There is a big profile of Bill de Blasio in Vanity Fair. De Blasio is right about the cops, wrong about lateness:
Worse was yet to come: also in December, near the height of tensions, de Blasio told a press conference how, as the father of a black teenager, he had several times cautioned Dante to be careful when dealing with the police. “We’ve had to literally train him,” he said, “as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him.” Lynch responded by saying de Blasio had thrown the N.Y.P.D. “under the bus.”
This broseph right here is the worst. I actually liked Alexie’s response quite a bit, though I understand why others would have preferred him to just yank the poem. Ren Jender sent me this tweet as an alternative to the Alexie response. Oh, and, of course, Jia:
It’s troubling that the most fledgling attempts towards reaching equal representation could seem, to anyone, like evidence that the still-dominant class of white men has already lost the upper hand. They haven’t. A few, I guess, will find any way to keep it. This headache of identity politics is still miserably meaningful. It matters who said by any means necessary. “Yi-Fen Chou” isn’t counter-evidence to the ugliness of white dominance; it’s proof.
Grudgingly reading a story about football bc intrigue:
But league insiders knew that Deflategate didn’t begin on the eve of the AFC Championship Game.
It began in 2007, with Spygate.
Perfect genius (I saw Pitch Perfect 2 on a flight, it was fun but the casual racism was worse than the first one!):
Bruh, after the performance Germany’s Das Sound Machine did? If I was in the audience I would’a took down my “Go Bellas” sign, made sure no red, white, or blue was on me, and brushed up on a British accent because that’s how bad America got clapped. It was that brutal, dude. I ain’t seen America take a hit like that since the selfie stick. I ain’t seen America take a hit like that since 35 seconds ago when one of our politicians or celebrities probably said something ignorant or problematic. Now you trying to tell me the Bellas won? Cause they brought out they aunties to help them? Nooooooooope! Sorry, I’m not hearing it. This gotta be top 5 robberies in fictional history. That shit didn’t sit right in my fucking soul, yo. Das Sound Machine don’t even know what losing is though.
Swimming while Eritrean:
On the morning of my cousin’s wedding, the boat carrying those 900 passengers who would later drown went out to sea. Her wedding, like all Eritrean weddings, was a traveling, well-documented circus. From church, nearly 100 of us headed to a popular park to take pictures and dance around the bridal party’s stretch limo in the parking lot. Dressed in traditional clothing, we entered the grounds like an invading army, with singing and jumping young men leading the charge. The Israeli park goers snapped shots and cheered “Congratulations” in Hebrew and English and I assumed they had gotten used to our ways – that day alone there were at least six other Eritrean weddings. We then returned to our homes to change into our evening attire and reconvened in another park to take more pictures with the bride and groom before joining the nearly four hundred guests at the reception.
I just started doing that Blue Apron thing where they send you ingredients and recipes for three meals a week, and I made this catfish-freekeh-tomatoes-and-corn thing and it was, like, damn. So, I’m very optimistic! They are not giving me any free stuff for saying nice things about them, but, if they would LIKE to, my email is in the sidebar.
Benedict does not give press interviews; most news about his life is filtered through his personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, a German theologian who began working with him in 1996 and became his secretary in 2003. Gänswein also lives at the Mater Ecclesiae. He is frequently referred to as Gorgeous George, or as the George Clooney of the Vatican. A dashing man of fifty-nine, he has graying blond hair, chiselled features, and penetrating blue eyes. He has been an avid tennis player and skier. Dressed in an elegant black cassock, he received me in a frescoed room in the Apostolic Palace. Shortly before Benedict resigned, he elevated Gänswein to the rank of archbishop and made him Prefect of the Papal Household, a position that he has retained under Francis.
filled with jealousy that I cannot come to NYC and do this, especially since my bestie is hosting one of them (“Healthy-ish”) and I can assure you, she’s never steered me wrong
ughhhhh i can’t go to THIS either i hate everyone
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
wanders off to die alone in the woods
My friend Carrie’s new puppy saw a snake:
The internet in a nutshell. pic.twitter.com/mUU791E5iO
— Spencer Perry (@TheSpencerPerry) September 7, 2015
Toast, I wish I had something intelligent to say about the links but honestly I just need to shout this to the world: I’m in love with my girlfriend! Thank you everyone for listening!
Whoops, wrong thread! How this ended up here is a mystery.
I legit thought that bit about Benedict’s personal secretary was about *Benedict Cumberbatch’s* secretary, all the way up to “George Clooney of the Vatican”. Sure, I did quirk a brow at the thought of a Hollywood star having a theologian as his secretary, but…
I’ll show myself out. It’s been a long day.
ME TOO.
Me, too! I am envisioning Georg Gänswein as a sort of Germanic theologian version of Jeeves, and I maintain that this makes perfect sense for *either* Benedict.
Me too. Grateful not to be alone.
Yup – me too.
I WAS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU. I wasn’t thinking of Pope Palpatine until the very end.
WE ARE MULTITUDE
SAME
I’m with the Me Toos! I blame the fact that I’m watching all 3 series AGAIN.
And also I thought “god. Thats just like that posh gorgeous otter man. To have a classy as hell spokesperson.”
Also me. I am so disappointed I am wrong.
(And I don’t even like Cumberbatch.)
I was about to say the same thing. Saw the combination of “my personal obsession” and the name Benedict, assumed I knew what was under discussion, and then found myself immensely confused.
I thought that all the way to “Shortly before Benedict resigned” so you are definitely not alone, friend.
IT WASN’T JUST ME. *dies of relief/embarassment*
Same.
Yup.
And with more than two dozen me toos here, I think Mr. Cumberbatch needs to change his media liaison to conform with Toast reality.
I thought the EXACT same thing. I feel better about it after seeing this thread.
Ugh I’m with Nicole on not living in NYC and badly wanting to go to these New Yorker panels. But this one would be number #1 on my list,
THE FIRE THIS TIME: BLACK IN THE U.S.A. with Ta-Nehisi Coates!, Danai Gurira, Claudia Rankine!!!, David Simon!!!, and Jesse Williams!!!!!!. Moderated by Jelani Cobb!!!.
(no insult intended to Danai Gurira, who I am not familiar with but seems very impressive based on a quick read of her wikipedia).
When I read the bit about Benedict I assumed it was Cumberbatch and my mind was temporarily blown.
I did the exact same thing.
Oh. I also assumed Cumberbatch and thought that him having a German theologian nicknamed Gorgeous George as his secretary sounded about right.
Me too! Although I was much less surprised by him having a German theologian as a press secretary than I expected to be. Hiring one ‘Monsignor Georg Gänswein of the Black Cassock, Prefect of the Papal Household’ to keep TMZ away from you seems like a perfectly reasonable option.
In my mind it is definitely Cumberbatch. There are no other Benedicts.
Hijacking link roundup for reasons of intense, overflowing, feminist RAGE.
But first. Fun fact of the day from bullshit professor. (The one who called his ethics class a ‘bunch of fucking pussies,’ in case you missed last week’s debacle.) Did you know Socrates was only in his early thirties when he died? And that was considered, like, old age back then.
Also got an email from the dean. I’ll leave you with this gem.
The sexist language he has used at times in class is also meant to challenge, as it is unfortunately all too common in wider social use and his effort in the classroom is intended to get students to see and hear language about others differently. For that category of language there is a strong pedagogical reason for using it, and I cannot at this time say it is inappropriate for him to do so. That may be possible four or five weeks from now, but at the moment, using prejudicial and stereotypical language is indeed an appropriate if often difficult way to bring students to the point of challenging prejudices and stereotypes, strange as that may seem.
The bulk of the email was essentially, ‘Sorry you’re so sensitive and a crybaby who can’t handle an ethics class. Hopefully you’ll grow some balls as the class continues. It’s all in the name of challenging.
Excuse me please. I’m busy trying to see whether or not I can EVER remember being this trivialized and talked down to before.
Love,
School’
*throws computer*
*looks up pedagogical*
PEDAGOGICAL REASON MY FOOT.
*mutters* doesnt relate to learning at all…
Being an asshole =/= ‘challenging’ your student.
I’ve never seen such a load of twaddle in my life.
NOPE. Take all of that to a lawyer. Actually, I’d maybe even take that to the university’s staff counsel and say, “Did you know that a dean at your institution was sending out correspondence of this nature? Can I conclude that this is the official policy on harrasment in the classroom?”
Funnily enough, coloneldad’s first response to the whole thing? “Lawyer. Go after them for harassment.” Because today’s Army does not mess around with that sort of thing. And being upper level leadership, he’s taken the SARC classes to prove it.
Yup! I have a friend who went to a law school that had a big scandal with a sexist professor, and they only narrowly escaped getting their asses handed to them in a suit, and ONLY because they were able to prove that all the grading was done in an anonymized fashion. So if you aren’t being blind-graded (which I’ve only seen happen in law schools) this could be a very serious problem for them. As it should be.
And to add to the story, I think there was some recourse about the hostile climate that the professor’s comments created, but some of the IX discrimination claims (don’t know the legal language for that) didn’t stand because of the grading loophole. There were still repercussions for the school, as I recall, although not all of the settlement was public to my knowledge.
“So, in the spirit of Socratic inquiry and pedagogical challenge, it sounds like students will be participating in the spirit of the class by referring to the professor as a limp-dicked twatnoodle ill-equipped to handle a modern educational environment (or other phrasings as appropriate). We all look forward to hearing from you within the five-week timeframe you stipulate, until which point we accept that our forms of address will not have any bearing on our marks.”
I can’t like this enough.
What is he implying you will learn by being hit in the face with sexist language in the classroom? I don’t get it. Is he aware that you all have probably heard words like ‘pussy’ before you started that class? I just don’t even get it.
yeah how else are men supposed to know that it’s wrong to say shitty things about women, if someone in a trusted position of authority doesn’t normalize it by saying shitty things about women all the…wait, hold on, I’ve lost the thread of the argument here…
THE FUCK
I’m rolling my eyes so hard at that email that I’m pretty sure they’re going to pop out and skitter away.
Am I interpreting this email correctly?: “He’s just trying to show you how harmful hateful speech and stereotyping are. Sorry you had the logical emotional response. Please stop having emotions so this professor can teach you the destructive meaning and power of these words himself. “
Pretty much. My favorite part is how there’d be a problem if he used that language a month from now. But now now? Oh. That’s different and totally acceptable. Carry on.
If he’s planning some big pedagogical reveal a month from now, it better be a doozie. Like, actually I’m an alien, and if I don’t call humans pussies on the reg, my overlords will kill me. WHAT ARE THE ETHICS OF THIS DILEMMA? PLZ DISCUSS.
I want to sit in on this class.
I think it’s likely he’s right now sitting at home thinking ‘shit, shit, gotta come up with a big reveal, now that I’ve said that that was the reason. Shit!’
Oughta be good. And by ‘good’ I mean ‘terrible’.
I keep trying to formulate my confusion about this but I’m basically going round in circles with it because… it’s circular and dumb. My distilled reaction is ‘well 1) that’s bullshit 2) so what you’re saying is in order to maybe get through to some prejudiced people that prejudice is bad (an unlikely effort), we are going to make life even more terrible for people for whom it’s already terrible in those ways? 3) wow I guess that lecturer must be able to make you feel real dumb, if you’re so willing to parrot what is CLEARLY that teacher’s own limp justification back out.
Oh way, 4) BURN IT DOWN
Was that a joke about Socrates? Because Wikipedia says he was in his 70s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates
That was his 100% serious answer to a student asking how old the man was. Remember. This is the man who also said Gandhi died because of an unsuccessful hunger strike. This is the man who passed off apocrypha from a medieval Jewish text (I went through the trouble of trying to pin sources to his nonsense) as a straight up fact.
ugh it sucks that you have to waste your time & tuition on this in the first place, but I hope you have a BLAST writing your complaint emails.
I would be very curious to know what the dean thinks about this guy’s mangling of actual history. May I humbly request that you keep a notebook of his whoppers, if not to use against him, then for us to laugh at on the toast?
So not only is he a sexist prat but an incompetent one to boot. I hope you’re documenting like a boss. How infuriating!
so, two cents? 30 was the average age in ancient Greece, sure, but only because CHILD MORTALITY WAS A THING. If you made it past childhood and were a dude (ie not childbearing), it was not unusual for ppl to hit their 90s.
Asshat.
But who are we to let paltry facts come between that professor and a perfectly good opportunity to compare Socrates and Christ? For the fiftieth time.
Is this man, perchance, himself around 30 years of age?
Also, Halloween is coming up, I vote we convene a coven-by-skype and summon a variety of passed female academeics and women of letters to haunt him until he admits he’s a disgrace to the profession, and retires.
He actually just turned forty. Not that you’d know it to hear or see the man. I would never have pegged him for a man who had reproduced. Let alone multiple times. But he has. Cause he told everyone about his struggle against The Man for trying to make his children wear safety helmets when boarding. What gross injustice.
Because MATH! Although really the math is the least of this guy’s problems.
Wha.. so this is his own justification, told to you by the dean? What better result of his “challenge” than somebody loudly complaining is he holding out for? The most generous interpretation is that he hopes someone who has never thought about prejudices/stereotypes complains about being insulted in general and then he can say: “Oh, but WHY is that name insulting to you?”. I don’t at all believe he is planning this weeks long social experiment, and even if he is he is hurting many in order to teach a weak lesson to the clueless.
All the questionable information probably has a strong pedagogical reason too, because starting to question figures of authority is such an important part of college!
“starting to question figures of authority is such an important part of college! ”
So important that we have to strongly disapprove and fob people off when they do so.
Is this ethics class perhaps at a rather posh university in NYC that has been in the news a lot for its shortcomings in the area of gender equality and student life? Because at convocation for nontraditional students this year, the dean said something like “I hope you feel offended while you’re here, because if you’re offended you’re being challenged by new ideas” and I was like… no.
YES BECAUSE THOSE OLD IDEAS ARE NEVER OFFENSIVE, AMIRIGHT?
God, the total total cluelessness of privilege inherent in that statement is so astounding it’s almost impressive.
“…bring students to the point?” Do y’all have to wait for the slowest learner to catch on, like he’s gonna say misogynistic shit until the dudebro in the back of the room looks up from his phone and says “dude, not cool?” Can you place out of this “is this offensive?” lesson and move on to the advanced course???
Ugh. All the women, queers and other non-dudebros ought to be able to CLEP on out of that bullshit, if it is indeed a “requirement” to become “enlightened.”
right?? and anyone who hasn’t learned this information by college age probably isn’t gonna benefit from a weird roundabout “challenge.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure all women, queer people, and POC should be able to get out of the abusive-language requirement via transfer credits. You know, from the entire rest of their lives.
I can’t believe the dean is enabling this clown. Regurgitating commonly held stereotypes and misinformation is NOT how you challenge your students. From what you’ve said, it sounds like the prof BELIEVES the bullshit he’s spouting. What’s he going to do, wait til the last day of class and go ” haha, so everything I said this semester was bs, pls write your final essay on why that is the case, k bye”?
If his language is being used in the midst of actual sociological/ethical discussion about gender norms and language, okay, fine. But if he just talks like that during lectures and discussion about completely unrelated topics and does not then try to discuss said language, then how does that above reply from the Dean make any sense?
Maybe (if you’re the kind of person comfortable with speaking up, I know I’m not) you should start actively challenging him in class every time he uses that kind of language, then. I mean hey, the Dean said it’s for the purpose of challenging students, right?
My suggestion (as someone who works in higher ed) is to continue to document it. Record his lectures, if you can, but if not, take notes on what he’s saying and when, and the context, and if it “provokes a discussion” or if it’s just him talking like an ass. Then bring it in a week or two or whatever to the Dean, or go above the Dean. Not sure if this Dean was the Dean of his Department, or the Dean of students, etc, but you can always go above someone.
Oh hell naw. You should send this whole debacle to the school paper. When I was a college journalist / baby feminist, I would’ve eaten this shit right up.
Rebecca Schuman would be a great contact for that (http://pankisseskafka.com/) I’d hit her up after talking to a lawyer, since you might want to be careful about defamation countersuits, etc. But seriously, if you’re making recordings and keeping records, that’s a very strong first step.
I thought my Ethics professor was the worst, but yours seems to be THE WORST, and am I crazy or am I sensing a pattern here?
Ethics Classes: Drop them and take another Gender Studies class instead.
Seriously. Ethics Professors. Even Business Ethics attracts the Twats.
‘Ethics’
It’s actually Philosophy depts generally, unfortunately: https://beingawomaninphilosophy.wordpress.com/
Hi! I work at a university and I’d like to know if you contacted the dean directly or if you contacted your Title IX coordinator? If you didn’t contact your Title IX coordinator, you might want to investigate doing that. https://www.notalone.gov/assets/role-of-title-ix-…
YES Signal boosting this with a big fat yes.
Thirding- and actually, your dean is what the Office of Civil Rights has designated a “Responsible Employee”– someone who has the obligation to inform the Title IX Coordinator of any and all complaints of sexual misconduct that are brought to his/her office. That’s not an area where universities’ policies can stray from federal guidelines. If you’ve brought it to the dean as a complaint of sex-based discrimination, the dean *must* take it to the coordinator.
If your university’s policy has an academic freedom component (many schools do include this), it’s NOT UP TO THE DEAN to decide if your complaint falls under that provision in the policy. It’s the responsibility of the Title IX coordinator to decide that.
Schools that fail to uphold the policies that they’ve adopted, or fail to cohere with the Office of Civil Rights’ “Dear Colleagues” letters explanations of how Title IX must be enacted, can be reported to the OCR for violations. Then the OCR does its own investigation and can impose fines.
Was gonna suggest Title IX, but only as an uninformed layperson of the interwebs, so I’m glad someone has the relevant links. This shit is unacceptable.
Seconding the suggestion to DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. Record if possible (hell, I have a tape recorder I’ll MAIL to you if it will help, jfc), but def. take notes as well. I also like the idea of responding to the Dean with something like, “I look forward to following up with you after the aforementioned x weeks.” So the Dean KNOWS this is going to come back up.
Sorry, I really have absolutely nothing of value to add to this conversation, I just had to express that that letter is BANANAS. Like, overripe, nasty, gooey, squishy bananas.
click here for gif how does this even work omg!
What a load. BURN IT DOWN.
Okay, but there is a difference between DISCUSSING the impact of offensive language, which can be helpful and educational, and USING IT TOWARD STUDENTS.
I hope you’re about to go Mjolnir on his ass.
So basically, he has a Cunning Plan and you are being taught by Baldrick. Petition to bring in Tony Robinson to teach the class (and he’ll probably be about 10000% better anyway).
Does anyone else remember that series Robinson did about the Odyssey? Where he basically Fat Tulip-ed it (while we’re at it, anyone else remember Fat Tulip??) and went to the greek islands and retold the story in places it would have happened. It doesn’t exist anywhere on the internet that I can find and I would pay GOOD MONEY for a copy.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. gfre0ptr9ugargfald;jf gargle rage MENS ;adlsktfjroigujfvkd;wed
My Pitch Perfect soundtrack on vinyl comes in today and let’s just say when I watched it, my four years as a Stuttgarter were foremost in my mind.
Also….I WON SONG CHAIR!!! Our mascot won’t be the Merfolk, my idea, but I’ll figure something out. Very exciting times at College.
Congrats! That sounds like SO! MUCH! FUN!
The “Yi-Fen Chou” poem? Meh. Best American Poetry? I doubt it. But the strategy totally worked! The mind boggles. Loved Bao Phi’s tweet.
p.s. One of the meanings of ‘Chou’ in Mandarin is “Stinky”.
And one of the meanings of ‘yifen’ is ‘moral/righteous outrage’
I totally expected the link under “my personal obsession” to be about BCum since the quote started with “Benedict”. And yes, Georg Gänswein is really good looking!
On a slightly related note (I study Catholic theology), I’m working on my thesis at the moment – it’s about Plato’s treatment of women in the Republic – and I plan to cite some of Roxane’s parts from that article about her debate with Erica Jong in my introduction. My question is, how should I refer to her? “Feminist writer” or “author” would be fine if I were writing in English, but alas, I’m German, and it just sounds weird. Any suggestions? (Not in German, obviously.)
Is there a good word for public intellectual in German? Because in my mind, that’s really what Roxane has become.
No, not really, but thanks for the suggestion!
Can you look up some formal (magazine, large papers) German reviews of Roxane’s work and see how they refer to her?
Isn’t she also a legit Professorin?
Oh yeah, that’s right, thank you!
Holy cow, Georg Gänswein IS extremely handsome.
Dayum.
Like, I thought he was going to be “regular guy” handsome, where he’s pretty good-looking but for an ordinary person, but actually no, he is like handsome guy handsome, man.
Man Im feeling some real Catholic Guilt about finding him attractive.
like….a little bit Robin Williams, a little bit Alan Tudyk. in the best of ways.
I haven’t felt that heady combination of guilt and arousal that comes from finding a priest attractive for lo these many years. Oh, my lost youth….
He is most definitely what we called a “Father What-A-Waste” in my Catholic girlhood. Wow.
My parents were married by a quite good looking Catholic priest (neither are Catholic, but my mom was teaching math at a Catholic girls high school, so they went with it). My great aunt (who I am sad I never got to meet) spent much of the service and reception telling everyone how much of a waste it was.
When I was a baby in Greece the priest who baptised me went on to work with an architect to renovate the church. A year later they were married. He was excommunicated.
My mother still won’t stop teasingly reminding me of the time (fifteen years ago!) I sighed “What a waste” when spotting a group of extremely handsome Greek Orthodox priests crossing the street by Syntagma Square in Athens. (Different denomination, I know, but…)
He looks like the love child of Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender.
I thought Warren Beatty.
Or Josh Hutcherson (is that his name? the lego-head short Peeta guy)
Really. This and the pic below are the reason I’m Byzantine Catholic, y’all. Our priests can marry. Repeat. Our priests can marry.
He looks the way 12 year old me imagined Father Ralph from the Thornbirds looked…and I’m not mad at it.
Speaking of Georg Gänswein (I’ve been obsessed with him since approximately 2008 because YUM), I would like to inform everyone that this exists: the Calendario Romano, featuring the hottest priests in Rome *catcalls*
Also related, Google Image Search René Bruelhart (the Vatican’s chief financial regulator) & try to tell me to my face that you wouldn’t lick that up and down:
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…I’ll be over in the corner fanning myself.
He looks like he is posing for the promo photos for a new show on SyFy.
I’d be watching it in my bunk.
DEVILSHARK
is a monstrous shark-demon hybrid terrorizing the remote island of Vanuatu a sign of the impending apocalypse? René Bruelhart, a Vatican financial regulator sent to monitor the finances of the Vanuatu parish is embroiled in a terrifying mystery.
This summer on SyFy
Given the historical shitstorm that is Vatican finance, I suspect Rene Bruelhart would find monstrous shark-demon hybrid wrangling a refreshing walk in the park.
Jesus. Someone pass me the church fan.
…Are you sure that’s not an actor who plays the fictionalized version of Rene Bruelhart in a steamy telenovela? Because that is 100% the vibe I’m getting.
So long, pants. WOWZA.
ETA: This dude is the type specimen for what my mother would call “Father What-A-Waste”.
Ha! I’ve heard this phenomenon referred to as Father What-A-Shame.
Seriously. If God is going to call men to a life of celibate priesthood, can’t He at least pick the homely ones?
Must be awkward to confess your sinful thoughts to the man who inspired them.
Your mom went to same church as my mom 🙂
Personally I usually just go with a general “Dear God Why?” whenever one hoves into view.
One of my senior year high school crushes ended up going immediately into seminary. (I’m pretty sure all the others were just gay.) I’ve got an established history with this sort of thing…
all my boyfriends Ive had either came out to me or joined the church as well. it’s a fun life.
that freaking cassock gets this Protestant every single time.
I think it was the “so devoted to God that he’d sworn off sex, unlike the immature slobbering adolescent boys I was always surrounded by” vibe that STILL gets me.
GOOD NEWS: he is not a priest at all! According to wiki, he is a layperson.
(Make your own obvious puns on “layperson.”)
As soon as she saw him all my mom said was “Hot, but not a priest.”
The woman just knows.
Well. I know what I’m getting my mother for Xmas.
Yeah this was my mum’s Christmas present a couple of years ago. She still has Father July pinned up in her studio.
Oh my god.
I already bought my grandma the traditional fireman calendar but maybe I”ll just get her this instead. I wonder if my aunts will complain more or less about that?
Also at that link, the Calendario Del Gatti. What a perfect complement.
When I was in Rome last year I was so, so tempted to buy those. They are EVERYWHERE and I wanted them all but I didn’t buy them because I thought it would just be cruel to myself to buy pictures of pretty men with whom I will never, ever have a chance.
That being said, I do know a woman who managed to convince a priest to leave the priesthood and marry her. Well done, Tammy, well done.
THANK GOD Toasties are covering another relevant interest of mine, i.e.: hot priests.
my Mom insists the best-looking man she has even seen in her life, was a priest she glimpsed somewhere in the Vatican, as we were touring it. She stopped, stuck her head back in the hallway and wondered if a movie was filming.
must find a way to get her this calendar and inquire if she finds HIM. 😛
My only recourse in the “amazing things are happening in New York and I live on the West Coast” is to make my friend who lives in NYC go instead. It’s even worse when things are happening in LA because I could technically go there since I live within driving distance, but since driving to and in LA is The Worst, I never go.
I live in NYC but I cannot quite grasp how anyone affords to go to anything here. Those New Yorker panels are $40 each! And the dinner things are $225 each! Everything seems to be so damn expensive these days.
My issue with Alexie’s response is that this statement exists, without any sort of apology to go along with it. “And, yes, in keeping the poem, I am quite aware that I am also committing an injustice against poets of color, and against Chinese and Asian poets in particular.” You cannot acknowledge that you are committing an injustice and also refuse to apologize to the people you are hurting. Or, I guess you can, but it makes you an asshole.
OMG those letters asking for money. “I have to rent lodgings, buy necessaries, and provide for many other things which I cannot now specify.” In other words, booze. You’re not fooling anyone, kid. We’ve all been there.
Speaking of asking for money, I was just alerted to the Kickstarter for “Drawing the Line: A Comics Anthology by Indian Women” and it sounds pretty great. If anyone’s interested, here’s the page.
I think booze probably falls under “necessaries,” yes?
Wrong glass, sir.
“If you come to that, it isn’t fair to make Uncle Peter pay for all the horses that fall down when one backs them. Or for all the rotten little gold-diggers one carts around, either–I shall have to lump them together under “Sundries.” And he’ll say, “Ah yes! Postage stamps, telephone calls and live wires.” And then I shall lose my head and say, “Well, Uncle–” I hate those sentences that start with “Well, Uncle.” They always seem to go on and on and lead anywhere.'”
– Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers
“For you must know that without Ceres and Bacchus Apollo grows cold.”
He doesn’t even try to hide the booze aspect!
what a classy way to say “gimme more beer money” tho
I don’t know what I would have done in Sherman Alexie’s place. But I found his argument unconvincing in general, particularly this:
“And, yes, in keeping the poem, I am quite aware that I am also committing an injustice against poets of color, and against Chinese and Asian poets in particular.
But I believe I would have committed a larger injustice by dumping the poem. I think I would have cast doubt on every poem I have chosen for BAP. It would have implied that I chose poems based only on identity.”
I guess I think if you’re already acknowledging that you’re trying to focus on works by women and people of color, you’re already going to be attacked for these implications, and that allowing something like this to happen is only compounding the admitted injustice against Chinese and Asian poets. And so, maybe just refuse to publish the poem under that psuedonym. Or really, just pull it.
You don’t have to reward gross behavior just because a poem is good.
Personally, I’m confused as to how a poem containing lines like “the Colosseum sprouts and blooms with leftover seeds pooped by ancient tigers, Poseidon diddled Philomel” got into a Best American Poetry anthology on ANY merits.
Hahaha, I haven’t read the rest of that poem, because really why bother. But from that line, the impression that I get is that Keats threw up his hands and said, “Fuck it, I’m going to write some shit poetry today.”
it’s weird because in this context I really feel like “shat” is much more poetic.
……. diddled
I’ve given up trying to figure out what editors consider ‘good poetry’. It’s very hit-or-miss.
OK, the problem I have with Alexie’s response is how so much of his reasoning is wrapped up in trying not to make himself look biased, and how by not yanking the poem, he is essentially saying “hey this is totally OK”, which I don’t think is something he considered. And even though Alexie is Native, it’s not HIS heritage that was ripped off, and I think it is very insensitive to, you know, actual Asian American poets, and Asian American people in general. The only people who would have accused him of bias for yanking the poem after finding out the author is white probably would be mostly racists anyway.
As amazing as Serena Williams is, worth appreciating her sister Venus, who is also awesome “[Venus] is the political one, the one who fought for equal pay. She was the one whose withdrawal at Indian Wells sparked the booing. She is the one who hasn’t gone back.”
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/great-and-great…
Scrolling down and unexpectedly spotting that picture of Furiosa made my heart skip a beat. This ridiculous crush shows no sign of abating.
Toasties, Nicole sent this tweet yesterday which implied to me that she hasn’t yet seen Borgen: https://twitter.com/Nicole_Cliffe/status/64133889…
Campaign to get Nicole to watch it begins now, if you’d care to join.
I’ll join! Nicole, it’s so good, and you can watch it on iTunes now. I stayed on the Netflix DVD plan for several months just to watch it. I am not usually one for subtitles because it keeps me from playing games on my phone or reading the Toast while watching, but Borgen kept me totally gripped! Plus Nicole, having had previous experience with them, won’t have to keep pausing to ask how parliamentary democracies work!
Lord Jeffrey Archer once greeted me by hollering “Are you watching Borgen? WATCH BORGEN!”
… I’m going to need you to elaborate on that.
That’s by far the best part of the story. I was a peon running one of his book signings, and was busy stacking hardbacks when the command to Scandi-fy my TV habits hit my ears.
Does he just… run around shouting TV recommendations?
Nnnnooo… tempted to like him… make it stoppp
Pretty much?
He was always pleasant to me, but don’t worry, I know scads of people he was a total arse to.
Phew! All is right with the world now.
Nicole, I’m glad to hear you’re having a good time with Blue Apron! My housemate tried it on someone’s recommendation after the CSA he tried to join delivered the food to one of our neighbors at 2:30 am (they totally ate it and we found the empty box later, sad face emoji), and oh my god the crazy. Box didn’t come when it was supposed to, so the next day he looked up the delivery info and it had been driven up and down the west coast for days before a white panel van came and someone hurled it onto our stoop, crushing a cucumber of some fancy pedigree in the process. He made two of the three meals, though, and they definitely smelled great & we were super amused by the inclusion of three olives here and a leaf of some weird herb there. Hopefully they see this and repay their negligence by comping you a few olives (her email is in the sidebar!).
i was getting progressively enthused/distressed about those new yorker panels, and then i got to the broad city + emily nussbaum one and literally gaped at my computer for a full minute in horrific jealousy. world, i already know that i would like to move to new york if i can get one of those job situations! why must you taunt me??
I know this isn’t open thread, but I’m extremely frustrated and gonna vent anyway. I’m house hunting in Austin and have come across several houses that felt right to me and were listed in my range, but my offers keep getting beat out by (I’m pretty sure) investors who are going over market value. It never occurred to me before this experience that *of course* investors would make offers above market value because they have a personal interest in driving the market up. By entering into this process, I’m basically watching myself get priced out of the market in real time, primarily from people who don’t care about living in the homes they’re buying so much as laughing their way to the bank while a huge portion of Austinites get priced out of the city.
It would still sting to lose a house I like to someone who really wants that house, but it’s so frustrating to watch it happen this way and be able to see the larger implications that are bad for me, but also for everyone else in this city not making a cushy tech salary. And I’m not willing to settle for a house that’s just ok because it’s all I can afford when my goal is to a buy home to live there long-term, rather than flip it in 5 years to make some moola. I’m angry at the world and there’s nothing I can do about it all 🙁
Sympathy/empathy. Looking in Seattle, lived here all my life, JUST at a point where I can buy… and houses regularly sell for 50,000-100,000 over list price. No chance of living close to the DT core. Guess I’ll move to scenic Tukwila…
Thanks and sorry you’re feeling the same thing hypatia. I’ve heard Seattle’s in a similar boat. Before this year, there just really wouldn’t have been a way for me to buy. We can’t help when we enter the job market. Good luck and thanks for the well wishes.
I’m so sorry. We saw some of this when we were buying, but a lot of it had already happened. Most of the good houses have been scooped up in the past decades by baby boomers for rentals. It’s infuriating. We only got around it because we happened to be looking during a dip in the market, in an area that had a lot of second homes and holiday houses, where the rental prices were also declining, which brought the rest of the prices down. And because my partner had a wad of cash from his last house which he had paid off – I basically grew up assuming I would never own, because most of the real estate in the reasonable range has been rental housing for decades.
You are right to be frustrated, the situation stinks, and I wish I could fix it. I hope you manage to find a house you love, anyway.
Blue Apron is awesome (so far)! Last week was our first week, and I was blown away by the catfish+freekeh dish too. We also got the Thai chicken burgers and lemon linguine and… I may have bought a pasta maker after that linguine.
Another article about football: Broke, by Spencer Hall. This is one of the best things I’ve read all year. This is one of the best things about money I’ve read in my life.
That was so, so good.
I printed it out to send to my mum with a note thanking them for, well, everything.
this broseph right here is the worst
NOOOOOO he works at the LIBRARY in my HOMETOOOOWN
COME ON FORT WAYNE
ugh Indiana sucks
The three olives thing — my sister works for a fruit & veg business and they supply one of these companies. So sometimes she'll come home and have spent 10 hours cutting ginger into 2cm-sized pieces, because the recipe that week specifies a 2cm piece of ginger. Very strange! One of the oddest times was when we had a heatwave here, and she had to spend the day cutting up something for the kits: any room with food in is kept at a cold temperature, so she came out of work shivering with cold, having worn a coat, gloves, hat etc all day, while everyone else in the country had been sunbathing in their bikinis.
Suh-huuuuuuuuuuper late to this, but I was really disappointed that Georg Ganswein was not photographed for that article. Because he has been my Inappropriate Priest Crush (TM) for a long, long time, and I am known in certain circles as someone who has Inappropriate Priest Crushes an awful lot. (There is a phrase, “Chalice Chipper,” that is a jokingly derogatory term for a person who steals someone out of seminary or the priesthood. I cannot claim to have gotten THAT far, but I DO have a t-shirt. That a seminarian friend made for me.)
TL;DR Georrrrrrrggggggggggggggg <3 <3 <3