Hello. How are you? I wish I were still at the beach.
Publishing, Weight, and Writers Who Are “Hard to Look At”:
What that quote promises is, at best, that editors and other publishing gatekeepers will do their best not to hold a writer’s appearance against them, and promises it weakly at that. “We would have paid her the same money if she weighed 500 pounds and was really hard to look at” translates roughly to: “We would not try to offer a fat writer less money for being fat,” which seems an awfully low bar. The effect is a little too self-congratulatory by half . . . It assumes, too, that the reader believes it’s normal or somehow instinctive to want to offer less money to a fat writer (or anyone “hard to look at”). A lot of writers who know that editors and agents think of their bodies as “hard to look at” knew what that sentence means for them and what they can expect in trying to get published.
The Toast acquired another sestina by David Brooks this week!
I thought I liked raccoons, but.
Jessica Woodbury on apartment-hunting as a single parent:
Technically it is illegal for landlords to discriminate on the basis of family status, just like it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of religion or race. But it happens all the time; two applicants present themselves and you choose the married couple over the set of friends, the professionals with two incomes over the single person with children. There is nothing I can prove and nothing I can do but go on to the next place.
The kids ask about the new house we saw and I tell them we’ll keep looking. For some reason, I know how to own my strength and my struggle with my kids. I know that I need to be solid for them most of the time. I know that it’s also important for me to show them when something is hard.
Are you in an E.M. Forster novel?
Mara Wilson on her identification with Sandy and Rizzo and Grease:
I wanted to be them. They fought, they insulted and mocked each other, but they thought of each other first. There was a special place in my heart for each one of them: sweet schlemiel Frenchy, goofy Jan, flirty Marty… And Rizzo. My heart beat faster every time Rizzo was on screen. It wasn’t a crush, it was something else: she felt familiar to me. Cynical, impulsive, completely allergic to pity. She had all my bad qualities, but she wore them so well. I was never going to smoke and figured (wrongly) I wouldn’t have sex until I was married, but somewhere deep inside she and I were the same. I understood her, because she was me.
Then there was Sandy. Naive, timid Sandy. She was probably my least favorite, but with good reason: she was also me.
I really loved this short story by Emmy Nicklin.
Yesterday was my birthday, and I got many lovely tweets from Toasties. It really made no longer being at the beach, not eating Pony Tracks ice cream all day, and a relentless onslaught of flaming garbage tweets (in response to the most innocuous tweet ever, honestly) much more bearable. Today I’m giving myself the gift of Captain America: Civil War and a couple of good auto-blockers. What are you all up to this weekend?
Yup that cracker-ass cracker who got all het up about basically the most unobjectionable tweet I read all week was smokin’ a special flavor of white aggression. Happy birthday. Ignore the haters. Sincerely, the half-Asnkenazim-quarter-Chicasaw-who-looks-like-a-Poo-Poo-platter-of-races-aka-an-American.
My weekend started with a beautiful man bicep-curling a helicopter to a stop (reference picture link below, might be a mild spoiler). i think it is going to be a good weekend.
https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VvYIlukWorOwJKer…
My midweek started with that and I don’t think I have stopped smiling since.
Toasties, I need a hug 🙁
*hug*
yes, hug
*hug and “aura fluffing” motion*
Happy birthday! I am so sorry that terrible, horrifying white supremicists were what greeted you. I wish you more Pony Tracks and a good Captain America experience.
*hug*
I’ve always wanted to ask what the function of these sorts of Highlights of the Week posts are, since users can just scroll down on the main page to see the content linked to in this post. I’m not very media-savvy, but I know there must be a sensible reason why websites do it. Is it for the comments section, like, to make a “discuss the week” thread?
Because we need people to click on pages on the site so we can pay for our servers and rent and stuff. And this means a handful of people will click on pages that would not otherwise have done so.
I didn’t realize the second part was true. It’s so neat that people can analyze internet usage (which seems hopelessly nebulous to me) and then, like, find strategies to enhance it. Thank you for responding. 🙂
It’s also so those of us who don’t always make it to the home page or their rss feed everyday know what’s current, so we’re not floundering around trying to find the latest open thread…
It's also so those of us who don't always make it to the home page or their rss feed everyday know what's current, so we're not floundering around trying to find the latest open thread…