We emailed with the great Claire Zulkey, of Zulkey.com fame, and emoted a lot about our jobs and who that Nick dude is and our sustaining love for being goofs together. Enjoy!
How do you two describe The Toast to people who’ve never heard of it? What are some pieces you’d each consider to be representative of the Toast?
Mallory Ortberg: Oh God, this was maybe my least favorite part of coming up with a website. I’m so grateful we got our (tiny amount of) funding from within our company, because if I had had to go around trying to explain what we wanted to do to a bunch of strangers, I would not have this job right now. “Just read it, it’s going to be great” was my general go-to. If I’m trying to explain what I do to someone in real life, and I need to gauge their Internet Subculture Awareness, I’ll try to say something like “editorial” and “general interest” before asking if they’ve heard of Gawker. If they haven’t, I give up and don’t explain anything. If they have, I name a handful of other websites that get progressively closer to what we do until they haven’t heard of one and I say “Well, it’s kind of like that,” and then I ask them what they do.
Tags: claire zulkey, interviews, meta, nicole and mallory, the toast
Gah, Claire interviews The Toast! I think one of the most succinct ways to describe this site is “the place where everyone you love on the internet meets and Speaks Truths together.”
Except you forgot the “spot the When Harry Met Sally quote” tag again! (I can’t even express how much I love that particular Easter egg.)
The Toast’s love for When Harry Met Sally quotes is why I love The Toast.
Holy crap, I had no idea the Nick-dude was so awesome! MAD PROPS NICK.
Nick is the One Who Will Be Spared.
I know! He quit his job in service of The Toast – he is truly the only really worthy man.
Awwww. Thanks guys. 🙂
You’re a doll.
“…a piece that we’ll be running in December by a queer poly triad who went to go look at a king-sized bed for themselves off Craigslist.”
I MUST HAVE THIS NOW.
Ha! I read that and said “WHAT!” out loud.
It is the best and greatest submission of all time. AND THEIR NAMES. Oh, God, their real names are straight out of unbelievable fandom, but they’re going with pseudonyms for this.
WHAT. Ugh. Relevant to all my interests (queers, polyamory, bed)
YES *grabby hands*
You are both good melons. Such good melons.
Hearing Nick being described as “the third heat” was such a Toast high-point for me. Lovely interview.
You two are the best.
For what it’s worth, I have LOVED the DUI series and I’ll be bummed to see it go.
Loved reading this! Loved it.
As a writer, yeah, I think Nicole’s point about rewrites is dead-on. If you’re an editor asking for three rounds of rewrites, you’re probably trying to write the story yourself – or you’re working with the wrong writer. Also, Nicole’s light-handed interview style is lovely. I wish more editors were like this. It’s never a bad thing to be asked to make it longer. Actually, I think Nicole’s the first editor I’ve ever had who wanted it longer, and it was fun.
Also, four pieces in a day is amazing. Amazing. I can interview all day. But write four (good) pieces in a day, I can’t even.
I really love that Mallory uses twitter as her drafts folder – I can watch her develop a piece in real time!
This was so good! I am envious of y’all’s meeting-of-souls friendship, for real! It seems so rare and awesome to find something like that in adulthood.
It really is.
I adore this so much. Also, I took a class last year with one of the people you guys mentioned, so I am now one degree separated from The Toast. Eeee.
The Toast is Frasier. The erudite spinoff that’s not afraid to make butt jokes and that everyone secretly likes best.
CLAIRE ZULKEY!!! Ahhhhh this is so great n_____n
A+ you guys. Nice to learn more about Nick.
“We knew the way you know about a good melon. ”
I might have started crying in a very fist-pumping-oh-yes-lady-friendships type way at this point. THE TOAST IS THE VERY BEST GOOD MELON.
"We knew the way you know about a good melon. "
I might have started crying in a very fist-pumping-oh-yes-lady-friendships type way at this point. THE TOAST IS THE VERY BEST GOOD MELON.
I enjoyed reading about the Toast’s history and how it came into being. I found the story very inspiring, as well. I’m excited to see that each week’s articles are making the “Top Commented” posts list, meaning that the Toast must be gaining more followers by the week. Huzzah!