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I don’t care what you want to talk about, I want to talk about JIAN GHOMESHI, the newest master of the dubious Facebook outpouring. By the time I wake up, I hope that Jesse Brown’s promised months-in-the-making investigative piece has dropped, so please link if it does! I personally do not think the CBC would be dumb enough to actually axe him for having Weird Sex, so I’m interested to see how this all shakes out. OH, there it is!


Look at all these brainy people coming on-board at The Guardian!


What Canadian artist Robert Genn did with the last year of his life.


On the experience of going to smoking rehab, and addiction in general:

A decade ago, I realized I was drinking too much—more than a bottle of wine a night—and tottered off to Alcoholics Anonymous. There, we called them drunkalogs—tales of humiliating things done while under the influence of booze. At the exotic end of the spectrum were exploits like attempting to steal a plane or losing a rental car; more common were heartbreaking accounts of domestic upheaval, workplace flame-outs, sordid affairs. In smokers’ rehab, our versions are more quotidian. Illicit puffs in airport washrooms figure prominently, with a couple of the guys trading stories about their favourite spots at Chicago O’Hare. An entertainment entrepreneur spins a hilarious story about smoking up a hotel room and simply leaving the several-hundred-dollar fine in cash when he checked out. The parents of younger children describe John le Carré–level diversionary tactics to prevent their kids from learning their secret. I recount having missed a plane in Dublin a few years ago because I was indulging my addiction rather than lining up for the security check, a dumb-ass move that cost me $500 in rebooking fees; it’s too painful to confess to the group that I missed the moment of my mother’s death because I’d nipped out for a hit. None of these anecdotes addresses the matter of compromised health, but they don’t really have to, since one of us, a fellow in his late fifties, has barely finished chemo for lung cancer.


I have been laughing hysterically and in DISBELIEF at Deadspin’s collection of stories about getting caught masturbating, which is, as Jaya pointed out on Twitter, inextricably linked with the fact that dudes seem really reliant on Visual Stimulation in order to reach orgasm, which seems super inconvenient to me! Just think sexy thoughts, jeez. ANYWAY, please enjoy, and if you have your own stories, let’s hear them:

I was beating off in my in-laws’ bathroom late at night. Just as I’m reaching climax, my wife flies through the door like Seal Team Six, demanding, “What are you doing!?!?” At the first sound of the door I jumped up, somehow kicking off my shorts to completely cover up the iPad as she gets past that wall. I then turn away from my intruder as I ejaculate into the now-convenient toilet paper, looking back over my shoulder to proclaim an angry, bewildered, and guilt-stricken “I’M TRYING TO TAKE A SHIT!!!” while expelling my soiled toilet paper into the bowl.

As fast as she came, she went, scurrying back to bed, seemingly embarrassed and sorry for the intrusion. I regain my composure and confidence. I clean up, and head back to bed. Instead of the typical slither back into the room, I’m walking tall, proud of my quick thinking and quicker reactions. My adrenaline is racing like I just out ran the cops. As I laid my head on my pillow, heart racing from adrenaline, my wife quietly but sternly says, “Please don’t jerk off in my parents’ house.” In the saddest, most pathetic voice, I quivered, “OK.”


This is so interesting and complex and HOPEFUL:

We began oral immunotherapy when Kieran was 2. The first doses — made from the protein of the allergens — are so small they look like sprinkles of cinnamon. Kieran, for example, began at 1.2 milligrams of each of his allergens: 1/7000 of an egg; 1/200 of a peanut, 1/200 of a hazelnut, 1/250 of an almond and 1/300 of a cashew. Every two weeks or so, he would return to the hospital for an “updose” in which he would try to eat a slightly larger amount. Every day at the same time, he would eat a dose at home and then we would anxiously monitor him for reactions for two hours. Like almost all the patients, he had reactions: He got hives on his face, his eyes became itchy, his tongue became swollen or he vomited. If he reacted, we would stay on that dose an extra few weeks until his body adjusted to it. (Reactions severe enough to use an EpiPen are rare; out of 309 patients, only 15 had a reaction in which an EpiPen was used.)


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Do not, I repeat DO NOT read the comments in Jian Ghomeshi's facebook post if you value your sanity. The number of "Jealous bitches be crazy" posts are not safe for consumption.
1 reply · active 545 weeks ago
"there it is" links to a real estate website...
1 reply · active 545 weeks ago
In September, Ghomeshi told the Star that he did not understand why the newspaper was continuing to pursue allegations when “my lawyers have already told you it is untrue.”

Uh. I mean, I am not an investigative journalist or anything, and I am sure Jian Ghomeshi is a pretty smart guy, but it doesn't seem to me to require a degree in rocket surgery to figure out why a newspaper might not take the word of a cabal of lawyers employed specifically for the purpose of denying actionable criminal charges at face value.
My naivete must be growing back, because I'm genuinely shocked by the number of people in my Facebook and Twitter feeds who are totally taking Ghomeshi's letter at face value and trying to shame the CBC. It just completely defies logic.
22 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I've been seeing a lot of "innocent until proven guilty" comments about Jian Ghomeshi. Do people think that means that you can't possibly have an opinion that differs from Jian's statement until it's 'proven'?
5 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Holy wow I hate that Brown's article points out that the women he interviewed were "all educated and employed." I'm sorry, are uneducated or unemployed(!?) women not to be believed when they accuse a public figure of attacking them?
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
This lady is my brutal Patronus:

Also, if anyone is looking for a new Gravatar...
4 replies · active 545 weeks ago
anachronistique's avatar

anachronistique · 545 weeks ago

"Just like 50 Shades of Gray!"

That's... that's not a good thing, bro...
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
oh man that allergy article is so cool, serious allergies are super scary.
4 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Jazmine Hughes everybody:

“Hi, it’s [tenuous friend]!" I know we were supposed to go to [horrible activity] at [terrible bar] in [Queens], but I’ve been reading between your tweets, and . . . I just think you deserve an evening eating Popeyes in your underwear. Do you want my HBO GO password?”
21 replies · active 545 weeks ago
On the bright side, I'm pleasantly surprised that the first Ghomeshi article goes to such pains to emphasise that the lack of consent is the problem, not the acts themselves.
So many comments about the Jian Ghomeshi thing are making me want to tear all my hair out! How many women have to accuse him before people stop giving him the benefit of the doubt? One certainly isn't enough, and it appears four isn't enough either. UGH.
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Let's all give a round of applause for the asshole who suggested that Ghomeshi go into politics after reading his Facebook post.
4 replies · active 545 weeks ago
All of those masturbating stories are amazing, especially the first one.

I think all of those stories involve porn not because dudes need it, but that it makes the chance of somebody catching you go way up. If someone's busting through the door, anyone who can mute a laptop and get all tucked away before being noticed deserves to be recruited into SHIELD or something.
3 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I occasionally babysit a little girl with severe food allergies. We are really far from stanford so I don't know if I should even share the article with her mom. i guess it might give her hope there is something coming
The Deadspin article was hilarious and while I've never been "caught" (by anyone who hadn't already seen the show) I did once take care of business in the bathroom of the small congressional office I once worked in, mere steps away from my asshole congressman boss. About .5 seconds after I was done, asshole congressman knocked on the door to use said bathroom. I don't even know if I locked it, so that could have been interesting. This guy had been pissing me off all goddamn day, and I needed to de-stress (and because I thought it was funny). When I went to pick up his stupid taco lunch a few minutes later, I was hella late getting back because I decided to have a beer and a smoke at the restaurant downstairs, because fuck that guys lunch.
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Can I also talk about a podcast with Mary Beard on it? Hopefully not just available in the UK, very silly and very rude with lots of swearing.
http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/richard_herring_...
3 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Winnifred Sweet Black Bonfils

so many names and all of them good!
beyonce pad thai's avatar

beyonce pad thai · 545 weeks ago

That allergy article is so cool!

Did any of you develop allergies when you were an adult? I've read it's fairly common but I don't know anyone who did.

I developed a really severe allergy last year, to a very common preservative (Kathon CG) that is in the majority of laundry detergents, body lotions, shampoos, moisturisers, etc. I didn't figure out what it was for the longest time and it was pretty afwul - for the worst few weeks, I basically looked like an open sore. I wore only clothes that completely covered me basically to my chin to work, and still my coworkers gave me a wide berth and wouldn't shake my hand, haha. Still don't know how or why I developed this but I was SO relieved when my dermatologist finally figured out what it was that I should be avoiding.
32 replies · active 544 weeks ago
Obviously I am horrified at what Jian Ghomeshi has done to these women, but reading that Facebook letter I was also kind of shocked at how ... not-smart he sounds, even (especially?) when he is trying. I mean, the Facebook message is not a platform to inspire the most intellectual discourse, but damn. Dude must be seriously well-edited on his show.
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I have a bunch of friends who are all fans and posting things like "This is just like being fired for being gay!" and "No one should pry into anyone's private life!" and I haven't been able to say anything because....you know what? Shit happens! It isn't like being gay because it's not about sexual proclivities, it's about potentially being an abuser!
1 reply · active 545 weeks ago
Okay really though, lots of men I've talked to said that using porn every single time is the complete accepted norm, and you're "weird" or whatever for not using porn. I know there's that whole physically getting hard thing that clit-havers don't have to worry about, but you really can't just think of a naked person? That's so exhausting to have to find a magazine or a porn site every time you want to do this! Just discretely rub one out under the covers while thinking about that hot guy on the subway like everyone else jeeez.
20 replies · active 544 weeks ago
Does Modern Photography Incite Women to Brutality?

YES. Next question?
"This is all a plot by my bitch ex-girlfriend" kind of stops working as a defence when four different women are claiming you abused them, JIAN. Not that it's a very good defence in the first place.
Maybe I've got a case of Monday-brain but I find myself very confused by the layout of the bathroom in that excerpt from the Deadspin article. His wife came through the door, he had to look back over his shoulder to see her/yell at her, and from that angle she couldn't see what he was doing? So the toilet has its back to the door? I've never seen a bathroom like that, and I like to think I am a worldly person who has experienced her fair share of bathrooms. What is going on?

4 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I'm so disappointed with everyone on my Facebook feed right now. No, this isn't "Harper's neocon plot to gut the CBC". This is a corporation doing a good job of cutting ties with an abuser.

Also, I've heard rumours from friends in the Toronto media scene for ages that Jian was a creep and a bad date. This is so unsurprising to me.
3 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I would just like to announce some personal good news, and that is that I took my dog to that novice field test day on Saturday, and not only was she reasonably well behaved, but there were two HUMONGOUS male Weimaraners whose teenage owners clearly had not trained them well, if at all, and they YOWLED and BARKED and CRIED and PULLED the whole time. Like, I feel bad for those kids, but I am always happy when there is at least one other dog somewhere that's way worse-behaved than mine.
1 reply · active 545 weeks ago
literaltrousersnake's avatar

literaltrousersnake · 545 weeks ago

Navigator PR: For when you did something truly awful. Seriously, they're the dudes got Michael Bryant off after video footage of him dragging a cyclist to death came out. They're unpleasant people for unpleasant people, and hiring them is an admission that something is so terribly wrong that being associated with them is less bad.

It is also worth noting that the CBC is A Union Shoppe, and that it is nigh-impossible to fire anyone from a union shop without grievance, and that grievance then needs to be confirmed.

I have so many feels about this one, but the main feels I have is Anita Sarkeesian, another Canadian lady:
The most revolutionary thing you can do is believe the lady when she says something.
2 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Ah, I have loathed and railed at the Guardian over the years but it was probably among the first adult reading material I came across and it makes me a tiny bit proud when they do good stuff like win a Pulitzer or publish Roxane Gay.
Awww I love that stupid boy who took two years to work out he could use his hand to wank.
I've been pretty surprised by this whole Ghomeshi thing, because like, I am only tangentially part of the Toronto media, and it is an OPEN SECRET that if you are a Bright Young (Woman) Thing you do not go in a room alone with him everevereverever. I knew this before the XOJane story last year. So the reaction of the majority of the people I know are like, "Fucking FINALLY he did something that could actually get him fired."

Plus the CBC's lawyers would have to be IDIOTS if the reason they fired him was because he told them about his BDSM activities. Even a non-lawyer could tell you you'd be making yourself vulnerable for a lawsuit. Also I am not sure that he could get $50 million (even if the CBC had it, which they don't) because we have very strict caps on amounts of lawsuits here. (That's why we're not as litigious up here.)
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Great article on Salon regarding the reaction to the Ghomeshi thing vs. reaction to the Honey Boo-Boo abuse allegations and the class issues in the coverage.
Oh, THANK GOODNESS no one here is defending Jian -- my supposedly liberal, feminist, Canadian Facebook feed is full of people rushing to his defense.

The CBC is not going to fire one of their biggest personalities for *consensual* BDSM activities.
8 replies · active 545 weeks ago
OH MY GOD TOAST THANK YOU FOR BEING A SAFE CORNER OF THE INTERNET WHERE NO ONE IS ON JIAN GHOMESHI'S SIDE

I engaged in a Facebook fight on a BlogTO article where 90% of the comments were like "boycott the CBC how dare they" and holy shit you guys why did I bother commenting

JUST BECAUSE THIS GUY SAYS SOME NICE THINGS TO PEOPLE ON THE RADIO DOESN'T MEAN HE'S A GOOD GUY
3 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Everything is terrible this morning. Here is a video of catzilla trampling a tiny cityscape. I'm just going to watch this for awhile now.
http://happyplace.someecards.com/cats/a-terrifyin...
So I am not sure if you guys have already talked to death the whole Kathleen Hale mess, but I need to vent about it. I am seriously annoyed at Haley Mltoek (the new editor of The Hairpin). She wrote this: http://www.haleymlotek.com/lately/2014/10/20/agen... in which is she tries to defend Hale's actions which is not okay. NOT OKAY AT ALL. I understand that Hale is her friend, but her defending her right to write about this really shitty thing that she did is just enabling her. She stalked someone- like legit stalked them. I don't care what they did- you do not engage with someone who is apparently "harassing" you. I am just really annoyed and embarrassed.
3 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I'm going to take this opportunity to announce that I got dumped by the guy I'd been seeing for 2 months. But lately my little misandrist heart has been growing thanks in large part to the Toast, so I felt completely confident in saying, oh, poor baby, you're confused and you don't know what you want? That sounds like a you problem, not a me problem, so go away and I shall find another. Who wants to take to the sea with me??
6 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Am I alone in wondering why someone would care that their partner was masturbating in the parent's house, at night, in the bathroom, quietly, privately? Especially (if it's a guy) if he's conscientious about cleaning up. I just...don't get it? Isn't that better than having said partner being (possibly) irritable and fidgety during the visit?
3 replies · active 545 weeks ago
I've been away from the Toast link round up for a while, has anyone been keeping up on the Creepy-tings / NPS grafitti .... BS? Modern Hiker has broken the story http://www.modernhiker.com/2014/10/23/why-the-cre...

is there anyone out there with whom I can just sputter in rage?
2 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Love the Robert Genn article and his work! I took a vacation to just paint and make art and see if it's something I could do every day and it was so satisfying, in many ways much more so than travel, which I also love.
Oooookay Toasties I have a question that cannot wait until the Friday open thread. I am not a particularly outspoken activist type at work, because I do work in a conservative suburb and I am just not a fan of stirring up arguments, but I am also the editor for our book-review blog and I have just pulled up a post where the first line refers to the "young Oriental women" who are the main characters.

Not a huge deal! A minor vocabulary issue! It makes me feel squiffy to post it on an official library blog! As editor, can I just...change it? Should I bring this up with my coworker and risk being told it's just Not A Big Deal and she shouldn't have to change and continue to hate my job just a little bit more?
4 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Did anyone read the Guardian piece on artist Margaret Keane? (Found here.)

::fans the flames of misandry::

Seriously, go check it out.
This should probably not be my takeaway but I had no idea that's how you spelled Jian's name. I'd only ever heard it spoken on the radio and in my mind it was Gionn Gomeshi.
Seriously, I can't say how much it means to me to find a safe haven from the Jian-related ridiculousness happening absolutely everywhere else.
My feminist desk mate came into the office this morning and immediately wanted to talk about how we couldn't really take any of the claims against JG seriously unless they went through the "proper channels."
My mom texted me last night to ask if she should read 50 Shades of Grey and/or the Lyn Coady book referenced so that she could better understand where Jian is coming from (SERIOUSLY THIS HAPPENED).
Meanwhile, a few years out of an abusive relationship myself, I'm finding the entire thing incredibly draining, and just can. not. muster the emotional strength to go over the minutiae of this story repeatedly with people who aren't getting it.
So thanks for being here, Toasties! Your comments have improved my day (and faith in humanity) immeasurably.
2 replies · active 545 weeks ago
Not allergies per se, but I now have a truly terrible (all-over hives) reaction to amoxicillin after years of taking it for every little thing as a kid. Post-second pregnancy, I seem to be completely intolerant of apples, the greatest fruit ever, and it's HONEYCRISP SEASON but if I eat one, I am up at 2am with crippling gas cramps. So I'm doing an elimination diet right now and then next week trying a low-FODMAP to see if that makes a difference. I used to love milk and then became lactose-intolerant in my late 20s, but during the last trimester of the first pregnancy, I could drink a gallon of milk a day (and did), and haven't had lactose problems since.

ETA: DAMN YOU REPLY FUNCTION.
The whole rape thing certainly casts my rose-tinted memories of my 90's Moxy Fruvous obsession in a much harsher light. :o :(

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