Anne Helen Petersen on Sunday’s episode of Mad Men, and fathers and daughters:
In real life, teenagers don’t have the emotional vocabulary to have intense and therapeutic heart-to-hearts with their parents. The acknowledgment thereof — the very refusal to make reconciliation into a dramatic set-piece — is part of what Mad Men gets so right about Sally.
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Kate McKinnon talks about the origin of “Dyke and Fats”:
“We were both really tired one night,” McKinnon explains, “and I just said to Aidy, ‘Man, dyke is tired,’ and Aidy said, ‘Fats is tired, too.’”
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Roxane Gay on the trouble with “women you should be reading now”:
There are, for example, no African-American women on the list. There are no Latinas or South-Asian writers. And at what point do we stop using Amy Tan and Louise Erdrich as the sole beacons of literary light for people who look like them? To be clear, these women (along with Zadie Smith, Chimamanda Adichie, Edwidge Danticat, and the rest of the women on the list) are writers you should be reading, but they are not the only ones and they shouldn’t be the only writers of color represented when these lists come out year after year.
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On the protests over transgender admissions policies at Smith College:
“We no longer have a working relationship with admissions [officials], and they refuse to negotiate further, so we need to show them that a lot of people care about this and that we aren’t going away,” said Sarah Fraas, a member of Q&A who is organizing the demonstration. “I think if Smith sees that their image as a feminist institution and a welcoming place will be compromised by not changing the policy, that is something they will respond to.”
The tragic tale of Mrs. Tea, Mr. Coffee’s companion who never really caught on:
“A lot of the people who drink tea are ladies. Tea to them is down time, soft time, relaxing time. This is an emotional product…that’s really how we’re pitching it.”
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Lush, gorgeous photos of Parisian transwomen in the 1950s and 1960s:
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MST3K, the oral history!
Murphy: There was one submission called Demon Rugsuckers From Mars, or maybe just Rugsuckers From Mars. [Ed. note: It’s actually titled Over-Sexed Rugsuckers From Mars.] It’s about vacuum cleaners. And there was a scene with this dorky bearded fellow making graphic love to a vacuum cleaner. That was the one time I thought, what the hell am I doing with my life?
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Questlove on how hip hop failed Black America:
There’s no folk-music food or New Wave fashion, once you get past food for thought and skinny ties. There’s no junkanoo architecture. The closest thing to a musical style that does double-duty as an overarching aesthetic is punk, and that doesn’t have the same strict racial coding. On the one hand, you can point to this as proof of hip-hop’s success. The concept travels. But where has it traveled? The danger is that it has drifted into oblivion. The music originally evolved to paint portraits of real people and handle real problems at close range — social contract, anyone? — but these days, hip-hop mainly rearranges symbolic freight on the black starliner. Containers on the container ship are taken from here to there — and never mind the fact that they may be empty containers. Keep on pushin’ and all that, but what are you pushing against?
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Who wears what in your home? Claire Zulkey tells us about hers:
The pants: me
The shorts: husband
The disposable diaper: the baby
The cloth diaper: the dog
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I decided to give you a little Middlemarch hiatus, but I would LOVE to get back to discussing My Life in Middlemarch on Monday, May 5th. Be there! Catch up here. We’re just going to discuss to the end of Ch. 3, because we mostly spaced on the first two chapters, but THAT WON’T HAPPEN THIS TIME.
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David Brooks wants a man like Putin. Speaking of:
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
“Tea drinkers are actually discriminated against,” he said.
Calm down there, Peter Howell. I don’t think “tea drinkers don’t need a special machine to make tea” rises to the level of discrimination. In fact, I count “not needing a special machine” as a bonus regarding tea. I can boil water in a pan on the stove if I so choose!
Also that diagram has several L’s substituted for T’s, it looks like? So “sleeping lever” and “Waler reservoir.” BEAUTIFUL.
lea pol lid
Aside from the annoying gendered name/marketing, a “Mrs. Tea” is (as Alton Brown would say) a unitasker that’s just going to take up counterspace while you can use basically any water vessel + heat source you have to make tea.
ONLY ONE UNITASKER IN THE KITCHEN
I Am The Unitasker.
Are you also a fire extinguisher?
I lol’d. But I also once squelched a small kitchen fire (that I started…), so yes.
“boil water in a pan on the stove”?
You don’t have an electric kettle? For the six months I had to boil water on the stove or – god forbid – microwave my tea I felt like some subhuman animal.
When we moved we were without our things, including pots and pans, for two weeks, and all I had was a saucepan, so everything got made that way.
Also, I loathe electric kettles. Give me a kettle on the stovetop ANY DAY. Or when I’m at work we have a nifty water cooler that also HEATS water and gives instant piping hot water. Or actually when I’m at home now, I run the water through our Keurig machine and it gets nice and hot for me, because I don’t really like to use boiling-boiling water anyway.
Look, without the buildup of limescale on the kettle element, the water just doesn’t taste right.
(not kidding, water boiled on teh stove tastes different to me. Also, takes too long. My kettle takes 2 minutes to boil enough water for a cup)
plus, I once set fire to our camping kettle because I put it on teh hob and forgot about it. The electric one switches itself off!
Only until it gets old and stops switching itself off.
I grew up with my mom’s kettle on the stove, so nothing else tastes right to me! I can’t stand the plastic-y taste of electric kettle water, it tastes like university to me.
Between the plastic and the limescale, I doubt I’ll ever get an electric kettle.
Microwaved boiled water definitely tastes different to me! And by different I mean blech.
It tastes dead
I KNOW, RIGHT? I do it sometimes at work, because I tend to forget the pot of water is on the stove and that’s no good for anyone, but it’s just blhupppchhh.
I have found that if I micro-boil it in a glass measuring cup we have here, that’s better than boiling it in a mug or whatever. But generally I stick to coffee or soda or instant iced tea at work b/c boiling water is a non-starter here.
Oh my, how many pots and kettles have died at my forgetful hands. Hello, my name is RoseCamelia and I am a Kettle Killer. Now I use kettles with a super loud whistle.
I microwave my water. I am the Abominable Tea Drinker.
I had the electric kettle for years & years & loved it above all other things in my kitchen, until the day I splurged on an instant hot water heater that is part of my sink now.
Instant! Hot! Now the longest part of making tea is opening the tea packet! I am LIVING THE DREAM, people.
I volunteered in a developing country for two years and the only electric kettles available cost about $1 and regularly shorted out or melted down. I went through 3-4 electric kettles in my time there and was lucky I managed not to electrocute myself. I once visited a friend there who had an electric heater for the shower. No amount of speed or convenience can convince me that combining electricity and water on a regular basis is a good idea.
don’t forget the excellent British teasmade! Alarm clock and tea in one, for those grey days when nobody wants to get out of bed!
teasmade!
oh my g-d. that is fucking beautiful.
ps dear toast, if this comment doesn’t post, I’m going to take it personally. what am I doing wrong?!
Please tell me a link exists for those lush, gorgeous photos of parisian trans women, because I would very much like to spend my morning immersing myself in that world.
Yes, I was also going to ask this.
Here, under ‘photos’ and then ‘Place Blanche, Paris’.
Thank you! The photos are glorious!!
Thank you thank you!!
Our best guess? Mrs. Tea wasn’t focused enough for the new corporate environment.
Really? That’s their best guess? Because my best guess is that the target market for Mrs. Tea consisted of women who keenly and swiftly understood that this was just one more ostentatious countertop gadget loaded with nooks and hinges and flaps that they’d have to keep scrubbed clean of stubborn tea stains, and that it’s a lot simpler to make tea in a cup or pot anyhow.
DING DING DING we have a winner
My mom has a Mr. Iced Tea machine (or whatever it’s called) and damned if it doesn’t make fucking phenomenal raspberry iced tea, but for the other eight months of the year all it does is take up annoying fiddly space in the cupboards.
I just started reading Middlemarch last night. Is it too late to join in on the discussion when it appears?
It is never too late.
The whole Mrs Tea thing is so bizarre. Here is how you make a nice cup of tea (herbal for me, thanks).
-boil water in efficient electric kettle. Takes between 1 and 5 minutes.
– put bag in cup/ loose leaves in infuser
– pour water on.
Why would I need a special machine? I already have one. It’s called the kettle.
YES. I mean, the only beverage that’s easier than tea to prepare is a glass of tap water.
and if you have one of those boiling water taps, even that’s a pretty close call.
This may be a controversial opinion BUT I think those super-hot taps are bullshit. The water is never actually boiling – it may come close but it doesn’t get all the way there and, thus, makes inferior tea. BOILING WATER OR NONE AT ALL.
Right? Tea technology peaked like thousands of years ago, thanks for trying though.
AHP gets it exactly right about Don and Sally, yes! I read the Vulture review and I wondered if the author and I had even watched the same show, or if it was just his maleness that got in the way of understanding Sally’s POV.
Also, my own dad often suggested the dine and dash. That scene gave me all the warm fuzzies.
Health O Meter didn’t teach consumers everything about Mrs. Tea—we still don’t know if she was married to Mr. Coffee (the name suggests she either kept her maiden name or married someone named Mr. Tea).
Can someone tell me why I laughed so hard at this?
Now, onto the more serious. I went to college in the Pioneer Valley and thanks to the consortium, I was able to take classes at Smith. I NEVER felt it to be very welcoming, though I will admit that I felt this was based not in gender politics (I am a cis-het woman, for reference) but more due to the fact that I was a UMass student (and therefore clearly not as smart as them Smith laydeez). This was in HUGE contrast to the warmth and openness I experienced taking classes at Mt. Holyoke.
I guess I don’t have much of a point here, other than I’m pretty disappointed in Smith, a feeling which is, unfortunately, pretty familiar to me. Also, why do transcripts even have to have someone’s gender pronouns on them ANYWAY?
Yissssssss
I went to Mount Holyoke and I can affirm your experience. Though I know many Smithies who are lovely women. Still, the atmosphere there was, for me at least, difficult to penetrate.
Some of my most favorite people in the world are Smithies (I live in Northampton), but it sure does sound like a miserably competitive environment.
Fellow MHC alum here, and that was my experience as well! My childhood best friend went to Smith, and she had by and large a very positive experience there, but when I visited the campus I personally just felt like the culture was not right for me. It was really hard to articulate why, and I don’t bear them any ill will, but I *really* appreciated the supportive culture of Mount Holyoke.
I am also a Moho alum with a Smithie childhood best friend! She was not very happy with the environment there. I feel like Smith is kind of where the future Sheryl Sandbergs of America tend to thrive (no hate, just much happier with a more low-key school).
I know a Smithie, and she is really sweet, but I once mentioned my cousin went to Mount Holyoke (she was surprised I knew about the consortium or something) and she immediately went off on some joke about Smith ladies being smarter. I was like….yes my cousin went to MHC in 1999 because she’s just so dumb. It was very out of character for her and made me wonder what kind of competitive environment that came out of!
🙁 i am a smith alum who just moved out of the valley and am REALLY HORRIFIED and embarrassed by admissions right now. And also by all of your negative experiences with Smith!
Love the Questlove essay.
I am confused by people who equate tea with relaxation/quiet time. We all know that black tea has caffeine in it, correct?
Additionally, I find the gender anxiety around tea in the U.S. hilarious. Whole countries of men in this world drinking tea for hundreds of years and not one case of escaped testicles. I promise!
Green tea has caffeine as well! Just significantly less than black tea.
Although if you’re my mom, even black tea has barely any caffeine in it, since she only steeps it like thirty seconds and then adds milk and sugar. It is god-damned delicious but not a particularly energizing beverage.
“Escaped testicles,” for when a man’s testicles get tired of his misogyny and GET UP OUTTA THERE!
Fugitive Testicles should be a band.
See, I imported my spouse from Ireland, and it never occurred to me until now that it’s primarily the women who take him up on the offer when he offers our guests tea.
At least we’re raising our sons right & proper as their Irish granny would like, and teaching them to drink tea at all times. I hope when they go out into the wider world they will spread this as the one true gospel of our household: tea is for everyone.
Ah, you’re doing God’s work here – I can’t help but feel that the more tea drinkers there are in the world, the better the world will be.
I feel the same way about the gendered nature of yogurt in the U.S.
Yogurt is for ladies, right? I mean, according to society. My really intense coworker, a very manly German man, has a big bowl of yogurt and granola every morning and it’s such a delight to me for some reason. I guess I love it so much because Society.
I found out the box of Earl Grey at my boyfriend’s apartment was DECAFFEINATED. Thanks for ruining my whole day, TWININGS
ROXANE GAY. She just nails it every time. I can’t wait for her new books!
Roxane Gay is doing a book reading for “An Untamed State” at Book People in Austin next month. Any Austin Toasties want to meet up and go see her with me?
http://www.bookpeople.com/event/roxane-gay-untame…
Mad Men can be very uncomfortable to watch, because my father was a lot (A LOT) like Don Draper. The charm, the lies, the inability to understand that having all the trappings of a normal life or having the ability to say the “correct” things isn’t the same as having an honest trusting relationship. Petersen’s article is so hopeful because she views the problems between Don and Sally as typical of an otherwise healthy relationship between a daughter and a father capable of honesty and unconditional love. My view is sadder, because my father could have those same moments, including what seemed like actual introspection, but in the end he could never stop putting image over everything else.
Tea-a-phernalia thread?
That looks right – but where is your battered kettle?
I wish I owned this, but I don’t! It’s a teasmade, a tea-alarm clock, for your unheated but electrified grey dark dingy post-WW2 British bedroom! I think it’s lovely!
And it’s called a TEASMADE, which somehow makes it even better.
That is ADORABLE. I want one, even though coffee’s what I drink first thing in the morning.
I love the look of the classic Le Creuset kettle, but I have an electric kettle that is one of my favorite things on earth, and I’d never go back to a stovetop kettle now:
The reason Mrs Tea didn’t takeoff is that tea made by a machine is not as good as tea made properly.
How to make tea -bring water – fresh water – to a boil in an actual kettle
Pour this water over tea in a tea pot
let steep per your strongness preference (green, oolong and black take different amounts of time – practice makes perfect)
Drink while hot
Tea made with a sad bag left in a cup (I HATE THIS) is not good tea – it’s tannic and awful, take it away please
Mrs Tea was therefore an unnecessary appliance – true tea drinkers won’t use it and bad tea drinkers won’t care – they have their sad bags in their cups (arrgghhh)
haha sad bags
I have a long-standing disagreement with my roommate over the use of our electric kettle – she always fills it all the way up when she’s making a cup, and then just reboils the water over and over again. This is WRONG, so wrong, and reboiled water doesn’t make good tea. I just fill the kettle with however much I think I’ll use, and if I need another cup…I can just add more water.
Already boiled water is an abomination and should be thrown out as good for nothing. Microwaved water is just as bad. You are correct to note the wrongness.
The link for Kate and Aidy did not work?
NYMag is actually DOWN right now, and people are freaking outttt.
aha! I was all ‘wait a minute this doesn’t look like Vulture’
I know, I need to know literally everything there is to know about Dyke and Fats. I think Aidy is one of my favorite comedy people right now, I love her on SNL and she’s an A+ tweeter.
I would watch a million of those movies. Here’s hoping that it at least becomes a recurring skit!
Oh my god, I REALLY want to read the MST3k piece (we just watched Alien From LA last night), but I’m also afraid of reading anything that might spoil my optimistic, everything’s-wonderful fantasy of how that show was made.
I was so psyched to see the link because 1) I adore MST3K and couldn’t wait to read the whole thing and 2) I knew the link being here would bring out all the MSTie/Toasties!
In answer to your concern, there are a few bummer revelations about behind-the-scenes dynamics, many of which were guessable based on the staff turnover during its run, but nothing that shatters my faith in the fact that, ultimately, those people loved what they were doing.
Important discussion question for the other MSTies: What do you think of them reviving the show?? I saw Cinamatic Titanic live a few years ago and I’ve seen RiffTrax in the theater, and both were pretty enjoyable and nostalgic. But I feel like there’s a fractured dynamic that’s unavoidable with essentially spitting the former writers into two camps, where neither entity is going to be able to produce something that does justice to the original. Agree/disagree?
I finally had a chance to read My Life in Middlemarch. Totally loved it, looking forward to some discussing! Yeah!
AHP nails it yet again. I don’t even watch Mad Men but this gave me all kinds of feelings about my family.
I equally love those places for how ridiculous they are, and hate them for contributing to the decline of "being able to do normal kitchen things." See also: Williams-Sonoma.
Other thoughts on the questlove piece? I read it last night and am still unraveling my own.. I’d like to hope that the commercial success of hip-hop has had at least some positive ramifications on the community that it came from. I really appreciate his unique place within the history of it all, but at the same time some of that piece feels dismissive of the younger artists who have taken up the mantle. Kendrick isn’t the only one!
Ahahaha that song
Incredible