Please tell us about your Thanksgivings, good and bad, and share pictures of your food and pets if that is the way of your people. Two of my dearest friends came to my house and we did NOTHING other than marathon Supersizers Go… and various Marvel movies and ate when we became hungry and periodically rolled over to prevent couchsores. My children gamboled about charmingly, and it was a truly restorative time, until I checked the news. So, let’s go there:
Everything about the terrorist attack on Planned Parenthood is horrible, from the violence itself to the mealy-mouthed coverage to the actual monsters applauding it on Twitter to the GOP’s shifty avoidance of the issue in the first place.
This shit with Stoya breaks my heart. I believe her utterly and completely and 100%, and I think she’s brave and that James Deen is a rapist and has been using his already-weird cloak of feminism to manipulate women. (Not that I feel strongly about this, obviously.) Kitty Stryker had some great stuff on that latter part here. I’m praying for her, and for all rape victims, that they would be believed and supported and that our culture would recognize that women who work in the sex industry are no less valuable and beautiful and worthy of basic human respect and decency than anyone else.
Okay, let’s talk about Jessica Jones. I’m still only halfway through, but I am pretty into ittttttt and here for your thoughts. (It has plenty of flaws, but I think it’s new and fresh and great and dark and fucked-up and I love it and also ROBIN WEIGERT and an actually immortal, unchanging Carrie-Anne Moss. Also, Luke.) But, man, you need to kill this guy, girl. AND STOP SHIPPING THEM, I have seen people SHIPPING Kilgrave and Jessica, and it. is. not. cool*.
*Desire your desires, and everything, but that shit’s fucked up. There are so many beautiful shipping opportunities on this show!
The full story on the artwork Drake lifted for his Instagram, uncredited:
The big deal, as Valeza put it, and as any artist will readily agree, is that it diminishes his ability to make a living. “Artists depend on visibility,” he explained in an email. “Artworks posted without credit hurts that.”
Cherished Friend of The Toast Carvell Wallace wrote about The Two Lives of Michael Jackson for The New Yorker, and it was brilliant and moving:
I wish he had been talented enough to make people happy, but nothing more. It would mean, of course, that we would never have got to have him, but he would have had himself. I have a son of my own now. He’s twelve. He recently told me that one of his earliest memories is of coming home from school to find the television on, trumpeting the news that Jackson had died. I can picture my son at that age, wide eyes like dark moons; soft, simple skin; the tiniest and most perfect hands; centuries of soul packed layers deep in his little voice. He reminded us, in fact, of a young Michael Jackson. Probably many children, in a certain light, remind people of a young Michael Jackson. My son remembers walking into the kitchen and seeing his parents, grown, weary, and old, embracing each other and crying as though they were the babies. He did not understand why.
Cyber Monday shopping while black:
Enduring such profiling as a child has probably subconsciously influenced my shopping habits as an adult. Before I became an online shopping fan, I spent as little time as possible in stores. I would go into a shop, make a beeline for what I wanted, and leave. I’ve never spent hours trying on clothes, and during my rare retail outings, I try to minimize my interactions with staff. My husband points out that even while grocery shopping I don’t like to ask staff for help. I simply assume they won’t be helpful.
The funny and perfect and beautiful Jane Marie treated us to a special Black Friday Bargain Bin, and we shall have glorious Bins every Friday from here on out.
My son, James Tiberius, and his visiting friend Mr. Wilson, who is in no way worried:
I must now ask you for a little help! I am taking a break from social media for Advent (THERE WILL BE NO THINKPIECES ABOUT IT ON MY RETURN, I PLEDGE THIS TO YOU!) and hopefully it will be a rich and fulfilling time for me, and my new puppy, who can only benefit from said choice.
There will be no change to Link Roundup, and I will share numerous puppy pictures upon her arrival, but I WOULD like to ask that you email me (nicole at the-toast.net) anything you’re writing or reading that you really love, so that I can link to them without my usual Spending All Day and Evening On Twitter Sifting It For Gold system. Thank you!
