*
TNC on his time learning French this summer, and basically everything else:
And there were the latest developments, the likes of which I perceived faintly through the French media. I had some vague sense that King James had done something grand, that the police were killing black men over cigarette sales, that a passenger plane had been shot out the sky, and that powerful people in the world still believed that great problems could be ultimately solved with great armaments. In sum, I knew that very little had changed. And I knew this even with my feeble French eyes, which turned the news of the world into an exercise in impressionism. Everything felt distorted. I understood that things were happening out there, but their size and scope mostly eluded me.
*
I got the horrible sickness. I have given away my Eagles tickets for my birthday, WHICH IS TODAY. Everything is dust. I will make a game-time call about NYC later today but cannot imagine it will work.
*
Roxane Gay on the leaked celeb photos.
*
The Rotherham scandal is horrible.
*
CONGRATS, HAIRPIN!!!!
*
Patricia Lockwood did a food diary for NY Mag and it’s ALL THAT and the commenters have no idea:
8:30 p.m.: I make it a habit to eat whatever’s in the books I’m reading. This means chowder for Moby-Dick, mixed grill for The Corrections, mushrooms and sour cream for Speak, Memory, and a hamburger with french fries for Ramona Quimby, Age 8. It means that whenever I readRedwall I go out into the yard and eat flowers. (Be careful with this. There are daturas in my yard, and if I accidentally eat one of these I am told I will experience a “vision quest” in the manner of Ayla from the Clan of the Cave Bear books.) Right now I’m reading the new Murakami, which means I eat pasta while listening to classical music and thinking about cats and wondering what it would be like to live down in a well. I bet I would love it.
AND
11:30 a.m.: A handful of Craisins, the clit of fruit.
3 p.m.: I watch Tampopo while eating ramen. (Yes, I DO eat ramen every day, because I am a student of life.) What is going on with that one scene where the guy puts a live prawn on a woman’s bare stomach and lets it wiggle around until she climaxes? How do I figure out how to do that at home?
5:30 p.m.: Time for a Purse Surprise. Purse Surprise is where you open up your purse and just eat anything that’s accumulated in it over the past few weeks. I get lucky this time — five beef sticks (???), three oranges, a box of mints, two coffee truffles, and a pill that could honestly be anything.
7 p.m.: All I eat for dinner is the internet. It tastes awful.
*
You know how sometimes you get fixated on something small, bc THE WORLD, and it becomes your white whale? Well, there’s this obviously hate-filled FB page which is all about exposing how Jews ritually murder people for their evil rituals, and I have reported it a BUNCH, as have other people, and it just…somehow keeps getting reinstated, despite obviously being hate speech, and, like, ARCHAIC hate speech, at that! But for some reason, FB puts it back up every time, after “reviewing the report,” and if you want to take a minute to report it (I’m sorry that you have to go to the page to report it, it’s not the best system), maybe they’ll eventually just yank the page. I don’t know. This is my plastic bag in the tree outside Liz Lemon’s apartment.
*
You should check out Saeed Jones reading from his poetry collection, Prelude to Bruise, and then you should pre-order it, if you want!
*
1. Put your hands in the box 2. Remind yourself that fear is the mind-killer 3. Perhaps you are the Kwisatz Haderach pic.twitter.com/IK4iDN1yua
— Vanessa Naylon (@vnaylon) August 4, 2014
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
Nicole! Happy birthday! Take comfort in the fact that you will forever be able to guilt your daughter with the knowledge that she got you sick and prevented you from seeing the Eagles on your birthday.
Happy birthday, Nicole! I’m sorry you’re ill on it.
Toasties I just got back from Australia and I feel like I have missed so, so much. I already went through the Toast Points from last week but are there any other fantastic articles I should not miss??
I would also like to say that I saw more on Ferguson on the Aussie news than I ever have back home. GO FIGURE.
Also also, the scariest deadliest creature I saw while there was just Tony Abbott so it’s all good. Thanks Australia!
Oh, Tony Abbott. What an utterly delightful man! I’m so pleased we could share him with you. Perhaps he can come over for a REALLY LONG VISIT over there?
Happy Birthday, Nicole. I’m so sorry that you are sick. I think this entitles you to a double birthday make up celebration at the world capital city of your choice, and dinner with Benadryl Cummerbund
Benadryl Cummerbund <3
Patricia Lockwood on the Cheesecake Factory: “Second, because why not call it what it is: Vagina Hallucinations in Byzantium.”
TOO MUCH
Happy Birthday Nicole! My small birthday gift to you is going to that fb page and clicking “report.”
I did it too. If Nicole has to miss the Eagles on her birthday, the least I can do is report that hateful page.
I reported the page this morning and FB clearly took a lot of careful consideration and replied:
Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed the Page you reported for containing hate speech or symbols and found it doesn’t violate our Community Standards.
D:< D:< D:< D:< D:<
Same here
I got the same reply! D:<
I also reported it and got the same reply.
+1
This weekend my father-in-law kept mentioning how great the lettuce wraps are at the Cheesecake Factory, and did not understand why we thought this was so ridiculous.
Happy birthday, Nicole!
Happy birthday!
What? NOOOooooooooo!!! I’m so sorry. Godddamn microbes. I hope you feel better soon. I, too, will report that horrible page.
DIRTBAG ALERT: http://www.wcpo.com/news/national/more-than-30-te…
That is amazing and I am a bit sad they got captured, I want to believe that they took over the frozen pizza factory and made it their dirtbag kingdom with unlimited pizza for all.
OH NO:
On the western edge of the facility, the spot where the teens escaped, the closest neighbors are a frozen pizza plant and a liquor distributor.
those places are like magnets for teenage dirtbags!
What did they think was going to happen, really?
FLY MY PRETTIES, FLY.
You can spend all your time [running uncontrollably to the bathroom]
You can spend all your money [on Eagles tix you can’t use]
If it all fell to pieces tomorrow
You’ll still have a niche ladyblog where people will be nice to youuuuuu
Sounds like you should Take It Easy for a few days.
(i’m sorry, i had to)
(happy birthday!!)
Happy birthday! I’m sorry you’re sick. Hope you get lots of rest and fluffy pillows. I reported the Facebook page & will respond to other orders you divest today as Canadia’s Favorite Daughter.
And re: NYC & your Eagles concert, I only have this:
Don’t give up, Nicole re: Facebook page. I’ve reported it before (along with another variant) and the other one was taken down three days ago (this is 8 months after my initial report). Keep the faith, and I’ll report it, too. Also, tell the ADL on facebook, to keep the pressure on.
Are you sure it wasn’t taken down and then reinstated the next day, though? That’s what just happened with a page a bunch of friends and family and I were reporting 8 months ago. It went down, it came back up — about 3 days ago. It’s like a battle between Facebook administrators.
I reported it after I got the link and Facebook returned my report saying that it didn’t violate their community standards.
:
Saaaaammme 🙁 And they did it really fast, too.
Yeah, same. That was pretty infuriating!
I really related to the TNC essay (despite being white and from a small town). My siblings and I were the first generation to get post-secondary education in our families. And while we were able students, we were definitely autodidacts too. My university was considered to be the Canadian equivalent of an Ivy League school. I don’t know about that, but those kids came from privilege. In a creative writing class, I had a girl explain to me I was wrong about something I had written in a story; she knew because she was an expert in blue collar culture — she had taken a class on it (she grew up solidly upper middle class). I said,basically, “What? Bitch, I’ve lived it. A class doesn’t make you an expert on my life.” The students there took a lot for granted. Some had grown up with maids! I felt like I’d missed some things because I had gone to a small rural high school. I was rigorously educated in the basics, but didn’t have fancy courses like Media Studies. It makes you into an observer to be inside a culture you were outside of once. Which TNC rightly points out is not a bad education for a writer.
Ohh no, birthday disappointments are the worst. Feel better soon! For your birthday, I got you one (1) extra report of that Facebook page.
Excited about the new Hairpin editors! I am liking the definition of that site as a place for “petty enthusiasms,” and I hope Haley and Jazmine bring it back around to those roots a bit more.
Ahhh, yes! I mean The Toast has become my new Hairpin, but I also miss the Hairpin of Edith heydey when there were so many posts about quooking with Qream and doll’s head wine glasses instead of reposting news articles.
oh god Qream
I saw some in a liquor discount store in New Hampshire and felt overwhelming nostalgia / sadness.
I miss the doll’s head wine glasses
Guys! I’m very late, BUT I was thinking of you/Hairpin because I was re-watching Parks & Rec, but in the episode where he interviews Ben for a potential job, cologne mogul Dennis Feinstein has three bottles of Qream set up in his office like Don Draper whiskey. I feel like it’s important you know that so we can share in the joy of Qream.
Also, I am excited for Jazmine.
I’m excited for the Hairpin, too! Definitely a “let’s get back to what made the Hairpin GREAT” vibe from Haley and Jazmine. Ooh, maybe Bargain Bin and Dressing Like Fruit/Murder She Wrote/Insert Surreal Notion Here will make a comeback!
We are all very lucky that Patricia Lockwood is a human that exists.
Yaaay happy birthday! Booo-urns to being sick!
Happy birthday, Nicole! So sorry you’re sick, and with a stomach bug. Please guilt your daughter about this for the rest of her life.
Happy Birthday, Nicole!
d-d-d-d-daaaayyyuuuummmm
Squeee!
I am reading Redwall right now because I found a fanfic with an otter Sherlock and a hedgehog John, but I have to read the original first. http://archiveofourown.org/works/598381
WHERE CAN I BUY THAT I want it on my wall
collageOrama on Etsy!
…and toast is the reason the British no longer rule the world: too cozy and complacent.
It’s definitely cozy/cosy here, but I like to think we’re not *too* complacent.
Happy Birthday, Nicole! Wishing you a speedy recovery, a pristine toilet and another Eagles tour in 2015.
I have given away my Eagles tickets for my birthday, WHICH IS TODAY.
OH NO
After spending my horrible birthday in the horrible hospital* having horrible surgery last month, I decided that I get to have my birthday postponed this year. I’m determined to make my rain-delay birthday as great as it can be, and by that I mean I’m making two cakes, dammit.
Yesterday a friend suggested: “You know what missing this year’s birthday means? DOUBLE BIRTHDAY next year.” I can get behind that kind of thinking. I’m not sure how you double The Eagles, though.
I wish you a speedy recovery, the happiest birthday you can have while so ill, and a much happier make-up birthday soon.
*Okay, only the birthday and the surgery were horrible; the hospital was fine.
Help, help, there is — no, correction, there WAS — a large grasshopper in my office and now it’s vanished. WHERE DID IT GO. IS IT LYING IN WAIT.
It is everywhere and nowhere. It is Schrodinger’s Grasshopper.
You are a delight.
Do you know how fast it’s moving even if you can’t find it? Because then it’s Heisenberg’s Grasshopper, not Schrödinger’s.
NICOLE I WILL CARRY YOU ON MY BACK TO NEW YORK CITY GODDAMNIT WE NEED YOU!!!!
Thank you for the well wishes on the Hairpin everyone (yes, jazzedloon is me and Jazmine is jazzedloon and whatever, I’m sure you knew that)! I will be at the Toast event this week (I’ll be the one with Nicole on my back) — please come say hello.
hi mallory i miss u
Jazmine I am super late to this thread but I literally yelped for joy when I found out you were going to be editing the Hairpin and I felt you should know you made an internet stranger involuntarily make a fox-noise as a response to your new job.
I AM DEAD ON THE GROUND AND ONLY YR LOVE CAN LIFT ME UP
(omfg. THANK YOU.)
This is not related to… anything, basically, but look what I found while wandering Ontario on Google Maps:
I feel like I should start writing an epic fantasy novel just based off of the awesomeness of that name alone.
Please don’t forget to include Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp.
Done and done.
This is actually pretty motivational! When I’m feeling sad and disgruntled for no real reason, and also a bit dramatic, I like to say that I am in the Slough of Despond. From now on I can tell myself that I’m actually in the Slough of Despond Management Area and I can deal with my bad feelings like a boss.
Oh my god I love that it has a management area.
Ahh, some Slough Manager in Ontario has a sense of humo(u)r and has read The Pilgrim’s Progress!
It’s only a 10-hour drive from my apartment. I am thinking this will make a GREAT weekend road trip.
Now I deeply regret not choosing Slough Management as my career. I feel like I’ve wasted my life.
I would definitely go, it looks like a very pretty (but despondent) slough:
How does one get into Slough Management? Like, is that one of those things they cover in high school “choose a career” tests?
“So what’re your plans this weekend?”
“Oh, just going to the Slough of Despond.”
“Are…are you okay?”
“I went there once. We got lost in the Cliffs of Insanity on the way.”
“You’re not eating anything,” said Marilla sharply, eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming. Anne sighed.
“I can’t. I’m in the Slough of Despond. Can you eat when you are in the Slough of Despond?”
“I’ve never been in the Slough of Despond, so I can’t say,” responded Marilla.
“Weren’t you? Well, did you ever try to IMAGINE you were in the Slough of Despond?”
“No, I didn’t.”
That food diary is a priceless jewel of satire that the peasants of NY Mag clearly cannot appreciate. But on that note, her claiming to eat according to what books she was reading was the actual best.
Toasties: which of you actually did try to eat whatever food was described in the books you read as a kid (or as an adult–hey, I clearly can’t judge) because I KNOW I can’t be the only one who tried to recreate Dorothy’s tree-pail luncheon when she read Ozma of Oz.
My 2nd grade teacher said Turkish Delight was a kind of chocolate but she LIED it is even better. I can see why Edmund sold out his family for it.
Right? I didn’t taste Turkish Delight until I was in college. My old roommate (who was just as nerdy about fantasy and historical fiction books as I was) and I found some in an Irish imports shop and we GEEKED the fuck out about it. I still buy chocolate covered Turkish Delight every time I’m at World Market because no one on earth can convince me that it is not THE YUMMIEST.
UGH and see, I thought Turkish Delight was going to be some kind of magical ambrosia and I tasted it and just kind of went…”Eh? This is it?” Horribly, horribly disappointing.
Me too! I certainly didn’t hate it and when given the opportunity, I do buy some, but I would definitely not sell my family out for it.
I save the selling out for really good chocolate.
It was post-war austerity Britain. People would have sold their own mothers for Turkish Delight.
As a child, I once read an Australian novel that mentioned a character eating “fairy bread” and I imagined it must be some marvelous, decadent cake the likes of which I could never hope to eat in my life. Then I looked it up and found out it’s just buttered white bread covered in sprinkles.
That is tragically disappointing. What a waste of a name.
only everything in every Little House on the Praire book
Vanity cakes and homemade baked beans (and not to mention MAPLE SYRUP CANDY) . . .oh you know it!
I tried to make the maple syrup candy once. It did not work. I probably should have boiled the syrup longer.
That is the secret! When the bubbles turn brown, you’re good. I poured a lot of warm syrup on the ground trying to make sugar on snow before I figured that out.
I saw some salt pork in the store yesterday, and thought, “This is what the Ingalls family lived on for over a decade.” Bleah.
Redwall food. All the Redwall foodss. Also all the beverages and I feel like there’s a real microbrewing opportunity here for make Redwall themed brews and sell them for lots of dollars.
My happiest “I met someone famous” moment came when I met Brian Jacques in 8th grade and he signed my Martin the Warrior book.
A friend of mine held a Redwall food party as a child (with significant help from his parents, I’m sure). Yet I don’t remember being blown away by the food…which I hope is a failure of memory and not a failure of the food. Redwall has the best food.
Man, I get warm fuzzies just imagining meeting Brian Jacques!
There’s a Stephen Brust book where the interstitial scenes are the main character just eating this, like, seventeen-course meal. It’s a fantasy novel, so I never was really sure if the stuff he was talking about was real or made up (for instance — jellied meat? turns out, that one is real!).
I don’t think I ever tried to actually eat it, but I definitely don’t remember what else happened in that book, so.
Meat in aspic/jellied meat is one item that can always be relied on to make me hork desperately until it’s out of my sight. Just my luck it’s a traditional Christmas/Easter food in my family.
the irony there is that aspic is like 90% hork already
I read The Beauty of Humanity Movement last year, and there was no way I could get through that book without having pho at least once (the main character is a pho seller and there’s page after page of descriptions of his pho, how he makes it, how it’s better than other people’s pho, how he used to make it…).
Have you ever watched Feast of Fiction on YouTube? A lot of it is video game related, but there are a few foods from Narnia, GoT, Harry Potter etc. https://www.youtube.com/user/feastoffiction
Ooooooh, I have not. But it is definitely now on the top of my queue!
We always try to eat on-theme for book club (we are really more into the food and beverage portion of book club than any other part). Murakami was ages ago, but surely we ate spaghetti?
We did a YA theme this time, and are therefore eating according to our teenage memories, because there is not much food featured in our selections.
In Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums,” I remember there was a scene where the narrator told Japhy about how at the end of a long hike all he wanted was a Hershey’s with almonds. I went through a pretty long phase of finding chocolate bars after hikes.
I always wondered about the food in Pollyanna. Calf’s foot jelly anyone?
I was more fascinated by how precise all their housekeeping chores were, especially the dish washing for some reason. Also, I love your username — ho-jo-to-ho!
I went through a phase after reading Heidi of wanting to make toasted cheese…except I thought this was done by putting cheese on a fork and roasting it over fire like a marshmallow. I did not really understand the concept of melting, at age 7 or whatever.
Also, I own a cookbook for the food in Harry Potter. I’ve failed to try any of the recipes, disappointingly.
Don’t worry, you weren’t the only one who thought that, and I completely blame the 1930s Shirley Temple film of Heidi for perpetuating my ignorance on that account.
I also own the Harry Potter cookbook (yay!). I’ve only done a few recipes from it, but so far they’ve been quite credible. The pinnacle of my HP culinary career has been figuring out a decent “adult” version of butterbeer!
Clearly what you needed was some grilling cheese
My friend made lembas bread when we went to The Hobbit premiere a few years ago! It was so good, it tasted like pancakes! She even wrapped it in green paper cut out to look like leaves! She has also made pumpkin pasties for Harry Potter premieres that were equally delicious and vegan! They were like mini pumpkin pies wrapped in dough. There’s a website she used for the recipes that was specifically for vegan Harry Potter food recipes called Dumbledore’s Vegan Army. Classic.
My daddy once recreated the picnic that they go on in What Katie Did for me, including the molasses puddings. God alone knows where he got molasses in North London.
Despite knowing who and what I was reading, I was momentarily surprised and excited, thinking that you were a fellow Eagles football fan.
My gift to you: knowing what a colossal dope I am.
I’m from PA so I automatically thought of the football team as well. I was briefly confused and then wandered on my own merry way. It was only by coming down to the comments that I realized my mistake!
Ha! I was all “YEAH! NICOLE! E-A-G-L-E-oh SHIT what am I doing.”
Nicole my heart is shattered for your loss re: The Eagles.
I’ve reported some horrible antisemitism on Facebook before and they always review my report and decide it’s fine. Possibly whoever is reviewing reports for Facebook hates the Jews? I don’t know. Just a theory.
I report racist stuff fairly frequently, but it’s usually more along the lines of anti-black and anti-arab hate. Without fail, I get the report back saying ‘thanks but no thanks”. It’s really discouraging.
Yep.
“You reported Jewish ritual murder for containing hate speech or symbols.
Facebook Help Team
Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed the Page you reported for containing hate speech or symbols and found it doesn’t violate our Community Standards.
Note: If you have an issue with something on the page, be sure to report the content (ex: a photo), not the entire page. That way, your report will be more accurately reviewed.
More Options
Ask Jewish ritual murder to remove this Page”
Oh yes, I’m sure that if I simply explain to the reasonable folks behind the facebook page Jewish Ritual Murder that some people just might find that offensive, they will issue a swift apology and delete their page posthaste!
“Golly! We never knew that was centuries old hate speech! Ever so sorry, madam!”
That is a horrible thing to happen to a Child of September, Nicole. My birthday is in five days and I will be thinking of you every moment.
Come, September Sisters! Let us flock to Nicole and bow our heads in the sacred and ancient rites of the Ninth Month.
September sister here, head bowed and reporting for duty!
(I am sorry to hear that your birthday is terrible, Nicole. I had a terrible 21st birthday as I spent it recovering from major surgery [yeah, that one. The one I never stop talking about.], but my postponed birthday party was a Good Time. Here’s to a speedy recovery! <3)
I’m with you! Septemberborns, unite!
Bday on the 22nd. I’m cuspy.
fellow september sister, hoping the month gets its act together and send Nicole a good birthday week overall.
Oh no! Happy birthday, Nicole, you really probably should do a rainy day birthday.
Oh my god, reporting pages on Facebook is THE WORST. I couldn’t get fanpages for the UCSB either. I honestly don’t think they actually take down anything.
But they take down pictures of breastfeeding and the like, don’t they?
Boobs = bad
Hate speech = A-OK!
Happy birthday Nicole!! I really hope you feel better soon.
Oh my god, Tampopo. What a ridiculous and wonderful movie. I watched it 10 years ago for a class in college, and haven’t seen it since. I really need to track down a copy.
It’s really fun, but yes, that prawn scene was bonkers.
What kind of class was that!?
Ta-Nehisi Coates was SO CLOSE to me this summer and I didn’t know??? AAAHHHHH NO WONDER THE AIR FELT DIFFERENT, NOT JUST DIFFERENT BUT SLIGHTLY BETTER.
That Tampopo vignette is less bizarre than the one with the egg… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq6euSHxB1k
I bet she just wanted to write “prawn”
Happy birthday Nicole! All sadness about the Eagles; all joy that you and The Toast exist.
Okay I know sexual abuse is rampant in every part of the world, but I have to ask: Britain, what the hell have you been DOING for the past fourty years? Did someone put something in the water supply that made officials at every level of government go “yeah, covering up child abuse sounds like a chill idea?” Did Joe Paterno somehow manage to put subliminal messages in your broadcasting? What the hell was/is going ON?
My wife once dressed up as The Plastic Bag for Halloween and it was the inevitability of death made most adorable.
Nicole, Happy Birthday and also you should still come to NYC. We have healing properties in our unidentifiable sidewalk trickles and the pigeons will flap your bad germs away.
Who kept up with the Simpsons marathon all the way to the end last night? It was pretty eye-opening seeing later seasons so close to the golden years.
I was watching ‘Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment’ with my little sister yesterday and she kept asking me “Why are you laughing? Was that a reference to a film?” and I had to say “No, I’m laughing because it’s an actually funny line, this is an episode from when The Simpsons had more of those than pop culture references”. Which was in itself mildly funny but fundamentally upsetting, like a new Simpsons episode.
Poor Nicole.
Happy birthday and get well soon, Nicole! So sorry you missed out on the Eagles concert, that sucks!
Oh my God that fucking awful Facebook page. Does anyone else find it horribly hilarious that it has a sidebar saying “Comments that are offensive, obscene, vulgar, irrelevant to this page or classified as spam will be removed”? Like the guy who’s dedicating his time to this page has any right to declare anyone else’s opinion offensive. I can’t help feeling it’s a bad sign that Facebook don’t have an option for ‘It’s hate speech’ to give as your reason for wanting it banned, so I had to select ‘Something else’ as a reason, and then I got a bland window saying “We’re sorry you had this experience. Here are some things you can try to resolve this” and it made me select the option to unfollow it even though obviously I wasn’t following it in the first place. It just came across as a bit of an ‘If you don’t like it, don’t read it’ should shrug, but hopefully eventually they’ll be worn down. This is a good plastic bag to have in your tree.
The Rotherham scandal is so, so horrible. Every week in the UK at the moment there seems to be a new story about a bunch of children no one listened to, a bunch of shattered lives, and the slow realisation that child sexual abuse isn’t just something done by a few weirdoes in their vans who your mother warned you about, it’s such a disease at the roots of our culture and society that being someone who wasn’t sexually abused as a child is not the fucking norm. There’s a lot of ‘Well, the reason people didn’t stop it sooner is because they were scared to look racist’ talk circulating at the moment, including in an article in The Times last week by the reporter who broke the original story, which might have a grain of truth in it, but there’s a bit of a smug ‘It’s what we’re all thinking, but we’ve been silenced by the PC brigade’ tone and I’m worried it will be used to justify knee-jerk suspicion and racial profiling in the future, which won’t actually help protect children.
Nicole, Happy Birthday to you and best wishes to your intestinal flora. I feel like the Eagles are playing well, but not as well as they would have if you’d been there to flash your boobs at Don Henley. One of my favorite lines from Seinfeld: “Oh, Witch-AY Woman.”
Happy birthday Nicole and get well soon – you can put them together and have a super birthday next year. Like that thing where the Power Rangers combine to make one big super Ranger.
I can't log in from where I am right now (just got in to work), but thank you for this (you don't sound bossy :)). I think you're right- that it's ultimately safer to be more firm with boundaries. The wish to be nice to him and be empathetic towards him is pretty much what led to this situation. That's not to say that I do think it's my fault (I really don't), as he's clearly been taking advantage of my willingness to listen to/empathize with him, but I think you're right that continuing to try and see things from his perspective and make allowances is not the right way to go forward if I want him to leave me alone.
~damngoodcoffee
I like calling it 'drunk German' when there aren't Dutch people about to hear me.
I've contacted a tutor, actually! I think it's high time I get at least conversational. Dank u wel!
Yeah FB told me the page "Jewish Ritual Murder" meets their community guidelines. OK guys I see you did not look at it.
same here. if i don't look at the actual words and just pretend i'm overhearing some very lilted german conversation in my head, i can read about 72% of dutch. it is very bizarre.
Guys! I'm very late, BUT I was thinking of you/Hairpin because I was re-watching Parks & Rec, but in the episode where he interviews Ben for a potential job, cologne mogul Dennis Feinstein has three bottles of Qream set up in his office like Don Draper whiskey. I feel like it's important you know that so we can share in the joy of Qream.
Also, I am excited for Jazmine.
I tried to reply to this earlier but I couldn't log in from work. I really appreciate your advice (you definitely don't sound bossy :)), and I think you make a really good point about boundaries being safer. I think the plan for now will be to continue to ignore him, but if it gets to a point where I feel like I have to reply I will be brief and straightforward with absolutely no equivocating language, because honestly, though I do know this isn't my fault, he's the type of person who is going to take advantage of me being nice/empathizing, so I just can't do that with him anymore.
I'm so glad you found what I had to say helpful. I hope all goes well — hang in there and take care of yourself.