I literally just asked if such a thing existed on Twitter, and here it is!
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Block away, darling. Block away. It makes you feel alive, like smoking Marlboro Reds in the rain.
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I am allowing you to read someone ELSE’S link roundup because I don’t have the rights to the picture of the explorer and his wife (scroll down.)
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Apparently, it is NOT too soon to joke about the frozen bodies of WWI soldiers having White Walker potential (it probably isn’t too “soon,” to be fair, buuut.)
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Give it a shot, what’s the worst that could happen?
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Parker Molloy had a few things to add to her trans* series essay from yesterday.
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The Guardian, on why they are not putting the article about Lisa Bonchek Adams back up:
I don’t think it is wrong to frame a question about how those with incurable illnesses use social media, but the Guardian was wrong in the way it went about it. I have written to Adams to suggest we put up a fresh piece dealing with all her issues when she is able to engage with us, and to offer to publish a response entirely from her point of view. However, it is only right that this should be in her own time and that she should be allowed to get on with her treatment without any pressures. Therefore I do not anticipate that I will have fully resolved all issues for some time, and I think that we should not restore Keller’s original article to our website until I can do so.
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You won’t read this, I certainly didn’t, but foam rolling works and is magical.
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Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
I’m an avoid proponent of foam rolling! Since I’ve started working out, foam rolling after my workout has helped decrease the cramps I often get in my legs and feet. I mean, I still get some cramps and my calf muscles are often still sore, but it’s much less often. Yay scientific studies!
I used to work in a gaggle of male former college athletes and they HATED foam rolling. So I always assumed it was painful. Have I been misled?
It is pretty painful the first couple times you do it, but it gets less so, and you feel so good after! I need to unpack my roller (form moving in July…)
I used it for a persistent back injury in my thoracic spine – my muscles are scarred and kept throwing my spinal alignment out of whack. using this (lengthwise, from head to bum, and rolling gently back and forth with my arms relaxed to the sides – elbows touching the ground) created such relief, I can’t even tell you. It may have hurt while doing it but I honestly didn’t notice it.
Like the others have said, it can be painful… but in the way that a good massage can hurt. I know it’s working the knots out of my muscles. And really, you do feel good afterwards!
It never got better for me the time I had a personal trainer who insisted on it. It was always the least favorite part of my workout and the part I dreaded most (and the part I have since excised, sorry science.)
Foam rolling is the BEST. For some next-level stuff, I’ve recently started using the “peanut” though.. I need something more targeted to unfuck my back.
How do you DO it, though? I…do you just roll yourself over a puffy cylinder? Is there a strategy to it?
There’s debate, Mallory. Vicious, vicious debate. I for one roll out my abductors sllooowwlyyy and painfully, with a bit of shrieking thrown in for my neighbours’ pleasure.
There’s debate, Mallory. Vicious, vicious debate. I for one roll out my abductors sllooowwlyyy and painfully, with a bit of shrieking thrown in for my neighbours’ pleasure.
There is a strategy, and I’m probably not the best person to ask, but.. basically, you use our body weight to press down on the areas that are tight, and the roll part of the foam roller helps you massage that area back and forth. Does that make sense? And you can lay on it all sorts of ways (just google foam roller for hips, glutes, back, etc) to deal with your tightest areas.
If the foam roller isn’t firm enough, there are other things you can use–large PVC pipe, the rumble roller, or even smaller rolly things like softballs, tee balls, or lacrosse balls. For instance, the regular foam roller does nothing for my quads except for my IT bands or my back, so I usually use something firmer.
Does this help? Does this confuse? I’ve never tried explaining it before, I usually just show up to a place and they tell me how to roll around on a floor or wall.
Also, my chiropractor has a table that is basically a large mechanical version of the foam roller, only you lay still and it rolls for you, from base of your spine to base of your skull. He calls it his traction table and I adore it. My ex MIL hated hated it though, so it’s very much a personal choice.
LOVEMYFOAMROLLER but im also a huge fan of the “tiger tail” which is not FOAM, but is a muscle roller. Its a little easier to pack in a suitcase and can double as a weapon!
I wonder why the scientists didn’t study foam rolling after a workout too, instead of just before. I love my foam roller; sometimes it makes my muscles all warm and buzzing.
Does anyone else use the Yoga TuneUp series by Jill Miller? It’s amazing. She has a dvd series where she teaches you to roll around all your muscle groups with tiny tennis-like balls. Better than any massage.
Yeah, the methodology was a little confusing. Comparing results from foam rolling versus doing planks is a little like comparing eating salads with drinking water: Neither is a bad thing, but they operate very differently. I wonder why the authors didn’t compare foam rolling with yoga or static stretching instead.
That quibble aside, all hail the foam roller; it’s done wonders for my wonky SI joint as I’ve started running more consistently, and it is a lot cheaper than sessions with my (beloved! fantastic!) massage therapist.
Foam Rolling is THE BOMB. I also roll out on therapy balls, lacrosse balls, golf balls, various-sized toy balls found in random stores, and (my limousine) a Rumble Roller which is delicious hell on my IT bands. My favorite self-myofascial release go-to person is Kelly Starrett: http://www.mobilitywod.com/about/kellystarrett/
KStarr is the BEST. I should actually be more diligent about checking out his site for exercises I can do for my ankle mobility. People I’ve lifted with who have been in motorcycle accidents look at my squats sans barbells and lifting shoes and go “uh, wow, I thought my ankles were bad..” o_O
I *finally* got a copy of Supple Leopard (for my bday–Thanks, Mom!) and WOW. So. Much. Information. Good luck loosening up your ankles! Those are TOUGH.
I have that! Some of the terminology is confusing (is it from CrossFit?). And, yeah, there is so much information to work through! I need a CliffNotes for it.
Yeah, he runs a CrossFit, so is heavily influenced by their terminology. I would love to do some personal training work with him for my hips which are annoyingly tight despite a year of mobility work on them.
I’m a foam rolling evangelist. I break mine out at parties to get people to try it because clearly, I am Good at Parties.
As a rule I try not to get too bothered about stupid clickbait articles, but….you know, Time, those are real people who died in agony in the mountains. Not everything has to be pop-culture-y and trendy. Could they not write an article discussing how strange it is that skeletons from almost 100 years ago are being slowly melted out of ice and giving us a weirdly real idea of the war WITHOUT referring to them as some kind of zombie-like fictional creature? (Not being a Game of Thrones fan I have no idea what they are. But still.)
The second article in the Telegraph with the full details is heart breaking.
Signed
The Girl Who Normally Looks For Any Excuse For A Got Joke
It’s probably just because they can’t deal with the real horror that those poor people faced as they fought and died in a heartbreaking war that resolved nothing and destroyed the best part of an entire generation. But that’s too much of a bummer, dudes, so just throw in a few pop culture metaphors to make it cool and humorous.
(Wow, apparently I have strong feelings about this. Not too surprising, considering I sobbed over The Guns of August.)
Yeah. Because my Master’s is in First World War history, sometimes I have to check myself and be like “am I being too sensitive about this?” but….it’s just really really really disappointing and distressing in the same way that people consider old cemeteries to be parks or fair game for play areas and dog walking and stuff.
I mean, come on. What a poorly-written, poorly-edited, IN POOR TASTE article, shooting for some extra click-throughs for people who are interested in Game of Thrones. Come on.
I was really disappointed by the use of cemeteries as parks, but then I had an online convo with someone who runs events at Congressional Cemetery who clearly really does care about what the place means, but also would like the caretaking organization to have enough money to keep, you know, caretaking. Soo I decided to give that a pass, personally.
I should probably clarify that I don’t have issues with major cemeteries that run events and do it in a tasteful manner, but people who use ordinary town cemeteries and especially rural cemeteries as parks/dog runs/party spots, which is shockingly common and very gross.
I’m probably a terrible person because my reaction was something like “COOL.Gruesome but COOL.” (Then again I am a Game of Thrones resister so I didn’t get that reference or seek to do so.) But then, I also used to work in the heritage industry in a city where they closed a cemetery in the 1840s and built a park over it in the 1850s and kids have been playing on the knocked-over tombstones ever since, so… (Kingston shoutout!)
McBurney Park?
YES. That is the real name. Which I always forget because Skeleton Park is much catchier. One time I got to see the Anglican church’s records of whose families could afford to move them to Cataraqui Cemetery and whose couldn’t and then I couldn’t walk through that park at night for a while.
Oh! I like to see cemeteries used as living-people places–with some basic respect–because I like to see the dead people included in on-going community life, instead of just being a museum you visit. I had no idea some people had a problem with this!
I’m re-reading The Guns of August right now! It’s so incredibly written. I know that she’s considered a bit of an armchair historian, but, I mean, who gives a shit?
“Armchair historian,” what does that even mean? It sounds like something the Academy invented to crap on people without PhD’s.
I loved The Guns of August, of course, but reading The Proud Tower (about Europe and the U.S. from 1870-1914) just brought it home what an amazing writer she was, and how absolutely fucking fascinating and interconnected history is.
“Armchair historian” is definitely a thing the Academy invented to crap on people without PhD’s. Well, and even people who just don’t have any degrees in history.
It’s crap no matter what, because even someone with a PhD is going to be wildly unqualified to speak about 99.9% of history, because PhDs are SUPER NARROW. You don’t get a PhD in History, you get a PhD in Your Chosen Niche Historical Thing. My Masters is in Modern Germany and the Holocaust, and if I’d gotten a PhD I would likely have been forced to narrow it even further down than that.
Basically if someone calls you an “armchair historian” they’re telling you “shut up, you don’t have a degree in this thing so your opinion doesn’t count because I said so.”
EDITING TO ADD: I also think there’s a lot to be said for what non-academically-trained people who are just freaking interested in history have to bring to the table, because they’re not working within the structures and guidelines determined by the Powers that Be in the academic system. It’s great to have that stuff, and incredibly valuable. BRING ON THE ARMCHAIR HISTORIANS!
isn’t every who isn’t a time traveler technically an armchair historian
Just came back to this thread to say that I went and bought The Proud Tower on Amazon earlier, along with a bunch of obscure LM Montgomery-ana. Looking forward to being enthralled with Diaghelev and raging over Dreyfus yet again…
She’s a fabulous writer. More historians should be fabulous writers. I don’t really care about her chair.
I love the foam roller! I lent mine to a friend years ago, and need another one… HELLO PAYDAY!!!
IN ARBOREAL NEWS: The older trees get, the more air they filter and the faster they grow. Their health does not decline but goes on some kind of crazy upward spiral unless weather, drought, etc intereferes. So basically trees have “unlimited growth potential” aND COULD LIVE FOREVER.
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/262479807/old-trees…
Thought I’d mention it because I know lots of you Toasties like to hug/high five trees. Also it blows my mind.
There is also some great tree info in the New Yorker article about the neurobiology of plants from a couple of weeks ago. Trees in a forest basically form a network by which they cooperate, share resources, and alert each other to danger. They are amazing.
Here’s the article, which does not appear to be behind the paywall:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131…
FUCK YEAH TREES.
(Wow, 2nd f-bomb I’ve dropped here today, guys. My blood pressure must be up.)
a scene from just now:
me: “oh yeah!”
partner: “what’s that?”
me (singing): “treeees, treees, treeeees!”
/end scene
Is anyone else astounded about the bounty Jezebel put on the pre-photoshop pictures of Lena Dunham? I realize what they are saying about how photoshop creates these insane standards but its different when they specifically go after a singular person to make them a poster girl for a ‘before’ picture. They can say all they want about it not being about body shame but it was revolting.
And on a less serious note – a literal bag of dicks! I know Im getting all myfriends for their birthday this year!
yeeeeaaah… I saw that earlier this morning. WHOAH, right? putting a bounty on an unphotoshopped picture of someone who regularly puts her body out there without modification is not helping the cause of body acceptance. And so a former feminist blog goes the way of “click bait”…
I strongly encourage everyone to read Roxane Gay’s piece about it in Salon. I didn’t link to any articles about it, because I don’t want to really draw attention to the stunt, but Roxane’s got a good tack on it.
I did think twice about posting, after all it is just horrible click bait, but this week there has been even more talk about Dunham’s body and the fatigue I was experiencing in hearing about it is turning in to anger as we have been talking for 2 *years* about the fact that a woman is on television without being emaciated. That’s way too long to be talking about it, and Jezebel should know better.
Roxane’s article was great and says all this far better. I agree – read her!
You guys, when I first read this thread, I was like, “How come people want to see pre-photoshop pictures of Lena Horne? Why would she be photoshopped? There wasn’t even photoshop when she was younger, what the heck?”
And then I realized I had the wrong Lena, and the wrong century, and an even more tenuous grasp on pop culture than usual.
Your pop culture reference may not be contemporary, but it’s totally awesome.
We need Bergie to make an awesome photo of Lena Horne – say, from Showboat or something – saying “Up yours, Jezebel” or some such.
And either their commenting system is being terrible again, or they are not allowing comments on that article.
They’ve apparently acquired the photos and there’s a post up with them now and…it’s a dud. It’s a total dud. Which is, not surprisingly, what nearly everyone predicted. They made changes in post-production (which, of course – it’s Vogue) but they were really fairly minor. The whole thing is just so offensive on so many levels.
So, hey, I’m glad you mentioned the trans series again, b/c I found this yesterday and it lays out a lot of things I had wanted to bring up about the asterisk.
http://jackaldope.tumblr.com/post/67502067173/som…
I’m not saying change it or don’t, and maybe you’ve heard these objections and decided to go with the asterisk anyway. It’s the newest iteration on transwhatever, and that alone makes it reasonable to assume it’s the most inclusive choice. But in case you didn’t know, there are some decent reasons why not to use it, and just to use trans instead.
There are so many opinions about nomenclature that I’m seeing in my submissions alone, I think we’ll have some cool pieces about it. I have one coming up by a trans person who truly hates the word “transgender.” I’ll read the article, thanks for linking. Like you said, we’re obviously using the * to err on the side of inclusivity, but I’m happy to hear the arguments against.
If there is one truism about trans people it is that they will not find consensus over a word. Any word! At all! Probably ever!
My bigger concern, personally, remains whether I should just avoid the series titling at all, but it works really well from an administrative and submissions-call standpoint, and I like how people will be able to click on “The Trans* Series” and see how incredibly different each piece is, but if I get any kind of significant pushback on identifying it AS a series, I’ll probably just keep running the series without calling it one.
#editorproblems
Yeah, you had mentioned the titling dilemma before and I don’t have any great suggestions. A common thing to do is make it punny, like Transcribed or Transcriptions, or an acronym (Trans Writers On Toast….maybe not that one).
I personally don’t like the asterisk at all, but in the context of The Toast I feel what you call the collection is secondary to the quality of the articles, which I expect will be great.
I think using tags/categories would make it easy to find articles about trans issues/by trans authors/etc with demarcating them from the rest of the site content.
[I don’t consider myself significant pushback! I just feel a little ehhhhh about it being a series]
Me too! I have a post about it coming up in a second.
just remember that you’re doing everything wrong
Can I ask re: terminology in that – what’s dfab and dmab and hbsers?
#lost well-intentioned cis person
dfab — fabulous in the way that the kids who are failing out of school always are
dmab — dating queen mab
hbsers — high-borns (secret kings and queens)
dfab/afab/cafab/faab, and the “m” equivalents are all acronyms for being assigned a sex at birth. It originally started as a way to (1) respect trans people who felt they they had always been a certain sex and coming out/transitioning of any sort was just making it visible, and (2) to try to draw attention to the fact that gendering occurs from birth (and before, really) based on an arbitrary designation of an infant’s visible genitalia. It’s usage is a little more dilute now and some people don’t like that, but that’s probably beyond the scope of your question.(?)
HBSers are proponents of an unrecognized ailment called Harry Benjamin Syndrome. They believe that there are “true transsexuals” (themselves, naturally) who deserve access to transition-related services and care, and then there’s the rest of the trans rabble, who only exist to make real transsexuals look bad, or b/c trans is such a fun thing to be, or somethingsomething.
Everyone with back pain of any kind: FOAM ROLL.
Love,
A rower with a bulging (lulz) L5 disc
So I’ve never been to any sort of doctor to look at my back or even had a massage, but I have really bad lower back pain and I just looked it up and I guess you aren’t supposed to use foam rollers for that?
Wait, really? I just googled “foam roller lower back pain” and there were a bunch of tips and recommendations. Where’d you see that it’s dangerous?
Obviously I’m not a doctor and can’t speak for everyone, but to my own personal experience, I’ve been having rowing-related spine torque for about 4 years now, which gets everything out of alignment. My amazing PT is a big fan of the roller to help “re-align” the bones and keep everything in place. But! I don’t know for you.
I would suggest getting some treatment or PT for back pain, though. It won’t go away on its own.
I literally know NOTHING, and I’m sure this isn’t even a legitimate source but it is the first thing I saw: http://www.sharecare.com/health/types-exercise/sa… and I got scared from there. You are absolutely right though, I should probably at least attempt to visit a PT. I didn’t really know about foam rolling before.. an hour ago, but reading about how to do it sounds SO GOOD to me. Like that just sounds perfect and like it would feel awesome in that painful kind of way.
Oh jeebs, that link IS scary! Honestly though when I first got my back injury the internet convinced me I would never walk again, soooooo you learn to get thick skin with Google.
the one thing I can say like corfay said below is that back pain is INCREDIBLY complicated – I went to a bunch of specialists and doctors before I found a person/treatment that worked. You should figure out what’s wrong with you first (spine issue? disc issue? muscle issue? just tight hammies?) before taking a course of action.
yeah, I also mentioned this product above, but I have a non-foam roller called a “tiger tail” which is GREAT and you could definitely use on your lower back in a non-damaging way. I mean, I think – as a non-medical professional.
Also, like below… just stretching can do wonders. hamstrings, quads, glutes.
back pain is so complicated!!! I dont know about rolling your lower back, but I do know lower back pain can sometimes come from tight hips/butt. maybe roll those muscles instead?
Interesting! Despite my pain I’ve really never read up much on it, I really should. It’s one of those things that I’ve just kind of gotten used to living with.
WAit, while we’re all here, can we talk about cracking your spine? I’ve never been to a chiropractor, but I crack my back non-stop. I would seriously be unable to move if I didn’t.
back-cracking is 100% mystery to me. I went to a chiropractor for a while (which, I know, everyone is like THATS BULLSHIT) but I thought it really helped! If I could do it on myself I totally would.
Yes yes yes! Also stretch your hammies. Lie on your back, put your leg straight up, loop a rope or band over your toe box, and hold it while you push your heel up for 30 seconds. FEELS GREAT AND BY GREAT I MEAN ACHY
Also everyone read Parker’s additional piece, it’s 100% on point.
Yep, I really liked it.
I just realized that the background for the bag of dicks is my duvet cover 🙂 this pleases me for some reason.
I have noticed a trend of men being like “Oh honey you must be exaggerating it can’t be that bad” and then
BAM #1: http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/14/man-sets-up-fake-on…
BAM #2: http://vimeo.com/65927758
So it’s cool that these specific guys learned some stuff but not cool that they didn’t believe ladies about stuff in the first place???? ugh
Agreed. It’s really one of the most basic and pernicious things underlying sexism (and racism and other forms of discrimination) – this tendency to doubt women’s lived experiences even when they are standing up and saying, this is my life, this is literally what I have lived through, here is evidence of it happening. Unless, of course, men are able to find a way to experience it for themselves. Like, it’s great these guys were able to pull their heads out of their asses and finally understand and respect (to some extent) just how much it can suck to be a woman in our society. It’s nice (though it’s the bare fucking minimum of human decency, really) that they wanted to make the effort to “get it.”
But that still doesn’t get at the root of the problem. Which is that they were so convinced of their supposed objectivity, their right to decide what was and wasn’t true about other people’s experiences, that these dudes STILL could ultimately only trust themselves. They didn’t just doubt these women’s experiences, they were openly and condescendingly dismissive of what these women (who they are supposed to like/love) said was happening to them. It is evidence of a profound lack of empathy and respect on the part of men towards women. And it’s disturbingly common. Is it really that hard to just listen and accept what someone is telling you about what they have experienced in their own lives, especially when it’s something that you will never have to live through?
TL:DR – Let’s get the Misandrist Revolution going already.
YES. There is nothing more to add, really. Your comment is perfect.
Thank you! Always lovely to get a response like this 🙂
YES. There is nothing more to add, really. Your comment is perfect.
This is not really news, but my roommate noted on twitter this morning that a side effect of living with me was “misandreams” and I want to start writing that word everywhere. MISANDREAMS!!!
Now I really want another Toast T Shirt that says Follow your misandreams…
Those rock-throwing capuchins are totally the leggy blondes who drink whiskey and watch the The Big Lebowski.
/insider jokes from another site, sorry
I think they are the ones who signal their readiness to mate by pulling pouting faces, whining loudly or touching males and running away. (same article)
And never be sorry for bringing up the Big Lebowski Blond!
Have they also lived internationally? Or am I getting my leggy blondes mixed up?
All the legs, all the time.
(I wonder about tall leggy blond sometimes. Do you think she *got* the criticism of her letter or was just all “pshhhhhhht haters gonna hate” and started reading buzzfeed instead?)
Am I the only former theater-geek who clicked the Block Away link expecting something to do with stage setting?
You are not.
Hahaha, nope!
You are not and I would like you to write that.
Ha ha ha! It’s a thought. I really was expecting an article on how important mise-en-scene is for daily life, or something like that.
We are the people for whom The Internet will always be a fever dream. Or in my case a skill that I was willing to have for facebook and forums but will take no further. (Who are these 11 year olds who are instagramming? Nonsense!)
nope! I’m not even a former-theater geek and I still thought it was THAT kind of blocking. 🙂
I thought it was going to be about knitting.
Etsy is truly a treasure.
So the place where they’re finding the frozen-over corpses is a couple hundred kilometres away from a battle that my great-grandfather fought in during the First World War (which I only know about because it says on his gravestone that he was the-Italian-equivalent-of-knighted for his service in that battle). Do you think he fought there too?? DO you think he KNEW THEM??????? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
So the place where they're finding the frozen-over corpses is a couple hundred kilometres away from a battle that my great-grandfather fought in during the First World War (which I only know about because it says on his gravestone that he was the-Italian-equivalent-of-knighted for his service in that battle). Do you think he fought there too?? DO you think he KNEW THEM??????? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
YES. That is the real name. Which I always forget because Skeleton Park is much catchier. One time I got to see the Anglican church's records of whose families could afford to move them to Cataraqui Cemetery and whose couldn't and then I couldn't walk through that park at night for a while.
She's a fabulous writer. More historians should be fabulous writers. I don't really care about her chair.
Oh! I like to see cemeteries used as living-people places–with some basic respect–because I like to see the dead people included in on-going community life, instead of just being a museum you visit. I had no idea some people had a problem with this!
That’s my bag of dicks! Thanks for posting a link!