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What refugees pack for the voyage:

Houthayfa is not bringing much to sea. First, he hasn’t a lot to take with him – most of his valuables were left behind in Syria. Second, he’s been told the smugglers discourage taking all but the essentials. On such crammed boats, keeping the weight down is vital to keeping the boat afloat.

He’ll take a black jacket, to keep him warm during the nights. A big bottle of water, to keep him hydrated. As proof of identity, he’ll have his nearly-expired passport and a government booklet detailing his military service.


Reading The Guardian‘s Europe news has been my first stop for following the refugee crisis, but I would love to know yours.


What went down with Roxane and Erica Jong (Roxane is a SAINT):

Jong’s response began rather differently. “I also want to say that anybody who says that feminism is only a white thing is ignorant of the history of feminism,” she began. She mentioned blues singers, black abolitionists, and black female civil rights leaders, “who were all passionate feminists beyond any white women you could name”.

Jong said she thought anyone who claimed otherwise was speaking from “historical ignorance. “We have a long tradition of people of colour, of women of colour, being feminists,” Jong insisted. “A long tradition.”

When Gay agreed but reminded Jong that mainstream feminism has historically excluded women of colour, the audience clapped. Jong, apparently taken aback,demanded: “And I don’t know – are you talking about me?”

Gay answered simply, and almost consolingly, “No.”


ABSURDLY FASCINATING:

In New York and Los Angeles, the simulated patients are often actors; here, in eastern Virginia, they are part-time or former professors, baristas, retail workers and house spouses, all contract workers paid by the session, and not extraordinarily so. Gliva-McConvey, the program director, said wages were confidential but added, “All I can say is, we don’t pay them enough.”

Vocabulary becomes hugely important to avoiding clumsy wording. Teachers are taught to neutralize sexual language — it’s a “table,” not a “bed”; a “drape,” not a “sheet” — and cut back on awkward phrases: Say “footrests” instead of the too-equestrian “stirrups”; “lots of pressure” instead of “this is going to hurt.” Students aren’t supposed to “grab,” “stick in” or “pull out” anything, though in the moment, instructor Kelene Williams said with a laugh, “sometimes neutral doesn’t come out.”


This lovely man, Rob Gough, who we just lost to cancer on August 29th, the day before his 42nd birthday, was a dear member of my family, and he did SO much to raise money for other people, and I would love it if some of you could help his wife and kids, who are obviously swamped with both grief and uncertainty, and this is a tough dang world. Prayers and good vibes appreciated too! But money definitely wouldn’t hurt, and it would mean a lot to me personally for you guys to help.

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oh dear


Beejoli Shah taked to Andre “Bubbles From The Wire But Also So Much Else” and they hung out and it was magical:

He continues to wind his way through the all-white futuristic display case, as an older Russian woman sifting through a nearby rack of sweatpants exerts exactly the least effort possible to pretend she didn’t hear Royo hypothesizing on the trendiness of his teenage daughter’s sexuality. In a space not much bigger than a shipping container, Royo has already canvassed the room twice, while running through his feelings on homosexuality (for), smartphones (against, he still uses a flip phone), and the neighborhood loveshack he used to run as a teenager (“The best!”). And we’ve only been shopping for three minutes.


My friend Carrie’s puppy is sitting on a couch:

unnamed


Fun feminist web series Kickstarter alert! She’s a Friend of The Toast.


Into it:

Game of Thrones casting season came late this year, but it currently appears to be in full swing. Days after Danish actor Pilou Asbæk was cast as Euron Greyjoy, BuzzFeed reports that unREAL‘s Freddie Stroma has joined the cast as Dickon Tarly, younger brother of our beloved Samwell. (In the Game of Thrones books, he’s supposed to be about 13; in real life, Stroma is 28, a year older than John Bradley-West.) Dickon has not yet appeared in the books, but he’s described as everything poor Sam is not: In the words of the leaked season-six casting breakdown, he is “athletic, a good hunter, an excellent swordsman, manly, not particularly bright, but the favorite child of the father.” Stroma is also known for playing Cormac McLaggen in the Harry Potter films, so this latest role does not seem like too much of a stretch.

WHAT! HE WAS CORMAC? WHOA.


Speaking of perfect things like unREAL, unREAL is perfect and you have to watch it right now.


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Via Daily Life: "Asked what she would say to women of colour who feel excluded from contemporary feminism, [Gloria Steinem] said 'I wouldn't say anything, I'd listen.'"

Erica Jong, TRY to keep up!
2 replies · active 500 weeks ago
What's the German word for "inadvertently proving your debate partner's point without even realizing you're doing it"? That's what Erica Jong is.

ETA: Also, Roxane Gay is a transcendent angel for replying "no" to Jong's #NotAllWhiteFeminists instead of saying, "Yes, probably."
2 replies · active 500 weeks ago
That Beatles story is fake, but let's face it, that's always a possibility in the darkest timeline. Especially if it's Sean and not Julian Lennon.

Also, why is every Onion-knockoff site on the internet so absolutely piss-poor. You wouldn't think the fake-news style would be so hard to pull off but every Portly Gazelle/Daily Currant/ whatever else seems to be written by people with only a cursory knowledge of the human pastime of hum-or.
16 replies · active 500 weeks ago
ROXANE GAY IS LOVE AND LIFE AND life goals, catholic goals, writer goals, feminist goals.
All this happened right by my college and Im so upset I had to miss it.
Part of our mission as New, Young Feminists™, I believe (as a 17 yr old), is to reeducate those who came before us respectfully.
Bottom line: Intersectionality is thing and we need to make sure people know this.
9 replies · active 500 weeks ago
still can't believe this was said with a straight face: "“Gloria Steinem when she started Ms. magazine made people know who Sojourner Truth was,” Jong continued. “People didn’t know about her before. "

Riiiight, like no one knew of Sojourner Truth before Gloria Steinem. huh.
5 replies · active 500 weeks ago
I can't even read that article about Roxane and Erica Jong because I get too much secondhand embarrassment. I will just rest peacefully in the knowledge that Roxane responded tactfully and thoughtfully as she always does.
4 replies · active 500 weeks ago
Not only was Freddie Stroma Cormac in the HP movies, he also has his university degree in neuroscience, which means we're practically soulmates except for the part where he's dating Anna.

Apparently my whole family watched all of it this weekend. My mother informed me that they all loved it even though she's never seen the Bachelor and they thought it was going to be a light and funny comedy. Oops?
3 replies · active 500 weeks ago
You're supposed to slap your forearm when you air five, otherwise there's no satisfying noise! Bad form, wikipedia.
The practice of training and paying gynecological teaching associates, or GTAs, is only a few decades old, and for years it went unnoticed even at the highest levels of the medical world. Gayle Gliva-­McConvey, a former president of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators, remembers trying to spread the word at an American College of Physicians conference in the ’90s, blocking off space with a velvet curtain and asking passing doctors, “Would you like to refine your breast and pelvic examination skills?”

“Nobody even knew what GTAs were,” she said. “I got one guy who looked me up and down and said, ‘Sounds intriguing.’ ”


OH LOOK IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF THE WORK WEEK AND I ALREADY WANT TO MURDER ALL MEN (#MURDERALLMEN).
6 replies · active 500 weeks ago
Uuuuugh Erica Jong you really have Woody Allen on your website endorsing your new book? Really??
7 replies · active 500 weeks ago
So it seems as if Game of Thrones Season 6 is going to cover book material they left out (to the extent they can since they've DESTROYED so many of my fav plotlines...) which means that I MAY HAVE spoiled the entire next season to my entire office and peer group, since I was in an unstoppable book purist rage for approx 6 wks after the last season? Oops? I guess? Whatever, I'm not over what they did to Sansa and if they have Dany get raped by the Dothraki who just found her I will turn into a dragon MYSELF and burn it all down.
5 replies · active 500 weeks ago
I really look forward to the day in which society has moved forward so much that I'm as behind the times as your average still-identifies-as-a-second-wave feminist is now.
Whether you’re a The Beatles fan or not, you must admit that this is terribly exciting.

Not... really?

In totally irrelevant news - I missed yesterday's open thread because I didn't think there'd be one - husband and I are moving in the spring, and as I was idly looking around to see what's available in this neighbourhood, I found a promising building just a few blocks away and glanced at their floor plans. Their 2-bedroom units have a walk-in closet in the master bedroom with its own en-suite bathroom. I have never lived anywhere with more than one bathroom, so this prospect is extremely exciting to me. If they don't have any apartments available in February/March I will be heartbroken.
5 replies · active 500 weeks ago
Dana Schwartz is awesome. She also writes the tweets for GuyInYourMFA, and I absolutely cannot decide if that or her personal twitter is funnier.
1 reply · active 500 weeks ago
I missed yesterday's OT so I missed the opportunity to tell everyone that MrChouffe and I got to hang out with BestLaidPlans and MrBestLaidPlans, and we had beer and pizza in a fantastic dive bar and they are so wonderful and we had a GLORIOUS time.

Apart from that, my weekend was almost entirely shitty and stressful until yesterday afternoon, when many things fell into place, and today I picked up our marriage license.
2 replies · active 500 weeks ago
Michael Jackson's Billie Jean is sort of an enormous dick move. The song is literally "naw, bitch is crazy".
Bubbles! Also, that wikipedia entry for the high five reads like the summary of a delightful and quirky documentary that I'd watch on Netflix to cheer myself up after watching Breaking Bad or something.
2 replies · active 500 weeks ago
“May I just remind you that Beyoncé walks in the shoes of Billie Holiday and Ida Cox, the great blues women,” Jong said. “most of whom were African American, who created feminist poetry in this country.”

"my dear sweet children if you might just sit calmly as perforce I bring to light some history which may surprise you"
5 replies · active 500 weeks ago
commentingcommenter's avatar

commentingcommenter · 500 weeks ago

UnREAL is SOOO GOOD i can't even like it's literally my favourite show of the year so far and possibly one of my faves ever.. the relationship between Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer's characters is just SO AMAZING AND COMPLEX AND AM I GOING CRAZY OR WAS THAT A KORRA-TYPE SEASON ENDING RIGHT THERE
2 replies · active 500 weeks ago
From the Andre Royo piece:

"Royo moves on to what arguably has been the most terrifying part of shooting Empire in Chicago: the weather. 'It’s my first time in Chicago, and I’m loving it,' he says. 'I’m in the Gold Coast, right next door to a lake with a beach. But Chicago people, they know I’m not from here. They’ll come up to me and ask, "Are you having a good time?" and I tell them, "Yeah, man! Loving it! Chicago is great!" And they always go "Winter. Is. Coming." I feel like I’m on Game of Thrones.'"

This is a 100% accurate depiction of Chicagoans' relationship with the weather.
9 replies · active 499 weeks ago
Frand Wilde did a guest post for Charlie Stross' blog about SF/Fantasy/YA writers (who happen to be women), including a list of 20 English-language debut books from the past year or two. I hadn't heard of any of them, but I'm glad to add them to my to-read list!
3 replies · active 500 weeks ago
Has anyone else read about the Best American Poetry kerfuffle? Basically, a white guy named Michael Hudson got his poem rejected a lot, resubmitted under the name Yi-Fen Chou, was rejected some more and then finally published, and had his poem selected to be in this year's Best American Poetry anthology, upon which he gleefully revealed himself as a white guy.

Sherman Alexie responds here.
5 replies · active 500 weeks ago
"...but I will say this, Cum Bucket has been having an excellent season.”

Andre Royo sounds hilarious and amazing. I want to be his friend!!!
This seems relevant to The Toast's interests: http://www.themarysue.com/labor-day-rock-activiti...
I'm always very excited to see Andre Royo in stuff, and I am SO EXCITED he's going to be on Empire, the greatest show of all time.
Fallen London Toasties: Failbetter Games has a Charitably Mysterious Bundle up for 11 Fate, all proceeds donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres to support their work with refugees in the Mediterranean. They've also committed to matching donations up to 10,000 GBP, go FBG.
http://www.failbettergames.com/supporting-medecin...

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