Driving along the 401 from Toronto to my dad’s house in Trenton, I was all “man, I love how EVERYTHING here is named after the Loyalists,” and an AMERICAN said: “that was over two hundred years ago, why are they still talking about it?” and I went NUTS and delivered an extemporaneous lecture on how it’s not MY beautiful country that needs to have a two-year debate about whether the stupid founding fathers would have approved of putting in a new traffic light in Gary, Indiana, so shut yer gob. I mean, literally no Canadian politician is ever “WW Sir John A. Macdonald Do?” bc why would a drunk 19th century politico be the best source of wisdom for governing a modern nation that would be unrecognizable to him in every way? We wrote our constitution in 1982.
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Looking sexy, Utah.
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The fascinating John Duka, who likely inspired The Normal Heart‘s Felix Turner.
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So, Knowlton Nash died. He was pretty amazing. And if you were a small Canadian, you should remember him fondly for having gotten Sesame Street to agree to Canadian content. My husband, when I mentioned this: “Heh. were there beavers?” Me: “…yes.” “Did they speak French?” Me: “…yes.”
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Ahhhh, everything is always too good to be true. It’s funny, because I feel like everyone I know is BOMBARDED with the information that their fertility is about to hit a wall of NO, so I always eye-roll at these things, but then the actual polls are very different:
In the 2012 survey of U.S. undergraduates, 66 percent of women and 81 percent of men believed that female fertility did not markedly decline until after the age of 40. One-third of women and nearly half of men believed this marked decline occurred after the age of 44—an age at which an I.V.F. cycle is least effective. The study concluded that “the discrepancy between participant’s perceived knowledge and what is known regarding the science of reproduction is alarming and could lead to involuntary [biological] childlessness.”
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I bought and read all of the Patrick Melrose novels of Edward St. Aubyn after reading this Ian Parker profile in The New Yorker, and it was a brutal, gruesome, and ultimately rewarding task.
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Jane Marie on beauty! She also pretends that fishtail braids are real.
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On Angelina Jolie’s perfect game.
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I am fine with this. I hate standing on the fringe of the host, and then doing a sad face like “I have to goooooo now but this was funnnn.” Do this to me, I don’t care. No, I do not have the balls to try it, why bother pretending? I WANT to ghost at parties.
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(Yes, I am also pregnant again, in addition to stylish.) pic.twitter.com/oUjpcUa49K
— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) May 29, 2014
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Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
NICOLE it fills me with joy that you were in my neck of the woods and probably passing my home on Exit 526!
But more important: NICOLE YOU ARE PREGNANT AGAIN??!?!?!? OMG! ! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! How wonderful!
The pink in your shoes coordinates with the pink band on your pants; you’re totally stylish. And adorable.
Congratulations on the pregnancy! How exciting!
BABY CLIFFE THE SECOND: RETURN OF THE CLIFFE: THE RECKONING
(Congratulations, how wonderful, but meant SO SINCERELY! Here’s to a smooth pregnancy, and may Mallory’s parenting book be out in time for the baby shower.)
Baby Cliffe 2: Electric Boogaloo
Also, whooooo wants to hear the most horrifying comment I’ve encountered in response to that Arthur Chu article I posted yesterday?
I do I do I love feeling terrible!
HOKAY, I was going to crop it down but I can’t pick the worst part so here it is, in its entirety:
“I don’t know about this…..sigh I just don’t know…I do know the term “rape culture” is starting to get old. If this is rape culture in 2014 U.S., then what the hell culture were the vikings?? Men are pigs on occasion, no doubt there, but half the problems are women. Women who feel “entitled” (another buzzword I am getting sick of hearing) to a man that earns so much money, drives a certain car etc etc because they feel their physical attractiveness entitles them to it. Men will never understand getting eyed 24/7, childbirth, menstruation….but women will never understand the deranged beast on our backs demanding sex constantly, the need to be stronger, faster, better than our competition. Rape is almost never the victims fault, but booty shorts and bikinis do not help. Tickling the dragons tail some might call it. I’ve never had sex with a woman, but I’ll be damned if it’s not clawing at the back of my mind all day every day and my non-virgin friends tell me it gets even worse after you start. Anyway, there is no solution to this problem that would still maintain the current form of humanity. One may as well ask how to stop war. The most obvious answer would be to increase empathy of males, but it won’t work. My empathy is sky high, I would cry and cry and cry if I raped a woman….but…sigh that would be after. Sex is the most important goal of any sexually reproducing animal and I believe almost everything that has been done, has been done for that. They say that greed is the ultimate motivation but that is untrue….the benefits of money, power, and prestige have always been sex. It should come as no surprise that certain individuals (male and female) “steal” this commodity.
“Not getting that means that there will always be some percent of us who will be rapists, and abusers, and killers.”
This is a statistical certainty, not a societal idea influenced by attitudes.”
I…wanted to comment on so many things but could also not pick a single part to make fun of. Oh my god. I hope you have set fire to this man’s home.
He is not a personal acquaintance of mine and so I do not know where he lives, but if wishes could make it so…
Yeah I was gonna try and artfully and snarkily highlight some of that absolute mess but I can’t muster it. It’s actually scary that his opinion is representative of a large population, and that there are lots worse.
As a man, the fact that this is how some other men think is… I’m not sure I have words for it, honestly. It’s quite frightening. While I typically have a rather dark view of humankind, I think I drastically underestimated the number of men who think this way.
Beyond that, I just can’t believe anyone would post something like that anywhere on the internet—basically admitting they could envision themselves raping someone, talking about how victims have to assume some of the blame for being raped because of “booty shorts” and “bikinis”…? Just truly sickening and horrifying.
HE RESPONDED.
“If you don’t think women can act as entitled to sex as men then you’re just kidding yourself. Being so one sided hurts the argument, not helps. Yeah, rape and murder are a statistical certainty, not every brain is wired 100% correctly, and that’s just entropy and nothing but genetic modification would eliminate the possibility of such mental error. Rape culture implies rape is glorified in our culture….why is rape considered one of the worst crimes in our society behind only murder and child molestation (Itself a subset of rape)? Forget not also that rape is a two way street… not solely perpetrated by men. The “cry and cry bit” was not to comfort, it was to lay bare honesty and help illustrate that even high levels of empathy are powerless to sexual hunger. Rape “almost” never being the victims fault is giving a +/- 1% to statistical error, not an excuse. I was in error referring to rape as a theft, when in actuality it is closer to piracy in that the original commodity was not stolen, only copied without permission. Referring to sex as a commodity is not an attempt to dehumanize, only to categorize, it is in fact traded and sold in some instances. Brandon, what you are saying is to replace an addiction with another, it won’t solve the fundamental problem that as animals we are slaves to instinct. Men have problems too and pretending that women live in a world of where only they are persecuted is making enemies of feminism, not allies. Rape is a fundamental aspect of our animal behaviors, and while it can be slowed and stopped in a reasonably healthy human being, there will always be statistical outliers that prevent its extinction. We do live in a “rape culture”…rape of the native american land, rape of the atmosphere, and rape of each other to get a step ahead of our peers.It is not gender exclusive.”
My response to this included the phrase “I hope very much that any women who ever have the misfortune to come into your life have the opportunity to see what you’ve said here today.”
edit: He is very confused about what “rape culture” means: “I believe you’re missing my points…I was not questioning why rape was considered bad, only the assertion that we supposedly live in a “rape culture” but that rape is still considered bad.”
Attention dudes of the Toast: if you want to know how to help, EDUCATE YOUR FELLOW MEN.
Sick fuck.
*FLIPS MORE TABLES*
We’re now having a “discussion” about the definition of rape culture. I should have set him on fire an hour ago.
Your tolerance for freshman-grade Weed Thoughts chinstroking about how rape is a market inefficiency exceeds what any mere mortal should have to put up with, friend.
You are a better person than I am.
Oh my god. This makes me sick. So many men (and a not-miniscule number of women) think this way. How do they not see the sheer LUNACY they are spewing?? It’s really terrifying.
“Tickling the dragon’s tail” … fuck this guy.
I want to assume this is written by a 14-year-old who is overcome by his hormones and will one day learn better than to say these things, but also there are a decent number of big words and they’re all mostly full sentences….
HE WOULD CRY AND CRY
Well it’s OK then.
My favorite part too! And it would be “after.” AFTER he raped someone. See, he’s empathetic!
good to know he has a game plan
Also if anyone else needs a mental palate cleanser after reading this, might I suggest the Broad City ladies shutting down some creeps on the street.
I will be watching that as soon as humanly possible.
To atone for posting that nightmare, here is a gif of a fluffy puppy:
Where do I get this puppy? He needs me, I can see it in his bright little happy face
If I could, I would be handing them out by the bushel to all you lovely people.
Aww he lays down like my corgi does (legs all splayed backwards).
Oh my god this made it all better.
BROAD CITY FOREVERRRRRR
Also here’s a video of adorable babies dancing. Let’s just post nice things forever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g8y2_Dokck
What do Vikings have to do with anything!?
I just…is he sad that he would be sad about raping a woman? I can’t tell!
UGH! BURN IT DOWN!
I have NO IDEA how the Vikings got dragged into this mess. Or dragons, for that matter. Smaug would not support this nonsense.
You know, they are the only culture that got REAL SRS about raping and pillaging when at war….
Oh no wait, that was most of them.
AFTER. He’d be sad about it AFTER he raped someone. Not sad enough that he could stop himself from raping someone, but he’d regret it afterwards. Probably.
[Something something] ladies have it so good now, [something something] at least not vikings!
BRB, off to embroider/graffiti “at least not vikings” all over everything.
I’ve spent the last multiple hours dealing with him and I probably should have dropped a missile on his ass this morning instead.
“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. “
“my non-virgin friends tell me it gets even worse after you start.”
You know, this entire attitude that sex is “clawing at the back of your mind” and “gets worse” is just…..horrifying. Sex is wonderful and this makes it sound like some kind of brain demon.
I think he may have confused “sex” with “heroin addiction.”
I’m going to betray my absolutely naiveté here, and perhaps the fact that I was raised by some wonderful people and was lucky enough to have amazing friends throughout my life, but… when did young men start talking like this?
I remember some rather frank (and embarrassing) talks with my adolescent friends in the ’90s about wanting to lose our virginities, but the idea of sex was never this awful, debilitating, sickening thing that we just had to have, by any means necessary. Perhaps we were just awkward kids raised on “The Wonder Years,” I really don’t know… These attitudes towards women and sex that have come out in the aftermath of the tragedy in California are quite alien and frightening to me.
I think my brain just exploded?
I wish I didn’t have this disturbing insight into the mind of this horrific individual.
omg
OHHHH no no no.
But at least there will soon be another Cliffe in the world and maybe that will neutralize this guy’s horribleness. (Congrats, Nicole!!)
Does this person know ANY women? Because they need to be warned. I’m only kidding a tiny, tiny bit.
This can’t be that bad, my eyes just slid right off it in the general direction of something worth reading right after the first quote marks
I… uh.
*FLIPS TABLE*
YES BASICALLY
HE RESPONDED. I posted it up under Jaya’s reply. Rage with me.
And they say feminists are the ones that claim all men are rapists…
Oh god I just had to stop after “vikings” I can’t.
Whenever men get started on their “men just can’t help it!” spiels, it really always seems to be an argument for keeping men confined and only allowing them out with female escorts. This man is obviously not fit for civilized society and should be contained for the good of everyone.
I got through the first sentence, stood up, took a lap around the office, sat back down, finished reading it, closed my mouth, returned my eyes to non-saucer-plate size, tried to come up with an articulate, helpful, calmly-word response, and…that’s where I got stuck.
I don’t know how to address half of the comments similar to this that I’ve seen. There’s some fundamental disconnect between (what I view as) normal, decent human behavior and how people like this see the world that I can’t even begin to wrap my head around.
Oooh, I do, I do!
Do go on. *readies crossbow*
After my friend made a status about how dudes shouldn’t catcall, the comments included this gem:
“You have to be subjected to [catcalls] because there are other women who will speak to a man who uses this particular technique. G: We split topics. I wasn’t talking about violence. I was saying only what I said the first time – 3 out of 10 girls will respond positively if a man comes at them with ‘hey you, how YOU doin’ or something you might think is inappropriate. My comments do not address what happens if you don’t like it – only the fact that some women who are not you don’t mind being catcalled, regardless of what Victor’s article says.”
As my other friend said, “Today I learned that 3 out of 10 women who are catcalled are asking for it while 10 out of 10 are pretty much only there to be targeted for sex.”
The one positive thing about reading all these terrible comments is that it’s making it much easier for me to figure out which men to avoid.
WOW.
I do appreciate all these awful humans self-screening for us.
3 out of 10, eh?
I spent the whole day avoiding commenting on it, but when that guy said that FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE.
I’d like to see his citations on that one.
“And if 3 out of 10 women love something that 7 out of 10 women hate, then logically it stands to reason that I do whatever the fuck I want. That’s just math!”
The one positive thing about reading all these terrible comments is that it’s making it much easier for me to figure out which men to avoid.
THIS.
Wait, wait wait are you actually pregnant? I can’t tell from the photo at all but if so congratulations!
I would love to ghost/ Irish Good bye/ French leave (they forgot “Walking Spanish”) but alas, I cannot.
So EXCITING -A BABY! Congratulations!
DO NOT LET MALLORY REWRITE WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING
You have spoken it, now it shall be done.
Yep, I read this as “please immediately have Mallory rewrite What To Expect When You’re Expecting”
I’m just commenting to add my support to this idea.
My understanding was that What to Expect was already a nightmare tome of horrors?
You are CORRECT. On second thought, Mallory can only IMPROVE it.
That book should be BURNED
(I was secretly hoping Mallory would read this and say to herself: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED)
My friends call it “shawshanking.”
Crawling through a river of shit just to get out of a party? 🙁
Do people actually say “walking Spanish” for this? I think that means getting run off, not leaving without a goodbye.
in the 19th century sense “walking Spanish” means going AWOL
Nicole!!!! Congratulations! I’m so happy for you! Yay!!!
Congratulations, Nicole! I am happy that there will soon be a future architect of the Matriarchy on its way.
Congrats Nicole!!!!!
I always find articles about fertility after 35 to be interesting since I was an old egg. My mom was 44 when I was born. My parents weren’t using birth control because they thought she couldn’t get pregnant since she was over 40.
As someone who has always erred on the obsessive side of fertility (and never failed to use at least two methods of birth control), this is BEYOND MY IMAGINATION. I have also met people who had children when they “just assumed” they couldn’t get pregnant (mostly very soon after having given birth). Who ASSUMES???? Not someone for whom the .01% margin of error on oral contraceptives was too risky, I can tell you that.
There’s a reason why unexpected pregnancies spikes a little bit for 40-something women. Same thing happen with my family.
The AHP piece on Angelina Jolie (Scandals of New Hollywood?) is magnificent.
Yeah, I love that the takeaway for the whole piece is “You know why you love her? BECAUSE SHE IS CRAZY SMART, wayyyy smarter than you.” Truth.
Is there a term for the OPPOSITE of the Irish Goodbye? Wherein you feel your dead grandmother will come back from the GRAVE to look sternly disappointed in your manners if you don’t say goodbye to every. single. person you personally know/met at a bar or party? Cause that term might be useful to me…
I refer to that as the Russian goodbye. Leaving a party takes at the very least a full hour in my family.
Excellent, from now on this is what I will call it. My friends will continue to call it “jesus why is this taking so long, come ON”.
“Beware the standing guest.” SO TRUE.
Also Southern Goodbye – where you have to say goodbye to every single person, so that by the time you’re done saying goodbye to everyone you have to go around and do it again because it’s been too long since the first goodbye.
I am ok with ghosting. But my husband can’t leave until he says goodbye to everyone,a dn then we are there ANOTHER HOUR.
Seriously, honey, get your coat, say goodbye to the host if you pass them, leave.
Yes, your relationship is my relationship. And he feels bad about interrupting the host to say goodbye, so we have to hover around awkwardly waiting for the perfect moment! It takes foreverrrrr
Me, I’m just rude ‘Hey, I’m off now, thanks for a good time’ if I pass them and then I flee! The only thing that’ll make me do the rounds saying goodbye is if I’m waiting for a taxi, when I might as well, to be honest.
We are all relationship twins.
Nicole, your dad lives in Trenton?? I grew up in Prince Edward County and went to high school in Belleville! This is so refreshing….I’m used to only seeing Trenton mentioned in connection with Russ Williams the serial rapist. :-S
My mom went to Nicholson! I am in Marysville RIGHT NOW. I am going to the Quinte Mall for lunch.
ARE YOU SERIOUS
I work like two minutes away from there BRUSH WITH FAME
if you wanna come say hi email me and i will text you my cell
You guys, people on twitter actually got a men’s rights music festival in Toronto shut down. Sometimes it’s nice to know these things can make a difference in real life, in the city I live in!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/islan…
Yay! Good job, Twitter, and good on that brewery for realizing their mistake and fixing it.
I cannot even imagine the horror of an MRA music act. Would all their songs be about how it’s so unfair they can’t hit women?
Bono gets up on stage, a trilby atop his signature awful glasses, and dedicates this one to all the men in the developing world falsely accused of rape. Tonight is for them!
That was so lovely — I mean, the festival people were totally disingenuous how they booked and promoted it. And foolish to try and host it at a super left-wing feministy type of place like Gibraltar Point.
The Gathering of the Niceguys
Boneroo
One of my friends actually called The Eaton Centre last winter to stop a PIck Up Artist meetup from happening there, and it worked. She is a badass.
Congratulations, Nicole!!
obligatory animated gif:
Also:
ooooooh.
Oh this. THIS is something.
The Scripps spelling bee ended in a tie! http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/story/_/id/1100413…
“The competition was against the dictionary, not against each other.” ADORABLE!
(Also, the fact that ESPN reports on spelling bees is kind of hilarious.)
Reports on and airs, I think! It’s delightfully bizarre.
Yup, they’re the ones who air it! I watched the whole 2.5 hours last night and loved every minute of it. those kids are adorable and so deserve it. They study so hard, and a lot of them have older siblings that participated as well. And you can tell they’re really into it, it’s not like one of those things where the parents are making them do it… They have true dedication.
My friend works for the bee and I got to see her on TV – it was very exciting! 🙂
Those kids are so cute and earnest and smart. It’s kind of nice for non-dirtbag 14-year-olds to get some national attention.
Caaaan we talk about The Normal Heart more? It’s one of my favorite plays and a friend of mine was in the movie (he had a small part as the hotty in the purple speedo). And the movie was so visceral in its horror. I was walking around the Village yesterday and thinking about how 30 years ago it was ground zero for a plague.
I made the mistake of watching both Angels in America and The Normal Heart this weekend, and I was a fucking wreck.
Also the only thought I had during the “wedding” scene at the end was just “my love is inadequate.”
I love me some Angels in America, man. It’s the fantasy side of the coin to The Normal Heart’s stark realism.
Btw, re. your American friend who was commenting on why Canadians still have stuff named after Loyalists: have they ever been to Boston? Colonial Williamsburg? Philadelphia? Baltimore? Shit, that’s all we do in the Northeast US: have reminders about our colonial past.
You would’ve thought that Boston invented and patented the American Revolution, the way the city touts it.
[I love you Boston, please don’t cut me off from lobster rolls and bottles of Harpoon.]
You have no idea how many tree parts are lying around museums and archives just because George Washington stood under the tree two hundred years ago.
Shoot, Maryland has quite a few old houses and lots where there’s a historical marker up that says “A Founding Father spent the night here, once.”
NOT JUST MARYLAND, I ran into one of those (maybe not for a Founding Father, but some old timey dude) in Greensburg, Kentucky last week.
Relatedly, in Spain, there are signs everywhere proclaiming Ernest Hemingway was here, except for one cafe in Madrid called “Hemingway never ate here” or something similar.
Every street in Virginia is named after either Lee, Jackson, or both, but I guess that doesn’t count since their cause is still so hot and current.
If bumper stickers are any judge, then apparently! Although I guess with the use of the “Live Free or Die” flag by Tea Partier…::side eye::
My husband and I were driving back from Skyline Drive (Fort Royal entrance) to MD and we still managed to be horrified to be driving on Stonewall Jackson Parkway/Freeway/Whatever. We were kind of relieved when the road we were on turned into Lord Fairfax (who was probably still a dick) but then it ended up that the road was named after both men. Now, I wonder if anyone has done any guerilla highjacking of the road names… at least “Lord Fairfax” could conceivably be changed to Jane Fairfax ala Emma.
I always found it ridiculous that the cross street at the main entrance to the marine corps base in VA, whose name I am blessedly forgetting at the moment (the really huge one where they have OCS and TBS and other trainings?) is Jefferson Davis Highway.
My “favorite” of these CSA homage streets is Jefferson Davis Parkway in New Orleans, which intersects with Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Omg no. No. Seriously???
(Quantico! That’s the name of the base.)
Seriously! I had heard about it before, but I just spent 10 minutes on Google Maps to confirm before I posted it here.
Shit that’s downright reserved and tasteful given the general Southern response to MLK Day
No joke I live about two miles from the intersection of Lee, Lee, and Lee Jackson. A convenient walk from the NRA headquarters BTW.
“Janet Jackson Parkway” has a nice ring to it, I think. “Miss Jackson Parkway” if you’re nasty.
(The other obvious choices were eliminated because of the Trail of Tears, sex abuse allegations, same-named son buying Michael Jackson memorabilia with campaign funds, etc.)
Oh, we are absolutely certain we invented and patented the Revolution. Just look at our pro sports teams. New England Patriots and the New England Revolution. You will never be permitted to think that we are not wholly responsible for the entire thing.
Oh yeah, the whole NE is a festival of old dead white guy names.
Ummm … well, part of the reason Canadians still have stuff named after Loyalists is that we (and by we, I mean we descendents of the said Loyalists) are all STILL WAITING FOR REPARATIONS, y’all!
Under the various treaties that ended the Revolutionary War, the Americans were supposed to compensate those citizens of the Crown who had been stripped of their property, both real and personal, and expelled from those colonies which became the various States of the United.
Guess what?! Still waiting!
My own people, the Palmers, were expelled under the Treaty Canadaigua and walked around Lake Ontario to the city of York, crossing at Niagara. They then went on to become one of the founding families of Scarborough and Pickering. The first Palmer stepped off the boat in 1620. The last Palmer hoofed it out 150 years later.
So, yeah … we carry a grudge.
True story: when I was very small, we had a ridiculously large, unreliable UFO-like satellite dish mounted on a pole in the backyard. It couldn’t pick up any local channels or regular, American PBS, but somehow we got Canadian Sesame Street! I don’t remember it but my mom tells me I sat in front of the TV for hours enraptured by French-speaking Québécois muppets.
I’m the ghostiest ghost you ever did (not) see when leaving large to mid-sized events. Spending an hour saying goodbye to people wipes out the fun of seeing them in the first place. Also the reason I always try to be the driver, or fly solo to big events.
Haha, I almost always sneak out of large gatherings, thanks anxiety!
I don’t ghost, but then I only feel obliged to say goodbye to the person who invited me so that’s a pretty low bar.
I AM ALWAYS HERE FOR ANGELINA JOLIE. Goddamn I love her. If you haven’t watched her incredible speech from when she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, then do it NOW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ATgxOp31oI
Aww, congratulations, Nicole! I hope this pregnancy is filled with foot rubs and yoga pants, and I’m so excited for Tiny Cliffe II!
I’ve really only ghosted once (because I was having a terrible argument with someone and I was just plain finished listening to him be wrong and offensive), and someone actually got worried and came after me. It’s been like 9 years and I still feel too guilty to try it again.
My friend ghosted once after someone (not with us) puked right next to her (some people can’t handle Brunch). I went after her because I felt so bad, but I did not blame her for ghosting at all. And it sounds like it was well-reasoned in your situation, too.
Oh, THAT GUY deserved me ghosting on him and never speaking to him again, for sure. I felt bad about worrying my actual friends, though. (Although, if the dude who came looking for me somehow magically reads this, I feel like he should know: I WAS EMBARRASSED AT THE TIME BUT THAT WAS GREAT. YOU ARE A STAND-UP DUDE. THANKS.)
Congratulations, Nicole! (I regret that I cannot think of any sort of clever add-on, but I suppose congratulating someone doesn’t necessarily require cleverness.)
Actually, I think Canadian politics could actually be livened up quite a bit if we started asking what 19th-century politicians would do. More railroads! Much more drinking! Much more bitterness about Confederation (oh, wait …).
Bring back Rebel Mayor! https://twitter.com/rebelmayor
(Also, CONGRATULATIONS NICOLE!)
I <3 the AHP article on Buzzfeed… but can I tell you that it’s hard to get your friends to take you seriously when you’re like “NO REALLY THERE’S A WONDERFUL ARTICLE ON BUZZFEED THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE ASKING WHICH SILLY TINY PUPPY IS YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL.”
Oh, poor Gary. Congrats to Nicole, tho!
There used to be this billboard visible from I-80 that always made me shed a tear: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4112/4999317300_30c…
Congrats Nicole!! I am jealous of your outfit, too.
I totally ghost at parties. It’s great. It takes all the guesswork out of leaving. “Am I going to want to leave here in 30 minutes? I should start making my rounds now, then.” Nope it’s just, “Bitches, I’m gone.” And I am. (I will seek out the host though. Usually. Sometimes.)
Also, goddamn I love AHP’s Hollywood articles, and I love Jolie. I’m going to just sit here reading and re-reading that article today.
I did not know that Knowlton Nash was the one who brought in Sesame Park — so many children learned to count in French because of that!
CONGRATS NICOLE!!!!! Such an exciting bit of news!!!
That whole first paragraph is making me all <3<3<3. I love The Toast for so many reasons, but the continuous Cancon is *delightful.*
And many congratulations on your pregnancy! 😀
Wait, you read the St. Aubyn profile in the June 2 issue of the New Yorker AND bought and read all the books already? You’re a machine, Nicole.
“The price many couples pay for not understanding the nitty-gritty facts of their reproductive lifespan is huge.”
I think this fertility article is pretty overly dramatic, actually. There’s this narrative throughout that the consequence of not being able to have a child is HUGE, which is disturbing. And it never really makes the point clearly that declining fertility is not the same thing as being infertile. It’s not threatening that fertility might decline in our 30s (I mean, I think we really have always heard that that was the case): passing a peak does not mean everything is all over.
Also, I am severely in favor of ghosting. I love doing it, and I love it when people do it around me. But I’m not known for being the best at social niceties, either.
Congratulations Nicole and family!!
I need to start this ghosting thing. I feel bad leaving without saying good bye but I always end up staying wayyy longer than I intended to. Next time I need to seek out the host -> go.
My best friend is from Trenton!
And congrats, Nicole!
Congratulations Nicole! Speaking of fertility… That article was a bummer. I’ve got one child who’s turning three soon and I’m thinking of having another, but a part of me wants to put it off, but another part of me is all like “lady, you are going to be 36 years old very soon and if you don’t do it soon it’s going to be harder and harder” and then I go into this endless mental spiral of wanting another child but really not wanting the whole pregnancy/childbirth thing again.
Also I consign the whole first paragraph. It’s like if Australians suddenly decided Captain Cook was the ultimate authority on everything.
Ugh, me too. But replace the pregnancy/childbirth thing with the baby thing. Can the stork just bring me a one year old please?
Wait I thought ghosting was when you quickly excused yourself from a party by throwing a sheet over your head and dashing out the door moaning with the agony of the damned, so nobody’d ask questions. If you see the host on your way out you may politely clank your chains and exhort him to change his wicked ways before it is too late.
<3 <3 <3 This comment made me snort pop out of my nose at my desk.
Yeah gosh I had NOOOOO idea that my chances of procreating are waning day by day, my incipient barren croneness is BRAND NEW INFORMATION.
http://31.media.tumblr.com/183a140b57936e1553ff80…
Ghosting is the only way to go.
CLIFFEHANGER 2!
Such good news, congratulations to your whole family, Nicole!
What about that Atlantic “fertility myths debunked” article that was all “Don’t worry, The Atlantic’s demographic, you can still have babies!”
Guys, I’ve been reading so many articles about the Isla Vista shootings, and being an idiot and reading the comments, and yesterday I read an article in my newest Rolling Stone about some famous Vine-r guy who raped his Vine-r famous ex girlfriend- had sex with her while she was sleeping, while she was possibly concussed, and his mom defended him by saying he was just “lovingly waking her up” and I wanted to VOMITPUNCH EVERYTHING. His whole defense was basically just the “she was asking for it, and she was totally into me more than she said she was,” and people are making me ILL with this shit. And I should just never read comments anywhere but here, because people are just infuriatingly terrible in comments. I’M VERY TIRED OF PEOPLE SAYING TERRIBLE THINGS. LET’S ALL TAKE TO THE SEA.
In short, please send me more puppy gifs. This week unsurfaced a lot of terrible, and I would like to drown it out with sweet doggies.
“vomitpunch” is amazing, thank you.
Knowlton Nash is grandfather to some dear friends of mine from college, and they grew up with him living in their family home. His study was a wonder. He is dearly missed.
I may or may not be offering my congratulations.
I only moved to Canada a six months ago from the States, so some things about the True North Proud and Free are a mystery to me. For instance: how can anyone afford to shop at Roots? That t-shirt was probably like, fifty dollars (Canadian).
… It’s the cute beaver logo, isn’t it? It is really cute.
(I’m a Maritimer, though, not like you decadent _southern Ontario_ people.)
Late to this post, but NICOLE!!!! So happy for you. Do we need to brace ourselves (in a good way) for an army of tiny misandrists with Flo Rida abs?
Late to this post, but NICOLE!!!! So happy for you. Do we need to brace ourselves (in a good way) for an army of tiny misandrists with Flo Rida abs?