Friend of The Toast Jacqui Shine on the strange history of ABC Family (I didn’t know ANY of this stuff, btw):
But my older associations with ABC Family get in the way. According to network president Tom Ascheim, Deadline reported Tuesday, the motivation for the rebranding was that “core viewers understand the younger, social-media active brand while non-viewers associate it with wholesome and family-friendly programming.” This name-change marks a decisive effort to finally shed the neoconservative Christian ethos that has dogged the channel’s branding, however mildly, since Fox bought the network from Pat Robertson in 1998. Yes, that Pat Robertson. In the ABC Family constellation, the televangelist may be the Foster family’s strangest bedfellow. He has maintained a hold on the network’s identity through two sales, and, however vigorous Freeform’s rebranding, he’ll continue to lurk in the background.
Robertson founded the network, then called CBN Satellite Service, in 1977. CBN’s flagship program was The 700 Club, a five-day-a-week program already in production for 11 years; it began as a nightly religious variety show—it’s where Jim and Tammy Faye Baker got their start—but has gradually evolved into a newsmagazine style talk show. Over the next two decades, under Robertson’s ownership and his son’s direction, the network dropped most of the explicitly religious content and evolved into The Family Channel. Even then, the network struggled with its core identity. Like a weird mash-up of competitors Nick at Nite and the Game Show Network, The Family Channel broadcast wholesome syndicated series like Ozzie and Harriet and Barney Miller and tepid originals like Big Brother Jake and parenting game show (not joking) Wait ‘til You Have Kids!!
Buzzfeed has found my niche (Hamilton):
and even more so:
Here is a cool podcast with Rebecca Carroll on race, the limits of white guilt as journalism, the need for more EDITORS of color, and what she calls “the anti-It Gets Better” experience of her work in media.
yes (this is a cartoon about spending the day with a baby)
Hayden Panettiere has checked into a treatment center for postpartum depression, and I’m really glad she’s talking about it openly. Mental health stuff is already something people shy away from disclosing, and add our national hang-ups around motherhood to that, and you’ve got a stew going:
“It’s something a lot of women experience. When [you’re told] about postpartum depression you think it’s ‘I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure or hurt my child’ — I’ve never, ever had those feelings. Some women do. But you don’t realize how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on. It’s something that needs to be talked about. Women need to know that they’re not alone, and that it does heal.”
For years I’ve known that my mother lived in New York City in the early 1960s and was a secretary before she married my father. Recently I was reminded that she’d worked at Playboy magazine. She said I knew this—how had I forgotten?
This was Playboy at its peak, when it was an intellectual magazine as well as a pinup, when people really did subscribe to it for the articles. But it was also when the Playboy Clubs were ridiculously popular and Nora Ephron was told that “women don’t write at Newsweek.”
I pictured my mom in a tight sweater typing away, wishing the world would change. Was this right? She agreed to an interview and the following conversation occurred by email over the course of several days.
Choire on pieces he chose not to publish (oh, man, I have my own list in my mind right now.)
Kima Jones interviewing Marlon James (this is older, but great):
The idea that ancestors are always present and that their duties don’t stop with death is something that’s been a part of literary and oral and musical culture from the beginning. In this novel, the twist I made is that no one can hear the ghost and no one is listening anyway, so it’s the source of his torment. Even if there is wisdom of the elders, no one is listening, and it’s the reason why we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. The character in the book, Arthur Jennings, dies a violent death, and he keeps seeing people around him dying of violent deaths—the seven killings, and more and more. A dead person almost becomes a sort of Cassandra. Even if they have this wisdom or experience, or they know the mistakes they fell prey to and they have this information to bestow, it doesn’t mean that we’re taking it. We’re rejecting it because we just don’t believe in it anymore.
If anything, this novel is about the severing of the link between the ghosts and the spirits and the living. In the absence of that link, everything sort of falls apart.
just some gay dudes who love baseball, man, I love to see this kind of aside in an article:
As fans piled onto Addison Street after the game, celebrating while trying to navigate the packed crowd, P.D. Wadler slipped into Starbucks.
“Hi!” he said as he FaceTimed his mom, dad and aunt in Texas. He smiled, waving. “It was awesome!”
Wadler, 55, and his husband witnessed the win from their seats in left field.
“I could cry, you know,” his husband Richard Brown, 60, said. “And what could happen could be amazing.”
My friend Carrie’s new puppy enjoys faux-fur throws:
Latoya Peterson on her issues with Miranda July’s Rihanna profile:
I wonder if that “omg can you believe I get to interview this person?” trope is just another kind of racially influenced narcissism – why center the words of the black woman I am speaking to when my inner dialogue is so much more interesting? There can’t be two subjects of a profile piece. And, interestingly enough, it’s anathema to the entire celebrity journalist code – the first rule is that you do not fan out, because it obscures your subject. If you are too busy fawning, you don’t ask follow up questions, and you don’t reveal anything new to your readers/viewers. (There are many issues with celebrity rags, but this sort of thing would not fly in People Magazine.)
Hamilton on BET, YES. RENEE ELISE, YES:
Do #BlackLivesMatter in presidential debates? Meh, says Jamil Smith, he’s not impressed:
About halfway through Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, CNN moderator Anderson Cooper said, “I want to talk about issues of race in America. For that, I want to start off with Don Lemon.” I shuddered. For one thing, there’s the whole let’s-go-to-the-black-guy-to-ask-about-race thing, which was followed later in the debate by an instance of let’s-go-to-the-Latino-guy-to-ask-about-immigration. But I was primarily concerned that Lemon, known for his empty stunts andbizarre remarks, might ask one of his own questions. I feared it would be laced with the rubbish respectability politics that have earned him side-eyes from black viewers and interview subjects alike.
Thankfully, Lemon cut to a Facebook question from Sterling Arthur Wilkins, a black law student from Des Moines, Iowa. “My question for the candidates is,” Wilkins asked, “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?” That was it.
How is this happening in 2015?? pic.twitter.com/DjzuBI9IEy
— CastAndLoose (@CastAndLoose) October 14, 2015
Oh, our puppy friend is starting to look like a big girl dog! Curse time’s winged chariot! (Don’t worry, all dogs are puppies to me always.)
In related dog news, last night I dreamed I had a HUGE mastiff dog who was good at full body cuddles. I suspect Nicole’s influence at play in my subconscious’s creation of this dream.
I just would like to complain here that I got a luxurious faux fur throw and our cats HATE it. I have to turn it fur-side down.
When I hear the word ‘Wholesome’, I reach for my revolver.
I got a bike! https://instagram.com/p/81B2TgBxMU/?taken-by=selm…
Thank you to everyone who posted advice on Monday! I took a bit of a risk and bought a bike that needs a little bit of work, but its the exact kind of bike I wanted (with front basket and all!). I had to walk it 40 mins to a petrol station to pump up the tires, both were flat when I picked it up, but after that it seems to be running great. The brakes need a little bit of work (back break is jammed, front brake is a bit soft), but it was looked at by a bike mechanic who said it should be an easy enough fix (probably just needs a new cable for the back brake, front just needs a tighten). I’m going to bring it in on the weekend to my local place and have it serviced, and then I should have a brilliant bike! 😀
And now I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of buying stuff! I just got a lock and a set of allen keys at lunch (seat is too high for me right now), and I need to get a helmet and all the hi-vis gear, and I’m eyeing some pannier bags that I probably don’t need, but so totally want.
I am loving this thread. Good luck with your new bike, Selma!
The sexism and traffic safety issues are something I see a lot of, biking in central North Carolina. I recommend picking up as many safety lights and reflectors as will make you feel like a dork, and then adding a few. I also love having a coffee cup holder on my handle-bars. (Just putting it out there, for the rabbit hole.) 🙂
Oooh coffee cup holder. Interesting. I have been thinking a phone holder might be a good idea, I use maps a lot to get around and pulling my phone out of my pocket constantly would be annoying!
You can get these little pouches that velcro/secure to your bike frame in between you and the handlebars. I have a cheapie one off Amazon, my dad has a nicer cheapie one that I’m jealous of (his hangs below the top bar and zips, mine balances on top and is all velcro, also the straps on mine are impossibly long and i can’t figure out what frame they WOULD fit??).
I stick my phone + lock key + forehead sweat rag + id/bank card in the different pockets, and then it’s easy to pull my phone out to check the map, and I can just remove the entire pouch when i run into a shop (if I’m doing a short ride and don’t have my basket attached or I’m not wearing my backpack). But also I’m a suburban rider, not really in a city just yet.
PLUS some of the safety lights are just fun!
i have the “night-ize disco lights” that you stick into the spokes on your wheel and they shift through LED color spectrum and look really fucking cool at dusk (I don’t ride at full dark), and the shifting colors are IMO a little more noticeable than just one color flashing (but you can set them to flash red, too!)
Closer to the holidays, I have a short string of battery-operated LED Christmas lights. I weave the lights around my handlebars/top tube (using zip ties if necessary) and then put the battery pack in a ziplock bag that I tape under my saddle. (Keeps it dry but I can still slide the on/off button.)
And since LED lights use almost zero power, I can turn them on when I leave the house in the evening and leave them on when the bike is locked up to a rack while I’m indoors, and it looks festive and makes people smile. Not bad for something that cost me less than $5.
(That bike also has nice bright front and rear generator lights–the Christmas lights are just for funsies.)
Yay! Have so much fun! Make sure you have a good lock or two!
I just bought a cheapish cable lock so I can start taking my bike out and about, but I’m going to get a good chain lock as soon as I can afford it, I do not want this bike going walk-abouts!
One, late to the party, congrats on the bike! It looks lovely. And, two, may I recommend a u-lock. They work well in tandem with a cable lock, because there a bit harder to cut with say bolt cutters, not that you couldn’t saw one off with a hack saw, but it would take a lot of time. Some of them used to have a flaw where you could jam open the lock mechanism with a bic pen, but I think they’ve fixed that.
Seconding the U-lock. Definitely a U-lock.
Definitely get a pump! Bike tires lose air as they sit because of physics, and in order to avoid pinch flats (where you go over a bump and the inner tube gets pinched inside the tire between the ground and your rim), you need to pump up your tires every time you ride. It’ll save you money and grief in the long run.
And sexism in bicycling, good grief yes. There’s one or two local bike shops where I live that are really, really sexist, while the one I work(ed) at actually employs women and has women’s group rides (a nice, safe space when you’re sick of the assholes telling you how to shift or bragging to each other about how much their bikes weigh). I’ve heard all manner of horror stories, including A Man at another shop who told a woman the reason her seat was causing her discomfort was because she needed to lose weight (not even true! I’m a Fat Lady who rides bikes and my saddles are comfy!), men who just straight-up don’t even bother to help women shopping at their stores, men who try to steer women towards less high-performance bikes than they want, you name it. Ugh. #banmen
I was thinking of getting one of those little pumps, I don’t think a proper floor pump is in the budget, and I’m too lazy anyway, I’ll just use the pump at the petrol station. I’ve been reading up about tire pressure though and I definitely didn’t put enough air in last night when I pumped up the tires, but I was in a hurry and I haven’t used a proper air machine in awhile so I was struggling to make it work AND THEN A MAN TURNED UP. Guh. He literally took the hose off me and did it for me and then did his own tires. I know he only did it cause he wanted me to hurry up and he wanted to do his tires, but its still infuriating. He wouldn’t have done it to a bloke with a car, no just cause I’m a girl with a purple bike who was taking some time to figure it out I had to be hurried along. AGGGGHHHH. (Turns out cycling is bringing out all kinds of sexism issues for me.)
I’m nervous to go to my local bike shop, which is annoying me cause its just a shop! but I hate going in places and having guys laugh at me (it happened in a paint shop awhile ago, I was looking for woodstain, picked up one I thought would work, turns out it was a ‘base’ and you have to mix it with other paint to get the colour you want. The guy thought this was very funny. LIKE FUCK OFF YOU NEED TO PUT UP A SIGN OR SOMETHING.). I don’t know enough about bikes to be able to smack them down if I have to. Luckily there seems to be a few DIY bike workshop groups around me, so they might be a good chance to learn more!
Ughhhhhhhh #banmen
Oh, be careful with the air pressure on
gaspetrol station pumps. Not sure what they’re like in the UK, but in America they can blow out a tire very easily, and ruin the valves even if they don’t.that is a beautiful bike and my clunky $89-from-WalMart beach cruiser bike is ashamed of its existence right now, compared to yours.
i was carefully reading the replies to your question on Monday, because i’ve been thinking about upgrading to a proper bikeshop-purchased bike, but just wasn’t sure (i think i’m ready for hand brakes and gears but more importantly, a frame that fits so I’m not constantly worried that my saddle’s pole will topple out because there’s only like 1 inch inserted in the frame tube and it’s STILL too short for me and also it’s the standard “large” size bike, so am i going to have to get a men’s bike without the comfortable swoopy-downy bit, which makes it easier to rest at stoplights???) (also, i need a luggage rack and panniers for grocery shopping or at least so i can take a decent picnic lunch and not have my fruit squished by my extra water in my basket and/or backpack)
I used a lot of filters to hide the rust, its not a fancy as it look! it was only a £60 gumtree (craigslist) find.
I’ve become a recent convert to the ‘ladies’ bike, its so easy to get on/off! I used to insist on riding ‘proper’ bikes, for god knows what reason, sexism probably, but fuck that, my hips are not good enough anymore to be swinging my legs over the saddle! And seriously, the dutch style, while heavy and awkward to carry, are sooo comfy to ride, you just cruise along! I knew I had to get one because I have bad wrists and leaning all my upper body on my hands (as one does on a road bike/most hybrids) is awful for me, 5 minutes and my wrists are screaming!
Ohh no my shoulders/back can’t handle the leaning forward! I tried using a recumbent exercise bike, but found that it wasn’t really providing the strength-training to my lower back that I needed, and also was really nervous about a low-to-the-ground proper bike, so went with the beach cruiser type when I decided my back was strong enough to try. I can sit mostly upright, so I’m not hunched forward. The other week, I was riding into headwinds up a hill, which meant I needed to lean forward, and I was hurting so bad later.
I would love to have a full dutch bike instead of the beach cruiser type, but it’s not in the budget and pretty rare around here – I live in Florida, so the beach cruiser is a very common style.
You should check out what are called “comfort” bikes. If you find a shop that carries the brand Specilaized, they should have some good options for you. There are ones with step-thru frames, and they are designed so you are upright and also so you can put your feet on the ground while still getting proper leg extension. They aren’t cheap ($400 I think for the base model), but they do what you want, aren’t terribly heavy, and come with a lifetime warranty on the frame.
I had no idea that a comfort bike wasn’t one of those weird trikes I sometimes see. I will look into it, thank you! I need to visit my local bike shops anyway to learn more about what not-$89-at-Walmart options are out there that fit me.
Having a rusty bike isn’t the worst thing (as long as it’s not so rusted that the structural integrity is compromised) because they’re less attractive to thieves.
Get the panniers. Not to be hyperbolic, but panniers changed my life. So much easier then slinging a messenger bag.
The whole reason I got a bike is so I can do my weekly shopping; at the moment I have a backpack and just carry extra bags as needed and I get the bus. Pannier’s (or possibly a trailer, cause why the fuck not?) will probably be a necessity if I want to do any kind of proper shopping! (and bungee cords! all the bungees!)
Congratulations! In terms of accessories, I’d suggest spacing them out in this order of priority, roughly:
1) Safety: helmet, hi-vis gear, lights if you want to ride at night.
2) The tools needed to fix a flat: tire levers (to help you get the tire on and off the bike rim), patch kit, a spare tube if the tube that’s damaged can’t be patched, whatever you need to loosen/tighten the wheel hub (it doesn’t look as if they’re quick-release wheels), and maybe either a portable pump or a CO2 tire inflator. Most of this can be put in a small bag that fits under the seat or in a backpack/purse.
3) Panniers are nice, but you’ve already got a basket and rack; I would start with a rack strap to hold packages to the rack. Also, I’d recommend putting heavier things on the rack and lighter things in the basket, as carrying heavy things in front adds mass to the handlebars and can affect steering somewhat. Of course, backpacks are fine for shorter trips.
4) More tools for other repairs (chain repairs, adjustments, etc.)
This article about how women would say these famous quotes in a meeting today is officially Too Real for me (of course linked to that JLaw essay from the other day)
“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Woman in a Meeting: “I’m not an expert, Dave, but I feel like maybe you could accomplish more by maybe shifting your focus from asking things from the government and instead looking at things that we can all do ourselves? Just a thought. Just a thought. Take it for what it’s worth.”
ahhahaha *curls into ball and sobs* FAR TOO REAL
That article really pissed me off. I felt like it was just wrapping up its weird misogynistic parody as a feminist article.
Eh, I thought that the fact that the title was “the way women *would have to* say them” firmly shifted the article into feminist humor.
I can see that reading, but it still just felt mean.
I can see that, too. Still, my reading was more along the lines of “Look what ridiculous things sexism makes us do.”
I definitely started reading it bought-in to this premise, which was clearly its explicitly-stated intent. And then I read past the third one, and it didn’t get any funnier, just the same ‘punchline’ over and over, and then it started to feel mean. And also unfunny, so I closed the browser and thought no more of it.
It’s a paragon of “well-intentioned, execution fair at best” in my eyes.
It felt like the Naomi Klein vocal fry / uptalk thing to me, to which Deborah Cameron responded to beeeeyootifully. I mean, obviously it’s comic, but way to stereotype women and make them feel even more self-conscious about how we sound in the workplace.
I do find it kind of funny, but I don’t think it’s actually helping anyone.
I am kind of amused by that article and also furious that it still assumes that the “male” way of communicating is the “right” way, and that we should all aspire to it. I communicate like that at work and so do lots of women I work with, and we get on just fine. Why should it be stigmatised?
This this this. Nobody likes being criticized or disagreed with! Delivering a criticism with nuance and subtlety makes it far more likely that people will enjoy working with you and listen to your suggestions, which is rather important for a long-term working relationship, especially if your job is primarily correcting people (Phrasing recommendations as a question is the #1 trick I employ as an editor).
Okay, this is a good point. My problem is that my boss hedges so much, so often, that she loses whatever question or answer she was asking or answering to begin with, and I just don’t have time to pick through a maze of maybes to get to the root of it.
So yesterday I wrote a giant email to my ED and Board president about some issues that are coming up that I feel particularly strongly about and had to physically restrain myself from beginning the whole thing with “I’m so sorry to bring up all these issues, but I do think they’re important” and instead began with “I have a lot of thoughts on this.” Halfway through I started to think maybe I was losing a sense of professional decorum. Upon re-reading, no, I’m just NOT HEDGING and that is an extremely unfamiliar position. And it is so so so so so stupid and frustrating UGH.
I read this yesterday and it made me realize that teleconferences aren’t all bad and are maybe even my new favorite thing about working remotely. Sometimes I start talking and just pretend I can’t hear any dudes talking over me, they must have a bad connection or a delay or something.
oh gosh. I get talked over a lot in meetings, and I have just started doing the thing where I keep going, and it feels so rude but also great.
Celebrities interviewing celebrities! I have a lot of opinions on the genre, most of them very unkind. But Latoya Peterson’s piece is much more succinct and intelligent than any of the comments I’ve drafted so far, so I’ll just say– yeah! Read Peterson’s piece! And hire actual journalists to do your interviews!
I think Choire is probably wise in his decision not to publish any of those pieces, but I laughed out loud when I scrolled down to “Bryce Dallas Howard Is the Worst Ginger” because she issssss, and I agree with all of his opinions but oh man, he’s right, it’s not even worth writing out.
Finally, a little lighthearted link contribution: a visual tour of Boston’s classy, kitschy, and weird cocktail glassware.
I have had my eye on that horse mug at Brick & Mortar. I am slightly offended that I haven’t been deemed cool enough to merit it.
“The best thing about this draft was that it was just that headline, I didn’t even bother to try to write anything, and I bet I sat there and looked at it for a while, and was like, yeahhhhh buddy.”
Best laugh I’ve had in a week.
I definitely remember turning on the TV as a kid on nights when I couldn’t sleep and being VERY confused by what the 700 Club was (I started watching back when it was Fox Family, though I don’t even remember what I watched on it at that point). The channel went from cartoons and kids stuff to people yelling about Jesus and it literally made no sense in my childhood head.
Also, never forget that ABC Family gave us one glorious season of The Middleman aka my favorite cult TV show of all time.
(ps thank you so, so much to everyone who commented and emailed and gave me hugs yesterday. there will be more explanation in the open thread, but every time i got a notification of another comment, it made it so much easier to get through the day)
Middleman ftw! I know what I’m watching tonight.
I called The 700 Club when I was suffering a crisis of faith as a teen.
It did not help.
Ah! Middleman was so great!
‘bug! LittleGirlDog agreed I could hug you while she sniffs your ankles, but she insists I release you immediately so that your hands are free to pet her head. I did not give up on the negotiation at that point, however. I won a concession to give your hands a break after promising to have you sit on a sofa, not a chair. That way LittleGirlDog can jump up next to you and continue sniffing at your shoulder.
Not to worry, ‘bug. LittleGirlDog practices affirmative consent. She will watch for your response to her tentative paw tap on your thigh and decide whether it is polite to continue her planned takeover of your lap. Be warned, once in your lap she will cuddle like there’s no tomorrow.
When I was a kid I thought The 700 Club was about the stock market. I never watched it, just saw the title.
Completely unrelated but I don’t have twitter so I’m complaining here:
You ever have plans, not necessarily big one but any plans, and then you go to bed and three hours later you end up running to the bathroom every 10 minutes for like 2 hours?
If there’s a moral to this story it might be that spaghetti sauce can go bad in the fridge with absolutely no outward signs.
When I got to the “Alexander Hamilton began to climb” item of the buzzfeed list, I had to suppress laughter for five minutes straight, and I think that’s sapped all of my willpower for the day.
This comment made me go back and click through to that list, but by the time I got to “Alexander Hamilton began to climb” I’d totally forgotten that was why I clicked through, and then the exact same thing happened to me.
I’m a white girl with an Asian dude! It happened to meeeee!!!
PS Why is that assumption/trope/actually blatantly racist garbage still out there?
No!!! Are you sure your life isn’t actually orchestrated by a Hollywood crew??
Stars! They’re just like us!
Sigh. I think whoever is being classified in these things as “mainstream white girl” is a terrifying lady. 😛
I have a Japanese friend who I went out with a few times before we mutually realized that we liked each other as friends and not romantically. I also talked him through his next relationship (also a white girl.) Anyway, we’re close friends, and he’s single now, and was trying online dating & actually messaged me these words: “I think the problem is that white girls don’t like Asian men.”
and I stared at the screen in disbelief for nearly a minute before being like, “Um……I mean, does that make me not white? Or the girl you just dated for 6 months & broke up with for reasons *entirely* unrelated to race? How about that stretch when *you* were talking *me* through my desperate & long-term crush on that Chinese law student, and then it turned out he had a girlfriend?”
and then he was like “ooh, yeah, sorry, guess I’m over generalizing.” And then he went on to detail “height restrictions” girls put in their profiles, etc. Which I said seemed kinda gross of them, but I was like “maybe it’s just *shallow* girls that are doing that.” He admitted that might be the case.
I think online dating is terrifying, myself. I met my husband the old fashioned way, a friend of his told a friend of mine that he liked me. Aww. (It was our 15th anniversary yesterday!)
So much to parse. I mean, as kind of a heightist myself, I have to say, #NotAllAsianDudesAreShort.
Also, are interracial couples always stereotyped in this way? That’s what seems unrealistic to me, the fact that it would be a big deal that can only be approached through stereotypes. Unrealistic and lazy, right? So, so lazy. This is one saving grace of the House Hunter type shows. They show regular people, just going about their regular lives, frequently being horrible while also being in what used to be unconventional relationships. Man, now I’m even more pissed at that script writer. These are not unconventional or all that unusual types of relationships. Happens all the goddamned time. Eff you, what I’m picturing as a 24 year old white bro script writer. Eff you!
oh man, just saw your reply. (awwww congrats on your anniversary! 🙂 ) And yeah I was honestly unaware that those were the stereotypes, until this friendship?
ugh. online dating IS terrifying, and from the anecdotes I hear from my friend circle, it gets INSANE for POC’s too. (this guy is really cool thought, and I have no doubt he’ll find his person, through a mutual love of WEIRD Youtube videos & literature, like how we connected.)
but it’s depressing to hear about how soooooo many people approach other, stereotype-FIRST that way. It’s stories like yours that encourage me that the world isn’t as crazy as all that & good people are still out there. 🙂
Me, too! And my sister!
*approaches peak unreality*
So is my cousin. So was I for a year.
Central casting was not involved.
ABC Family will always have a place in my heart for giving The Middleman a chance. Even if it was an abbreviated 12-episode run. That weird, wacky, deeply nerdy show remains one of my favorite shows of all time.
I only discovered it after it was already over, and I don’t even remember how (roommate, maybe?), but I’m so glad I did. That show is a treasure. And sheer elegance in its simplicity! 😉
So on a whim I decided to watch The Innocents last night. Someone hold me. Deborah Kerr is a luminous being as always, yes, but that doesn’t make up for creepy children. Nothing makes up for creepy children.
Not just creepy children – creepy children who sing British folk songs. *shudders*
the soundtrack to The Innocents is one of the most haunting soundtracks ever and i definitely don’t like to play it in my head when i’m driving down a poorly lit semi-rural road at night.
Oh God, that’s probably the scariest film I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t help that I first saw it at 3 am, alone, in someone else’s house.
Just rewatched part of the movie and I didn’t find the kids creepy this time. I couldn’t forget that Truman Capote, whose mom was a very sick alcoholic, essentially wrote the screenplay. Hearing Miles’ lines from that perspective was just bloody sad. Drama of the Gifted Child, indeed.
Ack the Chicago Trib drives me crazy with their no-reads-ever paywall. But the CUBS! The Cuuuubbbbsss. This game happened days ago and I’m still giddy (and still wearing my hat). But this leads to my favorite Cubbies/Roger Ebert quote ever:
“The more movies you see and write about, the more you know about them. Consider baseball. The ‘innocent’ crowd member sees a bunch of guys running after a little ball while wearing funny costumes. The Cubs fan sees inevitable tragedy unfolding.”
But hopefully not this year 🙂
Copy and paste the headline into Google, then click on the Google link. Voila!
My dad was a bartender at the Playboy Club in Baltimore when he was 17, in 1970. He had just started dating my mom and she would come over after school and do her homework and hang out with the Bunnies in between the lunch and dinner rushes. And this was all totally cool with their suburban Jewish parents. I still can’t wrap my head around any of this.
This is my favorite story I have heard all week.
I second this.
That is amazing. I want a movie of this.
Has anyone heard about China’s credit scores for people? I’m having a hard time believing that this is a thing that actually exists in the real world–it sounds like a beefed up version of what happened in Scored.
Oh one hand, it sounds ridiculous–and exactly the sort of thing US media enjoys breathlessly reporting about other countries. On the other, I can totally see something like this happening on a smaller scale in the US, perhaps in regards to health care? So…I don’t know.
Sounds like a state-sponsored version of Peeple.
Whatever happened with that, by the way? I haven’t heard anything about it ages, so I’m assuming it must have died on the vine.
I think that the people involved decided that they didn’t want to be the most hated people on the internet.
I shared this thing about Victorian street signs on twitter yesterday, but it seems relevant to Toast interests! I like that talkative barbers are a timeless complaint.
That was excellent, but even moreso, I’m kind of excited about her book, Patternalia. I have to look for reviews before I invest money (maybe convince my local library to get a copy?), but the whole topic is great.
(I’m gunshy about buying these kinds of books sight-unseen because of one about Colour that is beautiful and really well talked about…….in casual white women circles, because it’s actually vaguely racist and wrong about certain things, I don’t remember the details at the moment.)
yeah, I added it to my goodreads to-read list but it’ll probably be a library thing. It looks fascinating! But there was also only 1 review so it might not be out yet?
Ah, yeah, I sometimes have a failure of dates. I clicked through and saw “Published: 10/13/15” and was like “oh, of course that’s months ago” and really it was just days ago. I’d still expect to see some ARC reviews somewhere, though. I’ll have to poke around later.
Latoya Peterson is a treasure. She probably has Hillary Clinton fatigue at this point but it’s worth going back to look at her coverage in 2008 because it was the best analysis out there and much of it still applies.
Is anyone else catching the CumberHamlet screenings tonight?
meeeeeeeee
YEP!
Oh man I really wish I could go!
Me! And I’m crossing state lines to do it. (Living in the middle of nowhere is the worst.) I’m so excited!
Yessss I’m going with my favorite former professor from my undergrad I am sooo excited.
Concerned that the lady in the looking after a baby cartoon is wearing dangly earrings. No no no no no no no no no no
Depends on the baby, the age, and what you’ve gotten them used to.
My friend and next door neighbor is an Italian American with a Korean American husband.
My niece is married to an Japanese American.
My son’s girlfriend is Chinese American
Why is this scenario unlikely?
Well obviously you live in a movie.
A PC GONE MAD movie, no less.
Facts about myself I need to say to keep midterms from slowly killing me:
1. Why isnt PPD more of a thing. Senior year I wrote a ten page paper on “The Yellow Wallpaper” which is an excellent example of PPD if not post partum psychosis. Yet finding medical explanations and treatments proved so very difficult.
2. I have a friend named Nicolette who is just as obsessed with Hamilton as we are and you bet your sweet neck I wrote a version of the Lafayette Guns and Ships rap for her. It just simply had to be done.
3. I wrote an angry response to Raisin in the Sun for my Dramatic Leadership class complaining that it was the only play on the syllabus written by a female or a POC and my professor was a good sport about it, if a little salty. I got an A, so that’s what matters.
Ooh, I just read “The Yellow Wallpaper” two nights ago and I like your take on it re: PPD. I always assumed she went mad with boredom and being endlessly trapped with a nightmare husband.
Oh trust me–having been through PPD, that was IT. I think I wrote the same paper in undergrad!!
As gross as that “highly unrealistic” comment is, I’m kind of charmed by it showing up in, what is that, an audition script? The thought of “contact with aliens might seem highly unrealistic…but this is a movie!” or “This romantic lead’s stalker-y behavior leading to true love might seem highly unrealistic…but this is a movie!” turning up here and there in scripts is delightful.
Omg, yes, the JUSTIFICATION of events that might be off-putting to the producers and directors reading it. Hilarious.
Slightly off any topic, but wtf autoplays?! When I open a linky to enjoy later when I have a moment, I actually NEVER need that link to start randomly making noise at me, even when I’m not looking at it. I have my Toast time in the morning when the rest of my family is still asleep and it is my time for silent laugh-snorting. SILENT. Grrr.
I must now go back and look at pictures of the new puppy to soothe my rage.
If you are using Chrome, you can disable that function. Just go to Settings>>Advanced Settings>>Content Settings>>Plugins, and select “Let me choose when to run plugin content.” It can be a bit annoying because you’ll have to give permission to (though only once) Netflix, Pandora, etc. to play, but It’s worth it to me!
You can do the same thing in Firefox. I can’t find the setting right now, but I set Firefox to ask me before running Flash content. Now I can read the Toast with adblock off, but the ads don’t talk to me and Firefox doesn’t crash 3/4 of the time I open a Toast link.
You are a genius, and my hero. Carry on.
One of my most infuriating/ proudest moments: in college I learned how to build bikes b/c I got a work-study job in the campus bike shop, and my brother wanted to me to replace a part on the one I had built for him. But it had been cobbled together out of bikes seized by the campus police (we had access to all the ones that weren’t in good enough shape to go to auction so we just stripped them for parts) and it had some really outdated stuff on it that I couldn’t just go out and buy new. So I go to the more “serious” bike shop in my hometown and I ask this spandex-wearing dude at the counter “hey, I’m really not sure where to find this part…” And he immediately cuts in like “okay sweetheart, do you know what kind of bike it is? Do the handlebars go like *this* or like *this*?” Finally I cut him off to say “no, I mean I got the crankshaft off of this junk bike that was at least 20 years old and it looks like they no longer manufacture the type of pin that I need. I want to to tell me if you have something similar or if I need to replace the whole bottom bracket.” And the guy’s eyes get huge and he goes “oh shit! Sorry! Come to the back room and let’s look!” There is no better feeling in the world than forcing a dude to acknowledge that you do in fact know what you are talking about.
Such satisfaction!
I used to be a bit crap with computers/digtal things, but now I work in digital, literally building website (well managing the people who do), and I have guy friends who know me from before who still try to mansplain digital things to me, but I know a lot more than them now. Its equally frustrating and satisfying.
On the other hand, I used to manage the home network and troubleshoot the wireless router and everything… now I live with an actual Microsoft tech who does all kinds of crazy setup that’s beyond me, and I can’t even like figure out what the HELL he’s done with the printer and why can’t I connect to it.
I’m learning a lot actually but jeesh.
ETA oh and sometimes I come home and my computer is in bits because he’s swapping out RAM or checking the video card because he might have found a good deal on a duplicate, so, you know, it’s hard to complain.
That Ill-Advised Pieces article is great. But of course what I focused on was: Gay Black Goth Chavs. It’s a thing. Now you’ll see it everywhere, I’ve incepted you. And now all I can think about is the Arthur/Eames Chav!verse fic series. Well, that and the fact that I’m alternately concerned and relieved that I don’t remember a recent Gilligan’s Island movie, much less one with Bryce Dallas Howard in it. Was there? Was she? Really?
I’ve been enamored with Arthur/Eames lately so I may have to check that out!
It’s so great because it could totally be canon. Just. So. Good.
The Jenny from the Block reference clinched it for me. That song is my jam. Not that I have rocks, but if I did, I would also still know where I came from. I haven’t seem Inception though, and it took me a while to figure out that these were characters from that. Otherwise, A+ would read again, especially when I googled Inception and saw that one of them is Tom Hardy. Or both. I didn’t actually click on the Imdb link, because I didn’t want to spoil the magic, in case Tom Hardy plays Dom, which would be a let down.
Annnyway, thanks for sharing!
No let downs! Tom Hardy is Eames and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Arthur. I recommend the movie, definitely.
I am here for all the Hamilton jokes. Please and thank.
That Playboy piece is excellent. Everyone should interview their mom (if possible).
Right? I’m thinking I should interview my mom about being the only woman on a road construction crew in the Rocky Mountains in the 70s.
um yes you should. I would read that in a heartbeat.
Why only thinking and not doing? Pitch it here!
You definitely should!
I would read that every day.
That Playboy piece was amazing and made me tear up a bit. Jessica’s mom sounds like an excellent person.
Lafayette’s rap in ASL
That’s amazing.
Renee Elise Goldsberry … oh my everloving Lord. I watched the video like 50 times and signed up for Rap Genius so I could help annotate it because it is GENIUS and even Lin and Daveed know that she smoked everyone in a 50 mile radius.
Now Lin Miranda is posting his Hamilton demos to Soundcloud and I’m like, okay I guess I’m not writing 51 Federalist papers today …
Renee Elise Goldsberry’s line “Ain’t I a woman? / Like Soujourner, I’m the truth” is just… so so so good.
I love how during her rap Lin was trying to look cool but Daveed was grinning hugely. (Yes, I’m on a first-name basis with them. In my head.)
The baby comic was on point but if anyone has a hot minute, continue clicking on her page to “Cysterhood”. I chortled throughout it, and dammit, now I’m inspired. But how does one get her drawings from paper to pooter? Like, yeah, you get a WordPress site (or Instagram, would that work?) and a digital camera, point and shoot and download. Is it that easy? Kate Beaton, hear my cries!
Probably a scanner would be better.
There’s a thought…I got an old one….hmmmmm.
Some people do start with pictures of pieces of paper. Mostly people seem to move to scanners, and then drawing tablets. But it also depends on the art style.
I picture drawing tablets displaying really crude, “etch-a-sketch” pixelated images and are no doubt expensive (sad face). I’m an Old, and prefer pencil and ink on paper but maybe I should at least check out what drawing tablets have to offer!
Nah, most drawing tablets are not like tablet-tablets. Like, they aren’t like an iPad. They are just a pen based input system, you draw with a stylus while you look at your screen. I had one with my old mac but my new mac doesn’t have drivers to run it, alas. I used to use it for general mousing, too. It was really nice.
http://www.wacom.com/en-es/products/pen-tablets/b…
But yeah, using pen and paper is also perfectly good. The only reason I suggest a scanner over taking a photo of your picture is it is hard to take a photo straight on and without weird shadows.
ETA: WEIRD. As if it could sense I was looking at its website, Wacom just emailed me a newsletter, with this neat thing advertised within. http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/mobile-access…
It’s that easy! (and that’s coming from someone who normally likes to have EVERYTHING perfectly in place before acting.) I think if I were going to make my comicblog all over again I’d use tumblr, just for easyness, rather than customizing wordpress (I feel silly paying the custom design fee every year when I barely post anymore….). But scanners are surprisingly inexpensive and easy to use.
Tumblr, of course! And scanners seem to be a top suggestion, which is handy ’cause I gots one. Now it’s design/writing time! Thanks everyone! (God, Toasties are THE BEST.)
I have now compartmentalized that The Toast is where all these posts go, rather than my other internet haunts. So: apologies, and feel free to ignore.
I’m not okay. I am very decidedly not okay. I am consumed with the horror of what I’ve done. I feel SO MUCH BETTER physically that it’s sort of survivor’s guilt? My husband very reasonably points out that I can only second-guess how much more I could have handled because I have now had some measure of relief. Relief I wouldn’t have without gone through this.
A friend shared with me a resource she used to help cope with her own termination several years ago. I need the help, so I flipped through it. It’s very gentle, very accepting, and then it ends with “now that you’ve healed, here’s how we destroy Planned Parenthood” which is very much not in the plan. As much as I am here, wanting to erase last Tuesday like in that goofy Jetsons episode, I am still pro-choice. I wish I hadn’t done it, but I’m so glad that it’s safe and legal and that the other women in recovery with me had access to it. Their journey is not my journey.
<3 <3 <3 How can we help you? Do you just need us to be here and listen? Would you like help finding a therapist or some other sort of professional you can talk to? Is there anything IRL that we can help you with (to the extent that you are willing to reveal IRL info)?
I am sending you all the warm thoughts.
I have an existing relationship with a counselor, so I’m doing that for the next little while. I just need a place to say things “aloud” outside of that space. Other than that, I’m not sure what’s necessary.
I’m so sorry. I don’t know what else to say other than we’re all thinking of you, and you are a good person, and you did what you had to do, at that time, with the resources you had.
Runbug, don’t apologize. I’m so glad to hear from you. It means you know you’re safe here. You can be here when you’re not OK, when you feel horror. I’m sorry you’re not OK. I believe you will be OK. Keep sharing here.
I wish I could remove your horror. But feel your feelings so that they can then make an exit. While suffering those feelings, you’re here, where you’re safe, supported, and protected. Those feelings will not destroy you. You are strong. Where you are not strong, in your softer, more tender territories, we Toastfriends will shore you up.
And BTW, kudos on choosing a husband who is so reasonable, loving, and supportive. You found a good one. He shall be spared in the coming misandrist revolution.
*hugs* it’s going to be okay. I know those words can seem hollow sometimes but know that you’re not alone and you have a support system.
Oh, Runbug, this is so hard. I love and support you, and having had an elective abortion, I can never understand the pain of the choice YOU had to make, and I think you are a good person and I wish you had never been put in this position.
Thank you for trusting us, thank you for confiding in us, thank you for taking care of yourself.
Thank you for letting yourself be not-okay. Thank you for feeling your feels.
I’m glad that you are feeling better physically. I’m glad that your husband is there to be a sounding board and provide support and perspective.
I continue to have deep respect for you, respect for how difficult this has been for you.
(this window has now been open for, i don’t know, maybe HOURS? on the off chance I will have the perfect thing to say to you. this is silly, the perfect thing doesn’t exist. I can’t draft a comment that will magically make everything okay, no matter how long I spend on it. Just know that I wish I could.)
Jedi hugs!!!
If you do still need some resources, have you considered contacting https://exhaleprovoice.org/ ? I haven’t contacted them myself, but it is supported by some smart, pro-choice women I know, so they might be helpful. They have talkline if you want to speak with someone.
Oh goodness, looking at their website, they seem like a really thoughtful, excellent thing to have in the world. If they are even a fraction as wonderful as they seem to me right now, they are probably a tremendous resource.
Thank you for sharing this.
If you haven’t seen “Obvious Child,” i think it might help.
I once had to make a similarly weighty decision involving a child. Worst day of my life, but I know it was the right choice.
Hugs to you. You aren’t alone.
You are in my thoughts. I am so so so sorry you are going through this.
I am also sending you love and echo everything the other commenters’ are telling you, that it’s okay that you’re not okay right now, that you did the right thing for yourself and those who love you, your family.
I just wanted to share Stephen Colbert’s quote on grief, as I think it’s applicable, and I don’t want you to feel like there’s a time limit or a certain way you’re supposed to be sad.
The interesting thing about grief, I think, is that it is its own size. It is not the size of you. It is its own size. And grief comes to you. You know what I mean? I’ve always liked that phrase “He was visited by grief,” because that’s really what it is. Grief is its own thing. It’s not like it’s in me and I’m going to deal with it. It’s a thing, and you have to be okay with its presence. If you try to ignore it, it will be like a wolf at your door.
All the Jedi hugs and thoughts in the world. You are safe here, you can talk as long as you need to. We’re here.
I can’t say anything to make it better, but I am here and listening. You have a good, kind husband. You are bearing a terrible loss. You are allowed to feel everything you need to, and we will all be hear to listen.
That last one makes me miss Selfie! Maybe it was flawed but weekly appointment with John Cho as a romantic lead can make me forgive a lot. I think the only question was if Karen Gillian’s character could ever deserve him.
I loved that show! It started off a bit rough, but was pretty wonderful by the end. It oddly reminded me of Better Off Ted, one of my favorite canceled-too-soon shows (you’re the worst, ABC). And yes, John Cho as romantic lead was perfect in ways that the universe probably doesn’t deserve.
Does anyone deserve John Cho riding in on a white horse?!?
I mean I love Karen Gillan but damn that’s just impossible to compete with.
I AM RIDE OR DIE FOR ABC FAMILY’S SWITCHED AT BIRTH that is all
I’d love to believe that eventually ABC Family/Freeform would gay up enough to drive away Pat Robertson, but he’s bugfuck crazy.
Hamilton primary sources thread!
Hamilton’s description of the Laurens-Lee duel: http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/0…
Note that Burr was not actually Lee’s second!
Burr-Hamilton pre-duel correspondence: http://raglinen.com/2010/01/16/the-12-letters-pre…
Washington’s farewell address: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.a…
Uses the excellent word “zeal” three times.
Ooooh, thank you for that!
You know that nightmare you have, about taking tests you aren’t ready for?
I failed algebra 2 in high school, barely passed in summer school, failed twice in college, and finally at 38 went to community college just to prove I could do it. I still don’t know how to use a TI84, though, and I want to remember things, so I asked my sophomore to bring me home his Trig homework so that I can practice along. Sometimes he forgets. Sometimes he takes the extra calculator with him to school and I can’t practice. Sometimes he’s at dad’s over the weekend and I miss three days of exercises.
Did I mention we drove to Toledo and back last night and I”m running on 5 hours sleep? (college boy’s concert was excellent). Today I”m supposed to simultaneously take girl to karate, go to high school conferences, pick up girl from karate, go to middle school conferences, and somewhere in there take girl to sleepover.
High school boy TOLD THE TEACHER I”D TAKE THE TEST AT CONFERENCES.
I have half an hour, and he only just taught me the unit circle!
Another 100% unrelated story – went to the laundry room with basket in hand, GIANT FECKING SPIDER
killed it, heart is still pounding, may never do laundry again
The post partum depression thing really hits home to me. I was talking about it with some of the mums at playgroup recently and it struck me that we never seem to mention it when it’s happening. We talk about it afterwards, but not at the time. And yet, EVERYONE there could relate. It’s such a shame that you have to discover later that so many other women (and men) go through.
The post partum depression thing really hits home to me. I was talking about it with some of the mums at playgroup recently and it struck me that we never seem to mention it when it's happening. We talk about it afterwards, but not at the time. And yet, EVERYONE there could relate. It's such a shame that you have to discover later that so many other women (and men) go through.
Thank you for sharing this.
My hardcore bra is a back-hooking, but between my lack of shoulder flexibility and how tight it is, I have to do the "hook it up and pull it around" method of putting it on–nearly impossible when I'm damp/sweaty, and there's just no way I could wear it over another bra. I can get it OFF very very easily, though.
So sweet.