Anna Holmes on how “diversity” has lost its meaning:
Bragging about hiring a few people of color, or women, seems to come from the same interpretive bias, where a small amount is enough. It also puts significant pressure on the few ‘‘diverse’’ folks who are allowed into any given club, where they are expected to be ambassadors of sorts, representing the minority identity while conforming to the majority one. All this can make a person doubt the sincerity of an institution or organization — and question their place within it. When I was starting out in magazines, I was told by a colleague that my hiring was part of the company’s diversity push, and that my boss had received a significant bonus as a result of recruiting me. Whether or not it was true, it colored the next few years I spent there, making me wonder whether I was simply some sort of symbol to make the higher-ups feel better about themselves.
The New Yorker’s Food Issue is out, and it’s always the best part of my year. All of it is tremendous (and put together expertly by my IRL bestie, Amelia Lester, which influences me only two, maybe three percent), and you HAVE to read all of it, but especially Lauren Collins on ranking the world’s best restaurants:
The Web site Daily Meal recently ran an article that, citing a debate on Twitter, questioned the credibility of the 50 Best awards: “The Oscars of the Food World or a Complete Schmozzle?” They are probably both, in that they are indispensable to the industry—in terms of both its bottom line and its self-regard—even as they command less respect than attention. “It’s a silly, silly list,” Frank Bruni, the former Timesrestaurant critic, said. “But you need someone to collapse the universe for you. As surely as the nineteen-fifties housewife turned toConsumer Reports to figure out whether to get a Maytag or an Electrolux, the 2015 gourmand is turning to San Pellegrino.” The 50 Best, which is as much about a sort of competitive hedonism as it is about connoisseurship, is the restaurant guide its era demands—edible clickbait, a Baedeker’s for bucket-listers. If the wine industry has become Parkerized, then the restaurant world might be said to have been Pellegrinoed.
Friend of The Toast Anna Pulley on being the wallflower at the orgy:
My girlfriend is often busy drawing the debauchery at orgies, so I’m mostly left to fend for myself. This rarely works out well. As a person with social anxiety, I do what most people do in such circumstances: Find the nearest animal and talk to it. This isn’t hard at Girl Pile because, though the location changes frequently, there is always a cat somewhere. At the last party I attended, the cat I found was gray, fluffy, and skittish, like me. I became determined to “win it over,” and a short while later imagined myself telling others that I spent the entire orgy petting this one pussy, and how it would be the saddest white lie ever told.
My plan to become super-popular with the cat was put on hold when I was almost accidentally flogged by a woman wielding two thick, braided, purple ropes. I felt the breeze from the flogger’s wake on my neck, and moved out of the way, back to the empty love seat to take up the other occupation that helps me kill time at parties: Peruse the owner’s bookshelf.
David M. Perry is a great disability journalist and has a son with Down syndrome, and I loved this piece on holidays and conformity:
My son, an eight-year old boy with Down syndrome, doesn’t eat candy. Nico mostly eats plain noodles, yogurt, blueberries, craisins, pretzels, cottage cheese, cheerios, oatmeal, Fig Newtons, some crackers, and applesauce. None of these are Halloween staples.
Nico does like superheroes and other imaginary figures just fine, but he hates wearing costumes. As is typical of many children with Down syndrome, he has texture sensitivities. Costumes, at least the ones my busy wife and I buy for him, tend to be constructed with cheaply made scratchy fibers, designed to be worn once and then forgotten. They rub at the back of his neck and his wrists. Capes subtly change the weight of clothes in ways he finds uncomfortable. He’s happy to put them on for a minute or two, grin, and say, “Batboy!” or (this year), “Superboy,” but then he’s “all done” and impatient to have the itchy garment removed.
Today, in important Hamilton news:
American history just got a little sexier for 20,000 New York City high school students. A $1.46 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation will provide the NYC Department of Education with 20,000 $70 tickets to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s SRO rap-rooted Broadway musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The tickets will then be distributed to kids at the “Ham4Ham” lottery rate of $10, according to the participants, the other $60 paid for by the grant.
Men (not my boy Andy, though) can’t HANDLE Joanna Newsome (I do not listen to her music either, but I defend her right to annoy men):
But really, what is a musician’s voice if not distinctive? Isn’t that… good? Entire pieces have been written about the voices of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, so American and vital and wise in their manly scratchiness, like unshaved bristle and whiskey and dirt. Man voice make music good. Woman voice music bad: Too high. Too sharp. Too warbly. Sounds like birds, screams, mother. It speaks volumes that men always seem to love PJ Harvey, she of the deep timbre.
You should pitch The Establishment
The joy of being a black nerd:
I am a nerd.
I am a four-eyed, flappy-handed, squealing geek prone to public freakouts of over-excited fan proportions.
For reference, you can read this series of tweets that happened shortly after I watched an interview with Michael Dorn about my dream come true, Captain Worf.
Porochista Khakpour on some unlikely works of Iranian origin that you should take some time to read.
this is a lil video of a lil rat snuggling in a person’s cupped hands while feeding itself cooked spaghetti, and it’s worth your time to watch it
Here’s how you can donate your books to prisons (great tips on what to give and what NOT to give and how to do it)!
him: what’s your safe word? me: ROCHAMBEAU! you have your orders now go man go!
— Tracy Claytomb (@brokeymcpoverty) October 27, 2015
Speaking of restaurants, there was a super interesting article in the Globe and Mail about how cooks make very little money and how some are trying to change that http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine…
Joanna Newsom is a genius witch-goddess and I’m seeing her next week! In preparation I am listening to “A Pin-Light Bent” on repeat and ignoring all men.
Her new album is soooo gorgeous. But it chases the boy out of the room. Like, immediately.
I have to admit: her voice starts getting on my nerves after a while, too. But so do the voices of Colin Meloy and Connor Oberst, among others. I never get why Newsom is singled out so much.
Also: I love that she’s married to Andy Samberg. It’s really one of those relationships that makes me like both participants more (and which makes me wonder what a double date with them would be like)
Eh, I am a lady, and I cannot, and have never been able to, stand her voice. Ironically, about when I was introduced to her music by my female flatmates, it was a man extolling the virtues of her music and me wincing and asking for it to be turned off. I would love to like it, so I can appear more cool than I am (not very), but I just can’t.
My mom is a broad (initially I wrote “My mom is a lady” but that doesn’t feel True to her Spirit) and she hates JNew’s voice as she hates hell, all Montagues, and thee. I tell her not to worry, it’s just a defect in her soul.
I think I use lady because of MST3K’s take on Twilight, where whenever Edward enters a room someone went “Lllllllaaaaaadies…”
I do this ALL THE TIME. That’s the moment in any Rifftrax of MST3K that has made me laugh the hardest, I think.
I love the Newsom/Samberg pairing too! I mean, you can have your Brad and Angelinas and your Tom and Ritas…I want to know more about how they met and what they talk about. Like, do you think she came up to him at some Vanity Fair party and said, “I love that song ‘Jack Sparrow!'” and he got heart eyes?
Fred Armisen introduced them!!
She’s friends with Fred Armisen?? What Joanna noooo
I know the answer to this because I’m super nosy. He was a huge fan of her work and would go to her concerts whenever she was in town, and developed a huge crush on her. He found out they had a mutual friend, forced that person that introduce them and they fell in love over their shared love of music.
They have a true and beautiful love!!!
It’s better than I could have hoped! I LOVE THIS.
I cannot handle how adorable that is.
When I found out they were dating I was THRILLED. Just. The Harp Fairy with the “Dick in a Box” guy. It doesn’t get better than that.
WORD I am oddly invested in Joanna and Andy staying together
Here for hating on Connor Oberst’s voice. He and Courtney Barnett performed at the same music festival and I have no idea why more people turned up for his set than hers.
For me too, it was a male fan who told me about Newsom (Peach, Plum, Pear, I believe). I loved her lyrics, but her voice was too bizarre for me … then. When Have One On Me came out I gave her another listen, fell in love, and listened to that album hundreds of times. Her voice continues to strengthen and mature while still retaining that uniqueness. I think she had a surgery on her vocal cords before Have One on Me and it did change her voice a little.
Thank the Toast someone on a thread posted about her new album and I’ve spent this week listening to Divers on repeat. I can eat the lyrics with a spoon.
My husband doesn’t seem enthralled nor repelled. But he doesn’t tend to listen to a lot of music in general.
It took me a long time to be able to listen to Bob Dylan, too, but it was worth it. My thoughts are it’s kind of like learning to like strange cheeses. People be like “awwww whyyyy” but when you learn to love them, there’s no going back. The world is wonderful and strange and taste in food and music is an evolving thing, if you’re lucky.
Agreed. Divers is just a gorgeous piece of work. The last minute or so of “Anecdotes” is just perfect and I adore “Waltz of the 101st Lightborne.”
Oh that fat happy rat and his SKETTI. <3 <3 <3
Did everyone watch the premiere of Supergirl this week? It is aces, do approve, there is so far exactly one main character that is a white man
ON THAT NOTE, reposting from yesterday
I love that she has a sister to interact with, and that (slight spoiler) the main villain is a woman too. And while I wasn’t 100% convinced of the justification for the use of “girl”, I’m happy it was in there nonetheless.
Also, one point completely unrelated to her gender: THIS is the mood and attitude I want from art about a Supes. It’s full of hope and optimism and honest-to-God, corny and earnest hero-ing, without any brooding or angsty posing. Take that, Zack Snyder.
Also how iconic is this:
I love that scene, but every time I mourn for the buttons on her shirt. A good-fitting Oxford is hard to find!
I believe one of the Yellow Sun Kryptonian powers is actually button-sewing:
I want her to have a better plan for her disguise rather than throwing away a pair of glasses (which she does just fractions of a second before this GIF starts) every time she wants to quick change.
Whatever she does at that publication does not pay well enough for her to stock up on disposable glasses and new shirts two and three times a week. (Not to mention the gorgeous apartment with huge windows and a nice view, and neighbors who will not hear your sister outside your door talking about your alien superpowers.)
Yeah, the argument for “girl” was weak. At least they addressed it.
Also, one point completely unrelated to her gender: THIS is the mood and attitude I want from art about a Supes. It’s full of hope and optimism and honest-to-God, corny and earnest hero-ing, without any brooding or angsty posing. Take that, Zack Snyder.
Sold. That’s all I want from a story about everyone’s favorite Kryptonians. I don’t understand why this is so difficult. All-Star Superman is right there, Snyder! IT’S RIGHT THERE! Everyone loved it! Just do that!
I loooooved Supergirl. I actually jumped to my feet in excitement the first time she flew.
Overall I really liked it! I had some quibbles… firstly it seemed like several episodes of plot/development (heck, even a whole season tbh) packed into one episode. It felt a bit rushed and jumpy, but then again, pilots are often a mess. I also was frankly really not a fan of the “Supergirl” explanation. Obviously they don’t want to change the comic character name… but I think it would have been way better if they’d gone another route with the explanation, i.e. they could have had people on twitter start calling her Supergirl and it just takes off and there isn’t much she can do about it, besides have a bit of a ~feminist moment~ to complain. Because frankly the “aren’t YOU the problem if you think girl is a bad title” was so awkward and silly because no… the problem is society teaching you to call yourself a “girl” when you’re probably over 40 and a strong, powerful woman???
/rant.
That said I adored Kara (SO CUTE, SO STRONG, so surprised at her own strength and skills at the best moments), and the references to her cousin were fun, and I loved the sisterly relationship. Also, JAMES OLSEN. *heart eyes*
The Twitter thing was part of it, wasn’t it? It’s just that it was her boss that started the Twitter tag.
Yeah, her boss started it, and then it caught on twitter because of her boss. I honestly think the boss’s “explanation” made it more offensive. If Supergirl started trending on it’s own and Kara was like AW MAN WTF I’M NOT A GIRL, but then got stuck with it, I would have been like okay yeah sure. And Kara could have been rightfully offended, and it would have been a bit symbolic of you know, how society legitimately does that with powerful women.
But the whole ~I’m a girl, and if you find that offensive you’re the problem~ was so heavy handed and, well… wrong, lol. Basically most of this.
I mean in the long run it’s not a huge deal, it just irked me. A few of their feminist/girl power moments were a bit awkwardly done but I think that was more pilot awkwardness that they’ll settle into.
Thank you, yes. I haven’t watched the pilot yet, but even watching this in the trailer/preview/whatever made me wiiiiince. I’m hoping to give it a few episodes past the pilot and batch watch them. From what I understand, no one has figured out how to make a supershow that hooks you before four to five episodes in.
Oh! It’s so interesting that y’all saw it that way – I thought the show was totally on Kara’s side name-wise and that was just her boss bullying her into silence. Like, she wasn’t so much shamed or convinced, just realizing she’s pissed off her boss and can’t continue this argument without insulting her/being fired. And it is a common derailing tactic people use so I just figured it was continuing the “boss is a jerk” theme and not a serious argument being put forth by the show itself!
But! That might be wishful thinking. I choose to hold on to it! I texted a friend excited that the show had seemingly acknowledged the misogyny.
Hm, idk. I mean that probably would have been a better way to handle it, but I don’t think that was their intention. If Kara had walked away muttering disagreements or mentioned it later, I might agree with you, but she seemed to accept it? Plus also:
During a conference call, one of Supergirl‘s executive producers, Andrew Kreisberg, described the thinking being the scene: “We sort of wanted to have a conversation with our characters that we believed that the audience would be having, and that others might be having in terms of saying, ‘Well, she’s an adult woman — why isn’t it called Superwoman?’”
I think they genuinely intended that to be their reasoning tbh.
and also yes, James Olsen, <3
Oh, I loved the new Supergirl! It was excellent. I was SO excited in the one scene where she was wearing *actually comfy lounge clothes* instead of the standard “hot girl tiny tank top and tight yoga pants” that is soooo popular!
THANK YOU for the info on donating books to prisons! So important!
Yes! Books for prisoners are so important, and so frequently unavailable.
A couple of things to consider in the U.S. (Ymmv by state and by prison).
– You may not be able to donate directly to prisons. To prevent the introduction of contraband, some prisons require donations to come from specific orgs, or from specific commercial retailers.
– You should investigate the orgs before donating to make sure you’re comfortable with their practices. Some put prisoners’ interests first, others seem more interested in pushing their ideologies on a captive, vulnerable population.
I always feel good about donating books to prisons, because I hate the thought of being banged up with nothing to read. It would be inhuman.
I didn’t know that I needed to read that piece about Black nerddom until I read it. “Basically, the working theme of my late thirties is public and teary undignified behavior. Which is to say, I get to be a real live human being,” was a GREAT thing to read this morning.
that essay is sitting half-read in the “danger-tabs” section of my browser because it was hitting a little too close to home and no one at work needs to see me cry.
I would nerd out entirely with Shannon. She seems awesome.
I am always down for a good sexism in the music industry article, but that Awl article lost me a bit. The author is angry at shoe horned comparisons to other women – but then complains when men working on antecedents of her musical style are mentioned. Music criticism often requires some reference point, if we think of an audience that may that be currently listening. I also don’t think the review line: “Newsom can still be a daunting listen, and Divers requires time and attention to fully embrace. ” is “dismissive of feminine art.” Newsom is not a pop singer following the typical structures and sounds of what people usually listen to, it does require some focused approach, and it seems justified to me to mention that to try to encourage people to keep listening even if put off at the beginning. I personally do not enjoy listening to Newsom’s work, while I enjoy plenty of feminine art. I don’t know, any one else read it and have thoughts?
I had the same reaction when I read it. It didn’t seem especially well argued, and it seemed at one point to say that a comparison to Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell was dismissive of Newsom, when I don’t think reviewers see them as bad – Joni is certainly held up in terms of songwriting and singing, and Nina’s voice and phrasing are excellent.
And her voice is distinctive and polarising, and she probably plays on that and uses it in her work perhaps to challenge and explore (I find it challenging to the point of being unlistenable, which I’m sad about because her music is really interesting). It did seem a case of someone seeing a lack of unequivocal acceptance and reading sexism into that. There is sexism in the music industry and in reviews, but Joanna Newsom is in some ways a darling of indie music because of how inaccessible she can be, so I’m not so sure.
It took me a long time and a remix by the Roots to get into Joanna Newsroom, as autocorrect has christened her, so I get why you’d take issue with the feminine art comment.
I do think though, that there are quite a few people out there (mostly men) who are open-minded enough to listen to dudes with scratchy, thin, and irritating voices on the grounds that they are distinct and have character but don’t extend that open-mindedness to women. It reminds me of talking about Courtney Love’s voice with an old coworker. Dude listened to all kinds of terrible noise music performed by guys who couldn’t sing at all, but it was somehow only Love’s vocal limitations that got on his nerves…
Yeah, the author kind of lost me on “How can music be inaccessible? All you have to do is listen.”
I mean, yes, technically, that’s all you have to do. But successful music usually allows its listeners to have a road in. The Knife’s latest album, which has these dazzling pop moments and also an 18-minute long psychotic fuzz-noise track that was, erm, challenging. (To say the least.) And I think Newsom kind of reads the same way—she’s good, but her songs aren’t always designed to be listened to at 3:30 PM on a FM band. Is that a disservice to women, or female artists, or musicians, or someone else? Because as “weird” or “out there” as Kanye or Keith Richards are, at the end of the day, they’re still producing pop music; I’m not 100% sure Newsom has the same goal.
I also would disagree that the industry has treated Kanye like a “precious adult baby,” but that gets into another music criticism rabbit hole…
what does that even MEAN, exactly?
I love Kanye and that line makes absolutely no sense at all. Although it does provide a funny mental image.
Agreed, I lost the thread a bit at this line, too. I am here for the idea that male critics will tolerate from men what they won’t from women, but “accessibility” isn’t something that the patriarchy made up. Some music is easy to listen to, i.e. you want to bop along to it in your car or listen to it while you workout, it reminds you of other music, it has a relatively simple melody and comprehensible lyrics; some music does not. That’s as disingenuous as saying that Thomas Kincade and J. M. W. Turner are equally likely to appeal to people because “all you have to do is look”.
but harsh noise wall is my workout music
Yeah, I most of the time as I was reading my thoughts were “what the hell WOULD make you happy, writer?” Because without having read any music critic’s thoughts on Newsom, I have compared her with Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and other artists I adore. Musicians aren’t born in a void, they influence each other. I’m here for the love; I don’t really give a shit about what random male critics think. I’m just happy I didn’t dismiss her outright and kept following her career.
I wanted to agree with it so much and I think there is a kernel of a valid point in there. There is definitely a tendency of some male critics to dismiss music that they perceive as overly feminized, but OTOH her music is extremely unconventional and definitely not for everyone and it’s hard to tease apart those two threads in people’s response to what she does. The fact that some of the writer’s arguments are a bit illogical doesn’t do much to help matters here. I suspect her admission that she only enjoys classical and opera is a big clue as to why she thinks JN’s music is so much more accessible than many seem to. Personally although I admire the hell out of her I’ve never really cared for her voice, though I’ve tried to get into her music. I can’t stand Tom Waits either. Aside from all the cultural associations and intellectual arguments, at some point either the sounds coming into your ears sound good or they don’t.
Also, the author rails against comparing Joanna Newsom to other female artists and then says “She’s not pulling a Liz Phair anytime soon.” That part jarred me a little.
Aaaaaahhhh I just started listening to “Another Round” and knowing that Tracy is a Hamilton fan just warms my heart right up. Also boss is out of the office today and tomorrow getting her award for super-awesome work-life balance policies that totally exist, so I’m in a good mood yaaaaay!! How the hell is everyone??
Tracy and Heben’s interview with Hillary Clinton was excellent. They both pushed her on a couple of serious issues, and were able to have fun with her in their normal way.
I love Another Round.
I’m secretly interviewing for a thing! Its a promotion? And I’m going to the 2nd round? So I guess its good, but also stress? And also AHHH is this the right MOVE? WHO EVEN KNOWS /WE’RE ALL JUST DOING OUR BEST IN THIS LIFE
Good luck!!
I love Another Round! Tracy bought a round for Hamilton a few episodes ago, and now I really hope they get LMM or someone from the show on their show soon.
omg they HAVE TO, right? Right???
Another Round is FANTASTIC. The balance between kooky fun whatever and BRILLIANCE and politics and so on? So great. One of the best podcasts in my rotation, honestly.
Tracy’s joke corner never fails to crack me up.
Yes, I just finished catching up on Another Round! I need to write them a thank you email, because hearing their real talk about dealing with anxiety and acknowledging that it’s tough shit was such a huge help to me in the past weeks. Plus they always sound like they’re having the best time and ugggh I just want to hang out with them and the Pod Squad in the ~stude~
I honestly do not know how I would handle it if I was rejected or passed over at an orgy!
“Bonobos, our primate relatives, greet each other with oral sex, and though we are supposed to be the more evolved species, after all this time, all we’ve managed to come up with is “So, what do you do?””
Truly the best one-liner I’ve read in a good long while, lol’d at work, oops
or stood up by the person you were going with like the author
oh christ I don’t know anyone at this orgy
That situation is compeltely beyond the capacity of my social graces.
Same, plus I have some OCD hygiene issues as well. It’s like all of my worst nightmares, now in one convenient package!
Gah, let me tell you about the orgy where I got *really* into the snacks station because OH EM GEE CHILDREN, USE BARRIERS FOR THAT.
How does the snacks station work? Is there a designated time to eat? Like, someone calls “time” and everyone emerges to get some protein and carbs?
(The new Neil Strauss book includes some anecdote about him getting kicked out of an orgy for hitting the snack table, so I have questions.)
I mean, the house rules will vary. I mostly just party with my own friends, so rules of consent are strict, but rules with barriers and timelines and most anything else are often left more open. (That said, I think there are some BEST PRACTICES that EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW about barrier use, and I’m still mad at the host of that particular event for intentionally going with a different set of norms.) I strive to put out a hearty snack somewhere a few hours into the proceedings if I’m hosting (so there’s a call to eat when the mini tacos come out of the oven), but a party in a hotel room might just have a bunch of oreos over with the drinks.
A house party that has a lot of strangers might overtly enforce barriers, even if you’re with a fluid-bonded partner, or have a strict BYOB/Snack policy, I suppose. I dunno what the rules might be to get you kicked out based on snack behavior.
NOPE
Gah I can’t imagine how fast I would cut off anything remotely resembling a friendly relationship with someone who did that. I can be gregarious on my own behalf at any sort of party but really, that’s like one step shy of flaking out on your own wedding.
Yeah. Learning how to be at peace with being in the bottom quartile, action-wise, at a sexytimes party has been a multi-year journey for me. In part, because I go through cycles of trying to decide if it’s “my fault” or “my choice” or what.
And I don’t want this to sound like I’m trying to talk bad about the author’s game, but I do really want to be their wing person at least once. It’s so much easier for me to get a friend laid, sometimes.
bottom quartile
As usual there’s a Seinfeld for that.
“We’re NOT orgy guys. We’d have to get new friends. Buy new clothes.”
I’ve always been curious about George’s thoughts on orgy clothes.
I dread hearing the word “diversity” at the university where I work. I know it’s going to mean something like, “We would love to have brown and black faces to display on our website, but only as long as nary a hair on a white head is disarranged.” I know I’ll hear about it when somebody is inconvenienced for having to do or think about something differently, or when some postdoc or untenured faculty member is penalized for expressing desire for or actively supporting meaningful inclusion. And I’ll probably hear about it from some tone-deaf administrator who probably “means well”, who will be shocked and/or confused when I very gently suggest an alternate point of view may in fact exist.
This just happened to me (again) this week, and I really, REALLY wish it was OK to share specifics because they are UNREAL. But I can’t. But I can’t even. I’m not supposed to talk about it to people who understand (in order to keep my place), and I can only pussyfoot around it to people who need to understand (in order to show that I know my place). So instead I’m just going to make vague complaints on the internet. That’ll make it better.
I once opened three local university websites in quick succession, and ALL of them had a smiling black woman on their front page. Which was like … I see what you are trying to do here, Universities, but this is not subtle.
I think you could say exactly the same thing about Widening Participation, which, in UK university speak, means getting more students from working-class backgrounds, or, as we call them, non-traditional backgrounds. First-generation students. And of course the language inevitably becomes hackneyed and well-meaning and devoid of all real challenge to the existing system, because the system is very well-designed to reject real change.
It’s never subtle.
Ick 🙁
That’s actually a real thing not a parody? D-:
As far as the internet is concerned, it is real.
Um, and is it a coincidence that the black guy seems to also be lacking one arm and half a leg? Hey, it checks the disability card, too! Jeeze.
Went to read the orgy article and found this linked in the sidebar, too good not to share: Tom from Jeopardy is Your Ex-Boyfriend
http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/10/tom-from-jeopardy…
True story, my husband called me out of bed to come to the TV and admire Tom from Jeopardy.
I can’t articulate why I find this so funny, but I’m suppressing tears of laughter right now.
Your daily Hamilton: LMM does an interview with Shockwave (a friend from another project he’s done, Freestyle Love Supreme). Enjoy!
http://headgum.com/episode/lin-manuel-miranda-fre…
Yaaaay! Awesome! Thanks!
More Hamilfun:
Also, has everyone seen this?
Ham4Ham 8/28/15 with Shockwave of Freestyle Love Supreme https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLb1ayNIj3f8pKtf…
The neopets image is missing the caption/header– “Hamilton Writing the Reynolds Pamphlet”
(As you can probably guess, I too am one of the folks who started following your Hamilton tumblr yesterday!)
Oops. Thanks!
YES THE JOKE PEOPLE IS THAT IS HAMILTON WRITING THE REYNOLDS PAMPHLET.
Maybe my head is so deep into this I can’t imagine looking at that and thinking anything else.
Welcome! I’m drafting more stuff as we speak. Planning a big video post…
Nice! And a bit more daily Hamilton, featuring Jonathan Groff and Beyonce.
http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/beyonce-to-steal-h…
Was just going to post that, if no one else had! It delighted me extremely.
This is my favorite thing ever
I feel the need to point out that any time someone references LMM, I think they mean Lucy Maude Montgomery.
Not sure how I think they’re getting the interviews …
Rats are suuuuuch snugglebunnies omg. I try not to let the ones I work with snuggle with me too much, but one day I might get myself one as a pet so we can snuggle all day every day. I totally get why people really don’t like rats, but I’m glad I can love them because they A. super smart and B. pretty freaking adorable (except the albino ones, which still freak me out)
I love the little mini-hands on the spaghetti rat! teeny cute ratty fingers!
I loved my pet rat – he used to take food from me and hide it under the sofa for later. He was very affectionate. Unfortunately they don’t live very long and are prone to tumors. I was sorry to let my pal pass away.
Rats make THE BEST pets. Of the all the little rodent-type pets, they are the best. They can be housebroken, they can learn tricks, come when they’re called, they don’t bite, they like to be handled… But they do have a short life span, so it’s sad when you’ve spent a lot of time bonding with them and then they die – 3 years is a long life for a pet rat.
It’s maybe a bit grim, but part of the reason I love rats is because they don’t live so long. My life isn’t very stable, but I love having pets and I would hate to abandon or re-home a pet because I was moving or going travelling for a long time. I can commit to two years though! I try to adopt older rats that wouldn’t otherwise be chosen, and I don’t mind taking on rats with health issues. It means I get some weird, cranky and sometimes bitey old ladies but I love them all the same.
When I was a kid, the local zoo had very recently put together a Naked Mole Rat exhibit that they were really proud of, and I got SUPER excited about it as a small one, so I even (especially?) think the albino ones are cute.
If you do end up getting a rat, please get at least two! They are super social creatures and a human friend simply cannot provide all the snuggles and grooming that they need to stay mentally healthy. They’re super great pets and having multiple rats is a lot of fun – they all have such great personalities. For example, here is the squish pile I found 3 of my girls in this morning:
Also, please enjoy Sylvia looking into the camera like she’s on The Office:
I had a dream last night I was deeply conflicted because I didn’t really enjoy the The Toast branded chicken nuggets because there were fish bones in them, but I really wanted to love them because they came from The Toast.
You will eat your fish nuggets and like them!
If they were FISH nuggets, I would have been FINE. I can DEAL with fish bones in fish nuggets.
but when they are CHICKEN nuggets and still somehow have FISH bones in them, I am DEEPLY CONFLICTED.
I WAS FEELING MY FEELS. MY CONFUSING CONFUSING FEELS.
Clearly some part of your subconscious is having trouble with the redesign.
See, it’s important to shield ourselves from confirmation bias. So much delightful perfection flows from The Dash Toast, but once in a while we may yet need to know when fish bones don’t belong, no matter whether Mallory put them there or not.
Sounds like EvilMelis to me.
Curse you Hairpin comments migration, and your silly hiding of pictures of turtles with mustaches!
Clearly Mallory confused the category tag on the nuggets. 😉
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
When it comes to diversity,I agree with Ruth Bader Ginsberg, when asked how many women Supreme Courts Justices would be “enough”.
“NINE”
For instance, true diversity might mean workplaces that had people working there who were the best at their jobs, so there might not be any white people at all. Maybe no men at all. Imagine that.
She is so Notorious and I love it so much. I’m not planning on dressing up for Halloween (I almost never do) but if I did, it would be as her. (The Broad City sketch that went up a day or two ago is golden.)
I love that she repeats that line OVER AND OVER. Her answer never changes! People keep asking her anyway, and it never changes! I heard her give that answer to Nina Tottenberg at the 92nd Street Y a year ago, and it’s not a new question for her.
From the article about disabilities vs. holidays:
He’s happy. I feel like I’m failing. I want him to experience the joys of these holidays that I associate with my childhood. My dreams of parenthood included a groaning table at Thanksgiving, glee at Halloween candy, and children too keyed-up to fall asleep on Christmas Eve.
By this point, it should be clear that I am the problem, not Nico. His disinterest in my nostalgia for ritual and social norms has zero impact on his happiness, except when I try to force him to participate in something that has no meaning for him. It’s a classic example of the social model of disability. Nico isn’t disabled by his Down syndrome, but by a society—or a dad—that tries to make him into something he’s not. It’s a lesson I remember almost all the time, though it wasn’t easy to learn, and there’s something about holidays that makes me forget.
Hand on my HEART. Loved this. More people should take this to heart; my view of “good” parenting is “Is your child growing up healthy and happy, whatever that means for them?” We try to “cure” children that are just cognitively different from us, not diseased.
It’s hard though because you also want your kids to grow and to try things and push their boundaries, and if you have a kid who reflexively wants to not do that (and who does end up enjoying things they initially resist) it can be hard to figure out how much to push. I struggle with this all the time, especially now my daughter and I have entered the “tween-wants-nothing-but-screens-and-Doritos” years.
Yeah, it’s one of those things that’s easy to say but harder in practice, whether it’s a neurotypical child or not. I used to work at a school for kids with pretty severe autism, and I’d often get privately frustrated with parents who had certain learning goals for their kids that seemed useless to me — you know, accept that this is not who they are!
But I didn’t have the responsibility of lifelong care for these kids and the knowledge that they’d outlive me. I didn’t have the emotional weight of parenthood behind me. And you absolutely have to push a kid’s boundaries sometimes so that they do grow up happy and healthy — otherwise we’d all just be eating frosted mini-wheats and watching cartoons all day.
Now I’ve got a toddler who is neurotypical as far as I can tell, but very shy, and it’s a fine line to walk introducing her to new people and new situations. I don’t want to overwhelm her, but you can’t commit to a lifetime of hermithood at age two either. So I really liked the balance that disability article struck at the end: “It is part of my job to expose Nico to new ideas and offer him pathways to new experience. I need to offer him new foods, new books, new friends, new ideas. I will. But I also have to let go of my emotional response when he chooses not to engage, to remember that his choices to buck my expectations can be a strength, not a sign of impairment.”
Oh, totally get you on the pushing-boundaries, at least when it regards neurotypical tweens (who can be wonderful but are often horror-beasts from middle school hell). I worked in a daycare for many years and have told everyone I’ve met ever since that I only like children until they understand and start using the word “no.” So, like, until age 2.
My tween is autistic and all the tween horror-beast cliches are in force, as well as the lovely ones, but even more so. The business about vacillating between toddler and teenager is quite true, and I literally never know if the passion of the day will be Rug Rats, or Nicki Minaj. It’s pretty wild.
My friend has a milk allergy, so every year his economist dad would buy a toy or something, and then allow him to “trade” all of his inedible Halloween chocolate in for it. Part of me is like “ew commodification” but the other part is “Actually making Halloween into a market-lesson is kinda cool, and a really great way to make a kid feel included into something that doesn’t make *any* sense if you bother to think about it.”
I really like that idea!
Yes.
“It’s high time your grandmother learned to be proud of the grandson she’s got, rather than the one she thinks she ought to have – particularly after what happened at the Ministry.” – M. McGonagall
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*heartseyes*
My adoration for Minerva knows no bounds (obvs Jo by extension), to the point my girlcat is named after her.
And Minerva being all protective and proud of Neville, too!
Ugggh “diversity”. Once upon a time, I had the misfortune of being a diversity hire. I would not have taken the job had I realized, but I didn’t know that’s what I was signing up for until long after leaving. And they didn’t know how to have meaningul diversity, just how to hire “diverse” candidates and then wonder why they never stayed long.
Somehow, they expected me to be competent, but not too competent because then that would make the rank and file look bad, but not too incompentent because then they wouldn’t hire any more of [my diversity group].
And I needed to advocate for myself in order to get the good projects considered the “real work” but if I did it too strongly I was deemed pushy and not a team player, but if I did it too weakly I was just plain forgotten and my contributions were considered unimportant.
And eventually the rank and file started hanging up bikini model photos in their cubicles (for me to see when I consulted them on projects I assume) and I noped out of there, all the time refusing to bring up the obvious issues because I sensed it would make more trouble for me if I did. Sigh.
Noping out sounds like a good decision! You definitely did not owe them the time or energy it would have taken to bring up their issues in the face of hostility.
(I do not listen to her music either, but I defend her right to annoy men) – that is going to be my motto for everything from now on. I might bastardize New Hampshire’s state motto to read “Annoy men or die”.
OMG, did you see the comments! The male tears are a-flowin’.
that social awkwardness at the orgy article is the best thing I’m gonna see all week already but oh my god I nearly missed the ‘helpful’ comments below and they’re an equal if very different kind of incredible
Floss.
Bad breath can lead to being so physically offensive that no one will want to have sex with you.
A dirty little dental secret is that flossing, by removing bacteria and large food particles that rot in your mouth, is the single greatest preventer of bad breath known to personhood.
Ergo, flossing will increase your orgiastic SLP (“Success Level Percentage”).
You are most welcome.
You know I’d never thought of that Random Man* On The Internet. Thank you so much for your helpful advice for dealing with my social anxiety through flossing.
*Of course its a man.
You are most welcome!
This is my new favorite poem.
That fine line between real post and spam post by Buy_Floss_Now.com
“This is partially due to living in the Bay Area, where you can’t throw a kombucha out of a co-op without it landing on a sex party.”
RIP me I died laughing
Same. Also I was kinda jealous of the ubiquitousness of sex parties in the author’s life, and for half a second I wished I lived in the Bay Area, but then I remembered I don’t like kombucha or co-ops and do like affording my rent.
I think my favorite part of this comment is the author’s creation of a completely unnecessary acronym (spelled out in caps AND with quotation marks, no less).
I just want to kiss that puppy’s freckles!!!
The Halloween article is such a good lesson beyond parenting. Accepting another’s happiness and how it may not look like your happiness is such a hard thing and so vital.
And just because, Halloween and costumes make me think of it — the first year I lived in Winnipeg, I was so very confused because almost none of the kids coming to my door were wearing costumes. Some were new Canadians who had been taken out to trick-or-treat by their friends. These kids had looks that clearly said, “This makes no sense to us, but we are here for the free candy.” Then a friend clued me in. A lot of kids probably were wearing their costumes. Under their parkas. Because it was snowing. Every Halloween in Winnipeg is a debate: Do I make my costume big enough to fit over my parka or do I make it so I can wear it to school or party?
Growing up all my Halloween costumes were made to fit over parkas. I was a Care Bear one year and puss in boots another.
I grew up in southern Ontario, so I remember Halloweens where I was sweating in my costume.
I lived a bit south of Winnipeg (Grand Forks, ND) as a child, and our solution was thermals underneath, parka up top, mom & dad would hold the parka for me at each house, then put it back on me as soon as I’d scored my free candy.
My mom would make fleece onesies that would slip over my snowsuit, and we would get wigs in adult sizes and then velcro them to our touques. Also hello Winnipeg toastie! I am from there!
https://instagram.com/p/9YOaM1hxFM/?taken-by=selm…
My geriatric little dog is on his last legs; I had already thought that he’d go this winter, but my mother tells me he’s on his last legs and deteriorating rapidly, so we’re probably going to let him go this week while I’m home. I haven’t seen him yet (I will tonight) so I can’t really be sure if its the right thing yet, and I can’t really think about it much with out crying in the office.
He’s very happy, but his hips are starting to go and he’s really struggling to get around now, plus deaf and nearly blind so gets confused a lot.
So yeah, Jingles for Fred so he can last until Friday.
Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sure you’ve given him a wonderful life. It sucks for us humans but it’s the last thing we can do for our elderly dogs: give them a peaceful end when it’s their time.
@WritersofColour tweeted this article about diversity, too:
Diversity is for white people.
Also seen on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/peatreebojangle/status/659008…
If you’re in Canada and want to donate books to prisons, here’s the answer federally: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/media-room/009-0002-eng….
And it looks like provincially, it varies, so just google “how to donate books to prison (province of choice)”. What a great idea!
100% unrelated to everything, but I suddenly find myself in need of info about personal experiences with hysterectomies. If you have a moment and the inclination to share details, please comment on my LJ post, here. Anonymous posting is enabled, so you don’t need an LJ account. I’m in a meeting from 10am to noon (yay), so I might be slow to respond this morning, but I appreciate any and all input!
Speaking of decadent food, anyone interested in doing a HealthMonth team for November? I have the same screen name over there. I’ve never done it before but I think having teammates would make me better at checking in. I saw someone suggest this last month but I didn’t sign up in time.
I just re-opened my HealthMonth account (also jenavira) and I would love to join a team.
After falling off the HealthMonth for a really long time I’m making myself take baby steps toward getting back into it in November. There is/was a Toast team! The team isn’t registered for November yet and it looks like most of the members are inactive. Is it time for a new Toast team? Or should we revive the old toast team? (Is that possible if the team organizer is gone? Lauren Ipsum, are you out there?!)
Oh man. That diversity piece. My organization occasionally puts on seminars and trainings about how to improve an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts without going down that path – eg: Telling organizations who think/say/decide “We need to hire a diverse individual. We don’t have any diverse people here.” that one person does not diversity make. You are doing it so, so, so wrong.
It’s a weird space to be in sometimes, and other times it is downright painful hearing some of the stories like the one in the roundup, or hearing some of the completely tone-deaf objections of people in the crowd who just don’t (or won’t) get it.
That makes “diverse individual” shit makes me think of Walk Whitman’s line, “I contain multitudes.” Like, white dudes get to be unique special snowflakes, each with their own diverse interests and needs; but should you be The Woman or The Black Person or The Disabled Person, you are all persons of your diversity, containing and representing all experience, and can speak for all of your ilk.
Which, like, excuse me while I barf a million times.
How many Toast icons can we get into one story?
Beyonce, LMM, Hamilton, Groffsauce?
DAMN
Oh, this makes me terribly happy. 😀 😀 😀
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
My Hamilton-obsessed Toastie daughter just found a workmate who matches her obsession but was lucky enough to see the show in person. So, there’s joy for her in having a new person to go #ham4ham with but jealousy too.
Dear reader, consider her reaction Christmas morning when she opens the tickets to Hamilton and an AirBNB in Hamilton Heights her mother has procured for her.
Is it you, dearest daughter, best of women? Let’s not tell yet.
Oh man, every female Toastie on here is currently hoping you’re their mother.
Yup.
What are your feelings w/r/t adult adoptions?
I know you’re not my mother, because we don’t celebrate Christmas, but I just wanted you to know that you are an AWESOME mom.
This is the best blind item there has ever been.
BEST MOM
Okay, the AirBnB being located in Hamilton Heights is, like, above and beyond. Amazing consistency of theme there.
(Also that is my neighborhood and it is great! She will love it, and she can walk over to Hamilton Grange for a bit MORE history.)
Welp, you’re not my mom because none of my workmates are cool enough to care about Hamilton. 🙁
Secret Mom! It is such a crummy gray day full of blah work and lousy news. But I keep thinking back on this post and grinning. You’re not my mom but I appreciate the gift anyway <3
ok, last week was bad, but Sunday was spectacular, in a “affirming-my-academic-career-progress” way. I came home from the karate seminar to a request from academia.edu–the EDITOR of a book about archaeological techniques that I reviewed about a year ago requested a copy of my review. I got to use my Taylor & Francis “author copy” link.
This was your standard academic book collection of method articles/tied together by editor. The subject was interpreting archaeological topography (remote sensing). That would be my ultimate dream job, using lidar on heritage sites.
I emailed right back with the link, but I’m not sure about the protocol for further email contact. Or what I would say. I’m just a lowly master’s degree person who is too broke to consider going back for a phd and isn’t working in remote sensing at the moment (but would love to be).
So, apparently, I need to take my linked in and academia.edu profiles seriously. ANy advice on that? Especially since I’m not working in the private sector either, i’m in small government, so can’t really broadcast any of my current work? and I’m no longer tied to a university, so I don’t have an “academic identity”, so to speak?
Anybody got good grad-student level linked in/academia examples for me to follow?
Michelin Stars were also published yesterday, for Chicago at least. My foodie (I hate this term but what else am I supposed to say for shorthand) friends and I endlessly debate the merits of the San Pel list, of having a list at all instead of a general goodness rating. Like is it fair to pit that shack in the last paragraph against a twenty-course $400 molecular gastronomy prix fixe?
This has made me furious. http://www.theestablishment.co/2015/10/26/medical…
At first I thought it was just a fascinating article, but jesus christ can doctors get any more arrogant?! Why is there this attitude that mothers don’t want the best for their children, and it seems that doctors first instinct if they don’t know something is to blame the woman/mother. WHAT THE FUCK.
‘Hhmmm this child appears to be ill, but I don’t know why, the mother must be a crazy bitch.’
SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW.
This is so terrifying:
“Some parents are overanxious or difficult, and others perceive their child as vulnerable because of some earlier traumatic event, such as extreme prematurity, and may ‘shop around’ for a physician. When parental behaviors result in harm to the child, the child has been maltreated, whatever the caregiver’s motivation.”
Translation: if you are the parent (most likely the mother) of a seriously ill child, and you are not absolutely robotically perfect, you may be accused of harming your child and the state’s response to that will be a punitive one. :-O
The linked NYtimes article is almost worse.
Its a double edged sword, because seeming too perfect can also get you accused.
The main gist I got is ‘Medical Child Abuse’ essentially comes down to disagreeing with a doctor. Or annoying him to much. Or asking for a different opinion. Or god forbid, going with the treatment/testing plan set by a another doctor.
Essentially if you’re a parent of a sick (or a possibly sick) child and you don’t treat the doctor like the God he thinks he is, then you’re an abusive parent.
I have all kinds of ugh about doctors/medical professionals, and one thing I really wish is that they acted more like vets. (Seriously, stay with me.)
Equine vets in particular (especially high performance vets) will consider any treatment that works, and actually listen to the owner/primary carer; in fact they deffer decisions to the owner. The vet will give you all the options, pros/cons, cost and let you make the decision if you want to. And they’re not surprised by owners actually engaging in a conversation with them about possible diagnosis’s and treatments.
There’s a blog I was reading written by a pregnant horse rider, and she wrote about her surprise at how she was being treated by medical professionals vs her vets. Luckily she has a great OB, but when the OB was talking about different tests and things, and this person started asking questions and asking about risks vs rewards for some of the tests, the doctor was completely shocked! (Luckily in a good way and was happy to talk about everything)
It really annoys me when doctors don’t listen to paitents/parents; Yes I can understand that they are over-anxious or annoying, but they know whats normal. If I told my vet that my horse hadn’t urinated in a few days, he’d believe me and start investigating, cause that can be a serious symptom; but apparently if a mother brings a chronically ill child to an ER and says she hasn’t peed for a few days, well that’s child abuse.
ETA: Here it is! https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/amateurs-us-…
I ended up down that black hole this morning as well!!!
The number of REALLY TROUBLING THINGS here is quite high.
Me, 11:44 AM: That “wallflower at the orgy” article seems great but I can’t read it at work. I’ll have to read it on my phone.
Me, 11:45 AM: Wait, no, The Toast is a steaming hot mess on mobile. It will never work.
Me, 11:48 AM: … THE REDESIGN!!!!
All this to say I was able to get to the link roundup and thence to the article in question on my iphone without even once being redirected to an ad or the app store! My quality of life has improved significantly.
My best friend’s birthday was yesterday, and I bought the HAMILTON soundtrack for her, because she hadn’t gotten around to listening to it yet on YouTube, despite my urging.
So now she hasn’t downloaded the MP3s yet, but of course she’s finally listening to it on YouTube and I’m getting OH I SEE WHAT YOU MEANT texts.
AT LAST.
Also, last night I was walking back from the apartment gym, listening to “Ten Duel Commandments” on my earbuds until I couldn’t resist an exaggerated, high-pitched impression of “I’m a general, wheeee!”
And only afterward realized some of my neighbors were outside for a smoke.
(I don’t actually think I’m a general, neighbors.)
You are a stellar friend.
I still haven’t gotten around to listening to the Hamilton soundtrack (Canadian! sorry!) but given the fact that I’ve recently woken up more than once thinking, “GIVE IT UP FOR AMERICA’S FAVORITE FIGHTING FRENCHMAN!” out of nowhere, I suspect the time is nigh.
LAFAYETTE!
(Lol, no need to apologize. I just knew she’d love it once she gave i a listen, and I was impatient for that to occur.)
Maybe it’s just my weird social circle but a good portion of the men I have dated/been friends with were obsessed with Joanna Newsom to a sometimes uncomfortable and sexualized/idealized degree, so that article (while super legit in some ways) just had me like “we clearly do not know the same kinds of men at ALL”
That’s the other side of the Joanna Newsom Sexism Coin. People who are obsessed with her and think of her as a fairy princess who lives in the woods and talks to animals rather than a human woman who married the creator of “Dick in a Box.” I find that anybody who expresses disgust for her marriage to Andy Samberg probably likes her for bad reasons.
Have One on Me is like listening to the Pride and Prejudice book-on-tape while driving on 1-94 through Indiana and Illinois with NPR’s Jonathan Schwartz riding shotgun.
I fail to see the problem with this scenario.
Hi Toasties, need some advice: I want to return to my writing, but need my own laptop first. If you do a lot of typing and own a laptop, what do you think of it? What’s your dream-laptop?
Hey, so I’m not an author, but I code, which means I do quite a bit of typing. I use a Macbook Pro, and I like it very much, but I’m hesitant to recommend them right now because the latest model’s keyboard is unbelievably, unforgivably bad. Older Macbooks (literally any pre-2015 model) are still pretty great.
A suggestion I would make (to anyone who types a lot) is to look at mechanical keyboards. I use a Das keyboard with blue switches at work and a Das with brown switches at home and they are game-changers when you’re typing all day long. Obviously, you lose some portability, and you have the clicky-ness of the switches, but the difference is so dramatic. It makes typing a constant joy.
I have been using a cheap Chromebook for about 2 years, and I have finally given up on doing everything in Google Docs (much as I love it) because I need to be able to use other programs. So I’ve ordered a cheap Acer 11″ with Windows but oriented to backing everything up in the cloud. (It arrives tomorrow!) (And when I say “cheap,” I mean under $200.) But in general, for something that I am primarily using for writing and web research, what I want in a laptop is cheap and easy to backup in the cloud (so it’s no big deal if it gets lost or broken), and light (so it isn’t a pain to haul around on the chance of inspiration striking). The Chromebook did all that, but obviously now it’s also important to be able to put my own programs on it (like Scrivener). I have fairly small hands, so I don’t have a problem with smaller keyboards; likewise, if I’m not doing graphic design work, I don’t need an out-of-the-world screen in terms of size and sharpness. Dream laptop=one that makes it easy for me to sit down and write.
That is exactly what I did and I love it. We’ll see if I still love it after NaNo, but so far things are looking good.
Hi! This isn’t so much for you because you’ve gotten your solution in order, but for anyone reading this who’s thinking about whether or not a Chromebook might work for them… Chrome Remote Desktop is this Chrome app (official from Google) that lets you remotely connect to another computer you own that runs Chrome. What this means for me is that I have my desktop set up at home so anytime I’m out with my Chromebook, I can connect to the desktop and use the programs I have installed there. The combo of cheapo desktop + cheapo Chromebook ends up working way better than anything else I could afford!
Assuming you have a bit of Windows experience, like with upgrading operating system etc, here’s something I always recommend. Get whatever cheap POS laptop (Dell) you can get your hands on and a Windows operating system install disk, anything XP or higher. Before you do anything, do a brand new install of Windows and wipe that fucking drive in the process. (this might be a thing you can do with Macs too but I’m not sure) The reason to do this is, when you get any computer, it’s going to come all loaded up with shit “helpful” software. Get rid of it all, install Microsoft Security Essentials (free anti-virus), run the updates, and you’ll be ready to go. It takes a little time but totally worth it.
I have a cheap Acer that’s pretty good for typing on.
Tom’s Guide has an interactive laptop buying guide now. Tom’s has been around and doing hardware reviews since forever, so I usually trust them, though I admit I don’t follow hardware stuff closely enough to know if I should. I don’t know if the laptop guide is any good, because I didn’t find it until after I bought my laptop, but it might at least give you an idea of what’s currently available that fits what you’re looking for.
Ugh, Toasties, can I vent plz? Last night my partner and I had an argument (kind of) about something that on the surface is small but was actually symbolic of a larger thing (you know how those kinds of arguments are) and we didn’t go to bed until like 2 AM, when I fell asleep sobbing in his arms. Ugh ugh ugh. It is awful. I played hooky from work because I wanted to sleep and mope in my pajamas all day. Comforting and/or funny images/gifs/videos of small furry animals are much appreciated.
Aww. Have some corgis!
My pet rat Emma Goldman fell asleep in the food bowl
She’s pink! And named Emma Goldman! Aaaaaah!
She dyed herself pink by sleeping on top of cooked beets, haha! I love albino rats especially, their pink eyes are adorable
i’m here to report that i have, for the first time, made a decision based on the axiom “What Would a White Man Do?” and it was delightful.
IT WORKED YOU GUYZZZZ! i emailed Like A Man and a man apologized to me for his mistake and fixed it. someone bring my smelling salts *swoon*
I am really worried that Justin Trudeau’s promise to make 50% of his cabinet women is going to be plagued with diversity issues such as the ones being discussed around the linked article. I have no idea if it ends there or if there is going to support for the institutional changes that will allow this to be successful. I don’t know, it’s good that he knows it’s a problem and wants to try something? But I’m worried it won’t work and people will be like “well, we tried, oh welp, nothing more to be done.”
Perfect timing with the donating books to prisons links, because Ask a Manager interviewed a prison librarian! http://www.askamanager.org/2015/10/interview-with…
Oh! It's so interesting that y'all saw it that way – I thought the show was totally on Kara's side name-wise and that was just her boss bullying her into silence. Like, she wasn't so much shamed or convinced, just realizing she's pissed off her boss and can't continue this argument without insulting her/being fired. And it is a common derailing tactic people use so I just figured it was continuing the "boss is a jerk" theme and not a serious argument being put forth by the show itself!
But! That might be wishful thinking. I choose to hold on to it! I texted a friend excited that the show had seemingly acknowledged the misogyny.
Hm, idk. I mean that probably would have been a better way to handle it, but I don't think that was their intention. If Kara had walked away muttering disagreements or mentioned it later, I might agree with you, but she seemed to accept it? Plus also:
I think they genuinely intended that to be their reasoning tbh.
“What we also said to them was, ‘Tell us what you want to do when you get here,’ ” O’Sullivan said. “A. A. Gill wanted to go kangaroo shooting—obviously, we couldn’t do that, but there were all types of requests.”
Of course he did.
At Boragó, his restaurant in Santiago, he uses mostly indigenous ingredients, relying on more than two hundred foragers and small producers to supply the raw materials for dishes such as venison tartare with maqui berries and a soup of Patagonian rainwater served on a bed of moss.
It is a spectacular-sounding place: “Mr. Pairet’s play on fish and chips (a single, battered caper berry stuffed with anchovy paste and paired with a Scottish beer),” the Times wrote, “emerges in a dreary storm with images of raindrops on the walls and the sounds of thunder, before a British flag is illuminated on the table and the Beatles’ ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ begins to play.”
I’m just going to leave those there.
That orgy story is weirdly exactly what I needed to read today. Because I have been feeling weird about orgies I've attended. And it made me laugh
Hi! This isn't so much for you because you've gotten your solution in order, but for anyone reading this who's thinking about whether or not a Chromebook might work for them… Chrome Remote Desktop is this Chrome app (official from Google) that lets you remotely connect to another computer you own that runs Chrome. What this means for me is that I have my desktop set up at home so anytime I'm out with my Chromebook, I can connect to the desktop and use the programs I have installed there. The combo of cheapo desktop + cheapo Chromebook ends up working way better than anything else I could afford!