My friend Lyz and I bought the same romper over the weekend. It is my first romper.
Thank you for your notes of concern and sympathy! I am now better. I will never eat a frozen chicken patty again. But I had a great time with visiting friends and Toasties Lyz Lenz and Sarah Galo and Angela Chen and we watched Crimson Peak AND the Winona Ryder Little Women, which Sarah and Angela had never seen. And we played “Hamilton” in the car and since Angela is also a Foreigner, she and I got to high-five each other during “IMMIGRANTS! We get the job done” which has been lacking in my life.
They went back and forth like this for a few minutes. I felt as if I were listening in on a conversation they had been having for months. Where was the other knife? If the fire was hot enough to melt a knife, why didn’t their father’s shirt burn? Why didn’t the whole bedroom or even the whole house go up in flames? Matt sighed and said, ‘‘We’re not detectives, but we’re not idiots.’’
I tweeted something supportive of the women testifying at the Ghomeshi trial using the #Ghomeshi hashtag and discovered (shockingly) a lot of men hang out on that hashtag shit-talking victims. I can’t imagine what it’s like for his victims right now. This guy:
If women were upset with him or elusive afterwards, Ghomeshi would seem to become nervous and made efforts to normalize things. One woman said he showed up at her home in tears. He sent friendly, flattering emails, and sometimes they would respond in kind. Once this record of amicable contact was established, he would stop responding to their messages. Some chased after him with solicitous emails.
If later they couldn’t reconcile the incoherence of his behaviour and confronted him about it, he reminded his accusers that he had things on them: their texts, their nude pictures and videos, and the record of friendly contact after the fact, which he considered exculpatory.
He seemed to think he had evidence of consent. They were certain he did not. “There’s a big part of blackmail that went into it,” one woman told me.
Now, THAT’s craftsmanship (RIP, Steampunk Mouse):
So, this retired rodent had managed to sneak past University of Reading security, exterior doors and Museum staff, and clambered its way up into our Store. Upon finding itself there it would have found the promised land; a mouse paradise laid before it full of straw, wood and textiles. Then, out of thousands of objects, it chose for its home the very thing designed to kill it some 150 years ago: a mouse trap.
The trap itself was not baited, but this did not stop our mouse from wriggling inside and, finding itself trapped, meet its demise. The trap was manufactured by Colin Pullinger & Sons of Silsey, West Sussex and although we don’t know the exact date this one was made, the trap itself was patented in 1861. It is a multi-catch trap with a see-saw mechanism, and you can see its object record here. It is known as a ‘Perpetual Mouse Trap’ and proudly declares that it ‘will last a lifetime’. How apt.
Ted Cruz is so loathsome:
“And when he became Senator, I was like, ‘Oh my God, he called my mother a whore!’”
He did? According to Beardsley, the two were having an “intellectual debate” about abortion one day, when she disclosed that her mother had once ended a pregnancy. “I remember telling him [that] my mother had two children, they really couldn’t afford to have another child, they really would have struggled. And it was a very difficult, painful decision for my mother.” At that point, she said, “he became vicious and made it personal,” eventually telling her, in hisloving way, “that my mother was going to hell and was a whore.”
David M. Perry wrote a wonderful, intensely infuriating piece about bullshit disability-based job discrimination (including academia):
The Arc of Texas, an organization dedicated to inclusion, advocacy and disability rights, is hiring a new CEO. Their job announcement, as originally posted, made one thing clear: Disabled people need not apply.
Towards the bottom of the application, a strange list of criteria under the headline, “Physical and Mental Requirements,” included “Seeing, Hearing/Listening, Clear speech, Ability to move distances between offices and workspaces, Driving.” The next post, for another well-paid leadership position, added “manual dexterity, lifting up to 25 pounds, carrying up to 25 pounds” to the list, making it even more restrictive.
What’s a disability rights organization doing pre-emptively discriminating against disabled individuals in their most important hiring? And is this kind of language — which can be found in job postings from the tech sector, the non-profit world, and countless academic jobs — even legal?
Samuel Bagenstos, now an expert on disability law at the University of Michigan and a former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice, called The Arc posting “a pretty blatant violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
Where did all the lead come from in the first place?
In the 20th century, Rabin and other lead critics say, the lead industry ignored growing suspicions that the element was toxic for children and launched a campaign to ensure that Americans kept buying lead paint for their homes, lead gas for their cars and lead plumbing in their communities.
“Lead helps guard your health,” a National Lead Co. advertisement declared in “National Geographic” in 1923 — a year after the League of Nations suggested banning lead indoor paint because of health concerns.
The lead paint article… Anyone else seeing parallels not only to tobacco but also to the oil and gas industry? “Hey, we know this is bad for people/the planet, but we have this whole big company, and it’s going in this direction, and God forbid we turn it around!!!”
Asbestos too! And, I guess, alcohol and sugar right now? Basically, every single time science starts saying, “hey, maybe this thing isn’t the most amazingest for our health?” industry goes, “lalalala can’t hear you AND CAN’T LET ANYONE ELSE HEAR YOU EITHER!”
I feel like alcohol is not the same thing. Like, you can enjoy alcohol in moderation. And our ancestors literally would not have survived without purifying water by making booze. But you can’t exactly have asbestos “in moderation.”
Yes the substances are very different, but I meant in terms of the tactics used by the big alcohol companies in response to any government proposals to restrict, regulate or reduce the sales of those items. I don’t think the big food or alcohol manufacturers are doing anything substantially different from what the tobacco companies have done.
we have policies that have been shown to increase moderation in alcohol use, namely alcohol taxes, and the ways alcohol manufacturers argue against them is similar.
AH whatevs, the FREE MARKET will figure it out? Right guys? Right?!
(I <3 regulation; I’m in the environmental field so I HATE oil and gas industry bullshit on a daily basis.)
I keep thinking that the invisible hand is flipping the bird. Always.
Yeah if we just turn it over everything will be fine!
*sob*
(also in environmental field, health even, so hahahaha)
My favorite story about how great the free market is at solving problems is: the reason why Heinz Ketchup is the most popular and successful brand of ketchup today is because at some point the FDA was created and made it against the rules to turn your ketchup red by putting red fucking paint in it, and Heinz was the only one that wasn’t doing that, so all the other companies went out of business.
See there it is the FDA is a job killer.
now I just wanna know what Heinz is putting in there that edges around the legal definition of ‘paint’
Carmine, which is made of beetles, probably.
(confession) I don’t understand rompers. Or jumpsuits. Completely mystified.
Do they not ride up and get sort of eaten by your thighs? I have a culottes-dress-thing which I love because the colours are gorgeous, it has pockets and I don’t get agonising pain from my thighs rubbing together as I do when I wear a dress without tights, but the legs are quite short and it rides up horribly.
Also you have to get undressed to go to the toilet. Not a selling point.
THIS IS MY THOUGHT ALWAYS. I already get annoyed at how many clasps and closures ladies’ dress pants think they need. Stop making my bathroom trips more complicated.
I remember this from the 90s. I had some bangin’ rompers, but having to strip down to use the high school toilets and yet also try not to let anything touch the very scuzzy ground was my struggle.
YES HOW DO YOU PEE?
I have a friend who has embraced the onesie trend (vomit), and she customises hers with a bumflap for weeing.
Yeah, if they were structured like baby onesies with snaps in the crotch I would be more willing to try.
But also I have found that jumpsuits (or overalls) are not kind to my figure, as I carry my fat in my stomach.
Everything after the comma might be my favorite sentence fragment ever.
I keep myself so hydrated that ease of peeing is a top consideration when planning my outfits. I haven’t even worn pants in months.
I do not understand them either, but they seem to make other Toasties happy? I remember liking overalls, but I am glad that fashion is gone.
It does seem to fall under the Life is a Rich Tapestry heading.
They’re like if you sewed a shirt to pants
Also I have a young coworker (I think she’s 26?) who occasionally wears a romper to work (it actually looks very cute with tights underneath, she pulls it off with a definite shirtdress vibe, no way I could do that) and she pronounces it “romp-AIRE.”
I’m very fashion-clueless so…. Is this a thing people say? Like when we all decided to agree to pronounce “empire” (as in the waist) like a bunch of Frenchies?
Wait, we’ve agreed that?
I’m so afraid of Fashion World Missteps (granted, this is probably worse because I live in NYC where there are Fashion Police) that I always hedge my bets and pronounce it “ahm-PEEER” like a Frenchy but with a really exaggerated, ironic voice. Result: if you’re a Fashion Police I’m toeing the line, but if you’re a regular person I’m making fun of the Police-types.
But it should be ahm-peer, right? Are we not referring to a French Empire with the waists?
It is, but if you’re not familiar with fashion terminology, you’re most likely going to pronounce it “ehm-pyre.”
I’ve actually never heard anyone suggest it should be pronounced that way until this comment thread. I’ve always heard it pronounced just “empire,” as in the Roman/Byzantine/Romulan/etc. Empire. An empire waist. If someone said “ahm-peer” to me, I would probably think they meant “ampere” and wonder why they were talking about electrical currents.
Electrical currents just don’t come up in casual conversation with enough frequency.
😉
As a lady who is 6’2″ I am less baffled and more just structurally precluded from anything that is one piece, unless I want to spend the day as a hunchback in an ineffectual attempt to not have it burst at crotch or shoulder seams.
I’m a little knot of excitement and anxiety–I’m going to try to see Beyoncé on this new tour, BUT WHAT IF I CAN’T GET TICKETS WILL I DIE?
What if you CAN get tickets and see her and THEN die, from seeing her, is my question. (A holier death, is what.)
I am totally fine with this sequence of events. Just as long as I get to see the whole concert.
Oh, I know those feels well. The cure? Pre-Sale! Keep looking for Pre-Sales (and pre-sale codes)! You will make it! You will get tickets! The Toast believes in you!
“Lead poisoning is even more widespread in Iowa, Pennsylvania, New York State, Baltimore and many other places than it is in Flint,” says Nicholas Kristof today, on Facebook.
This world, man. 🙁
My generally pointless local paper ran an actual short series on local lead last week. We still have a lot of it.
Ghomeshi. I just can’t.
I’ve never really had the experience before this of music I love being ruined by the revelation that the artist is an abusive fuckhead. I can’t say I missed it.
Right? I went was so into Moxy Fruvous when I was younger, now all those memories are tainted
Hard same. Their albums were ones I could listen to over and over but I think since this story broke I’ve listened to one once?
I was just thinking that, again, as I read the article. I went to a bunch of concerts of theirs, even driving from Michigan to Toronto for one in college. But now I have to skip all of the songs when they come up on phone.
For the best, really.
Me too. Fruvous was something like a first love for me; I was on the newsgroup and drove crazy distances for concerts and everything.
I want to say something sensible, but so many of these links just fill me with rage. At Ghomeshi. At Cruz. At the lead people.
But: at least we have that gorgeous Beyonce video to remind us that there is good in this world.
That Beyonce video hoooooooly shit.
Whenever I am having an especially bad day, I think “Beyonce is real, so are kittens and puppies, and therefore there is good in this world” and then I look at kittens while listening to her discography.
Nicole, you and your friend look amazing in those! #werk
I had a three-day seminar about editing, being an editor, and the publishing industry in general last week and it was great! I really think this could be a job I’d be good at. I’m only going back to uni in October and am looking for an internship right now, but apparently I shouldn’t get my hopes up high for a paid internship, because why would anybody pay someone who is working 40 hours a week.
And I had a small-ish hope that something would come out of this seminar, but at the end of the last day the lecturer told us that the publishing house where he works doesn’t take interns because they don’t have enough offices. Great.
We also talked about sending in unsolicited manuscripts in the beginning, and on the last day, I wanted to say, “So, is now the time where we hand you our manuscripts?” but didn’t follow through with it because I feared they wouldn’t get that it was a joke and an uncomfortable situation would arise. New resolution: Be bolder.
Don’t do it, publishing is terrible. You are probably right that editing is a job you could do, but it’s a really shit industry to work in. Very low paid, very difficult to advance. I got into it by accident a while ago and got out pretty quickly; two friends of mine both had their hearts set on it, but when they actually got into the reality of it (and both were really good and did really well) they both noped the fuck out of there. Sorry to be such a downer, but I just feel the need to warn anyone off publishing who is considering it.
Yeah publishing is rough. They told you about the “slush pile” at the seminar, right?
I work in tech publishing, which is a pretty good gig and an outlier among other publishing sectors, but I would never want to transition into trade for many of the reasons 30Litresof mentioned. With tech, we are basically enjoying success because computer programmers are, which is a good setup! But most other arms of publishing are going in the opposite direction, so don’t fall into some tiny niche where you’ll work a ton and never make more than 30K a year.
Oh, I don’t want to send in anything myself! I only wanted to make this joke because he told us about the pile. I already knew about this before, and what he told us only further convinced me to not try my luck with getting published myself (not to mention that I would need to write something at first).
You’re right about this, but I still think I should at least try it. I’m also pretty sure this isn’t a job I’d want to do for the rest of my life, but I can definitely see myself working in publishing for a couple years.
When I was getting my MFA, my thesis advisor was a woman who had been one of the first women editors at a major publishing house. The best advice she ever gave me was to not go into publishing, because it was a soul-sucking industry.
I’m not going to say don’t become an editor. But I will say that you should go in with eyes open. It’s like academia–know the problems you’re going to encounter and decide if you’re ok with them. You’re going to have a long frustrating job search unless you know someone who can get you an in. It took me two years to get my first publishing job (this was the height of the recession, so YMMV), and I applied for 200+ jobs in that time. You will be paid less than should seem legal. You will work on more books you dislike than books you like, especially if you get a Big 5 job. On the other hand, you will have smart, passionate, bookish coworkers, and you’ll get free books.
Also, if you want to submit your manuscript somewhere you’re better off sending it to an agent than a publisher. Occasionally people get somewhere with the slush pile, but it’s pretty rare that anyone even looks at your stuff.
“You will be paid less than should seem legal.”
Yes, I recommend having a trust fund or a sugar daddy.
The lecturer was very honest about this. I know it’s hard to get a job in publishing but it is hard in other industries, too. And I’m not set on “I only want to edit children’s books/thrillers/whatever” and I know I won’t make a fortune. But there aren’t a lot of jobs I can imagine myself doing, and I want to at least try it, because I think I would very much like this kind of work.
And I don’t want to get published myself, I just wanted to make a joke about attending the seminar just to hand in a manuscript (which was absolutely not what the seminar was about), but thanks nevertheless for the advice 🙂
Further to 30Litresof’s comment, though, if you think you’d enjoy the technical aspects of editing and publishing but would (quite reasonably!) be put off by the low pay and working conditions of traditional publishing, it can be worth looking at how those skills get used in other contexts: trade publishing, for example. The quarterly magazines for construction professionals or nurses still need compiling and editing! And you quite often find that people in the less glamorous ends of an industry have much higher job satisfaction, because they aren’t trading in decent job security, pay or working conditions for the less tangible benefits of “having a job appropriate for a chicklit heroine”.
Thank you 🙂
Also because content is a SUCH a big part of marketing these days a lot of agencies need editors, so you may have more luck finding opportunities with decent pay in that sector.
I don’t disagree with 30Litresof, bu I actually think an internship would be a great idea. If you decide to continue in publishing the internship will be almost necessary, and if you don’t, publishing skills are applicable in about a zillion other jobs. Some of my former small press interns went on to work in development, legal firms, museums, you name it. Same with me: I got into publishing because I’m a recovering academic and thought that publishing was pretty much the only route open to me. I learned two things: the low pay, scarcity of sufficient resources and staff, and difficulty of advancing can burn a person out on publishing pretty quickly; also, nearly every kind of company out there needs someone with excellent writing and editing skills, so once you get a little professional experience in that area, there is a much wider world in which to ply your trade.
Anyway, Book Jobs always has a list of publishing internships; AAUP and Bookbuilders do too, though those are mostly academic presses. Good luck!
Seconding this! And if you’re on twitter, follow @bookjobs, which syndicates all the job listings on Publisher’s Marketplace.
Publishing’s a rough gig, but it’s not impossible. And if you’re into editing, think about whether or not agenting might be the job for you: agents do a lot of editing, and since there are tons of literary agencies of varying sizes around the country, in my experience it’s easier to get an internship at an agency than it is at a press. (Although, again, don’t count on getting paid for it.)
That’s good to know, thank you.
You know, I would be alright with working 4-6 weeks without being paid (if it is a job in my area where I could at least continue with my freelancing radio gig), but I just don’t think it’s fair to give someone a three-month long job, doing a lot of work, and not paying them. In fact, here in Germany it is actually forbidden since 2015 – they have to pay the minimum wage for internships lasting three months or more. But a lot of companies are avoiding this by only advertising internships for people who *need* this for their studies – as in, it is compulsory. And it is not for my degree…
Thank you! Unfortunately, I’m based in Germany, so I can’t make use of the links. But maybe someone else here is looking for a publishing job in the US and is very happy to see this 🙂
And what you’re saying is exactly why I want an internship – to try and see if this is really something I’d like to do, and to gain skills.
I work on a niche magazine as an editor and I have to say I love it. I make make more money at my job than most of the jobs in my area (I work remotely) and as much as I’ll be complaining this week because I’m going to press soon, I’m going to spend today writing a review of a book on African textiles and a profile of a delightful man who is one of the most passionate teachers I’ve ever spoken with. I love my job, but I also get paid what I consider a fair wage for my job (ask me again during press week, though), I have benefits, and amazing coworkers. (Plus I get sent books on textiles all the time to review which is pretty amazing.) If you like publishing AND are equally passionate about a specific hobby, consider niche publishing like knitting, beading, etc. My job is stressful, yes–sometimes to the extreme–but on the whole I get paid to, you know, write about the history of spinning dog fur and turning it into cloth or do an interview with a woman who recently published a book compiling oral histories of slave weavers. It’s pretty darn cool. Best of all, though, is when I write an article on some weaving coop in Africa and I get an email after our magazine goes to press to let me know their sales have skyrocketed and that they’ll be able to do even more good.
I also have an aunt who works for an alumni magazine for a small college and she also loves it. She gets to work with and tell the stories of people around the university and interview interesting alumni. It’s also stressful, but she’s able to support her family as the primary breadwinner in an expensive part of the country.
Publishing can be hard. It can be stressful. There are many companies that don’t care and will happily pay you next to nothing. But it really can be fulfilling, depending on what you want to do. I don’t know where you’re located, but I know my company not only regularly hires paid interns at their various locations, but they will also sometimes hire college students either full or almost full time (so 30 hours a week) and then bump them up to full time upon graduating. (Heck, if you’re in the US, love textiles, and are computer savvy I could get you a link to an online editor position that we’re hiring for right now where you could possibly work from home, depending on where you’re located.)
You’re all so kind, thank you for the advice. This is actually a happy report, and I’m glad to hear these exist as well 🙂
Hi! Your job sounds awesome! I am a textiles person and am VERY interested in the online editor position you mentioned if you are willing to share the link! I’m in NY so not sure if that would make it remote?
So we totally have an office in New York (City, I believe) so it’s completely possible that you might be able to work remotely. I can’t promise–it’s sometimes weird how they determine who can and who can’t (I have a friend who’s an online editor for our Crochet department who was told she could move to Cheyenne, Wyoming, but not Laramie because she needed to be commutable distance to Colorado.)
It’s for the Specialty Fiber department which means it handles Weaving, Spinning, and Needlework (historical knitting and crochet as well things like tatting and netting and other fun things). You don’t need to be an expert in the textile techniques, but having knowledge in them is a good start. Email me at cgarton at interweave dot com if you have questions or want to know our publications/websites.
http://chk.tbe.taleo.net/chk06/ats/careers/requis…
Cool, thank you!! I’ll take a look at the posting, and if I think I might possibly have a shot and have any questions, I’ll send you an email!
(Also, don’t be intimidated by the list of requirements–I think that’s really just a pipe dream list so feel free to apply. I can also say one person who applied was actually immediately snagged by another department and is now working full time elsewhere in the company.)
Thank you so much for sharing about your job! Where is your company located, and do you know of any trade publishers in the Pacific Northwest?
I’m a technical writer, but publishing (specifically editing) has long been my dream, even as I hear over and over again how terrible and unsustainable it is. And it is true I don’t want that kind of life, but I would love the kind of work you describe. (I even spotted an associate editor job at one magazine, Ruralite, when I was doing my initial job search a year ago, and boy it was perfect — and paid well! — but of course I didn’t get it.)
I am truly grateful that I found a career even marginally connected to my degree (Creative Writing), one that allowed my salary to grow substantially in my first five years at it, but at the moment I’m writing machine operating manuals that basically fulfill a legal requirement, and people are pretty frank about how no one really reads them. And it just seems so miserable to spend my whole adult life doing something I don’t care about, that doesn’t really matter, without even trying to get into the industry doing work I’ve always wanted to do.
And if it doesn’t work out, at least I’ll know that I tried before going back to tech writing (and knuckling down to write my own books one of these years).
It’s kind of funny, my editor who is amazing and talented and wonderful, lives in the Pacific Northwest and also got her start as a tech writer/editor. Then one day she decided she didn’t want to be a tech writer who wove sometimes but wanted to be a weaver with a day job and actively began pursuing my company. She started as a project manager and eventually edited up in charge of a magazine–and her technical writing experience was a big help. Believe it or not, technical writing is a great if you want to get into craft publications because you need that eye for detail when editing instructions on how to weave a set of towels or tat a doily.
We don’t have offices up your way (although if you can find a job where you can work remotely, because we have had at least one employee in Oregon we can probably hire more), although it looks like Meredith Publishing might (not too much open right now–but that probably changes week to week like it does for us). I’m not sure about other publishers, but you can do searches and keep and eye out. When you see jobs not in your area, contact the HR department and see how they feel about working remotely–it’s something many publishing companies are completely OK with.
In the meantime, if there’s a publication you love and would dream of working for, try to get your foot in the door and ask about articles. Don’t just submit but ask if there’s anything you could write about for them. Small publications are ALWAYS looking for good writers who understand their topic, and if they find somebody they will do what they can to hold on to them. It’s a good way to expand your writing, get a foot in the door, and get yourself on good terms with the editor. I know many of our editors (assistant on up) started out as contributors.
I hope this helps and good luck!
Thank you so much, that’s wonderfully helpful!!!
God, I would so prefer to write instructions for crafts. I think there’s a better chance of those getting read and appreciated.
I always send out a silent “thank you, bless you” to the unnamed patterns tech writers/editors when I find a good smooth pattern whose instructions make perfect sense without any extraneous information. Also the illustrators.
And I just realized I didn’t answer about our locations. 🙂 My company is all over–Colorado, Ohio, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New York, and a few other places. You can find all the office locations at fwcommunity.com.
Hey – I get the impression you are US based but if London way I’m happy to drop you a line about internship stuff I know about here – let me know. I’m 3 years into an agency job and love working in publishing myself but it does pay horribly horribly horribly.
That’s very sweet of you, but I’m actually neither – I’m based in Germany. But thanks nevertheless!
You know, no one these days stays in one industry forever, and I think editing can be a great start to a career. It shows that you pay a lot of attention to detail and you can handle client calls and queries well. You get to learn about all kinds of weird stuff depending on what you’re editing. And I think it transitions well into other fields: any kind of journalism, teaching, writing, tech writing, paralegal/legal, curating, transcription, etc. Definitely go for the internship! But a paid one, yeah, probably not happening 🙂
What people have said is true, but I will also say that I loved being an editor, even when frustrated. I love being an agent, even when overwhelmed. I love my job in the depths of my soul, and I don’t mean that as hyperbole. You really have to love it this much to do it. If you don’t feel magic or a high holding a book you worked on, don’t do it. If you stop feeling that magic, get out. But for me, there’s nothing like looking at the two full bookcases in my office of projects that I did, or walking into a bookstore and seeing people read the jacket copy you wrote and tweaked, or seeing a book you bought or sold or edited on Oprah or NPR. Like, even seeing a jacket that you fought over on a table in a bookstore, and knowing that you fought the good fight to make something beautiful. Even reading GoodReads reviews to get a sense of how readers interact with these words that you labored over. Forming relationships with authors FOREVER. It took me 6 years to work my way up to doing exactly what I want to do, working on exactly the kinds of books that I love, and to make a decent wage. And it feels like it’s been five minutes. So, if reading this gives you a soul-stirring umph that makes you want to chase these feelings, I say go forth. If all the other stuff is like, “ugh, can’t handle this shit & not worth it” don’t bother, because it will make you hate books. Publishing is the sausage factory–simply “loving to read” is a terrible reason to get into this business–just keep loving books and don’t worry how they get made. But if your passion is for *making books* not only reading them, there’s nothing else in the world that would be as satisfying (at least for me).
Hi yes please, my passion is “making books.” I just want to ask if you made this career around NYC or elsewhere?
Yup! I’m in NYC.
I’m an editor and I’ve worked in publishing for a long time, but I can’t echo the doom-and-gloom sentiments of some of these other comments. I get paid decently, I’ve been promoted several times, and I work on interesting content. But maybe that’s because I’ve never been in book publishing, which is an entirely different creature.
Don’t forget that there are PLENTY of editorial and communication jobs out there that involve publishing with magazines, websites, etc., not to mention agencies and internal communication departments. Editorial work =/= only book publishing.
Yeah, I think it’s important to note that Big 5 NYC trade publishing isn’t the only option here. I’ve been in academic publishing for about five years and for the most part I really love it. I recently switched jobs because pay was becoming an issue, but my new employer made me a very fair offer and I don’t feel at all exploited. I work on undergrad science textbooks, which is fascinating and super enjoyable, like getting paid to learn (as cheesy as that sounds).
I think a lot of people get burnt out and disillusioned because the whole NYC publishing world still has this illusion of glamour and prestige, and then it turns out to be a shitty, unsustainable, demoralizing grind. I would absolutely feel cheated if I’d gone that route. But if you steer clear of New York (sorry not sorry New York, you suck) and are willing to consider smaller presses and different types of work/products, you can really do okay.
I’m going to be a combo breaker and say I love working in publishing! Publishing is awesome! And I make a pretty good living at it, to be honest. But I’m on the academic publishing side which is more stable and in a country where unpaid internships are frowned upon (we do not do them at my company).
One thing I’ll warn you about is that from my experience editorial is a tough gig to get into–every resume that crosses my desk for every position I’m hiring for includes the fervent desire to be a copy editor or acquisitions editor. The former are almost always done by freelancers who are accredited members of a national organization, and the latter comes after years of working in and knowing the market enough to build up your know-how. On the other side, sales representatives, those with marketing credentials, and people who can typeset books are always, always in demand. If you have skills in those areas that you can offer, it may be easier to get a foot in the door.
That said, I’m not in Germany, so I don’t know your market as well!
I don’t know if this is off-topic about the disability article or not … I’m disabled due to a mental illness, bipolar disorder. I have problems going to work when I’m in a depression or when I’m having problems with my medication, which happens every month. So the “boilerplate” job requirements about being able physically say nothing about being able mentally, and they also don’t call for a future employee to actually SHOW UP at the job. Hunh. Maybe I don’t have to be on disability after all, if I don’t actually have to SHOW UP when my depression hits. Better get right on this, employment lawyers.
FIRST ROMPER!! SO PROUD.
Today on Ask A Manager: Should I list my fanfic on my résumé?
I say go for it. If your 50k werewolf mpreg Superwholock fic won’t get you the job, nothing will.
I am supervising a crop of students right now, and one sent me a screencap of her schedule complete with the tabs of fan fiction up top in the browser window. It endeared me to her strongly and immediately.
I live in fear of sending someone a supposedly-professional screenshot of something without noticing a string of definitely-not-professional tabs across the top.
I once gave a presentation from my work computer without noticing that my google search window was populated with “paisley boxers.”
Every screenshot I take is cropped to within an inch of its life to avoid people seeing the LJ/Facebook/Toast/AO3 tabs across the top.
Same! No one needs to know what’s on my bookmarks bar.
SAAAAME
Snipping tool, best part of windows 7. Carefully cropped screen shots, zero effort, and you can draw on them! I love that thing.
Same, also the business conference call where I accidentally leave the camera on and everyone sees I’m in bed
I once sent the head TA of one of my courses the 37k potterlock fic I was trying to send someone else with the same first name…
As in, you were a student or you were the professor?
I was a student. And knew her socially so it wasn’t the end of the world, but still, very embarrassing at the time.
when I was in college my TA had her laptop set up with the projector and she had fanfiction tabs open.
I say yes – If I’m hiring a Larry, I want plenty of warning
Seconded.
Or, even worse, Dark Larries. THOSE are the ones your parents actually warned you about.
A new hire in my department listed “Faculty Advisor for the Yu-Gi-Oh Club” on his CV (university-wide service) and it was adorable.
I’m gonna need a LOT more information on the dealings between your university’s faculty and the Yu-Gi-Oh club.
Well, the fact that he hasn’t yet succumbed to a pseudo-Egyptian curse means he’s probably pretty good at staying out of trouble!
I sent my fanfic to a professor once! In my defence, it was for a movie we’d watched in class and which I had ranted at length to him about because the screenwriters were Wrong About Everything.
Related: my daughter is convinced that listing “Pokemon Club” on her applications is what got her a college scholarship.
I’m kind of taken aback at the juxtaposition of “fanfic is a copyright problem” with “drug offenses are no big deal.” There are different contexts for those two comments, I just feel kind of wrong-footed finding them right next to one another.
The only coherent part of my reaction any time I think about/read about/am reminded of the existence of Ted Cruz is: what an approximately human-shaped pile of garbage he is.
The rest is just the sound of wind in the darkness at high speeds with the terror factor cranked to 11.
This part jumped out particularly:
“Cruz lost multiple student government elections in college, among them class president and campus and community affairs chair; he was eventually elected to Princeton University Council, and was president of the Ivy Council. He also lost a bid for president of the debate panel in 1990, but subsequently held other leadership positions.”
I think it’s all well and good that he lost a bunch of elections, but the fact that he stayed around long enough (and drove off at least one person!) to weasel into a leadership position is such a systemic problem basically everywhere. Like there are people who are known problems who just hang in there long enough to get into positions where they have MORE power and influence? Obviously, this is small scale, but I’ve found it true pretty much across the board.
Also the thing about him wandering through the women’s dorm in a paisley bathrobe was creepy as fuck.
Isn’t Cruz the guy who was such a dick in college, his dorm roommate from the 80s tweets about it?
Yes, and it’s hilarious, in a horrifying way. Craig Mazin is the roommate.
I’m so glad I did not go to an elite college, because I can be pretty sure that none of my heinous classmates are going to end up becoming senators.
But if any of them do, I will totally tweet about it
There are few things I hate more than the philosophy of “if you don’t like your boss, promote him” or the concept of “failing upwards.” Like, it is just SO GALLING how such amazingly awfully terrible people manage to weasel their way into not just staying in places where they aren’t wanted, but elevating themselves to positions of power. Stop letting this happen, society!
It’s a horrific trend and I have straight-up put something to that effect on some anonymous workplace environment surveys: there are people who are known problems who are just allowed to fester. And I get that this is not a pleasant conversation for a supervisor to have but the alternative is to chance that literally every other employee will be damaged by your inability to deal with the squeaky wheel. This is why we have supervisors in the first place, as it turns out.
I may be a touch sensitive on the topic because I recently decided not to apply for a more prestigious position due to the off the charts levels of dysfunction in the office I would have potentially moved into. This includes a guy with anger management issues who actually laid hands on one of the other employees in the past. The thought of him as my officemate for the occasional long hours and higher stress was just a big ol’ nope.
Indeed, the paisley bathrobe thing is the stuff nightmares.
“According to several classmates, none of whom were firsthand witnesses, Cruz was said to have run the wrong way and was later seen naked and banging against the window of a locked dorm in an attempt to gain entrance.”
Is this a metaphor for his current campaign?
I’ve seen a couple articles that claim Ted Cruz is smarter than you think, and it makes me roll my eyes. That’s not a selling point! The problem is actually that a) Ted Cruz thinks he’s smarter than anyone else in the room, and b) he’s not actually as smart as he thinks. We had one of those guys in Canada, and look what he did to us for the last 10 years! I don’t care how smart you are, you’re never the smartest person around and you always benefit from the opinions of smarter people than you are.
holy cow is Ted Cruz Stephen Harper’s voodoo doll
Maybe it’s my lefty, privileged, liberal arts background talking (PROBABLY!) but I don’t think Ted Cruz has the expansiveness of vision required to be considered truly smart. For sure it seems his academic bona fides are fine, but, as the article points out, he was never the most flexible debater. He doesn’t have the wherewithal to see beyond himself. I would also argue that people who are truly smart know the limits of their intelligence as well as their weak points and therefore know how to surround themselves with people who have strengths in areas they don’t. I literally cannot picture Cruz admitting that he doesn’t know everything about ANYTHING.
Of course now it sounds like I’m no-true-Scotsmanning in favor of some nebulous concept of “smartness,” so I’ll just show myself out…
A friend of a family friend was his roommate at Harvard Law. Apparently Cruz is an utter and complete *slob.* Like clouds of dust followed him, a la Pig-Pen.
As a very fastidious person, this only makes me hate him more.
What happened to cleanliness is next to godliness? That didn’t stick, but calling someone’s mom a whore did?
In his case I suppose the adage took on a particularly *evangelical* connotation… Madonna/Whore dichotomies and all that nonsense.
I say we exile him to a small island as a traitor and let him shiver in a drafty house.
This morning I discovered that this boy:
Sings this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q58Gm18-IMY
And now my brain hurts. How does a voice that deep come from such a cute face?
(See boy from Scrotal Recall, which is awesome, singing song from Detectorists, which is brilliant.)
More cuteness.
I’ve been listening to him on spotify all day. I was already in love with him from Scrotal Recall (What an amazing show? if only it didn’t have the stupidest name in the history of ever), but now… ngggh.
Haha, I giggled like a twelve-year old and was delighted to have the opportunity to type the phrase Scrotal Recall into my search engine just now! Luckily I’m not at work yet. Sounds like an entertaining show — time to restart my netflix subscription?
Its definitely worth a watch, but I will warn you, its only 6 1/2 hour episodes, so its over depressingly quickly.
It would of course be funnier if it was about a woman, but the main guy is stupidly adorable (emphasis on stupid) and his best friend is the hilarious asshole we all wish we could be. Also there’s an amazing oral recall of Point Break that will make you forget how terrible that movie is and you will want to watch it again.
Oh my god now listening to his album and it is exactly what I wanted.
Bonus Hiddles
Oh wow thank you for this gift.
Moment of shame in unusual circumstances: I was attending an open dress rehearsal performance at the Royal Opera House. Interval. Hanging out in the caff. SAW THIS BLOKE. Rushed up to him and babbled incoherently about how much I loved his work. *Couldn’t actually remember the name of either of the shows*.
You will be pleased to know that he was a model of modest, bemused politeness.
I love Scrotal Recall more than I care to admit, and now I am listening to this song when I go home THANK YOU
Fun fact: he is the younger half-brother of Jerome Flynn, who plays Bronn on Game of Thrones and was himself a pop singer back in the ’80s.
So, Toasties, I saw Hamilton on Saturday! And, it was wonderful, as advertised. I must tell you, at the risk of seeming ungrateful for my good fortune in this, that I had low expectations generally, as I’m not too big into musicals. And the first few songs, I’m all, “Oh, cool, this is different” but also (because I’m kind of an old and my eyesight isn’t great) “I can’t tell who anyone is besides Hamilton,” but then King George walked on the stage and that was it. I was alright. I was in! And I started getting who everyone was (loved Eliza and Angelica of course) and got into the songs and the creativity (in my limited experience) of the stagecraft and just, everything. Anyway, now I think it might’ve been the best play I’ve ever seen (certainly best musical) and just wanted to tell you guys. I was stand-offish and skeptical, but then they won me over. I like when that happens!
Also, thought I’d recommend where I ate a quick (very quick) dinner before the show: The Kati Roll restaurant on 39th street, near Bryant Park. I walked from Penn Station (34th St.) to the restaurant and then from there to the theater (46th St.) and that took an hour, total. It’s best for takeout (limited seating) and it’s kind of fast food, but it was great and so so cheap. It can get very crowded, but I got there in a lull and could sit in the very small seating area. Delicious and fast! Limited menu, but it’s online and I guess I can’t stop thinking about my luck in finding it!
I’m so glad to hear it! Lin placed that song really carefully, knowing that people used to more traditional musical theater or music generally would need something to hold onto. He did something similar in ‘In the Heights’ with a Duke Ellington reference in the opening number to say, “Don’t worry this sounds very Latin and very hip-hop but it’ll be okay!”
The led paint article is making me very angry and it is too early to be very angry and if I try to be very angry while tired I physically fall over (I don’t know why) and after skimming the other links in the roundup I have decided to come back later when I can get angry without falling down.
Strategy approved.
Do you physically fall over when you feel other strong emotions, too? I’m just an internat stranger with a totally unsolicited anecdote, but! I have a friend who has a friend with narcolepsy and strong emotions make her collapse.
I don’t have narcolepsy, just balance issues (caused by not-narcolepsy). And yes, it’s only anger and random happenstance!
Oh man, that sucks!
My mom took this picture of me and Charlie Potato Hashbrowns last night and I feel like it really shows the fact that a) Charlie is getting SURPRISINGLY BIG (though some of that is perspective) and b) the fact that I am incredibly pleased that he is mine. He is definitely her favourite grandpotato.
I caught him chewing on the coffee table yesterday (it’s not mine so I feel super bad), so I finally bought him a Kong toy and some treats to shove into it and we had a very quiet evening in which he did nothing but chew something he’s allowed to chew, so I’m gonna count that a success.
HI POTATO I LOVE YOU
I still can’t quite believe how fluffy he is.
GRANDPOTATO GRANDPOTATO <3
I love the joy in your face! Everyone’s pet should bring them that much happiness.
SO FLUFFY.
And yes Kong toys are the best.
who’s a big excellent potato? You are!
Best advice I ever got, fill a couple kongs with peanut butter and throw them in the freezer overnight. Cheaper than the expensive kong treats and it will keep dogs occupied for HOURS.
That dog is UNREASONABLE CUTE!
The other day I saw someone had set out on the sidewalk a Kong-style toy with a sign that basically said, “this is free for anyone who wants it” and THEN said underneath:
Dog is stupid, couldn’t figure out there was even a treat inside. Maybe your dog is smarter?
In what kind of black magic did you engage in order to bring this obviously cartoon-cute puppy to life? (Asking for a friend.)
Mr Hashbrowns is absolutely fabulously great! Thank you for sharing him with us.
Yet again America, you astonish me with the discrimination that’s seen as ‘Normal’
I’ve never seen any kind of a ‘physical requirements’ on a non-manual labor job description (and I work in an area of advertising where we deal with A LOT of JD’s and compiling requirements for employers. I’ve read a lot of them). The only thing that gets close is a driving requirement. Even manual labour jobs like shop assistant don’t get much more than ‘please be aware this is a physical job and will require standing and walking’.
TBH this straight up looks like thinly veiled discrimination. ‘We don’t want no cripples working in this here office, better put in a lifting requirement for a desk job to weed them out.’* ‘Mercia.
*Its probably more like someone was asked to lift a box of books one time and threw a hissy fit, so now the recruiters stick it in as a requirement to avoid this. Still discrimination yo.
Physical requirements aren’t terribly rare for office jobs in the Canadian public service, at least on the information management side. It’s pretty standard for, say, records office clerks.
This poster for a librarian job requires “Ability and willingness to retrieve material from library stacks area which entails moving mobile shelving, and using step stools to access upper shelves.”
This “information management analyst” job requires “Daily standing, stretching, bending, lifting and reaching to search and retrieve files and/or boxes (Maximum 15 kg).”
I can get behind some warnings, although apart from some jobs like your examples, there aren’t many office jobs that could be easily done by a disabled person with some accommodations; but the examples in the article seem very OTT and deliberate.
I don’t think any CEO in the world does regular lifting/carrying, that’s what assistants are for.
Yeah, I definitely didn’t mean to imply that this kind of language CAN’T be used in a discriminatory way. I’m just so used to seeing it that sometimes it can take me a while to register that it’s not appropriate (or even flat-out illegal).
Incidentally, I was an applicant for that librarian job and one of the librarians involved in the hiring process complained to me while I was there that they had previously hired someone who used a wheelchair and consequently had to redo all their shelving so that all the material was low enough for that employee to reach. This was a great hardship and the librarian obviously thought that the request was unreasonable and designed only to make his own life difficult. I was very relieved to never hear back from them.
Sadly, our library has the 50-lb-lifting requirement baked in to our job descriptions; I would not be unhappy at all if it were simply crossed out. (We use physical books less and less; having a lifting requirement is like having a calligraphy requirement because materials used to have to be copied by hand.)
A lifting requirement for a job with “electronic resources” in the title is especially galling.
I had some physical requirements for my job (library assistant, in the UK), of the “able to lift heavy loads” kind, as the job requires some shelving duties. (In practice, half of the staff, including me, are very short, and if we cannot reach to get books on the highest shelves, we just pass it on to someone taller without an issue, so I hope the library could work around issues of physical disability if they had a qualified candidate.)
Unfortunately, this kind of language in the job posting frequently discourages otherwise qualified candidates from applying.
I’m p sure people who get turned away by not qualifying for all the text in a job description are just never going to be employed regardless. It’s not uncommon for “entry level” job openings to call for fresh-out-of-college applicants with five years of professional work experience in a field that’s existed for three, zero thought whatever goes into writing up position requirements (beyond looking up every vaguely similar position in the country and copy-pasting all their requirements together into a mountain of inane bullshit)
Why so contrarian? There’s a huge difference between not applying because the job pedantically lists a million billion extremely specific skills, and not applying because the ad clearly intends to filter away people with your disability. The first ad says “we don’t know what we want” (but white men are of course more likely to read it that way than women and minorities, who more often reads it as “you’re incredibly unqualified”), the second ad says “we know exactly what we want and we’re prepared to discriminate disabled people to get it, disabled people need not apply”.
My work space is actually not ADA compliant and I will never be given funds to make it so.
1. To get in, you have to be able to bend or squat to the ground to unlock the door.
2. once you get in, there isn’t the required amount of clearance between the shelves.
3. If you can get into the stacks because there are boxes piled all over the walkways, because we have no where else to put them.
4. Even if you work at the desk, there’s enough stuff under them (see aforementioned shelving issue) that you wouldn’t be able to sit at them unless you were able bodied.
Yeaaaaaaah. I’ve brought it up, there’s nothing that’s gonna get fixed. It’s fucked up. We’re gonna get so fucking sued someday.
That’s just a health and safety problem. Even an able bodied person shouldn’t be expected to work in those conditions.
Oh wait, this is the U S of A; you guys probably don’t have health and safety either!
Health & safety is when a former supervisor of mine said to a fellow employee “if you hear someone coming, don’t let them see you on the ladder! OSHA OSHA!”
OSHA.
I can’t find the ‘Type Slower’ gif I want, so you get Donna making a knock knock joke.
In other news I found a tumblr post of Feminist complaints on Abby Bartlett pictures and there goes my afternoon.
http://toberziegly.tumblr.com/tagged/tww-text-pos…
in fairness, that’s mostly how it works here in the UK too.
No, we definitely, definitely, definitely do. We have health and safety regulations out the wazoo. About the width of staircases and height of individual steps and presence of handrails and whether you need to put liners in your trash cans and how many sinks are required in your kitchen and which side door hinges go on and how many emergency exits you need and which doors are allowed to be propped open and I haven’t even scratched the surface. Ask me sometime about whether you’re allowed to put carpet under the counter where people put cream in their coffee (answer: in Minnesota, no, it has to be tile). There’s a reason our country has so many lawyers.
Ask me sometime about whether you’re allowed to put carpet under the counter where people put cream in their coffee (answer: in Minnesota, no, it has to be tile).
I really wanna see the lawsuit that inspired that regulation.
Right? You are allowed to carry your coffee and cream to a carpeted seating area, though. Learning about this stuff is like hanging out with someone with a hyperactive imagination thinking of complicated worst-case scenarios for everything.
I always like to imagine that every Health and Safety regulation was created because of a specific incident and subsequent lawsuit (especially the American ones), and I have great fun trying to figure out what the incident was.
I’m guessing possibly someone spilt milk on a carpeted coffee area and it rotted and gave everyone dysentery? although TBH, tiled kitchette kind of just makes sense, cause spillage happens.
Yep. Same for warning labels on products. (Like the heat gun my grandmother had, which went up to eleventy billion degrees and said “DO NOT USE AS A HAIR DRYER”).
My face reading that is just DDDD:
Although for extra fun, OSHA requirements don’t necessarily apply to government facilities. The State of Missouri has some facilities that are quite wretched in terms of safety (SO MANY STAIRS ACCIDENTS) and totally non-OSHA compliant and it doesn’t matter!
Yay. Laws.
There is such a wide gap between “we wrote some laws!” and “we have created a functioning system to ensure that these laws are working as intended.”
Hell, we don’t even have a smoke detector in the breakroom where the flame prone things are. Instead, its in the hall.
This is Wisconsin though, the former Minnesotan says, shaking her head sadly.
Oh, WISCONSIN. I don’t dare act smug, since we’re the state that gave Michele Bachmann to the world, but the widening political gulf between MN and WI is so baffling to me. (The NYTimes did a good story about this a couple years ago, if you haven’t already seen it.)
Yup. And it’s bad for the collections, which they claim to value so highly. WHY NOT GIVE ME MORE THAN 600SQFT FOR 150 YEARS OF HISTORY THEN?
As an unemployed person in the U.S. I can tell you that there are many, many non-manual labor jobs out there that have requirements like “must be able to lift up to 50 pounds.”
I had some great interviews for jobs shuffling paperwork where they stared at my cane the whole time while mumbling about lifting requirements. It was… Great.
What I’m gathering from the article and these comments is that employers in the US will use any excuse to not hire a disabled person.
‘Land of the Free’ guys, and don’t you forget it.
Employers will use anything they possibly can to narrow down the field of candidates before having to actually consider their skills/abilities. Don’t get me started on human resources job application evaluation software. Or the time I watched a couple of guys google a candidate and mock her Facebook.
This is true. God I hate Applicant Tracking Systems so much. I hate them as a user (You must make an account you’ll never use again to apply for this job. Now Upload your CV. Now type out all of the information in your CV into this horrific form.), and I also hate them as someone who has to figure out how to integrate them into websites and get candidates to actually use them (Answer: you cant. You can build a cracking website with amazing UX, but as soon as they click that apply and hit an ATS, they’re gone.)
It’s just so demoralizing. I’ve been long-term unemployed now and rarely rarely even get a “your application has been received” notice. Most jobs just never ever respond to you if you don’t get the job/get in the running. So you jump through hoops trying to out-think this idiotic HR software and guess precisely the right way to sell yourself to HR and it just feels like you’re tossing all of this effort and all of these applications into a black hole.
Basically, it’s Monday, I’m starting to forget what it’s like to even have a job, and I hate everything (but somehow still hate myself most of all).
Ugh I feel your pain. I tried to do the whole graduate scheme route in my final year of Uni, and I just could not go through another stupid system.
Eventually I only got a graduate job because someone actually read my application and then I got a face to face opportunity (I suck on paper, but I can turn on the charm in person)
I’m looking for a new job now, and I’m very lucky to be in a growth area in a big city; and I made a rule of only working with recruiters, fuck all this impersonal online application crap, I want human connections! Somehow a generic rejection from a computer is so much more devastating than a ‘sorry, you’re not the one for us’ from an actual person.
I hope things pick up for you soon; I won’t bother trying to give advice or tell you it gets better, I’m sure you’ve heard it all, I know I have!
How sad is it that the once-in-a-blue-moon moments when we actually get an actual rejection from an actual human feel almost like a victory? The complete lack of any response whatsoever is so demoralizing (and mystifying because you’ll never know WHY you never got a response!) that any sort of human contact is a win.
At my most paranoid, I can never decide if just every app I’ve ever sent in has been accidentally deleted by the computer or if I’m just that useless as an applicant. All the prior good work reviews in the world don’t matter if you never get far enough in the application process for it to matter.
I’m in the same, long-leaking boat. You’re right, you get soooo excited just to have someone recognize you exist. It doesn’t happen often. You’re not useless, they’re rude.
That said, I had a pre-interview for a decent job this week! Not full time, and below my level, and I probably won’t get it, but it was pretty amazing to hear from someone, especially since I had no in, I just applied online! (Not through one of those awful programs though. I’ve decided those aren’t worth my time. Starving in the gutter has more dignity.)
I hope you find something soon. Fingers crossed.
fuuuuuck sending out applications as far as I’m concerned recruiters completely earn their cut of the paycheck just so I don’t have to spend six months draining my savings sending out hundreds upon hundreds of job apps into the void where they will never be heard from again
I once applied for a job with a monstrous application system where not only did you have to do the “upload your CV, now retype your CV” thing, but they had a list of qualities/attributes that you had to select and then explain what your skill level was and how long you’ve had that skill level for. Some of them were typical, like MS Word/other softwares, various certifications, etc. but there was a very abstract section with attributes like “self-awareness.” How long have I been self-aware? That application sent me into an existential tailspin. (I didn’t get the job.)
‘Please explain, with examples, your experience of being self aware’
Yeah no, I can totally believe it.
I really hate the situational judgement tests, especially when they give you a hard question and all the answers could be technically right depending on the organization’s values (‘Tell your boss, we appreciate honesty’ vs ‘Fix it yourself, we like people who can handle their own problems!’). And then when you inevitably get a rejection, they don’t tell you which ones you got wrong! So you just go mad for the next few years wondering which question lost you your dream job. (Sorry, I’m a bit raw from a recent application to the BBC to be a producer.)
It seems like the person who thought that was a sensible question hasn’t yet worked out that self-awareness thing.
I once filled out a 20-page version of one of these online apps and several pages of it were essentially a personality test. It kept asking the same questions over and over with different wording to try and trip up the applicant into admitting that they were not human after all, but one of the lizard people sent to colonize their business or whatever.
I had a bullshit job interview like that, where I had to list specific examples of times that I used “integrity” (and other buzzwords). I couldn’t just say, “Well, I’d like to *think* I use that all the time…”
Self-awareness: My earliest episodic memory is from age 3, so….. 36 years. Definitely.
(WTF???????)
I once applied to be a bank teller (I needed a job to pay the bills!) and they told me I was not qualified because I was “too smart” and my “mind would wander.”
Sooo…what they want is “just smart enough to count pennies, but not smart enough to rob the bank”?
I got chewed out by an HR director because I have 2 degrees but I was applying to be the file room person. I spent the rest of the interview floundering, trying to get her to understand that I need a job and I’m just not getting anything else, but I know I can do this because I was an office assistant in college so please? Yeah, stood outside that interview waiting for my ride in tears, no job.
Same. Recruiter (not even HR with the company in question) basically made me feel so bad for applying for a job for which I was over-qualified that I spent the afternoon in tears because “I [couldn’t] even get an entry-level position, I will never work again.” Lady, I just need A job right now, OK?
“I really think it would be better if you just left the degree off of your resume. If you look too smart, they’ll think you’re needy.”
“What?”
object permanence – 25 yrs experience, expert level
I personally find the driving requirement really weird. Most office jobs do not actually ask you for it at any time, but it’s on the application, and it disqualifies loads of people on basis of their eyesight. (One of my friends is legally blind but not fully blind and constantly has trouble with this!)
Again, I’ve only ever seen it on jobs where it made sense; like regional managers etc, where you would be expected to drive, often in a company car, to different locations.
The other place I’ve seen it, is where the company campus is rural and there will be a ‘own transport’ requirement, but it could easily be a spouse driving you or a similar arrangement, which I imagine many people with disabilities would already have in place.
Maybe its because I live in a huge city, but I haven’t seen a generic ‘must be able to drive’ on a standard office job description ever.
In Seattle I see “must be able to drive” pretty frequently. The other thing is when listings specify “you must have a valid Driver’s License (not state ID).” If you have disabilities that prevent you from driving, you have a state ID, and that rules you out.
*Sigh*
You’re doing wrong America.
I’d guess that means they want you to drive, though. I’ve only seen the valid driver’s license thing in ads where it’s clear you’ll be travelling. And I’ve been looking at a lot of ads.
It’s also possible they’re just using it as a shorthand; to people who have licenses, it’s the norm.
Dunno. In my experience, there’s little correlation with the jobs I think I’m qualified for and the interviews I actually get, few though they be. That’s why they say “apply to everything!” which is why HR nashes their teeth and makes ads more restrictive, so they don’t get eleventybillion applications. It’s….not working.
I remember an interesting segment on Jen Kirkman’s podcast a while back where she talked about being on Jian Ghomeshi’s show (long before all this came out) and him doing weird stuff afterwards, like trying to trick her into a “date” and other things. She says that while obviously it was nothing close to what the other women went through she still found it creepy. Very interesting, and yet more proof (as if we needed it) to always trust our intuition.
ETA: Can’t find the episode, it might not be up any more. Anyway, it was interesting.
Jen Kirkman seems like she would have a well-honed creep-o-meter. I trust her judgment.
I start rage-bubbling with the Ghomeshi case — I’m in Toronto, and almost every woman I know in the creative field either has her own “Ghomeshi as awful person” story or knows one. It’s stomach churning that he’s probably going to get away with the worst of his behavior.
Stomach churning is very much the right descriptor.
TOASTPERSONS. Thanks to an earlier link roundup with that Quartz article about ADHD in women, I got myself evaluated and I’m pursuing treatment and it’s like the world finally, FINALLY makes sense and I can actually sit down and not even think about jiggling my feet while doing it. AND my health insurance considers the whole blessed thing medically necessary (I’m in the US. These things are a crapshoot). ‘Tis a late-winter miracle!
Basically I love you all, and this site, and I’m so happy, so keep up the magnificent Roundup work. That is all.
This is wonderful news, best of luck with treatment.
<3 <3 <3
That’s wonderful news! Good luck on your journey forward.
Congratulations! I am doing the exact same thing due to the exact same article.
YAY! Also if you want to jiggle your feet, do it!
BEYONCÉ NEVER DISAPPOINTS. Every time she puts out something new I react like I’m 9 and it’s Christmas morning.
honestly, i don’t think i felt like i did saturday afternoon at any christmas in my life
You two are ROCKIN’ those rompers. Those things are hard to pull off, but you’re both killin’ it.
I have always been afraid the top half of my romper would end up in the toilet the first time I needed to pee.
I’m REALLY jealous of your ability to rock a romper. I’ve tried on MANY, MANY rompers and they all look absolutely horrendous on me.
My mom was convinced that I could pull off a black strapless romper once (I had no interest, but humored her) and when I put it on I looked like a female East German wrestler. Strike another blow to my self-esteem, please? Why, certainly!
My girlfriend tried on a romper once– we learned right quick that if you have a short torso, rompers look very, very odd. Her entire middle part of her body disappeared.
My sympathies. I’m above average height but my torso is short for my body. Romper are a real shitshow.
See also: pencil skirts. I’d give anything to look like a human woman in a high-waisted pencil skirt. You know, with a waist not located one inch below mah boobs, coupled with the longest long butt from behind. I look like a grandpa who pulls his pants up reeeeeaally high.
Wait, there are people without a waist immediately under their boobs?
My sister and I both have pelvises that start right under where our ribcages end (she has a short torso, I am short all over). I sometimes wonder where my organs go.
I also have a lot of abdominal fat. The whole torso area is not a great one for me.
I’m tall and have a short torso, and I never thought about it, but it’s true–the romper cuts off any sort of shape you might have. On top of that, I carry my extra weight in my stomach, so I looked weird and blob-like.
Hellooo wedgie town.
Crying here. Too funny.
SAME. This weekend, for the first time in my entire life I found a pair of denim overalls that both fit and look cute, and you could have knocked me over with a feather. I’m always so jealous of people who easily look adorable in trendy things, because I definitely cannot.
Hi Toasties, I know it’s not open thread, but open thread is a whole 4 days away, so if I could just share a thing I’m struggling with a bit at the moment, I’d be grateful.
My mom, who I love enormously, has basically no muscles left in her shoulders, for various medical reasons. (She’s almost 70, so older but not OLD.) I’d been hoping that with some strength training and physical therapy she could build up her upper body strength enough to be able to hold my baby, but after consulting with her rheumatologist it doesn’t look like that’s going to be possible. She can hold the baby on her lap for a few minutes, max, and as the baby gets heavier and squirmier, even that might not be possible. It makes me so sad that my mom can’t snuggle her granddaughter the way she wishes she could. :'(
Are there other Toasties out there who have had similar grandparents-with-disabilities issues? How did you establish closeness between grandparents and grandchildren when the grandparent couldn’t do much physical care and cuddling?
Someone else will probably have more experience; but is propping up with cushions an option? We did that with my brothers babies anyway ’cause they are both beasts and your arms get tired after 5 minutes. If we were giving them bottles or just having a cuddle, we’d sit in to the corner of the couch and put big cushions on either side, then put the arm holding the baby’s head (or just the head/shoulders directly) on the cushion, with their bum in your lap. That way your not supporting them with your arm/shoulder at all and you don’t get tired as quickly.
It probably won’t work once baby is rolling, but when they’re still tiny its great!
That is a great suggestion, thank you!!
Is there any baby guru’s around you? Almost every bit of new parent advice I’ve ever seen includes ‘Cushions are your friend, learn to love the cushions’ (I’m paraphrasing), and my mother (self appointed ~baby guru~ in the fam) will launch on anyone sitting with a baby to put cushions all around them.
My brother told me after his first was a few months old he wishes he’d known to get comfy using the cushions, because him and his partner both ended up with wonky backs from holding the baby at stupid angles to keep him ‘comfy’ and take his weight. Apparently the ‘boppy’ breastfeeding cushions are The Best Thing Ever.
With your mom, she could also try lying on the bed (or sufficiently padded floor) with the baby; baby can lie flat out and wriggle to their hearts content, and your mom doesn’t have to take the weight on her bad back. (Insert warning about falling asleep with baby in a bed here, but I’m going to assume you’ve heard it already a million times ;D )
They can lie down or sit side by side with baby propped up. And before you know it, baby will be able to walk over to grandma for hugs and snuggles. The period during which baby has to be physically supported all the time is quite short and they can be just as close and affectionate without grandma physically carrying baby.
My mother has post-polio syndrome and walks with crutches at home and uses a wheelchair out in the world. It was kind of tough until my son was about three because she couldn’t pick him up or carry him anywhere. She couldn’t really be with him alone because she couldn’t guarantee that she could move him in an emergency. However, since three, they have had the greatest relationship and love doing things together — sitting side-by-side doing art, reading books, and so on. It is a bummer about the cuddling, but it will get so much better, and when baby is no longer a baby and a kid instead, your daughter will be able to give grandma big hugs.
I so appreciate this. Thank you.
I wonder if your mom might be able to use a sling or other wearable to snuggle your little one? If she has strength in her torso, this might work? In conjunction with cushions, which I see are also suggested? Just thinking the sling would help with the actual cuddle-up-close part of the operation.
Yes, try a boba or moby wrap if baby is still pretty little (available at target with lots of youtube videos on how to tie them). They are designed so the wearer is hands free but baby’s head is close enough to smooch on. Or, if that still puts too much pressure on the shoulder areas, try one of the wearable breastfeeding pillows like My Brest Friend which straps around the waist and basically brings the kid to you. Or, just have your mom lie on the couch and rest kiddo on her chest, that’s pretty nice too.
I don’t think she has the torso strength for that, unfortunately, but thank you!
Just as a word of reassurance, my mom has disabilities and was never able to be the “active/chasing” parent we think about, so instead we sat in bed together and read thousands of books and she’s my best friend in the world and we are thicker than congealed blood.
Thanks so much, Nicole. I know my mom will *love* couch and bed reading cuddle time once Betsaroo the Younger is old enough for it.
Oh, Nicole, I am an about-to-be momma with a disability and I NEEDED to hear this. Thank you so much.
You’re going to be great.
My dad also has post-polio syndrome and no arm strength at this point in his life. Can’t cut his own food or lift anything heavier than a 6 oz cup full of water. That and some chronic pain issues meant he wasn’t able to hold my kids when they were very young. It made us both very sad because I basically lived in my dad’s lap when I was a kid and even made a few kids cry who tried to tease me about my dad’s wheelchair because I genuinely pitied all the kids who didn’t have 24/7 parental lap transportation at their disposal.
All that to say, there are tons of other ways to bond. While your baby is very little, holding her and sitting next to your mom for stuff like reading books and “you’re so cute! yes you are!” is great. As baby gets older, s/he’ll be able to sit next to Grandma. My kids love playing board games with their grandpa now, and the fact that they move his piece for him is a bonus.
I’m really, really sorry your mom doesn’t get the long baby cuddles she was so hoping for, but there will be lots of ways to bond. I promise.
This made me laugh in re: your making asshole kids cry because you pitied the fool. And thank you so much for these suggestions!
Apparently my mom used to worry about how I would handle the inevitable day when kids would try to tease me about my dad. She has always been very proud that the first time she saw it it happen, I gave such a withering reply that the kid hung his head in shame and cried a little.
Best wishes on the new mom tenderness. It’s a rough and wonderful time all at once. <3
My mother-in-law has both physical limitations and a compromised immune system, so the baby snuggling has been a challenge. Early on, a comfortable seat and a boppy (and a baby who was OK with a bottle) allowed her to feed baby and enjoy short, but quality, bonding time. As the baby has grown, becoming more wiggly and more germ-infested (she’s a year old and attends day care), we’ve tried to maximize time together in “safe” spaces, i.e., not at our house (full of germs) or at their house (to avoid filling it with germs) and nothing too crowded with other germy humans. Most weekends we meet MIL at a park or on campus and stroll together. When she needs to rest, baby can play nearby. On good healthy days, they can sit together to play with a toy or read, although baby’s attention span is still pretty short right now.
I know MIL just wants to scoop her up and hug and coo and hold her all the time (I want that too!), but I am grateful that we have the benefit of her being local and a pretty constant presence in baby’s life. I know they are going to have their own wonderful relationship even though physically they can’t always be close.
That’s lovely, thank you.
Not that I needed more confirmation of this fact, but wow, Toasts are amazing. THANK YOU. This is so reassuring to me in my newish-mom weepiness. You all are the absolute best.
It’s mentioned below and I second the boppy pillow suggestion. They are firm and will hug the baby and you can grip the ends of the cushion.
Don’t rule out slings; there are many different kinds and they can be useful just for sitting down. I’m thinking the ones with a ring that are quite easy to un/fasten.
You didn’t specify whether or not she has any difficulties in regard to walking, so forgive me if this isn’t at all helpful, but I’ve heard a carrier called the HippyChick HipSeat is great for people with back and shoulder problems, so maybe that could help? Also, I’d google “adaptive parenting aids” there’s a fair amount out there for people who are full-time parents living with disabilities. You should be able to find something that could help improve your mom’s grand-parenting experience. At the end of the day, though, she knows and loves her grandchild and that child will know and love her. That’s the most important thing. I’d give anything to have my mom around once I start having kids….
Re: Ted Cruz, I shall repeat my epic poem :
In all of America,
there’s not enough booze
to help me imagine
a President Cruz
This is a masterpiece
What rhymes with lobotomy?
A bottle in front of me.
Best part about the mouse article: what are we going to do with the mouse now? Toss, make part of the exhibit? Only in a museum.
I hope they took pictures to be part of the exhibit.
Yessssssss, the Toast links to Zandria Robinson, who is one of my favorite people and whose research is AMAZING. Her book!
Prince tweeted out a link to her writing on Janelle Monae, y’all. PRINCE.
Ghomeshi! I’ve been reading the liveblogs on the CBC, and I am so mad that whoever prepped Lucy deCoutere (awesome job! she did fantastically, didn’t lose her cool at all, just kept saying that writing nice emails later was trying to normalize a difficult situation and didn’t retroactively give consent, she’s amazing) didn’t prep witness 1.
Also all the news articles about this are pretty gross, except for the very few pointing out how gross the others all are.
Oh, thank you for reading those and sharing the good parts, because i cannot even read them, the headlines/subtitles make me so mad.
I hope #3 and #4 (latter’s case will be heard in June) are well-prepped.
Also: GO LUCY.
I can’t stop reading articles about the Ghomeshi trial and they all make me so angry!! Most of the ones I’ve read are pointing out how the way trials are done for sexual assault is very horrible, but then they end with a general sense that nothing will change.
Also I love how Lucy deCoutere’s lawyer keeps reminding everyone who is actually on trial here.
Ugh… It all makes me sick to my stomach.
Speaking of mice (tangentially) I read Jenny Lawson’s ‘Furiously Happy’ over the weekend and enjoyed it muchly.
my friend recommended it to me and is lending me her copy today, we’re both dealing with depression and anxiety-like symptoms. She said it helped immensely, so we’ll see.
Me again. Today, otherwise loathsome Toronto Life magazine has blessed me with this article on the mansion of even more loathsome former Canadian Conrad Black, now up for sale. (Actually, for auction, because god forbid Conrad Black sell his house like a normal person.)
Highlights include a chapel which was consecrated by not one but two cardinals and FIFTEEN bathrooms. Fifteen. He could use a different bathroom every day for 2 weeks. He has almost as many bathrooms as I have lipsticks. What.
I have to admit I am digging the wall paintings in the dining room and that library is *kisses bunched-up fingertips*
You need to pose as a rich person and go do a tour!
Toastie Toronto meetup: pose as a Daughters of the Daughters of the Daughters of the American Revolution group, tour the house, pretend we plan to convert it into a home for children whose inheritances are destroyed in the inevitable oil-sands collapse.
I think I need to share a picture of my darling cat, Lord Conrad Blackcat, in the next thread over now.
He had to have a back-up cardinal. Looks like a nifty little room to hold your Samhain service.
BARBARA AMIEL’S EN SUITE BATHROOM HAS A COMPUTER IN IT
I want to buy it for like a dollar and then turn it into a shelter for LGTBQ homeless teens, I feel like Black would hate that.
Thank you for reading Toronto Life and sharing the non-loathsome parts so I don’t have to wade through it myself!
I was looking at that library and thingking “I might actually have trouble filling this library if I owned this house” and then I remembered that I would have the sort of money to buy that house in that case so problem solved.
Bim is back on twitter today. 🙂
Ta-Nehisi Coates is so good. This is a great response to an interesting (though way too long) critique in Jacobin Magazine of Coates’ critiques of Sanders and reparations, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/…
It’s also a distillation of why I find substantively Sanders focus on class and the power of the wealthy to the exclusion of all else frustrating, though I do think it has merits politically.
I really liked this. The focus on class is also my main issue with Sanders.
This storify also clarified a lot for me: https://storify.com/docrocktex26/when-racism-gets…
Wow, that was excellent. Thank you.
YES! He is an old school seventies socialist, and those guys weren’t intersectional then and aren’t intersectional now. I basically dropped out of lefty organizing at my uni because of the number of white men who would say with a totally straight face that really the root of racism/sexism/homophobia was capitalism so fixing that had to be project #1.
I get the theory behind it and it makes sense as its own self-contained internally-consistent model of political forces, but on the other hand a good number of (inasmuch as Sanders could ever make America in the best case) socialist countries exist and the bulk of them are racist as hell in ways that’d appall Americans which IMO should make for some more substantive and nuanced response from the political literati arguing for economic leveling as the balm to all ills. But nope I guess only safely hypothetical perfect-sphere-on-a-frictionless-surface socialism is ‘real’ socialism worthy of acknowledgement
Socialism and Race: “Never let reality get in the way of a good theory.”
Just FYI re: the employer in Texas who won’t hire disabled people …
The Texas governor is paraplegic. Yep. He uses a wheelchair that is never in the picture. If you look closely in a photo, you can maybe see the push handles at his back.
Just sayin’ …
Yes, he’s in a wheelchair. He’s also a huge ass who is more than willing to block ADA lawsuits from effecting the state: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines…
The article is from when he was the Texas AG, but his beliefs are well known in the state.
My mantra: one’s disability or lack thereof has no bearing on whether or not you are a terrible person
Yeah he’s an asshole who has explicitly said that as governor he’d happily block the ADA legislation that allowed his younger self to get an education.
The really wild thing is that Texas is really pretty aggressive about enforcing ada for new construction- the state accessibility code matches ada (and at some point was certified by the federal ada folks as meeting federal standards) and is enforced by inspection, which is not the case in some other states where it’s lawsuit or nothing.
Of course, this is probably so Texas could have its own laws instead of complying with those dirty feds…and non- building stuff, on the other hand…
spinner rims on his wheelchair with gold lettering spelling out
FUCK YOU
GOT MINE
This is a great summary of how Greg Abbott was made whole by the law, then systematically destroyed that system in order to curry favor with insurance companies. His settlement was for approximately 7 million bucks plus an annual lump sum for the rest of his life. I am told by my friends who are plaintiff’s attorneys that it would be nearly impossible today for a person in the same situation to get anywhere near as good of a settlement, facts being the same.
He’s a terrible human being. He has zero empathy for people who have also suffered. Tort “reform” and the later loser pays laws have decimated the systems in place for the injured to be made whole after being harmed by the actions and negligence of others.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/04/candidate-… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/greg-abbo…
Not link roundup related, but for anyone who is interested and missed the discussion on the open thread, there is a new Bay Area Toasties facebook group! If you’re in the bay area and interested in meeting up, please join in!
Nice! I tried to cut and paste a link on Friday but it didn’t work. Would love to know what you’re all up to, even though I drifted north a bit.
I don’t think I’ve seen this anywhere else on Ye Olde Toast, but apologies if it’s a repost. It’s just the best thing I’ve ever read.
“Missing cat found in Nottinghamshire pet food warehouse” – http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshir…
I am just so happy for that cat.
He’s so very fuzzy. And everyone in that story seems so nice! I wish there were footage from when the cat food warehouse workers first figured out there was a cat. “Hey Ed- you know the imaginary cat Tedd says he can see? Well…”
HIS FACE. hahahahahaha
I hope I have good enough karma to come back as this cat.
I need an add-on or a script so that every time Ted Cruz is mentioned, the text of his name is replaced with this:
I CANNOT with the dance battle between Beyonce and Bruno Mars from the halftime show. I JUST CANNOT. TOO MUCH.
That Jodie Foster gifset has been doing the rounds on tumblr, and I find it kind of . . . sad? I mean obviously she couldn’t say “I don’t want a boyfriend, I’m gay” so she had to just sit there squirming while the interviewer quizzed her about the boys she would obviously end up dating, because what else would she do, right? It’s not like she would want to date girls, right? That would be RIDICULOUS.
I agree. And yet, that lip-lick. It speaks worlds.
It is so fascinating to see such Jodie Fostery expressions on tiny baby face.
Guys, I was presented with a challenging professional opportunity this morning and I thought, truly, “What would Beyoncé do in this situation?” And then I realized that Beyoncé would embrace this challenge and then MURDER IT, while dancing, in high heels. So that’s what I’m trying to do now.
WORK
(I was just thinking about Farscape this morning so your username feels very appropriate)
Holy god we praise thy name, that fucking disability thing. It left me wondering whether I could get a job with a “hearing” requirement, since I’m deaf in one ear. Is that “hearing” enough? Does it matter that it’s affected by the amount of background noise and/or the physical placement of a person that I’m talking to relative to my good ear? Is this what it’s like to “pass”?
Oh yeah, I had the same feelings. I have a minor disability and I’m in a field that requires some manual labor so it’s tricky. Basically every job lists “the ability to lift xx pounds” as a requirement. Ok, lift it how high? Lift if off the ground? Fine. Lift it onto a table? Still okay. Lift it to a shoulder-height shelf? Nope, past my limit. If I was completely honest with hiring committees I probably would be able to work in my field so I cross my fingers and hope to “pass” as able-bodied. It’s worked so far.
My shoulders don’t always work right so above my shoulders is iffy sometimes. Should I have mentioned that when I applied for my job? It’s ridiculous. I had to do a physical when I was hired as a receptionist at an agricultural machinery company. Obviously many of their jobs had physical requirements- the service guys all drove out to very remote places to work on the machines. We had a warehouse. We had a welding shop (I loved visiting the welding shop.) I answered phones, filed (classic “light filing”), typed things into the computer, and printed out user manuals. It was ridiculous! I had to certify that I could lift 40 pounds. That said- when the mobility-limited man was hired as an accountant they did waive a bunch of things and one of the welders was mostly deaf (and in denial about it which got kind of silly.) How is an applicant supposed to know which of those are actually waive-able unless someone takes the time to realize they aren’t actually part of the job requirements, it’s just boilerplate left over from the last position the advertised.
“Lol Queen Elizabeth put lead makeup on her face so dumb”
“Wait why would leaded gasoline and lead-based paint be a problem, over-regulation is so dumb”
These statements exist in the same cultural context, and I don’t understand.
That Ted Cruz article brought me so much joy. In college, I knew a guy who is the non-politician version of ol’ Teddy and now that I’ve made the connection, I can’t think about anything else. My college acquaintance is an absolute trash can of a person and if I can prevent one woman from dating/knowing him I can die in peace. He’s probably exactly the kind of person who would run for office someday. :/
Ugh, Ghomeshi. I am raging so hard at everything coming out of that trial. What a scumbag! And I know his lawyer is just doing her job, but I have a hard time respecting people who make a living retraumatizing sexual assault victims.
My brother-in-law actually sent me a link to a profile on Marie Heinein (Ghomeshi’s lawyer) and I was sure he was just trying to get a rise out of her, but no, it turns out he “admires her and would work for her in a heartbeat if she called.” Luckily for him he has three adorable daughters who make it much harder for me to disown him.
Uggghhh, yeah, I have such complicated feelings about Marie Henein.
I haaaaaaate the fact that she’s lauded as a role model for her status as a successful woman lawyer. Don’t people see that she’s just winning the same old boys’ game?
Just a quick “GREAT LINKS NICOLE!” (as usual, I might add) and can’t wait to dive into that Sheridan piece.
Re: the mouse trap… found a mouse in our travel trailer, Mr.PonyAlong wanted to kill it, I opted for a live trap and long story short, I caught our wee visitor using one piece of dog kibble and IT WAS SOOOO CUTE. Cuteness, however, does not excuse feces and urine and with a “Farewell, My Mouse, And God’s Speed” I freed her into the tall grass far, far away from my home away from home.
There’s a single mouse in my house and I am SO conflicted about it. I have pet rats! I feel so bad killing a little rodent friend! But anyway, I can’t set snap traps because they would be dangerous for the rats, so we’ve been trying to coax him into a live trap with no sucess. He’s wily and apparently very brave, since I’ve witnessed him stealing food out of the rat’s dish. The same rats that will pull a full WWE match over a single piece of kibble seem to have no problem with their tiny visitor stealing their food at will, the lazy beasts.
Maybe they think the mouse is a very young rat, and they’re indulging its childish habits?
I think this is genuinely the best I have ever seen people (discounting infants and toddlers) look in rompers.
Tickets to Hamilton with backstage access or Tickets to Beyonce, no backstage access. You can only choose one. Obviously I threw in the access to make it less of a Bey-slide.
Hamiltickets, duh. The original cast won’t be together much longer, and Beyoncé is her own original cast, so I can cop tickets for a later tour and be just as happy.
Hamiltickets obv. Harder to get and more expensive (I saw Bey last year and it was $80+ for the seat in the verrrry last row of the stadium but she was AMAZING and I had so much fun)
Hamilton for me.
I hate to give Roosh any more attention than he’s already got, but this article is so on-the-nose and full of funny details that I thought it was worth sharing.
“An Exclusive Tour of Roosh V’s Mom’s Basement” (it’s satire):
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/an-exclusi…
I posted a pic of Bey with her fierce dancers and the PERFECTION on facebook, and just looking at that photo with all the strength makes me cry. I just, I can’t with it. I love it with all my fibers. Like, what an ambush at the most commercial/corporate, Middle America event, to be Southern Black Femme. I die. AND GET AWAY WITH IT. It’s just perfection. MY SOUL. MY SOUL BELONGS TO BEYONCE.
And then, a future in law (who is from an all-white monoculture) had to comment, “I was just thinking the exact opposite. Must be generational!” And I didn’t wait two seconds before I clicked that little x “Delete Comment.” I don’t want that shit on my wall. I don’t want my friends who were enjoying their moment of the FIERCEST representation on the biggest TV spectacle of the year to suffer that shit. I didn’t feel like pointing out that it’s not generational, because other people–including white ladies–her age love it–my parents and octogenarian grandma love it (my grandmother can’t stand the music, but loves the message). It’s just racist and I don’t want that fight. I didn’t want to hear “not the time and place for politics.” I didn’t want to get into it. I didn’t want my beautiful picture of Beyonce polluted with Explaining Racism to Fox News Viewers. I don’t want to to go down the road of explaining why it was important to delete, why I don’t have to give equal space to all voices.
And now I’m hating that one little comment–one that someone probably didn’t give much thought to–is getting to me & interfering with my Queen Bey worship. I was in this wonderful Bey Bubble and fucking white supremacy (this time, in terms of white comfort) had to burst it in MINUTES. Gonna go watch Formation again to get in the spirit.
I always remember a Christopher Pike book which mentioned how you should always draw animals/plants/humans if asked to draw 'anything' and say you see them in a Rorschach test; or else you could be diagnosed a psychopath. (Although it was a book about a teenage boy who got possessed by Himmler, iirc, so there's the tiny chance it's insights weren't entirely valid.)
Thanks so much for posting this!