When female athletes have “too much” testosterone:
A new study in Clinical Endocrinology fits with other emerging research on the relationship between natural testosterone and performance, especially in elite athletes, which shows that T levels can’t predict who will run faster, lift more weight or fight harder to win. The study, of a sample of 693 elite athletes, revealed a significant overlap in testosterone levels among men and women: 16.5 percent of the elite male athletes had testosterone in the so-called female range; nearly 14 percent of the women were above the “female” range.
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“A lot of people, like my sister from another mista Rachel Ray, are not big fans of the food lube.” – Guy Fieri, on aioli
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Literature and the only child:
I once had a classmate in college, a person I respected and admired, say to my face that he didn’t think that only children should be allowed. But what he was really saying was: I don’t think people should be alone.
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A former troll on why you shouldn’t feed the trolls. (What you really need to do is quote Wodehouse at them.)
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This gravy is not the correct colour.
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THIS WOMAN, RIGHT HERE. I picture her having Lauren Bacall’s voice.
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Men are garbage, and they ruin everything they touch.
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The gender politics of Hedwig.
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What having your period feels like. (The Toast has an official Con stance on periods, which we think are an evolutionary mistake, and also horrible. This seems smart, tho.)
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Edit: Not real, still a great satire:
Ex-student took this pic of bio of Hurt Locker: The Musical castmember. Reads like a poem about being Arab in America pic.twitter.com/1DMloOXrgr
— Randa Jarrar (@randajarrar) April 28, 2014
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John Leavitt described this photo as “Cate Blanchett dressed up like Katharine Hepburn dressed up in menswear”:
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
There were terrorists in Reba and Modern Family? I guess I get the latter, because I’m not a fan of that show, but Reba?!
Reminds me of Kal Penn’s essays on how he played a terrorist on 24 because otherwise he had no roles.
One time I had a crush on a guy and we were talking and I asked, “Are you an only child?” And he said, “Yes.” And I said, “I can tell.”
I’ve grown out of it, though! Some of my best friends are only children!!
I wish there was a ban on people saying “Only children are always weird and spoiled! You’re an only child? But not you!”
(I hated Gone Girl though.)
“Oh you must have been so lonely. I would NEVER do that to my child.” *murder eyes*
I wasn’t lonely. I had Nintendo and all the books I could read and no stupid siblings screaming at me all the fucking time like my friends had. I was so, so happy. Even when asked as a child if I wanted a sibling, I always said no- the only kind of sibling I wanted was a twin which, obviously, was out of the question by that point.
Definitely this. Just don’t comment on families at all unless you’re super-good-friends and/or you’re not being hugely insulting/insensitive.
(I’m guilty of the opposite- as an only child it’s hard for me to understand big families or see one without going “Holy Shit. Why. How.” The Duggars fascinate me because it is nearly the exact opposite of how I grew up)
Yep. Sibling dynamics fascinate and confound me.
My parents are both only children, and they’ve said many times to me how they would look at me and my brother and sister and just marvel.
I would NEVER have an Oldest Child. The burdens of command and responsibility weigh too heavy on their fragile shoulders. We’re planning on having two Youngest Children. Maybe with a stolid Middle Kid to follow, if the money works out.
yes — I’ve just recently started thinking about these comments from the perspective of a potential mother who would have to go through pregnancy & childbirth, too, and that is also gross (though i am sure the people making these comments are not thinking that far ahead about what they are saying).
Thank you! (I was having All the Feelings about that Mashable piece. Complications from the first pregnancy mean that my one will be an only, and I’m suddenly super aware of how horrible people can be about only children.)
It’s so offensive to not only the children but to the parents to just assume that everyone can have as many biological children as they want whenever they want.
When my mom was dying we got a surprising amount of weird comments about how I was alone and had to take care of her myself, etc. Like I wasn’t already dealing with that? What did they expect her to do-just materialize a sibling to help me out? Ugh.
“You don’t seem like an only child.” OH THANKS.
I love the backpedaling that happens. Usually I don’t have to say much, just raise an eyebrow.
I always kind of thought that my neurosis and weirdness came from being an only child (therefore spoiled). And I could always kind of tell that many adults, including family and family-friends, thought this was the case, too.
Then I hit my mid-teens and it turned out I was actually mentally ill. Haha, the suckers!
No, seriously, I’m still vaguely bitter about it (because putting down weirdness and neurosis to being spoiled/an only child/whatever made it seem, you know, illegitimate and invalid – as opposed to Actual Distress – and so I had, and continue to have, a real sense of shame and self-loathing piled on top of the other real sense of shame and self-loathing that was the result of the mental illness and mental illness stigma in the first place). Plus embarrassed, because, I’m Upholding The Stereotype.
TDLR; amen.
god damn it Guy Fieri
DONKEY SAUCE.
I said it in the comments of another toast article and I’ll say it again: I once heard Guy Fieri described as an anthropomorphic dorito.
It’s such a weirdly perfect description I can never not mention it.
YES. Yours was the description I was trying to think of because it is so. perfect. It would have to be Nacho Cheesier too.
Every time I see him, I also think of how Melissa McCarthy modeled her character, Megan, after Guy Fieri, including her costume and delivery of her lines. What has been seen cannot be unseen.
And I’ve said this too, but I’ll say it again. The oppression that is 6+ hrs of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network (every night!) must be some kind of cosmic punishment for something very bad someone has done. I’m totally willing to take the fall if there’s any fixing the situation. . .
This is all I can think about anytime someone brings up Guy Fieri: http://imgur.com/gallery/yFzWW
Oh god, that period post is hilariously sad, but they forgot the Überpoopitude that also accompanies the monthly murderous blood plague. Leaving out that part, I do enjoy describing my period in delicious, gory detail to my husband, to make him feel guilty for being born a man.
“I do enjoy describing my period in delicious, gory detail to my husband, to make him feel guilty for being born a man.”
Love it.
I learned recently that the aforementioned poopitude is caused by the same pesky chemical signals that tell your uterus to contract. Some of the signals get re-wired to your colon and rectum by accident since your organs are all so closely jam-packed down there. And that’s how we end up as bloody poopy messes every month!!!!
Makes me wish we had been intelligently designed, instead of gradually evolving more or less by accident.
…you mean, why did the entertainment zone end up next to the toxic waste dump? And why does the entertainment zone spontaneously explode in blood every month? These are questions I ask myself every month, especially today (Day 2: Maximum Flow).
So much pooping. 🙁
Here’s an article that explains the science behind period poops. Also worth a look: a pristine specimen of Squeamish Male in the comments (“Eww, girl cooties!”).
When I hovered over the hyperlink, I seriously thought that url was poopsci.com
If anyone else’s Tuesday morning is gross and week seems insurmountable, may I suggest adding Tim Kreider’s “Feast of Pain” to your link roundup:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/…
Holy crap, that is good.
“It’s one of those days where you have to force yourself through the motions, when the accumulated number of times you’ve had to make coffee and brush your teeth in your life seem too much to be borne, and doing the laundry like one of the labors of Hercules.” This is how I feel about getting up and ready for work on a daily basis. I would be happy to go to work if I could just magically be dressed and ready and teleported to the office.
People around me talk about the pros and cons of telework as being such things as “productivity despite extreme weather”, “less absenteeism” and “more challenging to team-bonding efforts”.
No one seems willing to point out that the absolute-number-one-best thing is: No Pants. No outfit-formulation. No belt-finding. No worrying about bra lines. And of course, no pants.
I actually don’t like teleworking because I need the social interaction I get at the office (miniscule though it is)… I just don’t like having to go through the same motions of getting ready that I do every day. Like, I really have to wash my face AGAIN?!? Putting on clothes is better because they can be different every day.
I’ve broached this subject with some office-mate friends, and they explained that they don’t actually mind the getting-dressed-and-ready part. (Although the commuting part is universally abhorred.) And I just have this strong bewilderment that anyone at all could go through the ritual without at least some rumination on the cosmic bad joke that is pants.
Man, the number of times I have called out of work because I couldn’t deal with putting clothes on. It’s especially bad in winter, because socks. Summer is easier, because sundresses and sandals.
Yessss. Maxi dress season: when it’s acceptable to leave your apartment in what is essentially a nightgown and one big piece of jewelry.
One work day during the polar vortex, I counted. Even treating every paired item (ie, socks) as one item, I was wearing 16 articles of clothing to get to work. The notion that we shouldn’t be paid some sort of overtime for how long getting dressed took is absurd.
This! It’s a reflection of the depths of my soul.
[O]ur brief fake-out spring has been temporarily revoked, and it’s raw and wet and cold out again, the wind maliciously ripping umbrellas inside-out, mocking our pitiful, spindly defenses. I saw people literally screaming as the wind hit them in the streets, not in pain so much as in “there is no God” outrage and despair.
I really needed that, thank you.
(Fucking Tuesdays, right?)
Yaaay Tim Kreider!!!! His comic strip is amazing: http://www.thepaincomics.com.
That was wickedly depressing yet just what I needed.
“… the insoluble problem of being a person in the world.”
“Your period as Middle Earth”
I can’t believe I’m about to agree with Guy Fieri on something, but YES. Down with aioli! Down with remoulade, tartar sauce, and all other sneaky forms of fancy mayonnaise that try to sneak into my food, that aren’t even listed on the menu half the time because who doesn’t like mayonnaise?
I DON’T LIKE MAYONNAISE. There. I said it! And I’m not the only one!
You are not! Death to mayo and it’s hideous underlings
Yes. I am with you in the battled against mayonnaise. It is disgusting and wrong.
You are not the only one! But, I do like myself a greek yogurt aioli substitute from time to time (mix yogurt with lemon and garlic. *poof*).
Yes! Substituting greek yogurt for mayonnaise is the key!
See, it is evil by itself. But mixed into other things at a low enough ratio, it can be good. This is my firm opinion. Miracle Whip is evil in anything at any percentage, though.
In my rantings against anything labeled “lite” in a grocery store, “lite mayonnaise” is always number one on my list, and might possibly be even more evil than Miracle Whip.* When you make mayo from scratch, you learn that it’s just an egg yolk and vegetable/other oil. Which makes the “low-fat” claims extra entertaining: did you breed leaner chicken eggs, or is it low-fat vegetable fat?
*No, that’s a lie, nothing is more evil than Miracle Whip.
Hahaha, I also love Miracle Whip. Some things need mayo and some need Miracle Whip though and there are certain situations where they are not interchangeable.
Yes this. Miracle whip on ham sandwiches plz.
Mayo is acceptable when spiced in various ways an consumed *solely* with Belgian frites.
Otherwise, it is a horrible slimy infiltrator into otherwise tasty sandwiches.
Mayo is undeniably grotesque, but aioli doesn’t have that horrifying goo texture that makes mayo a war crime committed against food.
My thoughts exactly. I can barely read this discussion w/o half vom-ing. KILL THE MAYO. VIVA SPICY MUSTARD.
I also, am not a fan of mayo!
THERE ARE DOZENS OF US!
I don’t care if the gravy is the wrong color, that poutine looks fucking delicious and god damn it, I need to buy my own little fry-cooker so I can have french fries again that aren’t baked because oven-baked “fries” ARE NOT FRIES.
Don’t get a fry-cooker! They don’t get hot enough for really awesome fries. Get a sturdy cast-iron dutch oven and use that for frying everything you can think of.
Ooo! Thanks for the info! I don’t know that I’m comfortable putting a giant pot of oil on my gas stove, though.
It’s less scary than it seems–I’ve done it on hinky rental gas stoves and lived. The key is to only put an inch or two of oil in the pot, use a thermometer if you have one, and keep a lid close at hand. You could also get one of the smallish 4-quart dutch ovens so you don’t have a GIANT pot of hot oil.
But I also feel that good fries are worth risking one’s skin and house. You may feel differently.
Thanks for the input! I’m gonna be on the lookout for small dutch ovens at thrift stores now…
A kernel of popcorn also works to test the heat. I always use that.
This is really useful advice. I’ve always been tempted by dedicated deep-fat fryers, but I’ve never shopped for one so I didn’t realize I couldn’t control the temp with precision. Now I know I’m better off using my plain ol’ pot.
And if you use a BIG pot, you can fill it only halfway (or even less) with oil, which allows a much greater margin of safety when you’re frying – less potential for boil-over or splashing over the rim, plenty of space in the pot so you’re not invoking Archimedes’s principle all over the stovetop when you add food to the pot. Never fill to the top; you want at least a few inches of space in the pot.
Two all-important safety rules for deep-frying:
1. NEVER EVER LEAVE IT. If I have to turn my back for more than a split second, I take the pot off the heat just in case.
2. If there is a mishap (and there won’t be, but just in case), never use water on a grease fire. Use a fire extinguisher or smother the flames with a pot lid, but never splash on water, which will just spread the flames and add the danger of steam burns to the danger of fire.
I don’t deep-fry often, so when I do, I let the oil cool completely, then strain it through a coffee filter to remove any particles of flour or breading and keep it in the fridge for next time.
So much good information! Thank you.
I’m perhaps overcautious with the NEVER TURN MY BACK thing, but I have great respect for boiling oil. I’m usually a pretty relaxed cook, but hot oil and candymaking, boy howdy, that’ll teach you not to look away from a pot.
And I almost never pull out a giant pot to deep-fry unless I’m cooking for a crowd (or making a lot of deep-fried food for a few people, which works out to the same amount of deep-frying). If I’m making sweet potato fries or sesame-crusted tofu for two, I just heat 2-3 inches of fat in a regular ol’ saucepan and do the batch a bit at a time.
Personally, I’m grateful for the advice given above not to bother with a deep-fryer. I’ve always wanted one but never researched whether they do a good job. It’s nice to be able to rely on a pot, a thermometer, and some basic safety rules.
And if the big pot is cast iron, then it’s 1) heavy and you don’t have to worry about knocking it over, and 2) the metal holds heat well, so you can have that gas flame set lower and still keep the oil hot. A cast iron dutch oven with a lid is thus the ultimate frying vessel, and you can bake bread in it too. Also, deep-frying is a decent way to reseason cast iron, so it’s actually beneficial to the health of your pot that you deep-fry on occasion.
What…. what IS that sauce masquerading as Poutine? It is not gravy. I’m not even Canadian and I know that’s wrong. Did they… mix the cheese and gravy together? It’s a mad house! A mad house!
It looks like a basic white gravy. I used to make it all the time–some sort of fat (like bacon grease), flour, and milk. Like the gravy one makes for biscuits and gravy.
White gravy is perfectly fine for biscuits, but poutine gravy should be brown. BROWN.
No disagreements, here. But as someone who grew up with country cooking I feel the need to speak up in support of the legitimacy of white gravy. Just…not in all circumstances. =D
See, we had that kind of thing in our house, made with breakfast sausage, but we used it to top pancakes. We called it Grandpa’s Gravy because he loved it so much. I just assumed that was for alliterative purposes and not to indicate that it was a legit form of gravy. I stand corrected, and now also I want pancakes.
Also: Where are the cheese curds? And if that’s a Canadian-themed burger then why is it pink in the middle? Canadians all know that anything made of ground meat has to be cooked until there’s no pink.
(I’m aware that people in other countries survive non-well-done hamburgers, but all of the food safety information we get here seems to be against them.)
Wait, is this really a Canadian thing? Always getting burgers well done? Cause…because I have some words to say about that!
You barbarians.
All raw meat surfaces are contaminated. A slab of steak can have its surfaces cauterized, but ground meat is ALL SURFACE. There’s no way around it, and pretending there is is one of the reasons Americans have so much diarrhea.
Am I the only one that gets annoyed with people for constantly trotting out the whole “don’t feed the trolls” line like it’s always and forever the best solution? Jay Smooth did a fantastic video on why that’s not the answer for every situation, which expresses my feelings on the matter far more eloquently than I ever could.
Not just you. It reminds me of the “just ignore the bullies and they’ll stop eventually, dear” advice I got all through my childhood. Which was terrible advice, because they never did.
Yeah… that’s bears.
Yeah, I feel like the advice in that piece maybe applies to honest-to-goodness senseless trolling (like the wedding-ruining he describes), but it’s not necessarily the best way to respond to the sexist, racist, transphobic, etc. trolling that is the real scourge of the Internet.
Yeah it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes between trolls who are bored/lonely and people who are hateful and ignorant. I always hold out a bit of hope that maybe responding could change someone’s mind because I personally learn a lot from the Internet every day. Is that so wrong? I’m thinking maybe it is 🙁
Very very much agreed (and was going to post the exact same video!).
Like grandma_nancy above says, the piece seems designed to discuss “old-school” trolling, where you’re simply trying to get a rise out of people. The modern definition of trolling has extended more to harassment and online bullying, however. The fact is that trolling *does* hurt, regardless of whether you “let it” or not. No one should be subjected to rape threats, or death threats, or other attacks on their basic humanity. This should not just be part of our culture. And when we ignore trolls by not “feeding” them, our silence can implicitly signal that this kind of behavior is acceptable.
Hell, anyone who was ever a kid knows that “Just ignore them!” does absolutely fuck-all!
Maybe we shouldn’t be referring to online harassment and bullying as “trolling” at all–just reserve that term for the “old-school” kind, and call the harassment what it really is.
I do appreciate the artistry of that BuzzFeed piece, but if my employer asked me to illustrate my period, I’d be screaming “class-action lawsuit” so loud they’d have to sedate me.*
*I know, there’s nothing actually illegal about this.**
**But still. It seems unprofessional.***
***In related news, I’m old and stodgy.
Thank you for posting that answer to why we menstruate!! I never wanted children, so I’ll be delighted to throw in all those facts about fetuses being ridiculous parasites the next time someone asks me why. And for those of you who already have kids – I SALUTE YOU.
You mean “womynstruate”
I love the uselessness of menstruation. Makes me feel good to annihilate it for the next 5 years with an IUD. And yes yes to all you child strapped ladies, good job! I don’t know how the hell you do it.
the highlight of my life was when my mother cooed “you’re a little parasite aren’t you”* to my baby sister before the tykette could fully comprehend human english.
i’m not planning on kids, but if i ever change my mind i plan to roll like my mom did.
*yes, i realize i probably got the same treatment. whatever, i still approve.
Thank you for posting the Hedwig piece – it says just about everything I feel about the show. The one point where I differ slightly is that I think Hedwig is a drag queen, so it makes even more sense that NPH would look to drag for inspiration (but, uh, maybe let’s not look at Jared Leto). The piece itself even says that Hansel transitions to escape East Berlin, not because he identifies as a woman. And I think that living and performing as Hedwig is a way of turning proverbial lemons into lemonade, not living out An Internal Truth – I think “Wig in a Box” kind of establishes this.
I also see Hedwig as a drag queen. Hansel relies on a manly man to escape his situation and what do you know, the manly man gets Hansel to cut off his genitals and then abandons him. I always interpreted Hedwig as a cautionary tale of the evil ways of mothers and men. For me it was deeply feminist.
I haven’t seen the stage show, but my feeling from the movie was that it was sort of about Hedwig/Hansel coming to embrace an identity that was neither male nor female, and not actually in need of an “other half”?
Consider this your 24-hour warning: tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the release of Mean Girls, it is a Wednesday, everyone shall wear pink. It is Decreed.
omg this is too perfect except I have a bit meeting tomorrow and pink would not make me Look. Serious. AHHH what to do!
Pink nails. Pink lipstick. Pale pink blouse. Pink jewelry. Maybe not all at once.
I have a pencil skirt with a bit of pink piping that might have to suffice, but pale pink nails might work too…hm.
You could take out an insurance policy on your hair.
I don’t own any pink but I will gladly dress as Janis. I’ll just dig up everything I wore in high school.
(Lindsay Lohan wasn’t available to comment)
This has been in my calendar for AGES. I am just trying to decide which pink dress to wear – it depends on the weather.
GUYYYYSSSS I GOT A JOB OFFER I AM MAD EXCITED but really not looking forward to breaking the news to my boss or negotiating my new salary. Hoo boy, adulthood.
Congratulations!!
Thank you!
YAY AND CONGRATULATIONS! Listen to Slate’s Negotiation Academy to get yourself hyped up!
Thanks, I’ll give it a try!
Congratulations, JC! Re: salary negosh, Ask A Manager blog also has some resources on salary negotiation you may find helpful!
Thanks, Arsenio 🙂
HEY I remember talking about the hellish job application process with you on an open thread a few months back! So many congratulations! I got a job a week ago! Maybe Mallory and Nicole are witches!
I remember 🙂 Congrats on your new job!!! We’ll have to sacrifice something on Mallory and Nicole’s altar during the next full moon as thanks.
Just to get in on the voodoo, I have a BIG interview tomorrow 🙂 I will sacrifice a lamb!
Good luck!!!
Other than the suicidal ideation that often precedes it, I like menstruating just fine.
(I can’t log into the site! I’m logged into Intense Debate as yeahjustalice, and have been since Friday, but I can’t comment with my account. What to do?)
Have you heard of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder? Someone on an open thread told me about it a few weeks back. It’s essentially REALLY intense, serious PMS that causes emotional and physical symptoms. The checklist makes me 99% sure I have it.
I have not heard of this! I will google it. When I’ve spoken to my doctors (several over a four or five year stretch) they were astonishingly unhelpful.
Right?? Doctors always make me feel like I’m just making shit up. It took me a long time to even connect my crazy emotional spirals with the 10 or so days preceding my period. And once I did, I figured it was still “just PMS.” Hearing there was an actual diagnosable condition made me relieved that it might be the answer, but angry that it’s very existence isn’t more well-known. The symptoms are no fucking joke!
Yes! I hear people describe their PMS like “I’m grumpy and I want chocolate!” and I can’t relate because mine is straight up like “LIFE IS MEANINGLESS AND EACH OF US DIES ALONE.” I used to wonder if that was just the sexist dismissal of women’s emotions (“lol, are you sad? cute!”) until I realized mine was diagnosably a thing.
Absolutely! It’s like, “I want chocolate too, but I want to throw myself off a bridge while I eat it!” I think we should start a support group. Maybe find a celebrity spokesperson?
Menstruating isn’t too bad for me either, except for the Day of Ultimate Despair that precedes it. I might rather have worse cramps.
I get both Ultimate Despair AND debilitating cramps. I don’t know what I did in a previous life to deserve this but I am very sorry, honest.
Ooof, excellent roundup today. I have six tabs open from this one, including one (the Hedwig one) blocked by my work filter as “adult content”. Which, okay, there’s a discussion about b.s. right there.
I knew not to read the comments on the Not All Men article and yet what did I do? I read the comments and now I have to go burn the world down. BRB.
I did the same thing 🙁 *throws self away*
LEWIS’S LAW, Lewis’s lawwwwwww.
I did not know about this and it is too perfect.
I did it too I did it too, even after reading your comment because I like to punish myself. Ugh I feel like I need to get an abortion or something.
*Hugs her Safari “Shut-up” comment-blocker extension and promises to never leave it!*
Yessss I have one for Chrome and it keeps me sane!
WHY. I didn’t read the comments the first time and then I went back after I read your comment. WHY DID I DO THAT.
Ouch, me too. Geez I love it when the comments distinctly illustrate the “not all men” and “what about the men” arguments. It’s almost like they’re not even listening. Huh.
> “The study, of a sample of 693 elite athletes, revealed a significant overlap in testosterone levels among men and women: 16.5 percent of the elite male athletes had testosterone in the so-called female range; nearly 14 percent of the women were above the “female” range.”
Maybe the world can collectively stop freaking out about trans women athletes now.
…Nah. The world sucks like that.
If we didn’t have periods though, we’d probably go into heat, and I dunno, that seems like it’s even worse.
You know, I probably wouldn’t mind. DEPENDING. I kinda feel like I’m in heat for a week or so around my cycle anyway.
(brought to you by someone who embarassingly fell into a pit of alpha/beta/omega fic one day? and was so confused? and then kinda into it? God.)
Why are all fics alpha/beta/omega these days? Doesn’t matter which fandom. It’s just breeding and omegas all the way down.
I don’t know! did this exist when I was a wee little fanfiction writer? I have no memory of this dynamic. And I tried to look up where it came from but it just confused me more (werewolves? Supernatural? and what the fuck is knotting even??).
But ugh, there’s something about the dynamic with my secret Britishy slash couples that I like the whole alpha/omega thing? Or maybe beta? I seriously still don’t understand. I don’t think I could handle it in my old favorites, tho.
Has anyone actually read an alpha/beta/omega fic with women? If I’m going to buy this ridiculousness, I need some alpha ladies getting people pregnant.
Fun but embarrassing?
I know this was a million Link Roundups ago, but I’m listening to that playlist of ladies covering Beatles songs and it’s the BEST!
Nicole, I know this gravy is the wrong color, but you can’t just say that without showing what the RIGHT color should be. I live in Virginia,a sadly poutine free zone (although we have excellent pulled pork, half smokes, peaches and crab cakes).
Where is our Toast Guide to Poutine?
guys guys today is my birthday i’m 25 now woooooooooooooo
Happy quarter-century of excellence!
Happy happy birthday!!
Is…is no one going to talk about the greatest 98 year old woman in the world, who I wish was my grandma? My third grandma, obviously, but still. I want to party with her.
I loved her. She was all over the place and fabulous and reminded me of Aunty Mame.
That said, I decided that I hate her because she said I won’t be able to stay with my spouse forever and ever.
I think someone might be a bit defensive.
What about the remaining 10%, though? Gonna be up all night thinking about this.
I think the other 10% are robots.
Hilariously, my comment here that was a copy of a robot was itself deleted. Oh great, now I’m a robot.
What interests me on the comments of the terribleness of only children is the belief that your siblings will be best friends for life. I’m an only child but my parents have siblings. My dad isn’t close to any of them at all, and while my mom loved her brother, he caused her so much stress and heartbreak. I’ve also had friends who just flat-out did not like their siblings.
So really, it’s a crapshoot on whether or not siblings will always get along just as it’s a crapshoot on whether or not only children will be weird or spoiled or damage or whatever else the stereotype is.
My stupid sister made me be in her humongous Catholic wedding. I HAD TO MAKE A SPEECH AND GET MY NAILS DONE. Stupid sister. Honestly, she’s okay. I kinda see her like a pretty good friend from the high school days who I haven’t seen in awhile and in the meantime got married to a boring fella, had a few kids and started wearing slacks and talking about Jennifer Aniston.
that was an amazingly descriptive yet succinct word picture
Aw, thanks!
I like my siblings a lot, but being the eldest child just flat-out sucks if your family has any kind of issues. Everything gets filtered through you first. Second kid gets the diluted version, and by the time they get to the baby she can do whatever the fuck she wants and no one bats an eye, which also, of course, has its downside.
Aaaaaaaaaargh people who act like having siblings will make your kid turn out well-adjusted. THESE ARE LIES.
I’m the eldest and you are exactly right. Sometimes I wonder if all the eldest kids are crusty old shaman living in stick sheds on the peripheries of family drama or if that is just me.
yep yep yep yep yep
My sister and I are very close, partly because we’re veterans of the same crazy childhood/family issues. It helps sometimes to have someone who can identify with what you’ve been through, but having a sibling is no guarantee of being well adjusted.
Yeah. My dad has an older brother, and they didn’t really talk to each other for years. My grandmother got old and sick and ended up having to move to assisted living, and then my dad and my uncle were talking to each other at least once a week…until my grandmother died. And then they went back to not really talking anymore.
No drama. They just don’t really have anything to say to each other, and if they weren’t related, they’d probably never give each other a second thought.
That article on only children in literature was well-timed, because just half an hour ago I was thinking “The last three groups of characters you added to your comic book are all siblings, someone has to NOT HAVE SIBLINGS.” But, to be honest, it’s always struck me as a bit weird how common it is for TV/movie/book characters to have no siblings (or at the very least, no siblings with any meaningful presence in their lives). At the moment, I’m an adult who lives with my parents; my brother, his girlfriend, and her child; and my teenage sister, with whom I spend approximately 90% of my time, so siblings are very, very present in my life. I know that many people don’t have them or aren’t close with the ones they do have (and have plenty of models for the latter in my own family tree), but still. It seems unrealistic that sibling relationships aren’t a bigger presence in media.
[CAVEAT: Of course there are a ton of counter-examples, and it depends a TON on genre]
Hey, hey now. Not all men not-all-men.
Can’t they just call white gravy something else? I suggest “melted lard with flour,” which is much more accurate. Gravy is made out of liquid that was involved with meat at some point.
my real point is that it is important to safeguard people who move to Texas from Louisiana, ask for gravy with their breakfast biscuits, and receive a large ladle-ful of terrifying viscous white glop. WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE INNOCENTS, YOU GUYS.
When I hovered over the hyperlink, I seriously thought that url was poopsci.com
Mouse grimace scale. MOUSE GRIMACE SCALE. I can’t stop.
All raw meat surfaces are contaminated. A slab of steak can have its surfaces cauterized, but ground meat is ALL SURFACE. There's no way around it, and pretending there is is one of the reasons Americans have so much diarrhea.