I saw Spectre. It was great, IDGAF. I wish it had been four hours longer. I have never seen a Bond movie I didn’t like, even the TERRIBLE (several) and PROBLEMATIC (all) ones. Daniel Craig can get it. His suits can get it. Madeleine Swann’s high-waisted white-linen pants and perfectly wrinkle-free satin dress in the DESERT can get it. Moneypenny got her own, and good for her. Monica Bellucci was not in the movie long enough, but her house and booze cabinet and in-ground pool with A+++ soft lighting was DOPE as SHIT. But, mostly, Daniel Craig is so so so so so so so sexy. He has so many weird extra bones in his face, which sounds AWFUL, but it works. Picture him humming Enya directly into your junk, or whatever it is you want him to do to you (if that’s “try on blazers together,” follow your bliss.)
(I need to have a celebrity sexual obsession at all times, and I eventually had to give up Benedict because of his face and body and that Zoolander 2 trailer, so I decided to revert to Daniel for a time.)
Okay! Back to links.
As you can imagine, The Bible In NYC Blog Voice was balm to my ears:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This was probably a very bad idea!
The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was hovering over the surface of the deep, which, ugh. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light?? Also! God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “a Big Steaming Garbage Pit of Despair.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.
And God said, “I wrote a thing about there being a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” Actually (#actually), God called the vault “sky.”
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The sport of curling is DIVIDED. Also, once I went on a little trip and came back and found that Steve had taped the curling events in the Olympics for me, and I was all “lol why?” and it turned out to be an ugly cultural stereotype he held about Canadians. And, to be fair, my high school teachers had a curling club they all participated in busily and seriously:
Perhaps unsurprising for a sport that has something in common with a household chore, the crux of the debate is fabric — specifically, something called directional fabric. The use of this material in broom pads is the latest escalation in an arms race among manufacturers, whereby the world’s best curlers can guide the 44-pound stone around a sheet of ice as if it were controlled by a joystick.
Sweeping with the brooms, which more closely resemble Swiffers than actual brooms, is considered an athletic skill in the sport. If that task is too easy, well, some curlers felt that it just wasn’t curling anymore.
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If you are religious, you might enjoy this poem/prayer by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. If you are not religious (or if you are very religious indeed), you may enjoy the teaser trailer for AGENT CARTER SEASON TWO: PEGGY TAKES L.A.)
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Jez has a good piece on how the media’s coverage of Charlie Sheen’s HIV status is a real regression.
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Are you following what’s happening at Harvard Law?
The morning after Harvard students and affiliates rallied in support of national calls for racial justice on campuses, someone has apparently vandalized the portraits of black professors at the law school.
Photos tweeted by Harvard PhD candidate Clint Smith show the portraits of tenured African American law professors, which are displayed in the law school’s main building, marked by black slashes of tape across their faces.
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SET HIM ON FIRE (the father-in-law, not your son):
Dear Prudence,
My 1-year-old son was recently diagnosed with some very serious food allergies and given an EpiPen. Following our doctor’s advice, we are very vigilant to make sure he doesn’t accidentally eat anything he’s allergic to. My father-in-law (who watches him regularly) has expressed that he feels the best way to deal with allergies is to give him small amounts of what he is allergic to. I was worried my very stubborn father-in-law might ignore our instructions, but my husband convinced me I was being ridiculous. Recently however, at a family dinner, I came back from the bathroom to find him feeding my son something that had an ingredient he is allergic to. I asked him to stop and he said, “Don’t worry about it.” I got very upset because this is really dangerous, but he told me I was overreacting. I am furious now and worried about having my father-in-law spend time alone with my son in the future. Am I being crazy, or is he?
—Allergic to Father-in-Law
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I decided to embrace Normcore Coffee a while back, which, of course, is its own pretension:
But, over time, people in the upper echelons of Good Coffee began to whisper that maybe manually brewed coffee is not all that Cool, at least not all the time: Humans, especially hastily trained ones who didn’t want to serve coffee their whole life, were way less consistent than machines (weird!), so one cup of pourover might taste pretty good, while the next tastes pretty bad; brewing coffee in a Chemex takes a long time and maybe the barista could be doing better things, like interacting with customers instead of staring glass-eyed into a pile of coffee grounds and slowly dripping water onto it like a dying flower bed; most customers—and there were so many customers these days—would be extremely happy to get their coffee in like five seconds instead of five minutes, even if it was slightly less Good; and also something something bed depth, refractometer readings blah blah, extraction yield yadda yadda. (Also, it did not help that a lot of Fake Good Coffee shops had emerged recently to take money from the growing ranks of people who now wanted Good Coffee, serving them bad coffee made with Cool Brewing Methods while saying all of the same things that Good Coffee shops tend to say, like, “meet the farmer, here is his picture, please enjoy consuming his soul with every drop.”)
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when u lowkey need to get ur waiter’s attention @Lin_Manuel @leslieodomjr @DaveedDiggs @ChrisisSingin pic.twitter.com/6HwxIdZIis
— Hamilton’s Squad (@hamiltonssquad) November 19, 2015
just sent TWO EMAILS where I described my relationship with @Nicole_Cliffe thusly: “I want someday to be buried like a dog at her feet” ??? — Mallory Ortberg (@mallelis) November 19, 2015
YOU GUYS IT’S AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HOKAY, HERE IS ZE EARTH GUY.
I can still pretty much quote the whole damn thing
oh my god
OH MY GOD???
The most important link of the day.
!!!!!!!!
I can’t believe this guy is my age. This was my friends’ and my favorite thing in the summer of 2003. I would have guessed he was a little older.
ETA: whenever people are complaining about Iran or whoever else having nukes, I always remember learning from this video that we have. like, way more than anyone else… but whatever.
WHAT YES
Fucking kangaroos.
The wave of nostalgia I just felt is hard to describe.
ETA: ebaum’s world!!!! I just checked and apparently it still exists! Wow.
Oh my gosh yeah, phrases from that video are pretty much permanently embedded into my vernacular. Particularly “but i am le tired” “well zen have a nap.”
In conversations, I might still sometimes (without even meaning to) open up new topics or change the subject by going, “Hokay. So.”
Here’s the world (ROUND)
“Dang, you might be saying, that is a sweet ____. WRAEOOONG.” is often employed, too.
For a long time, I definitely said WTF mate? out loud. Frequently.
I do this probably once a week
I do that so often I forget that it’s a reference.
“Bout that time, eh chaps?” for me.
I use “but I am le tired” all the time, mostly just to myself when I don’t want to do work or chores, to the point where I often don’t remember that it’s from something
I feel like “have a nap, zen FIRE ZE MISSILES” is a great life philosophy
I think, I think that this was maybe the first thing on the internet that I had legitimate feelings of love toward? 😀
I manage to think about this video at least weekly because something reminds me of the video.
THIS IS THE MOST CLASSIC INTERNET THING OF OUR ENTIRE GENERATION
PLAY IT AT OUR FUNERALS
ALL OF OUR FUNERALS
I have to admit something. I am 34 years old, presumably in the exact age group to have most likely been aware of/into this video when it came out. I was super into the internets in 2003. AND YET, I have no recollection of ever seeing it. WHAT? How did I miss it?
SAME HERE, where was I? I was definitely all over those internets at that time.
WOW this takes me back.
I saw this video for the first time A MONTH AGO on Tumblr. Everyone is still wondering who made it!
Dear The-Toast,
First time poster here, oft-time lurker. I am not sure where to direct this, so I thought the Links section was a likely location!
Atlas-obscura posted a thing this morning, a medieval book of pictures of various things (including dentistry and dogs pooping) created entirely out of feathers. If this isn’t a “two-monks” topic then I don’t know what is, I thought.
Link: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/see-a-400-ye…
I love y’all dearly,
Acha
This is amazing. (From one lurker to another)
Ooooh sending it to all of my birder buddies !
It’s nice to know that people have been waiting for their dogs to finish pooping on a walk for hundreds of years.
I love Sansa so much already.
She has the precious slightly-worried puppy face down pat. I want her to chew on my shoelaces!
And tilt her head at me when my human ways are too confusing!
I spend a lot of time grousing about “Canadian stereotypes are pointless, no one says ‘aboot’ and plenty of people are racist as shit!” BUT in regards to curling two of my coworkers are in a curling league and a friend of ours is visiting from 3000km away for a bonspiel and the curling arena in my town is POPPING like every night in the winter. It is a hot place to be. And now that I think of it I have multiple friends who do quite a lot of curling (and are in their 20s) so apparently yes: Curling For All.
I live in Ohio and am OBSESSED with curling, and it is the one of the biggest hardships of my life that none of my friends are into it at all and no one else will join my local club EVEN THOUGH I keep telling them that we get to drink after games.
(I’m not playing this year because I also have season tickets to my local hockey team, and I always had hockey games the same night my leagues met, so I always had to miss hockey. I am more of a Canadian Stereotype than some Canadians I know )
I played in a curling league one year and we were allowed to drink DURING games. (We lost every game but I don’t think that was because of the beer, but because we were the only team of all beginners.)
oh, we could drink during games – you just have to put it in a plastic cup and couldn’t take it right on the ice. I just never did because me + alcohol + ice is a recipe for danger.
I live in upstate NY, fairly close to Canada, and have had quite a number of Canadian colleagues from the Toronto area and they all definitely had a different pronunciation of their vowels than folks do around here. Maybe it’s regional?
No no no, there is definitely a Canadian accent and it varies by region, but nobody says “aboot” specifically. It’s called the Canadian shift or Canadian raising, but it’s almost never like “aboot.”
Hmmm yeah it’s more like….a boat? The one I could always identify was “project,” which we said a lot, and which my Canadian colleagues would say with a long o.
It IS more like ‘a boat’. Go forth and spread the ‘a boat’ gospel!
I’m the only one I’ve ever heard actually say aboot, and that’s because I’m an USian with a speech impediment. 😀 I mangle dollar as well.
Since coming back to Vermont I’ve started doing strange things with my o’s and I can only assume it’s Canada’s fault. Though the only Canadians I really interact with much are old French Canadiens with very strong accents to match so really I’ve got no clue where it’s coming from.
But every now and then that thing comes out super round.
Wait, is one of the stereotypes about Canadians that we’re racists? I…didn’t know that.
No, the opposite–the stereotype is that Canada is super welcoming and friendly and open and in lots of places…it is not. God, I’m not expressing myself well today.
I think the stereotype is that Canadians are friendly and tolerant of everyone, and aravisthequeen is saying there are plenty of racists.
The stereotype I think is actually that Canadians are not (as) racist because you don’t have the whole “our country was built on the backs of slaves” thing to contend with.
Of course, that’s not quite true.
Right, not true! Forgot to mention that, thanks.
The stereotype also conveniently forgets the absolutely horrible (and ongoing) treatment of First Nations people in Canada.
But see, if we acknowledged that, then we’d have to acknowledge that our own attempted Native American genocide (physical and cultural) was, in fact, morally depraved.
Many, many Canadians don’t know slavery existed in New France. It’s pretty embarrassing.
I used to resist the Canadian curling stereotype, but now I’m married to a high school curling coach, and I cried during the 2010 gold medal men’s game, when everyone started singing “Oh Canada.”
I hated curling in my (rural northern) teens but we just went curling for our “branch day” at work and it was kinda fun! The curling club was pretty musty though.
I am Really Terrible at curling but I am An Expert at watching the second half of each end in a curling match (and reading internet content during the first)
fyi non-Canadians! (and Canadians who are not into curling) Unless the teams are horribly outmatched, the only part of the game you REALLY need to watch is the last five minutes. But those last five minutes are often SUPER EXCITING.
Oh man, I forgot how much I love Agent Carter. Can’t wait for Season 2! Also, how did I not know that Benedict was in Zoolander 2?
how did I not know that Benedict was in Zoolander 2
If at all possible, I would advise you to forget that piece of information. In fact, just forget that the movie exists at all. Continue forgetting as much as possible. You’ll be better off. Trust me.
I just watched the trailer. Oh, if only I could forget. If. Only.
I also just watched it and immediately regretted it. I should’ve listened!!!
i thought I could watch it on mute and maybe that would be better
pretty sure I felt my uterus shrivel up just now oh MAN
I didn’t even watch the trailer, but that image of him floated across my Facebook feed, through no fault of my own. Why did the universe do that to me?
Yeah, after seeing some gifs of the trailer I’ve decided to pretend it doesn’t exist. I think that’s for the best.
Thank you for this warning. *averts eyes*
One of the (minor, I know) things that annoys me so much about it is that Benedict is EXCELLENT at comedy (for anyone who needs proof, look up the BBC radio show Cabin Pressure, where he plays an earnest, awkward, terrible pilot) and I’d love to see him do more comedies instead of Serious Things and now nobody will cast him for funny things. :((((
Curling is my favorite sport I have no idea how to play. And I have no desire to learn. It is perfect and meditative and is like the Joy of Painting of sports for me.
(But also I obvs want to know any and all drama about it because CURLING DRAMA)
It’s just so nice to watch! And you hardly have to learn anything about the game to understand what’s going on, and they do commentary and analysis with circles and arrows and stuff but that’s also pretty easy to understand.
My roommates and I had curling-watching drinking games in university. With wine. It was really very nice.
My very favorite thing about curling is that you can 100% imagine how a handful of drunk Scotsmen came up with it on a bored Saturday afternoon in the dead of winter, with materials they had on hand (brooms, rocks, ice.)
I’m forever bitter about curling because a dear friend gave me a faulty explanation of the sport and the real thing was nowhere near as exciting.
“Lemonack,” he said to me, “there are these boulders, okay? And there are people on skates with brooms. And they use the brooms to clear a path in front of the boulder as it rolls.”
Upon hearing “skating in front of a boulder” I pictured that one scene from Indiana Jones. I immediately went to YouTube, and got the biggest disappointment of that whole year.
I am 100% a Bad Coffee person, but mostly because I just can’t tell the difference, really, so my vague pretense to coffee snobbery was JUST a pretense. I don’t put sugar in; I care a whole lot about Good Food and good tea; I just cannot care about coffee and it is relief. Anyway, now I drink instant while still discussing exactly which proportions salad dressing should be made in.
This is my exact attitude towards wine.
I am a moderate snob about coffee and beer, but wine? I drink the $3 stuff at Trader Joe’s most of the time!
I can tell the difference between terrible coffee and ok coffee, but anything better than just ok is lost on me. I have killed my taste buds with dairy and Splenda and cannot experience nuances anymore.
I had a friend once who roasted his own coffee beans and then ground them in a burr grinder and brewed them in a Chemex or something, plus of course he had a professional espresso machine. He tried to convince me that I needed to drop $2000 on this set up and he would hook me up with his green coffee bean distributer. I was just like, dude, I buy good beans, and my coffee is good enough! Good enough is all I need.
As a confirmed tea drinker whose most recent ex-boyfriend was one of these science!coffee evangelists (which is really to say, he was an expensive-equipment evangelist), I approve of this “meh, good enough”!
We are looking at buying anew espresso machine and man, the coffee nerds on reviews are so pretentious! We just need good enough not a “god shot” whatever that is.
I have a friend (granted he’s an engineer) who is designing a machine to roast your own coffee beans.
No, I say! I can’t stand Bad Coffee (i,e, instant, gas station), and I will drink OK Coffee if I’m desperate, but I prefer Decent Coffee daily, with occasional indulgences in Good Coffee. I am not sophisticated enough to tell Good Coffee from Very Good Coffee.
I’ve been making “pour-over” coffee my whole adult life (um, 30-ish years) in a Melitta cone that probably cost less than $5 and I can’t help laughing at the idea that this is some kind of precious artisanal process that is only for hipsters with burr grinders and must take 20 minutes of fussing and thermometers and scales. It is low-tech, yo, and makes a really good strong cup and is very portable if you want to take decent coffee on vacation.
Yes, pour-over is perfect as a convenient way to make one cup of coffee for yourself. I do it every morning. To make many cups of coffee for guests or a coffee shop, it is not ideal.
it was good in our dorm suite, b/c we had an electric kettle but no room for a coffee maker. I didn’t even realize it was a ~~fancy~~ coffee thing because it seems so low-tech!
Right? “Pour-over” is what my mom does when she needs a mid-afternoon coffee to go with her cigarette and everyone else thinks drinking coffee at 3pm is insane.
OMG I thought I was the only one bemusedly watching my cheap plastic pour-overs become part of a chichi and weirdly scientific trend. I was just too cheap to buy a coffeepot in college, and then the habit stuck..
My favorite was an article detailing all the different types of pour-over devices (i think it was food52 but I can’t find it right now.) “With this one, you bloom the coffee, wait one minute, fill it again, wait two minutes, and make one more pour!” “This one is easier – no timed pours, but make sure to weigh your beans!” I’m pretty sure they were all more expensive versions of the $5 Melitta cone, and any pourover variation would work.
And I have to say, I finally bought an automatic coffee maker in an (effective!) attempt to make my morning routine faster, because my boss yelled at me about being late to work, and the coffee is FINE and having only to push the button in the morning instead of setting up a pour-over filter and waiting for the water to boil is GLORIOUS.
Same! I just cannot do instant coffee, (unless it’s mixed with copious amounts of chocolate protein powder) so my Melita cone comes with me on my bike trips. I’m pretty sure “hot-ish water poured out of a repurposed aluminum can” is not at all what the hipsters have in mind when they say pour-pver
I spent my first 3 years of living in Italy developing my coffee snobbery, since excellent coffee is pretty much the national religion and all that. And then I lost my sense of smell 6 months ago, and now I drink rubbish supermarket own-brand instant because all coffee is pretty much brown caffeine water to me. It is SO LIBERATING.
I haven’t had a sense of smell since my teens and I can definitely tell the difference between crap coffee and excellent coffee. Maybe because coffee quality changes the smoothness and mouth feel? Tea, on the other hand, is a total waste to me, because it’s nothing but hot water unless it’s super strong spice or mint tea.
This is exactly how I feel! I have Very Strong Opinions about food and booze, but honestly, to me coffee is just a vehicle for the caffeine that my body requires in order to continue functioning, and I could not care less about the brewing method.
Right? I don’t want to pay $5 for a cup of coffee. I could save that and buy some green walnut brandy liqueur later!
I am a massive snob about so many things, I don’t need this to be one of them.
I can tell the difference, I just don’t care. Like, if I’m just jonesing for my morning caffeine fix, I’ll drink Dunkin Donuts or bodega coffee or Lavazza or whatever. If I want to sit down for a while and enjoy a cup, I’ll splurge at a shop or make it in my French press, but it’s not a big deal.
I worked in a crappy gas station for a while and the closest thing we had to an employee discount was that I could drink all the crappy gas station coffee I wanted. After a while it became my preferred beverage? I drink instant too, but I usually put it in milk.
I thought I had become a snobby coffee person, but maybe not because I won’t grind my own coffee beans (extra work to get coffee? lol no.) so I buy already-ground coffee at the grocery store. Sometimes Dunkin Donuts brand. Which has caused people to give me a look of horror, especially if they’ve just finished telling me all about their coffee-making process in the morning which sounds very fiddly and like it takes an hour.
I don’t need my coffee to be good, I just need it to be STRONG. I would waaay rather drink burnt, bitter coffee than weak, translucent coffee. I like my coffee to taste like COFFEE, even when there’s four gallons of cream in it.
Yep, me too. I have one of those stove-top Bialetti Moka pots, which is kind of a lot of fuss for a single cup of coffee, but it’s so. gloriously. strong. I have no idea if it’s objectively good according to coffee snobs; but it makes the coffee-est coffee of any method I’ve tried, which is all I require.
I need my coffee to be strong, but even more importantly I need it to be hot and stay hot. And the wonderful thing about those stovetop percolators is that they turn out a cup of coffee that you can add milk to and still have it be almost too hot to drink. Also, you can grind the coffee and fill the percolator the night before so that when you stumble downstairs all bleary-eyed and caffeine-deprived, you can just turn on the burner.
The irony here is that the darker you roast coffee, the less caffeine it has.
My happy medium is a dark roast but made really strong. The lighter roasts give me wicked bad nausea!
You know, I don’t really have much of a conception of what constitutes “good” coffee, but there is coffee that tastes good to me (smooth, not sour, bitter but not too bitter, not weak or watery) and there’s coffee that tastes bad (sour, too acidic, burnt-tasting, weak and watery) and I feel ok about the fact that I can tell the difference.
Did anyone read that rather heartwarming article where the guy wrote about all the bonding experiences he’d had with his stepdad over bad coffee? And that now he drinks Folgers but not ironically or whatever? And I loved it and all, but the one thing that stuck out to me was that he was declaring himself a lover of bad coffee, but also making sure we know that he knows the difference between good and bad coffee. Which is to say, if you love instant coffee, go for it and don’t worry about anything else. I mean, good coffee is good to YOU, and that’s really all that matters.
I didn’t think there was much to “good” coffee either…until I went to Costa Rica and the crappy little hotel I was staying in served me a cup and I took a sip and HOLY HELL it was AMAZING!
My Good Coffee experience was in Madrid. I was only there for three days, and I don’t even speak Spanish and had no idea what places were good and what ones were bad, but every single cup of coffee I had there was exponentially better than the best coffee I’ve had anywhere else. I was really surprised because I had never heard anything about Spain and coffee before. I don’t know if this is some well-known thing that I just never found out about, or total coincidence, or my weird taste buds, or what.
My first “good coffee” experience is almost too trite. I was at the Paradox Cafe, an old-school mostly-vegetarian diner-style place in Portland, that served endless cups of Stumptown coffee. I didn’t even like coffee until I tried that.
And that was before anyone outside of Portland had even heard of Stumptown, and before Portland became vegan mecca. Like, 2000. JFC.
See, I like “good” coffee but won’t go through the trouble to make it. Spouse got all into the burr-grinder thing a few years ago and had this, like, thirteen-step process for making our weekend morning pot, starting with ROOM-temperature filtered water and heating the mugs AND the carafe with boiling water, getting out the grinder, etc etc etc. When I had observed and memorized the routine, he started trusting me to do it myself. Bad Me, I betrayed his trust immediately by cutting out a step here and a step there. I have it down to a manageable process but have to keep him out of the kitchen if I’m making coffee, so I don’t have to deal with my lies and evasions. Heh.
If I’m out and need a caffeine hit, Dunkin’ is fine by me.
I’m that way about tea, actually… I just boil the water, dump it in right away, let it steep until it’s not too hot to drink, leave the tea bag in there, and drink it straight up. It tastes fine, so I don’t bother messing around with it. And I’ve tried loose leaf instead of bags, but I just don’t (or don’t care to) notice the difference.
I’m 100% a Where Is My Goddamn Caffeine Coffee person. I’ll go for a decent cup if it’s available for a reasonable price, but there had better be plenty of it, and otherwise I’ll settle for a jumbo bucket of that convenience store stuff and dump a bunch of those SToK things in it.
So, apparently everyone I know thinks I am a Good Coffee person because they always see me make coffee in either a french press or a little Melitta cone at home, but only my boyfriend and roommate know the truth, which is that I would happily drink cheap coffee made from a super-convenient automatic coffee maker every damn morning if it weren’t for the fact that every coffee maker I’ve had has broken in a different and mysterious way after approximately four months of use. I’m not Cool, I’m just cursed.
I forgot to mention that this week I saw Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sonia Manzano (aka Maria from Sesame Street) in conversation with Juan Gonzalez (from Democracy Now!) at NYU. It was glorious. Lin-Manuel is a dreamy genius, and YOUNGER than me so now I really feel unaccomplished. And when Sonia went to see Hamilton she brought Justice Sonia Sotomayor as her guest and they all hung out backstage. ALSO Amy Goodman was in the audience, sitting just a couple rows ahead of me, and she cheered so loud for Juan (her cohost of 18 years) when they introduced him. I died three times.
I would HIGHLY recommend you listen to an interview with Sonia on the podcast Death Sex and Money a couple months back. I grew up with Maria but I had no idea what a badass Sonia is IRL.
I second listening to Sonia Manzano on Death Sex & Money, boy that whole thing just gave me all the feelings 100x over. She was so much of my childhood. The adults in my life were just not good, and she gave me hope that not all grownups were sh*t.
Juan asked Sonia who her role models were growing up and she flat out said “I didn’t have any.” I hope you have found some good adults along the way (((hug)))
Holy crap I just died of awesomeness.
SAME
And here I am going to link to the episode with Sonia Manzano and then I am going to listen to it.
Thank you for posting the link!
I deliberately tried to go lighter w today’s roundup because of how grim it’s been this week, but by all means, we can certainly discuss Trump’s unbelievable actual Nazi-esque goals for America and surging poll numbers.
Guardian Live Blog: http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/nov/20…
(meant to reply to call for Mali links, sorry)
Okay but Trump HAS to be trolling with that. Right? Like seeing just how far he can go before his fan base realizes that they’re being exposed as the xenophobic assholes that they are? It’s unbelievable to me that Trump–who must have SOME brains, what with being a successful businessman and reality TV show star–could not be aware that he sounds exactly like a Nazi. Right??
I know “Nazi-esque” gets thrown around as hyperbole a lot, but… yeah, it’s not really an exaggeration?
Overheard some conservative coworkers talking about his policies, they said, “Well, his views are pretty nationalist. But when it comes to social issues, he’s almost socialist.” And my jaw dropped to the floor because how do you not make that connection.
I am so impressed that you didn’t immediately go to “so it sounds like you’re saying he’s a national socialist…?” with a raised eyebrow. On the other hand, if I were in your shoes, my jaw would also be on the floor.
To be fair to the coworkers, I actually didn’t know that the Nazis were “national socialists” until this month. To not be fair to the coworkers, there are plenty of other ways to make the connection “You know, even though Godwin’s Law is a thing, some of Trump’s views legitimately sound Nazi-esque.”
I have a hard Do Not Engage rule for this coworker, so even if my jaw hadn’t been hanging out with my feet, I would not have said anything. I’m sure you can imagine why.
Sounds like a smart rule.
say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, at least it’s an ethos
#wishtrumpwasanihilist
#imeanhekindofis
#itmustbeexhausting
that is literally how i learned that nazis were national socialists.
i’m staying. i’m finishing my coffee.
I think he’s just saying whatever he thinks will get him play in the media. But his followers are buying in and that’s the scary thing to me. Like, if this goes far enough, they won’t need him to put these stupidly dangerous ideas into action. They’ll just do it themselves. So even if he’s trolling, he’s unleashed something very dangerous.
Trump doesn’t troll. This is pure unfiltered id. Remember he’s never been elected to public office before. What’s horrifying is that he’s actually finding an audience — and a sizable one.
Yeah, the Donald knows how to lie, but he doesn’t know how to be insincere. I don’t think that man has ever been required to filter his thoughts and wishes, and he’s certainly not about to start now.
That is the best description of privilege I’ve read in a while — never being required to filter your thoughts or wishes.
🙂
They played bits of one of his rallies on NPR last night. I listened with total horror, which seemed to be the rection of the NPR persons, as their commentary on the recordings was basically “welp.”
I grew up near Atlantic City, so I have been hearing this horrible person and seeing his architectural monstrosities my entire life, and I have no idea who the hell thinks it was a good idea to put him on TV and give him any power in the first place. I have been wrong in every prediction about Trump and I am legitimately fearing a President Trump now because people really think he’ll be good at making deals or something.
I have no idea who the hell thinks it was a good idea to put him on TV
Well, it was Mark Burnett first, though in a more harmless capacity (The Apprentice). But he opened the door to the idea of Trump as A Person We Should Listen To. And it definitely raised Trump’s profile. *shakes fist at Mark Burnett*
Ugh GUUUYYYYZZZZ
In response to Trump’s plan to shut down mosques to get at radical Muslims, Marco Rubio said that’s not enough we should be shutting down any place where there might be radical Muslims.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp…
ALL THE NOPETIPI.
I was upset about the attacks in Paris, but that’s nothing compared to how I feel this week. Because I understand ISIS is evil incarnate, sure, and it will exist in one form or another forever. And there were people being decent, with the open door hashtag, to counteract it, to remind you that human decency still exists.
But that comfort is rapidly being undone by the reaction of people in MY OWN COUNTRY — not only ordinary citizens (and some people I know and love!!!) but governmental leaders, those who want to become president and have sizable support — you guys, I am ready to crawl under the bed in a fetal position.
Also, I never knew before this week that the U.S. turned away actual shiploads of Jewish refugees during WWII. Because we are fucking ashamed of that, as we should be, so we never mentioned it among our chronic obsession with WWII.
The lack of human compassion gets to me like nothing else.
This, exactly this. I have emphatically disagreed with my country and with popular opinion in America before, but I am so flat-out ashamed.
There is a serious reason all in-country historical stuff on WWII starts with Pearl Harbor as if nothing happened before that.
Yep. US turned away Anne Frank, too. But also Israel has turned away or detained tens of thousands of African refugees, so the moral of the story is that states are terrible and we should never have descended from the trees in the first place.
I’m all for going back up into the trees these days.
And the Venn diagram of “people who want to reject all Syrian refugees” and “people who want the U.S. to be a ‘Judeo-Christian’ nation” is uncomfortably circle-y. It’s horrifying, and my facebook wall has just become me posting angry Scripture passages about the widow and the orphan and the stranger in your land, with bonus swearing.
Oh man, yes. I thought I would never post Bible verses on FB, until this happened, and I’ve been sharing all the ones my similarly-minded friend has been posting.
Also that analogy going around about locking up your house is GARBAGE, a country is NOT A HOUSE, you cannot run anything about a country like you do a household! Shut up too with selectively caring/demanding justice NOW for those homeless vets.
Yesterday’s post was about Jesus being hungry/thirsty/naked/alone/sick/in prison, and people reacting to that in ways either cool or uncool. I think I’m going to mix it up with some Prophets next. I love a good Jeremiad. Unfortunately, the only people who will see it are people who are posting the same things, so it’ll just be an angry Scriptural echo chamber.
Also. Jesus Christ, Ben Carson. Ben Carson compares some Syrian refugees to rabid dogs.
Ah yes, my future wife, Monica Bellucci…those lips, those eyes!
I had kind of An Awakening last year at a friend’s Christmas party where, the girl I have a crush on (that I did not previously realize I was crushing on) started texting me 1990s pictures of M.Bell and I was very much into the whole situation.
Between her and the luminous Lea Seydoux & Naomi Harris that movie was a true feast for the senses.
Also, I woke up to read about the Mali hostage situation, am on my phone, would someone reply to this with a good link?
Guardian live blog: http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/nov/20…
On the Guardian and Al Jazeera.
Yesterday, Malian young people demonstrated in solidarity with the victims of the the Paris attacks. Today, there was this.
The tags on that coffee piece are Out Of Control.
(I think true Normcore Coffee would be drinking Folgers? What do I know, I drink El Pico or Bustelo the way my father raised me.)
Instant Folgers crystals is the peak of Normcore!
True Normcore Coffee is drinking whatever decaf grocery store brand coffee my mom has been keeping in the freezer for the past 5 years when I go home to visit for Christmas.
Curling is great, I think I might join the local league this winter if time permits. However, how in the world do you have an Olympic sport with no regulations on equipment when it comes to brooms??? That’s absurd.
Excellent call on ditching an obsession with Bendandsnap Coggleswort for Daniel Craig. I had more of an aesthetic appreciation than a libidinous one for him, but after that Zoolander preview (which I watched entirely against my better judgement), even that went out the window. It might be a while before I can even use my gifs of him.
Aw, am I the only person who found it problematic, but also hilarious???? Sorry I’m a terrible person 🙁
Nah, you’re not a terrible person and we all like problematic things (or we’d not like anything at all). And I love me some dick jokes don’t get me wrong, but I just can’t with genitalia jokes in regards to transfolk.
I’m right there with you. I love Zoolander un-ironically so I am probably going to love the sequel no matter what. I think (hope) as long as we recognize the problematic parts and listen to what transpeople say about it we’re okay to enjoy the rest of the movie.
No, you’re not! My first thoughts in order were “OMG BENEDICT WHAT??? HAH LOL” and then “ohhhh wait what if….? yeah…”
You laughed at a trailer. Trailers are short and give no context for what the character will be like in the actual full length longer than 2.5 minutes movie.
I busted up at it, too, is what I’m saying. We’re not monsters.
I’ve only seen gifs and pictures but oh my god, just that made my vagina clamp shut.
Never underestimate eyebrows.
Some people (that woman from The Thompson Twins for example) can get away without them, but he is not one of those people.
Brad Dourif! As Wormtongue was less terrifying than that.
It still annoys me for no good reason that none of my friends gave me credit for being crazy about Daniel Craig as far back as 1997 (I know UK peeps have liked him for longer but that was the first time I saw him in anything). I totally feel like I should somehow get credit for recognizing his loveliness while watching The Ice House and then making all my roommates watch it with me and acknowledge, out loud, that he was beautiful and also that I had dibs. I should get credit for staying up late to watch a not-great mystery on A&E in the middle of the night just because he was in it, and to record it for my sister on the VCR so she could also watch him later when she came to visit. For at least three years, I referred to him as “my boyfriend Daniel Craig” and nobody knew who I was talking about. It’s a stupid thing to want credit for, but I keep wanting to yell at my friends, “YOU DON’T GET TO LIKE HIM NOW BECAUSE YOU USED TO ROLL YOUR EYES AT MY PRE-BOND DC OBSESSION.”
Annnyyyway.
I have similar (if opposite spectrum) feelings about Joss Whedon, whom I hated for years before the rest of the internet clued into his douchiness.
It is veeery similar. It’s a frustrating feeling because it’s a petty kind of thing to want credit for, but you still want some kind of acknowledgment for it.
I will give you credit! I was one of the last people to clue in on that, and you deserve props for paying attention and noticing.
I will also give you credit for that .gif, which I’m going to save for future use.
I’m probably one of the few who has never understood Bendystrudel Curdledmilk’s appeal. His past whinging about how posh people have it hard too has also been unhelpful.
I think he’s a very good actor and has incredible charisma onscreen and I can usually separate someone’s personality from their product, but at the moment I need a break from him.
Nicole, your “what if Elena Ferrante turns out to be a man” tweet really messed me up last night.
OMG
What if Elena Ferrante and Thomas Pynchon both turn out be the same parrot tho?
Guys, this was the week of almost every celebrity crush I have being featured on a podcast?
Melissa Harris Perry on Another Round.
Allison Janney with Anna Faris.
Top Chef’s Gail Simmons on Serious Eats.
AND Nigella Lawson on Food52.
Whew y’all what an aural blessing this week as been.
how was the serious eats thing? I played the first ep for mr toast who rage quit it, and then we listened to the second episode with kenji and that was better but mr toast still was grumpy about bits. I like Gail Simmons, but i’m not sure she’s going to cancel out ed’s edness.
Mm I agree- I tried it out and wasn’t a fan at first, mostly due to Ed’s edness. Of course I am like…very in love with Gail so PERHAPS I am biased when I say she was very charming and engaging.
But I will say that Ed is pretty content to let her talk for the most part and her voice is so raspy and delightful and…ahem. Never mind.
Final answer- Podcast itself is not my favorite, but Gail offsets Ed’s edness.
I can’t believe Mallory got a poisoning relative question her FIRST WEEK
I wonder what proportion of letters to Dear Prudence are from Toasties now.
Seriously! And the letter wanted to know if she was overreacting! Someone fed deadly substances to your child based off of a misinterpretation of a pop-science article. And showed no remorse, and will probably do it again if he gets the chance! You can’t really overreact to that.
Speaking as someone whose father died from anaphylactic shock (he had an undiagnosed allergy to wasps), I will personally go set that father-in-law on fire for the letter writer. Hey Grampa, get a clue and stop endangering your grandson’s life.
Oh god, that letter. Same sort of thing happened with my mom and her in-laws. I have asthma which is manageable now but when I was that little needed daily medication. But my grandparents thought that it was all nonsense and so my mom learned very quickly that they could NOT be allowed to babysit my brother and me because they wouldn’t give me my inhaler and if I had an attack, they’d just “wait it out” (yes, this actually happened. Thankfully Mom got home in time.)
This is also why people who have a flippant/dismissive attitude about allergies and asthma send me into immediate berserker rage.
same here — my relatives’ dismissive attitude towards my allergies has damaged both my and my mom’s relationships with them. being dragged to restaurants where you literally can’t eat anything and being pressured to “just try a little” of something that will either make you sick or kill you = maybe you don’t end up so close to your blood family after that, you know?
Pet allergies and food allergies seem to be the highest on the list of allergies people will deny exist. Because people are assholes. No, I REALLY HONESTLY can’t eat that. No, I REALLY TRULY can’t have a cat/dog. I’m not making shit up.
So, serious question, because I’m a person without dangerous allergies: is there any truth to the idea that mild exposure can mitigate allergies? Or is that all just woo? Because I’ve seen stuff like this: The Surprising Way to Treat Peanut Allergies, with the subhead: “In a breakthrough study, researchers show that it’s not only possible to tamp down allergic reactions to peanuts, but by eating small amounts of them infants can avoid getting allergic in the first place”. That seems to support the grandfather’s ideas about exposure (although, obviously, if mom says do this, you do that, it’s her kid, her authority reigns). Is there other science refuting that?
Is this the Israeli study about eating bamba? Because I think we should just encourage everyone to eat bamba. (Bamba is essentially peanut-butter flavored cheetoes — the fluffy kind, not the hard kind.)
No, this is a study done by some allergy researcher’s at King’s College London (not sure if they amaze and astonish) and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital that seems to show that peanut exposure limits the risk of developing peanut allergies. I’m unsure if that just regards exposure for people who don’t already have allergies, though, and what the other research is for this. (I haven’t done a lit review or anything, I’ve just seen some stories and poked around a few papers about it.)
Thanks, I’m on my phone so I couldn’t read it! My impression as a layman who reads articles like these is that the best practices on food allergies is actually changing as we speak and that the small-amounts hypothesis may be valid for mitigating mild allergies, but (and we agree here) that’s not something you do unilaterally against the parent’s will because the risk of something going wrong is so great. Like, even if the grandfather was a pediatrician specializing in food allergies, the way he did it was off-putting and scary.
The Israeli bamba study was something like, kids who ate bamba as one of their first foods had a much lower risk of developing peanut allergies than kids who didn’t. So that would be part of the lit review!
When I heard about this study on NPR, they seemed to be saying that by not exposing children AT ALL to peanuts in any form, whether they had an allergy or not, they were increasing the likelihood of peanut-allergy later on, when it was introduced at 3 years or whatever.
Also that there was a high correlation of infant eczema with peanut allergy, so they were saying On The Other Hand, definitely do NOT have peanut around an infant with eczema.
This is much more accurate recounting than my comment! Mitigating the development of allergies, not moderating allergies that were already developed!
Yes, I think the Bamba study was included with the NPR story. I just wanted to throw in the Interesting Fact about eczema that was one of the more interesting takeaways to me! 😀
and also i forgot what the word “mitigating” meant while reading your comment soo……
My understanding is that this MIGHT work, for SOME children, but it’s medically supervised and starts with micro doses. It’s not like you just feed the kid a little of whatever food might kill them, and see what happens. Not that you’re saying that, but those grandparents were def too stupid/stubborn to be trusted.
(edit: here’s one article that talks about the protocol http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2014fall/i-can-eat-it…
Yes, exactly this.
Okay, so: yes, exposure therapy is a real thing, and can be effective. I read this article about how it does. The gist: by starting with micrograms (as in 1/250th of a peanut) of the allergen, it’s possible to build up a tolerance over time. Folks then have to maintain their newfound tolerance by eating small amounts the substance on the daily.
Other benefits to this include demystifying the reaction process (which can be SO scary if you’ve spent your life avoiding a reaction), and there does seem to be an upper limit to consumption; you can’t build up to, say, a peanut butter sandwich, but you can familiarize the person who how the allergen tastes, so they know when they need to dig out the ol’ EpiPen ASAP.
Grandpa is most definitely not following these protocols, and should be treated as though he’s offering to make this kid bleach soup for lunch; AKA, sound the klaxons, this is not a safe man.
I think to some degree, in certain types of allergy situations, yes. I *think* that is essentially the basis of allergy shots isn’t it?
Yes, it is.
Yes, but they use microscopic doses of purified allergen, increased very slowly over a period of years, and you take each shot in a clinic and then a nurse watches you like a hawk for the next 30-60 minutes with an EpiPen armed and ready, because even those tiny doses can trigger anaphylaxis.
Not a home remedy, is what I am saying.
(I haven’t had this treatment myself but a couple of my friends have.)
Oh, yes for sure. Not a home remedy type of thing.
As someone who does this (and has had an anaphylaxis reaction to the shot) and who has so many food allergies that she reads up on treatment options daily, you are exactly right. You start with microdoses and you build up. And they are testing doing it with food, but again, microdoses, and there’s not yet a standard for this.
So, to sum up: you are correct, the grandfather in the letter is The Worst, and I had those grandparents, so I really wish the OP -would- set him on fire.
One of those friends of mine? Also had those grandparents.
What is the deal with the combination of allergic children + those grandparents? Are all grandparents like this, but its dormant unless an allergy develops?
I don’t have a better explanation? The grandparents I’m thinking of, it was very much a “this never happened in My Day so it must be fake” deal … but it’s not that it never happened in Their Day, it’s that in Their Day, the people who nowadays get to work around life-threatening allergies and/or asthma their entire life, died in childhood.
(There really are more allergies and asthma going around nowadays, but it’s not like it never happened: the word “asthma” is straight out of Hippocrates.)
See, people read articles like this and then think “I’ll just give the kid a little bit of the allergen and they’ll develop a tolerance over time! I’m a genius!” But, like, if you have a severe nut allergy (that causes anaphylaxis) or a moderate one (like mine that causes severe vomiting) even a tiny bit of the allergen can trigger it. I’ve accidentally eaten one bit of something with a teeny bit of walnuts in it and ended up vomiting with my mouth/throat swollen and burning. I’ll just continue to skip out on walnuts altogether, thank you.
Ok, that makes sense. So it works as a preventative, but not as a treatment.
My sis and I keep chewable children’s Benadryl on hand at all times for accidental ingestion of things we have less severe allergies to. Sometimes I’ll forget and be talking to her, and she’ll be like “WHY DO YOU SMELL LIKE GRAPE RIGHT NOW” because she knows it means I had a minor reaction and didn’t tell her so she could watch for hives.
And not to be your mom or anything, but if you had vomiting and throat burning,* you def should have used your epi pen, if you have one.
*PSA to those with allergies but not a lot of knowledge about anaphylaxis: you should use epinephrine if you have any reaction in your airways, or if you have a reaction in any two systems (skin, digestive system, etc) in your body. So hives + headache= epi pen. Nausea + heart racing= epi pen.
I think it has promise, but it’s high on the list of medical procedures you shouldn’t try at home.
And that’s a pretty long list so even if it’s only like in 50th place it’s still in the top 5% no problem.
These links may be relevant to your interests: https://med.stanford.edu/allergies.html https://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/rese…
I think it is a thing. An acquaintance of mine did something similar for her son’s peanut allergy, but in this case it’s done under strict supervision of the kid’s doctor. I’m not sure exactly what the method to get him desensitized was, but now she says the doctor told her to make sure he is exposed to peanuts on a particular schedule or he might regress. Again though, that’s with strict doctor’s supervision, not just feed the kid some peanuts sometimes.
Is ‘set him on fire’ going to be a weekly Prudence analysis feature? Because I could get behind that in a big way. Some weeks, you can simply set them all on fire, but allergy grandpa definitely earns the Zippo award this week!
Ack @”Zippo Award”. This needs to be a real thing that we can send to people.
That scene where a drunk Bond threatens a mouse, complete with close-up of the mouse’s quivering whiskers and frightened beady eyes, would have made the movie worth it all by itself. I don’t know if I can buy that The Villain’s reason for committing patricide and then devoting his life to international espionage, terrorism and assassination was “James Bond spent too much time with my dad for a short time while we were kids!!!” but then again, I know spite can be a very powerful motivator so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also, I have now fallen down the 00Q rabbithole all over again, please send all your recs this way.
I was REALLY underwhelmed by the villain in SPECTRE. I am a HUGE Daniel Craig Bond fan and was super super excited to see SPECTRE (went on opening day) and while there was plenty to love (e.g. what Nicole said about Madeleine Swann’s outfits and Moneypenny GETTING SOME, plus car chases in Rome), I was not impressed with Blofield’s backstory nor Bond’s “love”(?!?) story. Also I think the “evil is coming from inside MI-6!” is its own whole movie; Andrew Scott-as-C was wasted.
Andrew Scott-as-C was essentially Andrew Scott as Moriarty all over again: a vaguely douchey character who, we are supposed to believe, is an evil mastermind of a vast criminal network that exists exclusively off-screen. Or almost exclusively, in the case of Spectre.
The plot made no sense, but THAT MOUSE SCENE omg.
One thing I really did like about Spectre was how the costume designer reinterpreted Blofeld’s look. Still has the grey tones, the mandarin collar, the loafers. But it’s all tailored in such a way to make him a) seem much smaller than Bond and b) look almost like a bratty child. The scene in the Room-O-Torture where he’s sitting in the swivel chair, Waltz sits with his feet kinda pointed and between the pants being slightly too short and his lack of socks it makes him look like a little kid. Thematically, I thought it was clever because it you simply MUST go down the “we were like brothers” route, then it’s a great way to contrast Blofeld vs. a Bond who has now matured/evolved over the course of the Craig movies.
Yes but Blofeld has an amazing cat!
Q has 2 cats and a mortgage, actually, so does that mean he is the most mature and evolved of all?
Also, does anyone else feel like Ben Whishaw as Q looks a lot different from Ben Whishaw in any other role? My theory is that the thick frames of his glasses hide the bump in his nose, but maybe it’s just me.
Omg, when Blofeld’s cat showed up my Dad & I leaned toward each other and whispered “it’s the cat!!!”
The line about Q having a mortgage and 2 cats was legit one of my favorite lines in the whole movie. I like how his relationship with Bond had changed after the events of Skyfall.
Ben Whishaw def looks completely different as Q. Part of it is the glasses and part of it is, again, the clothes and how they’re tailored. Like, he’s still him. But he’s also seemingly miles away from his other roles. In the last movie he looked SO young I had to remind myself that Ben himself wasn’t in his 20s.
… I just realized 00Q is a thing, because of course it is. Guess who’s going fic-hunting this weekend?
(As if Q was not already perfect, it turns out in SPECTRE that he cares deeply for his cats. Man of my dreams)
Yo 00Q is the best and man are there some great kink fics out there (Dom!Q FOREVER). It is also the only pairing that has me sort of feeling the alpha/beta/omega dynamic.
THERE ARE OMEGAVERSE 00Q FICS?! oh shit
got recs?
I can’t tell if I want to have him or to be him, or both.
My nickname in college was Q, and while at the time it was short for “queer,” I may retroactively determine that my friends named me after an adorable nerd.
omg that mouse scene. I nearly died right there in the theater; it would have been a good and right death. I was a teeeeensy bit disappointed that the mouse had to like, Solve the Puzzle for him, because I was hoping they could just have a scene with a mouse and a drunk bond and let it ride. But it’s fine! I’m over it, because of how wonderful it was.
It does set a new standard for measuring cognition while drunk, though. Are you so drunk a mouse has to solve your problems? If so, then it’s probably time to cut back. And to let someone else drive home.
Can we, like, maybe drop plot points about movies that are still in theater into the reply section?
I have now fallen down the 00Q rabbithole all over again, please send all your recs this way.
Professorfangirl’s Temeraire is good. Her PWP Has the Touch is…quite something. Heed the notes, tho. If you’re not into, like, all the butt stuff, this is not your jam. I would link you, but suddenly AO3 is unavailable on my work computer and this is making me very nervous and upset.
I am very much into the butt stuff!
You’re gonna be so happy with that story.
The only coffee snobbery I have is that slow/cold brew iced coffee is legit WAY better than regular iced coffee, it’s like 500% less bitter which means I have to add less sugar, which is always a win. Otherwise, I truly don’t care as long as you offer me some sort of sweetener and LIQUID creamer, because powdered creamer is hell in a canister and should never have been invented.
This goes for tea, too! Cold-brewed for the win. Plus, it’s supersimple (I brew mine in old wine bottles in the fridge)
OMG BREWING IN OLD WINE BOTTLES. WHY… had this never occurred to me?! Genius.
You sound like you might be a good candidate for my committee to make fun of those tiny bottles of cold brew that they sell in grocery stores for like $182371923, when normal people from hot places have been using Toddy makers, which are available to everyone, for decades.
brb naming my next band Hell In A Canister
I love my cold brews. I legit make up extra for other folks during the summer.
Yesssssss cold brews, the only coffee I will drink. The only cold brew I’ve ever had that does not require half and half is The Coffee Bean’s iced coffee, which, having tried many independent and national brands of iced coffee over the course of 20 years of drinking coffee, is unreservedly THE BEST, and I challenge anyone who disagrees to a to-the-pain duel.
Also, thank you Mallory, for this:
It lacks that certain indefinable air of dignity, but so does, you know, the entire system of capitalism if you don’t already have money to begin with.
I have said it before and I will say it again – Daniel Craig’s face is a craggy Alpine mountainside that I want to CLIMB. ALL. THE. WAY. UP.
fight you for it!
Daniel Craig is on a larger-than-life bus stop advertisement for some watch (idgaf), and it’s the highlight of my morning commute. His FACE. Those EYES.
Yeah I’m gonna be extra sad when they take down all the Spectre ads in my area… Then what will I have to squint at hungrily every morning??
Think I’ve said this before, but my husband looks like a less menacing/more smiley Daniel Craig (she said, trying not to sound TOO smug). 🙂
Can we please talk about David Beckham as Sexiest Man Alive? Not because I give any shits about that, but because it’s been like 60 hours and there is still no post on the subject from Mallory? I mean, I know, being Prudence and also this website and all the shit she does that delights me takes up a lot of time but I just REALLY NEED TO KNOW what was done to Chris Hemsworth. Is he a meatwraith now? Is he crying somewhere in need of a bosom?
Is he crying somewhere in need of a bosom?
Thanks to ongoing scientific research funded by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Adonises), Chris Hemsworth has been placed into long-term cryogenic storage rather than ritually sacrificed as previous winners have been. This change in policy will ensure he remains fresh and ripe for a possible repeat candidacy in future award years.
Scientists at the PEOPLE Institute for Sexist Man Experimentation (PEOPLE IS ME) want to assure the public that individuals in cryogenic storage are, in a physiological sense, not technically “Alive” and thus not in competition for the title of Sexiest Man Alive. No ritual sacrifice is therefore necessary to meet the stringent requirements of the Committee. In this way, scientists hope to conserve Sexiest Men for future generations as well as address the concerns of PETA regarding the humane handling and harvest of this precious natural resource.
I think we should also be talking about the A++ on point tweets Jessica Chastain sent to Chris Hemsworth about it. https://twitter.com/jes_chastain/status/666884565…
Thanks for sharing that. It’s pretty great 🙂
And then there is this list…
http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/g273…
It’s coming Monday!: RE https://twitter.com/mallelis/status/6677334614535…
thank you baby jesus
I am a firm believer in the percolator for all your coffee needs. When you don’t want to worry about Good coffee you might as well have the strongest coffee!
YES. Percolated coffee. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
YAS percolator!! Used one on a camping trip years ago, and never looked back.
There’s something to be said for cowboy coffee too (literally a pot of boiling water that you dump the grounds into, then wait for them to settle to the bottom so you can pour the coffee off).
What if there’s a fish in it?
Hey everyone, 47 Democrats broke ranks and voted with the GOP on their new anti-refugees bill:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/19/1452134/…
It’s I think one vote short of a veto-proof majority, so there’s a good chance Obama is going to shoot it down, but if one of these guys is yours, I hope you will make them feel shame.
(Even if there are legitimate security concerns about refugees — and there aren’t really; we’ve settled hundreds of thousands of refugees without them turning into terrorists, and even the Cato Institute, a perennial enemy of anything the government does, thinks that our two-year long extensive vetting process for refugees is effective
http://www.cato.org/blog/syrian-refugees-dont-pos…
— even if there WERE serious concerns, this bill does nothing to address them. All it does is demand that the heads of homeland security, the NSA, and the FBI all sign off on every refugee that comes in, as though those aren’t all thirty-thousand strong organizations and their respective heads have time to second-guess everything that they do. It just places a new barrier between refugees and safety while adding no meaningful security measures to the process. It’s the worst kind of bureaucratic security theater, and everyone who voted for it is fucking garbage and I hope they all get fucking measles or something.)
(MY representative, Patrick Meehan, is a regular GOP stooge, so of course there was no question how he was going to vote; I don’t think he even has opinions about politics at all. If it were legal, we could easily replace him with a parrot that had been trained to vote Republican and occasionally squawk a talking point about Big Government Taxes.)
I got into a twitter argument with Congressman Himes from Connecticutt, which was… interesting. My congressman, Rep. Mike Turner, is not much better than Meehan but I will still be calling him to express my disapproval.
I just sent a number of pretty nasty tweets to Pat Meehan yesterday, because that punk bullshit motherfucker had the audacity to put something up about the anniversary of William Penn signing the charter for Pennsyvlania, a province that he created specifically and intentionally to be a haven for people fleeing religious persecution.
Which was the absolute right thing to do. I don’t even know how nasty, but as long as you didn’t mention his mother I’m pretty sure he deserved it.
I did NOT, I don’t believe in insulting someone by insulting someone else, and find insults about a person’s mother to be unfortunately rooted in a patriarchal modality.
I just called him a blithering sack of crap, instead, I think.
And he deserved it! I just didn’t want to say he’d deserve absolutely anything nasty one could say. I have a horror of blanket statements like that. Comes from reading too many of the spookier kinds of fairy tales.
Jesus Christ, Jim Langevin. You are from RHODE ISLAND. Please remember why this state was formed in the first place.
yeaaaaaaaaaah. I would really like to still like Jim Langevin. I really don’t, though. Pretty much there are only two RI politicians I like at all anymore, Sheldon Whitehouse (because he actually speaks well about topics when he speaks about them, and he does his fucking job) and Gina Raimondo (because of the awful La Salle Distinguished Alumni fiasco*).
*which I will discuss at length with anyone and everyone even though my forceful opinions on the matter help destroy whatever thin veneer of anonymity I might have on the interwebz.
I don’t see my representative on there, which is a relief, because his office can’t even be arsed to reply when I send them stuff, so I’m not even sure if anyone reads the emails that get send to him.
That bill is awful, and I can’t believe so many representatives voted for it.
I never thought I’d say this but that Cato analysis is my everything this morning. Only for this morning.
Now I need to go clean myself.
shit, my Rep did too, and I’m actually on the verge of calling his office to complain about it even though I know that’ll just be yelling at an intern who probably doesn’t give a fuck.
It also strikes me as intensely hypocritical/ignorant for Irish-American politicians (who actively try to get votes on how Irish-American they are) to vote against letting in refugees but I guess they wouldn’t be politicians if they weren’t at least a little hypocritical and ignorant. :/
It sure is! Hey guys, do you remember how less than a century ago, this country tried to turn away your people for fear that they were all secret papist traitors? No? Weird how easy it was to forget that!
my 88 year old Irish immigrant grandpa (who refers to Hillary Clinton as “my girl” and watches MSNBC like it’s his job) is probably very disappointed in them.
Your grandpa sounds MAGNIFICENT.
He’s wonderful, and constantly drives my cranky conservative dad CRAZY with his politics, which never fails to entertain.
Calling matters! It won’t change a Republicans mind, but politicians by all evidence do at least care a little bit if constituents call and disagree.
I won’t yell, though I want to, because the person on the other end of the phone has zero control of the politicians voting.
The more I think about it the more I want to call during my lunch break. I’ve been a political intern before so I think I know how to be the nice sort of caller!
I def need to practice that. I write actual letters when it’s not a timely topic, cause I can edit out my anger. I will do my best on my lunch break today.
I have too and I wasn’t a very good one, which is why I always write instead of calling. I don’t trust the kids to take down my info or pass along my message!
But (at least in the office I worked in) the kids open/sort/forward the mail too! And the email! It’s all kids all the way!
Curious question for you. I live in a city that is horribly gerrymandered and two Dem. representatives of the city crossed lines and voted for that stupid bill as well. (My rep. is also a GOP stooge, boo) Do you think they would care if I called/wrote even if I’m not their constituent technically? Is that even ethical?
Well, there’s nothing immoral or unethical about it, I don’t think. I suppose a representative can make an argument that they have an ethical responsibility to ignore you, if they were confident that what they did was in the best interests of their constituency.
But we also live in a democratic republic, and our representatives are meant to offer their judgment in their roles, not just their industry, and anything that helps a representative refine that judgment I think is an ethical, worthwhile thing to do, so I’d definitely write them.
Given how much influence the Koch Brothers have on elections in states in which they do not live/do business, I’d say calling a rep who is technically not your rep is ethically required.
Can I complain to a someone who isn’t over my district, or is that pointless? My person did the right thing, but the district lierally 500 ft east of my house did not. *rageahol*
It’s not clear to me that complaining to someone who’s IN your district is worthwhile. But they are democrats, and that means they need the cooperation of and are responsible to the party on a national level, so it seems fair enough to chew them out.
Yes, you can. The nice intern who answers the phone might ask where you live but you can either not tell them or tell them anyways. When I worked in a political office we would get calls from all over the country and we still logged all of them, regardless of whether or not the person was a constituent.
If they are a Dem and you are a Dem, you can mention not donating money to the Dem party (national or state) or donating to anyone trying to primary them. Might not make a difference, but maybe!
Some will listen, especially if it’s an issue that effects a wider area. Others (i.e. the blowhards) like to talk about how “my constituents support this and all the naysayers are just busybodies from outside the district!” If you live that close though, I can’t see anyone objecting to it.
My legislator is pretty awesome, and I mostly just send her thank you letters. But I have called to complain to people in my parents’ state before.
Hell, if a congressional official with a “D” after their name is representing any place I have been planning to visit and spend money, I feel it is okay for me to tell them when I think they blew it. I do not find it relaxing to vacation in places where human rights are viewed as optional.
I immediately looked up the voting record so I could see whether I needed to make an angry-constituent phone call. But of course I didn’t, because I live in a neighborhood that is majority-POC and contains a large proportion of immigrant families, so, duh.
My parents’ rep, on the other hand, is a party-line Republican with absolutely garbage viewpoints, so maybe I will encourage them to complain.
I was coming here for this! Was not surprised that my Dem rep voted for it: have already called his office politely informing his staffers I will not be voting for him in reelection. Calling does matter: be brief, be polite, the staffers don’t need to hear your stories (email is better for that, or so I heard from a friend who’s a former staffer) but the overall percentage of people calling matters.
I don’t live in his district but if you do, please remind Raul Ruiz (whom I knew back in the day) that his parents were *migrant workers*.
Motherfucking Dave Loebsack, a guy that I went and knocked on doors for when he ran against Jim Leach when I was 17, voted for this. I’ve voted for him 4 times, and I’ve always been proud of having him as a rep; he’s been a quiet presence for good and a welcome counterbalance to Steve King, who should be fired into the sun. I’m so, so disappointed. I’m writing him an angry letter and hitting up folks I know back in Iowa who have much more direct lines to him to let him know how disappointed we are.
Steve King, oh sweet baby deity. I second the firing into sun plan. AND I’m email Disappointment Dave right now.
oh, thank you for posting that cato link – such an interesting article.
secondly: for the first time in my adult life I think, I have panic-stricken looked at a list of representatives voting for something horrible and NOT found my rep! moving to a blue district has psychological perks. yvette clark > krysten senema
I just emailed my Congressman about it. He’s also my neighbor, which could make things awkward.
Yeah, awkward for HIM.
BRB, writing email.
One of them is my representative.
Words will be had.
I’ve just sent a strongly worded e-mail to Sean Patrick Maloney expressing my extreme disappointment in him, and telling him that he no longer has my vote.
I did not request a response, because I really don’t care what he has to say for himself. As far as I’m concerned, if you want to block these poor people from entering the country, you’re a scumbag.
The curling broom controversy is INCREDIBLY INTERESTING to me and I have been following it very closely! I am not playing this year, but was a member of my local club for a couple years, and culturally curling is very much about sportsmanship and self-regulation (you’re expected to call out your own fouls, like if you “burn” a stone – touch it with your stick while sweeping), and at least at my club, people make a lot of their own accessory equipment (modify their curling shoes, make their own stabilizers to help with curling delivery if you aren’t someone who delivers with a broom), and the idea of regulating equipment seems to kind of go against that spirit? so it seems like we’re pushing up against the boundaries of that, and WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR CURLING.
(please note that my curling experience is very limited and also American, so people who have curled competitively and in other locations probably have a different experience. my club was Very Chill).
Hello whats up here is my cat, Hamburglar, posing with our hamburger pillow try real hard not to be jealous.
Also: appreciate how annoyed with me he looks with me. SO ANNOYED.
That is the least impressed cat in the world.
That sums him up QUITE NICELY. He isn’t really impressed by anything, including catnip.
He is a beautiful, gorgeous orange boy!
Thaaanks!!! I love him like a complete and utter idiot.
“Weird… now that I actually HAS cheezburger, I’m feeling strangely empty inside. Was this really what I wanted? Where do I go from here? No matter how big a cheezburger I has, somehow I still do not has true happiness.”
EXCELLENT YES
“I cannot has existential satisfaction.”
Marmies make the best cats. That is a fact.
Meh cat is the Most Meh. Also GORGEOUS.
I love you, Hamburglar. Teach me how to live.
Fun fact about curling: all the granite used for curling stones comes from two quarries only, one in Scotland and one in Wales. There are only two companies, one that gets granite from each quarry, that make all the curling stones in the world.
I learned that during the 2006 Olympics and its been one of my go-to useless fun facts for the last decade.
Thank you, I love Winter Olympics trivia for some reason
As awful as the reaction to Sheen’s interview has been, I’m happy to report that patients who have never been tested are coming to my clinic this week asking for HIV testing because of him.
That’s great! I just hope the net result is positive, because there’s been some seriously ignorant feedback. Though really, the worst thing about the whole situation is that I’m finding myself inclined to defend Charlie Sheen, which, no.
The tricky part is that he IS profoundly icky, but that has nothing to do with HIV and not even that much with his sex life: it’s mostly the sexist remarks, and, y’know, the threatening and abusing women. That little detail. It just infuriates me that a guy can do allllll the horrid things he did and still get jobs and money … but now that he has HIV people shrink back from him.
God, I know. He’s a terrible person, but that narrative should be separate from his HIV status and it definitely isn’t. Lots of old stereotypes reinforced.
The thing that stuck out for me regarding the coverage was the report that one of his former sex partners is claiming that he lied about his status to her. I hadn’t heard about the ignorant/asinine comments from tabloids, Radar Online, or Jenny McCarthy, but, y’know, there’s a pretty obvious solution to that, which I’d already implemented. Jezebel’s article seems to be slanted toward trying to gin up some sympathy for him, which is all sorts of problematic, especially given that I’d stopped reading the site after they ran a feature from someone who text-flirted with him (this is during the whole tiger blood/winning thing). There have to be much better ways available–especially to a fairly prominent internet media outlet–to “restart a dialogue in which there are so many things to be said” than to back up an abusive man-child.
Let’s just hope it’s because of his visibility and not because they’ve all had sex with him.
Ha HA they got Mallory with a breeder vs rescue question FIRST WEEK! That’s what you get for confessing your fears on Twitters Mallory.
don’t give dogs as presents
Don’t give dogs as presents!
DON’T GIVE DOGS AS PRESENTS.
Dogs are a decade+ commitment with tons of financial and lifestyle burdens, and involve a very personal connection. Even if you *think* the person wants and could handle it, if they’re not ready to go out and get a dog themselves they should probably not have one yet! It’s a big deal! Offer to pay and help select if you want, and write the offer up as a big beautiful certificate in an intricately wrapped box if you must have a Christmas ceremony about it. Don’t just… go get a dog and drop it in their lap. Even though it’s cute with a bow on its head. This is a really great way to end up with a bad fit and another dog in a shelter.
Gah. Okay. Sorry.
/rant
“Here’s an involuntary side-job for the next ten to fifteen years! If you quit before that, everyone will hate you! Have fun!” said no one, ever. Don’t give dogs as presents.
Co-signed. A well-meaning family friend dropped off a golden retriever puppy to replace our irreplaceable dog and it was a disaster. (The death of the irreplaceable dog was basically the death of the family as my parents divorced shortly thereafter and my mom ended up putting the puppy to sleep because it broke its leg and was going to have to have it amputated, a decision I still find horrendous, though my mother is in general not a homicidal maniac but was dealing with A Lot that summer.)
My jaw actually dropped at that first Prudie letter. I mean they were all bad (‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ doesn’t work when the thing might actually, you know, kill you) but pretending you’re living in Tokyo when you actually live in Dubai???? For eight months???????? Lots of people saying that one’s fake, but I’ve known people who would totally do that. Doesn’t make it any less gah I don’t have words for that.
So glad I can read Prudie again now it’s Mallory!Prudie.
let’s be honest, *I* might do that.
But I also have a terrible relationship with my parents.
As someone pointed out in the comments, THEY’RE NOT EVEN IN THE SAME TIME ZONE. THERE’S LIKE FIVE HOURS DIFFERENCE. She could have said she was in Georgia, or the Seychelles, or even somewhere that’s like GMT +5 rather than +4 but nope, she just went for somewhere completely random. Though maybe it’s easier to fake a knowledge of Japanese culture than that of the Seychelles. Though you could assume less prior knowledge of the Seychelles? I think I want to go to the Seychelles now.
This is what Dear Prudence does to me.
Well, I mean, you’d want to pick somewhere your parents won’t be overly concerned about your safety, but will never ever visit.
(I very nearly joined the peace corps to go to the south pacific in order to escape my parents.)
And where you’ll never have interactions with the culture. Georgia would actually be a good idea, because no one visits Georgia and there isn’t a Georgian restaurant in every town in America (and sushi is everywhere; my parents in Iowa eat sushi a few times a month, Japan is inescapable in the US).
I lived in Georgia for two years and you’re right, I could easily skate by on knowledge obtained from one magazine travel article, as far as my friends and family are concerned.
Just have to hope Russia doesn’t start a war with the country. I mean, primarily because it’s bad for the people of Georgia, but also because then it’s all in the news.
A relative of mine was out in the Seychelles (doing anti-pirate security for shipping) and said that no reason for anyone to be there except for industry or commerce, so there was no “Seychelles culture”.
Someone in the Disney College Program with me had convinced her parents she was in a totally different state, doing something else entirely. I don’t remember what her end game was, but all I could think about was how exhausting that must be.
I knoooooow it’s not the open thread yet, but I’ll probably miss it (due to drinks with colleagues, so not complaining) and I want to talk Hunger Games with someone.
Specifically: I really liked it, think it may be the best of the four, but damn I wish it had ended one scene earlier. Also, one moment made me go “Dudes! You’re in the middle of a fucking warzone. Priorities!”, and then be all content that Katniss could just not be bothered with the whole love triangle because she had bigger things to worry about.
YES! Thought the epilogue in the book was stupid. It was equally as stupid in the movie. Someone next to me brought their, like, 1st grader, to an 8 pm showing of what was essentially a war movie. But luckily the kid slept through most of it.
I thought that the movie format made some of the decisions on Coin’s side as far as guerrilla tactics seem not well thought out, whereas in the book I could ignore that or it was more obscured. But overall I liked it, Katniss is gloriously human, she should have ended up with Johanna if with anyone at all. (Whereas Peeta would have been great with Prim, I think??)
“Picture him humming Enya directly into your junk”
I NEARLY spit my coffee out on my keyboard from laughing. It was a NEAR THING, Nicole!
YES, that was glorious.
“Hey, is that ‘Orinoco Flow’? Are you really–hey, never mind, keep on.”
Also, this is pretty interesting: http://www.cracked.com/blog/isis-wants-us-to-inva…
Not the least of which because, “why is our worthwhile foreign policy reporting coming from Cracked?”
Cracked has been pretty solid lately. The number of commenters who are pissed off by that is hilarious.
“bad coffee” is redudant, “good coffee” is an oxymoron, it is ridiculous to spend that much time and money to drink something that tastes like poison
some people claim to enjoy beer, though, which is much more ludicrous
this is true. Spoiled bread mixed with water is not proof of God’s love, no matter what Ben Franklin said.
you take that back ma’am
Now we gotta fight.
I will happily admit to being one of them. I’m even a moderate beer snob who can tell an amber ale from an IPA from a sour. (I like all of those.)
I’m a horrible person and admit that when I hear “I hate beer” I think “okay but have you tried anything that didn’t come in 24-packs of cans at the grocery store.” Most mass-produced lagers are gross!
the poison is how you castigate yourself; mortification of the flesh brings one closer to God
*repeats life is a rich tapestry, life is a rich tapestry, life is a rich tapestry until blood pressure comes down*
*has some coffee about it*
look at it this way – the less coffee I drink, the more is left for you!
Yesterday, I was delighted to discover that Mallory was The Gentile of the Week on this week’s Unorthodox podcast and wanted to share this news with others.
Link directs me back to this page!
Thedaela, you can hear it here: http://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/195202/the-bird…
I loved their question, “Who would have been the best texter?” I was surprised at first, and then realized that there is no better answer than hers.
Am I a bad Canadian? I just can’t get into curling besides Men With Brooms. (Paul Gross playing the role he was born to play: attractive dirtbag with a heart of gold.) But I do enjoy when Canadians get excited about stuff in curling. Like Brad Gushue falling, splitting his head open, getting stitches and coming back in. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/curling/… For a stereotypically gentle people, we sure do like to show off how tough we can be.
My husband spent about an hour carefully deciding the next top film for our Netflix DVD queue because he’s sending a couple videos back today, and after reading your post I immediately added Men With Brooms and shot it straight to the top. (In all fairness, he loves both curling and Paul Gross so I think it will be a Delightful Surprise. Also when I told him I wanted to watch Wasabi for the millionth time he told me no and to just buy it so I feel like he brought this on himself.)
As with any Paul Gross thread, I have to raise awareness of his finest role, Aspen Extreme! Peak ski hunk.
CHRIST I haven’t seen Hamilton yet but I know, I KNOW, that I will instantly be plunged into a Daveed Diggs situation that is worse than any situation I have heretofore experienced (worse than the Orlando Bloom situation of 2001. Worse even than the ongoing Hiddleston situation).
You might fall in love with Leslie Odom Jr. too. He’s so heartfelt. He just wants so much.
Welcome to the club.
the current Daveed Diggs situation is out. of. control. in area eleventysix.
Here’s a feel good story. http://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/peterborough-sh…
So in Peterborough, Ontario last weekend, a mosque was attacked by an arsonist. It’s very likely a hate crime (there’s been a whole wave of this garbage, including some idiots in Kitchener who throw rocks through windows at a Sikh temple because they’re both racist & stupid). Anyway, a shul which is also a Unitarian church stepped up and offered for the mosque’s congregation (not sure if that’s the right word) to use their building. So now it’s shared by 3 Abrahamic religions. And that’s pretty cool. Because that’s how it should be. Opening your door to your neighbours when they need help. Not shutting the doors. And locking them.
And the Mennonite Central Committee is fielding a lot of calls from groups in Manitoba eager to help refugees: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mennonite-… (Don’t read the comments. They’re hideous.)
I like the Mennonites. They’re good people.
Thank you for the de Chardin link. I super needed that this week.
Every U.S. journalist this Thursday: “This year I am thankful that racial issues are being addressed in the context of Ivy League schools, with their convenient locations, picturesque environs, and quotable participants.”
JANE MARIE IS COMING TO THE TOAST
DREAMS DO COME TRUE.
JANE MARIE!!!
Also please bring Eudora with you? K, thx.
Yes, also voting for Eudora!
What! That’s amazing!!!
HALLELUJAH
AH YES I WAS SO HOPING FOR THIS YAY!
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
WHAT? ?? This is AMAZING news.
That news ended my week on a VERY happy note indeed. Deep Cuts lives on!!
Can we get the genius who does the beauty box reviews here too??? They are just so soothing to read, and I don’t even subscribe to beauty boxes.
Just in case it hasn’t been shared yet –a nice tribute to bad coffee that will definitely not give you any feelings: <a href=”http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coff…” target=”_blank”>www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coff…
Just learned that Jane Marie’s Friday Bargain Bin is moving to the Toast! I’m sad to see Millihelen go (mostly for Jane), but so excited to have her here.
Can we talk about the opening Dia de Los Muertos/Mexico City scene in Spectre? That was stunning! I could have had 2 and a half hours just of them winding in and out of parades and fancy hotels in those skeleton tuxedos and gorgeous masks with all the floats and drummers and dancers, no dialogue necessary.
hmm I haven’t seen the film, just the trailer and I’m Mexican. That scene looks beautiful and also NOTHING AT ALL LIKE DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS. I have some many feeling about this. Like, why would you choose to show a beautiful tradition but also totally change what it’s about? I actually don’t think that dressing like a catrina on halloween is that bad because the catrina has nothing to do with the spiritual part of the celebration and its history has more to do with social commentary but g-d that scene bothers me. End rant.
I wondered how authentic it actually was. Being a James Bond film opener, my guess was Not Very. The colors and costuming were really beautiful, though.
I know all the hubbub is always centered around the PSL, but I am seriously thrilled when Eggnog lattes come back in season. Am I alone on this?
They’re horrible for you, but so goddamned good.
Cheggnog: eggnog, chai mix, love.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
because sometimes he leads you to a 500 year old orangutan jaw
which seriously, no one is going to think you’re lying if the lie involves
an orangutan who died during the Black Death
and then you won’t have to deal with the implications that people
originated in Africa, and that the people there are real people.
Everyone will be very grateful that you found a early human
in a gravel pit in Sussex.
Nicole, that particular Teilhard de Chardin prayer (and Hearts on Fire in general) is my jam when I just cannot. Thank you.
Yah, was just coming here to say that I think I need to read that particular prayer/poem every day for a while.
Andrew Scott-as-C was essentially Andrew Scott as Moriarty all over again: a vaguely douchey character who, we are supposed to believe, is an evil mastermind of a vast criminal network that exists exclusively off-screen. Or almost exclusively, in the case of Spectre.
It does set a new standard for measuring cognition while drunk, though. Are you so drunk a mouse has to solve your problems? If so, then it's probably time to cut back. And to let someone else drive home.
WHAT THE EVER-LOVING FUCK.
Dammit. She was one of the few (read: three) politicians in which I've ever had any trust.
Given how much influence the Koch Brothers have on elections in states in which they do not live/do business, I'd say calling a rep who is technically not your rep is ethically required.
Speaking as someone whose father died from anaphylactic shock (he had an undiagnosed allergy to wasps), I will personally go set that father-in-law on fire for the letter writer. Hey Grampa, get a clue and stop endangering your grandson's life.
Think I've said this before, but my husband looks like a less menacing/more smiley Daniel Craig (she said, trying not to sound TOO smug). 🙂
Yeah, my coffee preference is pretty much 'whatever's available.' I kind of only notice it's bad if it's really bad, but I generally buy Chock Full O' Nuts or Maxwell House or whatever biodegradable k-cup I can find.
P.S. I actually started drinking coffee on a trip to Italy and was drinking Caffe Americano thinking it just meant 'American coffee' so I have no standard for what people generally think coffee is even supposed to taste like.
YES! Thought the epilogue in the book was stupid. It was equally as stupid in the movie. Someone next to me brought their, like, 1st grader, to an 8 pm showing of what was essentially a war movie. But luckily the kid slept through most of it.
I thought that the movie format made some of the decisions on Coin's side as far as guerrilla tactics seem not well thought out, whereas in the book I could ignore that or it was more obscured. But overall I liked it, Katniss is gloriously human, she should have ended up with Johanna if with anyone at all. (Whereas Peeta would have been great with Prim, I think??)