When the National Post feels the need to correct its readers and explain that residential schools were just that bad, those schools were pretty goddamn bad. Might not have gone with “dark legacy,” tho.
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This (condensed) piece, The Impossibility of the Good Black Mother, was the highlight of a recent essay collection which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would, considering I hate all articles about parenting except yours.
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Back in China, watching her words.
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I am not going to read this article about how Elementary is better than Sherlock (for this case to be made, I assume that Elementary must feature a nude Rupert Graves listening to you talk about your day), but I am allowing you to, if you want, in order to show that I am an openminded person who thinks people should be permitted to be wrong on the internet.
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Canada is a nightmare hellscape of cold right now. I am wearing everything I own. We are grinding wheat in a coffee mill like in Laura Ingalls. We literally cannot make it out the lane most days. We’ll eat the elderly first. Mallory said “go see Frozen!” as though we have movie theaters when it’s this cold, instead of just sitting around watching each other’s extremities gradually turn purple.
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Oh, and I’m reading Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, which is excellent and v.v. scary, and would have been published regardless of who Joe’s dad is, but I do suspect they might have made him come up with a different title if he was just some rando.
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Amiri Baraka’s Newark legacy.
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Are you in London? I would go!
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Don’t…you know what? It’s probably not going to come up, anyway.
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You can use this comment thread to talk further about Rupert Graves as Greg Lestrade, and any intense feelings you might be developing for him as a generous, kind lover who would give you bad but well-meaning birthday presents. Are Nicole and Greg endgame? What does that mean for alternate timeline Sherlock? Watch this space for more.
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
Nicole, you’re in the frozen hinterlands reading a 700 page horror novel? Are you okay? Should we send reinforcements?
Well, better that than reading the horrifying, 700-page The Terror in the frozen hinterlands! Given that it takes place in the frozen hinterlands of Northern Canada and all that. That would be doubly bad.
I read that one while working in the tundra. I do not recommend it in those circumstances.
Send booze.
Enough for everyone.
Nicole/Cumberbatch OTP, I will go down with this ship, etc etc
It was -32 C with the windchill this morning and everything in my car was frozen, all the dials and the power steering and suspension were all cold and stiff as balls, but I just wore my regular work clothes (plus my winter boots and an extra sweater)…I didn’t even wear a scarf. Or a hat. But I did put my hood up and wear gloves to chip the ice off! And yesterday my dad texted me that he was going hunting and it was SOOO COOOLD that he was wearing two pairs of pants (dads) and I was like….but Dad, it’s ten times cold here and I wore the same damn thing I wear to work every day.
Then he told all his work friends how his daughter is slowly killing herself via frostbite, so. Dads!
TWO PAIRS OF PANTS
If there was ever a Dad Thing it would be “I’m wearing two pairs of pants!”
I am also wearing two pairs of pants, but then I have always been kind of a dad, or like a salty grandpa.
My dad does not ever wear two pairs of pants, but he did buy a special pair of flannel-lined pants (identical to all his other pants) (he has 5 identical pairs of pants and 20 identical polo shirts and he wears the same thing every day) for when it’s very cold out. This is especially funny to me because we live in Houston.
So “very cold out” is anything below 40?
I’m in Houston, too. “Very cold out” is anything below 50.
I had to wear a sweater today! A sweater! AND boots! Brrrrrrrrrr
I moved from Maine to Houston as a child and was endlessly amused by the (totally reasonable, logical) shift in what counted as “very cold out.” I’m not sure I owned a pair of boots or a real coat the entire time I lived there.
On the other hand, the rain freaked my parents right the hell out. The first time the streets flooded up to the neighbors’ yards, my mother walked through thigh-high water to my school to collect her youngest children for the end times, and the administrator staffing the front desk was all “Why, now?”
He wears them if it’s below 55.
My manly counterpart routinely wears two pairs of pants in the winter. The inner pair is usually Christmas pajamas covered in the Grinch’s face. I AM DATING A DAD-CHILD.
Adding “dad-child” to my vocabulary RIGHT NOW. (My actual dad does have Grinch pajamas, so, yup.)
I have those pants! Though I usually just wear them on their own around the house.
I wore two leggings yesterday, that kind of counts!
I’m wearing stockings as well as a pair of socks, and *bloomers*, all under a wool skirt. I have been known to wear two pairs of pajama pants on especially chilly evenings at home.
DON’T JUDGE ME.
I gave up, and am just wearing fleece-lined ski leggings as pants.
How am I going to judge you? You’re wearing BLOOMERS!
I’ll judge! The judge from Houston gives you a 10.0
When I went to university in Ottawa I would wear two pair of pants in the winter! I’m from coastal BC though, so I am a giant wuss about cold.
I also went to university in Ottawa! And I never wore two pairs of pants, but I did wear long johns and pants when I had to walk 5k to school during the transit strike in 2008/2009. But then I had to change once I got to school because I was so hot and sweaty, even though it was like -25 outside.
(I am becoming a crotchety old person all I WALKED TO SCHOOL IN THE SNOW UPHILL BOTH WAYS but in my defense there totally was an uphill in both directions. And a lot of snow and cold. It was a bad time.)
I wore two pairs of pants for the first time when I lived in Ottawa for university! It has basically made me impervious to this Toronto cold. Even if, as I said above, I am wearing two pairs of pants right now. (WINDCHILL.)
Also, give yourself the props for walking during that transit strike — that was some tough shit. I was in my first year, living on campus and lurking in tunnels at the time, so I was barely aware, but I heard stories. Oh, the stories.
Did you go to Carleton??? SO DID I!
I didn’t really have a choice, sadly. It was my third year and I had a zillion classes and a fuckton of work, so I couldn’t really skip, so instead I just walked from Mooney’s Bay every day. It was cold. I was sad. But I took out a locker and stuffed it full of clothes and lived. There were no shuttles to my area, so basically I was sad a lot of the time. Also cold.
YES I DID SHUT UP THAT’S AWESOME. CARLETON REPRESENT ON THE TOAST. The tunnels were kind of a giveaway, I guess. I was never more grateful for them than in January 2009.
Mooney’s Bay is… not walkable from campus, so wow, kudos. My comm prof walked to class from Sandy Hill one time and was like, “So, I’m going to deliver this lecture from the floor, if that’s cool with you guys.”
Carleton!!! I was in my fourth year by the transit strike, but I’d walk from the Glebe everyday anyway so I was used to it.
What did you guys study?
My brother went there! For no discernable reason, except it was really really far away from home!
(So was Santa Cruz, and I’m clearly smarter than my brother, cause I went there, instead. We had redwood forests and caves and the beach and super super fog, and not one flake of snow.)
Mooney’s Bay wasn’t bad! It really was only like 5-6k and a very pleasant walk when it was nice out in the spring.
I was a history major/Russian minor.
I was history/art history! Small world! Did you do a history honours year?
I haven’t been back to Ottawa since I finished school. Good old Ottawa. Are you still in the area? Get a shawarma for me if you are 🙂
Oh my god, I bet you know my friend. (ARE you my friend? Heather????) And yes, I did four years for the B.A.Honours.
I am not, I went to New Brunswick to do my Master’s in history, and now my husband’s job has taken us down to Trenton. I love Ottawa and it might be in our future! But for the time being I really miss shawarma.
No, I’m not Heather, haha. What a small world! What honours seminars did you do? I did one with Matt Belamey, and one with James Opp (did you ever have Opp? Oh my gosh, I was so enamored with him)
I did one with Belamey too! It was on the interwar period and media representations, and it was great. I actually never had a class with Opp! Lots of classes with Bruce Elliott, though.
The one I did was “booze, debauchery, and politics in Canada” and it was hilarious. I don’t think I did anything with Bruce – how about John Walsh? He was my actual favorite.
Nope, but I took a lot of one-off courses–Tim Cook, Fitzgerald, Jill St. Germain, Del Muise, and John Bellamy (senior) back when he was still teaching one class per term.
What a small world! I always want to go back to Carleton, and get one of those veggie pita wraps from roosters, and have a beer iat Mike’s Place. It seems so far to go from the West Coast though.
Holy crap, I didn’t go to Carleton, but I was a European Studies major/Russian minor. No wonder we get along so well. *smooches*
I actually was offered a EURUS Master’s position at Carleton without even applying for it during my MA application process! I decided against it because I wanted to go to a different school, but it was incredibly tempting for a bit.
I went for journalism, but I spent approximately 1000000 hours doing scrappy student theatre instead. And I have completely fled from journalism-related work and I make a living in theatre so suck on THAT, Carleton j-school!
One of my best friends went to Carleton j-school! We spent most of our time drinking at the Aloha Lounge and eating pizza shark though
I found OC transpo to be too expensive, so unless I could sneak in the backdoor, I walked. I understand the crotchetiness.
I was working in Ottawa during that strike! I could get a ride in to work but not home, so it was a 1.5 hour hike. Turned out I kind of enjoyed it – got rid of all my work grumbles as I walked and got home happier. One grumble being that I couldn’t work from home at all even though my job was mostly computer work – one of many reasons I no longer work there 🙂
That is a grumble! We all have such good walking in the snow stories now, though
as someone who has learned celsius recently that is impossibly goddamn cold holy shit (it’s 5C here and I’ve been complaining my ass off.)
-32C and no scarf or hat is tempting the snow queen to make you into an ice sculpture. I’m from Edmonton! I know what I’m talking about! Though it’s been surprisingly balmy this year, barring a few days in early December. I’ve only had to don leggings under my jeans a few times.
Of course I do actually hate wearing hats so I just wear three hoods and two ridiculous scarves when the weather descends to the depths.
Woooo Edmonton Toastie! I don’t really have anything to contribute other than that. Other than, yes, it has been unseasonably warm this year. I don’t think I have had to double pants at all (yet) this year.
All the freezing rain we’ve had has really sucked, though. I’m so tired of ice.
Uggggh yes! The ice everywhere is getting super annoying. Ice on the roads! and on the sidewalks! There is no escape!
ALSO regarding residential schools, if anyone wants a super-depressing but thoroughly excellent book on the residential school system, I recommend A National Crime by John Milloy. http://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/a-national-crime It is truly outstanding and will make you weep for humanity.
At noon the sky will be a peculiar shade of blue, the dark blue that only comes when it’s so cold everything between you and space has frozen out of the air.
Why does the Google Glass woman only see herself? The man can apparently see across the bed just fine…
I thought they were two women.
No I read some complaints saying that not only was all of the product promotion stuff for heterosexual couples, but that most of the images were just sexualized pictures of women. There was also a comment about how the videos delete after 5 hours “for the ladies” because I guess they would be all of women and those women would be concerned about there images being emailed around. It seems really poorly throughout and yet another example of how tech startups forget that women exist as people and not just girlfriends/hookups.
Elementary surpasses Sherlock by far in several categories, including plot, writing, character development, character casting, representation of WoC and PoC, and not being written by Steven Moffatt.
Sherlock does better than Elementary in the number of times Bendysnap Crampypants appears on screen.
Elementary wins.
so much this
Elementary has (imo) the best Watson to have ever Watsoned, and yeah, more WoC and PoC in an average episode than the entire 3 seasons of Sherlock combined. Also representation of a trans woman character as played by a trans woman albeit not perfectly and only for one episode (come baaaack Miss Hudsooon).
Social commentary aside, I think both shows have their strong points. And Rupert Graves as Greg Lestrade is the silver fox I never knew I wanted, BUT Lucy Liu as Joan Watson is the kickass not-your-sidekick-but-your-partner Asian American (canonically half Asian) Watson that we don’t deserve but have anyway, and she is a treasure.
As someone said on twitter, yes you can argue Sherlock vs. Elementary all you want but Arthur Conan Doyle would have hated all of the adaptations equally, which keeps me amused.
Yes for Miss Hudson. She’s not a perfect character (and I’m sure someone more knowledgable than me has lots more to say), but I wish she’d come back! I really liked that episode, with the hanging out with the plow driver lady…
Yes to Miss Hudson, trans woman played by a trans woman, not treated as a one dimensional punch line but as a person with hopes and dreams. It is a start and moar please.
http://arsmarginal.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/10-re…
COLUMBO IS BETTER THAN BOTH ELEMENTARY AND SHERLOCK
MAAAAAAATLOCK (Grandpa Simpson voice)
MAAAAAAT LOOOOOOCK
I’ve had a bit of a pash on Rupert Graves ever since the Dark Ages (or, you know, 1986) when I saw him as Freddie in Room with a View, and especially after Maurice. He’s only gotten better looking since then, and Nicole’s characterization of Greg Lestrade is perfect.
Yup yup up. That Elementary vs. Sherlock article sums up all my personal feelings about the two shows pretty much perfectly. There are perfectly good reasons to enjoy Sherlock over Elementary – the more cinematic storytelling, the visual flair, Benedict Cumberwumble (that last one is a particularly good reason). But the attitude of some of the AV Club comments – that Sherlock is an unimpeachable modern classic which is just intrinsically better for reasons and if you don’t agree you’re Slate – is the most troubling sort of fannishness. (We need a good gender-neutral word for fangirl/faboyism).
I watched Elementary in the long gap between Sherlock S2 and S3, and I think it might have ruined S3 for me. It just seemed so loose and self-indulgent, in comparison with the well-sketched characters on Elementary, who exist and have lives and hopes and dreams outside of Holmes. Plus, Moriarty. Plus, shallow things: I covet Lucy Liu’s wardrobe, and JLM is, um, damn sexy.
I’m so happy with how they’ve treated Moriarty.
Also, yes, where is this store full of wedge boots and tunic tops? I need them.
the attitude of some of the AV Club comments – that Sherlock is an unimpeachable modern classic which is just intrinsically better for reasons and if you don’t agree you’re Slate – is the most troubling sort of fannishness
Sounds like Whedon fans! Perhaps they’re the same people. There must be something about these shows that makes it so that if you critique the show at all you’re “not a real fan” and must be some sort of heathen who cannot see the true art before you. It’s kind of alarming, to be honest, and I say this as someone who has enjoyed many a Whedon show. I just… think no form of art is above criticism, and those that guard their particular fandom as flawless and uncriticizable are living in a nice delusional cloud of nonsense smoke and denial mist.
Yeah, that kind of fandom kept me away from Firefly for far too long. Someday I’ll finally watch Buffy, sigh. There’s lots of interesting anthropological and sociological work to be done on the dynamics of online fan culture, “fangirl” dynamics, sense of audience ownership, etc.
I like the AV comments earnestly arguing that casting a WoC as Watson was somehow less radical than if they had kept him a white man. I like Martin Freeman in the role, but he’s not “edgy” by any stretch of the imagination.
I am happy to hear Elementary is so well-liked, ever since Lucy Liu was awesome in Southland I’ve wanted to watch Elementary but it seemed kind of ridiculous? I think Mr Polka Dots and I some catching up to do!
Also, Elementary has Clyde. *drops mic*
It’s just so, so obvious that it’s Moffat behind Sherlock and Doctor Who, if by nothing else than the way he attempts to write women/LGBTQ characters/anyone who isn’t the white, heterosexual male protagonist. Trite and booooorrring.
This post (http://tinyurl.com/kjpjd39) has nice comparison between the BBC Sherlock-Watson relationship and the CBS Sherlock-Moriarty relationship. In short, both are emotionally abusive, but in Sherlock the abuser is the hero and in Elementary she’s the villian (spoilers for episode 1 of this season’s Sherlock and S1 of Elementary).
Also, Lucy Liu is the bestest.
Gay ladies write gay letters to other gay ladies: http://www.autostraddle.com/sexy-lesbian-love-let…
Does anyone read the billfold? Can we talk about how the comments have gotten suuuper libertarian lately? I love the site and think all 3 of the writers are smart and provide balance perspectives but the comments, omg, are so terrible.
Like recently there was an article on this multimillionaire on wall street who after talking about he paid less taxes (as a percentage of his income I’m guessing) than his secretary and then later said that maybe it would be good for people to take 25% of their bonus and donate it to charities. And someone commented that maybe they could just pay higher taxes and like 3 different people were defending the millionaire???
Is this normal? Or is my perspective colored by the fact that I am a secretary who makes way less than my coworkers (at a non-profit!!) an is tired of hearing them complain about their taxes when their take home pay is double mine (this was one time but still).
Is it that everyone wants the chance to be the millionaire, and they are defending him now, so the policies in place will benefit themselves when they find their millions? That’s sort of how I see it.
That’s what I’m hoping? Even though I suspect the politicians they vote for make it harder for lower income people to move up in life (not to millionaire status but just like, middle class)
I think that original commenter was even just suggesting that they pay their ACTUAL taxes. “I should donate my money so I control where it goes and have outsmarted the government!” is a familiar argument among people I know in real life, but since Mike Dang has written an actual Billfold article that was essentially an ode to paying taxes, I am also surprised to see it taking over there. :-/
Yeah I think people forget that there isn’t a public library charity or a highway repair non profit or a sewer system fundraiser (and even if there was who would donate to those vs something flashy like shoes for kids or blankets for babies or whatever).
Yeah, there are a few habitual commenters who continually make me roll my eyes a bit. But at least they are reading the articles, right? And in general the Billfold’s comments section tends to be a good one.
Yeah there are definitely a number of smart and informed commenters but I feel like lately more of them are being kind of weird/awful. Maybe it’s that strange overlap with personal finance websites (I feel like those tend to attract a lot of just pull up your bootstraps type attitudes). I’m just glad it’s not just in my head.
I also love the writing on the billfold but am like “Really?!” with the comments. Yesterday there was a story that, I admit I have passionate feelings about – adjunct faculty- and everyone was up in my shit in the comments about supply and demand, tenure as a terrible system, and how ‘not all adjuncts are like that.’ Now, one of the reasons I have passionate feelings is I work in higher ed and I was ready to be like “I will refute all your comments with NCES/IPEDS data!” but then decided it wasn’t worth my time.
I’m trying to get my financial house in order this year, so I’m still reading though. Maybe we can have a personal finance thread in the weekly open thread?
Exactly! I’m not an adjunct but I know a number of people who are, or who are in the middle of getting their PhD and it’s so weird to see people so unsympathetic to the struggles of people in certain positions, and so willing to defend people with higher incomes. Maybe it’s that bizarro idea that if you make more money it means you worked harder, therefore if you’re struggling (as an adjunct, waitress, fast food worker, whatever) it’s because you did something wrong or made a mistake that the commenter would have been way too smart to do.
I’ve noticed this, too! One time, there was an article about pan-handling, and people were SO UPSET that some of the pan-handlers/homeless people had ANYTHING nice – they noticed cell phones, shoes, etc… I had to point out that these are often donations they’ve received at homeless shelters (likely the cast-offs of the well-to-do) and… the whole thing just made me so sad. First that people would begrudge folks who are having a hard time a few simple nice things, and second that they automatically attributed the ownership of these nice things to some nefarious activities.
ETA – Oops – comment kinda in the wrong place…
I would be so into a personal finance thread! I have just figured out that if my husband and I file our taxes separately, we pay slightly more in tax, but our IBR payments will be cut from $500/month to $250/month. I’ve been itching to tell everyone I know about this revelation, but I don’t really know any married people IRL.
Basically, I am always up for talking about gaming the student loan system.
A Toast personal finance thread would be great!
Yes!!! I love the finance/news/economics stuff on the billfold and their financial advice is great and I will continue to read them everyday…but when it comes to talking about personal stuff where I’m maybe sharing my own info I’d prefer a more supportive commenter group. Which I think the billfold used to really have, and still sometimes does, but if there was just like one open thread on the toast where we could talk about this and smart people in the comments who know more about this than I do could dole out advice that would be amazing.
Oh, such a good idea! I like reading the Billfold, but some of the comments… I’m a huge personal finance nerd, and would love a better space to talk about it
The comments have started to seem weird and hostile to me, also. And I definitely noticed the millionaire defense yesterday. It confuses me, because the nature of the writing does not seem designed to appeal to these hardcore free market folks…and that’s why I like the site. I’ve started lurking rather than ever saying anything.
I have noticed this too! In particular I remember a healthcare post that immediately filled up with non-regular commenters with fishy-sounding stories that were refuting the OP’s premise that she was ok with having her shitty insurance canceled because it was about time she bought decent insurance. I may be sounding all tinfoil hatty here, but I think some posters may be plants as they seem to have a political agenda.
i look forward to the day when we can all talk about when the toast comments started going downhill
Such a day will never come!!
*puts the toast comments on a sled* wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
YES. I was actually just complaining about this to my boyfriend the other day. I love The Billfold, and I enjoy the regular writers, but I feel like the comments have gotten increasingly bootsrappy. I’ve noticed it especially in the comments on essays written by people who are in debt (or experiencing financial hardship)- there are always several comments saying, basically, “is this person stupid for being in debt or what?”
I wonder if it’s just that personal finance websites attract a certain type.
Yeah that might be it. Because I feel like, if anything, the writing has gotten better with the addition of Meghan and Logan getting to do more long stuff (which she is fantastic at) but I guess as it gets more popular the comments get worse and everyone is supposed to be just lifting themselves out of their lives and into that nonexistant higher paying job.
Yes! I don’t get it either, because the writing definitely doesn’t have that bent. I think a lot of the previous comments touched on why and I agree with most of them. It’s too bad, because I end up commenting a lot less because I don’t have all day to argue with assholes who are either a) tolls or b) not going to change their mind anyway.
But Mike Meg and Logan keep doing what you do I love reading YOU just not necessarily your commenters <3<3
(I also see the writers in the comments less, which makes me wonder if they are scratching their heads over the same thing and choosing not to encourage it/start commenting fights?)
How is Rupert Graves always so hot no matter what he’s doing? Like, Greg Lestrade is obvious, but he had a completely ridiculous mustache in The Forsyte Saga and he was still totally smoking. Someone explain to me how he does it! He’s a wizard, right?
Yes, he is a wizard. A sexy, SEXY wizard who would never in a million years need Google Glass to have amazing Bedroom Times.
If I’m having amazing bedroom time with Rupert Graves, I have no bandwidth left to look at what he’s seeing, much less interest. It’s alllll about what I’m seeing.
HAVE YOU SEEN ‘MAURICE’
NO I HAVE NOT SHOULD I PUT THAT ON MY LIST?
Yes! I’m glad Mallory is a “Maurice” apologist too. It’s the Merchant Ivory/E.M. Forster adaptation which most people haven’t watched (I mean, I love “A Room with a View” and “Howards End” too), but is also excellent. The main plot line and Hugh Grant when he could still act (before he just coasted through every movie on his “Hugh Grant-iness”) are major selling points, but the Rupert Graves as Scudder… will definitely keep you warm at night.
YES, IMMEDIATELY, GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOOOOOOOWWWW…
(and bring some Kleenex)
Toast wavelength strikes again! I only yesterday praised Graves to the highest level of celebrity crushes after re-watching Fortsyte all weekend.
Graves is greater than the sum of his parts for sure. He should fall into a totally acceptable bland handsomeness but somehow….his sexiness far exceeds his overall physical form. It makes no sense that I should find him nearly as hot as Idris Elba, the perfect human man, but yet… It’s his eyes. They’re so kind and loving and accepting and perhaps wiser than his years (?) and just a tiny bit naughty. His chin is also perfect as well. Plus the voice.
the kind eyes will get you (me) every time
I read The Tenant of Wildfell hall for the first time last week, having already seen a BBC adaptation with Rupert Graves and Tara Fitzgerald about six months ago, and was amused by what a different reaction I had to the book. Whilst reading the book I was entirely ‘what are you DOING? This man is patently the worst! Don’t marry him!… What?! You married him? Why did you do that? You really shouldn’t have married him, lady!’ Whereas when watching the TV adaptation…it was more sort of, ‘eh, it’s Rupert Graves. Could have happened to the best of us’.
Also I made the mistake of reading the comments on the National Post piece and now I need to rage-shred some documents. I don’t understand anyone’s anything.
AUGH I only read a few comments, but really people? REALLY?
I read the first two and I weep.
Fic rec thread for Molly/Lestrade, please? I’ll start with my fave: An Avalanche of Detour Signs, by gyzym.
Awesome! Savind this to read after work.
(Am I the only one who sees the AO3 “this might have adult content” notice and think -everytime- this fucking better have adult content in it!)
Right? “Of course I want to continue, what do you think I’m here for?”
(not that there aren’t a lot of great non-explicit fics that explore all kinds of new aspects of the characters/world of the show and that I love, but srsly)
Seriously. I AM NOT HERE FOR THE GEN, Y’ALL.
I may have yelled “well, duh!” at my laptop a couple of times.
Also, having been deep in a couple of other fandoms previously (one massive, one teeny), I have to say that I find the sheer size/scope/complexity of the Sherlock fandom alarming. The fic! I don’t even know where to begin with the fic! And I keep reading weird stuff that freaks me out!
Wait what Nightvale fic? No. Don’t tell me. Just don’t say anymore things.
The Sherlock fandom tends to have an unusually high proportion of authors who are in grad school and/or enjoy footnotes (that venn diagram may be a bit of a circle). As well as a bunch that are super engaged with the politics of fanfic
on that note, can we talk about everything that Breathedout (maynard keynes, lytton strachey, holmes and watson, and a lot of historically accurate sex in the countryside) and Aggressivewhenstartled (explicitly feminist fic where girl!john and sally file a sexual harassment complaint against anderson) have EVER WRITTEN EVER BECAUSE THEY ARE PERFECT.
See, now, I am trying to locate the overly involved, footnotey types, but I keep finding lots and lots of people who are just barreling ahead, grasping for any contrivance they can think of to get the consulting detective and his doctor to kiss.
But yes. Breathedout. I haven’t gotten into her Bloomsbury stuff yet, but I’m interested. And now I’m going to have to track down that other name.
Her Bloomsbury stuff is great, but makes it very hard to read actual 1920s history without dying of giggles.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/769814/chapters/… is also great, but sadly abandoned.
I weep that I cannot click the thumbs-up button on this comment about Breathedout more than once. Because YES. Also linking How the Mouth Changes Shape because <3.
Update: OH NO The fic doesn’t seem to be there any more. Whhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa….
NO!
I mean it’s okay because maybe I downloaded all of her stuff, but still NO
Oh thank god http://archiveofourown.org/works/704773
Oh THANK YOU. I wonder what happened to the old link?
What happened to the old link is that your author is a drunk who did not log out of AO3 before attempting to download the original version of that novel, BUT THANK YOU, ahahahaha, I’m glad you found the new one. <3
Really, I just want more gender swapped sherlock. (Aggressivewhenstartled is the other good one I’ve found.)
Thanks for the love, friend. And if you liked HTMCIS, Reckonedrightly’s novel-length WWI-era genderswapped John/Sherlock story No Bangs Without Foreign Office Approval might be up your alley! It’s certainly up mine.
Oh my god, that’s so great, thank you.
oh my god that was amazing thank you so much! between nightvale and sherlock i have become a person who reads fanfiction in the last year and i’m almost entirely not embarrassed about it. almost.
NO SHAME, SISTER. No shame EVAR.
YES THAT ONE IS SO GOOD
rec ALL THE GYZYM
seriously, one of those authors I’ll follow into fandoms unknown and chapters unnumbered just for more words in my face.
I just spent many days being Actually, Truly Sick for the first time in my adult life, most of which were spent staring glassy-eyed at Elementary, and especially at Lucy Liu’s face. Does Sherlock let me admire the way light reflects off the planes of her face, the magnificent texture of her hair, the adorable way the show costumers dress her despite the impractical shoes, the intelligence and compassion that illuminates every gesture? It does not. I would also add that Elementary does many interesting things with addiction and the relationship between Holmes and Joan is much more interesting.
It is also 5 degrees above freezing in Victoria, so I’m feeling pretty smug.
Lucy Liu’s wardrobe in that show makes me want to lose a bunch of weight and move to a far colder clime and magic up a bunch of money so I can doppelganger the hell out of her outfits.
(Hope you’re feeling better.)
Thank you! You are very kind. I am better, but not yet better enough to stop being mildly rude customers and reading The Toast at work.
As a fellow Victorian, I have spent this entire winter in a haze of smugness. (Grey, rainy smugness, but smugness nonetheless.)
Oh it’s like 5 degrees celcius and gloriously sunny in Vancouver right now! Canada, eh?
I am in northern BC and it is 1 C right now. People are starting to complain about how warm it is up here and how much sunshine we’ve been getting. I’m also feeling pretty smug.
A Victorian! I am a Victorian transplanted to Perth, Aus, where it is VERY HOT. Is it time for the Flower Count yet? Are the trees in bloom on Richardson and Bay?
I have seen a lot of snowdrops! I saw a few cherry blossoms on a neighbour’s tree up the road, but the rest should be a few weeks yet 🙂
Naked Freddy Honeychurch.
Hahaha. Awkward/awesome moments during highschool = watching that movie with my mother and suddenly FULL FRONTAL MALE NUDITY with extra wrestling and water splashing awww yeeeah.
And it goes on for five full minutes! I have had to force myself to make a mental note (more like a big flashing sign) that I can’t watch it with my mom/other sensitive people because otherwise I have to suddenly go “uh, wait, whoops! close your eyes!” *lunges for remote and fast forwards furiously*
I want to know how many teachers have accidentally shown that to their students and gotten angry notes from parents. I would be amused.
It is REALLY gratuitous, in that it goes on for a long time and we see All The Parts, but I wouldn’t want the movie any other way.
I first saw it in my very early teens when I went through a “borrow all Austen and Bronte (et al) movies from the library” phase. My mom would be horrified.
A Room with a View is a gift on so many levels.
OMG. I had no idea that Lestrade was Freddy. He grew up fiiinnneee.
If my dad had known that there was the full frontal male nudity, he might not have bought me that VCR tape from Blockbusters (cost a fortune!) for my 16th birthday. But thank God he did. Truly one of my best birthday presents ever.
Sign me up as a parishioner to THAT church, honey! *hubbahubbawinkwink*
Made the mistake of reading the comments on that residential schools article. Guys, do not do this. People are terrible. I should have known better, I did it anyways, ugh.
I think my new lesson for today is: never read the comments. I get so spoiled by the toast (and before the toast, the hairpin) that I forget that everyone else is terrible.
Might I recommend a comment blocker? Particularly one which lets you selectively whitelist sites like The Toast, and simply erases the comments on everything else (Here’s an extension for Safari, and there are lots more for Chrome). It gets rid of the temptation to just scroll a little lower, and it’s made my online life a LOT happier.
that’s amazing!! especially for youtube
Youtube has comments? *ignorant blissssss*
I actually had something similar set up but lost it in an upgrade or a computer something or other or something. I don’t actually know what happened except that I’ve been too lazy to figure it out. Part of the problem is that I get a sick sort of satisfaction from the outrage that online comments sections (not this one) kindle in me. Like, oh, my worst fears about humanity are true, so at least I have the joy of being right about something? I don’t know. Ugh. Humans.
OMG, I CANNOT recommend a comment blocker extension strongly enough!! It has saved my sanity!
Elementary has a lot of things to get excited about (character relationships! less dickish Sherlock! Female Watson!) but the actual writing of the mysteries is not one of them.
Granted, the third season of Sherlock has been pretty much fanservice… but hey, this http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xmkyRZdWbKs/UsyjGESaZ9I… and this http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qm5qWIb8cYM/UsWjgj4WdKI… has totally been worth it.
I miss the mysteries on Sherlock. 🙁 They didn’t even try this season. Granted, the S1 and S2 mysteries were often kind of stinky too – Mycroft’s dead people on a plane plan makes no sense, the Baskerville episode is a mess – but at least they tried!
Right?? “Oh my god SOMEONE AT THIS WEDDING IS AN INTENDED MURDER VICTIM and I must now logick very hard to figure out who it is although my BFF has been talking a lot about his reclusive military friend who gets death threats on the daily! But who could it beeee?” Also, come on. You would so feel it if you got stabbed, tight belt or not. Internal bleeding – it’s a thang.
Yeah I enjoy both shows for different reasons, but I kind of decided to pretend that Elementary Sherlock is not Sherlock Holmes because he just seems too stupid. Although I guess you could argue that his time of drug abuse scrambled his sharp wits a little.
Right, and Sherlock is kind of stupid too, but the actual stories in Elementary are very “.. huh. So that’s how they did it”, about as exciting as any other mediocre procedural out there. Sherlock, even when it gets stupid (which it so does) is at least shiny and exciting. Elementary has all these things I want to like, but it’s hard to get excited about good characters when the setting and plot are so uninspired.
and THIIIIIIS: “On Sherlock, Adler is a dominatrix who briefly defeats Holmes before her emotions get the better of her (a twist that manages the neat trick of being even less progressive than the Victorian-era short story which inspired it).”
But I like dickish Sherlock. I was getting kind of bored with him becoming such a Nice Guy. I mean, ACD’s Sherlock was a complete asshole and I loved that they kept that (mostly) in S1.
I would Very Much Like a return to episodic procedurals, but I don’t think that’s where the show is going. TBH, I’m mostly in the fandom for the fic and gifs these days. Which are still pretty A+.
Off-topic wrt most of this, except for Ontario being a frozen hell-scape right now, is the Toronto meetup a thing that is maybe happening? I live near-ish Toronto, and would totally get on a GO bus for that.
I was going to ask the same thing! Inquiring minds want to know!
Wait, Toronto meet up? I must know more!
Rupert Graves’ IMDB bio is amazing, especially the lead-in:
“Born in a seaside resort town, Britain’s Rupert Graves was born a rebel, resisting authority and breaking rules at an early age. In his teens he became a punk rocker and even found work as a circus clown and in traveling comedy troupes.”
A PUNK ROCKER CIRCUS CLOWN
I love him so.
Such is my love for Rupert Graves that I’m willing to overlook the fact that he was a (no doubt completely terrifying, as they all are) circus clown.
I’m pretty much just over the cold, now. I live in Kentucky for a reason. I mean, at first this whole “zero degrees” thing was kind of fascinating in a “how is it even possible to have no degrees? What kind of weird ecological phenomenon is this?” kind of way, but now I am eager to get back to the grey, dampish, moderately cold winters to which I have become accustomed.
Also, I’m still Team Sherlock, but I’m pretty salty at Moffat for undisclosed spoilery reasons related to being shitty about lady characters in the most recent episode.
Kentucky represent, I am OVER THIS SHIT. Bring me back my seasonally appropriate low-40s!
Can we talk about Joe Hill and how I love EVERYTHING. HE’S. WRITTEN. SO. MUCH. FLAMES. ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE.
NOS4A2 IS a crappy title, though. It was bad enough that I was sorta embarrassed to be seen with it. But the book itself is so good!
I recently listened to an audio book of Horns on my cross-country road trip and while I appreciated the creativity… the voice of the reader seriously ruined it for me. Also, I felt like it kept getting close to a conclusion, but then kept going.
I want to give NOS4A2 a shot, though. I want very much to like Joe Hill.
I just looked up Horns and it looks like something right up my alley. I will check it out in non-audiobook form.
Ugh, audiobook narrators can totally ruin a book. I will NEVER again listen to Stephen King reading his own stuff. (But, Will Patton narrates Doctor Sleep, and it’s AWESOME. He’s really good. I think I liked the book better than if I had read it myself.)
Yeah, Horns is his book that I’m the least enthusiastic about (but still love). My favorite for SURE is Heart-Shaped Box. That’s my recommendation to people when they ask me what scary books to read- which isn’t often… That, and pretty much anything by Shirley Jackson.
Thanks! I’ll have to check that one out next!
I listen to audiobooks all the time. Nos4A2 is one of my favorites – Kate Mulgrew reads it, and she’s INCREDIBLE!!! So incredible, I can’t even describe how incredible. I listened to all ~19 hours as close to straight through as possible, with breaks to calm down when it got too scary.
I had listened to Heart-Shaped Box previously and disliked it because of the narrator (Stephen Lang?), and other books have been ruined for me b/c of poor narration (looking at you, Hunger Games series), so I totally know what you mean. But I think Nos4A2 is probably even better listened to than it would be if you read it.
I happened to get my hands on an advance copy of NOS4A2 which came with, I shit you not, a gingerbread scented air freshener. It was horrifying. Book was great, but the ARC was (probably still is) gingerbread scented through-and-through and I’d get a whiff of it every time I turned a page and oh my god.
Am I the only one who didn’t work out the pronunciation of NOS4A2 before I heard someone else say it? (I haven’t read it, just seen it mentioned a few times).
It was one of the books discussed on the last Writer and the Critic podcast. I can’t actually remember anything they said, but it’s generally an awesome podcast…
OH HOLY CREEPERS, I didn’t even think about there being a pronunciation of it until you mentioned it. I see.
[MAJOR ELEMENTARY SPOILER BELOW – DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE SEASON 1 FINALE]
….
…..
…….
I love me some Sherlock and I will always adore Benadryl Cucumberpatch in everything he does. But for me Elementary wins by a mile not only because of Lucy Liu as Watson, who is absolutely everything and more, but also because of Irene. Irene Adler is so much more complex and so much more Sherlock’s equal in Elementary than she is in Sherlock. And this is true even before it’s revealed that she is also Moriarty, which is seriously one of the best plot twists I’ve ever seen in any TV show or movie. How amazing is it that Elementary made the two most important people in Sherlock’s life – his greatest friend and ally and his most formidable adversary – women? Much less strong, fully dimensional, complex women? Oh, and Irene/Moriarty is played by Natalie Dormer. I mean, really. Four for you, Elementary. You go, Elementary.
I have to say although I do find it a great *trick* to have Irene be Moriarty and I enjoyed how they did it, I kinda knew as soon as they had Natalie Dormer playing (American) Irene, because she’s not American.
Yeah, I started to see it coming a few minutes before the big reveal, though that’s a good point about Natalie Dormer not being American. I don’t like it because I was shocked by it or because it was a neat trick; I like it because I think it opens up a lot of new possibilities for storytelling and character development. It was also a twist that felt natural to me vs. just being a stunt to surprise the audience, since Irene and Moriarty are the only people (with the exception of Mycroft) who are Sherlock’s intellectual equals. Also, I just really appreciate that Elementary would make Sherlock’s worthiest opponent and most formidable threat a woman. And that (in my opinion) they did it in a way that centered her intelligence and ruthlessness vs. her sex appeal or her just being a femme fatale. Her seduction of Sherlock was only one of the tactics she employed, and it was based not solely in her desire to manipulate him but also in her genuine interest in and appreciation of him. I haven’t watched season 2 yet so maybe the relationship has changed, but I think the dynamic between Sherlock and Moriarty in Elementary has a lot of potential to be fresh and interesting.
oh yes, agreed 100% and really she is excellent in the role so it’s a minor, minor point – I would rather see it coming and have it be awesome than not see it coming and have a lesser actress in the role.
Oh, definitely. Regardless of how one feels about the plot twist, it was a genius bit of casting. I remember hearing that she was going to play Irene and immediately it was just like, “Of course, who else?”
I was desperately hoping, before s2 started, that Mycroft would also be gender bent, thus making all of Sherlock Holmes’ canonical important relationships outside of the police force with women. I would have offered my firstborn for a fat female Mycroft on TV! Alas, it was not to be, and then Elementary went and got super fat-shamy with their boring skinny boy Mycroft in exactly the same way Sherlock is fat-shamy with its skinny boy Mycroft, and then they did that horrible spoilery thing with Mycroft & Joan’s relationship, and so Mycroft has been a sad sad disappointment all ’round for me.
BENADRYL CUCUMBERPATCH. I didn’t read the rest of your comment because I haven’t seen Elementary and I do plan on watching it but BENADRYL CUCUMBERPATCH. I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE YOU.
Aw, thanks! *blushes happily* Glad you appreciated that. And definitely watch Elementary because it is awesome 🙂
Rupert Graves as Lestrade also looks like my favorite semi-obscure European football manager, Lucien Favre, a comment I will never, ever get tired of making so you can’t stop me.
Oh dear.
I mean, it’s fine.
I can deal.
It’s just… Rupert Graves is only 5 years older than my spouse. Which means not only that it’s totally appropriate and right that he’s the kind of man I want (nude) listening to me talk about my day, but that maybe (maybe) I should consider not ogling so much the guys who were born when I was in elementary school. Looking at you, Cumberbatch. (Though not as often.) (Sorry.) (You’re pretty.)
Cumberbund is only 5 years younger than I am, so I don’t feel so bad about ogling (though, oddly, I don’t really drool over him that way…except for THAT VOICE, unnnhhhh).
Tom Hiddleston, however, is a full decade younger, so that’s weird. For me, anyway. But he is pretty.
Amazing as this site is, I had never left a comment until Rupert Graves’ mention compelled me to register. My feelings, let me show you them. <3
Show your feelings, bb. Yes. Feel free to show any particularly delightful Tumblr links as well. You know. Like this one. That third gif, in particular.
Hell~o there, gif.
A few stills, but that whole Tumblr is relevant, I dare say.
LORD-A-MERCY
As someone who has yet to watch Sherlock OR Elementary, I have to say what I’ve seen and heard of both fandoms makes me want to watch Elementary WAY more than I want to watch Sherlock. I think a full 95% of that is Lucy Liu’s face, though. And the other 5% is that Elementary isn’t tied to Steven Moffat.
Lucy Liu IS absolutely wonderful.
The greatest version of Sherlock Holmes remains the series with Bacondick Crumblysnatch as Sherlock, Lucy Liu as Joan Watson, and Martin Freeman as Irene Adler that plays perpetually inside my brain when I am consuming bath salts.
This is the adaption that will finally shut down all adaption-fighting forever. Start a Kickstarter.
And I shall forever be known as The One Who Brought Balance to Tumblr.
TAKE MY MONEY
osutein, you’re a good sort.
Martin Freeman would be SUCH a saucy Irene. I love it.
Oh hi let me come sit riiiight next to you.
OH EM GEE
The piece about Baraka is interesting, but it’s a little…soft when it comes to his horrifying, virulent anti-Semitism. I suppose the piece is more about Newark than Baraka himself, but I do find it disturbing how willingly the article glosses over that aspect of his art. His Antisemitism was also all over his work, not just in the one poem mentioned.
Oooh that feminist theatre thing looks great! Just lovingly bullied friends in getting tickets.
In Edmonton, it is currently -12 C. But it was above freezing in the daytime for much of the last week, and it’s predicted that it will be above freezing again on the weekend.
This is kind of freaking me out a little. Edmonton in mid-January is supposed to be a nightmare hellscape of cold. Why isn’t it? Did Nicole steal our cold somehow?
Another Edmonton Toast person!
Oh, good, I’m not the only one. Hello!
Hello! There’s another one up thread too!
If a dude tried to have sex with me while wearing Google Glass, I’d probably castrate him just so he could never do it again.
And you could record it with glass! And then tweet it! As a warning to others of what is yet to come.
Cloud castration?
Elementary has both Jonny Lee Miller’s Surprisingly Hairy Forearms AND Lucy Lui and for that it gets my loyalty.
If you go in expecting MIND-BOGGLING FLASHY MYSTERIES ALWAYS you’re probably going to be disappointed – I’m in it for the relationships and character development more than anything. And the fabulous cold-weather fashions.
So, I like both Elementary and Sherlock and remain UNINTERESTED in fandom debates. Therefore: who wants to talk with me about how much they love Murdoch Mysteries? Because I love it a lot, guys. Dr. Julia Ogden is the best. Did you know that you wanted a Victorian murder mystery procedural set in Toronto with a forensic-y detective and a lady pathologist? YOU DO NOW.
(I have only watched through season 5 but it’s awesome. Season 1 is a bit stiff, but makes up for it because Nikola Tesla and Arthur Conan Doyle both show up. It’s great.)
THIS SOUNDS AMAZING
You can totally see it on Netflix (seasons 1-3 only, sadly)! The first few seasons do have a dearth of lady characters, but Dr. Ogden is so amazing that I don’t mind.
I keep meaning to start watching that show purely because I am strongly attracted to Yannick Bisson for some reason.
I was really enjoying it, but then there was a Suprise Steven Harper and I’m now too traumatized to fully trust it.
Sherlock is great, Elementary is probably great yeah yeah sure but everyone who knows anything knows that the only REAL and TRUE and BEST Sherlock Holmes adaptation is the Granada/Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes.
So I don’t even know why we’re having this debate.
<3 <3 <3
Had to finally sign up to comment just to say:
I would total watch the Rupert Graves show but only if he promises to sing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxMJyFAuJlU
You guys my cousin wrote this: http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/1/22/5330404/sup…
On the Legion of Boom:
“I’d just run like hell towards them. They sound awful. They sound like they’re going to attack me. I’d attack. If they were attacking me I’d attack them.”
Your aunt sounds hilarious!
It definitely adds a layer of enjoyment to the article being able to hear the answers in her voice. Can’t think of an Aussie famous enough and similar enough, but a tipsy Emma Thompson is probably pretty close?
I don’t see this mentioned yet: the A.V. Club Sherlock/Elementary article was written by The Toast’s own Zack Handlen, who is full-on awesome. [disclosure: he’s also a friend of mine.]
I LOVE ZACK BUT HE IS WRONG.
THAT’S OKAY BY ME.
I’ve seen, like, 90 non-consecutive minutes of Elementary and [braces herself for the onslaught] Sherlock, though deliciously entertaining, pretty routinely makes me curse at the TV, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. Not even a hound. Not even of the Baskervilles.
Also, the AV Club Deep Space 9 recaps! Dude is amazing and a really great writer.
Also many of the Twilight Zone reviews, at least one of which unexpectedly made me cry. He really is fantastic.
Wow. Are there a lot of Canadian Toasties, or do they just all come out to the comments section when Nicole posts about the weather? I can’t remember the last time I saw such a high proportion of CanCon in the comments section of a not-explicitly-Canadian-blog. <3
They’re here. Waiting patiently. Always watching.
It’s the weather, Sabina. It is totally the weather.
It is because we have so much of it, of such infinite variety, and of such cruel extremes.
One of the key diagnostics of the condition of being Canadian is, in fact, the frequency of which the subject of the investigation speaks about the weather.
An even more refined diagnostic involves saying the phrase, “Clear and Cold.” A Canadian will narrow their eyes, scroll their lips into a grim little grin, and nod knowingly, all while brightening visibly.
The same phrase used on a non-Canadian will elicit no response.
A friend of mine recently informed me that The Toast was Canada’s version of The Onion. After I was done snortling I patiently explained how this was incorrect on multiple counts. But apparently it comes across as explicitly Canadian to some very casual non-readers!
I have not watched Elementary because I am a child who refuses to be proven wrong about how wonderful Sherlock is.
Also my wife calls Lestrade “Greggy” and I think we both agree that he would be the kindest, gentlest lover.
Holy shizz, but I’ve loved Rupert Graves since I was 16. I effin *knew* I was in the right place for me when I stumbled on the Toast a few weeks ago. I effin knew it!
Anyway, A Room with a View. I’d say about 18 year old Rupert. God. I think I gave up my virginity to my first boyfriend in no small degree because his hair could do the same adorable, mussed up thing Rupert’s did in that movie. Nicole, I’d love to hear more about your Rupert scenario.
SO MAD. Goddamnit that episode.
The article about Sherlock/Elementary led me to post a comment on my friend’s FB that said “Sherlock rulz, Elementary drulz”. Non-ironically. But after a few minutes of grown-up reflections, I wonder: why does there have to be a “best”? Why can’t we admit that the shows are–while both chronicling Sherlock Holmes–very different and appeal to different genres? I know people who even watch them both! Can’t we all just get along and rejoice that Sherlock Holmes is on TV twice as often?
Also, have you seen the picture of Rupert Graves in Una Stubbs’ hat at the Watson wedding? Because it’s delightful. Also, his “Oi, you bastard” is my favorite line in TEH. And I bet he’s great at giving presents 🙂