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How NYC’s Chinatown has stayed Chinatown:

Here are portraits of what could be called the Chinatown Establishment: a collection of people with deep roots in the neighborhood and unusual influence in shaping its future. Some wield familiar levers of power, like political position and real-estate portfolios. Others are included for reasons more particular to the neighborhood: pastors to the devout, third-generation herbalists, restaurateurs, labor activists (who have more muscle in Chinatown than just about anywhere else). Their visions for the neighborhood’s future, and their worries for it, vary considerably. (Such is New York.) But overall, they stand a fighting chance of controlling the fate of some of the most valuable land in the city. Here are five reasons why.


On disclosing mental illness in academia:

For every Saks or McElroy, though, there are many more academics who choose not to disclose their disabilities. I reached out to colleagues who have chosen to keep their disabilities secret, asking them if they have any advice for others. They all expressed a strong fear of being discovered, even despite my assurances that I would treat their words with the utmost privacy. Most of these folks are contingent professors.

One professor who teaches in a full-time contingent position at an R1 university said she would only disclose her mental health issues “under subpoena.” She believes that disclosing would hurt her job security because “contingent faculty can be so easily terminated.” In her opinion, contingent—and even pre-tenure—professors simply don’t have “the luxury to volunteer stigmatizing personal information.”


When threats from men taught me how to be a woman:

I had an entire block of light from the CVS windows to walk through before my body could plunge into darkness, which I knew could either help me or hurt me. I feared the dark because there I was most likely to get beat up, but it could potentially offer me safety — in the dark, the parts of my body that might give me away as a trans woman didn’t show. As I walked those hundred yards to the next crosswalk, I prayed that those men’s light would change, so that we could go in our opposite directions.

But light was not on my side. A moment later, a man blocked my path, and said, “Miss, my friend really wants to talk to you.”

I raised my head and looked him in the eye when I heard him say “Miss” — there was the promise of respect in that word, the promise that these men would see me the way I saw myself. Back then, I didn’t know yet that the chance of getting respect from the kind of men who would bother a woman on the street was slim. I hadn’t fully absorbed that this was not the kind of attention I wanted, that this type of attention could so easily turn — especially for trans women. When men approach us to express their attraction, they also stand to punish us for threatening their masculinity if they find out who we really are.


My friend Carrie’s new puppy likes to gaze majestically into the distance/the bushes:

cwf_gazing


HMMMMMM:

Two top Army generals recently discussed trying to kill an article in The New York Times on concussions at West Point by withholding information so the Army could encourage competing news organizations to publish a more favorable story, according to an Army document.

The generals’ conversation involved a Freedom of Information Act request that The Times made in June for data on concussions resulting from mandatory boxing classes at the United States Military Academy. The Times also requested similar data from the Air Force Academy in June, and from the Naval Academy this month.


This is an ODDLY GRIPPING tale of a scammy cosmetics company:

Courtney is one of the few outspoken Lime Crime bloggers who has not fled the conversation over the years. Many people have gone silent, leaving ghost blogs and abandoned instagrams in their wake. It’s not for nothing — it’s public knowledge that Deere has pursued litigation against bloggers based in the U.S who have written negative reviews of the brand. She sued the founder of the first Lime Crime-critical blog, Doe Deere Lies, Michelle Jasczyn, for just under $250,000 — not on the basis of libel or slander, but for copyright infringement.


get yours, Tamal!

Great British Bake Off contestant Tamal has become something of a heartthrob, with fans professing their love for him on social media every Wednesday evening.

So naturally, the question on everyone’s lips has been is Tamal available?

“I wouldn’t have a girlfriend, I would have a boyfriend,” Tamal tells us in this week’s Radio Times magazine. “But I am single at the moment.”


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TOASTIES
LIN MANUEL MIRANDA SPOKE TO ME INDIRECTLY

So I’ve been fangirling “Non-Stop” about Hamilton, and my friend (who is 35 ah I have adult friends now) in my Intro to Queer class turns out to be old friends with LMM! So without my knowledge she sent him a note saying that Daisy says Anthony Ramos’ hair is my everything. So yesterday she pulls out her phone and theres a note saying “AND YOU ARE MY ANTHONY RAMOS HAIR, thanks for the note I really needed it”.
WHAT.
GAH.

In less exciting news us firsties beat the sophomores and juniors at trivia last night which means a whole bunch of points! If our costumes and song go over well, we might actually beat the sophomores at the end of the week!
17 replies · active 496 weeks ago
We didn't all already know about Tamal? Are people actually shocked? (I'm not shocked but I am a bit heartbroken.)
18 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Wait, weird sentence in that Lime Crime article (which is BANANAS by the way, oh my god): at one point were being stocked at all the favorite deep-Internet fashion retailers: Nasty Gal, ModCloth, Dolls Kill, Urban Outfitters

I....is ModCloth and Urban Outfitters "deep Internet" in some way? I don't think UO was "deep internet" or "hipster-only" even like, five years ago, because I definitely shopped there in high school which was, ahem, MORE THAN FIVE YEARS AGO.
9 replies · active 496 weeks ago
She swears but constrains her expletives to those that begin with a 'b'.

The Queen everyone: http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/september-201...
21 replies · active 496 weeks ago
I guess I don't get the controversy over concussions in a mandatory boxing class at a military academy. Training injuries should be avoided, but it isn't like the USMA is college, per se. It is turning out soldiers?
14 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Toasts, I couldn't be with you yesterday because I had an all-staff meeting (ugh) but I have some important Canadian livestock news to share with you:

A goat was arrested by the RCMP after refusing to leave a Tim Horton's

Now there are allegations that the goat was actually the victim of a kidnapping!. (Hehe... kid-napping.)

Also, cows were protesting on Parliament Hill yesterday and I only wish I could have seen it with my own eyes, because look at this!.
3 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Who else's social media has become a terrible place to be because of the Planned Parenthood hearings yesterday? A college friend was posting about Planned Parenthood on Facebook last night, and a friend of his (a dude, obviously) was all over the comments talking about how he just wants men to have equal say in whether a woman keeps her pregnancy or not.

Argghhhhh fuck that dude so much. I lost a damn 1500 ccs of blood when my second was born and that was an uncomplicated delivery. As of this week, I have been pregnant or nursing for three solid years. Come talk to me about your equal say when you've been sustaining two humans on your bodily fluids for actual years, dickbag. There is no equality in biology.

Argh, okay, rant over. I'm going to gaze at Nicole's friend Carrie's new puppy for awhile now.
61 replies · active 496 weeks ago
I... want to have sympathy for mentally ill people in academia but I really wish someone would write about mentally ill people in corporate America or the trades, who are treated the same way or worse, plus an additional load of sexism, racism, and homophobia most academics never have to contend with.
7 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Re: the Lime Crime article. Hands up if you find the idea of the online knitting community doxxing someone absurd, terrifying, and "aw, how cute! What are you going to do, crochet me a blankie to dry my tears?" cute AT THE SAME TIME.
25 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Also, HEALTH MONTH TOASTIES, is the Toast team registered to play for October? I missed out on September's game because I forgot to confirm my rules before the 1st (which is a silly requirement, I think) but I want to get back into it and it is so much easier to stay motivated if I'm in the team rather than by myself.
4 replies · active 496 weeks ago
TAMAL. I hope he finds a lovely boyfriend who appreciates him.
I love both Tamal and Nadiya dearly. In baking news in my own life, I am currently eating a slice of Irene Dunne's chocolate and vinegar cake, made by my deskmate who makes recipes by Hollywood stars. It's amazing and the recipe is weird. Only 60g of butter, 5 tsp of vinegar, only 56g of chocolate and a lot of sugar and flour. Such little fat! Such a light and fluffy cake!
6 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Can we talk about Kim Davis, the Pope, and if that did or didn't happen?
13 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Mental illness in academia... yep, that's me. I post in the open thread sometimes. I feel myself wanting to disclose all the time, but when I do disclose that I'm disabled (I don't name it) it's not great.
2 replies · active 496 weeks ago
OH Tamal, so so charming. Hope he finds a great boy who wants to reminisce about and rank sandwiches with him
I really wish there was a way to talk about "mental illness" that made it sound different. Like a non-stigmatized term. Like, "I have serotonin reuptake syndrome, for which I take daily medication, NBD." Something that makes it sound really MEDICAL and not something where people will suggest things like "have you tried yoga/prayer/leading a less stressful life?"
17 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Oh my gosh, automotive is a very conservative industry. At least that's the impression I got when I used to work automotive events at my old job. It's a real old boys club too, if my impressions were accurate. I feel for you, a lot.
WHAT. I mean, seriously? THERE IS NOT AN APP FOR THAT. NO ONE WHO HAS ANY OTHER DISEASE HAS EVER CURED IT BY AN APP, WHY WOULD SEROTONIN REUPTAKE SYNDROME BE CURED BY AN APP?" I'm seriously going to start using that. Except that I want to erase the stigma attached to mental illness, and if I can't disclose mine as a somewhat securely employed person in a professional field, who can?
2 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Oh, Nicole Cliffe! This is just to say that, while I do not have time to do the MOOC, I told my mother about it and she is THRILLED.
10 replies · active 496 weeks ago
You know how people going to gastric bypass or lap band surgery make plans for that elaborate final meal before surgery? (Or, at least, people I know who have had it done have done so.)

I'm making plans for all the foods I'm going to eat when I'm on the other side of this. It's practically a Pinterest board.
2 replies · active 496 weeks ago
I have discovered from today's issue of The Guardian that "Netflix and chill" does not mean what I assumed it did. As someone who spends most of her evenings indulging in the literal meaning of the phrase, I am disappointed. (Also, I am useless at keeping abreast of the zeitgeist.) http://www.theguardian.com/media/shortcuts/2015/s...
23 replies · active 496 weeks ago
GUYS the Toronto Zoo has a PREGNANT PANDA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgTm5HIDZ0M
1 reply · active 496 weeks ago
I'm repeating a comment I made earlier, but if you live near a Kroger you can set up your Kroger card to donate money to local organizations, including Planned Parenthood or local animal shelters, and it costs you NOTHING.
It takes like, 3 minutes, and even if you're not down with PP you can view a list of eligible organizations, and the eligible list in my area also included stray pet adoption organizations and a local women's shelter. If many people do this, it could really help out a local branch of whatever nonprofit you choose! https://www.kroger.com/communityrewards
2 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Ah, Lime Crime history. Such a classic internet tale. My first thought upon reading that article was "Aww, I miss Lipstick and Lightsabers!"; Anastasia spoke to my inner glam nerd. Also, Phyrra continues to be an awesome beauty blogger and anyone interested in weird lipstick colours and/or poodles should check her out.
TOASTS have you heard about this horrifying app that's coming out soon that's being called the "Yelp for people"??!?!? People can rate you whether you want them to or not! How could this POSSIBLY go wrong?
6 replies · active 496 weeks ago
Our* new puppy is getting so tall!

*Fine, Carrie's
I mean, just because they're going to be doing risky things in the future is no reason that they should be taking unnecessary risks now? My dad always talks about* how back when he was in training-- not even academy, but like "we're about to hand you a gun" training, they used to limit the amount of water that Marines could drink during endurance exercises in order to acclimate people to harsh battlefield conditions. But getting hurt isn't something you can acclimate to-- you either get hurt now or you do it later. They discontinued that policy because people were getting seriously injured and even dying from dehydration. I don't see why they can't do the same thing with concussions.

*Naturally, this comes from some very Dad Magazine-esque lectures about drinking enough water

**god damn, obviously meant as a reply to GruntledDave
1 reply · active 496 weeks ago
Awesome article here on adopting your first pet - http://blog.allstate.com/htf-adopting-first-pet/

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