Floof.
The LA Times has a really good piece on exactly HOW Oxycontin became a perfect storm for addiction (marketing and enforcing 12 hour dosing despite solid evidence that it wears off early for many, many people):
The documents provide a detailed picture of the development and marketing of OxyContin, how Purdue executives responded to complaints that its effects wear off early, and their fears about the financial impact of any departure from 12-hour dosing.
Reporters also examined Food and Drug Administration records, Patent Office files and medical journal articles, and interviewed experts in pain treatment, addiction medicine and pharmacology.
Experts said that when there are gaps in the effect of a narcotic like OxyContin, patients can suffer body aches, nausea, anxiety and other symptoms of withdrawal. When the agony is relieved by the next dose, it creates a cycle of pain and euphoria that fosters addiction, they said.
OxyContin taken at 12-hour intervals could be “the perfect recipe for addiction,” said Theodore J. Cicero, a neuropharmacologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a leading researcher on how opioids affect the brain.
Patients in whom the drug doesn’t last 12 hours can suffer both a return of their underlying pain and “the beginning stages of acute withdrawal,” Cicero said. “That becomes a very powerful motivator for people to take more drugs.”
this looks cool, if you’re in NYC
Ari Ne’eman puts together the case against Donald Trump from a disability rights perspective (obviously there are many many many reasons to dislike Donald Trump, but this is a good perspective to have):
It’s a more important task than many people realize, in part because people with disabilities have not been the main target of Trump’s demagoguery. Despite a reprehensible episode last year where Trump engaged in a cartoonish mockery of a journalist’s physical disability, the bulk of Trump’s attention has not been on the disability community. And this is exactly the danger. To those of us who have been watching closely, there is significant evidence that Trump is likely to make a play for the disability vote before the general election is over.
Already, his campaign has tried to reach out to parents of autistic children who buy into the long discredited myth that autism is caused by vaccinations. As far back as the second Republican primary debate, Trump linked autism to vaccines, going on to spout the long discredited idea that “autism has become an epidemic…Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control.” Never mind the overwhelming scientific consensus against vaccine causation of autism, or the significant evidence that shows that autism has always existed in the general population at comparable rates to the modern day. Never mind the despicable premise that subjecting children to the risk of death from fatal illness is preferable to even a fake risk of having an autistic child. Trump saw an electoral opportunity, and he took it.
Virginia Woolf’s sole with white sauce (I love this series):
Despite countless events occurring during mealtimes in Sense and Sensibility, we are left to imagine for ourselves what Marianne and Elinor Dashwood may have eaten in their Devonshire cottage, at dinner with Sir John and Lady Middleton and Mrs Jennings, or during the heartbreaking trip to London.
Not so, Virginia Woolf. The three-course luncheon in A Room of One’s Own is rich in detail. The importance of this meal lies in its stark contrast to the one served at the all women’s college. While the Oxbridge men have sole, partridge, a “retinue of sauces and salads” and a “confection that rose all sugar from the waves,” the women at Fernham eat clear soup, beef, greens and potatoes and prunes with custard. The few paragraphs about these two meals has long been one of my favourite pieces of food writing. I’m excited to be recreating this second meal (I will be taking significant creative license with the details) at a supper club in the coming months.
I tug the shoes from my closet on a warm spring morning. Everybody’s moved their clocks ahead an hour, but I haven’t bothered fiddling with the hands on my watch, because it’s hard to read, and I tell myself it’ll all even out in half a year anyway. Daylight savings means the day will stretch for a long while, so I plan for a luxurious walk to match. On go the shoes and some jeans and a nondescript T-shirt, along with a jacket I’ve since misplaced.
I shuffle. The bounce has disappeared itself from the shoes. They’re flat, a little wide, much wider than the new Sperrys, and without the slight heel of the newer versions. They’re exceptionally bad for walking fast, and God help you if you want to wear them while chasing after a bus.
They’re still impeccably soft, though. I can feel her imprint in them; my big toe aligns with hers, and the backs of my heels are cupped by the dents her own must have formed.
oh I am so glad you wrote to Prudie:
A few years ago, I met and fell in love with a man I thought was my soul mate. Last September, we finally decided to make our relationship official and, at first, everything was wonderful. However, my boyfriend had trust issues from being cheated on. He constantly expected to know where I was and who I was with, and got very upset when I forgot to say where I was going. Things really blew up when I was out at the mall with friends and invited an old co-worker (who worked in the building and had once been interested in me) to come say hi. When explaining this to my boyfriend, I said that the friend “showed up” rather than that I invited him. I apologized profusely for the error when asked about it, but my boyfriend saw this incident as a huge breach of trust that he couldn’t get past, and two months later ended our relationship because of it. I did everything I could think of to show that I was still deserving of trust, and it wasn’t enough. As much as the logical side of me knows he overreacted and that I didn’t do anything improper with my old co-worker, I can’t get past the feelings of guilt and the thought that I ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I still hurt him and broke his trust, which I never wanted to do. How do I move past losing the person I thought was the love of my life and feeling like a failure?
On the Mexican firefighters helping out Alberta:
Five dozen firefighters from Mexico are in Edmonton Thursday getting ready to help fight wildfires in northern Alberta.
The 62 brigadistas will join the 1,700 firefighters currently working in the province.
Firefighter Hector Trejo says the firefighting in the state of Jalisco season ended a week ago, about the time they received the request to come to Alberta.
I love this slideshow of the bathroom at the Met Gala
Apple Music is not your friend:
“The software is functioning as intended,” said Amber.
“Wait,” I asked, “so it’s supposed to delete my personal files from my internal hard drive without asking my permission?”
“Yes,” she replied.
Please tell me someone else read this bananas article. It’s like a perfect window into a world I didn’t know existed, and I know A LOT of bros. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/…
I read it! The description of Gronk as “a frat bro who won’t roofie you” might be the best explanation of his popularity that I’ve read.
I feel for the people who got on the boat not knowing about the presence of the Gronksters.
The woman on board with her husband and in laws! From France! How do you even explain that???
The jerking off hand motion is universal
I read that line and recoiled in horror.
oh jesus that sounds like a nightmare. Like an ACTUAL nightmare, like a someone’s-going-to-get-in-a-brawl-and-get-thrown-overboard nightmare
Clearly you aren’t Gronk’d enough to party with the big dogs.
What’s wrong with a bunch of true buckaroos getting hard on a boat with their bros?
A+ Chuck Tingle
First of all, thank you for linking, because cruise ship narrative is my favorite genre of journalism.
Second of all, thank you for linking, because as a Bostonian, rare is the day I don’t drive past a Gronk-branded billboard on the highway– Gronk Gala, Gronk Cruise– and I’m always piqued.
Third of all, thank you for linking, because despite my strong dislike for the Patriots and reluctance to like anyone in the woman-hating death machine that is the NFL, I… kind of like Gronk? It’s a soft spot. He’s like my favorite movie character.
I read it when it was published! And felt way better about the Firefly cruise we took, where we commandeered the hot tub in our Jayne hats. People on our cruise were confused, but not terrified.
Of course they weren’t terrified. You were all wearing cunning hats!
As someone who only very recently learned the difference between Gronk and Groot, I found this fascinating.
Aww, after reading your comment I became filled with irrational hope that Kronk from Emperor’s New Groove secretly has a large and vocal community of cosplayers who take cruises together.
I love Kronk so much, and he definitely also fits the description of “frat bro who won’t roofie you”.
I feel like Kronk would have accidentally joined a sorority instead of a frat.
CAN THIS PLEASE BE A MOVIE
If I found myself aboard that ship by accident, I’d take over the bridge and steer straight for the nearest fucking iceberg.
awwww. I do like Gronk, despite myself, but that cruise sounds like a funhouse mirror-verse of my high school reunion, and I’m simultaneously amused/horrified.
Then again, if I did do a celebrity cruise, it’d probably be the New Kids on the Block one, so. My hometown credentials remain intact.
Oh yes it seems like I would have been miserable but at the same time it also sounds like the platonic ideal of the party-cruise idea. I mean, Mr. Gronk, Gronk’s dad, was there!
I completely lost it when I read about the fanfiction called “A Gronking to Remember”.
If you, like me, are interested in world-altering events, researchers have hit a new layer in the Gulf of Mexico near the impact crater of the asteroid that may or may not have killed the dinosaurs.
The co-team lead is one of my friends! Sean is an awesome dude. We just never get to see him because he’s a globe-hopping geophysicist.
There are worse problems one could have, I suppose.
How cool! I only learned about that crater thanks to listening to an audiobook a few months ago (Bill Bryson’s Short History, maybe?) and now, of course, I’m fascinated.
Thanks for that, it’s so interesting!
Hey, remember a while back when I said I was doing a fundraiser for a diversity scholarship?
It’s still going, you get free shipping with this link (until May 8th), and yesterday I put swords on leggings for you. There would be a photo here, but apparently IntenseDebate is fucking with my HTML? So no photo for you.
[/shameless self-promotion]
those are good leggings, A+ sword leggings
Oh god I love the ungulates ones SO MUCH. I’m worried, though, about that low rise and they look kinda shiny…can you give any details on those two things?
I can’t; I haven’t gotten a pair for myself yet. I made them in solid black, so they shouldn’t be shiny. The rise seems okay – not waist-high, but in the realm of the belly button. But also I think they have a pretty painless return process?
Here’s some videos of them in motion if that helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_o2E6mam0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuImS7HADfE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4SZXfd_I5A (this woman has done yoga videos in various society6 leggings! none of which are black, I’m sorry to say.)
Oh that is helpful, thank you! The rise doesn’t look quite as low in the video, but I need to think about the shiny factor. I’m not a shiny-clothes person, even in my workout wear…BUT I know someone who would love the sword ones. Let me see if she’ll allow me to buy them for her.
Holy shit take all my money
Those are awesome! (And yay scholarship supporting, Alas I must save all my money to throw directly at SAA for their dang conference costs)
I know it’s not Open Thread yet, but I am shocked that this wasn’t in yesterday or today’s Link Roundup and tbh I am a leetle disappointed.
I have signed up to the mailing list and am seriously considering Vegas next year!
I am definitely going and have already started a savings plan.
It seems like he is just always trying to figure out what makes ladies who like guys happy, and when he figures out what that is, he tries to make it happen. I’m just so happy that he is this big doofus puppy dog of a human who seems to have made it is mission in life to give women joy and pleasure by asking what they want and genuinely trying to deliver on it.
I’ve had a Channing Tatum Tumblr collection in the works for a while. I really really like him so much.
What would you do if you saw Channing Tatum and Tom Hiddleston in the same space?
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I think I would blink out of existence, like a dying supernova.
Let me revise – I would probably shit a brick, THEN I would blink out of existence.
What CleverManka said.
Yes, he just seems delightful.
ToastCon in Vegas next summer??
This is the first time in my entire life I have ever had the least interest in going to Vegas.
TBH, I love Vegas. It’s so horrible and gross and overwrought and depressing. I wouldn’t want to live there, but I find wallowing in its filth for a long weekend is quite delightful.
I’m a Walt Disney World fan, I get liking fake places, Vegas isn’t mine. But I would probably do it, for Magic Mike.
That video made me happier than any other video I’ve watched since… MMXXL, actually. I would like the 30 minute outtake roll of those dachshunds crawling on that dude, please.
Also, I don’t really believe in divine intervention, but I’m going back to school this year and March 2017 HAPPENS to coincide with my spring break….
Those are really chill dachshund puppies by the way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen dachshund puppies who weren’t trying to lick someone to death before.
Ok, WHY wasn’t this tagged NSFW. Seriously. I wouldn’t have not watched it, but I’d have shut my office door.
All is forgiven.
I’m glad I came to this late, because as ever, YouTube is a pain in the ass by not providing any sort of info in the URL about what you’re getting into.
so NSFW and… zero fucks given! let today be the day a coworker busts me watching NSFW. THERE ARE PUPPIES! NO REGRETS!
Man, as an asexual, nonbinary-mostly-lady-person, I am 1000% not the target audience for this but it’s done with such joy that I can’t not be happy for all of you.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING. Oh my god, how wonderful.
that looks awesome and I will join the team for Asexual Support For Sexytimes Dancing That Other People Enjoy.
However this story was a bit spoiled by someone telling me yesterday “lol he thinks he’s going to make the first strip club for ladies, Chippendale’s did it in the 70s and like got arrested for it”
And I have never even seen Magic Mike but I think I get what he’s trying to do that’s unique.
Based on what I’ve seen of Chippendale’s, it seemed much more interested in money-making and what they thought women wanted. This project seems interested in doing something that women actually want because they know it will make money.
Good lord, gorgeous shirtless men with adorable puppies! My elderly* heart can’t take it.
*And by elderly I mean 39-year-old
I’m 46 and my heart was definitely improved by the experience.
So, here’s my issue with hot dudes holding puppies: I am sufficiently enthusiastic about the puppies that I dislike the hot, muscly forearms blocking my view of the puppies.
Ha! I’ve seen that exact same complaint written by guys to the editors of some car magazines we subscribe to. “Great car! Why do you have that woman in a bikini blocking it?”
Yes, but OMG puppies licking hot guys’ faces! While Hot Guy with Longish, Gorgeous Hair (seriously, Hair Gods, WTF) shakes his amazing mane and giggles at the puppies!
I’m quitting smoking tomorrow and just smoked my last cigarette while watching that. Couldn’t be more perfect.
(Also now that I wrote it down I have to do it!)
EXCELLENT! So happy to have sort-of shared your last cig with you!
Why does Kate Hudson have a vice grip in one of those pictures? Was it part of her outfit or did she fix the sink while she was in there?
I am wondering this too.
Also, that bathroom looks crowded af. What were the photographers doing in there? Is this a normal thing now? Can celebrities not pee in peace?
I think it was just one photographer, and I assume they got permission and notified everyone of their presence. Also, it mostly seems like they were at the sink area where people were redoing their makeup/taking selfies/fixing their dress/etc., and from the size and variety of the crowd, it seems like that area was more of a social area in general than I normally encounter in my public restrooms.
But for real, does Kate Hudson fix plumbing?
“notified everyone of their presence”
heh sure, if it counts as already being crouched in the corner as they came in, maybe with a cheery “hello, I am here, don’t mind the camera flashes”
I am surprised the Met bathrooms aren’t any fancier than your average mall bathroom, huh.
I assume it was the only thing able to open and close the peeing flap in her dress?
Also do famous people just have super gender-neutral bathrooms? That’s very cool if so.
Was wondering about that myself, and I wondered if they were making a point about the NC law, maybe; if so, cool.
super happy to see that *big heart eyes*
I think if anyone in that room could fix a sink, there’s a decent chance it would be Kate Hudson.
Sign me up as another who wondered if she was there to fix a sink.
I can’t decide if I want to know the answer to this or if I’m better off trying to guess
I didn’t know I needed a remake of the movie Overboard until I saw that pic!
OMG, take my money. (The actual story in that movie is so terrible I know I shouldn’t like it, but I can’t help myself — Goldie and Kurt are SO GOOD in that and it is so cute and, I mean, he kidnaps an injured woman and convinces her that she is his wife and kids’ mother and in real-life I would want to skin that guy, but I still love that movie.)
I watched it at a friend’s house the summer that her parents were turning into bona fide Dominionists who were really into seeing a woman get comeuppance for not being adequately deferential to a man.
Maybe in another setting I could have developed some ironic distance from the movie, but I was realizing that if I let on how disturbing I found it, Friend and I wouldn’t be allowed to hang out anymore.
I don’t want to skin that guy exactly, but I want to send him off to an island where he can’t mess with anyone’s mind ever again.
The theme of the Met Gala this year was “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” so maybe she was doing something technological with it? People went a wide variety of routes with that prompt…
Oh god the Apple Music thing makes me so angry. And also makes me double down on my “you will pry my 120GB iPod classic from my cold, dead hands” feelings and general old man grumblings about technology.
YES. Sometimes I feel weird that I’m still buying music when most people I know are relying on subscription services, but then something like this happens. I want to own the stuff I’m spending money on!
(Granted, this is because I listen to the same music over and over. I care a lot less about owning TV shows and movies, because I usually only watch those once.)
I find it weird because I’m completely happy about not doing. I spent ten years carting around CDs and books every time I moved house and country, paying storage costs and moving costs and eventually I gave up. And that was already after I’d seen all my teenage music become obsolete because it was on tape. I am sorry that it involves so much power being giving to Amazon and Apple, but from my own point of view, I’m totally happy with the principle that I’m buying access to books and music that may be temporary. I didn’t experience owning hard copies as “permanent”, hassle-free or cheap, so I’m very happy to give that up.
I think in this case, the new version of “owning a hard copy” is having a copy of the file on your hard drive, not lugging around a billion CDs.
Yes! A non-DRM copy. (I was very happy when Apple stopped that particular fuckery.)
I was gonna say: whenever people complain about how buying/renting stuff in electronic format means you can lose it if the company blah blah blah, I’m always like…you clearly take *way* better care of your physical media than I ever did.
I mean, yes, I could *theoretically* own a hard copy of a thing forever…assuming I didn’t break it or drop it in the bathtub or leave it on a train. At least if Apple fucks me over, I can sort of hope to get un-fucked if there’s enough popular protest?
I’m still carting my CDs from place to place, but practically every single one of them is in the wrong box (and I haven’t gone through them in the 5 years I’ve been in my current house).
Oh, I don’t own physical copies! Just electronic copies that are non-DRM, non-subscription service, that I can do anything I want with.
Now that podcasts have taken over my life, I find I listen to and buy a lot less music than I once did. Having access to it is mostly fine with me. HOWEVER. If I have bought and paid for an electronic copy of a song, I really don’t want a streaming service deleting it. THAT is what I think has my eyes so wide. I’m not an apple person, so this wasn’t even something I was considering, but I really need to read that damn article to get the full details.
What pissed me off was that if you bought music through iTunes early enough they won’t play that file anymore and you have to get the g-damn annual subscription just to get the playable file. They know I bought it.
Yes – and this story shows just why I will not be getting the g-damn annual subscription, ever. If that means I have certain songs that I can’t play on my iPhone (they still play on my iPod), then so be it.
Mine was that they couldn’t play on my iPod- it was a terrible situation tobe in.
Oh no. I buy music through itunes on my phone all the time, and I have it all mixed in with the music I ripped from CD on my ancient laptop.
I’m hoping it never happens again. You would have noticed it by now – the switch. Was in 2010 I think?
I miss my classic SO MUCH. Alas it gave up the ghost years ago and the only thing Apple makes to hold all my music at once is the Touch, which is just…excessively fancy for my music-listening needs.
The Touch is stupid and pointless. Why would I want an iPhone Lite to carry around music when I already HAVE an iPhone? The unnecessary functionality uses up storage space that one could use for music. And it’s so expensive, for so much less space than used to be available on the iPod Classics (the biggest capacity Touch available is 128gb and it is FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS).
(whispering) I love my iPod Touch. But then I’m also a luddite who doesn’t have a cellphone of any kind.
UGH YES. To actually take things someone has created, and store them in a crappier format, so that then they are only accessible if you keep using the service???
I have the same iPod, and I baby it like no other possession.
I have a 160 iPod Classic and on the day it dies I will cry over its tiny silver button wheel.
On this topic – anyone want to discuss music streaming services and/or dedicated mp3 players? I devour music at a rabid pace, so I always love hearing how other people find/acquire/listen to music!
I downloaded Spotify on my work computer recently, because I frequently run out of podcasts. It does keep me in the loop on what the latest pop songs are, since I don’t really listen to the radio. It also has a lot of classical and jazz, which is not something I would really listen to outside of work, so it’s very convenient for that.
Most of the music I find out about is through tumblr! I run a music blog, so I get sent a lot of new stuff, but I also follow a lot of people who have widely varying music tastes, and that’s where I seem to find most of the newer/up and coming bands that I listen to. And I acquire almost everything (that I don’t download illegally because I am horrible and going to music hell or whatever) via Bandcamp. I hate downloading from iTunes or Amazon and refuse to do it on principle.
What’s your music blog called?
Fuck Yeah! Queer Music. I’ve been in a bit of a lull recently, but I will hopefully be back to blogging regularly soon!
Nice! I’ve definitely found some amazing artists via tumblr – I’ll have to check your blog out!
Bandcamp! You can make a fan page and follow people with similar tastes in music. It’s been great for me since I am super lazy about finding new music, so to be able to see what people whose taste I trust are buying is really convenient.
Such a good method! I just know when my iPod goes I’ll have to find another way of keeping all my music centralized in one place.
I have an old Zune player and I’ve had a Zune pass for years. It lets you download the music and listen offline. It’s not awesome for discovery, but does have radio and related artists, which is good for me. I basically just download anything that looks good, hit shuffle, and delete if I hate it.
Brynplusplus has recommended it before, but I’ve been having fun with The Sixtyone. Some of the stuff is free to download and some you can buy. It’s quite a good mix of stuff.
Good thing you did, it’s new to me! And the first song I clicked on sounds awesome – love it!
My Classic went a few years ago and I still miss it. 🙁
When I bought my iphone 5c a couple of years ago I got the one with more storage space specifically to put my music on it.
But it still doesn’t hold nearly as much. I find myself juggling which music is on the phone at any given time! I’ve deleted apps I don’t use that often just to have more music storage. I was so sad when my old iPod finally died.
I subscribe to Google Play music, now that Rdio died. Especially since Google bought / absorbed Songza, which was good for finding new stuff (curated playlists, which are now integrated into Google play and i believe you can listen to those without a subscription).
Spotify is by far the best $10 I spend every month. Not just for the convenience of listening on my phone/through the website at work, but for how it’s introduced me to a ton of new music and easy access to chill playlists when I need them. So even if they occasionally yank a catalogue, I’m okay with it, because I can buy mp3s of my favorite music.
If you don’t mind me asking, are you able to stream your own mp3 files? I have the free version, and I can’t tell if you’re able to with premium. My biggest issue with most streaming services is that I have a massive amount of music that doesn’t exist in their libraries, but they usually don’t allow you to fill in the gaps in their collection with your own.
I know when I first purchased my subscription, some magic trick happened so that mp3s on my hard drive appeared in my Spotify collection and could be sorted into playlists. I haven’t tried to add more mp3s since, though. I know those tracks aren’t available when I’m not at home, though, so it’s not something you can travel with unless you’re bringing your hard drive with you. :/
What is nice is that you can download albums/playlists to listen to offline, so it works even when you’re out of a wifi zone (I’m sure there’s a limit to this, especially if it’s on your phone). Hamilton, of course, is my primary use for this.
Very good to know! It means it’s at least possible; I’ll have to investigate some more. Though presumably I couldn’t listen to any of my own songs on my phone or at work. Thanks very much for sharing!
Hamilton. Obviously the most important album to have on hand at all times.
With premium it’s definitely possible to listen to your own stuff on your phone if you sync the playlist for offline listening while it’s on the same wifi network as whatever computer has the actual files, I’d die and then discontinue my acct the moment they got rid of that. I’m not totally sure how to make it work for your work computer, though.
I’ve been using Noisetrade lately to discover music. They send out a daily newsletter which is kind of a lot annoying, but there’s a lot of artists who offer free downloads for samples/temporarily free albums/”pay what you want” and I’ve really liked the way they suggest other music you may like.
My favorite mp3 player, the Clip+, died a few months ago and I replaced it with what I thought was just the newest version, a Sansa Clip Jam, and it’s awful. Absolutely trash. The Clip+ was one of the best out there and now I can’t find anything as good. I don’t want an iPod! 🙁
I am An Old, and I’ve been using a Creative Zen Mozaic mp3 player for years and years (which I love). I will be very despondent if it dies.
I listen mainly to classical music (especially opera) and jazz, and I still buy a fair number of CDs just because the stuff I like is otherwise very hard to come by. I download music from Amazon, too.
I cannot abide iTunes or any Apple software, and I’ve been saving all my music files on Windows Media Player for eleventy billion years. I find it a lot easier to work with.
So I only just realised that they don’t make ipod classics anymore?! 🙁
How are you supposed to easily change songs and voume and whatever without having to take your ipod out and look at it?
It was extremely painful to read! The fact that it gobbled up her own compositions… I need to figure out how to back up my old iTunes into another repository? Not that I have Apple music, but if it is in the iTunes terms of use?
I will give Bandcamp a name bump here, since when you buy an album, they will stream it for you, but also allows you to download in multiple audio formats. Plus many artists sell physical albums through Bandcamp.
I was physically ill reading that. Imagine if Kindle did that!
Um, they can and have. Amazon remotely deleted copies of “1984” (because poetic?) from users’ Kindles in 2009, then settled the resulting lawsuit. http://arstechnica.com/business/2009/10/amazon-st… I don’t own one, so I can’t tell how/if they’ve revised their End User License Agreement.
The constant pushing of apple music and the shitty redesign of the music app on the iPhone pretty much means that until I bought Lemonade last week I hadn’t used my iTunes account to listen to music in probably…years? I have an old iPod touch with all my songs on it and everything’s backed up on an external hard drive but nowadays if I want to listen to an album on my computer or phone I just use Spotify. It’s kind of funny to realize, because back when I first got an iTunes account having a “music library” on my computer via iTunes was a huge deal to me and I spent a lot of time cultivating it by uploading CDs or whatever. Now I couldn’t care less. Thanks Apple!
edit: I feel like I should add that if I really like something I do buy a physical copy of it! I just dgaf about iTunes anymore!
In the next iTunes update, the software will automatically and silently replace all photos on networked devices with random cover art from U2 albums.
That is legitimately nightmarish.
Also, did apple stop making ipods? Is this what’s happening? I’m in my 20’s, shouldn’t I know these things? Do I lose my millennial membership card?
I was in an Apple store the other day and they still have iPods.
You mean Wikipedia lied to me??? That makes me glad, though.
Oh thank goodness. I like having my music on a separate device. I don’t want to have to keep it on my phone. The youths (and by youths, I mean salespeople who were maybe my age or few years younger) at the AT&T store were flabbergasted recently when I thought I lost my phone, and only got the 16 GB when picking a replacement. They were further dismayed when I clarified that I don’t keep music or videos on my phone.
music/video run down the battery so fast! having a dedicated music player intended just to play music means much better battery life for both devices. plus you don’t have weird interruptions to your music when your phone has a notification or something.
i miss my Sansa Clip+ so so so so fucking much. It died and it looked like the newest model is a Clip Jam? but it’s AWFUL and when shopping around, the only other real options are iPod and fuck no to that.
They stopped making Classics a couple years ago, but I’m pretty sure they still make Touches, which what is even the point of those? But you can still buy a classic pretty easily second hand.
I got my Touch after I ran out of space on my Nano (the Nano’s functionality was actually precisely what I needed and also it had a radio because I still listen to terrestrial NPR like a retiree). I use the Touch for music only and my pay-as-you go phone for everything else. Honestly looked around for an alternative to the Touch that would have the memory I needed that also had solid consumer reviews and it was pretty much a wasteland unfortunately.
Maybe Classic pricing has gone down? When they were discontinuing it I looked around but panic may have temporarily jacked up the prices for used ones.
IDK, I’ve never found streaming services to be that great at finding me new music I like and I basically almost never know what I want to listen to in my collection. I like the freedom of pressing shuffle on my whole collection and being all: surprise me.
I’ve never bought a classic new, so maybe pricing has gone down for new ones? I also generally do not buy any electronics more than $50 new, but I have had exceedingly good luck with that so far.
They released a sixth gen iPod Touch last September. And the Nano and Shuffle still exist.
And I will likely be the lone Toastie who loves the iPod Touch.
My classic is nearly dead and I don’t know what to do next.
I’ve been wanting to get a bigger harddrive for my 30GB Classic, but now its battery is also starting to go. I don’t know enough tech stuff to know if I should try to replace both components, cross my fingers and buy used on eBay, buy a new one… No one I know understands why I still carry around basically an entire harddrive just for my music everywhere I go, but the big ol’ brick has lasted me almost 10 years and many drops!
I had the same problem! I just ended up buying a used one from Amazon. I think it was a little more than $100, and was worth every penny. Prior to that I had one that I replaced the battery for a couple times, and the headphone jack once, but I did not trust myself to not fuck up switching the hard drive.
But my new one works great!
Same. And also why I still buy CDs.
I have all my MP3s on an external hard drive, backed up to a SECOND external hard drive that stays in a drawer disconnected from my computer. And the car is full of CDs.
This music collection goes back to high school Napster days and I get very defensive about it in these subscription times.
Same! I signed up, because I am gullible, and realized they replaced or deleted a lot of the music I had for ages. I’m so angry. I just hope I can find it again.
I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW THEY CAN DO THAT D:
I’m usually Johnny-on-the-spot with the Apple apologism, but not this time. Apple Music was a fiasco of staggering proportions and I’ve spent way too much of my own time fixing the mess it made of my collection. I finally got my old collection back, from my own local backup, but now I have to go in and manually delete dozens of duplicates; I mean, I fucking love my Springsteen, but that doesn’t mean I want to listen to every song on Darkness at the Edge of Town twice.
The saddest thing about all of this is that even with its massive fuckery Apple Music was the best out of all the music streaming services I tried.
When I was 15, my computer, which I had bought with my own very hard-earned money, crashed. The hard drive was destroyed. All my files were restored from a back-up: except the songs I had purchased on iTunes, which could not be copied. They couldn’t come back off my iPod, like the songs I’d illegally downloaded could, because there is some kind of protection imbedded in them. They couldn’t even be saved from my external hard drive. And Apple wouldn’t give me one cent to replace them, even though I had a record of purchasing them.
That was the last time I bought anything from iTunes.
The day they announced they were discontinuing the classic iPods, I went out and bought a new 160GB one (from a third party, since Apple had already removed them from the stores). The 80GB one I had was still working fine, but was getting full, and I knew the price on the last new ones was going to rise with a quickness.
And to think people find it weird I do not have iTunes/Apple Music…
This article about designing spaces for deaf people at Gallaudet University is a couple of months old, but the disability-related links made me think of it again and it is so good.
I think I read that via a link here (whether it was in the actual LR or someone put it in comments I’m not sure) – it’s really cool!
Additionally: the Alberta fires are continuing to grow and I think two people have been killed in the evacuation. There’s a massive airlift taking place evacuating people who went north, and Edmontons YMCAs and universities are offering up space. Airbnb has also offered free space for people to stay. The people I know who are fighting the fire are saying that it’s been one of the worst they’ve ever seen.
Here is a positive heartwarming slant to the Fort Mac story:
School Principal Escapes Fire With Busload of Students
I think you’re in Ottawa? My brother showed me that CTV or CBC had a graphic to show what the fire would look like, to us, here in Ottawa. It was literally spread clear across from Kanata to Orleans. It was chilling.
Holy crap, even half that is massive. 🙁
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/megantic-f…
Another story to warm your hearts today. People in Alberta and Quebec are often at odds but empathy is empathy.
This is probably my favourite story about people helping out the Fort Mac evacuaees…newly arrived Syrian refugees are right in there, because of course they are…. http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/we-under…
Yeah this one really got to me too. It also really got to the heart of what Nicole has said a few times about how taking in refugees is actually good for both the refugees and the countries that take them in. It’s the right thing to do, plus we are all better for it.
One of my co-workers there lost her home and a second one probably has too.
I wanted to share this excellent article about Kerry Washington’s PR strategy from the always great Anne Helen Peterson: https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/kw-the…
I’ve been impressed by Kerry Washington’s savvy since Scandal premiered, including the quote about fashion mentioned in the article, but also the fact that it has her idea for the Scandal cast to be super active on twitter and live tweet episodes. And I can’t think of anyone else in Hollywood who keeps her personal life so locked down. But I hadn’t thought about how she uses social media to create the illusion of intimacy with fans, while drawing a veil tightly over her real life.
Also, IRL Olitz shippers are wacky.
That’s a great piece! I love deconstructions of celebrity PR strategies (Marketing nerd here.), and this is a great example of how you don’t have to accept the status quo or the narrative imposed on you by an industry or the media, and how social media especially has given celebrities, in particular female celebrities, control over their own image. Why would anyone want shitty pap photos, when you can get photos direct from the source, and the person gets to decide what the public get to see instead of corporate PR machines or invasive photographers deciding what the public *should* know.
Reminds me of Beyonce’s social media and marketing tactics, as outlined here: https://storify.com/femme_esq/beyonce-as-marketin…
It’s all pretty brilliant, and good on them for being so in control.
Hnnng the Met Gala. I first became aware of it in 2013 and have been obsessed since. I know it’s probably not actually majorly fun, and also I’m a socialist so I shouldn’t care about these things, but it’s my dream to go. A dream that is as likely to come true as that one I had about my girlfriend being a hyper-intelligent antelope.
I’m surprised some of those people were actually able to go to the toilet in those outfits. I mean maybe they were just in there doing their make up and actually pissing into a very discreet nappy, but still.
I would support a Kickstarter to send a Toastie to the Met Gala. Just sayin’.
If Toasties managed to raise enough money to send me to the Met Gala, I think the honourable thing to do would be to give it to The Toast. I’m not saying that’s what would actually happen, I am but a weak mortal after all.
If it doesn’t already exist, somebody could make a killing marketing Thinx-esque underwear that absorbs and masks the scent of pee. Everybody would be in jumpsuits 24/7!
I hear you. Looking at pictures of the Met Gala is the only thing that makes me want to be famous enough to get an invite.
My horrible, horrible boss, who is not famous, only rich, goes to the Met Gala. If you get famous enough to score an invite, will you go and harass him for me?
I hadn’t seen Joan Smalls’ dress yet; it’s stunning, but in that only-a-supermodel-can-pull-it-off-way. A regular person would just look crazy in it. Something about all of that glamour makes me feel like an unwashed peasant or something.
I’m surprised some of those people were actually able to go to the toilet in those outfits.
i’m curious which outfit makes you say that. as a lady person with a life-long passion for making costumes and playing dress up, i saw nothing unmanageable there.
Potato fashion! Thank you, everyone, for your comments yesterday. I was completely lacking in energy to respond to all of them, but I read them and they were so helpful. I will be following many of the suggestions! As seen by CP Tater’s latest fashion statement.
We also started going up the stairs (we live on the fifth floor) after our walks. Neither of us appreciate this but it does seem to tire him out.
Your potato has a waist. I wasn’t aware that was a thing that could happen.
It’s ridiculous, right? He looks so funny.
Aw, two floofs with a belt in between.
I keep laughing when I look at him. The floof may soon be gone for the summer, since my mother keeps bothering me to make an appointment to get him a haircut, but I’m sure he’ll be just as cute!
Thundershirt! I tried to coax my cat into one last year with considerably less success.
He does not like me putting it on, but I am determined and bribe-y. I’m not sure how it is working, but once it’s on he doesn’t seem to mind so I don’t see much harm in him wearing it.
Haha, I did get it on, but the cat just flopped on the ground and squirmed her way out of it. Glad the tater doesn’t seem bothered once it’s on.
i had a CPH dream last night.
for some reason i lived in a very large house with a very large family and lots of cats & dogs. i reached down to give a puffalump of a pup a scritch and who should it be but the one and only Charles Potato Hashbrowns.
<3 <3 <3
Plz do not steal my tater. He may be trouble but he is the only one I’ve got.
I am super amused by Charlie’s apparent night job as a hypnopomp, though. I hope it pays enough for him to chip in on rent!
i may borrow him in my dreams but i would never abscond with your ‘tater.
You don’t need to respond to all of us! We’re grateful you post photos!
I have told my boss of Charlie Potato Hashbrowns and his various nicknames. Boss was suitably impressed by the appellation.
Additionally on disability issues: The Easter Seals new campaign/tagline/whatever is crap.
Holy sh… That’s not cool Easter Seals!
The links today sound great, and I look forward to reading them when I get home. I’ll just have to get through this last day of the first week of my internship. The rest of the week was great, but today is not (I haven’t even seen the ducks yet 🙁 ) and I’m feeling a bit lost.
Edit: My boss just left, and there’s no one else here today (yesterday was a federal holiday), so I get to leave in a few minutes! Will just check the shelf of free books before I go. Working in a publishing house does have its perks.
While Apple Music is a bit of a tire fire (it managed to somehow match the wrong tracks on Hamilton, screwing up the end on a long car ride), it can’t really delete your own tracks unless you tell it to. Yeah, it’s all very confusing.
http://www.imore.com/no-apple-music-not-deleting-…
The setup they describe for what happens on a “secondary Mac” sounds exactly like what people are complaining about, and I don’t think it would be that unusual for people to have two Macs and have most of their music on the one that Apple Music thinks is “secondary.”
I work with a lot of people with limited/no technical literacy. As in someone who doesn’t understand why she can’t open Excel files in Word. They would read the dialogue box that Jason Snell tweeted, panic, and probably hit the delete song button instead of delete download.
This is really really bad design, but I expect bad design and no regard for UX from Apple tbh.
Ah, I read this after the original link, and I definitely feel better about it now. (I’m still not an apple user or interested in Apple Music, but this has calmed me down quite a bit.)
I’m so glad someone else brought this up! The first thing I did after reading that blog post was think, “this can’t be true” and Googled it – Snopes, MacWorld, etc. all agree that it’s not.
anyway, that Virginia Woolf meal sounds sort of exactly like what I think of as early 20th century, upper-class English food, like a white fish in a white sauce in a white porcelain tureen on a white lace placemat on a white tablecloth. is the point its relentless similarity? That at some point you’re rich enough that you can afford an uncompromising sameness to everything, that your palette is refined enough that all you want anymore is blandness.
I mean, I guess I know that a lot of this had to do with the rationing that everyone still remembered during the Interwar period, I remember Ian Fleming writing a big thing about how he didn’t like fancy foods, he just liked scrambled eggs, it’s just that James Bond liked fancy foods because he was decadent, and a lot of this is because after each of the wars there was a sense that you had a moral responsibility to eat really bland food without enjoying it because don’t you know there’s a war on, our boys are dying out there.
A few years ago I read a book that pointed out that the sex scenes were sort of secondary to the original audiences of the Bond books; the real porn was the food. For people still living with rationed oleomargarine and tinned snoek, the idea of 007 sitting down to pats of yellow butter and gleaming black caviar–and being persnickety if he didn’t get food or drink that didn’t meet his standards!–was the stuff of fantasy.
yeah I don’t think there’s any question about that, that and the cold martinis and bottle after bottle of Bollinger; in a lot of ways even the action is secondary to this kind of wealth porn, the fantasy of being able to cynically move through the uppermost classes and enjoy the comforts of their privilege.
It’s like that scene in Bletchley Circle where she pulls out the beef roast that’s just been boiling, plain, in a pot of water. And I think she’s gonna do something else with it, which I am curious to see, but nope, she just plops it on a plate, sets it on the table and announces “Lunch!”
And I thought to myself, that is SO ENGLISH.
That was the most hardcore realism I’ve ever seen in a period TV show. IT HAD A STRING AROUND IT! Do you remember that? Beef served with string.
And then you had to wait for your grandmother to cut the string off in order to carve off a piece to go with your boiled peas and boiled potatoes… I mean… uh… no, I don’t remember that at all.
Tying up a roast is still A Thing that people do! Even people who use seasonings.
Ah, so they made a show about Christmas with my mother…
The Virginia Woolf article reminds me of Hilary Mantel’s excellent book “An Experiment in Love” which is “a book about appetite” in so many ways. She describes, in detail, the pitiful amount and quality of food that is served to the girls at the boarding house, and even straight up says “they’d never dare try to get away with it if we were boys.” The difference in the way men and women are treated as related to something as simple as food is pretty shocking.
That book is one of my favorites, and I highly recommend it (although, I should note, it is nothing like her “Wolf Hall” series, so don’t go into it expecting that.)
Hilary Mantel’s books before Wolf Hall are all very different from each other – huge shout out for “Eight Months on Ghazza Street” which is set in Saudi Arabia – a young English woman goes there with her engineer husband and witnesses the strangeness of both the Saudies and the expat community. Quite unlike anything you will read anywhere else. It is an early novel and you can see how much her prose has improved since then, but quite rivetting with a thriller-ish plot about her mysterious Saudi neighbours.
I’m adding this far too late and everyone will be on the Open Thread now, but please read it if you read this!
Today in (Feminist) History!! [ Archive]
(Today is a good one, make sure to read through, it gets extra good!)
This day in 1829 saw the birth of Phebe Ann (Coffin) Hanaford, an abolitionist and a feminist who would go on to become the first woman ordained as a Universalist minister in New England, the first woman to be a chaplain to the Connecticut state legislature.
A teacher with a husband and two children, Phebe became an abolitionist during the Civil War. She joined the American Equal Rights Association, where she was a suffragist who advocated for both black and female suffrage. She not only spoke at suffrage meetings locally and nationally, but served as the Vice President to the Association for the Advancement of Women in 1874. It was around this time that Phebe joined the Universalist Church of America, a church which contained many members who believed in equality for women.
Thanks to encouragement of Olympia Brown, a fellow suffragist and the first woman to be ordained a Universalist minister in the entire United States, Phebe studied to join the ministry. She was ordained in 1868, becoming the first woman in both Massachussetts and New England to do so, and only the third woman nation-wide. Even from the beginning, there was ‘controversy’ around her, in this case mostly due to sexism; a newspaper reported that when she performed marriage ceremonies, “men were forced to take their wives’ names”, which was untrue. In 1870, she was also the first woman ever appointed chaplain to the Connecticut state legislature, after moving to a position at a church in New Haven, CT.
And what about Phebe’s husband during all this? Well the same year she was ordained, Phebe separated from her husband. They never divorced officially, but she left him, took the kids with her, and began living with a woman named Ellen Miles. The congregation she was preaching for at the time (First Universalist Church), as well as the local newspapers, referred to Ellen as “the minister’s wife”, intending this to be an insult. They were also rather displeased by her continued efforts towards suffrage, and her campaigning for women’s rights. However, when they tried to pressure and threaten her into “dismissing” Ellen, Phebe refused and left to start her own congregation, the Second Universalist Church; Ellen came with her, and ran the Sunday School.
According to history, the “nature” of their relationship was “uncertain”, but “their letters testify to a deep and abiding affection”… which is so the historical version of calling them “gal pals”, right? (Just gals being pals, nothing to see here!) Regardless, Ellen and Phebe remained together for 44 years, until Ellen died in 1914. Phebe herself lived until 1921, at the age of 92; a disappoint to her, since she had dreamed of living to 100.
Also on this day…
• In 1981, Maya Ying Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is selected from 1,421 other entries. She was only 21 at the time.
• In 1992, the death of Marlene Dietrich. (Mostly included this for Mallory.)
This is a GREAT This Day In History, thanks! It also makes me super mad because I was raised UU, and had about a billion Sunday school lessons on Unitarians And/Or Universalists Of The Past, including some people who had pretty tenuous connections to Unitarianism and/or Universalism, but I never heard of Phebe Hanaford or even Olympia Brown, which, you’d think at a minimum “first female ordained minister” would have come up at some point. GET IT TOGETHER, UU SUNDAY SCHOOL CURRICULUM.
Ugh, right? Kurt Vonnegut once said if he was going to pick a religion, it would be UU! Whatthefuckever.
I’m going to print this out and post it on the bulletin board Sunday.
Yes! I am sending this info to my UU friends to see if they knew, too!
SECOND Universalist Church, lol. Reminds me of the line in a Trig book that went like, “I always wondered why we were the First Baptists. Maybe at some point all the Baptists had gotten together and run a race, and we came in first?”
Yay! A non-racist suffragist!
Yes, came here to say that it’s so refreshing to read about suffragists who were, for all intents and purposes, intersectional. Hooray Phebe!
A non-racist suffragist who was also probably totally either a lesbian or bisexual, WHEEE.
The women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. grew out of the abolition movement, so I’m not sure that Phebe’s involvement in abolition necessarily made her “non-racist” (in the sense that some other suffragists who went through the same path definitely were racist).
Also, her maiden name was Coffin? Was she related to Lucretia Coffin Mott and Martha Coffin Wright?
Oh, I’m so happy she lived to see the nineteenth amendment!
Going down a YouTube hole learning about Maya Lin!!!
I am not surprised that Trump is going after the antivaxxers. I should also hope that the disability community at large isn’t fooled by him! Because we’ll just be targeted again once he realizes that his social conservative club likes to play disability eradication.
It’s just occurred to me, seeing “the disability vote” paired with “anti-vaccination parents of autistic children” that we can’t be more than a few years off autistic kids of anti-vaccine parents becoming activists in their own right. I wonder how that will play out? Or are they already out there?
I’m not autistic, so I can’t say, but I think autistic young adults are already mobilizing.
They are very much already out there!
What about the anti-vaccine kids who are injured from avoidable disease? The vanguard of that generation should be reaching adulthood pretty soon if not already.
Anti-vaccine has been around for awhile (though not always because of the false autism connection). This came out on Slate two years ago from a child who grew up unvaccinated because of her parents’ beliefs- http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/01…
A fairly comprehensive article looking at autism and trans stuff: http://www.curvemag.com/Lifestyle/Living-Between-…
A rage inducing clusterfuck of an anti-abortion bill in MO: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/06/missouris_racist_…
I cannot even with that Missouri story.
The Missouri GOP is generally in a race to see who can be the most awful tbh. I’m sorta surprised at how little national attention for awfulness the state gets.
I am also not surprised by the correlation between gender stuff and autism, mostly because my partner and I are both nonbinary and autistic. 😛
Well, figures like Todd Akin can certainly capture national attention resulting in his resounding defeat. Thank god. But there is a danger of it all just becoming white noise.
Australia is also going to the polls soon and I wanted to share a comic by lefty Australia’s favourite cartoonist First Dog on the Moon, which was published in the Guardian today. It’s called “Everything you need to know about the Australian election, brought to you by Snitty the cassowary”: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may….
“Malcolm [Turnbull] was very popular after he took over from dumped prime minister, the infamous onion-munching goblin-shaped weirdy Tony Abbott… But now everyone’s realised that Malcolm’s as useful as a lost sock in a microwave oven so here we are having an election.”
“as useful as a lost sock in a microwave oven”
saving for future use!
Also LOVING First Dog. Even own a T-shirt!
Oh god. My mum died six years ago next week, and I took lots of her shoes and boots because we had the same sized and shaped feet. (Her watch fitted my wrists perfectly too.). Most of the ones I wore regularly have worn out now: the few that are left are ones that she and I would only wear occasionally. It’s such a strange intimacy. I wonder whether my daughter will have our long slim feet too.
My infant daughter looks exactly like her father in all ways but one: she has my feet, and therefore my mother’s feet. It was one of the first things I noticed when she was born – the strange way the second-to-smallest toe rises above the others. My mother almost cried when she saw it – it was, she said, the first time she really realized that the baby carried her DNA directly. That she had contributed to this person. Neat, feet.
I have a question about pain medication. I have intense chronic muscle pain which I am doing everything to assuage, including PT, regular exercise, anti-inflammatory diet, trigger point injections, and more. Nothing helps. I am constantly in extraordinary discomfort.
I take Tramadol and even with that, when I hear discussions of the evils of pain medication and fools who allow themselves to be prescribed these meds, I feel ashamed and scared. I don’t want to be an addict. But I want to keep living my life and doing my job, and until something else starts to work, what else can I do?
Does anyone else understand what I’m saying? Is it EVER okay to take these medications?
Yes. It is okay. It is okay to not be in pain and go on living your life as comfortably as possible.
Painkiller abuse is real and terrible, but painkillers have also allowed millions of people to live normally and provide freedom from pain.
As long as you are under a doctor’s care and taking care of yourself, you are fine. Painkillers are not an enemy in and of themselves. They are a tool. Axes are a hugely important tool, but axe murderers still exist, you know? That some people can use tools for bad ends does not make the tools bad.
You’re fine. You deserve to live your life comfortably.
Thank you! This really makes me feel better.
When you need pain medication because you are in pain it is JUST FINE to take them. You should not feel ashamed of needing basic medical care, even though popular culture is currently in a weird place about pain.
Living with constant pain is horrible and no one should be ashamed by whatever they are taking to get rid of the pain.
Thank you so much!
Please continue to take your medication! If you are concerned, make sure you’ve got a good doctor who really understand pain and pain medication and can talk to you about your worries.
As I understand it, it’s not uncommon for some people who live with chronic pain to develop a certain level of dependence. But even that is actually ok a lot of the time. Low-level dependence which makes you functional is not worse than living without painkillers, and there are goods strategies for people who need opiates to manage their dependence. Serious destructive addiction amongst people who need pain medication is still pretty unusual and it’s definitely not an inevitable outcome of taking opiates.
There’s a horrible Puritan narrative which suggests that all drugs (especially all opiates) are bad and which makes people think they should live with pain, and it’s gross and not true. You deserve good medical care and you deserve good painkillers.
I think this Puritan narrative is especially popular in Massachusetts right now, which is behaving as though opiate addiction is a new thing that was just invented by the people of our state for some reason. It’s a bit suffocating, really.
Seconding that the U.S. and Massachusetts especially have serious issues with puritanicality (coming from someone born and raised in MA).
Yes – we have very short medical memories (see also: forgetting how horrible many of the diseases prevented by vaccines actually are). The narrative makes it sound like doctors are handing out painkillers like M&Ms while raking in kickbacks from pharma companies, and rarely acknowledges what a recent and amazing innovation good pain management drugs are. Doctors deserve blame for the opiate crisis, but I also see how prescriptions got out of control – if someone is in incredible pain and you can hand them a cheap drug that will alleviate that pain, that’s probably difficult to resist.
Oh my heavens yes. People don’t get prescribed pain medications and instantly become addicts; most of the time, there are other issues in their lives that cause the addiction. Poverty, stress, isolation, untreated mental illness, etc. It is still true that the majority of people who are prescribed opiates for chronic pain do not become addicts. Don’t feel one single second of shame for taking care of yourself.
Thank you! I was listening to this interview with Rob Reiner and his son about their new movie about addition, and I had to stop because the son mentioned Prince and was like, “Well, of course he got addicted and died, that’s what happens to people when they do what their doctors tell them, and they think it’s okay because a doctor said it was.” I felt personally attacked. I take only what I need, and I also don’t push my body to the point where I am in deeper pain, like Prince obviously was doing… I don’t think I’m prone to addiction, because I’m a healthy person and I’ve never had issues with it in my 34 years of life. I just need to not be in pain for a little while each day!
The Rat Park study is a good, easy to understand insight into how addiction probably works in humans. Bonus is that the link is in comic form!
Slate also *just* had an article about how the narrative of Prince’s death is being spun and how badly it distorts the very real need of many for painkillers to live their lives. It also pointed out the HUGE difference between a small physical dependence on painkillers, which is a tradeoff for not living in constant pain, and an actual addiction. We often conflate the two, but they’re not at all the same thing.
I’d love to read the Slate piece. This is exactly how I feel. If I were taken off my medications, I would be uncomfortable and miserable and upset, but I would not turn to buying them illegally; I have a strong support system and a job I love and a life I don’t want to compromise. I think if I were addicted, my need would overshadow those things and I wouldn’t be able to see outside of that. I hate being ashamed of needing help managing my pain.
So the entire article itself does spend a fair amount of time on the scary side of opiates and addiction, but does take care to point out that that only applies to a small number of people. The gist is:
“Many of those treated for chronic pain will not become physically dependent. And even in those who do develop dependence, only a small fraction will become addicted, and even a smaller number will overdose. It would be cavalier to suggest that physical dependence upon an opiate is an entirely benign condition; we would best avoid it. But we should also avoid the notion that treating chronic pain creates “addicts.” Sufferers of chronic pain are not compulsively craving and seeking drugs. They are looking for relief from their pain.”
Link here if you feel like reading the whole thing: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/…
Yeah, we don’t call people who need, say, blood thinners to prevent a stroke “addicts” just because they need to take a medicine every day or else they’ll feel bad and/or die. Taking painkillers for pain, and then feeling bad when you don’t take them because your pain comes back (even if it might be different had you never taken the pills), is not at all the same thing as being addicted.
I’m so sorry you’re having so much pain–chronic pain is just awful and exhausting (I had it for about a year, mostly better now thankfully). I’ve been working in the policy area around opioids lately, and the latest thinking is that they really aren’t suited to treat chronic pain, and can for some people actually cause a feedback loop where the pain gets worse in the long term as a direct result of the opioids. That doesn’t mean there aren’t many many patients who take them appropriately for chronic pain and are able to have some semblance of a life as a result–I want to make sure it doesn’t sound like I’m vilifying those folks!
I should note that Tramadol is not considered in the same class as percocet, oxy, etc–I am not a doctor or scientist, but I was told by an expert that it has a different mechanism, but also carries its own risks (I guess there is a decent risk of seizures in long-term use).
So yes, there are times it’s okay and appropriate to take opiates, but there’s a massive swing of the pendulum coming where they will be recommended to be more used in targeted, acute situations (post-surgery, broken wrist, etc). Also, other nations with advanced medical systems don’t use them nearly as much as the US does- -http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all-of-the-global-opioid-supply.html
It sounds like you’re doing all things you’re supposed to to try and manage pain–only other thing I’d ask is if you’ve tried OMT or other manipulation? You mention PT, but osteopathic manipulative treatment can make a world of difference for some (but can cost some $ out of pocket upfront, until you are reimbursed by your insurance if you’re in the States).
I haven’t tried that and I hope I can! I will speak to my doctor. Thank you!
“the latest thinking is that they really aren’t suited to treat chronic pain”
Yes, according to the “latest thinkers,” because…people get dependent while only getting “some” reduction in pain.
As if “some” reduction in pain couldn’t be the difference between some people’s being able to lead functional lives or not. As if physical dependence were equally as terrible as addiction.
Opiates, especially for longer-term use, unquestionably have their risks and drawbacks. Alternative strategies for pain relief should definitely be tried. But opiates are useful tools for pain control. The lazy, muddled, moral-panicky thinking coming out of the opiate policy people is an embarrassment.
Hm, yes, well when I was speaking about “the latest thinking”, I was actually referring to the pain specialists I’ve spoken with, not the policy makers. Again, I noted in my original comment that plenty of people take opioids to manage chronic pain, and they aren’t addicts, and they get relief and are able to have a life because of it.
That still doesn’t address the research though that for some types of chronic pain, opioids can create a feedback loop of increasing tolerance (NOT ADDICTION), I mean just actual physical tolerance where a higher dose becomes needed to manage the pain as time goes on.
Why do we have such a drastically higher rate of their usage in the States than in European countries? How are they managing chronic pain? We certainly shouldn’t ban use of opioids wholesale or anything, but I think some examination of the current situation by the healthcare community is certainly warranted.
I am sad that you feel ashamed to try something that might help you live a less pain-filled life. That sucks. Do you feel like you’re prone to addiction? That might be something to consider. If it’s not something you have an issue with, then maybe at least give it a try? Could be a moot point, you know. I know lots of people (including myself) who are intolerant or allergic to opiates and the like, but it seems to me that if you’ve exhausted all other options, there is absolutely no shame in trying prescription meds. I hope you find a solution.
Thank you! All these supportive comments are making me feel a lot better.
I take Zoloft for my depression, and like most SSRI’s, it creates a physical dependency, and stopping it cold turkey is a terrible idea which leads to all sorts of unpleasant side effects. So technically, I suppose I’m addicted to antidepressants. However, the alternative is not addressing a chronic medical issue that ruins my life, so I’m ok with any chemical dependency that may arise.
If (and this is only an if) you were to develop an addiction to prescription painkillers, that’s something you can address with a doctor, and it’s not a cause for shame. However, many people take prescription painkillers without developing an addiction. You have the right to not be in pain, and to not be ashamed of your desire to live without pain.
YES YES YES. This is why these drugs exist – to be used safely and effectively by people that need them. Unfortunately, the design of some of these drugs heightened the likelihood they could be abused or lead to addiction.
Addiction is a sort of poor term anyway. Professionals talk about abuse. Taking pain killers every day might be a addiction in a trivial sense but when done due to actual constant pain that’s not abuse: that’s just prescribed treatment.
This is such a great distinction that is very clear, thank you. My BFF isn’t “addicted” to his insulin, but he is “dependent” on it to function. I don’t think it’s any different when taking painkillers for, you know, pain, even in the long-term.
I didn’t even think about this point which is also great. I could be a steroid addict by this definition that year I lived in wall to wall carpeting and needed to take my inhaler before I went to bed.
Sometimes after a hard day at work I want a glass of wine. It feels soothing. There are other things I can do to deal with my day, like yoga or a bath or reading a book, but probably my favorite thing is to come home and have a glass of wine or a cocktail on the couch in my PJs. if however I could only deal with my bad day with wine, if I needed wine…to get through good days, if I had to drink more and more, etc, then that would be addiction. That’s not an exact comparison, but that’s you. The number one thing that works for you is painkiller, and you have other methods you could turn to if you felt like it turned into a problem.
So if you are taking the medically proscribed dose, you don’t take more than you need, you don’t take it when you aren’t in pain, you hope your pain gets better and you can stop taking it, you feel like your relationships and work and hobbies are better able to exist when you take your medicines, I really wouldn’t worry. If you ever feel like, oh god my boss is yelling at me, a tramadol will make this ok, then…that’s a good time to think about it- if you use it for mental pain, not physical.
Great point! I’ve never used it off-label, and I try to go full days or 3/4 days without any medication to make sure I’m not tricking my body into doing anything weird (I don’t really know what I mean by that, it’s just a nondescript fear I have). But I usually end up needing to get some relief to keep going, at some point– always physical relief, never mental.
my boyfriend has to take an anti inflammatory for tendonitis, and he told me he occasionally tries to let it wear off because he worries that he’ll get too comfortable…being not uncomfortable, so I get you. But yeah, he was worried about it too and I was like…unless you feel like you are turning mean to people unless you have taken it, or are taking it extra, I wouldn’t worry, it’s not really surprising or worrying to me that you like the sensation of not limping about in terrible shooting pain.
Yes, it is okay. I have severe facial pain due to nerve damage and took tramadol for many years to treat it. I have been having recurrent pelvic pain that meant several scripts for percocet each year for the last few years. People who say it is better to live in pain than risk addiction either do not know what unrelenting pain feels like, or they forgot to tack on “for me” at the end of their sentence.
You deserve to have your pain treated, and you work very hard at handling it. It is okay for medication to be part of your plan for handling the pain. YOU are okay for using them. You are just freaking fine, and I wish I could give you a million gentle hugs until that sinks into your bones.
Yes, yes, absolutely. I’ve been where you are, and it’s so sad and frustrating that people are made to feel ashamed of taking medications that help them maintain basic life functionality. :hug:
Heroin got its name because it made a heroic difference to people in pain. If you are using legitimately prescribed meds, you are by definition not an addict even If you are physically dependent. When the time comes for you to stop using those meds, you might experience withdrawal, which sucks. But as long as these are the meds we have and you need them, keep on taking them and living your life.
Also, the great thing about legal drugs is that you’re prescribed them by your doctor, and then you can stop taking them following the doctor’s advice, which reduces the likelihood of nasty withdrawal symptoms.
This is why the current upswing in the demonization of painkillers in general, and opiods in particular, drives me up a wall.
Both of my parents were permanently, legally disabled by the time they reached middle age. My father from the rare immune disorder that eventually killed him. My mom from blood clots that will almost certainly kill her sooner or later (though she also has mental issues that make it difficult for me to truly grasp her medical condition(s) secondhand and probably would have eventually made it impossible for her to work anyway). Both also blew out multiple disks in their backs along the way.
(The way I’m writing this makes is sound like this happened to them together! Actually, they separated when I was 4, and both later remarried.)
They both lived in some degree of agony. Not for weeks or months. For years and years and years.
My dad (a man that once fell off some scaffolding and immediately went back to work, and wouldn’t find out for a couple of months after that he had broken his ankle in the fall), would lie on the floor and writhe in pain and moan. And eventually scream. And part of it was my step-mother, who was an addict and sometimes stole his medication, and yes that sucks. But the bigger part of it was that his doctor, who was by all accounts fantastic and a good person and the best specialist for his condition in the US, could not prescribe enough medication to actually relieve his pain. Because it would put his practice at risk to be seen as prescribing too many powerful painkillers.
In a less dramatic example, my mom just spent two weeks basically trapped in her room, because it hurt too much going up and down the stairs. She had something wrong with her leg. What exactly was wrong we don’t know, because she refused to go to the doctor or the hospital because she’s terrified that they wouldn’t believe her and would chalk it up to drug seeking behavior. (She was involuntarily committed once before – not for drugs – and is scared of it happening again.)
So yes, get the goddamn drugs. You don’t deserve to live like that. And the people who love you don’t deserve to have to watch you live like that. The abuse of painkillers among those that genuinely need them is ridiculously low, a fact usually lost in the puritanical panic currently gripping the country.
So wait–Apple can’t delete my music if the only Apple software I have is a version of iTunes that hasn’t been updated in about 6 years. Right? (Right????) Relatedly, does anyone else use a completely different media player to actually organize their music, and only use iTunes to buy stuff from the iTunes’ store?
My husband still uses WinAmp, and now I’m strongly considering switching over.
Same here. It really whips the llama’s ass.
I stuck with WinAmp for YEARS past its prime because of the feature where you can shuffle all the music on a playlist at once, then play it in a set (shuffled) order that it saves and remembers. Also because I liked the Sailor Moon S / Professor Tomoe WinAmp skin I made when I was in high school.
I bounced back and forth almost monthly in college. My friends and I were constantly in search of the best music visualizer, and those two kept releasing updates. But then we discovered Electric Sheep and that was the end of that.
I think if you just never let the cloud in, you should be fine. Turn off your clouds, they’re a terrible menace.
“Turn off your clouds”
That’s very poetic!
I thiiiiiink this only applies if you actually sign up for a monthly subscription to Apple Music and use one of the specific settings under that service that will put all your music in the cloud so you can listen to it across multiple devices. But I could be wrong. I never let iTunes automatically sync *anything* because they do a terrible job explaining how it works, and I am scared that it will delete things off my iPod.
What media player do you use to organize your music?
I did not buy a monthly subscription or sign up for anything cloud-related, but iTunes deleted a bunch of my music. I believe it happened automatically as part of an OS update about six months ago. I had no idea until
i tried to play my music on a long car ride (no wifi) and couldn’t access it.
omg totally OT BUT they cast “young Han Solo” this morning, what are your thoughts??
me: relief it is not ansel elgort or little franco, still salty that they are making a young han solo movie when we have one already called Star Wars
I can dig it. Now where’s young Lando?
I actually would like old Lando, too, or Lando really at any phase in his career, that’s a guy who has adventures and wears a cape.
I just want an entire movie of nothing but Lando. This has been my dream pretty much since I was seven. Make it happen, Disney.
Who wants a young Han Solo? One of the many things that’s so appealing about Han Solo is that he is a bonafide MAN. I don’t want to see some cocky 22-year-old version of him unless we can somehow get ahold of a time machine and get actual Young Harrison Ford.
Yeah I feel like there is no one who can do that role justice, I’d have been disappointed no matter what.
🙁
🙁
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Since the time machine scenario is unlikely, we’ll all just have to watch American Graffiti to get our Young (wish) Harrison Ford fix.
I am really disappointed that they didn’t decide to make an inter-trilogy Obi-Wan Kenobi movie where he is taking baby Luke Skywalker to Tatooine and it’s basically a remake of Lone Wolf and Cub.
My thoughts are basically: if they absolutely HAVE to make that movie, you could do a lot worse. Ehrenreich was very charming in Hail Caesar, and much of the rest of the shortlist was terrible.
Agreed. He was one of my favorite parts of Hail Caesar (after the No Dames musical number) so I’m glad his career is getting a boost.
I found out last night that one of my long-time online friends graduated in the same high school class with him. She also went to class with that dude who made Snapchat. Oh, California prep schools.
After his amazing work in Hail Caesar (easily the best part of the movie, including tap dancing Channing Tatum), I’m all for it. He was the best choice (although after seeing Sing Street and A Royal Night Out, I actually like Jack Reynor, one of the other options they considered).
Today as always I weep tears of gratitude that the universe is allowing me to exist on this planet at the same time as Chuck Tingle. (I now know the coding to make that link all fancy-like but I’m boycotting non-classwork html sorry.)
http://www.dailydot.com/lol/chuck-tingle-trolling…
I sort of want to buy one of his books now, but I don’t know which one to choose.
I chose to read My Ass Is Haunted By The Gay Unicorn Colonel but I had mixed feelings about it: https://vgum.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/my-ass-is-h…
I am so pleased by this trolling. Cheers to Chuck Tingle, whoever he may be.
Relevant to this, Ursula Vernon wrote an epic filk about it:
https://storify.com/z4ns4tsu/ursulav-gives-chuck-…
Some of us may have gotten a toehold in medieval history by reading Judith Tarr’s fantasy/history novels back in the day. She’s having a hard time now and is reaching out for help to keep her horses fed and herself housed. If you’re moved to throw a few coins her way–or buy some books or leave good reviews of the ones you’ve already read–it would be a kind act.
This is such a sad story. I worry so much about our aging SF/F writer population, many of whom only ever made modest livings and don’t really have resources to meet old age.
Thanks for letting us know – her books were mainstays of mine in high school. On a related note, she’s been doing a reread of Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni books over on Tor.com.
Also in autism news: my MPP (well technically she’s not my MPP because I don’t live on the Mountain anymore, but she is my MPP in my heart) got ejected from the legislature yesterday for demanding that Kathleen Wynne answer for the kids she kicked out of the IBI program. I’m so proud: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/hamil…
Also not my MPP, because I’m downtown, but I have a renewed respect for Mountain folks now.
I’m late, but can I just say I’m extremely happy to see two other Hamilton-not-the-musical Toasties here?
Good for her! My son (2) was diagnosed a few months ago and we were (sort of) used as propaganda in a toothless news article about it in Toronto, which made it seem like I was happy about the changes, when in reality I’m livid because the terrible developmental pediatrician was all HE NEEDS IBI IMMEDIATELY SO GET RIGHT ON IT OR ELSE and of course there is still a waiting list one year deep because we don’t have tens of thousands of spare dollars lying around to go private. So we’re supposedly like “yay changes!” in the article, yet we actually just moved back to my home state in the US where he’ll be eligible for much, much better services (including free special needs daycare 5-6 hours a day, which does not exist in Ontario) and more affordable behavioral therapy. And we moved for many reasons but primarily that one.
Toasties, I just read this and it reminds me to share how much I am BURSTING with gratitude for my community right now. We lost our day care unexpectedly two weeks ago (good riddance, it was a terrible fit, but we were fired without notice and it was really stressful) and I was absolutely overwhelmed by how kind the women in my life were. Multiple people offered babysitting so my husband and I didn’t have to miss too much work. Some were close friends, some were friends that I haven’t seen as much of since our daughter was born, one was someone I barely knew in grad school but who is on the same parents facebook group and reached out to help (!!!). Many others reached out to network and help us find new child care or stopgap babysitters. The two women who work in the same cluster of rooms with me encouraged me to bring her to work and cooed over her when I did. My inlaws drove up from Florida to take care of her for a few weeks, giving us a tiny bit of breathing room.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but I will never, ever, ever understand the narrative that women are catty and that stay at home mothers and employed mothers are somehow enemies or judgy mcjudgersons of each other (ditto women with and without children). I mean I’m sure some are, since women are people (newsflash) and some people are jerks, therefore some women are jerks, but I have never felt so grateful and loved/loving toward the women in my life as I do right now.
Women are the best. Thank you for sharing this – very uplifting.
I’ve just come back from a week of Auntie Duty (While also hanging out with my Auntie), being an Aunt is brilliant and I wish I had more friends with children that I could support with adoptive Auntying (in selfish exchange for hanging out with children while I responsibly put off having my own).
I’m glad you found the support you needed around you!
Because of Dear Prudence, I now know that there is wayyyy more sibling incest going on out there than I ever cared to believe before.
At this point, I don’t think a day goes by where we’re not discussing incest on the Toast!
If we include Crimson Peak (which of course we are), then yes, this is 100% true.
Right? I really did not think this was such a thing. The Lannisters/ Targaryens aren’t meant to be relationship role models, people.
Well, who knows. (I think that there is way more incest porn out there than there are actual consenting adults doing it, although a lot of that depends on your definition of incest–there are many states where first-cousin marriage is legal). What was kind of bizarre about the Reddit case wasn’t just the implied incest, but the fact that the writer’s fiance kept insisting that everything was cool.
It should come as no surprise, but Harvey Weinstein’s reach is terrifying.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/a-filmm…
Is this the place to mention that I always get Harvey Weinstein and Harvey Fierstein mixed up? I can never remember which is which.
Your comment is the first time when I have actually realized that I do this. So much of life now makes more sense!! Thank you!
ngl, one of the reasons I did not develop an oxy addiction after surgery was that it was foot surgery and I physically could not get to the pharmacy to get more. (My right foot, of course, so I wasn’t even allowed to drive. First semester of grad school. 0/10, do not recommend.) That was without a doubt the most painful thing that ever happened to me, and if I had known that you could just take more when it started to hurt again I would have been saved weeks of lying in bed crying.
Pain medication and its management is so fucked. My mom has MS, which you would think would be a totally legitimate medical reason for serious pain medication, and she gave up on the pain doctor a couple of years ago because even though he was as helpful as he could be, my parents travel a lot and it’s just too much of a pain in the ass to try to get heavy narcotics refilled when you’re not at your normal pharmacy. I’m inclined to blame House for some of it – I swear it looked like it was getting better for a while there, and then that show came out and was all, Nope, if you take pain meds for more than a month you’re a dangerous addict.
My mother calls me a ‘pill popper’ because I take painkillers when I have pain. (As in I take an ibuprofen or two when I have cramps or a headache. Because that’s what they’re for.). I once went to the doctor as a teen and got some prescription painkillers for cramps (not opiates, just a bit stronger than normal OTC stuff), and my mother threw such a shit fit when she found them that she threatened my doctor that she would report them and have their license taken away. Probably not a thing she could do, but it scared my doctor enough that I got a reputation for drug seeking at that surgery and could rarely get more than a paracetamol out of them for the next few years (and I was an athlete who was constantly in there with weird injuries).
Taking painkillers for actual pain is what they are for, and people who have serious pain conditions shouldn’t be punished because of other peoples weird beliefs/attitudes (or occasionally genuine addictions or mental illness being masked with addiction.)
I’m livid on your behalf. Taking ibuprofen for cramps != addiction, FFS. Yes, all medications (including OTC medications) have side effects. HOWEVER, when the benefits of taking the medication outweigh the risks, the rational thing to do is take the god-damn drugs.
I’ve been with the same pain doctor for over 12 years. They frequently miswrite my prescriptions, the phone staff are extremely poorly informed, they’ve given me incorrect information about my insurance (like the time they wanted me to try Botox for my headaches, I show up, and oh, I was supposed to PROVIDE THE BOTOX and pay $1200 up front for it), are consistently 2+ hour late for appointments, have booked me for appointments and let me sign in and wait for over three hours before claiming I was not booked at all and all the doctors had left (but refuse to give me confirmation of my appointments in writing) and have threatened to put “refuses drug tests” in my records because I like to know when I sign in if I’m going to be tested because I’m bad at peeing on cue, and need to drink a lot of water to do it. Then when I finally see the doctor, he shames me about being overeducated in non-lucrative, immediate-job-providing liberal arts fields and working for my dad, consistently refused my request for a referral to a female therapist or to a new rheumatologist after mine moved, and got into a game of chicken with my then-therapist because neither wanted to be “responsible” for letting me try Cymbalta.
And I’ve been there this long because this is the first year I’ve felt actually capable of the pain-in-the-ass process of switching to a new pain doctor without being accused of being a drug-seeking addict. (Well, and because current one has said such shitty things about medical marijuana and I’m not comfortable bringing it up to ask about, so at least I can start from the position of looking for people who include it in their practices.)
Anyway, this started when I was about nineteen, when I was told I “shouldn’t need” anything stronger than tylenol to go to class, and when I was told that “a lot of times, students develop these problems when they don’t want to work”–at the time, I had straight As at Swarthmore, which isn’t generally considered a slacker school. So yeah, I’m pretty bitter about it all.
There’s actually a really great line from House about that, when Wilson’s going on again about House’s addiction, and House says “of course I have a painkiller addiction. What I don’t have is a painkiller problem.” Because hey, he’s actually missing a significant amount of leg muscle, and is therefore in actual pain.
I got so mad at that show when I watched it – because House would say these things, and (at least in the early seasons) it would seem so obvious that he was right, and then the show would strongly imply that he was just in denial and needed to Do Something about his terrible painkiller addiction. I’m thinking in particular of the first season episode Detox, when Wilson and Cuddy decide that House is an addict (on the grounds that he’s taking more painkillers than he was when he started) and come up with a scheme to prove it by daring him to go off of Vicodin for a week. All three doctors are somehow under the impression that if House isn’t an addict he won’t have withdrawal symptoms. So House spends a miserable week going through withdrawal, concludes that he’s an addict, and rewards himself for his week of deprivation by taking way too much Vicodin and enjoying the hell out of it. As far as I’m concerned, that episode is when House becomes an addict. And it has always bugged me that the show never acknowledges the role that Cuddy and Wilson’s terrible, terrible doctoring plays in tipping someone who’s at risk for addiction over the edge.
Yes, this! I was so hopeful when that show first started, but Detox was when I bailed, it was just so, so irresponsible, both of the characters and the showrunners, that I could not anymore.
– So, I thought that Captain America: Civil War was pretty excellent. So did Jamelle Bouie (whose review also gives us this cheeky comment: “Spoiler alert: Lee surrenders and Lincoln is assassinated”), who compared it not just to the comic it’s based off of (which was awful) but also Batman v Superman: Dawn of the Competing Franchise, which I still haven’t seen and probably won’t in the theater. Here are some of my thoughts on it with lots of spoilers, be warned, but I’d like to add one more: we (or rather the Marvel movie franchise) need a Black Widow movie now, more than ever. One of the minor disappointments of CA:CW is that, in a movie that follows up on some of the revelations and consequences of Bucky being turned into a super-assassin for the Soviet Union, Black Widow, the Russian superheroine, has surprisingly little to do with that, especially compared to her larger role in The Winter Soldier. (Some of that has to do with this movie essentially being an Avengers movie, with other characters (including a certain teenager who does whatever a spider can!) being swapped out for Thor, Hulk and Nick Fury. But BW had a bigger role in the Avengers movies, too.)
– That fucking OxyContin article. Purdue needs to be sued into a smoking hole in the ground.
Not reading your review of CA:CW yet, but thanks for it in advance!
If I knew nothing about Autism Speaks, the fact that its founder supports Donald Trump would give me pause.
Ugh, this makes me mad. Liking a thing does not give you ownership over that thing. You don’t get to piss on other people’s enjoyment just because you liked it before it was cool.
http://www.vulture.com/2016/04/captain-america-ta…
What makes you mad? The original article, or this, where he apologizes? Because this seems like a reasonable, “I was wrong and I have learned things” response.
Kind of both? The original article, which I read without the context of knowing what his attitude towards MCU movie watchers, I thought at the time was wrong but at least kind of interesting. Then to read now that it was just trolling because he’s the type to be possessive of superheroes and angry that people other than the small group that liked comics when he did are now interested in the characters, just bothers me. It’s good that he’s apologizing for it, but the gatekeeping attitude behind the original just always bugs me.
Still, I’d rather have people admitting their mistakes (especially publicly), owning those mistakes, and learning from them. I really appreciated this:
“ut every time I start working on something judgmental of the MCU, I have to ask myself, Am I having a Captain America–should-be-a-prick moment? If I am, I need to revise my argument. Critique is good; getting angry because other people like something I like is bad. I’m not proud of the article, but I’m glad it’s there as a reminder that I’ll always have blind spots, and that it’s my job as a writer to grapple with them.”
There are two pieces of food writing that were formative for me as a young person. One was the aforementioned Woolf passage. The other was a cover article written sometime in the early 1990s for The Loft, a writing organization in Minnesota, about how bullshit the romantic myth of the starving artist is. (The writer, whose name I wish I remembered, said that if you have a choice between buying broccoli and typing paper, you should buy the broccoli, unless you’d rather have a different vegetable.)
Since I was basically Eponine, it was a fucking big deal to read writers who said that it was okay to want variety and nutritional value and non-grimness in your food, and that being a Real Writer didn’t demand existing on scanty portions of gruel.
I mean, sometimes I do wind up eating the same bean dish for a week, because I have very little money right now. But I’m with Woolf. For me, just getting by does not ignite the light at the base of my spine where my creativity seems to reside, the way that at least occasional access to recreational food does.
#universalbasicincomenow
OT, but I just became a “teaching artist” at The Loft for the summer, and am working on new class proposals for fall, and am super excited! (partly because whoa, I’m a teaching artist; that makes me sound so competent and shit!)
So cool! I hope you enjoy your class(es). They were so helpful to me when I was a Baby Writer.
You know what the light at the base of the spine is ignited with?
http://www.grouprecipes.com/86997/jacques-pepins-…
This is not the precise recipe I use, but it is good nonetheless.
It’s nearly impossible to get into that creative space to produce art when the majority of your thoughts are about how hungry you are & how the heck you’re going to afford food for the rest of the week, let alone the rest of the month.
Oh, the shoes essay! I spent the entire winter after my mom died wearing her sweaters. They weren’t really my style: too shapeless, colors too muted. But they made me feel safe. They let me carry her with me for a little while longer. They let me show her to the world, and maybe show my grief too. Now, after 4 years and 2 long-distance moves, they’re sitting in the back of a drawer and starting to smell musty, but I don’t think I’ll get rid of them anytime soon.
The LA Times article about Oxycontin is heartbreaking. Most people assume that heroin addicts are caused by poverty or being careless or whatever. But they don’t realize that drugs like Oxy are part of the reason there is a heroin epidemic. Once addicted, why pay $100+ for a bottle when you can buy heroin for $10 a day? The execs at Purdue should be ashamed and investigated for their negligence and lies.
The LA Times article about Oxycontin is heartbreaking. Most people assume that heroin addicts are caused by poverty or being careless or whatever. But they don't realize that drugs like Oxy are part of the reason there is a heroin epidemic. Once addicted, why pay $100+ for a bottle when you can buy heroin for $10 a day? The execs at Purdue should be ashamed and investigated for their negligence and lies.
There is some truth to the addictiveness of the drug. It is unfortunate people with severe pain may often be unable to remove themselves from the drug. It may take time spent in rehab to help them reach recovery.
There is some truth to the addictiveness of the drug. It is unfortunate people with severe pain may often be unable to remove themselves from the drug. It may take time spent in rehab to help them reach recovery.
There is some truth to the addictiveness of the drug. It is unfortunate people with severe pain may often be unable to remove themselves from the drug. It may take time spent in rehab to help them reach recovery.