'T BE HERE FOR OT BECAUSE BERNIE IS COMING TO MY TINY-ASS TOWN TODAY AND MY BOSS AND MRCHOUFFE'S BOSS ARE COOL AND WE'RE GOING TO SEE HIM

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Yes. That is why so many Good straight men are still Single. Women are turning Gay to get away from you. It certainly has Nothing to do with your Personality.

(Did I do the random commenter Capitals right?)
20 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Anyone else obsessed with the case/lang/veirs song??

I can't stop playing it. I'd take any new Neko Case but this is an amazing team up!
4 replies · active 473 weeks ago
there was a short thread about it yesterday, but really you know if they really thought Zoe Saldana was the best choice, they could have just not put her in black face. They could have just opened with a shot of some one walking up to her and saying "You're Nina Simone" the audience would have figured it out.
4 replies · active 473 weeks ago
In case you're not on Twitter, Mallory posted this last night:
"at least once a month I think about how Jon Safran Foer left his wife for Natalie Portman but forgot to ask Natalie Portman first"
And my life is changed.

Male writers are such a delicate breed. Like a fern that dies if you touch it, or a bug that you try to gently brush off your arm but it just smears instead.
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
My first reaction to the trailer for Ghostbusters was excitement, and I am still excited for some parts of it (Kate McKinnon is wonderful), but especially watching it again, the racial dynamics seem pretty fucked up. I guess I'm mostly reduced to hoping the trailer did a shitty job with the movie, and they actually cut some of that stuff. It's a shitty place to be.
14 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I want to nuzzle that puppy's chest fluff so bad right now. The hair biting that would most likely ensue? Totally worth it.
Wow, the new dad photo is incredible. And the Irish politician Tweeting it next to the stock photo of the hetero mom kissing her kid on the lips as if the dads are the creepy image of the two... Well, that just defies parody.
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
"But I’m voting for Donald Trump, and I’ve convinced all my friends and family to do so as well."
7 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Judd Apatow just fucking exhausts me at this point, frankly. How fucking hard is it to actually take a moment and investigate why someone might be pissed about something and try to understand?
8 replies · active 473 weeks ago
deadbirdbybird's avatar

deadbirdbybird · 473 weeks ago

Old-timey (fake) boxing with Sansa! That's a new webseries I can get behind.
And now for a word from our sponsors. Last night's debate has been brought to you by Toxic Masculinity™. Toxic Masculinity™ - Men telling other men that they need to have big dicks to matter in the world and then those men believe those other men and live their lives accordingly. Get yours today, before some other guy with a bigger dick gets it first.
30 replies · active 473 weeks ago
If you haven't everyone should watch NPR's tiny desk contest winner- http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/03/03/4...

I can't get over how beautiful her song is.
2 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I read a couple of those Trump testimonies, but I couldn't make it through. I couldn't. I have too much anxiety already (I had a Trump nightmare last night and I didn't even watch the debate.)

But that former Occupy protester who compared Trump's rhetoric to Common Core Standards? I mean, people are being beaten as a result of Trump's words. There is literal racist violence happening because of him. It takes a special kind of white privilege to equate that with the demise of humanities education.
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
That Guardian piece about the Trump supporters. The fact that there is not just one but *two people* on there who legitimately think Trump is Hitler, but his presidency won't affect them but will WAKE UP THE SHEEPLE is just. Well. If that's not "Fuck you, I got mine," taken to the extreme, idk what is.
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I KNEW when I deleted that comment you'd grab it for Deleted Comments! I love being right about these things.
2 replies · active 473 weeks ago
"I’m very concerned about radical Muslims, and liked Donald’s idea to stop all Muslim immigration." So...not so much a secret Trump voter as secret bigot. Thanks, bro.
4 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Apologies if this has already been posted (I haven't seen it!) but I ran across a Toast-Relevant article this morning, on the costume design of Hamilton:
http://tyrannyofstyle.com/costume-design-hamilton...
4 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Guys, guys, guys! Can we talk about what happened on the 100 yesterday?

Spoilers below obviously!
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I am 99% convinced that this is well-executed satire, mainly because the alternative is too horrible for words:


I’m a liberal-left college professor in the social sciences. I’m going to vote for Trump but I won’t tell hardly anybody.

My main reason is anger at the two-party system and the horrible presidencies of Obama and Bush. But I’m also furious at political correctness on campus and in the media.

I’m angry at forced diversity and constant, frequently unjustified complaints about racism/sexism/homophobia/lack of trans rights. I’m particularly angry at social justice warriors and my main reason to vote Trump is to see the looks on your faces when he wins.

It’s not that I like Trump. It’s that I hate those who can’t stand him. I want them to suffer the shock of knowing all their torrents of blog posts and Tumblr bitch-fests and “I just can’t ...” and accusations of mansplaining didn’t actually matter. That they’re still losing. And that things are not getting better for them. They’re getting worse.
28 replies · active 473 weeks ago
The McSweeney's link sent me down a rabbit hole, and I found this gem: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/dont-worry-i-c...

"I checked the status of my white male privilege in a variety of situations.

Workplace

Joining an all-hands staff meeting a half-hour late, I immediately take control of the room through constant interruptions, derisive snorts, and loudly slurping two-dozen chilled oysters. When the meeting breaks, I am taken aside and told I have management potential. The fact that I don’t work there is never brought up.

Privilege: Intact"
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Seriously side eyeing the British immigrant who likes Trump's willingness to choose the borders. That was a soul-crushing piece to read.
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE OCCUPIER TURN TRUMP GUY THOUGH?!

"I work in a liberal arts department. I’ve read the works of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato, Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault and so on. I am more inclined to listen to what Slavoj Žižek or Noam Chomsky have to say about current affairs than Rachel Maddow or Bill O’Reilly. "

"Early in 2014 I began concealing my political opinions from people, and it was shortly after this time that I began plotting to vote Republican in hopes that the party would send the country so far in the direction of complete unrestricted neoliberalism and libertarian free market superstition that Americans would come to recognize the dangers of these ideologies and eventually reject them."

THE OUT OF CONTEXT HEIDIGGER QUOTE. etc.
14 replies · active 473 weeks ago
ALL I COULD THINK while reading the secret Trump voters piece was how voting for him isn't even the worst thing many of these people are gonna do. I'm seriously worried about that California professor guy's students. One day all that rage is going to make him snap.
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
Early in 2014 I began concealing my political opinions from people, and it was shortly after this time that I began plotting to vote Republican in hopes that the party would send the country so far in the direction of complete unrestricted neoliberalism and libertarian free market superstition that Americans would come to recognize the dangers of these ideologies and eventually reject them.
GOOD PLAN. I see no possible bad outcomes.
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Thanks to all the Toastrons who gave me excellent radio advice! It was so much fun talking about Downton, and the host (Indira Lakshmanan, because Diane Rehm has the flu) mentioned the Toast EVERY TIME she introduced me. I tried to remember to talk slowly but a few times I got SO EXCITED to talk about women's rights and queer subcultures and the impact of World War I on economic policy... anyway, hurray for the hyphen Toast dot com, and for public radio.
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I was so disappointed by the Ghostbusters trailer. One because Leslie Jones is a token and that is fucking ridiculous because LJ is AMAZING and deserves better than this! But also: where are my other women of color?! Not to say those white lady comedians aren't hilarious, but a reboot is always a chance to do new, interesting stuff and if you want a ticket draw do Melissa McCarthy OR Kristen Wiig and then lesser-knowns who deserve fame and accolades because they're hilarious and haven't had the opportunity yet!

Also: the trailer wasn't that funny :(
I never saw the trailer for Spy and I assume it was terrible so I'm kind of hoping that Ghostbusters will be like that? Like the trailer is making the film look dumber than it actually is? I loved Spy and Bridesmaids and they're both smart and respectful and I just wanna believe Paul Feig et al know what they're doing. Guess we'll see though :s
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
gah the sheer number of those Trump voters who don't seem to get that voting isn't a statement and policy is real and affects real people. gaaaah.

I mean: "His candidacy is a happy accident that is currently ripping the soul of America apart, which is something that I think we desperately need (and deserve) at this time in our history, for better or for worse."

"The last time we crossed paths with a Hitler and/or Hirohito, the country woke up and fought. And won! He might supply us with the shock we need in order to wake up and fight."

"Trump is a wake up call. A president Trump could be as bad as Hitler, but if he shocks some good people in both the Republican and Democratic parties into realizing that they are ignoring legitimate concerns of a seizable minority, then let him have his four years."

Nooo, how can you think the literal bloodshed that will happen because of this stuff will somehow be WORTH IT?
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I dream horrible dreams about Trump. I have never felt such unbridled rage and fear towards another human being. My family and friends (none of whom are Trump supporters) tell me I am obsessed, but I tell them they do not see the danger of an actual Trump presidency.
6 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I need to stop reading the Trump voter article because it keeps getting worse. Like this guy who openly admits that he is voting for someone akin to Hitler.
"I believe that it is too late for a conventional cure. So, there is Drumpf. He is indeed a buffoon and a recipe for disaster. If he were to do half of the horrific things he says he would, he would be a catastrophe. He could be a blend of Hitler and Hirohito.

That’s why I would vote for him. The last time we crossed paths with a Hitler and/or Hirohito, the country woke up and fought. And won! "

His grasp of history is making the veins in my forehead pulse. The people that voted for Hitler and kept Hirohito in power weren't the ones who fought them it was outside forces!!!! Is his plan that he votes for Trump thereby leading to a coalition of forces to invade and demolish America leaving it to rebuild for decades under the oversight of the conquering parties?
4 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I was pretty pumped when I saw the Ghostbusters trailer tbh. And I get some of the criticism and agree with it but I was also disappointed by some that criticism that focused more on the style of Leslie Jones' comedy and used that to make assumptions about the character being a stereotype. I think someone else pointed out that the character description has her as a historian, so maybe the trailer just doesn't reflect that? Anyways, I wanna be hopeful and I will probably see it too.
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
YOU GUYS! I know it's not the open thread but I'll probably be gone by then, and I need to tell someone: there's a great new Dutch feminist website, so I pitched them an article... and now they want to meet and maybe make it a series :-D :-D :-D
5 replies · active 473 weeks ago
I love that new dad photo. I also enjoy thinking about how that kid is going to gently make fun of their dad years from now for his ugly cry face (which is so sweet and so moving, every child should be welcomed with that much overwhelming joy).

A local pro hockey player tweeted a photo of himself doing the skin-to-skin thing with his brand new baby. And it was also very sweet.

I hate this narrative of "i'm a dad, i'm too masculine to take an interest in my children. it's creepy to be physically affectionate with my offspring" I'm glad there are dads of all kinds breaking that narrative apart.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who was disappointed by the presentation of Leslie Jones's character in the Ghostbusters trailer. I still really want to see it, though! Is that wrong? I love Leslie Jones and all the other main actors, and i do want to support more women being cast...
It's True, if I were Single now I would be Gay just to reject the Good Straight Men. That's exactly how it works
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
Was just contacted at work by someone named "Rilla" (short for Marilla, obvs.) and thinking of L.M. Montgomery fans out there in the world, finding one another and having children, just erased all the icky feelings from reading the anonymous Trump voters article.
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
I don't have any solid commentary on the Ghostbusters trailer, but I was amused and slightly boggled to see the thirteen thousand (!!!) downvotes, presumably provided by dudes who are shocked and appalled that the franchise has been tainted by the presence of giiiiiiiiiiirls.

Like . . . is this truly the biggest issue they are currently facing in life? Oh, to be so carefree that the reboot of an eighties movie is the only problem I have.
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
If Judd Apatow's new show LOVE is any indication, Judd Apatow thinks actors should only be allowed to play Judd Apatow.
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Deleted comment did not disappoint!
I protested a Trump rally yesterday, and it was enlightening to hear the reasons people in line were talking about for supporting Trump. Mostly the standard, he's rich and not part of the system, and is going to take America back for them. There was one guy who referred to him as Mr. Trump, and said that he lived in a cabin in the woods, and the Donald mentioned being for guys on cabins in a speech once. Pandering, it works!
2 replies · active 473 weeks ago
While we're sharing links, AAAAGH Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys are gonna make a show about wine. What did we do today for the universe to give us this.
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
So grateful for that link to the jollof rice, since I had never read that "Little Library Cafe" column before, and it's about to become my whole life. The Guardian has the most fun, nerdy book coverage.
3 replies · active 473 weeks ago
Oh oh I saved this to share with you all, even though I am terribly late to the LR party.

From The New Yorker, on the company Scalia kept:

"Like many such essays, Foster’s begins in a jocular vein—“You’re only as old as your current wife,” he writes. But then he goes on to say that while he spent his professional career practicing law, “I’ve also been pursuing my passion—killing things. I’m sure many of you have become mamby-pamby girly men and think that killing things is oh, so redneck and lower class. Well, you’ll be delighted to know that I generally go killing things with Continental royalty and English nobility, and we look down on the rednecks just like you do.”

(According to the Web site of the Order of St. Hubertus, the current grand master is His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, the archduke of Austria.)

Foster went on, “I am pleased to report that I’ve killed lots of elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, kudu, deer and the last legally shot black rhinoceros, together with more than 150,000 birds of various species. When the last duck comes flying over with a sign around his neck ‘I am the last duck,’ I will shoot it.” Concluding with a political observation, Foster writes, “It also won’t surprise you that I still rail against liberals, the academic kleptocracy, Washington bureaucrats and feminazis.”
1 reply · active 473 weeks ago
While I was reading Americanah I made jollof rice about a dozen times. It was all I wanted to eat.
canadiangraffiti's avatar

canadiangraffiti · 473 weeks ago

there's always so much great/important/hilarious stuff in these and i'm going to read it all but today i'm especially grateful for the jollof rice recipe; just the idea of cooking has been completely defeating me lately but i'm going to make this (and dilute/mess it up by throwing in some kidney beans for protein). v excited to have a task to focus on AND come away with something tasty!
Guys I just found out that my new bff at work who designs the awesome Hamilton mugs is old friends with Alexandra Petri! This confirms my theory that all cool people eventually converge.
I finally started watching Jessica Jones the other night (I'd been holding off until I was in a good emotional place, because of the OMGSODARK warnings), and after I finished the first episode, Donald Trump was on the tv in the living room (my roommate watches never-ending election coverage, it's terrible). I got suddenly anxious, had to put my headphones back on with a white noise generator. Because Kilgrave is at least a fictional abusive, murderous psychopath who can make people do whatever he wants.
Rocketship's avatar

Rocketship · 473 weeks ago

"I’m concerned that some US citizens have a loyalty to their own group over and above their loyalty to America, and will lobby accordingly."

OH OH YOU MEAN LIKE HOW SOME CITIZENS HAVE MORE LOYALTY TO WALL STREET AND THEIR OWN BANK ACCOUNTS OVER AND ABOVE THEIR LOYALTY TO AMERICA?

OR LIKE HOW CERTAIN CITIZENS ARE SO LOYAL TO THE PEOPLE IN THEIR OWN GROUP THAT NO ONE HAS GONE TO JAIL FOR POISONING AN ENTIRE CITY FULL OF AMERICANS?

OR OR OR MAYBE LIKE HOW SOME CITIZENS ARE MORE LOYAL TO THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS THAN TO THE AMERICAN LAW THAT GUARANTEES THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS' RIGHTS TO NECESSARY MEDICAL PROCEDURES?

BECAUSE GEE WHIZ THAT WOULD BE AWFUL AND UNPATRIOTIC

EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO EXPLODE SOMEWHERE

AAAAUUUUGGGGHHH
عرفت مؤخرا العاب بنات جديدة انتشارا كبيرة وكما انها اكتسبت جماهير كتيرة واغلبها البنات فهن يلعبن اكتر من الاولاد لهذا نجد ان هذا النوع هو المشهور والمنتشر اكتر في مواقع الالعاب وكما ان هذا النوع بدوره يشمل اصناف كتيرة سنتعرف عليها الان ومن بينها العاب الطبخ الدي يملك معجبين كتر جدا ويعتبر هو الاول تم يليه العاب التلبيس وهذا الآخر ممتع ويحبه الكتير لان التلبيس تعشقه البنات اكتر من الاولاد وهذا امر بديهي ومعروف وبعده بالتتابع يوجد العاب المكياج او الميك اب نوع جميل ومحبوب عند الصغار والكبار ويبقى في الاخير نوع قص الشعر وهو الاقل اهتماما سواء من الاولاد او البنات وكانت هذه جميعها اصناف العاب بنات .

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