Jane Hu on the history of how modern poetry has been influenced by “Chinese-ness” for far longer than Michael Derrick Hudson:
This impression of Chinese-ness is a Western vision has very little to do with whatever you might call the “Chinese experience.” Instead, it has far more to do with engaging in the real roots of modernist American poetry.
Slowly, often clumsily, white American poets have become more self-aware on this point. Billy Collins, for example, in his rather elliptical Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause To Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles, he explores how writing modern poetry is to be obsessed with the terse and iconic images of China.
Guessssss which kids are actually eating slightly more fast food than the other kids?
There’s a popular narrative about poor families and fast food: They eat more of it than anybody else. It’s dangled as evidence for the high rate of obesity among poorer Americans — and talked about even by some of the country’s foremost voices on food. “[J]unk food is cheaper when measured by the calorie, and that this makes fast food essential for the poor because they need cheap calories,” wrote Mark Bittman for The New York Times in 2011.
But there’s a problem with saying that poor people like fast food better than others. It’s not true.
How the Unabomber’s manifesto helped catch him (this is very interesting and worth a read):
Two decades later, the events surrounding the publication of the Unabomber’s manuscript seem both distant and eerily familiar. Some elements suggest a bygone age. The manifesto, for example, was perhaps one of the last newsworthy documents to appear only in print. Although the Internet was starting to seep into everyday life, few Americans relied on it for news. Within a few years, that would change irrevocably.
I pretty much had to go to bed after this look at the mechanics of telling a ten year old that she’s had HIV since birth, and although all of it is difficult, the details on trying to get a kid to adhere to a rigid medical protocol they don’t really understand might have been the worst; something about the basic KID-ness of candy in the midst of horrible adult-ness:
Kids with HIV can live into their 70s if they adhere to their drugs. It seems simple, but denial, depression and rebellion lead some to refuse treatment, experts say. In the past year, two of Children’s young adult patients have died because they stopped taking their medicine. Others are on the path to that same fate.
Doctors eventually placed JJ on a “holding regimen,” a single, palatable liquid that they hoped would keep the HIV under control until she could manage pills.
At the hospital, she practiced swallowing candies — cake sprinkles, Tic Tacs, Smarties — meant to imitate those pills. At home, Lee had tried everything she could think of: bribing with stickers, cutting tablets, applying a grape “glide” spray to make them go down more easily. If JJ could stay consistent for a single week, her mother often promised, she would get to pick out a treat at the dollar store.
Nothing worked.
Cherished Beloved Friend Of The Toast Jaya Saxena on her #BiracialLooksLike hashtag and why it’s necessary:
There are not many shared experiences among biracial people because the only thing we have in common is that our parents are of different races and heritages. There may not be many lived experiences that I, a woman with an Indian immigrant father and a white mother, would have in common with, say, a man with a Black mother and an Iranian father. Still, among the mixed community (if there is one), there are a few common refrains of everything from pride to alienation and confusion.
I really liked Kate Harding’s response to the Susan Brownmiller interview, because she doesn’t do a OLD PEOPLE CAN’T DO FEMINISM RIGHT thing, and she’s respectful of what Brownmiller accomplished for women, but is also, like, not cool, Brownmiller:
Brownmiller’s absolutely right that today’s young activists have different concerns than feminists did in the ’70s (or in the ’90s, when I came of age). Their mothers and grandmothers taught the country that rape is a crime of power; that rapists aren’t always, or even usually, weapon-wielding strangers; and that “no” always means “no.” With that important groundwork established, young people now have different lessons to teach the rest of us — like that there is no lapse in judgment, including getting knee-walking drunk, that deserves punishment by rape. Or how unfair it is, to both women and men, for us to pretend the average man can’t control the urge to rape when confronted with high heels and a short skirt.
If, 40 years from now, someone asks me what I think about young anti-rape activists, I hope my ego will allow me to profess admiration for whatever work they’re doing to better the new world they’ve grown up in. But honestly, there’s just as good a chance that I’ll respond like Brownmiller, carping about kids’ lack of historical awareness and respect for their elders, then adding a bunch of crap that sounds hopelessly outdated to anyone pre-menopausal. Either way is fine with me, really. If I get to the point where I have no idea what young activists are on about, or why they don’t seem concerned with what most concerns me, it will probably mean they’ve taken what they needed from my generation’s feminism and left the rest behind. I’m pretty sure that’s what progress looks like.
Is it just me, or is this a LITTLE bit hot?
Some mild suggestions for Donald Trump’s hair:
Irina: I think he should get extensions. Or, what are they called… Hair plugs. It’s not his hair but it would look nice. Just nice bangs. Or spike it. He’s gonna be more handsome than his style.
Lana: Maybe he’s scared to get the surgery. People come in here who’ve had it done. They take [the hair] from the back. It grows!
Irina: He has the money to do this. This is the best way.
Lana: This is the best way. Don’t be scared. Any new procedure is scary.
A lot to take in in this piece on a Marine battalion with scarily-high suicide rates and how they are trying to help each other through it:
“Real talk, guys, let’s make a pact, right here,” Travis Wilkerson said. “I don’t want to go to any more funerals. Let’s promise to reach out and talk. Get your phones out, put my number in. Call me day or night. I’m not doing this again.”
His twin brother, Tyler Wilkerson, who had served in the same platoon, stood next to him. After the Marines, he had become a Buddhist and joined Greenpeace. He said he agreed.
Then a three-tour former corporal named Elias Reyes Jr. stepped forward. He had a long ponytail and a degree in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was hoping to attend medical school.
Enough of this, he said. One by one, the others joined the pact.
This is A++ sandwich writing:
Stuffed into sturdy French bread, the meat is topped with both hot and sweet Chicago-style giardiniera—a mix of pickled vegetables in oil, an astronomical improvement over giardiniera in brine.
The sandwich itself is, of course, more than the sum of these parts, a precision-calibrated cudgel of flavor, a full-spectrum assault on hunger, a sandwich that, despite its meat-on-meat composition, disappears all too quickly.
My friend Carrie’s new puppy likes to cuddle:
.@MJSchulman on Grace Jones is the best thing since Michael Schulman on RuPaul: http://t.co/dfS2m1ohV1 pic.twitter.com/dQ4LXY4dDV
— Tim Federle (@TimFederle) September 19, 2015
how to attend a catholic mass for the first time as an early 2000s pop punk vocalist pic.twitter.com/Wx0I6MhcMA — merritt death kill (@merrittkopas) September 19, 2015
Deleted comments of the day:
“Totally safe! The part where you might bleed out on your own bedroom floor because birth can go from OK to Get A Doctor in 15 seconds flat? That’s just part of the excitement! Makes it even safer!”
my daughter’s not dead yet, therefore
Plus you have a kitchen right there to properly plate the placenta.
but of course
Oh man, no kidding, the hospital cafeteria staff just look at you funny when you ask them to do this.
(insert incoherent rant about how high the percentage of strong opinions about the “correct” way to give birth are tinged with the warm glow of misogyny.)
(insert perfectly coherent rant about how i can never spell ‘misogyny’ correctly the first time and my browser spell check can NEVER correct it for me so I just keep swapping letters until the red squiggly goes away)
Mahogany. Michigan. Mishegass.
IMPORTANT Hamilton news: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/16/440925873/first-lis…
I want to see this show so badly it hurts
Now I know what I’m doing with 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 35 seconds of tonight.
THANK YOU FOR THIS GIFT
EVERYONE SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN, WE NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS ALL DAY
NGL, almost put on a post-it saying “Listening to Hamilton, please email” on my door.
I was at a work breakfast this morning, so I am just getting to the link roundup and was PURPOSELY LOOKING to make sure someone had shared this. I listened to Act 1 while getting ready for work and during my commute.
OMG, I saw the show TWO DAYS AGO and was drumming my fingers waiting for the cast album. I can’t possibly listen to this at work or I will just cry all day but THANK YOU FOR THE LINK.
FRIDAY. FRIDAY. FRIDAY. We will have the cast album for ourselves for real on FRIDAY.
You are a wise woman, I have already teared up at my desk twice.
I’m only just managing to keep myself under control as it is, just remembering the show. I saw the show on Saturday, and on Sunday I teared up within minutes of waking up in the morning, and while walking around outside, and on the AirTrain to JFK, the most emotionally dry place I can imagine.
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS YOU ARE A WONDERFUL HUMAN BEING
well there goes any hope of productivity I had for today! (luckily I work for a musical theatre org so we’re all in the same boat today.)
OH MAN I AM SO PSYCHED. I feel like listening to this all afternoon is definitely a good enough reason to miss the meetings I have to be in the whole time, yes/yes? Yes.
THANK YOU. I am about 45 minutes in and it’s as amazing and fantastic as I hoped it would be!!!
I listened to the whole thing once and as soon as it finished went back for a second listen-through. It’s AMAZING I am so ready to RISE UP
I can’t even give it my full attention because I’m listening to it while working and I am STILL HAVING TO TAKE BREAKS TO SOB. Sometimes at the content, sometimes just at how good it is. Luckily, I work from home.
I have to listen to the second act at home…by “satisfied” I had stopped even pretending to work, and by “dear theodosia” I had to run to the bathroom to cry.
I haven’t seen or listened to Hamilton yet, but please tell me: why do people love this show? What should I be listening for?
It’s genuinely one of the biggest innovations in modern musical theater. The way that Hair brought rock-and-roll to Broadway, that’s what Hamilton is doing with hip-hop. And Lin-Manuel Miranda, the author/composer/lead actor, has used it in a smart way: to use more words than any other show uses in order to tell an immense and important story. The writing is brilliant, and the performances even more brilliant. I will be genuinely shocked if Miranda doesn’t win the Pulitzer for drama this time – he’s been nominated before, for “In The Heights,” and this is a far more advanced work.
Additionally, Miranda sees this as an opportunity to tell the story of the country’s founding in a modern language, both literally and visually. The cast has exactly one white man in a named role: Jonathan Groff as King George, who sings brit pop about the separation of the colonies from the British empire. Every other main role is a person of color, from George Washington through the Schuyler sisters (Hamilton’s wife and sisters). The people on stage look like the New York City we all know today, not NYC in 1776 when the show begins. And the questions he asks, about what we want this country to be? They’re still essential today, and Miranda has brought them to life for us. The cabinet battle raps? Brilliant. “Room Where It Happens,” a crushing denouncement of backroom politics.
Thank you! This is very helpful!
Glad to help! I’m only a little bit absolutely obsessed with this show. I saw the off-Broadway run, and I’ve seen the Broadway production once so far but definitely want to see it again. It’s a sung-through show, so if you don’t think you’ll get to see it any time soon, listening to the cast album means you do at least get all the audio!
Obviously, everyone now knows the story about David Cameron and his pig fucking, which means unfortunately Black Mirror is at least slightly true, and now we have to consider the possibility that EVERY Black Mirror episode is slightly true.
WHAT IF THERE IS TOO MUCH PHONES THO
Ha, I hadn’t made the Black Mirror connection before – thanks for that.
WHAT THE FUCK! Is there nothing posh boys won’t do? yick.
My first though was Black Mirror, and I suspect Charlie Brooker knew more than he let on when he wrote the episode!
He insists that it took him by surprise as well, but honestly when I heard about the circumstances — rich Oxonians in a secret cult where initiation includes sticking your dick in a dead pig — I thought to myself, “sure, didn’t we already know about that, though?”
It just seems like such a likely thing.
I haven’t actually read the details yet, I’m not feeling to well today and don’t need to vomit just yet.
But yes I imagined it was some kind of initiation or he was hammered with the lads and they did it for a laugh
‘Oh my gosh lads, shall I stick my dick in that pig! Wouldn’t that be a jolly laugh!’
‘Do it Dave you fucking legend.’
(I’m really not surprised, they get up to all sorts in them secret clubs and Cameron is the tippy top of the pile. You know he has sucked a dick or two to get there. At least.)
Honestly, what ELSE would we expect them to get up to?
100% sure at lest one of the Bushes did the same thing when they were in the Skull & Bones at Yale.
I’ve definitely heard that Bush the Junior did the whole strip down naked and get paddled by your bro’s thing.
I honestly think is shit like this that’s the reason there isn’t more women in power; we don’t go in for all that shit. We see all of our friends naked at some point anyway, there’s no reason to make a cult about it.
that’s just frat shit half the business-school undergrads out there have done, the Bushes get up to way hinkier things
cheeky nandos
such lads, always fucking the pig before a jaunt off to have a cheeky nandos
WAIT. WHAT.
he WHAT
omg
I thought I was immune to sexual scandals. Adultery, who cares, homosexuality, welcome, sexual abuse, please proceed to prison.
But somehow, I just never thought of bestiality.
ETA: necrophiliac bestiality
The thing about all of this stuff is that I think it probably isn’t REALLY about bestiality, I don’t think any of these guys are particularly sexually aroused by fucking pigs. The point of it is just transgression of boundaries of morality and decency, and getting to join a club where you fully understand that having money means you can do whatever the fuck you want.
(This is, interestingly, exactly the point of the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom, though everyone gets hung up on the de Sadey stuff.)
yeah Cameron’s fetish is and always plainly has been power wielded like a club
1. well obviously, just work with me here braak
2. Much like how sex researchers don’t only ask people about their stated preferences but also map their behaviour, I don’t care whether David Cameron identifies as a man who WOULD fuck a pig, only that he, in fact, did. He forever made himself an MSP. A Man who has Sex with Pigs. And that is amazing.
I heard it was a suckling pig. Pedobestiality.
Well my reaction to this was ‘oh, wait, it was a DEAD pig? Well ok then’
Which 1) apparently I was only mildly shocked when I thought it was a LIVE pig (for real, my only reaction to reading the headline was ‘but pigs are big and mean, how did he retain it??’) and 2) yep. So likely I barely blinked.
Except in Black Mirror, the PM didn’t want to shag the pig. Cameron did it willingly.
I will believe this story is 100% true unless he sues for libel. Because if you didn’t do it, there is absolutely no way you wouldn’t sue, especially under our ridiculous libel laws. If he doesn’t sue, that means a) he did it and b) he knows there is proof (the photo that Ashcroft claims to have). I can’t wait.
Black Mirror depicts a fictional, dystopian universe in which the kind of person who makes it to MP would have to be compelled to fuck a pig by outside parties
Where as in real life, the person who makes it to PM has to do it willingly to even have a shot.
I haven’t been following #baeofpigs as assiduously as I should have: are we sure “dead pig” is not a euphemism for “passed-out Boris”?
I am sure that happened, but it’s not included in the article, which ALSO reveals that Cameron was totally into getting high and listening to Supertramp.
Aren’t we all, though?
It’s weird to think that I might have something in common with David Cameron, noted pig-fucker, but there it is.
I think we should all refer to him exclusively as ‘David Cameron, noted pig-fucker’ from now on. I’ll start a petition.
This reminds me of the old joke:
A Scottish old timer in Scotland, in a bar, talking to a young man.
The Old Man says, “Lad, look out there to the field. Do ya see that fence? Look how well it’s built. I built that fence stone by stone with me own two hands. I piled it for months.”
“But do they call me McGreggor-the-Fence-Builder? Nooo…”
Then the old man gestured at the bar. “Look here at the bar. Do ya see how smooth and just it is? I planed that surface down by me own achin’ back. I carved that wood with me own hard labour, for eight days.”
“But do they call me McGreggor-the-Bar-builder? Nooo…”
Then the old man points out the window. “Eh, Laddy, look out to sea…Do ya see that pier that stretches out as far as the eye can see? I built that pier with the sweat off me back. I nailed it board by board.”
“But do they call me McGreggor-the-Pier-Builder? Nooo…”
Then the old man looks around nervously, trying to make sure no one is paying attention.
“But ya fuck one goat…”
Brb dying of laughter #baeofpigs is too perfect
I’ve been seeing #piggate on my professional/soccer Twitter (which is a lot of Brits) and why are you doing that, we all know #baeofpigs is the proper hashtag
#baeofpigs is great, I do also quite like #snoutrage
That made me spit my coffee out…
Ha, my boyfriend woke me up at 6.10am this morning: “smeesmeesmee. smeesmeesmee. smeesmeesmee. David Cameron fucked a pig.” Charlie Brooker SAYS he didn’t know anything about it. Sure.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/scottybryan/charlie-brook…
He knew.
White Bear tho.
WHITE BEAR THO.
Braak. Braaaaaaaaaaaaak. Buddy, Pal, local hero— Help me out here. I know about David Cameron fucking a pig, of course I do, my anglophile partner has kept up on british politics even when high out of his mind in the hospital, and has kept me up to date on all the best pig jokes, but …
Black Mirror?
(alternatively, someone just tell me if this is a thing I can safely google at work)
It’s a TV series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror_%28TV_…
Featuring standalone episodes, the first of which is about the British PM being blackmailed into fucking a pig on live TV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Anthem…
Black Mirror is a TV show from the UK that is basically like the Outer Limits of Today — political satire plus near-future-science fiction+social commentary. In the first episode, a guy kidnaps a British royal and extorts the Prime Minister into having sex with a pig on television as part of some weird commentary on art(?) and the public consciousnes(?).
The joke about phones is from this, though: Next On “Black Mirror”.
Your link, it is broken! It just points back at this page (for me, anyway…)
http://the-toast.net/2015/01/20/next-black-mirror…
TY you wonderful fantastic beautiful people, i know what i’m doing tonight.
related to all this, I would be very happy if “pig-fucker” became synonymous with that kind of rich-guy-who’s-got-more-money-than-he-knows-what-to-do-with sort of fratty blueblood asshole that rolls out into the world and thinks he’s got the right to run everything by virtue of his money and birth.
Like if people dismissed conservative candidates in the UK all, “he’s just another pig-fucking Tory.”
It seems so natural I can’t believe it’s not already.
Even adorable puppy pictures can’t mute the sting of a ten year old child with HIV. This is the sort of thing that made me discard any conception of a compassionate deity 40 years ago, and I’ve seen nothing to change that idea since.
I worked on a grant-funded project at Cook County’s outpatient infectious disease (vast majority of patients there were HIV+ and uninsured) clinic in the early 2000s. My grant only had me working with adult patients, so it always caught me off guard and broke my heart a bit on the afternoons of the kids’ support group. About ten minutes before, a line of 10 year old girls and boys would troupe in rolling their little backpacks behind them, chattering away. I’m glad they had the clinic (which was much more modern and patient-centered than the rest of the County hospital, and more importantly a group just for them, but I hate that they needed it.
When does the redesign go live? There’s some kind of autoplaying audio thing that I can’t find on the page whenever I open an article and I would like to not have it please. (It seems to be Dutch radio, which makes sense because I’m in the Netherlands, but that helps no one.)
“october”
or, alternatively, “never soon enough”
(I hate change in all its forms usually, but I am so looking forward to this one. I am willing to wait for it to be good and worthwhile and stable and something everyone involved is comfortable and happy with, but, CAN’T WAIT.)
I tried to be a Good Toastie and disabled my adblocker for the site last week, but between Flash crashing every five minutes (taking my Pandora with it), and the autoplay ads, I had to turn it back on. I cannot wait for the redesign.
For what it’s worth, I whitelist sites that could use my support but still set my browser to ask me before it plays any Flash. That reduces load time and keeps videos from leaping out at me!
Okay, people who watched the Emmys last night, when did you start crying? For me, it was as soon as freaking Edward Herrmann’s name came on the In Memoriam, and then continued through Viola Davis’ speech and Tracy Morgan coming back. Though GoT actually winning dried that shit right up.
I can’t believe GOT won for its worst season. And for writing no less. Ugh.
Was the win for the season that just aired or for last season? Because while neither was its strongest at least last season didn’t have the Sansa debacle.
The season that just aired, unfortunately
In the golden age of scripted television that we are living in…I really can’t believe GoT won.
LITERALLY any choice would have been better. Including tons of shows that weren’t even nominated. Almost as bad as Modern Family winning like eight years in a row.
Viola Davis!! Tracy Morgan! Uzo Aduba! Andy Samberg’s pointed jokes about the racial and gender disparities in television! I don’t usually watch award shows but I’m glad I did last night.
My biggest laugh in the (very funny) opening musical number was…OK, it was the Les Mis thing. But then my next-biggest laugh was right at the end when Andy Samberg says, “And I’m white!” Take that, TV Academy.
Andy Samberg is a priceless person.
Leonard Nimoy broke me.
Harris 🙁
Re: sandwich writing, that reminds me of Tamal, a contestant in this year’s Great British Bake Off, telling viewers that one of his recipes was inspired by a sandwich he had two years previously, ‘One of the top two sandwiches I’ve ever had.’ He then sighed and said ‘I think about that sandwich a lot’ and the nation took him to their hearts for eternity.
Any other Bake Off watching Toasties here? I feel like there must be some crossover.
Ugh yes. Tamal <3
I need a man in my life who keeps an ongoing list of his favorite sandwiches.
I love the Bake Off. I’m unreasonably sad that my Bake Off Boyfriend got eliminated last week.
Lack of coconut was his Achilles heel.
MAT! Gangly firefighter who says “his greatest ambition is to own a dishwasher.”
I would gleefully watch a spinoff about his mate Dangerous Dave and his mum Sheila, who collects Victorian bakeware.
Look, I cannot understand why there hasn’t been a reality show based on genial British firefighters baking for the lads. Even in the U.S., 55% of all firehouse activity is centered around food prep. Another 15% is the fellow firefighters loudly critiquing your work and complaining about the purity of your spice blends. Another 15% is fighting actual fires. The rest of the time is for maintaining equipment, shooting calendars, and showing up at the scene of car crashes to bossily re-apply bandages that a police officer already slapped on.
TAMAL. I love him so much. Between him, and Nadiya’s facial expressions, it’s been a GREAT season so far
I love all the contestants. I don’t know how British reality television manages to make everyone so darn like-able but I enjoy that so much more than the US version where you can basically assume everyone is getting the worst possible edit.
That’s not true of all of our reality television, but it’s a trend that seems to be winning out. Although Bake Off is not as free from chicanery as it appears, Brendan didn’t get the most complimentary edit in his series – they made him into as much of a villain as you get on Bake Off, but the others said he was always lovely and super helpful to everyone else.
I do wonder if it’s a BBC thing rather than a British thing – part of the idea of public television instead of commercial television. It “should” be more pleasant, more polite, and not as mean-spirited as trashier commercial television.
Ah, that could be it. I think just about all the British TV I watch is BBC so that would explain it!
Sadly, not always – The Apprentice is on the BBC and I usually hate every one of them. (And I think the programme makers encourage that.)
She has the finest facial expressions ever to grace Bake Off – possibly even the entire BBC.
It has. I was worried about the hat guy in the first episode, but then he was the first person eliminated, just to reassure everyone that GBBO was the same as it has always been. I’m hoping that the finale will be Tamal, Nadiya, and Flora, but I have a feeling that Ian will probably be somewhere in the mix.
This year more than ever, though, I feel like the contestants must be having a weird time, now that the filming is over and suddenly people are watching and they’re famous.
I keep finding myself actively disliking Ian, not because he does anything specifically wrong, but mostly because I don’t want him to win over Tamal or Nadiya
I loved that when all the other bakers were dreading Victorian Week he was super into it. And then he talked about using roadkill and all the sudden he’s back on my nope list.
My GBBO friend Tom refers to him as “the Guardian lifestyle section, but a person” and damn if that isn’t the most accurate description.
10/10. That is perfect.
Omg this. That is Ian all over.
I LOVE the GBBO. I love how British it is and how they make all these pastries I’ve never heard of and sometimes a contestant just forgets to turn the oven on and my heart breaks for them. I am very sad this season about Ugne and Mat. I’m currently rooting for Tamal or Flora. Not sure how I feel about Ian’s road-kill comments last week.
I really dislike Flora. I don’t trust anyone who says that ‘the first proper thing’ they cooked was pheasant, the first proper thing you cook ought to be spag bol or something. Not bloody pheasant.
I don’t think spag bol counts as a ‘proper thing’, though, and she’s lovely.
I think it does, in the sense of ‘a meal I can cook that could feed several people’. More so if you don’t get it out of a jar.
But it’s a different kind of proper thing. There’s a different context to it, to the evening tea/Sunday lunch divide.
Oi. Spag Bol is a traditional dish and most definitely a ‘Proper Thing’. I will fight you if I have to. 😉
did you see her house on her introductory bit? she lives in a castle!
OH NO you’re a season ahead of me! I watch it on PBS and am still dealing with custard theft and rooting whole heartedly for Glenn because he is my husband that I have married.
remember Martha? She ruined things for me because she was the same age as me. My parents poopooed my brownies for a month.
Glenn favourited one of my tweets once, I consider that one of my finest achievements. Especially because it was about macarons being too small and fiddle and everything Glenn does is HUGE if I remember rightly.
If you don’t like Martha, you will despise Flora when you get to this season. She’s about 18 or 19, her family is very rich and she is posh and annoying.
ah, That was Mark who made everything huge. He went home last night due to that. Glenn did have icky macarons once though.
Mark and Glenn were the cool uncles of the show and now it’s less cool.
We’re TWO seasons ahead of you! You have so much great baking to catch up on!
The weird part is that the last one they showed was Series 5, and now theyre showing series 4.
I was there for #Bingate
Oh, you’re right. PBS is so weird!
MARTHA. I adored her. She was so precious and just young enough for me to want to protect her rather than feel bad about age-wise
Wait are we a full season behind in the U.S.? We just started getting season 2 here. Damnit I need maximum charming modest baking drama in my life!
PBS is doing very strange things with Bakeoff, BBC is airing the sixth season, PBS recently aired the fifth BBC season, and then moved to, we think, the fourth BBC season.
Argh that is weird – I just want all of it!
Im actually quite pleased because I missed the fourth one because I moved away from Germany but STILL.
I want the sixth season now please. please.
For anyone in the US/North America, various users on YouTube have uploaded episodes all the way from season one to the most current season (6). You kind of just have to search for each episode, but it’s awesome and I highly recommend if you’re unable to find them anywhere else.
Also, there are few other shows I would want to own on DVD. Anyone want to help me start a petition?
TAMAAAAAAAAL *heart eyes emoji*
I am actively discussing it on Twitter and also occasionally watching it with friends here in the Netherlands. It’s my first season watching because I realized that I get BBC 1 and everyone is obsessing over it. I also have every intention of growing up and marrying Tamal, but I might have to fight my friend Tom for him.
All of my Twitter is Bake Off, I want to link you guys to it, but there are a couple of things I’ve said in the Toast comments section that I don’t want to be connected to me irl.
Mel and Sue are my #StyleGoals. Also Mary sometimes but I’m not sure I’m ready to jump headfirst into florals.
My aim for my hair is all Sue all the time.
Yes! I am here for their lady-blazers. Mary is killing it this season–those floral almost-bomber-looking jackets are amazing.
Also, please let’s never forget my first GBBO love:
i love him so much you guys
Awwwww. I loved him too. He and Tamal should start a medical practice together and just hang out.
I want that to be a cozy mystery tv show. The two of them, doing doctor stuff, occasionally a sheep wanders into the office, they bake delicious things, the village vicar turns out to have a sordid past…
They could be on Orkney and there could be weather-related drama.
I love GBBO, so so so so much.
But really, Toasties should check out the writing of GBBO2013 contestant Ruby Tandoh, who after bakeoff, came out as queer, and tweets all sorts of lovely things about self care and eating cake because you damn well want to and all sorts of lovely feminist things. Also she is smart and gorgeous and talented and funny.
My friend gave me her book for my birthday because I LOVE HER (this was before she came out as well), and though I sometimes find her writing a bit pretentious, the recipes are great and I’ve baked a lot from it.
Tamal is amazing. The sandwich thing definitely cemented him in my heart. He and Nadiya are my baes (but she gets so close to the edge sometimes I worry! maybe it’s just the facial expressions–she worries so I worry). I like Flora but I think we’re getting to the limits of her skill and it’s almost time for her to go- but not before Paul who I don’t especially like.
I love Nadiya but sometimes I just want her to calm down, you know? And be just a little more confident in what she can do- sometimes it strikes me as disingenuous. But that’s just probably me seeing too much of myself in that.
I loved Tamal before he said that, but it made me truly realise that he is the perfect man. (My boyfriend was also charmed by it.)
That Peter Meehan sandwich story is properly cruel, I want a sandwich so bad. There is a multi-page version in the most recent issue of Lucky Peach, which is an excellent magazine worth your subscription if you like good food writing!
I hate to do this to you – but I’m having that sandwich on Saturday. How far away from Chicago do you live? Join us!
If I could justify driving 9 hours for a sandwich I would.
I had a great day with my parents and the Tiny Nephew yesterday! Here is a picture of Tiny Nephew and me admiring the outside world.
(Sidebar: this is my parents’ first visit since Tiny Nephew has been out of the incubator, so they had never properly met him before. I asked my dad how he felt about his grandson and he paused and said, “I have a positive impression.” Dads!)
Babies are the best!
I had two skype dates with the family over the weekend, both of which involved the adults forgetting about me and me spending 20 minutes watching my little niece (who’s 9 months and has just discovered arms and making noises) sit on the floor and entertain herself. Also my nephew eating crisps and laughing that I can’t have any. while naked.
Being a kid must be awesome
I watched my nephew discover mirrors! It was an amazing journey. At first he was frightened by his own reflection, then cautiously intrigued, and then he decided to befriend the mirror-baby with loud babbling and arm-waving.
Oh your Tiny Nephew is adorable! So tiny and sweet in his little green pants!
The head fuzz! So wispy and soft. I think part of my hard heart is melting just looking at it. Does Tiny Nephew let you nuzzle his head?
It’s a crowded field, but I think this is the best puppy picture yet.
No you’re right, that’s a little hot.
The Venn diagram between the unassisted childbirth fanatics and the anti-vaxxers must have an almost complete overlap.
The Newseum has a whole section on the Unabomber and the role the media played, and how they had to decide whether or not to publish those manifestos, and HIS CABIN. It’s so interesting. Everyone go to the Newseum when you’re in DC if you can.
Hmm…I haven’t been wrong AND crazy since my evil ex and I broke up. Good thing I’m not dating deleted commenter.
As a Certified Poor TM person with a child, I can tell you why poor people feed their children less fast food – because it’s still fucking expensive. Many a night I can’t even think about cooking without breaking out in hives and every part of me longs to hit up McDonald’s and skip all the bullshit chopping and preheating and dishwashing, but then I think about what we’d spend – easily $15 for the three of us – and I’m just like, nope. I can feed my family for three days on $15. It’s just not worth it. Baby girl has never had a happy meal and who knows when she will, because I can make some bomb ass chicken nuggets for half what I’d pay for a happy meal.
I was thinking just this! I grew up properly poor (TM) and we very rarely had take-out or McDonalds, it was usually for a treat if money was a bit good. Only once do I remember going to Burger King for my actual dinner because mother didn’t have time to cook, and again that was only because money was good.
Poor people do tend to eat more processed and frozen food though, because its cheap and quick (which important for single working parents) I remember a lot of frozen chips and fish fingers, as well as frozen ready meals (only ever bought when they’re on special though, that shit is expensive!)
I always thought maybe it was different in the States (where all the ‘poor people live on fast food’ articles come from) cause in Europe McDonalds is expensive! You know whats cheap? Bread. Poor people eat a lot of white bread and chips. (Chip sandwiches… mmmm.)
It’s pretty hard to beat the dollar menu on price at home, especially if you’re not taking ‘a home with a kitchen’ as a sunk cost, but the only people I’ve ever known who actually subsisted heavily on that shit were homeless or squatting which is its own unique and minority brand of ‘poor’
I think a thing all this misses is that life in the US is not a simple spectrum based on your annual income; rich people all seem to blow their money in the same dumbassed frivolous ways but there’s a hundred distinct ways to be short on time/money/facilities that’ll change the math on how you survive if that’s something you actually need to do math on.
Yes to this. My dad and I hit Carls Jr. and Burger King a lot while homeless–I don’t like meat, but I was hungry and two burgers for $2 allows for a hot cup of coffee, too! When we found a place he was still into going out for fast food but I had noped it the minute I had access to a stove.
Yeah, there’s a huge difference between poor with a kitchen, and poor without one. If you can refrigerate and boil water, it’s far cheaper to avoid fast food for the most part.
Yup. I have been mightily confused about these assertions that poor people eat fast food because it’s cheap. I grew up poor to poorish (and not in a food desert), and McDonald’s was a mighty treat and a Happy Meal (vs. the cheapest burger) was a HUGE EFFIN TREAT. My mom could wring out far more food for the money if she did the shopping and the cooking herself.
But also my mom stayed at home, so she had more time to replace expenditure of money with labor and planning. Not that this would be universal, but I suspect where fast food really comes in across classes is parents trying to figure out how to work all day and also deliver food to mouths in a timely fashion.
PRECISELY
(I could go [and have gone] on for hours about the time/money/access balancing act of food security and in/justice in the USA, but do not at present have mental energy, may do later)
Plus you have the fact that in many urban areas, people can work very far away from where they live, due to the lack of affordable housing, which also goes into that money vs labor calculation. Add into that various levels of ability and then food deserts….
Yeah, I remember growing up with McDonald’s as a pricey treat! Fast food’s only cheap compared to food from other restaurants.
And if you rely on SNAP/ WIC benefits, then you have a big portion of your food budget that you couldn’t use on fast food even if you wanted to.
(Trying to start some shit in the comments: baseball is boring, no matter how hot the players or their attitudes may be. Soccer forever! Did anyone else see Luis Robles’ incredible dual save vs Portland last night??? Red Bulls are the hottest team. Go ahead and google Damien Perrinelle and Luis Robles. I’ll wait.)
Baseball AND soccer are boring! American football and hockey and also bicycle stage racing forever!
I misunderstood this as you giving an example of how you troll in baseball forums and nodded along until I actually understood. That said, I’m with you (and also please go do this on a baseball forum).
Yes to soccer being better and triple yes to soccer players being hotter. I hadn’t heard of either of those players, because I don’t follow the MLS as much as I should (other than kind of Sporting KC and the super hot Graham Zusi), but I approve of both. Further Googleable players? Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez, Sergio Ramos, Mats Hummels, Alvaro Arbeloa.
Always here for hot soccer players.
And that picture of Keira Knightley in Bend it Like Beckham that keeps showing up on the sidebar.
And my soccer coach, which is a little awkward because he might be the hottest person I’ve ever seen in real life, but he’s also married to my favourite teammate.
And… oh let’s face it, if you play soccer there’s a good chance I want to bone you.
Brownmiller has been terrible for at least 30 years, when she first stated that victims of domestic violence are complicit in that abuse. Her suggestion was that they buck up and be more like her: she had defended herself from a potential abuser with a kitchen knife. Glad she cleared that up! No one should be surprised at her latest pronouncements.
It is pretty surreal seeing rape apologists champion Susan Brownmiller as a voice of reason. The comments section on the original piece is beyond bizarre.
The comments section on NYMag is vile. It’s so full of trolls and deeply-sarcastic liberals (I am one of the latter and not the former) that it’s virtually impossible to find a comment worth reading.
I still can’t let the article about the fake Victorians go. Today I read a lovely counterpoint to it, from last week’s New York Times magazine, about James Ivory (of Merchant Ivory), and his lovely, not-quite-of-this-era life, and about his lifelong commitments. Has anyone else read it? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/t-magazine/jame…
Oh, look at those floors!!
(I tweeted a lot about the fake Victorians, and I’m still getting laundry and plumbing themed twitterbots faving the tweets)
This might be the most delightful thing I’ve read in months. Thanks!
(also the Victorian couple is totally a sex thing! It’s so obviously a sex thing! Why else would she spend so much time talking about her underwear and bicycle!!)
I’m kind of embarrassed that I don’t understand what you mean by “a sex thing” but also really curious? (I’m considering posting this anon I’m so embarrassed, but then I won’t see any potential replies with explanations!)
fwiw, i’m mostly asexual so it sometimes takes a little work to figure out sex-appeal stuff.
Don’t worry about it! I’m convinced that they have a fetish for Corsets/19th-century underthings in general, and/or that this is a couples’ roleplaying thing that has gotten totally out of control (I’ll be Mr. Bates, you be Mrs. Bates). It reminds me very much of people who say they’re into “lifestyle S&M.”
The bicycle thing is a reference to the fact that people considered women riding bicycles dangerous for many reasons, one of which was the fact that there was a saddle between the rider’s legs.
Oh! I think I get it now. The reference to the bicycle threw me off, because I couldn’t figure out what that had to do with sex. Thanks for explaining 🙂
also, as my first thought about this couple/their story was a similar thing about corsets (the first line I saw was about putting the corset back on at the hospital to keep her waist trained, which is something I’ve only seen from fetishists), i fully agree with your assessment!
I just skimmed the medium post, but there were a lot of different comments she made that pinged “Fetish!” in my brain. I am actually kind of embarrassed for them.
Here’s a hilarious reference to “bicycle smile” in the early 20th century, from the criminally under-rated film “The Road to Wellville” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4mS85Vbvks
(For the record I don’t believe that most women ride bikes for sexual pleasure. I commuted three miles to school with a bike for two years, and it was mostly hot, sweaty and dusty.)
I can’t let them go either. What keeps bopping me on the head is how the difference between being endearingly eccentric and being obnoxiously affected so often rests in how you treat and think about other people while doing your own personal weird thing.
Brownmiller and many older women are stuck in the past. My theory is that they grew up so immersed in the Patriarchy that they just can’t break free. It’s like a virus that takes hold of their thinking. We forget that all of us are “infected”. Like that cold sore virus that lives in your nervous system. It’s just that older feminists sometimes lose resistance…and sexism breaks out like a nasty cold sore.
THAT is brilliant.
I love this. And the patriarchy is always evolving a new strain, so it makes sense that people who may not have been exposed to the new mutation won’t have resistance to it, while younger people have either got their vaccinations or been exposed to it in playgroup or wherever.
And we still gotta keep exposing kids to those old school sexist ideas and why they’re bunk, or we’ll have an anti-vaxxer situation on our hands – I know plenty of young people who have the sexism-equivalent of an outbreak of whooping cough and think that, for instance, there’s no such thing as unequal pay in the modern world. Have I taken this metaphor too far yet?
AHHHHH oh my god, those horrible comments by Chrissie Hynde (linked to in the Cosmo piece) seriously need a trigger warning. Oh my god. Fucking tragic seeing her say those things, including about an assault perpetrated on her. Oh my fucking god and about wearing high heels… it’s too awful to repeat any more in detail.
One thing that I’ve been thinking about recently re food and classism:
Coupons are such bullshit.
When I was a kid, my mother was a master couponer, I totally thought as a very small child that once HAD to have a coupon in order to buy certain foods, which was probably really convenient for her. And even then, I understood how much TIME was taken up with couponing– cutting and sorting and getting rid of old ones and sharing with the extended family…..
But all of that relies on getting the coupons in the first place, and when I’ve had less money, I’ve never had easy access to coupons. And while I imagine the sort of coupon clipping phone apps make things a bit better/easier, I can’t imagine the absurdity of rich people expecting poor people to remember to buy the paper on the right day to get the coupons, and ugggggh.
Here’s my issue with coupons — most coupons are for things I don’t eat/use, like frozen meals or razors or pop or whatever. I want coupons for fresh vegetables and dried beans!
I’ve been seeing more coupons for those things. In fact, I recently was mailed a coupon for a free bell pepper— I guess the local Stop&Shop recently redid their produce area — there are a LOT of grocery stores near me, and Wegmans is coming to the area shortly, so there’s even more pressure. I’ve also seen more store coupons that are things like “$5 off produce on orders totaling $25 or more”.
In a sort of related topic– Target has been bucking that whole trope of “cartoon characters are only used to sell sugary foods” by sometimes doing things like putting spiderman on a bag of grapes or apples or whatever, which I think is GREAT and, honestly, it works on me.
I think ‘coupon-ing’ isn’t as big of a deal in Europe, but any we ever did get were always for branded products that we never bought; 2 for £5 is still £5!
On the marketing thing however, the Lidl near my has started doing ‘healthy checkouts’, so instead of the usual sweets and magazines and general crap (usually at child-height for maximum tantrum probability), they have juice and fruit & nut snack packs and other yummy things; it completely works on me! (Although so far its only in the UK, and probably only in London TBH, I went to a Lidl in Ireland and Berlin and they have the usual stuff; in face in Berlin they have alcohol and smoking accessories and other random things, its funny what you can learn about a culture from what is places at the ‘impulse purchase’ checkout area!)
(in my mental plan for when I finally get to visit the UK, I have an entire day mentally blocked off to just visit supermarkets, because i spend enough time watching things like Eat Well For Less that I really want to have a better idea of the differences between the different options)
Well that’s one way to spend your holiday!
Its changed a bit in the last few years, but basically you’ve got:
Waitrose: Expensive, good for fancy ready meals and random bits that are hard to find, pretty much useless for a general shop; only super rich people do all their shopping here
Marks & Spencer : Fancy ready meals and other tasty things, but don’t sell any form of raw ingredients apart from maybe fruit. Only sell their own-brand products. Also expensive.
Tesco & Sainsburys: Good for general shopping, usually have a mega-store that sells everything you could need in a house (food, clothes, electrical goods, furniture, basically they don’t want you to shop anywhere else). Still pretty expensive, a weekly shop could easily run into £80-100 (more for a family). Carry a huge range of products
Asda & Morrisons: These guys compete on price, so its cheap and cheerful, you get a lot of package deals and multi-buys. Same products as the other places, but cheaper; also a lot of cheap processed/frozen stuff. These guys also carry a huge range of products
Lidl & Aldi: German discounters that moved in about 10-15 years ago and under-cut the entire market with typical German common sense and efficiency, they mostly stock off-brand products, and only carry a limited range, also stock seasonal ranges. British people are very brand-centric (for some reason, don’t ask me why), so it took them a long time to catch on because these guys used to only sell their branded products/German brands, but they have been stocking more familiar brands (or just straight ripping them off). Used to have a reputation for bad quality, but that was just because they were cheap and didn’t have the brand recognition, they’ve worked pretty hard to beat it now. Its brilliant for raw ingredients/big shops, they stock all the basics, plus some random stuff that you never would have thought to buy.
Personally I am a Lidl Evangelist (Never really shopped in Aldi, but apparently their the best supermarket in the UK now) its brilliant, every shop looks exactly the same, so you always know where to find things and they always stock the same stuff, although there are small cultural changes, so you can always find what you need! And its all set up to be super efficient, so you can get in and out nice and quick! Plus being the skin-flint I am, I can do an entire weekly shop, and buy what ever I want, for under £30, where as the same shop costs £60-80 in another supermarket.
(You probably didn’t need this, but I am a marketing nerd so actually studied this stuff and know far to much about it!)
I am excited, there is now and Aldi that is not close enough to shop at regularly, but close enough that I can visit and cross them off the list of things to do while actually IN the UK.
But all of the others are on my mental list.
(… it might end up being more along the lines of one market a day interspersed with doing other things. I started feeling better about this admittedly absurd plan after finding out that when a sweetie of mine went to the UK, he reorganized the entire trip so that he could see the exact house used for exterior shots in Spaced.)
We regularly hit up supermarkets for fun (and food!) when we travel- if only because that’s where the vegetables are if you’re otherwise eating your meals in restaurants. Supermarkets in other countries are awesome! Food for you, souvenirs for other people, fascinating cultural observations, all in one place. Albert Heijn was awesome when we were in Amsterdam because we could get veggies to munch on and supplies for very tasty salami and gouda sandwiches for lunch…
…actually I just have a thing for supermarkets, generally, as became apparent when I was talking to my coworkers about the best grocery stores in town to buy the different kinds of lentils you need for indian dals…and of course I met my husband through online dating because I referred to my torrid love affair with one of our local supermarkets…
I need the Food Co-op to be incorporated into this list, I just spent some time in England and I was trying to figure out where they fit into the grocery hierarchy. Between Waitrose and Sainsburys? Tell me why their produce is so much more expensive than Sainsburys! There was no Lidl or Aldi near me unfortunately.
Ah yes the Food Co-Op. TBH I haven’t a clue, I’ve only shopped at their ‘metro’ stores, which are stupid expensive no matter which one you go to.
I think they’re somewhere between Tesco and Asda, but they’re like M&S in that they mostly do ready-meals and pre-processed food.
Supermarkets in the UK can be crazy expensive anyway, especially the likes of Tesco who had market dominance for nearly 20 years. Recently they’ve all taken a hit since people realized you can get the same stuff for 1/2 the price at a ‘discounter’ like Aldi (Aldi/Lidl actually save their money on operations, not on purchasing of goods, Tesco and the like run such huge operations that they have no ability to adapt and just loose money constantly)
Co-op’s current slogan is ‘little, often, Co-op’ which gives you an idea of what they’re going for (and why they’re expensive). I think they’ve always been small-ish convenience stores before other supermarkets caught onto that idea. I live in Manchester where the Co-op is based, so we have hundreds of them but I’ve never seen a big one.
They’re full on acknowledging that they just want you to buy crap you don’t need now, their ads are like ‘I only popped in to buy eggs, but ended up buying stuff to make fajitas’ or ‘I was just going to get milk, but I got this ready meal curry instead to shove in my face while I watch sports.’
This breakdown of supermarkets was super cool (I love grocery shopping, can’t help it). Absolutely tickled, thank you!
Random digression that needs to happen because you wrote the word “Morrisons” – I was once given a box of supermarket-brand Morrisons assam tea that was better than any assam I have ever bought in the United States (even the expensive stuff).
It saddens me to this day.
It also makes me think that we need to set up a Toast International Product Exchange and keep each other in tea, coffee, candy, and etc.
You need to make friends with Irish people, we have a global network that makes sure we stay supplied with proper tea, sausages, crisps and chocolate even when we’re away from the mother-land. Anything you need can be gotten from somewhere ;D
AHHHH WAITROSE
Go to Waitrose. It’s hilarious. Especially their ‘Essentials’ range including such essential items as crème brulee and halloumi.
‘Essential Avocados’ £5 for 2.
Yeah no thanks mate.
I kind of bleed halloumi though, so it’s really more like eating spinach.
(tbh I was SHOCKED and THRILLED to see so much halloumi when in England! It wasn’t that long ago that I only ever got to eat it when my cousins would come back from Cyprus and now it’s in every grocery store, but I still don’t see it in restaurants at all.)
It’s a fairly recent thing, and do you know what, I think that may be down to Nandos. The first time I heard of halloumi was the halloumi burger at Nandos, and given how ubiquitous that particular chicken chain is I can believe that was many people’s first introduction. So we all found out halloumi is delicious and now it’s everywhere.
Oh god, Waitrose. I only ever went to one of their smaller stores but it was a treat indeed. Bafflingly expensive and the little cake I bought didn’t taste any better than ones from Sainsburys. I was quite disappointed.
I had a housemate once who would only get groceries from Marks & Spencer, which I thought was ridiculous at the time (he was a student who couldn’t cook), but after going into Waitrose, I decided that his parents probably did all their shopping there, so he thought he was being thrifty at M&S.
There is a particular breed of person who does all their food shopping at M&S and they are incomprehensible.
The housemate in question was the sort of person who was probably saved from his own pig-related infamy solely by not attending Oxford or Cambridge, so he was probably comprehensible if you tried… but why would you want to?
(Occasionally I feel guilty for making this guy sound so terrible because he wasn’t really that awful as a casual acquaintance but he was like the living embodiment of a Hugh Grant character minus any charm or self-awareness. There was never any hope for him.)
Wegmans has no-candy aisles with stuff like coloring books instead. It’s pretty nice! They also have checkout aisles with fancy imported chocolates, as well as ones with energy bars. I steer clear of the import aisle because I cannot resist Kinder bars.
Wegmans mails pretty useful coupons IME, for stuff like their store brand laundry detergent and paper towels; last week in their Menu magazine I also got a coupon for $1 off a two pack of Italian bread, making each loaf only $1.50! Also when I get my prescriptions filled there I get coupons. I’m just thinking mostly of the coupons I see in the Sunday paper or whatever.
YES. Wegmans directly sending me coupons I actually care about and will use is just one more on a long list of reasons I am so excited about a more convenient Wegmans coming to my life!!!!!
I am a lifelong Wegmans evangelist. Also, I love their cooking magazines (which they send you for free if you have a Shopper’s Club card)– I use those all the time for recipes.
I have a rewards card from the Albert Heijn like I’d imagine every person resident here does (Albert Heijn has got to be the biggest owner of Dutch demographic data, more than Facebook), and they do a lot of specials that are just based on the card, which they advertise pretty heavily. It does tend to affect what I buy, in that when this bag of salad greens is €1 off I buy it over the other, and I’d imagine it would more if I put more effort into it. But it does include a mix of fresh and packaged stuff, which is pretty good.
My mum used to have the Albert Heijn card when we lived in Holland – we would always analyse the receipt afterwards to see how much we saved, I miss it :(. Most of all I miss the Albert Heijn peanut butter, which is the best peanut butter in the entire world and – even after extensive research by me – cannot be substituted by any brand in the UK :(.
I do love the Albert Heijn, it’s a good combination of quality, price (enough) and the sort of silliness that keeps me amused while doing things like grocery shopping. And good ready meals for when I don’t feel entirely like cooking. I am sure that it is probably smarter to go to the Lidl but it’s further away and not as entertaining.
My housemate came back from a summer in Spain and Romania (her home country) and was so excited to go to the Albert Heijn again.
My local supermarket loyalty card stalks your purchases and sends you coupons for stuff you buy a lot of – unfotunately I don’t do much shopping there, but I do get coupons for impulse-purchased oreos and the occasional “oh no we only have one roll of toilet paper!” emergency.
What bugs me is that to shop I have to have a ‘discount card’ at Kroger or Marsh to get the regular price. I just want to shop – I don’t want to join your cult!
One of the stores near me seems to have done away with their rewards card altogether, and then seemed to replace it with the scheme from the…. 80s? where every ten dollars you spend gets you a little sticker you put in your book and if you get enough stickers you get a free saute pan or whatever??????????????? So strange.
Oh, that is weird. The whole reason stores do reward card cult memberships is so they can resell your data, while a free saute pan, after all, tells no tales…
YES.
Hah! I got a set of wine glasses from the Albert Heijn via this. I worked for those wine glasses, damn it.
They do that at the Shop N Saves by me. but hey, my roommates and I got some new pans…
I think the stickers were more of a 60s/70s thing. Anyway we got two really nice pans with the stickers. Also a couple of attractive plates. Huzzah!
I think they are just collecting our data based on our debit/credit card numbers instead of a separate card number since hardly anyone uses cash or check at the grocery store anymore and those who do probably aren’t that valuable to marketers due to being old and/or poor.
Yeah but at Wegmans at least the sales are SO good. $0.79 for a 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes!
Joiiiiiiin the KROGER CULT.
Big Data is benevolent. Big Data gives you coupons for things you buy regularly!
Yes! I don’t mind Kroger knowing my secrets as long as they keep using them to send me coupons for literally my entire regular shopping list. (Also, the two Krogers closest to me have gas stations, so I’m obsessed with the gas discount points.)
I want them to stop giving me paper coupons. I do my shopping on my way home after work. I do not want my purse cluttered up with coupons, but occasionally they are for things I actually need/use/want. But I would love it if they would just associate them with my card and then use them the next time I am there. Some places already do this – you swipe your loyalty card and they say “oh, you have a free X, do you want to use that today?”, but CVS still insists on printing me a receipt as long as I am tall.
I have so many questions. Also, I covet that gas cooktop.
Couponing is no joke. My mom would also review all the grocery store fliers and try to figure out where she could get the most bang for her buck. I’m pretty sure you could run supply lines in an actual war with the same amount of strategy she applied. But there were five of us kids, so it was kind of like feeding an army, especially when my four brothers were all teenagers.
But like I said above, she was a stay at home mom, and so could even contemplate doing this. Plus my mom had a car, lived in a place where you could actually drive around conveniently, and gas was so much cheaper back then. I cannot imagine trying to pull this off on low wages and in an urban or very rural area where it takes forever to get anywhere even if you can afford the car and the gas to make it go.
I think also coupons for more useful things were more common back then. My brother is one of those extreme couponers now, and if you need a metric ton of shaving cream or more toilet paper than you have bathroom, you’re all set. But who actually needs that? He does, however, coupon for his baby-having friends and can get a mountain of diapers or formula for them for couch change–that is a very useful trick.
Couponing/bulk buying also relies on having storage space! I tend to live year to year in house shares, and have for the last few years, also don’t have a car, there’s no way I’m buy a years supply of toilet paper at once!
My friend from high school is a MC (Master Couponer), and most of the stuff she buys in bulk for cheap she donates to her local food pantry/ homeless shelter. It’s a great idea – they need all the help/toiletries/non-perishables they can get.
I’ve lived in house shares my whole adult life and I definitely buy dry goods and consumables in bulk. It’s a house share, there’s a 90% chance of being stuck with a guy who likes to spray cheap wine all over the walls, having a little hoarder cache of rice and Ziploc bags somewhere ain’t gonna exactly be the thing to make the place unpresentable.
If you’re living with people who help themselves to anything you get that’s another story but that calls for shifting your lifestyle to center more around murder, not buying for the short term.
It’s more the tragic lack of storage that hinders bulk buying, especially in the kitchen, since you loose at least 4 cupboard s to each person having their own instead of having one clipboard for dry goods and another for tins etc as you would in your own place. I’ve already claimed the tops of the cupboard s and the fridge, even buying a 4 pack of kitchen towel presents storage issues! *cry*
Also lack of car means bringing 20 packs of toilet paper on the bus with a full shop. There are definitely days where I understand people who live out of the corner shop! Expensive, but convenient!
Couponing isn’t really a thing here in Canada, but price-matching is! If you have a flyer from another grocery store where a product is cheaper, you show it to the cashier and they give you that product for that price. I get flyers from four different grocery stores delivered to my door every week even though I don’t get the paper, and then I can just go to the closest store to me and get the sale prices from any of the stores! Some time spent reading through the flyers and highlighting the sales I want to take advantage of, but not too bad.
Re: Trump. He did have surgery. Be REALLY warned, this is hard to read.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/…
OH THANK GOD it’s not true that marital rape is legal over there, the article went on for ages between first introducing the quote and pointing out that it’s false, argh. It’s not so long ago that it was made illegal here, it was terrifyingly plausible.
Having trouble breathing now. What a terrible, terrifying person.
Oh geez, Nicole, heart officially broken by the Marine article and the little girl with HIV article back-to-back. I was awful at taking pills as a kid (still kind of am) and once had a stomach ailment that required pills as a treatment. It was a disaster. I remember my parents’ desperation over that relatively minor illness – to have it be life and death? Oh man.
And what the hell is the VA’s problem? It’s like they have no idea what kind of people they’re dealing with or what kind of trauma they’ve been through. I honestly don’t know how to move these guys to a satisfying life post-military, but jobs doing things like managing a sandwich shop and pretending none of their war experiences ever happened has to be the worst possible method.
And what the hell is the VA’s problem? It’s like they have no idea what kind of people they’re dealing with or what kind of trauma they’ve been through.
I suspect the problem with the VA is some combination of: just as armies tend to fight their last war rather than their current one, the VA probably prepares for the last round of veterans that they treated, notwithstanding differences in the types of injuries and medical advances since the last major war (Vietnam); it takes some time to study the problem and come up with alternate solutions when it’s apparent that the old ones aren’t working; lack of funding (you’ll note that you don’t see “Support the Veterans” bumper stickers and magnets with anything like the frequency of the yellow-ribbon “Support the Troops” ones). No less than that old imperialist Rudyard Kipling had some sharp words WRT the change in regard for soldiers when there was a war on and when there wasn’t.
Yeah, I respect that research takes time and that PTSD isn’t necessarily easy to treat. Some of the VA experiences in that piece are inexcusable, though, and the quotes they did get suggest a certain defensiveness not conducive to change. We’ve been getting vets back from Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly 15 years and we still don’t know for sure whether combat stress increases suicide risk? I mean really. Ugh, yeah, a lot of “Support our troops” lip service that does nothing, that’s for sure.
I <3 that Awl piece on Trump’s hair. “I think that would help a lot…. I don’t really want to help him, though.”
ps Also we are not stereotyping “so much” we are stereotyping just the right amount.
That books list is the gift that just keeps giving!
I’ve noticed the ads for Margo Jefferson’s new book on this page and just want to nudge any Toastie considering it to read it, it is SO good.
THAT PUPPY HAS STOLEN MY HEART
How do we apply to become friends with Carrie so we can hug the puppy? Is there a form to fill out? Do we need to treat Carrie to a sample friend date, and if so, does Carrie want to see “Grandma”, the new movie with Lily Tomlin, because I have not had a chance to see that yet?
Just popped in to say another great set of links, my mornings are MADE with Link Roundup (as is my evening, saving articles to be read later, gotta run!).
I just read the Unabomber piece and then also the entire Unabomber Wikipedia entry, oops. I need to get back to work before I go any farther down the infinite rabbit hole that is reading about serial killers on the internet.
Yikes, though:
“On May 24, 2012, Kaczynski submitted his current information to the Harvard University alumni association. He listed his eight life sentences as awards, his current occupation as prisoner.”
I saw Matt Lubchansky IN THE FLESH at SPX this weekend, and was too shy to say anything to him 🙁 Sorry Matt!! If you saw someone pass by your table a few times, glancing over occasionally while blushing, it may have been me.
SAY HI NEXT TIME, i don’t bite and will hopefully be back next year????!!!! SPX is good as heck
This morning I was idly wondering about that person on the Stephen Colbert article who was very angry about organised religion. And I thought ‘I wonder if it was really Colbert himself that seems like a thing he might do’ and now I CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT.
AHHHHH oh my god, those horrible comments by Chrissie Hynde (linked to in the Cosmo piece) seriously need a trigger warning. Oh my god. Fucking tragic seeing her say those things, including about an assault perpetrated on her. Oh my fucking god and about wearing high heels… it's too awful to repeat any more in detail.
#topbantz