“Your nap needs are meaningless to me, the dog. EMBRACE ME.”
I am so so excited about Nikki’s brilliant adoption series for Catapult, which she talks about here and please IMMEDIATELY go read her introductory piece, which radiates the warmth and generosity of spirit and keen insight that has made her one of my best friends (we have never met, but she’s coming out here this spring!):
This is SO much fun:
In 1945, Ebony was founded by John H. Johnson as the go-to lifestyle magazine for black people, and it remains an important resource and asset for black culture. Before other mainstream magazines included people of color in their featured advertisements, ads for brands like Gillette, Lucky Strike, Sears, Revlon, and Avon were featured exclusively in Ebony—with black models. The publication was also where black people could find ads for products made specifically for them, from hair products like Ultra Sheen to makeup lines like Fashion Fair.
We flipped through vintage Ebony magazines from four decades (1949, 1962, 1974, 1977, and 1984) and took note of the hair through the years (voluminous curls, big Afros, clip-on wigs and Jheri curls) and the shift from promoting bleaching creams and straight hair to representing a host of skin tones and hair textures.
Venus wrote about returning to Indian Wells but mostly about sisterhood:
I remember the hurt I felt. I remember my confusion and disappointment and anger. I remember how the coverage of it at the time didn’t seem concerned with me and Serena, as people, at all — but rather only with the story itself. And with the version of the story that would get the most attention, regardless of the truth. I remember feeling that I had been wronged, and that I had done nothing wrong. I remember feeling that I had unfairly gotten the brunt of the blame for a bad situation.
The callous nimrod behind this nonsense has resigned:
Earlier this year, the CEO-president of Mount St. Mary’s University, a venerable Catholic institution in Maryland, faced resistance from the faculty over his plan to push the vulnerable students out of the school. The president, Simon Newman, wanted to juke the stats and boost the school’s reputation by getting rid of the weakest students early, before they could be counted. When faculty rebelled, according to the student paper, Newman told professors they had to get past their qualms, saying, “This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t. You just have to drown the bunnies . . . put a Glock to their heads.” After the report, the advisor of the student paper was fired, along with another faculty member, forviolating loyalty clauses in their contracts (he’s since reinstated them as an act of Catholic mercy).
This Erin Andrews NONSENSE:
ESPN declined to comment on Andrews’s testimony, to both Entertainment Tonight and Deadspin. But the network comes off as unsympathetic, at the very least, to an employee dealing with an extremely upsetting, ongoing situation, as well as unwilling to grant her the benefit of the doubt.
On Monday, Andrews told the Nashville courtroom that she was deeply pained by notions that she had orchestrated the video. “That ripped me apart,” she told jurors in Davidson County Circuit Court (via NBC News). “I’m so angry. This could have been stopped.”
Friend of The Toast Silvia Killingsworth is taking over The Awl and will be helping to midwife The Hairpin back into full swing!
SPEAKING of physically attractive Friends of The Toast, of which there are many on this list, Jazmineeeee:
040 JAZMINE HUGHES
editor at the New York Times MagazineHughes first came on our radar a few years ago as a reliably smart and
funny Twitter presence whose writing we found engaging, thought-provoking, and
often hilarious. Before long, Hughes was an assistant editor at
the Hairpin, where it seemed like just about everything she wrote was immensely,
deservedly popular; a blink of an eye later, and she was off to the New York
Times Magazine,
where she’s making her mark writing about Danny Devito among other important things.
Beyond the fact that Hughes is doing great for herself at a
really young age (like, really young), she’s also a huge advocate to other young writers,
and is co-founder of Writers of Color, a group that makes it impossible for
editors to say they don’t hire writers of color because they
“don’t know where to find them.”
okay okay we have a LOT of cherished friends, I admit it, and Jacqui Shine is one of them and this would be amazing even if she was an ENEMY of The Toast, read the whole thing and marvel:
“Building a Disney theme park based on American history seemed like a natural extension of the company’s focus on children and education, a perfect way of marrying our self-interest with a broader public interest,” writes Eisner.
But while Pocahontas might have represented the reinvigoration of the animation unit, no such renaissance awaited company’s Parks and Resorts division. Disney’s America would be one of Disney’s worst ideas and most public failures, a footnote in the company’s official history, one that has been largely forgotten.
Super Tuesday happened and I’m just gonna lie down under my desk and pretend that this isn’t my country and Drumpf is not going to be the Republican presidential candidate.
Please feel free to join me
I have found that installing that Last Week Tonight Chrome extension that changes his name to Drumpf has actually helped my mental stability. Slightly.
*siiiiiiggggghhhhhhh*
Legit forgot I had installed it at home, right. And then my WHOLE twitter was full of the name “Drumpf” and I was like, MAN, is everyone picking up on calling him that? Even news sites????
… no. No, Amy. You installed an extension that is doing that.
That also happened to me. “Man, even the Washington Post is picking up on this! So strange that they would compromise journalistic-oh, right.”
I had a similar experience with Jailbreak the Patriarchy. The best part? I realized it well after I’d installed it, but had been using Firefox for the most part, and then gave up on that browser and went back to Chrome; the first article I read was on Tilda Swinton. What are the odds?
That extension has definitely made today much easier for me!
I had a dream last night that I was in a debate with Drumpf, and I eviscerated him, and was declared winner of the debate even though in my dream I wasn’t even running for president. So I basically spent all night rage-yelling, which has exhausted me and I think means I need to give myself a break from this miserable election. Ughhhhhhhhhh.
I think I’m going to go make a pot of coffee and drink the whole thing and see if that helps.
I think this is a recurring dream among liberals right now–two people on my feed had similar ones!
Donald Drumpf: Literally destroying our dreams.
I had a Drumpf dream too! I dreamed that the only way he had gotten to this point was that a genie had granted him a wish and he’d wished to be President without actually having to do any real work, and then I woke up and was like “that is actually the most reasonable narrative of this election so far, I am now pretty sure this is true.”
And suddenly . . . everything makes sense.
Yeah but we really need that ironic comeuppance that genies always provide to happen soon.
Incredibly disappointing. No dem results can make me happy in the face of Trump =(
My parents are voting for him because they like his racist rhetoric (yes, they ACTUALLY SAID THAT) so I’ve been under that desk since last Fall. I’m honestly a little terrified of election day.
I’m so sorry. That sucks.
I got in a huge fight with my dad yesterday morning after he revealed that he thinks Drumpf is a good candidate and would be a great president (and we didn’t even touch the racist stuff). You have all my sympathies. I was kind of sad all day yesterday, I can’t even imagine putting up with that since last Fall.
I can only offer you this, as it brought me some comfort yesterday (though not actually applicable to my own situation): My Deepest Sympathies on the Loss of Your Father to Donald Trump, from McSweeney
Hahaha thank you that does offer some small comfort that I’m not alone in this nightmare.
Oh no 🙁 *hugs*
I’m really sorry about that. 🙁
A Republic coworker posited the other day that a Trump nomination would bring Republicans and Democrats together because reasonable conservatives won’t vote for him and everyone will unite around the Democratic candidate. I think it will be much messier and more horrifying than that but, honestly, even if that theory were right, I’m pretty upset by the fact that so many people are willing to vote for a candidate who has no policy platform other than racism, misogyny, and advocacy of war crimes.
Hahaha. Fuck no it won’t. Trump will win the nom, and the big conservative orgs will come around, find some issue with Bernie or Hillary that “really matters more than Donald’s issues”, and then boom, you’ve got establishment support for Donald fucking Trump.
I don’t doubt that large portions of the Republican establishment will magically come around if Trump is the nominee, but a lot of the voting in this election seems to be about not giving a shit what their party establishment thinks or wants from them, so I’m not sure if that will result in actual votes.
I don’t think the people already voting for him will be swayed, but I think conservative establishment media will come around, and then the “good” “moderate” “reasonable” Republicans will dig deep and find it in their hearts to support him.
Colorado didn’t caucus so their delegates would be free. Apparently after the first round of voting, all delegates can vote as they choose (correct me if I’m wrong). We may get a floor fight at the convention if enough of the old guard get together. But I have no faith that the Republicans either a) are appalled enough or b) have the ability to make it happen.
Trump did lose 4 states last night, though, if you include CO — and it’s all about the delegates, so yeah, he did. And do we really believe that just because he won VT he’d win the vote there? I can’t get too depressed, because let’s face it, the alternatives — Cruz or Rubio — are in reality no better. Now THAT’S depressing.
The problem is that Trump’s supporters aren’t really attached to any party: http://nytimes.com/2015/12/31/upshot/donald-trump…
Anecdotally I think that article is spot on. I did a few weekends of canvassing earlier in the year and I talked to a lot of people who weren’t sure if they would vote for a Democrat or for Trump, or people who don’t usually vote but they like this Trump guy.
There are actual voters who voted for Obama and are considering Trump? I cannot believe this voter pool exists.
I was unintentionally kind of obnoxious at a Super Bowl party because a guy who I don’t know that well was talking about how he liked Obama a lot, and then about Trump. I thought he was kidding about Trump so I made some wisecracks (no one else in the room was a Trump supporter) and he got kind of mad!
I think the number of people who are going to do that are small, but it was so weird.
I just am so curious about how their brains make decisions
Honestly, I think “Hey, this guy is famous and I have heard of him before” is about 90% of it.
For a certain percentage of people, voting is more about name-recognition than anything that candidates actually say or do. (Or just novelty-seeking, like the comment below suggests).
I can only guess, but I think some people who aren’t very up to date with politics, or just don’t care, will only vote if someone exciting is on the ballot. So it doesn’t really matter that Obama and Trump stand for diametrically opposed ideas– people like being part of the wave, seeing an interesting new person.
This sadly makes sense.
Republicans will not vote for Hillary in significant numbers, they’ve spent too many years vilifying here and there is so much hate there.
man I got a lot of anxieties about the respective turnout levels among Republicans and Democrats. I am hoping…like REALLLLLYYYY HOPING….that it just means there’s a lot of Democrats who don’t really care whether Clinton or Sanders is the nominee, so didn’t bother to come out (especially in Caucus states and frankly I think I wouldn’t blame them for that).
But. Ugh, oh man.
I also know several people who are voting strategically in open primaries, either anyone-but-Trump or for-Trump as a beatable candidate, so I don’t know that it’s a viable or unified strategy, but might also be an influence on respective turn outs? Also, because I find statistical things somewhat soothing, I’ve been reading fivethirtyeight, and in particular this: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dont-assume-c… I think the contentious republican primary really doesn’t bode well for them, even if it is driving up participation right now.
yeah, I mean, the really high turnout numbers for Republicans might be driven by competitive, mutually-exclusive voters — large swaths of them certainly might not come out for the general if the guy they don’t like gets the nomination. But I am still real anxious in a way I haven’t been about an election in virtually forever.
My husband did that yesterday – voted in the Republican primary (because in Texas you have to choose) just so he could vote “anyone but Trump”. I have heard from other Democrats who did the same.
Whereas a few of our Republican friends thought about voting on the Dem side yesterday. Mind you, these are the same people who put Cruz in office to start with & fully support him.
Fervent Cruz supporters, in Texas, gathering round their known Democrat friends to bemoan this whole Trump thing. I thought the band parent meeting last night would never get started thanks to all the hair-pulling we were doing.
I did it. Kinda feel like I threw my vote away now, but it was the best I could think to do.
Someone I know did that too, mostly to vote against certain Tea Party people in the lower ballot races. She left President blank.
A bunch of my friends and I were discussing this on FB prior to voting. In the end we decided not to do this because there were some meaningful choices to make down-ballot in the Democratic primary. Plus Cruz was a shoo-in anyway on the Repub side.
I live in a Republican state, and a lot of us non-Republicans regularly vote in Republican primaries to try to get the more centrist, non-crazy Republicans elected. It’s going to be a Republican either way, so we try to get the better ones. This was the first time I’ve ever actually voted in a Democrat primary.
That’s really interesting and makes a lot of sense.
I was thinking about voting Republican because my state has open primaries. But then, I just could not bring myself to vote for ANY of the republican candidates. I mean, yes Drumpf is absolutely horrible, but are any of the Republican alternatives better? Cruz wants to “carpet bomb” in the Middle East. … If ANY of the Republican candidates becomes the nominee, and *heaven forbid* wins the Presidency, I don’t think I could live with myself for having voted for one of them in the primary D:
Also, I once voted in the Michigan gubernatorial Republican primary for Rick Snyder because he was the most “moderate” of the Republican candidates – and look how that turned out.
I just registered as a Republican in California even though it literally made me nauseated so I can vote in the primary.
There’s no evidence that primary turnout is at all correlated with general election turnout. In 1988 more Dems turned out in the primary, Dukakis still lost. In 2000, more Republicans turned out for the primary, but Gore won the popular vote.
Okay that is some good news. I was saying earlier that I think that the high R turnout is related to mutually-exclusive groups of voters having strong candidates to fight over, which seems plausible to me at least, but yeesh this whole race is getting down on my last nerve.
I got it from this article by Jamelle Bouie. I finally remembered where I read that, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/p…
Bouie has been fantastic this year (and in the past, but it feels like he’s stepped it up in 2016). He’s been writing great articles and engaging on Twitter, and it’s been consistently interesting and edifying. It feels like he’s going to be writing for the NYT or the Atlantic or somewhere like that soon.
strongly agree. I’ve been reading him since his time at American Prospect. Between Mallory and Jamelle, I read a lot more Slate than I ever used to.
Right?! For a media company that I regularly make fun of (#slatepitch), I am reading a shocking amount of their stuff.
I also really love Dahlia Lithwick I just avoid the comments on that site like the plague!
I have been reading practically everything he writes since he started at Slate. I think you’re right, he’s getting better and better. I hate that he has to constantly deal with racist trolls. His analysis is invaluable.
Yeah, it fucking sucks that the reality of being a black commenter is that blowback. It’s a waste of his time and energy to have to do that (hey Twitter, fix your bullshit already).
Yep. Plus, I like his recipes.
Oh man, I completely forgot to mention his newsletter. It is excellent!
I really do think that trying to compare Democratic primary turnout to 2008’s levels in trying to take the temperature of the Democratic electorate is flawed. 2008 was a huge backlash year against Bush and the Republican party, especially on the back of the financial system’s complete and utter collapse. As Drumpf is demonstrating, rage against the machine is a powerful voting motivator.
Not only that, but the Democratic field is smaller and – in some ways at least – less ideologically diverse than it was in 2008, and I agree with you that a lot of people are either not coming out to the primaries, or voting on the Republican side to try and stop Drumpf, because they’re fine with having either Hillary or Bernie in the general election.
I find it hard to take solace in those notions, though, because the Republican side of this shit-show is seriously heartbreaking and terrifying. I was raised to believe our country was better than this.
I didn’t vote in the primary – I have a preference but will vote for either Democrat in the general election. I honestly just don’t even know what state I am part of anymore … my home of record is Illinois, I have an Iowa drivers license, half my mail goes to Texas, and I live in South Carolina. As soon as I move to Georgia, I am registering for that state, though!
I just. I cannot. I am so. We’ve been Drumpfed.
Also, the delegate counts are confusing me, because both dems have so many more than any of the GOPers. I’m very curious about the popular numbers. Like, how many actual votes is Hillary or Bernie getting compared to Drumpf? This could very likely put me at ease or send me off a cliff.
Delegates represent a share of the vote, not the number of people who turn out. Candidates in each party are competing for a fixed number of delegates. The Democratic convention just has more seats for delegates.
Apparently 5.6 million Democrats and 8.3 million Republicans voted yesterday, but that doesn’t mean much because a lot of the Super Tuesday states lean Republican anyway. And besides, primary turnout is always a fraction of November turnout.
I made an all-Radiohead playlist for this election, so, yep, fantastic outlook on the future right here.
Gonna be screaming along with Thom Yorke soon: “You have not been PAYING ATTENTION, PAYING ATTENTION, PAYING A-TTEN-TION!” All the lyrics from 2+2=5 work really: http://genius.com/Radiohead-2-2-5-the-lukewarm-ly…
And wow, here’s info from Genius:
Its title references the slogan two plus two equals five from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The song’s subtitle was taken from Dante’s Inferno; Yorke explained that, according to Dante, the lukewarm are…
The people who don’t give a fuck … The lukewarm are on the edge of the Inferno, cruising around near the gates but they can’t actually get out. They’re like, ‘What are we doing here? We didn’t do anything at all.’ And in Dante’s eyes it’s, ‘That’s exactly why you’re here. You did fuck all. You just let it happen.’”
I am kind of getting weirdly optimistic about this Donald Trump situation. BEAR WITH ME. I think he’s a symptom of the utter failure of the Republican party’s “Small government, big wars” platform, and that’s a damn good thing. And I kind of still think he won’t win the general, but he will win the nomination and take the Republican party down in a big ball of flames?
I would probably feel differently if there were a reasonable Republican alternative, but I really don’t like Ted Cruz, y’all. Or maybe this optimism is the political version of taking off all your clothes when you’re dying of hypothermia, and my brain is really in its death throes? I guess I’m just having a lot of feelings this morning.
Me too. It shows that a lot of people who vote Republican actually don’t care bout a lot of that “small government” and “conservative principles” crap and were voting based on something else… which is probably dog whistles and “social values,” which is also not good, but at least it means from now on political analysts can’t pretend to believe large numbers of people want small government and policies that vastly favor the wealthy as a matter of principles. And things can get shook up.
But this election is still scary, of course. Lots of flashbacks to the rise of Mussolini, even beyond the direct Mussolini-quoting.
Yeah, exactly. I am scared of the heaping serving of racism and nativism that comes with this mess, but there is also a legitimate grievance with what the Republicans have offered up as far as philosophy and principle so far. I mean, Trump is basically promising that the government (specifically him in the executive branch!) will fix … everything. People are not voting as small-government ideologues. Nevermind that he can’t legally do 99% of what he’s blathering about, the electorate is off the standard script here, and things could get very weird.
at least it means from now on political analysts can’t pretend to believe
Hahaha, that’s the best one I’ve heard in a while. 😛
I think there is hope for the implosion of the GOP.
Still, I think that Drumpf does more harm than good. He’s not just tapping into the anger of some voters who are sick of the system. He’s tapping into the violent anger of racism. There’s video of a young black woman being shoved and screamed at by the crowd at one of his rallies. Three Muslim boys from Sudan were shot execution-style. Latinx immigrants are being attacked by his supporters. He is legitimizing racism and I am really, really concerned about the violence that will result.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be Eeyore. I just don’t think the upside is going to be worth it.
No, this is an entirely non-Eeyore take, and you are probably a lot more right than I am. I don’t think you can separate the anger of supporters at the system from their racism, and that is the terrifying thing about all this.
That video of the confirmed white supremacists beating up a teen aged black girl at a Trump rally should be above the fold news–I don’t care about delegates and states when the health and safety of minors is being pummeled by the guy winning those delegates and states. But I went searching for reports about the Trump violence this morning, and all of it is just buried. The racist violence he’s incited has been horrific, even going back to the dummies in Boston who beat up a homeless man for “appearing Hispanic” last year. I feel paralyzed about it.
Oh man oh man oh man. I just found out that my coworker “Loves that guy.” (Meaning Trump.) When I called out how racist he is and how I’m afraid people will literally be killed because of him, he was like, “Well, I don’t think people are actually going to be beaten in the street.”
As I pulled up the article of the homeless man who was beaten, my coworker scoffed, “Where? In Texas, in Arizona?” as if it would be a reasonable response in a state with a lot of undocumented workers.
When he read the article, he was like, “Well, was this guy illegal?” as if being undocumented justifies being beaten. My anxiety is reaching a new high.
It’s a risk, but I do think it could ultimately be good for the country.
https://newrepublic.com/article/130962/donald-tru…
+1 and thanks for posting this.
I’ve only just really started to find out how the US’s weird-ass nomination system works. Is it right that if Trump doesn’t get quite enough delegates in the first round of voting at the convention, the delegates are then free to switch sides in the second round, regardless of how the states voted? Seems like that there would be a last-minute back door for the party establishment to take back control of their nomination.
(Of course knowing Trump he’ll probably run for president anyway as a third party if that happens.)
Yup, that is true. However, it’s looking more and more unlikely that he won’t have enough delegates. So barring the GOP pulling some weird rule shenanigans at the convention, we’re likely stuck with him
Yes, it’s called a brokered convention and used to happen a lot, but it hasn’t happened in decades. It *technically* is possible, but it won’t happen. Every couple elections, people talk about how maybe there will be floor fight for the nomination (there were talks about it for the Dem 2008 convention) and it never happens. There are many reasons (one is that with media the way it is now, voters in later primaries tend to jump on the front runners bandwagon) but it’s mostly because conventions are heavily scripted “for the good of the party.”
This is true. Republicans can potentially take the nomination away from Trump at the convention if he wins the primaries. However, this sort of thing hasn’t happened in a very long time. But the Republican Party does in fact hate Trump (like a lot), so we’ll see.
Minnesota had huge turnout and in my precinct caucus we all approved resolutions to improve mass transit, institute truth & reconciliation commissions, and invest in sustainable energy, so it was a pretty pleasant evening for all the parts when I didn’t have the radio on.
uuuugggghhhh I was thinking last night about how six months ago I was optimistically telling myself “it’s SO LONG til the election, Trump will surely crash and burn before then.” It’s still a long time and now I’m just like…wow, eight more months of violent rallies and racist garbage-spewing, yikes. And the feeling of “someone should really do something about him” but wtf can one do? Even the folks with the power to hold him back haven’t exactly been effective. UuuuUUUuuugh.
I still don’t really truly think he’ll become President but I’m running very low on justification for that.
Just this morning I felt oddly nostalgic for the time over the summer when I felt Sad About The Way This Country Is Going because the election would definitely be between (another) Bush and (another) Clinton.
HAHAHAHA, self. Don’t you wish?
I had a similar moment this morning when reminiscing about a not-so-distant time when Boehner was the sleaziest sleazeball with the worst tan on the national political stage.
Those were the days…
Isn’t it lovely to know that it can Always Get Worse?
I know. I found myself saying something nice about Boehner last night. Dogs and cats living together!
Oh my god, yes. It was a simpler time.
This country has definitely taken a real dark Vanilla Sky-esque turn.
I’m feeling similarly but did feel better when I read that the Koch brothers and other big-shot republican money people don’t intend to support him. Their money/power definitely counts for a lot in election seasons.
I’m a little aghast from reading a FB friend of a real life friend’s comments about how Trump and his supporters are being “unfairly maligned” as racists and I’m deeply worried about how so many people in this country are so ridiculously blind arrrrgggggghh 🙁 🙁 🙁
I am going through this as well. With family members (older aunt, cousins). UGH. It makes me so angry. Plus, said cousins are already straight up racists, and we’ve clashed over that before.
I am in so much denial about this election that I didn’t even realize that Super Tuesday was this week.
My only consolation right now is that my grandma who has voted Republican her whole life for the first time voted Democrat in this primary because she said she in no way could support someone like Trump. I have been hanging on to that tiny piece of comfort for my dear life throughout this election.
My grandmother is firmly on the Hillary wagon (lifelong Republican, although that’s been shifting ever since Dubya) and my whole Republican branch of the family seems genuinely willing to jump ship. But then again, they are mostly thoughtful principled people and not vile hate mongering racists.
Same here! I feel for those whose Republican relatives are actually supporting some of the candidates in this nightmare of a primary. Some of my brother’s inlaws like Trump – I feel so bad for him.
Recently I’m scared about Trump bc if he continued on in his current vein I still don’t think he’d win the general – but watch, after he wins the Repub nomination I can just SEE him sprinting back towards moderate, because let’s be real, he doesn’t give a shit about actual policy or ideology and he’s already changed his mind 5000 times. And this might be my own biases, but I tend to picture the mythical swing voter as perennially “dissatisfied” with party establishment options and I could ABSOLUTELY see them getting behind him. Ugh. I hope I’m being pessimistic here but I honestly can’t tell.
I think he’s absolutely going to sprint to the middle. I’m hoping that all the media coverage he’s gotten will work against him at that point, since so many people have heard him say so many hateful things for a long-ass time that it’d be somewhat harder for him to disavow his primary campaign. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway.
The weather went from 65 degrees on Saturday to snowing, which just confirms my sense of living in a surreal Drumpfian dystopia.
This Erin Andrews story is so so awful. ESPN released this incredibly weak statement which addressed nothing, http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/14879543/espn-…
– Bernie won Oklahoma
– Tulsa is acquiring the Bob Dylan archive
Tulsa also has an incredible Woody Guthrie museum. Tulsa is like this secretly kind of great place?
But Oklahoma is 33% potholes, 33% assholes, 33% speed traps, and 1% Tulsa, so, kanyeshrug.
every state should be described this way.
Tulsa is an odd place. (I grew up there.) Technically it is the most conservative part of the state politically, and yet there is a value placed on the arts and education that refuses to be contained by party lines. When I was in high school, I read a news story about the *second * staging of The Laramie Project by a traveling rep group where they talked about how, in the post-play Q&A they got really thoughtful, curious questions from the Tulsa audiences that were very different from what they usually got in the Bible Belt.
Then again, my alma mater has a racist mascot and every time someone suggests changing it even the more politically liberal alumni/students get all bent out of shape about it, so, six of one…
My in-laws are in Tulsa, and my MIL voted Bernie! My FIL voted Kasich because he’s a registered Republican – “But that will have to change,” he said.
Them plus the fact that my extreeeemly conservative mother is appalled by Donald Trump is giving me a sparkle of otherwise unjustified optimism this post-Super Tuesday morn.
ditto to conservative moms sideyeing drumpf hard. there is still hope?
“How can you do a park on America and not talk about slavery? This park will deal with the highs and lows . . . We want to make you feel what it was like to be a slave, and what it was like to escape through the Underground Railroad.”
It’s like…I agree with the thrust of the first sentence, there’s no way to talk about American history honestly and not talk about slavery. But this statement is one of those ones where you just honestly wonder how no subroutine in this dude’s brain walked through that sentence before it exited his mouth and said, “Hey, you know what? Let’s work on this one a little more. Polish it up some.” (Also, Mike Eisner was/probably still is a moron, and a good example of why CEO pay is bullshit; Disney could have put a scarecrow into the CEO office, spent the many millions of dollars they gave Eisner anywhere else, and probably still improved the output and profits from his term as CEO.)
Re: JAZMINE HUGHES: Physical attractiveness is a shallow indicator of a person’s worth and should never be considered. Everyone has their own inner beauty,
That said: Hubba hubba.
Dude. Stop it.
Seconded
I cannot agree with this strongly enough. (I would personally add “Go away,” but I am not in a mood to tolerate much of any kind of nonsense this morning, so perhaps should not add that.)
This is what this comment sounds like to me, someone who has been told that her looks are more important than other qualities for much of her life:
“I don’t mean to be sexist, but I’m going to reduce this woman to her physical qualities anyway. I have the power to do so, and this is what matters to me.”
Yup. “I’m going to show that I know exactly why I shouldn’t post this, and then I’m going to post it anyway.” That actually makes it worse, dude. Do better.
There are much less gross ways of expressing that than “hubba hubba”.
Really? It’s such an old-fashioned expression, it is ridiculous, as I meant it to be.
We know you meant well and probably thought you were just reflecting what Nicole already wrote, and you’re a good guy, Library_Mole, but this was a big misstep. You lost track of your perspective for a moment, I think. It happens to everyone. Just apologize and we’ll think no worse of you for it.
Hi teammates! Jazmine and I were just laughing about this offline, and I think it’s a very very mild goof that I most definitely enabled, and I would feel terrible if he wound up apologizing for something I set him up for, so let us move forward as friends.
You are CERTAINLY welcome to be irritated with him, of course, but I would like us to leave this topic for now.
I just wanted to close the loop on this, we were discussing on Twitter: it’s FINE to point out the grossness of the comment, and seven commenters did, I just think that beyond that point, it is something I would shut down between any established commenters in the cause of civility, but it was indeed a gross comment.
FINAL UPDATE: well, golly, there was an unpleasant attempt to re-engage, so LM is now set to have his comments come through moderation. I TRIED TO HELP YOU, guy.
Re: President Simon Newman: He sounds like a real sweet fella. But not very bright. Maybe he should be replaced.
I’ve been following this for a while. He is the most asshatty of asshats. I say goodbye sir!
I’ve been following it as well (partner is an academic advisor who is tasked with saving the bunnies). I’m really glad to see he resigned and that the fired professors were reinstated.
Everything is terrible but at least The Hairpin is coming back. 😀
I am so cautiously excited about that!
Me too! The Hairpin was where I discovered Ms. Cliffe (The Horse, Explained) and naturally, here we are!
Me toooo. That’s where I first met so many of you.
Did we ever figure out what was actually going on with the Hairpin? The articles are still showing up in my Feedly.
They never officially shuttered it but after the last editor left they didn’t have a replacement. They’ve mostly just been recycling old articles.
Ah, ok. That’s what I thought, but I honestly couldn’t tell from a lot of the headlines.
They’ve been re-posting old stuff (which has been a delightful walk down memory lane) until they figured out who/what they wanted to move forward with. I’m excited to see where it goes!
I still eagerly await the tell-all about the Fall of the Hairpin that will surely be written in like 3-5 years.
Speaking of horrible people who doubt victims of sexual crimes, did anyone hear This American Life this week? Trigger warning: it is awful awful awful and about a violent rape and the people who doubted the victim’s truthfulness. Spoiler: it’s the police and just about everyone in her life! Though she’s eventually vindicated, her life is made hell.
The final interview clip with one of her foster mothers made me come close to punching a hole in the bus window.
Oh man I heard bits and pieces of that and it was just. Oh my god it was just awful.
I got about five minutes in and then noped right out of there. That said, I’ve saved the article that ProPublica published about the same story (I think they worked with This American Life), in case anyone is interested in reading it (or, like me, saving it for months because they just can’t bring themselves to read it): https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-acc…
I remember reading that, so infuriating and awful.
Yeah… I downloaded the TAL episode, but I’m kind of weighing whether it’s worth putting myself through that story twice.
Yup, just skimmed the ProPublica article and decided that, having listened to the story, I’m really not interested in delving back in. But I will definitely share it.
It’s not unless you enjoy being infuriated and heartbroken.
Me too–actually I was thinking I was linked to it here.
Listening to it is especially getting to me because my first name is Marie, I have to admit.
Ohhhhh I read that a couple of weeks ago and then went and hid under a blanket for a while. Her foster mom! What the fuck!
The story of how that collaboration got started is pretty interesting. Two investigative reporters, one from ProPublica and one from The Marshall Project, were independently researching different aspects of the story, and when they ran into each other, they decided to compare notes and team up instead of rushing to scoop each other. They ran the story on both websites, and then they took it to This American Life. I think that shows real journalistic integrity, and the resulting story was much better and more complete than it would have been otherwise.
Basically, these journalists are like the opposite of Rolling Stone.
Putting this in the reply so that no one who doesn’t want to read it has to, but one of her foster mothers, who planted the doubt in the police officers’ minds in the first place, at the end actually has the motherfucking nerve to say that while she wishes she hadn’t gone to the police with her doubts, she did so because of victim’s behavior seemed strange and the victim “has to take some responsibility for that.”
NO, YOU FUCKING JUDGMENTAL TOAD, THE VICTIM DOES NOT HAVE TO TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR IGNORANCE OF HOW TRAUMA WORKS.
The whole time they were talking to her, THE WHOLE TIME, I was sitting there going, “Holy shit this woman has literally no idea how this works.”
Interviewer: “But also it sounds like everyone who was doubting her didn’t have much information about the way that rape trauma can function. And so, *is* this about the way that she acted?”
Peggy: “Well, it shouldn’t be about the way that she acted, but um… unfortunately the reality is that that did influence… And it’s really harsh for me to say that – it’s not her fault, because I think that it’s totally a product of what she went through, but on the other hand… [sigh] God, I don’t know.”
Someone sure needs to take responsibility for something, it sounds like.
Yeeeeeep. Somebody does.
Oh yeah, with you 100%. The cops should have done better, no doubt, but holy crap lady, you call yourself her mom? She trusted you.
She trusted you.
Plus all the slut-shaming! For being giggly? And flirting with people? Both before and after the attack. I mean, god FORBID that a teenager GIGGLE and FLIRT.
Also, this is a fantastic cautionary tale about righteousness. She “knew” what was right. And a girl who has feelings, and giggles, and flirts, and isn’t quiet, is clearly someone who is asking for trouble and too much attention. And so, when something bad happens, this woman just thinks “what did you expect?” When those things are NOT RELATED. Even AFTER she found out how wrong she was, she STILL BLAMES Marie.
Umm, I might be a little angry this morning. I’d apologize, but…nope. Not sorry.
I remembered reading the story, and I listened to that episode anyways.
Yeah, that bit of interview at the end with the other foster mom was pretty awful. Even after knowing the truth of everything, she still says “I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming the victim, but”
Just don’t. Just don’t finish that sentence, then. Do literally anything but finish that sentence.
YES YES YES I had the same thought.
Is it worth listening to if you’ve read it before?
Honestly, only if you want to get upset all over again. There was more in terms of direct quotes and recordings from the various actors, but I don’t think the amount of information was substantially different.
This is helpful, thanks! I’ve usually got a reasonably thick skin for this type of stuff, but my name is also Marie and hearing the story told out loud was freaking me out in a way that reading it didn’t.
(tangent–I just said the same thing upthread! There are few enough Maries that come up that it was definitely making me feel even creepier than I might have otherwise.)
Yes, that’s exactly it–my husband’s name is David and he’s totally immune after a lifetime of “that guy also has my name” but I just am not used to it.
I was just FURIOUS. Utterly furious. Everything about that story filled me with rage. That poor woman. Her foster mothers just…HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU LOVE HER AND SAY THIS BULLSHIT.
uggggggh everything is terrible
yes, completely horrible.
And all the group therapy where they out her as having made a rape accusation, and saying they think it was a false accusation — even if that were the case, which it wasn’t, that is PRIVATE, that is not a situation for telling someone’s entire community, all of whom happen to be teenagers who haven’t developed a sense of empathy or good judgment yet. You don’t shame people to their face like that and expect a good outcome — yet that was their protocol for dealing with it! Unbelievable.
And those quotes from Elizabeth just broke my heart, that this other teenager saw through all the bullshit and how wrong the whole thing was, because of her own experiences. All those adults who were supposed to be helping her and the only one who has the slightest clue is another kid transitioning out of foster care.
I just listened to that today! Nthing the fury at all the awful people who refused to believe the victim and forced her to retract her statement, especially the second foster mother. COULD NOT believe she had the cheek to CONTINUE blaming the victim after she was completely exonerated! (Not that she had to be exonerated to be believed.) It’s horrifying to me that this terrible person took the role of mother for that girl for several formative years of her life. Not only did she not believe her, she actively collaborated in her awful treatment by the police, caused her untold harm and at the end of it is still defensive and making excuses for her horrible behaviour. At least the other foster mother was repentant.
Between that and just having read ‘Asking For It’ by Louise O’Neill, today is…not a happy day 🙁
And it just makes me so sad to think that maybe Marie needed to forgive her and keep her in her life even after all of this. (I mean, it could be that she’s just a much more forgiving Marie than I am, but it just makes me so sad to think that maybe this seemed like all she could expect.)
Just listened on the train this morning! Literally had my fist clenched and had to consciously restrain myself from screaming “oh my god you’re so ****ing wrong!” out loud. Just…I…kSHdgfsdbkgkdngakdbjfv;kdjsb.
Thank you, Betsaroo, and other Toasties for being here for my anger. It was that or post all over TAL’s FB page.
Not to detract from the horribleness, but to perhaps feel better about life, let’s all take a moment to think about how amazing the other officers were. They believed their victim and in turn got justice for her AND others. Also, sounds like a lot of them were women, just sayin’.
Yes. There’s more about the two main officers who solved the case in the ProPublica article. Both excellent women.
I thought it was super interesting that they interviewed the other officers who also said stuff about how their victim didn’t seem to be reacting ho most rape victims they worked with reacted, but they went ahead and DID THEIR JOB anyway.
Like, people are human! They are going to have good and bad instincts! In many ways the successful and unsuccessful officers in this case had similar instincts, but the difference was in recognizing how far they should take themselves versus their victim seriously.
Thanks for this summary; my husband was like “you should listen to TAL this week! It’s about sexual assault” and I was like “noooo…….why.”
In summary: thanks but noooo thanks.
Oh my god, that mother at the end! I was listening this morning first on my run, then as I was getting ready. I was standing at the sink when the foster mom was leading up to saying it’s all because of how she acted, and said, “I know this might sound awful…” and I yelled out “That’s because IT IS awful!”
Toronto’s library is gorgeous and I want to go work there.
The election cycle is making me more antsy about this than I think I would otherwise be, but I do wish there were more opportunities to live and work abroad that weren’t teaching related. Following the Traveling Librarian has given me some leads, but I’m having a tough time getting bites. I also (naively) didn’t realize how easy it was to get bogged down with just general life stuff. I can’t pick up and leave my cats, I did that once and it was miserable and I imagine very much like what being separated from your daemon feels like, but international cat moving is Not Easy for anybody. And if I can get a job, that doesn’t guarantee that boyfriend can get any work.
I’ll stop there before I ramble, because oh gosh could I ramble, but in unrelated and really excellent news, The Kills released new music yesterday. Alison Mosshart is my everything.
Ooooo Alison Mosshart! Thanks for the heads up.
Thank you for the reference to The Traveling Librarian; this election cycle might be the kick in the pants I need to work on my IT skillset and see if I can launch that into a job overseas.
I kind of forgot that the Kills were a thing, and now you have reminded me, and I am very happy.
I suspect it may be slightly easier to study abroad at a university, and then transition into working and becoming a resident there.
The latest on the Erin Andrews trial from the Washington Post is that the defense is trying to demonstrate that her career benefited from the video.
You know, since her career wasn’t over and she didn’t crawl under a rock.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp…
If you weren’t completely too destroyed to function it must not have been rape/if you are completely in pieces you are unstable, unreliable and hysterical and thus not to be believed. Definition of lose-lose.
I have no words.
I’ll try an analogy: some artists have made great art about grief. Even successful art. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t trade that success in a minute for having the person they lost back. That doesn’t make that death okay.
There’s nothing that can make surreptitiously filming someone in a hotel room and then releasing the images okay. Even if it helped even a little in her success, that should not be a factor.
Lawyers!
UGHHHH. Rage typing right now.
STEAM is coming from my ears like a cartoon villain.
ugh. the defense did this to Lucy DeCoutere during the Jian trial too, and i am like “srsly, do you think a couple of thousand twitter followers is worth THIS”.
It is like defense attorneys aren’t even people.
I haven’t even had my coffee yet and my coworker just sent me this video. All i can say is…what.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbYj7ZyqjYY
My mom used to sing this song all the time.
Yessss. As soon as I clicked on your link and saw the title I started humming.
Other fun stuff from today:
Kanye got caught trying to pirate music software! Not a good look from somebody who has ranted frequently about the damage piracy has done to the music industry.
South Dakota’s (Republican!) Governor vetoed that garbage bill requiring trans students to use the bathroom for their assigned-at-birth gender. Shocking no one, the conservative activist quoted herein sees his commitment to subsidiarity SUDDENLY VANISH when subsidiarity doesn’t go his way. Who could have predicted, etc. (It’s possible Daugaard just did this to avoid legislation, but hey, I’d rather see people do good things for bad reasons than bad things for good reasons. It actually is by works alone, etc.)
O, Kanye, if even you won’t use Tidal, why on earth would anyone else?
Also, how has he not yet tweeted a defense? I cannot wait to watch how this plays out, ty for this Important News.
This is the part that warmed my cold heart:
“The decision came after Mr. Daugaard met with transgender students last week in closed-door meetings while weighing whether to sign the legislation. Reports had indicated Mr. Daugaard was leaning toward signing the bill, which comfortably passed both the Republican-controlled state House and Senate.”
Imagine – meeting with the people affected by your decision and changing your mind!
What a novel idea!
I’m really surprised and pleased about the South Dakota bill. And laughing at that activist. “This wouldn’t limit local control! It would just take away local ability to do ONE THING.” Like congratulations that your bill wouldn’t abolish local governments or something, but that one thing is exactly what the whole bill was about?
There is a special hell for people who make Erin Andrews cry.
All of my hugs belong to her, other people just borrow them sometimes.
Speaking of Venus Williams, did you see this video of rescue dogs working as ball boys at a tennis match? Venus’s reactions to the dogs are the best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK_83cnHbE4
this is the best thing ever and I am so glad you posted it.
Ahhhh puppieeees!!!!!!!
Ahhh, why am I crying? Dust, there must be lots of dust in the air.
ahhhh the little stocky one with the beard and sweat bands </3 </3
I think I could watch dogs running in slow-motion for several straight hours and never be bored by it.
That video did not disappoint.
Why can’t everything be dogs?
#careergoals
When the little scruffball finally got one I clapped my hands in glee at my desk. Don’t mind me, coworkers, just overjoyed by successful fetching!
Go doggies goooooo!
Thank you for posting that! It was a welcome respite from the depressing election coverage.
i have been in a vile mood all day. this is the first time i’ve smiled and laughed. THANK YOU!
I watch this every time it comes up in my fb feed, and it never fails to delight.
The best article today, hands down: “Chris Christie’s Wordless Screaming” https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2…
“He is embroidering this hideous truth very slowly onto a handkerchief, but it will not be ready in time.”
[my favorite gif ever]
I was squelching laughter at my desk over Gawker’s round-up of Christie tweets, so I am all over this one. The greatest part is that it shows you can joke about Chris Christie and it’s hilarious, and you didn’t even need to address his weight!!!
Before I even clicked on that I knew it would be an Alexandra Petri piece. She is a gem.
SHE IS THE TRUE HEIR TO JON STEWART. I HAVE FOUND HER AND EMBRACED HER IN MY SOUL.
This is just so accurate:
Chris Christie has the glazed and terrified look of someone who has traded his inheritance for no pottage at all, who has watched his credibility dry up and is about to be led back to his basement cage, having lost Winterfell for good.
Chris Christie is realizing that the steak he gets to eat inside the Matrix is not worth this.
Yo, Chris, kummerspeck is cruel. Here, have a box of Girl Scout cookies to drown your sorrows.
“Sometimes, at night, do you still hear them, Clarice? The screaming of the Christies?”
*snork*
When I saw this on FB I had to check that Mallory hadn’t taken up writing for the Post, even though the voice wasn’t quite the same.
Apropos of not much aside from trying to run away from a general feeling of looming despair, I got Yo-Kai Watch for the 3DS and find it incredibly charming!
Oh yay! I bought it but haven’t played it yet. I’ve been playing Moco Moco Friends, which I am absolutely embarrassed to admit I adore. I am apparently a Japanese tween. It is so (obnoxiously) cute.
Kept clicking things, and ended up at this The Establishment piece, and ooooooooof:
No I’m Not Glamorizing My Autism
I’m really impressed with The Establishment so far.
Thank you for linking to that!
totally OT but i have nowhere else to be appropriately furious about this (abortion stuff buried in comments):
heard on NPR that today in Texas a case (bill?) that will shut down something like 10 of the last 14 abortion clinics in that state goes before the court. (my grammar is shit I know I’M SHAKING WITH RAGE WHATEVS.) the charge to “make abortion clinics safer” is being led by 1) a man 2) conceived from rape 3) who thinks his mother wouldn’t have had him if Roe v. Wade had been the law when she got pregnant.
I AM SEEING RED YOU GUYZ!!! what a self-absorbed asshole with a clearly transparent agenda.
it’s not even 8 o’clock and i am so mad that i can’t hardly function. men are terrible, the world is terrible, being a woman is one heap of bullshit after another and my dude wonders why i’m such an “angry feminist” sometimes. SHIT LIKE THIS MY DUDE! *rage, smash, rage*
The thing that kills me about that logic (if rape victims could get abortions, I wouldn’t be here!) is that if you extend it, it means that you’re saying that rape should be legal too, since if it weren’t for rape, you wouldn’t be here EITHER. Asshole.
It also shows that things that are illegal still happen (assuming for the moment that the rape was not legal at the time it was committed). His mom might have gone for a back-alley abortion and died, and then neither of them would be here.
Yep. I’ve seen it before, so many antichoice men (always men) can only empathize with the fetus in the situation, and have this terror of never having existed. It’s very strange and infuriating.
I blame “It’s a Wonderful Life” for men who are fixated on this fear of never having existed.
Yup. I’ve no concrete evidence of this, but anecdotally it seems that these men only ever think of foetuses as male. Their irrational minds turn *pregnancy* into a battle of the sexes. And in a misogynistic world, their insane nonsense is listened to and used to influence policy.
I have no answers for a solution, I’m not ready to abolish or change the Supreme Court (like I would the Senate) but it enrages me that progress on gay rights and abortion rights at times comes down to one dude (Anthony Kennedy).
I had no idea that they could keep hearing cases with a vacancy on the court! That seems strange. What if a new justice were appointed before a decision is reached? (I mean that’s not going to happen this year, but as a general principle?)
I’m pretty sure if a new justice were appointed before the decision was handed down, then it would still be just the justices that heard the case that issued a ruling. This whole thing is bizarre. And I think it’s something like 70-80 cases they might hear this term without a full court.
I’ve read that if there’s a 4-4 tie, then they might choose to re-hear argument after the vacancy is filled.
also – your username makes me laugh every time I see it. 🙂
Thanks!
Oh I’m right there with you in the rage shakes. This is the same bullshit bill that Wendy Davis filibustered in 2013. There’s a big angry feminist rally outside the supreme court today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaqfi_LSwA4&f…
And it gets way worse than that Jason Isaac guy. He’s just a vomit-inducing, misogynist asshat that signed on. The stuff that the primary sponsors of the bill said when they were forcing that nonsense through the Texas legislature was straight BAFFLING. Rage until your head explodes baffling.
I heard this one, and I think it was actually his grandma in 1944 (his mother was a child conceived as a result of rape). We have a radio alarm clock, and this is what I woke up to today. I just looked over at my fiance and said “that man’s poor grandmother – to have to go through that at that time and now have this douchebag as a relative.”
This makes me think about the whole “ghost abortions” thing – that when counting “lives lost” (insert eyeroll) because of abortion, the kids aborted fetuses would potentially have had should also be counted. Which… yeah. That’s some sterling logic there.
http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/02/ghost-ab…
enter the ghost abortion paradox. how to weigh potential offspring of aborted fetuses vs abortions aborted fetuses might have had.
Of course, you’d also have to *subtract* all the people who were conceived less than nine months after their mothers had an abortion, who wouldn’t have existed if their older sibling had been born instead…
Okay, my head hurts and I have to stop now.
Louisiana is down to 2 clinics due to recent legislation: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-louisiana-abo…
I feel really upset.
Gosh, it’s almost like his hypothetical angst of maybe not having been born carries more weight than the actual existence and agency of rape victims.
The WSJ is live-blogging the oral argument. Posting before I’ve read, I have no idea what the quality is. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/03/02/texas-ab…
This will in no way make this better, but… Samantha Bee did a pretty great job of lambasting the dudes that are putting this through…
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11139022/samantha-bee…
If anyone is interested in donating, Lilith Fund (https://www.lilithfund.org/donate/) or the Texas Equal Access Fund (https://texasequalaccessfund.nationbuilder.com/donate) both do amazing work in Texas. They’re both part of the National Network of Abortion Funds/ you can also find one closer to you. https://fundabortionnow.org/explore
The plaintiff in the case before the Supreme Court is Whole Woman’s Health, but I couldn’t find an obvious donate link on their website.
Does anyone feel like joining me in ridiculing Leonardo DiCaprio? Apparently the “Pussy Posse” has grown up… and become “The Wolf Pack”. They howl and everything.
Thirteen-year-old me did not have the best taste in crushes, as it turns out.
http://www.laineygossip.com/Leonardo-DiCaprio-and…
I read that and like… the original name is horrible for many reasons, but using “The Wolf Pack” as a name for your weird gender-normative gaggle was already being lampooned back in 2009 by The Hangover, for pete’s sake. Probably earlier than that. It’s just so obvious?
Anyways, masculinity is a prison.
masculinity is a prison <—- too true
My immediate thought was of Mallory’s version of Wolf Hall.
Arroo.
Alexandra Petri continues to be my life coach through this dark time: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2…
“Sometimes, at night, do you still hear them, Clarice? The screaming of the Christies?”
Great minds, &c.
This is my favorite part of the Disney America article
” Asked Imagineer Robin Reardon, “‘What if we had graduate students doing research on some aspects of American history who would become part of the display?”
Now imagining glass cubicles with tourists watching people read books and online journal articles.
You can pay a dollar to toss them a ramen packet! Don’t worry, we feed them Flintstones vitamins, too, so that they don’t develop scurvy.
If the visitors would be allowed to feed them, you’d definitely get some grad students to volunteer.
The first time I donated plasma to get a few $ for food, I didn’t realize it took so much time vs donating blood. Consequently I was late for a meeting with my adviser, and ran 2 miles back to campus.
No memory of that meeting other than occasional swims back to consciousness. Dr. Dude, how do you not notice your student has fainted in her chair?
My boyfriend (who’s an adjunct professor) always brings food to the students in his evening class, and they’re almost pathetically grateful.
Noooo! My heart rate spiked just reading that. Now I want to go close myself in a bathroom stall and breathe slowly for a few minutes.
Sorry bathroom breaks are reserved for hours when the exhibit is closed to visitors.
That’s it I’m smearing feces all over the exhibit.
Wait, is that not what grad school was like for everyone else??
I spent a lot of time in glassed in rooms in grad school….
Between the glassed-in rooms and field work I was lucky when people were just watching me work and not interrupting me to spout off their crackpot theories about why climate change/evolution/all of science is a hoax.
“Oh my. That’s a very tricky annotation she’s attempting there…and she pulled it off!”
Soundproof glass cubicles, because no one wants visitors cornered by an enthusiastic researcher in some terribly depressing subject who introduces them to the word “problematic.”
Or watch the visitors scratch their heads when they use “affect” as a noun.
Awkward car rides home when the kids go “Mommmm, what’s a heuristic?” “Daaaad, they said there was a metanarrative at the park? Why didn’t we get to ride the metanarrative?”
Or for the more precocious tweens, adding “epistemology” to the layperson’s confusion of “entomology/-ist” vs “etymology/-ist.”
Grad school: we do isms.
A couple of artists actually did this in the 90s and it was great: http://beautifultrouble.org/case/the-couple-in-th…
I took my kid to the Arthur Conan Doyle room a few weeks ago! It was pretty fun. It’s part of their Special Collections and in addition to his books they have books that reference him or his characters so it was fascinating. They also have a chess board with Sherlock characters, a surprising number of comics and graphic novels, and really old pamphlets and illustrations. We sat and had a good read.
That sounds wonderful, and may I seize this opportunity with both hands to recommend Jamming Norbu’s The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes?
A really great, well-written sequel by a Tibetan author, positing that Holmes shows up in Tibet and… well, you can find out if you like!
Hi Jane! Have you read Arthur & George by Julian Barnes? it’s a novelization of a true story, wherein a childhood friend of Arthur Conan Doyle’s was unjustly convicted of a ridiculous crime because racism (he was a brown dude) and Doyle basically got him freed.
As a big sister, I just had a little cry over Venus’ article.
As a little sister, I did too.
That has always been my favorite thing about them- they are such real sisters. There’s a weird thing about sisterly competition in Western culture it’s always felt and they refute that all the time.
I am a big brother not a sister, but that article got me right in the feels, too.
toasties, this is 0% link roundup related, I apologize, but I need your input:
My husband has chronic sinus infections; this is ongoing and unfortunate, but not in itself cause for concern. However. He’s lately been having co-occurring cold sores on his mouth with the sinus infections, and (according to him; I haven’t noticed them) sores on his chest/abdomen that only seem to happen when he had a sinus infection. He says this is not an unheard of side effect/symptom of a sinus infection, and I believe him, but I’ve also literally never heard of it before. Have any of you experienced this, or know anyone who has?
I have never heard of this; GentlemanX was doing battle with a chronic sinus infection a little while ago, and then once it cleared up he had some unusual cold sore flare ups that his dr suggests were not related and they eventually went away. But chest/abdomen sores? Nopenope, idk what that is.
i am also a chronic sinus sufferer. sinus infections are bacterial infections & cold sores are caused by a virus, so i’m inclined to fall on the side of not related, except to say that a weakened immune system from an infection could cause an outbreak. i’ve never ever heard of sores on chest/abdomen. and even if it is somehow sinus related, this seems like a good time to go to the doctor and figure out what’s going on in his sinus cavities that’s causing such a severe reaction elsewhere in his body.
My family has a ton of people with chronic sinus infections, and I have never heard of this. I’ll hit up some of the doctors I know and see what they think, but that sounds not right.
Cold sores are called “cold sores” because they often crop up when you’re ill, after all. Because your immune system is preoccupied with the cold (or sinus infection), so the herpes virus (which is what causes cold sores) is able to get a foothold. Dunno what the deal is with sores on his chest/abdomen, though. Never heard of that before.
I have never heard of this either. Who told him it wasn’t unheard of, do you know?
No idea – it could have been Dr. Google, but he’s usually more thorough in his research than that.
If he’s willing, I do think he should show the sores to a doctor. Having some kind of skin outbreak during an illness might not be unheard of (hives, maybe?), but not necessarily the kind he’s getting.
I’ve never heard of this before. My only explanation is that the same virus that causes the cold sores (herpes, I think) flares up when his body is fighting the infection. It could be because he was infected recently or because his immune system has been weaker and having a harder time fighting two things at once.
Are you sure they’re cold sores? Sometimes fever can cause blistering, if he has a fever.
I’d get this checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.
Thanks, all – you’re right, this does seem weird and not good. It may not actually be cold sores, but I am not googling “mouth sores” while I’m at work (or possibly ever), so I can’t offer alternative suggestions. I’ll definitely advise him to tell his doctor.
Not sore-related, by Mr. Knowsey used to get sinus infections all the time and was a pretty terrible snorer. Turns out his head was full of polyps (the worst his ENT had ever seen) and once those were removed the sinus infections stopped.
Also: his dr. was all “Well if you have to have polyps at least they aren’t in your ass.”
It is plausible that an immune system, when taxed by chronic sinus infections, is also failing to control other stuff going on in his body. Yes, there are plenty of viruses that can cause sores, yes some of them happen on bits of the body that aren’t super close to mucus membranes. And most of them are not that dangerous— one of the first culprits that come to my mind is one of the various herpes or herpes like viruses (before anyone freaks, please lets all remember that chicken pox is one of the items in the family, herpes viruses are way more common than most people realize, etc etc). Most of those would fall under the heading of “uncomfortable and unpleasant, but not a huge concern”.
What I hope someone is or has double checked is if there’s some sort of underlying problem that is causing his immune system to have trouble fighting off things. It could very easily be as simple as “because of basic anatomy, sinus infections are a problem, that then causes other things to be troublesome, nothing to see here”. In fact, if there aren’t other problems, that seems the likeliest explanation. But if there’s an additional list of unexplained stuff going on, it’s definitely worth checking into.
Also, it’s a possibility that there are things he could do, medications he could take, or creams to apply that could minimize the various sores when they happen, so if they bother him, it’s worth checking out, even if it’s not a Major Problem.
I’m a doctor; maybe I can help.
Cold sores is a general term for sores that pop up usually on the lips or in the mouth. Sometimes they are caused by herpes virus and sometimes they are apthous ulcers (sometimes called fever blisters). The latter are thought to be autoimmune response to infection, and are not serious. Usually herpes lesions are on the lips and come in clusters of tiny blisters while apthous ulcers are a little bit bigger, occur alone, and are more likely to happen inside the mouth. Of course, there are exceptions. Herpes is contagious but apthous ulcers are not. Apthous ulcers only occur on mucosa (the pink wet parts of the body). The type of herpes that causes oral lesions only occurs on mucosa OR if a person has been directly infected at the site, like a bite. The classic case is a dentist that gets herpes on a finger from treating patients with mouth herpes.
To annecara’s question: From what you are describing, it sounds more likely to me that your husband has an illness (maybe autoimmune) that is causing outbreaks of sores in his sinuses and sores on his skin at the same time. The sores in his sinuses may be secondarily infected and cause classic sinus infection symptoms. He should see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist and bring photos of the sores on his chest. It is normal to get apthous ulcers when you have a sinus infection but not normal to get skin ulcers.
Disclaimer: I’ve never met your husband so I could be totally wrong. It is worth getting checked out, though, because sometimes weird symptoms can alert you to problems that need to be addressed so bigger problems don’t develop. Good luck to you guys!
Thanks!! This is very helpful. Now to find a better conversational opener than “So a doctor on the internet told me…” 🙂
Is he using any kind of mentholated rub on his chest and then using a heat pad or pack? Because one or the other alone are fine, but together they’re dangerous and can definitely cause sores. I hope you find him a workable solution soon in any case.
I was too young to be aware of the DisneyLand America fiasco but omg I am SO here for that. I LOVE Disney Trivia and all things DisneyLand and I am slightly ashamed at how much I love it (isn’t it Cool to be Disenfranchised by Big Mouse?) but Ughhhh teacups and rides and pirates and being a kid again. So awesome. I’m glad DisneyLand America never came to fruition (what a nightmare!!!) but I also kind of wish I could witness a Universe where Grad students did post-doc research /presentations/ etc at a Disney institution.
I teach a college class on Disney, and have occasionally organized field trips there (though the research presentations were undergrad level and happened back in the classroom), so you do sort of live in that Universe!
Sometimes I just can’t believe the lengths to which people will go to justify this shit.
I have no idea what this comment refers to but I 100% agree.
This was meant to be a reply to the Erin Andrews thread, but come to think of it, it applies to many situations.
Seriously thought you meant Super Tuesday.
Totally applicable there too!
Put it on a bumper sticker, you’ll make a fortune.
i’ll take a t-shirt, plz. 7 shirts. one for every day of the week.
Physician assisted suicide interest anyone? It’s a big talk here in Canada right now and Toronto Life has this article right now:
By the time you read this, I’ll be dead
Between 1999 and 2001, I helped eight people die—including the poet Al Purdy. Now, as I prepare to take my own life, I’m ready to tell my story
Oh, I’m still crying in my office from reading this. Thank you for the link.
I had to read it in chunks, because crying at my desk. I feel very strongly that I would prefer to die in my home, with my loved ones, listening to my music, after a nice glass of wine. I am terrified, most of all, of Alzheimer’s and losing recognition of my loved ones long before my body finishes.
I have some disability advocate friends who are against this, saying that it will be used to coerce people with disabilities into suicide. I definitely think we need stronger disability supports, but I also want that glass of rohypnol wine (if it comes to terminal illness.)
Oh wow, that’s so powerful.
Thanks everyone for the advice on taking an infant on a plane yesterday! I’m in the terminal waiting to board. There will be at least three babies on this plane, so if it’s a horrible flight experience for others, I have a decent chance of passing the blame!
I am nervous about reading adoption stories because a family member just adopted, and while I know they’re intellectually prepared for the adoption, I have private doubts about the emptional preparedness. But because I know this can only come off as judgmental (and I don’t have a good relationship with the family member or their spouse), I can’t really share it with them…
Nurse or offer bottle or other sucking/chewing item for takeoff and landing to help deal with pressure issues. Resist the temptation to let them walk the aisles. Once they know this is an option it becomes the ONLY option. Use screens or any other baby-bribing devices. I have been known to use child’s Dramamine- my eldest does get airsick and it knocks her right out. I stick it in a chocolate.
Godspeed.
It may be worth noting that I have read that dramamine makes some kids hyper.
I went to another Maryland college that is also called St. Mary’s (St. Mary’s College of Maryland, it is GREAT, any Maryland or DC high schoolers want to go to a great, gorgeous school and only be up to your ankles or knees in debt instead of your eyeballs hit me up with questions). The two schools get mixed up constantly, and this has been one more item on my list of “reasons why we’re the better St. Mary’s.”
Public liberal arts grads represent! I went to a different one but can confirm that in general they are a good deal.
But wtf is up with the names of Maryland schools? I keep seeing metro ads for the University of Maryland University College and every time I’m like “huh, how am I supposed to tell that it’s an institution of higher learning?”
That’s even more confusing than the Miami University of Ohio.
Okay so I understand the need to disrespect awful people and take away some of their power by coining mocking epithets for them, I totally get it. But I really, really hate it when people use someone’s name to do it. I mean, I loathe Trump and think he’s a clown, but guys, can we not jump on the “Drumpf” bandwagon? Can’t we be better than making fun of the name itself? A name which he hasn’t ever used?
Maybe I’m too sensitive to this – I changed my given name and tend to feel a bit defensive anytime anyone’s preferred name is ignored or their older name is used as a weapon against them. I mean, trans names? and this is an ethnic name, which is also a common category of names that are used as weapons (though, granted, it’s a white ethnicity).
Anyway. I’m all for mocking Trump and removing any power he has by using mocking epithets, but I find it very upsetting to do so by using an old family name that was discarded generations ago.
Have you watched the John Oliver video that spawned it? I totally get your point but I think in this case the idea is that a large portion of his appeal is his name/”brand recognition”, so if you take away the name you take away some of the mystique and realize that just because a guy owns some casinos doesn’t mean he’s a good candidate. Again, point totally taken though.
Yeah, I’m kinda with you on this. There are so many valid reasons to mock Trump that do not involve a name his family hasn’t used in basically 200 years. Also, as a German speaker, Drumpf doesn’t even sound that funny to me! So the popularity of the joke is kind of bemusing – even though I’ve watched the John Oliver segment.
I was reading that stuff further up and trying to work out whether there was anything particularly funny about “Drumpf” other than Anglophone people thinking German sounds funny, so, you know, thanks for confirming that that is basically the joke! I also speak German and “haha German is a funny language” tends to go over my head.
(Don’t get me started on “there must be a long German word for…”)
there is something particularly funny about the kind of people who will in the same breath call Trump literally Hitler and then smirk about his damning secret that once upon a time his ancestors had a funny ethnic name, but I feel like the joke’ll get old well before the inaugurations
Oof. I am a big supporter of using people’s chosen names. No matter the reason someone has chosen a name, names are important and should be respected.
On the one hand, I think “Drumpf” calls attention to the ridiculousness of two of his proclamations: that immigrants are bad/he is a “real” American; and that his name is associated with wealth, so you can trust him. But if I believe that chosen names should be respected, then I have to feel that way all the time. Even for an asswipe like Donald Trump.
Thanks for pointing this blindspot out to me.
But if I believe that chosen names should be respected, then I have to feel that way all the time. Even for an asswipe like Donald Trump.
Yeah, that’s a good way of wording how I feel, I think. And even if it wasn’t a name chosen by him, names in general aren’t things to mock. (I hate it when my friends make fun of kids’ names, like there’s something wrong with being named Uniqueca or Nevaeh or whatever non-traditional white name or spelling they came across this time.)
I thought it was because Trump made fun of Jon Stewart for changing his name from Jonathan Liebowitz? I don’t know if Stewart actually did change his name or if it’s just Trump’s anti-semitism. http://gawker.com/donald-trump-lashes-out-at-jon-…
I don’t disagree with you, but it bothers me more that John Oliver made fun of Trump for having short fingers, even though it hasn’t caught on to the same extent as Drumpf. I really don’t like body shaming, even about something so seemingly minor as stubby fingers.
FWIW, Stewart did change his name.
I think part of the stubby finger insult is not that it is a real insult or that one should be ashamed of short fingers but that it bothers Trump, to the point where he regularly sends letters with photos of his hands to Graydon Carter who originally used the insult 30 years ago. It is a way to pierce the seemingly unflappable confidence of a megalomaniac.
I think Oliver also made a point to say that he doesn’t even have short fingers, they’re totally normal, and yet he still feels the need to harass Carter about it 30 years later.
Also Trump consistently shames people he doesn’t like for their physical characteristics. Not that we should let him drag us down, but on some visceral level, it makes people want to bait him (Bill Maher, for example). On a more intellectual level, he obviously is thinks he is really doing some damage by making fun of Carly Fiorina’s face or Rubio’s sweating, because HE feels insecure when people make fun of him. He is unconcerned if people question his reasoning or actions, but gets really upset if people say he LOOKS dumb.
Yet another reason he is such a scary candidate. Imagine if he and Kim Jong-un got into a name-calling match.
trump has been perfectly aware how ridiculous he looks and is for a long long time, he’s got a record of playing it up strategically for his convenience dating back to before half of us were born, and he’s taking full advantage of it going up against a bunch of utterly humorless, impossibly self-important aristocrats who want to rule history’s most powerful empire but are reduced to a sputtering rage by schoolyard taunts
I guess technically spending a long time deliberating about how to best deploy “oh yeah? well your fingers are short!” as a masterstroke in the electoral chess game is playing by his rules, but it’s doing so embarrassingly badly
For me, that’s why that joke works. Making fun of someone’s actual features is at best boring, but needling someone because they spent 30 years trying to disprove an inconsequential, blatantly incorrect off-handed comment that no one else even remembers? That’s funny. It’s mocking his actions, not his appearance.
Hee. You said “Off-handed.”
(sorry)
Ooooh, I hadn’t seen much of the body shaming, though I had seen Wonkette making fun of his dick, which was off-putting (I never opened those posts in my Feedly, just skipped right over). I suppose that’s where it came from, unless it was something Rubio/Cruz suggested?
Yeah, though, body shaming is just as irritating to me. There are 3 things that I get angry about: body shaming; making fun of names or intentionally using an old/discarded name; mocking accents or other language features.
(Or, actually, I guess I can really only get behind mocking what people do, not who they are. And not if the “what they do” is harmless.)
I do think political speech and political satire is a little different from the rules of courtesy in everyday life, especially since D.T. has made his last name into a brand as much as it is a personal name, but I hear what you’re saying.
My pet peeve is hearing announcers refer to the candidates “Hillary” and “Trump.” It’s so gross. I might start calling him “The Donald” instead by preference, just because of this. “Hillary” and “The Donald” — or just “Hillary” and “Donald.” Still gross, but at least not sexist in quite the same way.
Yes, I hated that it was always “Hillary” and everyone else was “Lastname” before, too! I’ve really appreciated that mostly Bernie Sanders is “Bernie” in the discourse, and NPR is usually pretty good about using their full names or using the same first/last choice for Sanders & Clinton.
Not looking forward to the Hillary vs. Trump sexism, but at the same time, I don’t know if it helps to quietly not underline her connection to Bill Clinton.
Not to be contrary, because I get this pet peeve, but I feel like Hillary has intentionally run on her first name since the beginning. I had a bunch of her yard signs and pins etc. in 2008, and they all said “Hillary” in big letters. I mean, her current logo is an H with an arrow. Bernie also uses his first name in his materials, which is why I think he’s referred to as Bernie in the discourse. Trump uses his last name everywhere. So to a certain extent, I feel like Hillary has purposefully shaped that discourse and that probably plays a bigger role than sexism in this case (like how Jeb went by Jeb! rather than Bush like his older brother, and was mostly referred to that way in the media).
That’s a good point! I thought that she was “Hillary” before her campaign, but I’m clearly misremembering. Thank you!
Yes, although her association with presidential power via having been a president’s wife is in fact one of the things that makes me authentically queasy about her candidacy. It’s like Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, or Indira Gandhi. Surely we can elect a woman who has trod a better path to power. (Not this election, apparently).
No, I get you. That’s the main reason I voted for Obama over her back in 2008!
Unfortunately, there are not many paths to power open for women to take.
People like Kirsten Gillibrand are giving me hope this will change, as I could see her running for president at some point, but I do think Hillary took one of the few paths to power available to women of her generation.
Her exposure to politics via being the First Lady is one of the biggest reasons why I LIKE her so much. She could have just settled for the post White House speech circuit or whatever, but she used it as a spring board to launch a massive political career, including being a pretty good Secretary of State. Also, she is well known for spearheading a health care attempt overhaul during Bill’s time as president. The reforms were known as her pet project even though they went down in flames, but she became a very successful politician after her run as “the wife.” And I give her mad props for that.
I think that being the First Lady is just as political as being an elected official, and a lot of people overlook that, especially now that every thing is over analyzed on the internet. Think of the scrutiny centered on everything Michelle Obama does. Granted, Obama faces whole different hurdles than Clinton ever did as First Lady, what with the rise of internet scrutiny and racism being factored in, but If Michelle ran for a position after her tenure at the White House I’d be gosh darn thrilled.
/rant. Sorry. It seems I have a lot of feelings about this and sorry if it comes off as too harsh or I misread your comment.
oh no, not too harsh, no worries. I feel very ambivalent about her, so I both disagree and sympathize with you, sympathize and disagree, simultaneously. I hate that the “job” of First Lady even exists, and that it is so political, etc. On the other hand, it’s true that HRC did very active things with it that do befit a political leader. It’s just that as a platform, I wish it could be liquidated from the earth. (My mother experienced a diluted form of this as a diplomat’s wife who was expected to throw parties that my dad & fellow diplomats from various countries could then mingle and negotiate at, and as her daughter I even used to have to help out once I was old enough; she eventually did have a career of her own but it was just a bizarre and crappy set of expectations for what was an unpaid position as support staff for my dad’s various job positions, and I think it is so crappy that the US government still unofficially expects that from spouses). I also find it crappy that this would become a path for political power for women. Why — why not let us come to power the way Kristen Gellibrand did, or the way Margaret Thatcher did, for goodness’ sake — why not directly through the route of being an elected official?
The current status quo exists and is an explanation, for sure — I just want to do away with the current status quo, and have a better system.
Yes, I totally agree and was going to post something similar. I mean, I sort of get the point, but i don’t like it. There are plenty of better things to make fun of about Trump than his name, especially when it isn’t his name. And it sets a very bad precedent. If everyone had zeroed in on Barack Obama’s name eight years ago, we’d currently be in our eighth year of a McCain presidency.
The only effect this Drumpf business has on me is to take away some of the visceral stress I feel at seeing Trump’s name in print. I think Trump is a plenty bad name – for one thing, it sounds just as silly as Drumpf to me, for another it stands for Donald Trump and all the shit he’s done over the years, and also it has an apocalyptic quality to it that seems appropriate. Donald Drumpf just reminds me of Donald Duck, and I’d much rather have Donald Duck for President. (Just because we all know he’d be a figurehead and Huey, Dewey and Louie would actually run the country – the Junior Woodchuck’s guide probably has a lot to say about foreign policy.)
My first time commenting on The Toast and it’s about Trump, oi. I personally dislike the “Drumpf” thing because it contributes to the culture of equating things we dislike with Nazi Germany (which tends to minimize the atrocity of the Holocaust while also disrespecting those who suffered immensely from WWII). And while Trump is a scourge of the Earth he is not, and never will be, the equivalent of Hitler. Which I am assuming that’s why “Drumpf” is being used, I did not watch the John Oliver segment…
However! You raised a very good point about how using names that have been retired from a person’s identity can be harmful. Even though I don’t really think it’s the root of why “Drumpf” is problematic rather than funny, it’s a valid one to consider 🙂
Oh, wow, I didn’t even know it was a name that his ancestors used in real life! I thought someone just made it up as wordplay. Thank you for pointing that out, that is a really really good point.
It reminds me a bit of the whole “ha, Hitler’s real name is Schicklgruber, who could take such a ridiculous man seriously?” rhetoric; not to say that Trump is Hitler, but I’m not very comfortable with laughing at the supposed absurdities when, actually, the scary prospect of Trump in power should be taken seriously.
I thought Toasties might appreciate that the tunnel on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge was renamed today (it was already painted like this):
Uh . . . do you know if this is meant to recall the scene in What Dreams May Come where Williams’s character dies in a car crash in a tunnel? Because that’s the first thing I can think of . . . my guess is that’s not intentional.
I don’t think that’s intentional, I think it’s just a popular local landmark named after an equally popular native son.
I’m actually a little relieved that I’m not the only person whose brain went directly to What Dreams May Come.
More for his trademark rainbow suspenders from way back in the day.
I can just hear Williams instantly cooking up a routine on the Freudian implications of this, in a faux-Viennese accent, waggling an invisible cigar.
I hear it too!
I know that nap body language “Yes, you’re very cute, I love you. Please let me sleep.”
This might not be appropriate, but I’m trying to save my grad school’s lit journal, and we just found out that our 60 year old publication is receiving no money for next year. We have a chance to protest this tonight, but in the meantime if you love literary journals and want to help, please email Wichita State’s SGA @ [email protected]
Our 60 year old journal is called Mikrokosmos and we have an online sister called mojo (if you’d like to check it out).
We value artists and writers, paying them both, and I am deeply saddened that we would receive no funding. So please, if you like the journal, or just want to save the journal, email [email protected]
Thank you, and wish me luck at the hearing tonight <3
Oh, hey there Wichita person. I’m in the English department at KU. Do you have a publicity statement or news article link or something that I can send to my creative writing faculty and students?
Hi! We literally found out today, and we were told that we needed to write letters by 6:30 p.m when the new hearing is. I don’t have an official link to anything as of now, but I can quote the email end letter sent to us by the director of our program:
“Dear MFA students , on Tuesday. March 1st, the student fees committee announced their recommendation got WSU to remove ALL funding to Mikrokosmos in 2017. Support WSU’S literary magazine by contacting the Student Government Association at 316-978-3480 and [email protected] BEFORE their meeting at 6:30 pm, March 2nd. If you are willing to attend tonight’s meeting, please contact Margaret Dawe at [email protected].”
Additionally we were given the explanation funding was denied on the basis that the community could fund us themselves, since we are “popular,” even though we are a university journal. Obviously this is a ridiculous excuse and we would love your support <3
——– Original message ——–
I just sent an email to our CW faculty/staff/student distribution list.
And hey, if you don’t mind letting me know how the meeting went? This is buried deep enough in the comments, I feel okay giving you my email for follow-up: [email protected].
Will do!
Strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome?
I just received the itinerary for my job interview next week. This my first long-distance job search–never left town after college–so it feels VERY ADULT that they are flying me out, a *car service is picking me up*, and they are paying for me to stay in a hotel.
Imma be 40 this year, but I work in non-profits. I’m super-thrilled when I can expense cab fare after a late night work event. This feels very grown-up, all of a sudden. There’s a full day of interviews. I have to go to dinner with people and be a socially acceptable human being. How? What? Whyyyy?
Also: excite.
my strategy for feeling like an imposter is to pretend that I am an imposter, like I’m actually a spy here to get as much as I can out of them before they realize that I’ve tricked them.
my success has been…mixed
Job interviews like this are like a really long date. Your potential colleagues want to filter out the weirdos and hire a colleague they can work with. You are a great person (exhibit a, you comment on the toast) so I am sure you will excel. The real imposters are the ones who run their mouths off during the interview and drop unbelievable attitude at dinners.
I was always terrible at dating. Meeting my husband was a fluke and even my best friend didn’t like me when we first met.
Ok, here’s my advice for Job interview and imposter syndrome anxiety mitigation.
1. They think you are awesome, qualified and worth their time and money to get you out there. This doesn’t mean you’ve got the job, but it does mean that they already are on your side.
2. They want you to be a good fit and do well. It makes their jobs easier and interviews go better that way.
3. YOU ARE THE MOST AWESOME PERSON. Do not think of the other candidates. Believe you are the most awesome when you walk in their front door. You already have the job, you just have to make them believe that (which they want to do).
4. Be awesome. This isn’t hard, because of point 3. YOU ARE ALREADY AWESOME. So, take a deep breath, run some cold water on your wrists, and strut in there awesomely. You deserve this, you are qualified, and if those things weren’t true, they wouldn’t have called.
Go forth! Be amazing! You’ll do great!
Oh ‘bug, I have nothing better than the tips other Toastfriends have posted. But I am so excited for you! You are the best and all I want is for you to believe that and for the right employer to appreciate your special kind of awesome.
I am not sure I am totally qualified to comment (had a two-day interview a few months back including a fancy dinner and did not get it, but don’t feel like I embarrassed myself or shrunk up into myself either. I still struggle with imposter syndrome a lot though). Like others said, getting the interview means you are a fantastic and qualified candidate. I like this TED talk by Amy Cuddy on body language to psych yourself up and be open – https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_lan… – and I am not normally the sort of person who goes for the “follow this one weird tip” type thing. Go out there, smile and tell them why you want to work for them. Good luck!
Do you read Ask A Manager? She has lots of good advice on imposter syndrome and interview prep, and she’s all around awesome. Here’s a start http://www.askamanager.org/2012/08/impostor-syndr…
Re Disney. Possibly the inspiration for a fabulous short story by George Saunders, Civilwarland in Bad Decline.
“Whenever a potential big investor comes for the tour the first thing I do is take him out to the transplanted Erie Canal Lock. We’ve got a good ninety feet of actual Canal out there and a well-researched dioramic of a coolie campsite. Were our faces ever red when we found out it was actually the Irish who built the Canal. We’ve got no budget to correct, so every fifteen minutes or so a device in the bunkhouse gives off the approximate aroma of an Oriental meal.”
My thoughts exactly!
(Well, half that and half “Abandoned by Disney.”)
I’ll just be over here, dancing on the grave of Simon Newman’s career as a university president. Thus be it always to finance douchebags hired to be “CEOs” of higher education institutions.
Anyone else frustrated by Bill Clinton campaigning outside a polling place in Massachusetts yesterday?
Even if he didn’t technically break the law (and that’s up for debate), it completely goes against the spirit of the law. It seems like yet another example of the Clintons bending the rules when it suits them, and even though I will vote for Hillary if she is the nominee, it’s really disheartening to me. It feels like a bleak glimpse into what her presidency would be like.
She is my candidate but I hate BC and I wish he’d just retire to a deserted island with no internet forever.
The more I actually come to know about him, the less I like him. I think when Bush was in office, the comparisons to the Clinton years made Bill seem more favorable just because Bush was such a schmuck, but with distance from that, I’m getting a clearer handle on things.
I consistently am pissed of that someone I respect (Hillary Clinton) is both married to and politically tied to someone I cannot stand.
I get so sick of my fellow liberals and feminists being like, “lol he cheated when he was president and if you care about that get your puritanical hang-ups out of politics.” No. I don’t care if he had massive orgies in the Lincoln Bedroom (although, apologies to the cleaning staff that would be awful). I do care that he had a sexual relationship with an intern. That whole thing was such a massive sexual harassment case and GOD, she was so young and was so taken advantage of.
Anytime I met someone who is like, “Clarence Thomas is evil and misogynist, but ol’ Uncle Bill just likes blowjobs, no harm no foul, amirite?” I want to spit in their eye.
Yes, this! And it’s not just Monica Lewinsky, but also the cloud of sexual assault allegations hanging around him that I am no longer willing to dismiss the way I was when I was a teenager and knew nothing about rape culture/rape denialism.
I am increasingly uncomfortable with Bernie because I trust his heart but I am not sure I trust his willingness to ground his proposals in reality. But I am also so uncomfortable with Bill Clinton being brought back into the limelight. It is a difficult primary for me to feel enthusiastic about (but make no sense, I am going all in for Hillary, or Bernie if he somehow manages to pull out an upset, no matter what qualms I may feel because Trump is terrifying)
I also find it frustrating because there’s a point where it seems just so full of hubris (this is kind of how I felt about the e-mails.) I mean, there’s a reason for the expression avoiding even the appearance of impropriety, and it always feels to me like the Clintons, including HRC’s campaign, are really, really unable to stick to it. It’s not even individual things where, but a pattern that is offputting to me, very rules-lawyering.
Toastie: I watched the live auction of Debo Devonshire’s stuff today :-). And that stuff SOLD. 40x the stated price was no exception. So even that (hideous, but OMG Debo) ring I had my eye on, which was estimated at 60-80 pounds, went for 2,500 pounds…
Watching online auctions is riveting, and if you go to druout.com you can even improve your French counting (which is the biggest bitch of the whole language I feel)
That is a lot more than the stated price! Wow. How much did the photo of the Mitfords go for, do you know?
And this picture went for literally 800 x it’s estimate:
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/20…
£2.750! http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/20…
Dammit, I missed my chance at that hen box…
I completely forgot to link to this earlier. But, better late than never. Someone’s sharp eyes on Twitter spotted this from the Hamilton tour auditions: http://www.backstage.com/casting/hamilton-philade…
“Aaron Burr: Males & Females,”
“George Washington: Males & Females,”
Bold added by me. Otherwise same age range, description, POC, etc.
HOLY SHIT.
YESSSS
AWESOME.
That is SO COOL! Let’s hope they take the chance and cast a female identifying person for one of those!
I have tears in my eyes. This show will never let me down, will it?
This is the best thing I’ve seen all (shitty AF) day, thank you!
Head canon: Queen Latifah for George Washington. Audra McDonald for Burr.
Ooh! I recently learned that the museum where I docent has Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ouija board in the archives. They’ve got lots of cool stuff, but this may be my favorite things (that I know about).
Toasts, I have an off-topic question, but I feel it is relevant because it’s a Library Question. Namely, how can you tell if a book is in the public domain? I want to read Alfred Lansing’s book about the Shackleton expedition, which was published in 1959. Is that old enough? Relatedly, what are some good websites for downloading PDFs of public domain books?
If you’re looking for pdfs, archive.org is good too even though it’s gone down the drain a bit lately.
There were some sites that were linked in another post’s comments, like a publishing company that offers free ebooks of public domain books wirtten by women, but I can’t remember the names and links.
Don’t know if this is the same everywhere, but in the EU it’s not based on date of publication but author’s death + 70 years.
(It used to be 50 years in the UK, but changed to 70 years in the late 90s. This meant that anyone who died during the Second World War, like Virginia Woolf, came out of copyright and then went back in.)
Exactly the same in Australia. In law school we were told this was based on the idea that the author’s children were entitled to inherit the right to royalties for their lifetimes; the change to 70 years was because the next generation was living longer.
Here’s a fun quick-guide page! https://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/public-…
Seeing the picture reminds me, I think I saw Sansa’s litter mate at the dogpark yesterday. I would say the mix, but see that has been avoided online. The puppy (every day is puppy day at the dogpark, but yesterday it seemed that there were more puppies than adults), was about the right age, out for the first time, male. Just a cuddly bundle of large fluffy cuteness.
Okay but actually I think you need to pitch this. It needs to be an actual article.
I did because you told me to. But since it's already here, maybe they have a policy of nope? Anyway, I love the Toast and would be so insufferably proud to have a byline.
I guess they did sort of get the milk of your verse for free, but I think it's worth a shot!
Thank you for saying that! Now that I've sent a thing, of course I've got a hamster wheel of Reasons Why Not, but I'm trying to stop it from spinning. If I get any encouragement I might never stop wording words. (I do serious stuff, too.)
It needs to be on the main page! With ILLUSTRATIONS! It's here already yes, but many will not see it if they don't put it up front! And we all need to comment on it at greater length. And share on Facebook and such. Please publish this, dear Toastmavens!!
You guys are awesome, thank you! It's too political & topical for a full feature.