Loved ones, I had the BEST weekend at my Zen ski camp, run by Kristen Ulmer, literally the coolest and sexiest and bravest woman in the world, and I’m still pretty high from it (I went last year, too, and it was a big catalyst for saying “yes” to Mallory when she asked me to make this site with her, so, we owe her one.) I won’t make a huge sales pitch, but I WILL say that if you can afford it, you should pay and do it, and if you can’t afford it, she’s never turned anyone away, so you should do it anyway, and any Toastie who DOES do it is formally invited to stay with me while they attend. I have a nice guest room stocked with thoughtfully-chosen books and fluffy towels and will pick you up at the airport and feed you. Okay? Okay. Skiing is totally tangential to the experience (though, I mean, you should be able to ski blue runs), and you can get just as much out of it if you like to slowly make your way down the mountain (more, even.)
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Now that the weird evangelizing portion of our link roundup is over, I am very happy to talk about our formal submissions call for the Trans* Series that NicMall are doing for 2014. I want pitches and pieces from our trans* readers and writers and civilians about literally every aspect of being trans*. Clothes! Dating! Video games! Workplace discrimination! Pieces about transition are more than welcome too, of course, but we want the whole glorious spectrum. We pay, we boot out trolls, we want you to write for us. Direct your missives to submissions, we’re delighted to read them.
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SPEAKING OF: CeCe McDonald is finally out of (men’s) prison.
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Katie Heaney, of Reading Between the Texts fame, has written a book! You can buy it here.
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The Ghost in My Machine: Tales of the Strange and Unusual is here to slowly eat you. I’ve added it to my feeds, but I sure didn’t want to.
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Spending a lot of time with this list of alleged alien beings right now.
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Seriously, fuuuuuck this dead guy:
Even earlier, at a 1928 Paris conference, Birkhoff wrote home to his department, detailing why Jews should not be hired and mentioning that he had met John von Neumann, a Hungarian Jewish mathematician of soon-to-be legendary accomplishment. Birkhoff wrote that he found the Hungarian to be a “very attractive young fellow although Jewish.” How were Birkhoff’s views able to hold sway over the Harvard faculty, and why did they dominate the institution for so long?
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Hazlitt is exceptionally good, and if you fit the bill, apply for their internship!
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet, trans* issues
That alien list is fascinating! I’d never heard of the Nordic Aliens / Space Brothers before.
followed that creepy wordpress.
I couldn’t add it fast enough!
I want everyone in the universe to read Linda Holmes (apolitical) piece on Chris Christie and fat jokes from yesterday: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/01/13/262…
Right? I spent a long time yesterday looking for a pithy pull-quote to headline that when I shared it, but finally went with a whole long paragraph because it’s all so good.
Yeah, I think I pulled a whole paragraph to post it on facebook. It’s so deeply personal and nuanced that it was hard to quote directly. But the gist of it, the “if you call someone you don’t like fat as an insult you are also insulting the fat people you do like” theme, is something I would like to print on giant posters and hang up all over my fat-shaming office.
Yeah, I’m still kind of in awe of the whole thing. She’s so awesome!
OH MAN JUST SAW THAT AND IT’S SO GOOD.
Linda Holmes is my favorite cultural critic. She’s consistently sharp, thoughtful, and funny, and I love both her serious stuff, like the link above, and her ridiculous stuff, like this letter from law firm “Who Who & Who” regarding Mr. Grinch’s possible defamation claim.
She really does have amazing range. I instantly thought of the super-silly Famous People Eat Weird Stuff, And Other Provincial Annotations: “Shout-out to state fairs everywhere, even if in this case it’s the state of extreme privilege.”
YES. I loved that one. I just re-read it and giggled the whole way through.
Linda Holmes is one of my favorite people writing on the Internet and should be paid at least three times whatever she is currently making (NPR HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOGLE ALERT FOR THIS), plus driven about wherever she wants by an attractive, quiet chauffeur in the vehicle make and model of her choice. She is a National Treasure with (as LittlestOak pointed out) crazy-incredible creative and critical range.
In short, friends of The Toast would very likely also be friends of Monkey See (if you aren’t already).
THE GREATEST. I felt so strongly about it that I shared on twitter, tumblr AND facebook.
Thank you very much for sharing this.
I love her so much.
This was such a good article, thank you for sharing it! I shared it to Facebook. 🙂
Yes! I read it this morning on the train and it was great. I love Linda! She is actually the reason that I ever discovered The Hairpin (and therefore also The Toast) because she recommended the Hairpin on Pop Culture Happy Hour long ago.
So, Linda Holmes is delightful! Why did no one tell me sooner? So much reading to do now!
There is no link for 26 Scarlet Letters, is it just a tease? I’m very interested! A quick attempted Google turned up “what letter is the scarlet letter” as a popular search, and ugh how lazy can students be.
It is there now, thank you!
Jacobitism or mongooses, Jacobitism or mongooses…
I feel compelled to share this here (via the billfold): http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavi…
A WONDERFUL STORY ABOUT TOAST!!!!!
I was about to post this too! Artisanal toast is a thing now!
I can’t help but think The-Toast has something to do with this.
This link round-up is a perfect example of why The Toast became my first stop online every morning, right after email and before anything else. (Before the weather. Before Metafilter, even. That’s saying something.)
soooo, am I the only person who had never heard of Camille Paglia before? I was reading a magazine, MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, when I came across an essay by her and I just about started destroying shit. And it was in the waiting room of my therapists office, so… that would have been embarrassing. I can’t believe I hadn’t felt a disturbance in the force surrounding this woman, and that this was the first time I’d heard of her. Someone else tell me they know her/of her and agree that she’s horrible?
Behold, the offending article: http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/16/its-a-mans-world…
She really doesn’t GET it, does she?
Nope, she’s always like that (or worse sometimes, she’s really into the whole ‘women need to take responsibility for their role in getting themselves raped because back in my day rape was no big deal and we only cared about sexual liberation blah blah misogyny blah’. I think she refers to herself as a contrarian but that’s not quite the word I’d use.
She’s been around for ages, but it has been many years since anyone took her that seriously, Nicole said, exceptionally cuttingly for a Canadian.
Uh-oh, looks like Ms. Paglia isn’t getting any butterscotch chips in her cookies from Nicole!
No cookies for Camille AT ALL!
lolwut
She’s terrible.
Her most recent offense is acting like a total jerk on the lovely Julie Klausner’s How Was Your Week Podcast. Julie traveled to Philadelphia to interview her, but Camille completely barreled over Julie. She barely let Julie get a word in edgewise. Julie approached the interview with such an open mind and was so patient, but I just wanted to scream at Camille on her behalf by the end.
Ugh. I know of Paglia and yes, she’s horrible. People were sharing that article all over my Facebook and I didn’t even bother to click on it; I’ve been burned by Paglia before. Someone tried to convince me that “this one is really good! She makes some great points!” but I remained steadfast.
Every time I see Paglia’s name, though, I remember Cat Marnell in the comment section of her infamous Plan B article on xojane telling her critics to “go read some Paglia!” and it makes me laugh because of course she did.
It’s just so…”I’m a contrarian, here to express the unpopular opinion that men are heroes who built America out of metal and brawn.”
She always seems really impressed with how controversial she is, rather than just being impressed with her ideas in and of themselves. I feel like she and Ann Coulter would get along spectacularly.
metal and brawn and testicles! AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!
I haven’t clicked on it either, partly to preserve my carefully rationed outrage, which I try to spend only on worthy causes, and partly to avoid awarding click-throughs to the people who still insist on publishing Paglia.
The comment section is especially infuriating. I read someone saying something along the lines of “All deep and important thinkers are men, women have been just contributers” haha sorry you forgot to acknowledge that for hundreds of years women couldn’t get the same education, have been listed as contributers even though they made breakthroughs (usually a man taking credit in this kind of instance), or women’s breakthroughs being glossed over and forgotten by the history books written to perpetuate the patriarchy. ANGER.
Same person: “Sex/race designates potential” PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE A TROLL
Oh, I love her, she’s BONKERS
Someone who would be in a position to know once told me that she was created in a lab.
I’m looking forward to the trans* series; I think the Toast is the perfect place for such narratives, as another facet of human life (one I don’t have close experience with or relation to) that doesn’t seem to get a lot of mainstream airplay in a sensitive fashion, it will fit right in with a lot of the other beautiful personal stories that are told here.
GUYS, the submissions I’ve gotten in one day from the Trans* Series call have been amaaaaaazing. Amazing! I don’t love the idea of lumping all of them under a rubric like “The Trans* Series,” on some level, because I want trans* content to be just another integrated kind of content on the site, but I DO want one place that they can live together for everyone to read, and it helps to generate submissions, so I’m making my peace with it!
One thought is to publish them separately, and then bundle in some way later. I’m really excited to see what comes out of the call for submissions though. Should be some neat stuff.
They’re all getting published separately, just with “TRANS* SERIES:” in front.
I’m curious about this! I wonder if people able to write amazing submissions in one day (wouldn’t put it past any Toasties), or if people had already written on the topic but hadn’t found a good space to publish before. Either way, definitely speaks to the huge need.
Technically, it was fixed at the exact moment you posted, so I’m feeling pretty smug about it.
Your smugness is justified! (:
Did anyone else follow the blowup after the NYT published an op-ed by Bill Keller criticizing how Lisa Bonchek Adams was coping with her cancer online (apparently she’s doing cancer wrong, according to Bill Keller who thinks he is the arbiter of how cancer patients are allowed to cope)? There’s a good writeup about it here: A few lessons about twitter, cancer, and publishing.
Oh man, yeah, I found out about it through John Green’s twitter. The whole thing is so weird and nasty. The NPR article is great, though — the points about Keller’s language/word choice are so interesting and spot-on (and infuriating!).
Maybe I’ll just start having all of my news filtered through Linda Holmes, what with her being brilliant and all.
Part of me is like OH MY GOD 25 YEAR OLDS STOP WRITING MEMOIRS NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO YOU YET. But the other part of me loves Katie Heaney, so, welcome to my Kindle, love.
My college requires a year-long senior thesis project that has basically no guidelines, and every year at LEAST half the English majors write “memoirs.” Most of them are variations on “one time I studied abroad and it CHANGED MY LIFE do you want to hear about it in excruciating detail for like 200 pages???” I DON’T ACTUALLY BUT THANKS.
I will still read the shit out of Katie Heaney’s book, obviously.
“that has basically no guidelines” oh man if I had something like that I’d just wait until the night before and then PANIC due to the lack of structure.
I’m loling at “Katie’s writing is hilarious, and warm, and thoughtful, and reading this book is like having a little version of her to hang out with. What’s that, Miniature Paper Katie? You don’t like the bath??” (Edith Zimmerman, founder of TheHairpin.com)
Oh, that Zen ski camp. Oh, I need that. I need that. I wonder how much flights to Utah are.
JetBlue.
Also, email me anytime if you want to know more about it, I’m a true believer.
Would you house and feed me over a fear workshop? I don’t ski, but I totally live in fear. Ugh.
I sure would! Her fear work is amazing.
Food for thought! Thanks!
Nicole, I am totally going to email you about this, despite it being completely a mad idea and entirely impractical, because I feel like knowing this exists is a Useful Thing. Anxiety has just this winter destroyed my ability to ski, and it breaks my heart.
This is a really good article if you are interested in urban planning, the housing market, foreclosures, grassroots activism, etc.: Eminent Domain: A Long Shot Against Blight
A Wikipedian will be adding Camille Paglia to that list shortly.
I’ve been wanting to share with the Toast this compilation of the good work that is being done in promoting misandry to children.
My Little Misandry! Perfect! And my niece already has a pony army that regularly commandeers her brothers’ pirate ships to search for treasure. They are also good Millineum Falcon pilots, says she.
This is the thing about racism! Not only are you a despicable person, you have also made your department the department that could have hired John van Nuemann and didn’t! Can you imagine all the amazing people who are at this moment not being hired, for similarly stupid reasons? I’m trying not to, because it’s too enraging.
Someone in the comments mentioned that America’s historically black colleges hired a BUNCH of Jewish academics who couldn’t get other jobs during this time period, and now I want to find an historian to write about that! I’ll talk to Alexis Coe.
I’m currently reading Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman and it’s very blunt about the quotas that the Ivy Leagues had on Jewish student, and John C. Slater (MIT) wrote a recommendation for Feynman to Princeton that had a hand-written addendum, in answer to a question about “Is Feynman Jewish?” from Princeton, “Feynman is of course Jewish but as compared for instance to Kanner and Eisenbud he is more attractive personally by several orders of magnitude.” I just goggled at it for a minute when I read it, because I apparently am still naive enough to be surprised when it’s so blatant.
Princeton did take Feynman, despite his Jewishness. *argleblargegrrr*
I was reading a book about the polio vaccine this summer and started shaking in rage and a strange kind of fear, because the best FOUR researchers — so basically everyone even close to a feasible vaccine — were all Jewish scientists who’d just barely managed to find medical schools who would take them. We were SO CLOSE to not getting that vaccine…and as you say, we are no doubt missing out on similarly important things for similarly stupid reasons.
If you haven’t read We Are Become Pals, you really should. It is amazing and totally messed me up in the best way when I read it last night.
http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&…
I have no stake in anyone reading this, I just want everyone to read it so everyone has read it!
Jacobitism or mongooses, Jacobitism or mongooses…
Mongooses!
Howdy, Toast. I was directed to this page by a fellow commenter at Groupthink, the Jezebel subpage, where many of us contribute pieces to be shared on Jezebel or on other Gawker media main pages (such as a few which have been shared to io9).
I have written (and intend to continue to write) trans related articles for the Jezebel page and its subpages. Maybe you’re interested?
Sure! Submissions info is in the post, looking forward to hearing from you.
I wish I knew how to ski.
I wish I knew how to ski.
Linda Holmes is one of my favorite people writing on the Internet and should be paid at least three times whatever she is currently making (NPR HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOGLE ALERT FOR THIS), plus driven about wherever she wants by an attractive, quiet chauffeur in the vehicle make and model of her choice. She is a National Treasure with (as LittlestOak pointed out) crazy-incredible creative and critical range.
In short, friends of The Toast would very likely also be friends of Monkey See (if you aren't already).