Artist.
The Gore Vidal collection at Harvard is substantial; it includes 394 cartons of material that take up 367 linear feet. The library also holds a 1-carton archive of James Trimble III, which I requested during my visit along with the Vidal materials. Just a few minutes with the Trimble archive made it clear that it was not complied by Vidal, or by anyone who knew Vidal or Jimmie, but by an outsider, whom I will call Roger. Roger, I surmised as I leafed through documents, read Palimpsest, and then decided to find out everything he could about Jimmie Trimble’s life. Roger was not a professional researcher or an academic, but just a guy who wanted to know more about Vidal’s boyhood love.
I’m in need of your spot-on dating advice and I’ll get right to it. This evening, I went on my fourth online dating website “date” (which usually is just find a place to chat for a couple hours) and, like the previous three dates, I have realized that the girl that I’ve chatted with for a while online just doesn’t seem that interested in me. (She still could be, but I just got back from the date and I think it’s smart to take a break from texting – don’t want to overwhelm her/appear clingy.) One of the main indicators that she just wasn’t interested in me was the fact that she wasn’t really trying to establish any physical contact. Being an introverted geek, where dating doesn’t come naturally to me, I’ve read about “breaking the touch barrier” and trying to create a (even slight) sense of intimacy on the first date. No, this doesn’t necessarily mean “make out” on the first date, but I always introduce myself with a hug; establish eye contact whenever possible; and give occasional friendly taps on the shoulder to establish a welcoming persona.
Soon to be available for purchase, dog not included:
LGBT celebs on their first gay bar:
I first found my gay bar, my community, my refuge at Attitude Bar in St. Louis, Missouri in 1998. I can’t remember if it was an all-ages night, but somehow I got in even though I was under 21. I remember looking around at the literal rainbow of people—black, white, male, female, young, old, skinny, fat—and feeling a sense of calm. It felt like I was holding on to this weird anxiety that I couldn’t understand, and then all of a sudden it clicked, and the anxiety was gone, and finally I could stop hiding my Madonna CDs in Led Zeppelin CD cases.
I asked notable LGBTQ artists, writers, actors, and comedians about their first gay bar experience and the impact it had on their lives. Sometimes the story is good, sometimes it is bad, but one thing is for sure: everyone’s first gay bar experience is a story. And everyone has one. In sharing their stories, they are taking a stance against hate, and honoring every victim of violence based on hate.
Hero of The Toast, Constance Wu:
“Let’s talk about some race shit!” Constance Wu laughs, her lemonade-yellow dress spinning as she turns to give me a conspiratorial smirk. In many ways, Wu, who plays matriarch Jessica Huang on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, is the actor Asian America has been waiting for: funny, bold, analytical, and outspoken about Asian-American representation in Hollywood. In two conversations, one by phone and the other over lunch, we talked about the show and tiger-mom tropes, as well as her recent controversial remarks about yellowface, Hollywood’s “It”-girl syndrome, and her decision to leave her last agency because of a racist interaction. By the end of the conversation, we were both in tears as she explained why she won’t sell herself out for a job. “I’d rather lose all my stuff than lose myself,” Wu says, “because I’ve done that before, and that feels way worse.”
If someone wants to start a Game of Thrones spoilers thread, I’m here for it, now that my pulse has gone back to normal.
Fiction by Friend of The Toast Jess Zimmerman:
The past is like a foreign country: They have weird McDonald’s specials there. Here, it’s a burger with olives and larks’ tongues; it’s called the McTrojan Deluxe, which makes it sound like there’s something sneaky hiding inside it, which if you hate olives is true. I hate olives. But they also serve wine, so I’m drinking lots of wine. It’s unpleasantly packed in the restaurant, but then, it’s packed everywhere.
The McDonald’s special in 5th-century Mongolia, where I went to a conference last month, is some kind of unspeakable meat patty. That’s what they call it—the UnMcSpeakable Meat Patty. To me it looked and tasted a lot like a regular McDonald’s burger, but maybe that’s the point. People don’t want to feel uncomfortable or out of place when they go on a trip, especially if they’re going for work; work trips should be easy and predictable, the same tastes and schedules and climate control smells and creepily stiff bed linens no matter what time period you’re in.
Long before the girls wearing “LaCroixs Over Boys” T-shirts this summer were even born, LaCroix was beloved by health-conscious, budget-wise women in middle America. They knew a good thing when they found it, and they were a loyal audience. But most trends trickle inward from the coasts to the Midwest, not the other way around, and so LaCroix’s first 30 years were spent under the radar.
Then sometime in 2015, LaCroix — lightly flavored, sugar-free carbonated water wrapped in a garish can — became an unlikely breakout hit. The New York Times published an essay raving about it. The Awl and Time Out New York ranked its flavors. If you say “LaCroix” to a youngish urban professional, be ready for a possible explosion of enthusiasm, as if you’d shaken up a can of carbonated water.
Obama is extremely proud of his résumé as a parent. He boasts of having read aloud with Malia all seven volumes of the Harry Potter series; in his first fall in office, he also managed to read all of Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” to Sasha. But performing as a head of household did not come easily to him. As this supremely self-confident man acknowledged in 2006, “It is in my capacities as a husband and a father that I entertain the most doubt.”
A profile of Hope Hicks, Trump’s press secretary:
Still, for all the grenades Hicks has to both jump on and lob, it’s a more quotidian skill set that seems to impress the boss. “If you see her phone going”—he raised both hands and mimicked Hicks answering several devices—“ ‘This is Hope. This is Hope. This is Hope.’ ” He hung up the make-believe phones. “She gets a call a minute, probably,” he said, seemingly pleased with this antiquated barometer of his own popularity.
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30Litresof 132p · 461 weeks ago
Billy, that's not how it works.
GoatlessSon 129p · 461 weeks ago
mariahnotmaria 113p · 461 weeks ago
https://www.yahoo.com/style/tom-hiddleston-wants-...
geekcrackteam 118p · 461 weeks ago
sulagna0 121p · 461 weeks ago
mattintoledo 131p · 461 weeks ago
paisleyLo 127p · 461 weeks ago
ALSO - a reminder! Toast meetup/wake for Rochester Toasties at Butapub THIS FRIDAY at 7:30! Email me at my username [at] gmail [dot] com to let me know if you'd like to come. I need to make reservations because South Wedge + Friday night = Chaos.
dreadfulwind 156p · 461 weeks ago
alliana07 128p · 461 weeks ago
On this day in 1883 was the birth of Daisy Turner, an American poet and storyteller known for her oral histories of her family’s history from Africa and England to America. Her father Alec Turner was born into slavery and taught to read (despite it being illegal at the time) by the granddaughter of the plantation owner. Eventually he left the plantation and traveled to Vermont, where he could be a free man, and after serving in the Union Army, he eventually settled in Vermont and married his wife, Sally. Daisy was their ninth child, after their eighth died in infancy; her parents eventually had sixteen children.
Even as a child, Daisy was outspoken; one of the most popular stories about her (which became the subject of a children’s book), took place when she was about eight years old. Her teacher instructed her to carry a black doll and recite a poem about Africa in the school pageant, but instead she recited her own poem, made up on the spot. Her performance won her first prize. Another story involves her at age 16, confronting a man who had cheated her father until she returned with the money owed to him, and later at the age of 44 she brought suit for breach of promise against a white man when he broke off his engagement to her-- and won the settlement. She was also known for being a “firecracker” in general, and used to walk around with her shotgun, supposedly enjoying her ability to make being a little uncomfortable.
But she truly became known only when she was in her 100s, and a Vermont historian reached out to her after seeing an article about her in the newspaper. Beck called Daisy on the phone, and after passing her test-- “Are you a prejudiced woman?” “I don’t think so…” “Well, come anytime!”-- she met Daisy and began to write down all the stories the elderly woman knew about her history. This included the story of her great-grandmother, who was shipwrecked on her honeymoon journey to Africa from England. She was saved by the son of an African chieftain and had a child with him, Alexander. Alexander was captured by a slave trader and brought to New Orleans, purchased by John Gouldin, and taken to a plantation in Virginia. It was here that his son Alec Turner, Daisy’s father, was born.
All of Daisy’s stories were recorded, and eventually formed a children’s book, a documentary film, and then finally a book, Daisy Turner’s Kin: An African American Family Saga. At the age of 104 (the same year she passed away), Daisy was also filmed in a Ken Burn’s historic Civil War series, telling her family stories.
Rillquiet 118p · 461 weeks ago
emmysuhweeks · 461 weeks ago
sausagedog 127p · 461 weeks ago
Not sure CA is SFW but I'm going to bring that up on my phone. "Breaking the touch barrier," good god. I'm also picturing the Homestar Runner "Can you feel that?" under-the-table kicks.
mikebevel 123p · 461 weeks ago
theburnersmydestination 142p · 461 weeks ago
Also, Obama is Peak Dad (his turkey pardoning joke was amazing), and I feel like he would appreciate a copy of the "Dad Magazine" book. He looks like the kind of person who has Lots of Opinions about Twine and how Glue Used to have a Different Recipe.
avicennaipswich 100p · 461 weeks ago
My rose is an Alien Rose after all: http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah40/Avicenna...
Because apparently this is just what we do now. http://s1376.photobucket.com/user/AvicennaIpswich...
And I took a photo of the interior of the flower for you so you can see there are some stamens present, so it might not be two genetic mutations? I would have to compare with a normal Cecile Brunner, obviously. http://s1376.photobucket.com/user/AvicennaIpswich...
Now I'll come back and edit whichever links didn't work.
Have a great day!
mmcoulston 134p · 461 weeks ago
thebellewitch 122p · 461 weeks ago
In more promising examples of masculinity: Dad Obama is the best Obama. I hope someday he writes a memoir on parenting as president, because I bet it would be great.
Peanutcheese 103p · 461 weeks ago
geekcrackteam 118p · 461 weeks ago
momoulton 111p · 461 weeks ago
"And to think, he'd only just come from the hospital..."
logicbutton 128p · 461 weeks ago
angrypedestrian 135p · 461 weeks ago
Girl Named Jack 117p · 461 weeks ago
*I don't ACTUALLY feel you. Or touch you. Or make eye contact.
danceintrees 103p · 461 weeks ago
WHAT WILL I EVER DO WITHOUT YOU?????
(Also, I am REALLY EXCITED today because yesterday my bff asked my lovely roommate to MARRY her and they are WONDERFUL and love is GREAT and I CAN'T STOP CAPSLOCKING.)
CleverManka 143p · 461 weeks ago
geekcrackteam 118p · 461 weeks ago
We need more high profile parents like them; they show us that you can be a hard worker and high achiever while also making time for your family and prioritizing being a parent.
I wonder what Michelle Obama is going to do now that she doesn't have to play First Lady anymore and can have a career again?
raqueue 115p · 461 weeks ago
You can follow us on Twitter (@spacewitchcon) or join us on ToastieSlack (channel #space_witch_retreat) for more information!
Frenz_lo 115p · 461 weeks ago
The 10 year old likes fantasy, but other recs are also welcome.
chiaroscuromom 108p · 461 weeks ago
https://fatheffalump.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/mar...
VioletandIrises 120p · 461 weeks ago
sabinabemani 115p · 461 weeks ago
I almost audibly applauded (at my desk at work). YES.
knitting_pun 121p · 461 weeks ago
Like, Trudeau goes for hikes with his kids and posts photos on Facebook and just looks like an all-around normal person spending time with his kids and it's SUCH a delightful breath of fresh air from Shakes-His-Son's-Hand Harper.
See: https://www.facebook.com/JustinPJTrudeau/posts/10...
(Also the mental image of his security team wading through the Lusk Caves trail, up to their ankles in water, gives me great delight. In my mind, they're fully-uniformed red-suit-beige-hat Mounties.)
Carl Lowr · 461 weeks ago
I guess no one has the guts to tell an internationally renowned scholar that her pronunciation is clunky at best :C
bewitchedbunny 103p · 461 weeks ago
irreverantontheinternet 126p · 461 weeks ago
(My bro has a build-a-bear that is a thousand years old at this point, but it comes on every road trip to the mass pike just so that it can wave at the Polar bear as we go through Worcester)
Maura · 461 weeks ago
irishbreakfasttime 128p · 461 weeks ago
smarty_party 109p · 461 weeks ago
Unreadaethel 127p · 461 weeks ago
And here's a link to my tumblr post with queer/liberation theology recommendations. I'll try to keep it updated as I get new information, to set up an informal database of resources.
<a href="http://unreadaethel.tumblr.com/post/146231086432/resources-for-queer-theologyexegesis" target="_blank">http://unreadaethel.tumblr.com/post/146231086432/resources-for-queer-theologyexegesis
mattintoledo 131p · 461 weeks ago
A week later, we went to my brother's and my sister-in-law asked if we wanted a flavored seltzer water. My wife and I looked at each other like, "Whaaaat?!"
Xolandra 116p · 461 weeks ago
lemonadefish 112p · 461 weeks ago
mmejoy 121p · 461 weeks ago
*crowdsurfs on your dissent*
StillT 103p · 461 weeks ago
'Hamilton': A Story Of US
themegnapkin 110p · 461 weeks ago
PotterPotterson 90p · 461 weeks ago
(it was absolutely not my first gay bar, in life or this city, but I appreciate how well it's reached out to the younger 18+ queers when so many of the other bars are 21+)
TLO 132p · 461 weeks ago
If anyone needs a mid-morning break, I highly recommend the joyously unsubtle Sexuality music video.
Jungle_Red 116p · 461 weeks ago
FitzEmpress 108p · 461 weeks ago
jadoogan 134p · 461 weeks ago
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