“Hold me.”
Lin-Manuel and Chance the Rapper in conversation:
What are you willing to sacrifice for your legacy?
C: My father always told me that my legacy would be my children. And I think the most important thing about creating is the way that your music interacts with people, and the period that it’s released in, and the periods that will have it after your death, and how it’ll work in the world. My favorite piece from Hamilton is “Dear Theodosia,” which is…. [Turns to Miranda] Can I talk about the play?
LM: [Laughs.] Yeah, do whatever you want.
C: The first verse is Aaron Burr talking to his daughter, and the song is so dope to me because it’s obviously a song about fatherhood, but they’re speaking about building this brand-new nation and building a new world for their children and their children’s children. Literally though—a brand-new America. There’s still not a lot of hospitals or banks; they’re figuring out forms of currency; they’re still fighting the Brits.
I like to think of my music the same way because a lot of my stuff is about my ideal world, and how I want things to function. I have a daughter who’s going to be raised in this world, and my music and my art are powerful tools in getting that to be formed the way I want it to. So I guess when we talk about legacy, I would do anything to make sure that my legacy lives on and is a healthy one, but I still look at it a little differently. I don’t think the legacy of the music is necessarily what I think about when I think of mine.
This woman is INCREDIBLE (there is some gnarly stuff about domestic violence in here, FYI):
Lhakpa’s obscurity owes partly to the fact that Sherpa climbers are still perceived as a homogenous workforce so gifted at getting to the summit that their accomplishments are often referred to in the collective. But in Lhakpa’s case there’s something more. Since 2004, she has been too frightened to speak to reporters. That’s the year she says she was punched in the head by Dijmarescu in Everest’s north-side base camp, in Chinese-controlled Tibet, in full view of expedition teammates from Connecticut—a charge that Dijmarescu insists was self-defense. Photographs published in the Hartford Courant (which Dijmarescu claimed in court were doctored) showed her being carried limp and bloody to the kitchen tent for treatment. After that incident, Lhakpa became very quiet about her achievements. Her six diploma-like summit certificates—five from the Chinese government and one from Nepal—are stored in a closet.
Now she’s going for seven. Last spring, newly liberated, after a ten-year hiatus from Everest, she planned to make another attempt on the summit. But as she waited in base camp, again on Everest’s north side, the April 25 earthquake hit, prompting both the Nepalese and Chinese governments to suspend climbing for the season. A year later, she’s back on Everest to try again.
Jian Ghomeshi’s “apology,” annotated:
“In the last 18 months, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on this incident and the difficulties I caused Ms. Borel, and I have had to come to terms with my own deep regret and embarrassment.”
Ghomeshi slips here, revealing that he’s only been thinking about this for “the last 18 months,” the timeline of when the allegations were first made public. He didn’t think about his actions when he was in the middle of performing them, he didn’t consider the signs that women give off when they don’t want to be touched or spoken to, he didn’t ask if he was making anyone feel uncomfortable or unsafe. He is and was the paragon of privilege. He was freer than most women ever get to be, no matter where they are.
And thank Satan that Ghomeshi has come to terms with his “deep regret” and “embarrassment” over the things he did, for years, with the tacit approval of one of the country’s largest media organizations. It remains unclear if the handful of women who have accused him of assault and harassment, in and out of court, are getting any time to come to terms with his actions.
This is disgusting and sick:
George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, then acquitted by a Florida jury on July 13, 2013. The case sparked a nationwide debate and protests over “stand your ground” laws and race relations in the United States.
Now, Zimmerman is auctioning off the 9-millimeter pistol he used to kill Martin on a website called GunBroker.com.
An hour-long police chase that began in Massachusetts and stretched into New Hampshire on Wednesday ended with a sudden burst of violence, asvideo footage capturing the conclusion of the pursuit showed at least two officers repeatedly punching the driver after he got out of the car.
The brief incident, filmed by a helicopter overhead, has prompted reviews by law enforcement officials in both states, including a criminal probe in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire attorney general’s office “will be conducting a criminal investigation to determine what force was used, by whom, and whether it was appropriate under the law,” Jeffrey A. Strelzin, senior assistant attorney general, wrote in an email Thursday morning.
“Diagnosis” was often my favorite thing to read in the magazine on Sunday mornings, satisfying my inner hypochondriac and detective — until I found myself living one of those medical mysteries.
I was upstate with some friends when the itching began. At first it was localized in a thin band across my thighs. It seemed like dry skin, so I slathered on lotion and thought nothing of it. But then the itching continued, and spread. It was up my legs and down them. It was on my hips, my stomach.
I traveled to Los Angeles, and the itching continued. Despite the warmer climate, my skin was red and bruised from the constant scratching. I made multiple stops at the pharmacy, investing in a tub of medical grade Aquaphor, hoping to get some relief. I bought Cortisone creams and took oatmeal baths.
After two weeks of nearly nonstop, skin-tingling itching, I went to my doctor, who shrugged, put me on a battery of over-the-counter antihistamines, and sent out a vial of my blood for testing. “Did you know that unspecified itching could be a sign of blood cancer or a liver problem?” he told me cheerfully.
Lindy is really good at trolling her trolls:
I admire the strength of your convictions:
OT but you guysss Ronan Farrow is on the warpath again and I am HERE FOR IT: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/my-father-w…
(On a trivial, gossipy side note, I 1000% believe the rumours that he is Frank Sinatra’s bio son. I mean, LOOK: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/fi…
I read that last night and my bff and I ranted for about 30 minutes about how much we hate Woody Allen. It was awesome.
The reason Annie Hall is so good is it’s the story of how women deserve better than woody allen. Also they’re the same age. Since then he’s made so many movies about how incredibly charming young women deserve to be stuck with him.
Yes, that is a fantastic point! It’s the only Woody Allen movie I’ve seen and I really saw it for Diane Keaton (who still apologizes way too much for him).
And finally I understand why I love Annie Hall so much.
I still won’t ever watch it again, though.
Amen. It’s a story of a woman’s triumph in leaving her shitty condescending boyfriend and then his sulks about it. And he’s just like, “Well she’s shallow”, but it’s so obvious that Diane Keaton is not shallow, she’s delightful and he’s miserable. And she’s so clearly the hero in a way that the poor girlfriend in High Fidelity is not.
When I was 14 I read High Fidelity and had a massive crush on Rob.
When I was 24 I read High Fidelity and realized Rob is the WORRRRRST and is the most loathsome whiny waste of space and just had massive feels for Laura for nearly getting out. Actually in my head cannon she dumps him 5 minutes after the book ends but for reals this time.
I hope she ran off with Liz.
man the more about this that I hear, the happier I am that I never particularly cared for Woody Allen in the first place
My gaps in cinematic education make it very easy for me not to feel conflicted about not watching Woody Allen or Roman Polanski movies. Oh, well.
It’s nice to be vindicated
I read this earlier! I was hoping someone would link to it!
SERIOUSLY. I glanced quickly at that photo yesterday and reflexively thought, “When did Frank Sinatra play a part he had to be blond for”?
Oooh do you think so. He looks so like his mother to me I can’t see anything else.
Yeah I’m with you on this one. He does look a lot like Frank Sinatra, but quite frankly if you look at photos of Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra together, she could be his daughter.
He looks so much like Sinatra. The thing that makes me 1000% positive, looking at the photos, is the set of his eyes and eyebrows. Even the spacing is pretty much the same. I bet you could transpose Ronan’s eyes and brows over a picture of Sinatra and nobody would know the difference (the eyes aren’t exact, but the overall look is so close that I think it would fool the eye).
1000% Sinatraspawn, all DNA testing would be redundant.
I shared Ronan’s article with everyone I know. Maybe now I can be absolved for accidentally paying money for a Woody Allen play (I didn’t know he wrote it until too late).
Other than the actors who continue to work with him for whatever reason, does Woody Allen have any fans under 40?
My sister (26) likes his work.
Annie Hall is one of my favourite movies of all time, so is The Purple Rose of Cairo, so is Crimes and Misdemeanors. I would definitely describe myself as a fan of his work. I no longer give him any money, and have not seen Blue Jasmine or Midnight in Paris and will not see the new one, even though I would have really liked to see all of them. That is where I personally have settled my own choices, I think people can have different comfort zones. But I believe Dylan and I do not want to give him my money.
I have hugely enjoyed many of his movies and found them warm and comforting for many years, but I boycott his work now and even if I did watch it, wouldn’t be able to enjoy it any more. But I don’t think people have a moral duty to boycott his films, as long as they are clear that they believe Dylan and acknowledge that he is a monster.
I actually really liked a bunch of his movies from the last 10-15 years but obviously cannot watch them anymore (separating the art from the artist can only be taken so far). Ronan’s article reminded me that I’ve been meaning to throw the few DVDs of his movies I own in the garbage, where their creator belongs.
Also I am so disappointed in Kristen Stewart for being in his new movie. You’re better than this, Kristen!
It gets worse: she’s been defending her working with him, engaging in implicit rape and abuse apologia. UGH KSTEW GO SIT IN A CORNER THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND STOP PUTTING YOUR FOOT IN YOUR DAMN MOUTH.
Oh KStew noooooo
Nooooooooooooooooooo I didn’t want to know this!
Someone pointed out that the actresses that appear in his films get a lot of shit, but that the actors who work with him don’t get held to the same standard.
I’m not calling you out on this, and I see why women get held to a different standard when it comes to supporting creeps like Allen. At the same time, it is yet another case of women being held to a different standard.
Very true.
Also, someone pointed out yesterday that Allen’s probably not as gross and creepy to actresses *personally* (in terms of sexual harassing them, etc.) as they’re probably used to, since creepy directors/producers/et al. seem to be almost the norm in the industry.
Not to defend the actors who choose to work with him (I wouldn’t want to, certainly), but there may be a certain amount of, “Well, at least he treats ME well!” compared to other people they encounter professionally.
See also: Terry Richardson
Yeah that’s probably true. In this particular case Kristen Stewart is the only person in that movie’s cast that I actually give a shit about, hence the disappointment. But I side-eye anybody who agrees to work with him these days.
Yes, I’ve noticed that, too. Off the top of my head, I can think of Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johanssen getting shit for working with him in addition to Kristen Steweart, but not any men. I don’t understand why women get held to a different standard, actually. I think they generally have fewer choices for good roles than the men do.
I would not consider myself a fan of HIM, certainly not, and I never really have been– but I still love Crimes & Misdemeanors, and can’t help but to find it funny and moving and truthful. The fact that a terrible person can still produce a work of art that expresses and speaks to something profound is a truth I think everyone has had to grapple with. I paid $12 for that DVD years ago and I won’t give him any more money, nor will I ever defend him as a human being or claim that his art makes his awfulness okay somehow. But I love that film.
I will always love his earlier, goofier films (especially “Love and Death” and “Sleeper”), but yeah. I haven’t seen any of his more recent movies for years, and never plan to again.
I think the switch came when he went from being a “comedian” to being a “filmmaker.”
There is a scene of him playing the cello in a marching band in Take the Money and Run that I will always love. But it was all downhill from there.
I enjoyed his voice acting in Antz, but that was not actually a movie about Woody Allen, and more how an ant with the misfortune to be Woody Allen can overcome this through the power of friendship and wacky hijincks.
I actually adore his work (got into him before learning about his personal life and his abuse of Dylan), but I refuse to give him any money. Separating the art from the artist is all well and good, but (for me) is a strategy best applied after the artist is dead and can no longer financially benefit from it. I won’t give him my money and I won’t give his art space in my brain (and with him, I won’t even after he passes away because I know my money would just go to people who supported him through all this and I can’t stomach the idea of giving them money, either).
I’m 30 and when I was growing up his movies were such a regular thing in my household that I was fond of them in that “the music your parents always play in the car” kind of way. I vaguely knew there was something weird about him and his wife, but it was YEARS later before I heard about the rest of it. Now, not only have I totally dropped all his work out of my life, but I also now look back on the films of his I’ve seen in a new, more aware, light. (It also helps that I’m an adult now and have lived through the annoyance of That Dude in Your Film Class, That Dude in Your Creative Writing Class, and That Dude in Your Philosophy Class)
I’m 34. His early comedies* are incredibly deranged and funny and I love Hannah & Her Sisters that script is gangbusters and it’s the best thing Michael Caine ever did. Also his standup album is one of the best standup albums ever.
*Bananas and Take The Money And Run in particular.
I guess I’ll torrent his movies from now on, like I do almost all of the ones I don’t want to pay to see.
I had an art teacher in college who, when talking about Gauguin (Dirtiest of Dirtbags), said “Never conflate the Beautiful with the Good.” I always think of this when I think of Woody Allen as a filmmaker and a human. Manhattan is always going to be one of my favorite movies, and I think it’s actually a pretty unforgiving film exploring the moral horror of his personal life. His movies make me reflect on the shitty ways we treat each other, of our own selfishness, our own deep flaws, our own failures in the face of our flaws–which are important questions. Annie Hall is very much about reaching the breaking point of how badly you can treat someone–viewing it like a romantic comedy is kind of like people having Great Gatsby themed weddings (like, you know this doesn’t end well, right?!). The thing that brings me back Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah & Her Sisters, Alice, all the time is that he’s pretty unforgiving of his antiheroes that he both writes and performs, and apparently is off screen as well. I understand the boycott, and without knowing him personally, I’m 99.9% sure that he’s a morally reprehensible person who, as a human, is not above justice. But that doesn’t mean I don’t see value in his work.
It seems as though he is only capable of holding up terrible behaviour for scrutiny in the fictional world.
Also, Woody’s publicist kicked THR out of their press conference today in retaliation for running the piece, shocking no one.
Speaking of said publicist, this line in the article is KILLER:
“Every day, colleagues at news organizations forwarded me the emails blasted out by Allen’s powerful publicist, who had years earlier orchestrated a robust publicity campaign to validate my father’s sexual relationship with another one of my siblings.”
And then the later throwaway “my father and his wife (my sister)”. It’s just…OH MY GOD.
And thereby proving the very point about access journalism Farrow makes in the piece.
I just don’t understand how anyone can continue working for and with him. The man sexually assaults children.
It’s not like these people are nobodies and these are the only jobs they can get. These are bonafide stars and big studios. They don’t NEED him. He NEEDS them. They could say no to working with a man who assaults children, and the only loss would be that he doesn’t make movies any more. (I believe that a. this would not lose the studios any money because they could use their budgets for other movies that do just as well and b. it wouldn’t be a hit against art because his movies are very blegh in my opinion, although obviously others really like his movies)
I can’t understand that either – it seems that everyone in that culture knows an abuser whose history they’re willing to overlook when it’s convenient. Mia Farrow’s friendship with Roman Polanski also continues to mystify me.
I KNOW RITE. Can’t imagine the mental gymnastics she must perform to justify that to herself. But Mia is/has been generally quite side-eye-worthy too, in many ways (nowhere near as much as Woody, of course).
I’m pretty sure in one of my many books about writing he’s quoted as saying he wouldn’t mind if he never acted or directed again, but he couldn’t live without writing. Okay! Go sit alone in a room and write, then, you jerk. You don’t need an ongoing stream of starlets around you to do that.
I read this yesterday and I really needed someone to process my Woody Allen feelings with. Why didn’t I just come directly to The Toasties? Silly me.
I loved LOVED his movies for so long but I just can’t do it anymore. My imaginary boyfriend, Tom Hiddleston (boy I’m on trend today) is perfect except for the fact that he played Fitzgerald in a movie directed by Allen. Just ew.
Yes, I once again this morning fell down the rabbit hole of reading about all this stuff. I mean, even if he hadn’t also abused Dylan, the fact that the woman he was involved with romantically and co-parented with found out he was having an affair by finding pornographic pictures he had taken of her daughter already makes him indefensible. That’s such an awful thing to do to both women involved, not to mention all Mia’s other kids. There’s just no room to keep making excuses for him.
Dayum.
Also, idk if this is at the level of giving points for human decency but I am all emotional about how he writes about his sister. I have such a weakness for brother-sister stories.
I hate the rumors about him being Frank Sinatra’s son, because it originated in a smear campaign to discredit mia Farrow. The misogynist logic follows that ronan looks like Frank, Mia must be a lying slut, woody Allen couldn’t possibly have raped the daughter of a lying slut. Poor woody is
the real victim here!
If I were Mia, if there were a chance in hell that my son was not the offspring of woody Allen, I would have run with that years ago.
I feel Mia herself vaguely confirmed the possibility a couple of years ago though? I get what you mean, but I think in the intervening time the world has become (somewhat) better at identifying and calling out abusers, so people (outside Hollywood) are a lot less likely to reflexively believe the ‘Mia is a lying liar who lies’ smear campaign, so we’re at a stage now where we can acknowledge that Ronan might not be Woody’s bio son, but that doesn’t really matter because any indiscretion on Mia’s part PALES in comparison with Woody’s behaviour with Soon-Yi and Dylan.
Also, Woody did a good job undoing any goodwill that may have come his way as the supposed cuckold when he published that open letter last year after Dylan’s renewed allegations. He included a bit about the Sinatra rumours, and then went on a bizarre tangent about how it was SO UNFAIR that he had to *pay child support* all those years for someone who wasn’t even his REAL SON. No sense of emotion or connection at all, he reduced the whole thing to a broken business agreement or something?? It was so weird and mean-spirited, and made him look like (even more) of an asshole.
God, I am WAY too invested in this whole saga….
I do not have strong opinions about mountain goats. Perhaps I should develop some, perhaps while considering my strong feelings about Jian Ghomeshi.
In other news, a mere 2 days after my kiln was delivered, I found out my favourite stained glass supplier is closing down. This is disappointing and my lizard brain is getting mad though my human brain says “yes but you would have bought it ANYHOW”. Still, I am not sure what will be happening. Guess it will work out somehow, probably just by costing me more.
Blahaaaah I read that as ‘2 days after my skin was delivered’ why.
I did too!!!
Again: who hates mountain goats that much except a self loathing mountain goat? Or a regular goat with an inferiority complex?
My money is on a wild sheep sick of being misidentified by tourists.
People say goats don’t destroy one another —
What do they know about goats?
And I hope goats die
I hope they all die
raccoons
A mountain goat who hates himself because he can’t control his cravings for that mineral
I should be over it by now, but I’m so not. A childhood on a goat farm rendered me deeply susceptible to that meme…
Maybe it’s the raccoon from the other day.
Maybe a racoon.
Wow when I commented this none of the other racoon comments had shown up yet; way to go hive mind!
a likely story how do we know that YOU’RE not a raccoon, trying to copy off of other successful comments?
omg how did you know??????
Or a tree goat with an inferiority complex…
The animals are taking over The Toast with their *feelings*
You would know, Fox, you probably invited them all! What are your feelings on mountain goats???
Non-unionized sherpas?
Probably Mallory.
Gotta give Mountain Goat Hater credit – dude knows who he is, and damn if he isn’t owning it.
I hope Mountain Goat Hater pops up in totally unrelated articles with totally on-topic comments. I want to know how Mountain Goat Hater feels about witches and western art history.
I think we’re all too witches for Mountain Goat Hater, but I do admire his (or her? somehow I can’t imagine a woman being Mountain Goat Hater, but I also generally assume that people doing weird/dumb Internet stuff are dudes?) (wait wait is this some kind of internalized gender essentialism) (is gender essentialism even the right term for what I’m talking about) (ah fuck I’m not capable of writing a lighthearted comment without having anxieties about this) single-mindedness.
Mountain Goat Hater is totally fine with witches, but he saw a painting of a mountain goat once and now all art is Very Much Off Limits.
Everything about the George Zimmerman thing is appalling, but the fact that he is apparently doing it “partly to raise funds to fight “Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric”” (from the BBC’s news story on the subject) just makes it all even worse.
I hope this announcement causes a rash of donations to victims’ funds, anti-second amendment campaigns, etc.
Can’t we convict him retroactively? PLEASE?
Shit, why hasn’t he been convicted for the many, many acts of violence he’s committed since he murdered Martin? Fucker’s been arrested at least once a year since then for beating his girlfriend, threatening a motorist with a gun, beating his girlfriend again… but for some reason he just can’t stay in jail.
He’s alive and free and Trayvon Martin is dead. That is what is wrong with this continent, right there.
Because powerful people have adopted him as a focal point of their disgusting rhetoric, so they’re willing to fund his freedom.
Was a wrongful death suit against him ever discussed? I can’t remember now but it would be really nice to be able to take the ability to profit from this away from him, a la OJ’s book.
The fact that he also wants to put that money towards ending the Black Lives Matter movement makes it even more obvious (as if it were ever in doubt) that his murder of Trayvon Martin was racially motivated. He makes me sick.
I started reading the auction description and was copying lines to paste here and gawk at, but then I was just like … this whole fucking thing is off the rails, from the reference to B. Hussein Obama to the Smithsonian allegedly wanting to exhibit the thing. What a creep.
(The Smithsonian vehemently and in no uncertain terms denies that allegation, by the way.)
OT, but y’all. I GOT HAMILTON TICKETS. I have to wait 8 months but I’M GOING TO BE IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS. I’m going to be a walking exclamation point all day long and not getting much work done, such is the depth of my excitement.
I AM ALLLLLLLLLL THE JEALOUS.
YAY!
ME TOO I got a pair for January. Feeling kind of guilty that I didn’t have the presence of mind to grab enough for all my friends but also I probably shouldn’t be floating that much cash right before moving.
BUT FACE-VALUE TICKETS omg
Did you buy them last night when they went on sale? I looked and thought “finally, this is good” and told several friends last night “buy now,” and this morning got texts from those same friends that they were sold out. Wow.
I did! My friend has lightening fast reflexes and got them at face value. 😀 😀 😀
That’s excellent! I bought mine in March 2015, when people were still going “what’s Hamilton?” or “I’ve heard of it but I’ll wait until it’s a hit.” So I can agree: face value is a wonderful thing. Not as wonderful as winning the lotto, but… 🙂
CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!
ME TOO. I AM GOING ON MY BIRTHDAY EVEN THOUGH I WORK RETAIL AND MY BIRTHDAY IS IN EARLY DECEMBER AND THAT’S PROBABLY A BAD IDEA. I REGRET NOTTHINGGGGGGGGGGG.
I’m so happy for youuuu! 😀 Another friend (and her sister) also were able to get tickets 😀
MEE TOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! it was the most stressful couple of minutes of my life because my computer crashed but the spirit of Alex & Aaron were with us last night.
I saw it on Monday, it is SO GOOD, you are going to have a fantastic time!!!
I HATE ALL YOU PEOPLE LIVING ON THE RIGHT CONTINENT TO SEE THIS SHOW no not really, but I’m really really sad that I’ll most probably never see it. It is a cruel fate. I can only hope for the London show, which is at least only 750 km away, not 6,000.
I live on the correct continent but I’m still a good 3,000 miles (nearly 4,900km) away.
Today in (Feminist) History! [Archive]
On this day in 1986 was the death of Alicia Moreau (de Justo), an Argentine woman (born in France to Socialist parents who moved to Argentina) who was known for being a (*drumroll*) physician, politician, feminist, human rights activist, and a pacifist. Born in 1885, she was a member of the Socialist Party, participating in the Primer Congreso Internacional de Librepensamiento (International Congress of Free Thought), where she submitted her own report called “Educación y Revolución” (Education and Revolution). She also contributed to the International Socialist Magazine, and helped to organize the Primeras Conferencias Internacionales de Mujeres por la Paz (First International Conference of Women for Peace) before going on to found the Unión Feminista Nacional (National Feminist Union) in 1918.
A lot of her focus was in increasing the participation of women in politics, which she aimed to accomplish by creating numerous feminine spaces within socialist centers and groups. In 1945, she published the book La Mujer en la Democracia (The Woman Within Democracy). She remained active in political and Socialist groups for all her life, including the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights, and in the 1970’s she protested the disappearances of thousands of people during that decade’s military rule.
Dr. Moreau was also a big supporter of obtaining the right to vote for women in Argentina, which was accomplished finally in 1947, though at the time she felt that it had only been done as a political move and didn’t really count as social conquest, though it was still progress. Beyond all this, she was of course a Doctor (a Gynecologist) and a teacher, too, who traveled to the U.S. in 1919 (going over the Andes on a mule!) to speak at the International Congress of Workers of Washington.
There is so much more to Alicia’s story, but the best and most detailed article of her is entirely in Spanish. I did my best with finding enough for this brief summary but there’s so much more. If you’re interested: Biography of Alicia Moreau.
Also, just wanted to check in and make sure y’all are still enjoying these? I have fun doing them every day tbh. Also I hope they’re managing to be diverse enough, I’ve been trying hard to pick people/events each day that aren’t just white American women (although there have been some of those too ofc).
I am! And I was just thinking how much I appreciated the fact that they weren’t just white American women. Thank you for doing it.
Yay, I’m glad! And yeah I have to search a bit extra because I think it’s a case of just… you know, our society. There’s less prominent info about women in history in general, and even less about anyone who isn’t white, so finding it on certain sites takes more searching. But it’s worth it!
Having so much fun with these, please continue as long as you enjoy it!
YES YES PLEASE KEEP GOING and thank you for the diversity!
YAY and THANKS! I shall endeavor to continue with the diversity!
Goodness, yes. if you’re having fun doing it, I promise you I love reading them. I’ve never even heard of most of them and it’s delightful.
Thanks! And me either, sometimes I look at the list for the day that I start with, and I’m shocked at how few women on it I know.
I for one am definitely still enjoying them!
I enjoy them very much, but also don’t know how many installments I might be missing. One long, rainy Sunday I’ll go dig through your archive.
Also, have you considered turning this into a daily newsletter? One can never have too many newsletters.
It would make a fabulous tiny letter.
I do post them every day on the archive usually right after they go up here (though I haven’t done today’s yet whoops!).
But this isn’t the first time someone mentioned tiny letter or something, I’ll have to look into it!
I was just about to comment to say that I am enjoying them a LOT and learning about new heroines every day!
Love them and added the corresponding blog to my Feedly!
Yessssss!! They’re terrific!
Let us know when your compendium is published so I can buy a dead tree copy for my daughter. A+ work here!
Yes, thank you!
When I read “1986” I thought “Oh, a young person!”
Then I realized that someone born in 1986, while 14 years younger than moi, is 30 years old, and that’s not really “young.”
Then I realized 1986 was when Moreau died.
Then I decided to go back to bed, but i was already at the office. Help?
Thank you so much for doing these! I really enjoy them
I would also like to add that Florence Nightingale was born on this day. It even got a mention in the newspaper today! However, the paper did not mention her pioneering work in statistics at all. Even though it was a very short blurb and she did amazing work in a variety of subjects, especially the field of nursing, this oversight really bothered me. Thanks for letting me vent, Toast!
Does deleted commenter hate John Darnielle and The Mountain Goats, or merely the physics defying creature?
(OR IS IT BOTH????)
ALL.
Totally totally OT but today in #queergirlproblems: that moment when you get a FB message from your ex-boyfriend, who’s wondering about maybe dating your ex-girlfriend.
Yup. That.
I was just like… “she’s nice!” which she is! I am very good friends with both of them! but OMG
There’s a difference between wanting your friends to be happy and being their active matchmaker. Oh, people. why you gotta make things weird?
And, okay, just to add to the weirdness?
The guy is my HS sweetheart person. We reconnected as adults, and it didn’t work, but we were right about to make A Concerted Effort At Adult Relationship when
*foom* all of a sudden I found myself dating this very girl
and *FOOM* like thirty seconds later, I had to break it off with both of them at the same time because I’d met the guy who’s now my husband.
WHAT. HOW IS THIS HAPPENING.
Maybe they are bonding over unrequited love of you?
I mean, I am pretty awesome, but
that’s sorta unlikely :-/
You realize that your life is a musical waiting to happen, right?
You’re going to write a novel about this, right?
Entirely depends on how it turns out. 🙂
eeesh.
“The color means you can see the nutrients.” So perfect.
Also, People of Toast, someone on my Facebook posted this video without a trigger warning and it is the worst thing I have ever put into my eyes and I have felt vicarious embarrassment for EVERY person lip-synching (what’s the German for that?) and so I give you “David Duchovny (Why Won’t You Love Me?)” and a heart full of apologies.
The song fills me with so much joy that the vicarious embarrassment is much less bad than it could be!
I meant to post the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg_vVKcVYbo
“Playbacksänger-Fremdschämen”?
There’s not proper German word for lip-synching… look, it even has TWO ä’s, so just accept it.
I was more looking for the German for “vicarious embarrassment” — which I ::think:: is “Hasselhoff” but language isn’t my strong-suit?
Ah, embarrassment felt on behalf of someone else – that’s “fardo.”
Oh, only “vicarious embarrassment” is simply “Fremdschämen” (literally: “being embarrassed for a stranger”). “Hasselhoff” is a non-translatable word expressing extreme joy, elation and a sudden and inexplicable feeling of freedom. It has also slight undertones of speaking cars, for some reason.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard there was a video for this song, and it has brightened my day considerably.
OMG, what was that? It was horrible, and yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away! Somehow my life felt less full before seeing that video!
This song came out when I was in the heady initial days of my X-Files obsession and I love it with the passion of a thousand suns.
I was never that big an X-Files fan, but several of my friends were. In college, our only two lights-off-no-talking-until-commercial-breaks shows were ER and the X-Files. We all became obsessed with this song. We spent a year yelling I’M GONNA KILL SCULLY whenever we were frustrated or annoyed.
I don’t think the song was ever meant to be Good, but it was cute and funny and clever and ridiculous. I don’t remember ever seeing the video, and I’m amazed at all the people in it. Brad Pitt, FFS!
Okay, okay OKAY, the thing about this video, the THING ABOUT THIS VIDEO, is:
The X-Files was the first time the executives at a network actually realized that instead of squashing fan creativity, they could embrace it and encourage it and use it to support their show. Before the X-Files you lived in fear of a cease-and-desist order for writing your fanfiction or posting your fanart, and over the course of seven seasons that changed. Official Fox representatives would have fan wallpaper contests and the winners would be featured on the actual X-Files website. There was real engagement between the company and the fandom in a way that had never happened before.
And into this mix steps Bree Sharp with the song “David Duchovny (Why Won’t You Love Me)”. This was pre-YouTube. I don’t even know how this song was shared, honestly, because it was pre-Tumblr, pre-DropBox, pre-Facebook, pre-everything we now use to share this shit. But it was shared. Oh, it was shared. It was shared SO MUCH that Charles Forsch, the ASSISTANT TO THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS ON THE X-FILES, came across it.
He produced the music video. A man working on The X-Files in a professional capacity felt that this fandom song deserved an official music video. He got so many celebrities to be in that video, and the entire cast of the X-Files, and David Duchovny himself. Can you imagine being Bree Sharp and having this happen? Can you imagine being a fan of the X-Files, and hearing this song from one of your fansites, and then seeing this music video with all the stars of your favorite show?
This music video is a national goddamn fandom treasure. It is a piece of history. It was an absolute gamechanger. it is beautiful and it belongs in our hearts.
I don’t even know how this song was shared, honestly
For me personally, it was Napster, then Limewire.
Also this is a great comment and I love it.
Who would use those very illegal services and then keep the files on a drive that never encounters Apple products created after the Obama election ? Surely none of us. We only heard that song through some sort of fandom osmosis.
I have it via a Buffy messageboard, I think, uploaded using something like Megaupload by some kind person for the rest of us to download. I only saw the video for the first time a few weeks ago.
Napster, and then it was burned on to our Sophomore Year Soundtrack CD.
Well, it certainly looks like everyone did the best they could, is a thing my Southern Mom says and it IS DEVASTATING.
AAAAHHHHH, Bree Sharp is my FAVORITE. I remember this video and all the amazing 90s things about it 😀
(She released a new version for the reboot of the show this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC149avtplQ)
Philly-area Toasties! Just a reminder that we’re having a meetup picnic today at 7pm, at Schuykill Banks under Walnut Street. Hope to see you there!
Not a Philly Toastie, but a meetup picnic sounds lovely!!
Hurrah! If I grade fifteen papers today, I can go. Grade faster, me!
you guys. my friend and I went to see the eva hesse documentary last night and it was amazing. so beautiful! if it plays in your city, it’s definitely worth it.
OH MY GOD… so there for this. EVA HESSE 4EVA!
it’s incredible! try and find it!
The thing my face just did when I read that blurb from the Zimmerman piece. I’ve read descriptions of some guy having a cold, dead-eyed, thousand-yard stare, but I never imagined I’d know what that felt like from the inside.
Part of it is the idea that he’s HAD THAT GUN BACK all this time. I never thought of it but of course once it was no longer evidence, they gave it back. The cops will keep your car if your pal has weed on him and you get pulled over, but Zimmerman gets back the gun he used to murder an innocent kid. What a world.
I have a lot of thoughts about guns in general right now (had a convo with some coworkers that left me saying, “…I get it, but noooooo, that’s not how this works”), but THAT gun gives me some extra rage. Just….fuck this whole thing.
Yeah, pretty much. If I believed we could all come together at least on the idea that THIS gun just disappears, that’d be one thing. But knowing there will be people eager to buy it and Zimmerman will profit off that…extra rage for sure.
I saw that on twitter this morning and my throat closed up for a second. It’s not really that he would do this, he’s an unrepentant murderer, of course he would–it’s that there are people who will bid on it.
I’m just going to pretend that whoever buys it promptly melts it down and makes something good out of it, like the pen Obama or Hillary or Bernie uses to sign stricter gun legislation in the law. Meanwhile the fake money that person paid for the gun goes off like fireworks, writing the word MURDERER in the air, which then follows Zimmerman around for the rest of his life.
What’s really going to happen is too depressing to believe.
I very much like that fantasy, especially the second part.
I know there was a lot of controversy after the fifth Harry Potter book, when Hermione enchanted the parchment that Dumbledore’s Army signed so that if anyone broke the secrecy vow, they’d have SNEAK written across their face in pimples and pustules, which no one actually knew about when they signed and made the vow — but god damn, I would love a form of justice where Zimmerman had CHILD MURDERER spelled across his face a similar way, for the rest of his days.
And one of those people will end up giving him money – probably a lot of money – for it, and they’ll keep it as a trophy. They’ll probably put it on display. Years from now, that person’s descendants will announce that they’re selling it themselves. Other people will protest, but everyone who was old enough to remember the trial and see Trayvon in the children in their lives will be dead or too old to have a voice, and the narrative that will emerge will be one containing the phrase “historical memorabilia.” Even well-meaning people who don’t consider themselves racist will find it compelling. And the cycle will continue.
Really hoping someone with a lot of money but also a kind heart buys it and melts it down and throws the metal into the sea so it is gone forever. Even if it did mean George Zimmerman getting a payday.
This is a very smart and important thought and your comment deserves a million likes.
Oh it would be police from the Worcester area. I do not have fond memories of their particular brand of policing out there.
Not that I have fond memories of any police department…but in particular I had some real terrible times in the Woo.
BRB, registering ihatmountaingoats.com, then quitting my job to go snap photos of mountain goats wearing funny hats and then posting them online.
I am there for this!
Totally OT but after months, okay years, of feeling Bad about asking for help from people, I finally made myself a fundraiser for some trans related stuff I should have done a decade ago. I also seem to have maxed out the generosity of my immediate circle. Toasties, could you share the link amongst your friends (especially if they are middle class unlike my own friends)? You’ll also notice I’m collecting recipes so if you are that person who likes to send your best recipes to strangers there is also that avenue of support. Thanks all. http://kelsey.help/
If anyone wants to indulge in some light-hearted television, might I recommend The Wine Show with Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys? It’s in its first season on ITV, and I cherish it. It’s beautifully shot (Italy! Chile! Australia! Moldova?!), charmingly funny, and makes me feel all warm inside. Rhys is a total scamp, and Goode has literally sunshine for eyes.
When that comes to streaming somewhere I am totally checking it out! Sounds so delightful.
several minutes later, i am still so entranced by this gif
Ahhhhhh I love you!
This is the greatest gif ever, I may just leave it open all day.
Most importantly: WHEN IS IT COMING TO AMERICA?
I do question Rhys’s decision to go full hobbit-dwarf with his hair and beard, but maybe he looked at the perfect facial sunshine that is Matthew Goode and decide not to try to compete.
Their Twitter account mentioned that they’re trying to make the show internationally available! The Matthews must be accessible to all.
This is a thing that exists? Daaaaaang, this needs to get on streaming in the U.S.! This is just the kind of fluffy nonsense I love when I need some fluffy nonsense.
SERIOUSLY, could’ve used this last night
I’m afraid this might kill me.
Did anyone else read Low Income Dogs Need Love Too?
Ten volunteers spent roughly two hours driving T-posts and pulling welded wire to complete the project. When Cheryl unhooked her dogs from their chains, they shook their giant heads, looked around tentatively, took a few shaky steps, then started to run, jump, and play for the first time in years, perhaps ever. Cheryl’s eyes brimmed with tears as though a crushing weight had finally been lifted.
As with everything else, pet ownership too intersects with poverty and race and the mission of this organization is so moving and powerful. I love that they’re providing resources and fences and trying to improve things for both the animals and their people. Wow.
That is so wonderful.
Who’s chopping onions?
Stupid ninja onion choppers, always showing up when they’re least called for
If you want to find even more onion choppers, go to the happy tails video list and see all the happy dogs in their new fenced areas playing. So many onions.
OMG, Mama and Oreo are kissing through the fence!
That’s wonderful. Many years ago I read this story in a magazine about a homeless man and his dog. It was all about how this dog is his only friend in the whole world. The story was received with a huge number of people asking to adopt the dog. The magazine responded “you’re missing the point”.
There’s a homeless man who sometimes hangs out on the street near my church with his three dogs. He takes excellent care of the dogs, and they’re just the best. There’s one pit, one pit mix, and a boxer. I get so happy when I see he’s there with them, and that he hasn’t had to give them up.
I have had the conversation about “why do so many homeless people have dogs” more times than I care to think about.
1. because homeless people get attacked/robbed fairly regularly
2. for the same reason you have a dog
Nicole, your son is gnawing on your dog— ::SQUEALS::
Ooh, I had dermatographia in law school. It was wretched, but I was so stressed otherwise that I couldn’t be upset by it. I could write on my skin with my fingernail, but it would also be set off by things as simple as getting my skin wet or putting my glasses on my face.
Someone needs to write a post about raccoons and mountain goats and we can watch those two commenters face-off against each other.
OT Went on OKC for the first time in forever yesterday.
Behold, I was mansplained.
According to this dude, Ballet has it’s roots in Chinese martial arts (which one, who knows?) and rapiers and similar style Chinese swords could be linked.
A. Ballet started as an even MORE formalized version of formal European dances and which were formalized versions of various folk and religious dances. Your supposition is bullshit and bears no relation to what we know of the history of dance in China OR in Western Europe.
B. There’s no evidence for this link. FIRST, during the rise of the rapier in late medieval and early renaissance Europe, China was actively pursuing an isolationist policy. Second, while flexible thinner swords were present in both European and Chinese culture, that doesn’t mean that they are similar besides using similar chemical reactions in forging which are discoverable by different cultures at different times without creating clear lines of communication between the two groups.
Simply put, social and technological changes in Europe caused the rise of the rapier with sumptuary laws not keeping up with technological advances and the plague making the lives of non-nobles slightly easier due to the rise in the worth of human capital and therefore the rate of pay and the ability to purchase goods like swords. /simplified explanation.
DON’T MANSPLAIN MY HOBBIES. I AM A HISTORY NERD YOU ASS.
yeah it’d be really weird if ballet somehow came over to Europe after they established contact with China, but no actual martial arts came over? What did he imagine the mechanism for that was? Some Shaolin monk sneaking into France through Portugal and then chickening out about teaching Five Animal style so he invents the arabesque instead?
(also I know YOU are a history nerd so you probably already know this, but I can say from personal experience that the usage methods of the rapier and the jian are actually very different)
I have never studied jian but I’ve seen others do it.
I also know someone who studied jian for a bit and he started in fencing. He said he sucked because it was SO different.
yeah mechanically they have a lot of features in common, and they both *can* be used in similar ways, but the entire body of rapier practice is almost the exact opposite to the way the jian is taught — I expect, in addition to the reasons that you mentioned, this also has a lot to do with 1) the history of the West’s use of armor, and 2) the fact that the rapier was a mutli-purpose civilian, military, and elite weapon and the jian was, from I think about the Tang dynasty on, almost exclusively a court sword.
I think you’re right. From what little I know, the whole style of Jian is less about the thrust parry riposte that I know, and seems more about getting in cuts, which would be incredibly ineffective against heavy armor, but really effective against limited armor.
The emphasis on thrusts in western fencing is, from what I understand, based on the need for rapier owners to go into battle and stick knights in unfortunate places where their armor didn’t protect. Understandably, even disregarding the class issues, knights took a dim view of rapier troops.
Yeah and you can see the rapier really evolve from heavier longswords (with a brief digression into the estoc) into a weapon that’s dedicated primarily to thrusting (also, concurrently: with the abandonment of full plate armor in favor of lighter mail hauberks, as the invention of firearms made plate obsolete).
The Estoc seems like a fad almost, like slap bracelets.
yeah I am sure a bunch of dudes were really into it at the time, like a couple guys who were convinced that this was the future of swording.
I know nothing about this subject and I feel like I’m eavesdropping on a conversation on the bus, but I am so happy to be educated! Love Toasties
That sounds like a particularly bad Jackie Chan movie.
uh, no, that sounds like an AMAZING Jackie Chan movie
Who’d play Louis XIV?
Owen Wilson.
I WISH I COULD LIKE THIS A MILLION TIMES
Holy shit.
If we write this, we could earn a bajillion dollars. Or some money. More money than what we have now.
I hope you replied with that last line exactly.
I didn’t respond. I thought about linking him to that Dr. Cox clip from scrubs where he sings “Wrong wrong wrong” to that clock tower song.
I always think of that when I hear a clock tower.
“YOU’RE WRONG
YOU’RE WRONG
YOU’RE WRONG
YOU’RE WRONG”
If you’d like to come at him with more details, let me share some! He is wrong: The development of ballet in its early days was from pageant-style performances in the French court of Louis XIV. The movements later did become more and more intricate and started to incorporate local folk dances like the bourré, as you said.
In relation to swords- he is unfortunately cloooose to right, but luckily still wrong. The positioning of the arms and feet in ballet is taken from fencing. If you watch classical fencing, you’ll notice the similarity immediately! But it was definitely European fencing, not Chinese martial arts.
Interestingly enough, however, the Graham style of modern dance DOES have some roots in martial arts! Martha Graham spent a few years in China in her early dance career and learned from Sil Lum Kung Fu sifus, and the concept of using energy generated by twisting and contracting in the center of the body is likely to have been influenced her experiences there.
source: a full year of Dance History class for my BFA in dance. & a very knowledgeable Sil Lum instructor who is also a college dance professor.
ugh the Sil Lum Pai lineage of Hung Gar is lame as hell
I did not know that about Martha Graham’s style. But yay more details! I only read a book about dance, so I bow to your expertise.
I would posit that ballet arms and modern fencing arms are related, but originally, you’d keep your arm much closer to your center of mass, because it’s better to lose/injure a hand than be skewered and, if you fought with a dagger as well, you’d be better served by having it as a backup stabbing thing near your primary stabbing thing.
However, as I’ve learned, the ever appropriate Jazz Hand on your weaponless side is pretty distracting to other fencers.
Hm. I feel like a lot of the early manuals like Capo Ferro, Agrippa, and Gigante all have the free hand pretty far out and away from the body, to catch an opponent’s weapon before it comes too close; my experience was that the close-in offhand had a lot to do with the way fencing practices changed as sport rules began to be included.
oh wait I guess you are saying as opposed to the tradition where you keep the left hand over your head in that ballet pose (duh), yeah, yeah, sorry, I misread that.
I was so thrilled when I learned the dudes name-checked in the Princess Bride were real fencing people.
They don’t use those styles in the fight, however.
“unless your enemy has studies his Agrippa” and they don’t even use it???? Side note, I love the Toast so very much.
Not really. It’s very much stage fighting. It’s entertaining as hell, but not an accurate representation of dueling.
anywayyyyy sworrrrds are goooooood I almost never get to talk this much about swords, I am so excited
oh yeah not at all, and the thing is that all of the styles they mention are very, very recognizable (it’s impossible, for instance, for anyone to ever confuse Capo Ferro and Thibault), and they 100% aren’t using any of them.
(Bob Anderson, the guy who did the fight, I believe was at least familiar with the Italian styles [Capo Ferro, Agrippa] , but at the time there’d been very little investigation or incorporation of Spanish style [Thibault] into modern stage combat, primarily because the only extant manual was extremely rare.)
(man, Bob Anderson is just freakin’ everywhere.)
COMBAT JAZZ HANDS. Excellent. I know very little about fencing, unfortunately, so I couldn’t comment on how close the arms would have been in that era of training, but the ballet movements in general used to be much, much smaller than they are today. An arabesque shape, for example, would not have lifted the lengthened leg higher than the standing knee. They also created balletic arm shaping from the motions of playing a violin.
This drawing of Louis XIV in his most famous role as Apollo does a good job of showing a typical ballet pose of the era, as well as how what a fabulous drag queen he would have been.
So what you’re saying re:leg not going higher than the knee is that I may be an amateur ballerina TODAY, but I am a pro for the 1600s….?
ok i feel better now
It’s always nice to reflect that ballet technique has developed so much that you were transported back to the 1600s, you would be regarded as a revolutionary and the greatest ballerina they’d ever seen…….
Be right back, just going to build a time machine.
Ugggh, I just had a dude try to mansplain why I was wrong to turn down his work (I’m a freelance editor and the stated reason – though not the entire reason – was that I couldn’t commit to a project of this scope right now). Got an email back about how he doesn’t think I understand, he’s just asking for *insert unreasonable turnaround time* for 30 pieces over the next several years, clearly it’s not as much work as I think it is, will I please reconsider?
(Really, I rejected him because I think he has incredibly unreasonable expectations and something just didn’t feel right in his email. This follow-up is definitely making me say, “No, instincts were right, they should be treated to a lovely lunch as a thank you.”)
high-five to your instincts!
Ballet nerd here. I’m sort of curious what information this dude thought he had read that suggested this. I mean, dude is obviously very wrong, but I’m curious about his original (clearly wildly misinterpreted) source. Or maybe he has none and just made up his awful theory. Who knows.
Also….. I have found Ballet Toast. The two things I love most on the Internet have beautifully collided. I can now die happy, having read the above conversation. Thank you all for being so wonderful, the Toast is truly the best place on the Internet.
I wouldn’t be super surprised if he just made it up. I studied ballet when I was a kid and now I study tai chi. The style of tai chi I’m learning definitely scratches my dance itch and certain moves just feel like ballet. If I were wholly ignorant of the history, I could throw together a theory about there being interplay between Chinese martial arts and ballet based on that. But it definitely requires ignoring a lot of very, very obvious facts.
I mean, there are certain ways of moving the human body that can generally be found in many cultures, because there are a limited number of ways you can actually bend an elbow, and there’s only so many flourishes you can add to “now jump in the air as high as you can.”
Exactly. Regardless of the reason for raising a curved arm above my head, it’s going to look pretty similar because that’s just how my arm goes. And by now, none of it exists in a vacuum. Using just contemporary movement to draw conclusions about historical origins is silly.
“This is an art form involving swords. Look at this tapestry showing somebody doing an art with swords! These things are obviously related!”
My most memorable mansplaining incident had to do with my space lace, this glowing fiber optic flow toy.
So I’m at a festival with my space lace and this is day two. In my area, I’d only ever seen one other person using one and they were not at this festival. A woman has just walked up to me and asked me about it when a guy runs over and starts answering for me. The woman keeps directing her questions at me and I keep trying to answer, but he doesn’t let me get a word in edgewise.
And get this: in his answers he keeps referring to some guy he’d talked to about it the night before. Now, this is a small festival. Maybe one hundred people? And I’d been up all night the night before and hadn’t seen anyone else with it, so my spidy sense starts tickling.
Then I noticed that his answers sounded like my answers. I’d talked to loads of people about it the night before, and it was dark, but then I start thinking I recognize him. But no way was this guy being such an ass. No way had he rewritten me in his mind as a dude and was standing here mansplaining my own words.
Then he says the guy with the space lace was from my hometown and I’m like, dude, no, that was me. And he keeps talking, so I say louder, the guy was me, you were talking to me!
I’m still just flabbergasted so I start laughing uncontrollably and saying wow, and he leaves. It was mostly funny to me at the time, but now I actually feel pretty angry about it. It still seems so outlandish I wonder if there actually was a man there he had talked to from my hometown with a space lace, but even if he had he still inserted himself into a conversation about something he had only secondhand info on and talked over me when the woman wanted to talk to me about my own damn possession.
This is OT, but anyone for a discussion of the new Assassin’s Creed movie trailer? I watched it and said “yup, looks like AC, including the carriage level.” That said I am completely down for how good/bad it is going to be and I am super excited.
me too! And there are some absolutely fantastic cosplay ideas rumbling in my head just from seeing the trailer. I love Ezio, but am a little relieved they didn’t do a movie with him or Altair or Desmond, that would guarantee a really bad movie.
I agree! I think going with an original story is a good choice, for this one. Also, lady assasssin!! I am super excited.
I squealed out loud at my desk, I hope she kills EVERYBODY and lives through the movie while working that beautiful cloak.
I was very skeptical (helloooo, Prince of Persia movie), but the trailer actually looks decent? And it has a December release. So I am kind of excited for it. But also hesitant because video game movies, you have burned me before.
I am thinking there will be no less burning in this one (Sands of Time you tried so hard), but I accept that in advance and am here for the parkour.
I think the Spanish Inquisition setting is SO BORING but it looks like it’s gonna have some pretty cool fight scenes, so I’ll probably catch it on Netflix or something.
Although I definitely had a moment when they were doing like, all the parkour flips where I was like, “YOU NEVER GET TO DO THAT IN AN AC GAME”
This is unrelated to the movie trailer- but I’ve always loved the gorgeous settings of Assasain’s Creed and I’ve wondered- is there a way to buy the game and just wander around looking at the city and seeing things without having to actually play the game? I’m just a) not interested in and b) not any good at that part of things so it wouldn’t really be worth it to buy the thing if I never got to do anything but get killed trying to look at buildings.
I bet you could kind of do this once you got past the tutorial/introduction missions. Mostly people will leave you alone as you wander the world, unless you’re up on rooftops and get spotted by guards. But even then, it’s possible just run away instead of fighting. Historical tourism FTW.
Yes, with a bit of exception – you can often wander around in “low profile” where you’re just walking (not running, parkouring, waving your sword around etc) and you will be generally left alone unless you go too close to a guarded mission area. If you wander up on the rooftops guards will look at you funny, but you have a bit of time before they start coming after you. The first one is less forgicing on this front though.
Also the games are quite cheap second hand now!
I suspect “carriage” was supposed to be “carnage” but I like to think Assassin’s Creed is really about acquiring very fancy carriages to crush your enemies’ spirits.
Actually there’s levels in the game where you’re driving a horse-drawn carriage (cart, I suppose, in most of them) and have to ram it against your enemies carriage. So you are crushing them!
All I need to know is, will there be strategically placed haystacks?
‘The colors mean you can see the nutrients.’ – There is nothing I love more than setting off my fellow chemists with phrases like that. My most recent was ‘clear things are never toxic.’ There are a couple of Helpful Males in the lab who know how much I like winding them up, and yet they fall for it every time.
Ooh, that is my favorite game for two or more players:
Player one: Gestures at anything: “and it’s natural! no chemicals!”
Players two through infinity: “EVERYTHING IS MADE OF CHEMICALS”
or some people play it thusly:
Player one: This food/ diet is so good for you! It helps flush the toxins out of your system!
Players two- infinity: DO YOU NOT HAVE KIDNEYS?
Player two, checking in… (I swear, I had these conversations at least once a week for a while.)
“I only eat organic chicken”
“Oh yeah I know what you mean I once ate a chicken sculpted out of malachite and I was sick for a week.”
This reminded me of this: http://astolat.tumblr.com/post/144069870158/badsc… It’s NSFW, but also very funny. >.<
Oh my god I love the internet.
My new shower gel says “Chemical and preservative free” on the back and every time I see it in the shower I get ANNOYED. (It DOES have preservatives, too, they’re just citric acid and potassium sorbate instead of parabens. DON’T LIE TO ME.)
It’s such a curious, meaningless buzz phrase and it used to get me so irritated! One day, I’m going to do some proper research into why ‘chemical’ is such a bad word, and what people mean when they say they want ‘chemical-free’ stuff. But for now, I am content to let my colleagues shout.
My two favorites are: the Ham in the natural foods section: “No Preservatives!”… ITS FUCKING HAM THE WHOLE POINT IS ITS PRESERVED.
and I have been finding 97% chemical free or 97% natural on a lot of cleaners lately. Now I can’t prove it but I’m willing to lay good money on those soaps also being 97% water.
Not to mention you’re going to use said shower gel IN THE SHOWER…under a controlled torrent of dihydrogen monoxide which is probably the first ingredient of the shower gel, too!
I once bought a bottle of water labeled “gluten free.” I FUCKING HOPE SO.
But was it vegan?
You never know though, gluten is sneaky.
Player Two when talking about beauty products.
Ha! I’m imagining all of the fun you could have with this.
“Come on guys, you know if you can’t smell it then it’s not there…”
I’m very fond of the phrase “a hard artery is a strong artery” while tucking into something rich in saturated fat.
‘I’m not convinced I need muscles.’
‘…HOW ELSE WOULD YOU MOVE YOUR BODY?’
‘Willpower.’
Is there a link broken or missing for the Sherpa article? The only links go to things that seem unrelated to the passage and don’t talk about any incredible women…
there now!
Here’s the thing: even if you believe George Zimmerman’s version of events (which, to be clear, I do not), this is gross and horrifying. This man killed a child. Even if he genuinely believed doing so was justified, why would he think it was acceptable to sell a souvenir of the event? He is just a horrible unrepentant racist.
There was a bizarre article maybe last year about him and his family (that included interviews with his family members) where they talked about hiding their location and protecting themselves from death threats and clearly conceived of themselves as victims. To be clear, there were no death threats. No one has tried to hurt them. But they suggested that Trayvon Martin’s family should apologize to them (!?!?!?!) because of the effect the shooting (murder) had on their lives.
Yeah, exactly. IF you believe it went down as he said, any normal person would be horrified and freaked out that they had to defend themselves that way … not celebrating the weapon as a trophy. I recall a news article from a few years back in which a guy shot and killed a home intruder, to much celebration by the keyboard-bound nuts in the comment section, of course. The actual guy who’d been through it, though, was like, “This was terrible, I wish this had never happened.” (And he had been in danger.)
The only thing I remember from that article is that the family had a code where a mild threat was “code brown”* and a major threat was “code black.” I mean, I don’t need to be Carl Jung to decode that.
*IME “code brown” usually means a bathroom emergency. Go ahead and make all the jokes you want.
Wow. No further evidence required that George Zimmerman is a) broke and b) a sociopath.
That’s OJ Simpson levels of despicable…
Are there any Steampunk Toasties?? If so any Steamy Toasts on the east coast going to the Steampunk World’s Fair this weekend are invited to the Baroness Anabella Memorial Tea Party SATURDAY May 14 from 4-9 Pm in the Radisson Courtyard. There will be delightful snacks and libations that may or may not have tea in them as well as hopefully entertaining conversation!
I am now seriously considering driving down to NJ…. from CT – Worth the drive for one day of fun?
It’s in Piscataway! I enjoy it it’s especially geared towards music and performances but with the rest of the usual convention stuff thrown in. Lots of great costumery almost everyone dresses up in something but no one is going to be giving you the side eye for wearing a t-shirt. Lots of great shopping and it has taken over two adjacent hotels plus the parking lot inbetween them so there’s always lots of space to get away if things get too crowded.
I feel like I have always wanted to jump into steampunk….. This may be my chance! If I go, I’ll probably wear a Sherlock tee….and I’ll stop by a tea party
Would love to meet you! 🙂
Someone please let me know if a Steampunk Toasties subreddit is created.
That might almost get me to use reddit!
Is anyone else feeling distinctly itchy after reading the BuzzFeed mysterious itch article??
YES and the comments in here regarding itching are not helping one whit.
Yep, brb, have to run home for my cortizone spray. . . .
Well NOW I AM!!
If you enjoyed the Buzzfeed itch article you’ll love this one about a woman whose itch was so bad she scratched through to her brain. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/30/the-…
Ooh, I remember that one. Don’t want to, but I do.
I do not even like your summary thank you now everything is itchy and I am horrified.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
i immediately think of this every time i read about mystery itches and SHUDDER
Posted about that upthread. I don’t need to read any more stories about itching after that one; I still think about it every once in a while, unbidden, and my skin begins to crawl.
I want to believe that’s fake, but I’ve never been able to suspend my belief for long enough.
Also, I have spoken to so many people today who don’t understand that Medicare is a government program. You cannot simultaneously love Medicare and hate all government intervention. You just can’t.
I work in healthcare. The best thing EVER is when a patient is complaining about the “big government taking over” but happily is on both Medicare and Medicaid. And even then complaining that not enough of their expenses are covered. *Brain aneurysm*
There are so so so so so so SOOOOO many people in my area who are avid, veracious anti-big-government right-wing-radio mouthpieces looking forward to their annual “unenjoyment” layoff.
Like.
Guys, come on, where do you think this money comes from
Oh man, all the old people who sure as fuck like their Medicare and VA and Social Security but want to take food out of the mouths of hungry children because Government Is Bad can go stuff it.
It reminds me of The Only Moral Abortion Is My Abortion…The Only Acceptable Government Assistance Is My Government Assistance.
But then there are the people who just genuinely do not understand that Medicare is a government program.
And after thinking about it I realized that I only really extensively learned about medicare and other safety net programs voluntarily in college, which is such a problem both because a lot of people will need them and they are COMPLICATED and because they are vital to understanding the role and structure of government. But America has effectively put a fascist on the ballot so the fact that our education system sucks really doesn’t need to be reiterated at this point.
…Where do they think the money comes from, if not from the government?
Magical money trees.
Though I think some people do realize at some level that they are government programs, there’s just a very loose connection between that and what they’re apparently imagining as government programs, so they don’t consciously get it.
There is literally a line on every pay stub I’ve ever recieved that says “Medicare” under tax withholding!! How?!?!
For Halloween in 2009, I dressed up as a health care Town Hall protester. My hand-markered protest sign said quite prominently to “Keep the government out of my Medicare!!” along with a hammer & sickle for Obamacare, and other mis-spelled lovelies. It was glorious, and the best was seeing people at the bar party I was at try and figure out if it was in earnest. One older gentleman approached me and said it was so wonderful to see young people involved in “the cause”. **shudder**
“One older gentleman approached me and said it was so wonderful to see young people involved in “the cause”. **shudder**”
YES
THIS
Also, a lot of folks don’t realize that Medicare and *many* other government programs contract out a lot of their administrative functions to the private sector. I work for a company that handles that kind of work, and we have to bid competitively for government contracts.
The whole “public vs. private sector” thing is pretty complicated in the U.S.
A few years ago, there was a study done of people who are actually using a government program who still claim they had never used a government program. 53% of those who have student loans claimed no government help, 44% of those with retirement Social Security, 43% of those on unemployment (these two are the ones that really boggle my mind, some of the others, sure you might not know it’s a government program, but you are literally getting checks written by the government, and with unemployment you have to go to a government office and log your searches on a government website, how in the world is this not a government program????)….. http://government.arts.cornell.edu/assets/faculty… (Table 3 on page 809)
I shouldn’t be shocked by this.
My dad is like this.
My MIL is like this.
I shouldn’t be shocked by this.
*goes to refill wine glass*
My first thought is always this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTwpBLzxe4U
OT sadness – I broke my ipad screen. I knocked it off my nightstand this morning while turning off my alarm clock. Just a small shattered bit in the corner, and it still works fine, but it bums me out. Life is fleeting, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, etc, etc… Everything in life feels so much more serious when you’re in a depressive episode.
I feel the same way when I make some small, irreparable mistake. It was whole, and now it never will be again. Somehow it seems to speak to the central, universal sadness. (I mean, when you’re in that headspace. When you’re not, it’s just a broken ipad. But I get it, is what I’m saying.) Sending comforting vibes your way!
:hug: I know. I feel like I have constantly been running on fumes for weeks, and I get so upset by the tiniest crap (like a taxi driver scolding me for slamming his door when I DIDN’T) and then I feel even worse because I know that I’m disproportionately upset, and on and on and on. . .
Sending you internet hugs (which do not break even if you drop them on the floor). (They bounce!)
Endless sympathies to leaping_rabbit and her ipad screen (ho boy I get it) but I really wanted to thank you for the awesomely sweet mental image of internet hugs bouncing along the floor. I made a literal, in-the-flesh sound of joy.
Ok, I’m not gonna *read* the piece about the itching woman because I’m in the middle of a health anxiety crisis and I really can’t let any new ideas about mysterious symptoms into my brain at the moment. I’m just curious if any other Toasties would identify as suffering from health anxiety (formerly known as hypochondriasis). I haven’t conquered this issue by any means but I have trying to observe my patterns over the last few years. My partner has leukemia and is currently in relapse (maybe not for much longer though, yay!) It was like clockwork, once we finally turned a corner in terms of his treatment and approaching remission, my anxiety and worry immediately rerouted to focus on my own health and my own mysterious symptoms. So instead of feeling relief that we might be out of the woods, I am just an anxious mess but about ME this time. The last 5 months have been really tough, lots of uncertainty and I know for sure that has had an effect on my physical and emotional well-being. Ugh I’ve been dealing with this for 15-20 years now! And I’ve diagnosed myself with every malady under the sun! Sorry for going off topic and off the rails here. Just curious if anyone else has dealt with this.
I go through periods of bad health anxiety followed by periods where everything is fine, so I sympathize but don’t have much answers in terms of solving it unfortunately. Two things I’ve noticed is that it’s worse I think when I have something else I’m worried about but am avoiding (this happened a lot in college- huge paper due tomorrow? let’s freak out about possible deadly illnesses) and weirdly, it gets worse when I’m kind of bored. If I have nothing else to focus on I start hyper focusing on my body and its aches and pains and my mind lets itself run wild. Finding a pattern in the anxiety has helped me a bit, along with forcing myself to go to the doctor if I’m really worried and not googling anything!!
I don’t have health anxiety, but I do have anxiety that tends to focus on my health; so any twinge and I instantly jump to something insane like cancer or a brain tumor and then the logical bit of my brain kicks in and says its definitely not cancer its just a headache, but the irrational anxiety riddle part won’t shut up and then they fight it out for awhile. If the irrational side wins I then spiral into a long drawn out fantasy about being very ill and what I’d do with my life (would I have to move home? What would I do about work? I wonder what I’d look like with no hair?)
I also have a suspicion that i focus on something being catastrophically wrong because at least that feels like it would be something real and potentially fixable and doctors would take it seriously. Instead of what I actually have which is a bunch of low level problems that western medicine doesn’t care about, both physical and mental, that means I just constantly feel shitty, but getting any relief is an uphill battle of diet overhauls, failed attempts at exercise and wading through holistic bullshit trying to find something that works along with fighting doctors to take me seriously and not write off my problems as ‘just overweight and stressed’ (I’ve mostly given up on all of it and now just live with my broken flabby body and shithead brain.). Its super not healthy, but I find myself thinking at least when you have cancer the doctors give you pain killers and try to fix you. (Like I said, super super not healthy and I’m sorry to people out there who actually have serious illnesses, my brain is an epic asshole.)
I hope you find some relief and that you partner continues to get better.
I don’t do the self-diagnosis thing, but there are a lot of articles about health and diseases and the like that I CANNOT read because of anxiety. I will start, sometimes, because it depends on the article and the day, but often have to hit the “back” button because I feel my breath and pulse starting to quicken and my anxiety ramp up (e.g. that NYT piece about how the The Biggest Loser fucked up ppl’s metabolism). Last week I had a real panic attack for the first time in years because I read the full text of a letter we received about a case of viral meningitis in our office. It wasn’t even particularly graphic or alarmist!
I have anxiety and worrying about health is definitely one of the ways it likes to express itself. I’ve only just started therapy for my anxiety, so I’m not an expert about dealing with it, but I definitely experience it. The only thing I’ve been doing lately is avoiding googling symptoms (and I only got that far after getting really, really wound up about DVT, only to have a doctor friend confirm that there was no way what I was feeling could be that). I can only imagine how much harder it would be when you have proof in the form of your partner that yes, sometimes people do get really sick.
So I don’t have any advice, but I do have solidarity/internet hugs if you want them. And I hope your partner goes back into remission and you get the time/spoons to take care of yourself and get some treatment for anxiety.
Yeah, I definitely have a tendency towards health anxiety. I am very adept at finding any little bumps/symptoms/etc. and mentally turning them into OMG CANCER!!!
What you described about your anxiety focusing on your own health now that your partner is getting better sounds very familiar; I’m much the same way. Once my anxiety reaches a certain level it sort of roams around looking for things to latch onto until I can manage to wind it down. My husband describes it as “looking for things to worry about.” Being aware of the pattern helps; if I can describe it as it’s happening sometimes that helps me to distance myself from the worry and not get wrapped up in it.
I’ve also set a rule for myself that I’m not allowed to look up any symptoms online. That way lies madness. 🙂
I think it’s also helpful to take a step back and realize when you’re in a stressful situation, so you can give yourself permission to be gentle with yourself and to ramp up the self-care. I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to have a partner with leukemia! I’m thinking massages, chocolates, good food and books, whatever your particular version of comfort happens to be.
Best wishes to you and your partner for continued healing and de-stressing!
Yes. This is a thing that happens to me on the regular. I’m convinced that the twinges I feel in various parts of my body (chest, thigh, head, other place) are signs of giant, looming issues. And that every time I’m super thirsty following eating carbs it must mean I’m diabetic. It doesn’t help that both my grandfathers had colon cancer, a grandmother has diabetes, and heart disease, and strokes run in the family. It’s a constant parade of, “Sure, I’m 30, but with all of this genetic legacy on both sides hanging over me, one of these things is gonna show up early, right?”
Never mind that I’ve been having an actual real health thing right now (one of my eyes is out of focus even in contacts), and I’ve been having examinations and an MRI and blood draws for something completely unknown. But hey, why not add a little bit more panic on?
TLDR, I know how you feel when it comes to health anxiety, although not about your partner’s leukemia! I’m so sorry about that, and I hope that you both have turned a corner with that.
Hi Catandrist! I had never heard of the term “health anxiety” before, but I definitely relate to your story as someone whose partner has serious health issues (my husband has a kidney disease and underwent a kidney transplant ~16 months ago), but whose own health conditions are somewhat mysterious and seemingly never ending. I was diagnosed with thyroid issues a few years ago, and finally underwent a thyroidectomy earlier this year, but I continue to suffer from various symptoms and very, very rarely wake up to a day where I feel good or even normal. It definitely feels like this is all exacerbated by my own struggle to “believe myself” (are my health issues real, or am I making myself sick somehow?) and a propensity to think that I suffer from mental health issues that are manifesting themselves physically. But we do live in a world where women are often not believed and told their valid health concerns are all in their heads, so… It’s complicated and exhausting and I FEEL YOU. I’m here if you’d like to discuss it more!
*waves to fellow health-anxiety Toasties* I have been dealing with health anxiety (and a bunch of other shit, because yay for comorbidities! and …health anxiety by proxy? I get really distressed at the prospect of my people or people around me getting acute communicable illnesses like norovirus, etc) for a few years (consciously, anyway. I am pretty sure I’ve been like this most of my life, I just didn’t have the vocab for it). I definitely have worse episodes when there’s less going on with other people for me to focus on (my dad just had a double bypass, & I was stressed as hell for the month around the surgery & week he was in the hospital, but I didn’t have a lot of time for harmful rumination about my food making me sick or obsessing about the rightness of my relationship or whatever – now that he’s recovering my brain is back to its usual HA/ROCD/dysthymia bullshit).
What I have found temporarily very helpful is to be really active in my body but not *thinking* about my body or what I’m feeling. So: cleaning out & reorganizing the fridge/freezer/closet/bathroom and listening to mentally engaging podcasts, really long walks interspersed with brief sprints to burn off energy coupled with podcasts, and hours of laundry at the local animal shelter coupled with podcasts. And something I just discovered I really enjoy: gardening, of the hacking and slashing and digging up deeply-rooted and aggressively-volunteering-all-over-the-garden type, coupled with podcasts (never, never plant Jupiter’s Beard unless you want an entire yard full of it). Basically, busy hands and an occupied mind are a good salve for me.
In the long term, I am trying CBT, and meditation, and medication, and better, regimented self-care. I’m also working my way through The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, which isn’t bad. The author isn’t great at writing statistically-valid or even well-designed surveys, but he takes a holistic approach to mental health, and the publisher provides free downloads of the breathing exercises and worksheets he suggests. So that’s helping a bit, even if it is a lot of hippie dippie fixing yourself from the inside out shit when what I really want is a pill or nanobots to just fucking fix my brain already because I am super impatient and annoyed at wasting time feeling this way.
I hope at least a little of that was helpful, if any! Best wishes to you and your partner.
A couple of years ago I had a lightbulb moment where I realized that I had some kind of health drama/focus EVERY FEBRUARY. Like, I could tick back the years – thought I was having seizures, mysterious shoulder ailment, heart palpitations, Raynaud’s phenomenon…and most/all of those do have some basis in reality, but can also all be described as me deciding that symptoms I can’t immediately explain are Very Worrisome and need extensive medical evaluation. Since that realization (must be SAD-linked, I guess?), I’ve been able to chill out a little, but then I have the anxiety that now I’m ignoring something that’s actually a problem. So, yes, I can relate!!
Oh wow, the Everest piece.
“‘If somebody in America climbs Everest 19 times, he’d be all over Budweiser commercials,’ said Norbu Tenzing Norgay, 50, Chhewang’s cousin and the eldest living son of Everest pioneer Tenzing Norgay.”
and
“‘It’s the guilt of hiring somebody to work for me who really had no choice,’ Arnot told me last October in Nepal, where I’d joined her on her second annual trek to visit Chhewang’s widow. ‘My passion created an industry that fosters people dying. It supports humans as disposable, as usable, and that is the hardest thing to come to terms with.'”
just… wow. That’s a good one to read. Incredibly sad.
ETA: oh gosh and I wasn’t even reading the right article.
George Zimmerman is the worst. Maybe the literal worst.
On a long list of reasons why, one reason – far down on that list, but present – is whenever I learn of some new awful thing he’s doing, I’m always ashamed of the things I relexively wish upon George Zimmerman.
What I always wish upon these people – and I should feel way worse about it than I do, because it’s actually terrible – is for them to wake up every morning blissfully happy, then remember suddenly who they are, why people hate them, and that those people are right. I want George Zimmerman to have an Angel’s Gypsy Curse moment, where he suddenly realizes that he’s George Zimmerman, and how unhappy he should be about that.
This is also what I wish for Donald Trump.
OT, guys, but my brother in law is trolling me because i had the temerity to ask people’s opinions on who is uglier – Lemmy or Stephen Tyler.
He’s essentially arguing that if it is not ok to publicly discuss women’s appearance, it is therefore not ok to discuss men’s appearance, and I am, like, 95% sure that this question is not actually that bad (in that Lemmy and ST’s careers did not depend on their being sexxxy, where women music maker’s often do), but he’s making me feel badly about it and i don’t wanna. Am I wrong here?
yeah, I can see that being a mean-spirited question about other famous guys, but with those two it’s such a part of their whole deal. people don’t hate them or dismiss them bc they’re ugly. heck, I can almost picture them having the same argument with each other, at a bar.
/whipsers Thank you.
This helps – it is a question that i ask specifically of these two men because it was an integral part of their respective schticks. I would not smack talk other famous dudes in the same way.
i am actually kind of charmed now by this mental picture of the two of them hanging out at some filthy roadhouse bar (or, like, a famous rock star bar that LOOKS like a filthy roadhouse) while the bartender reads your facebook comments on his phone and they laugh and do a shot every time one of them scores an ugly point in their favor.
🙂 They wouldn’t even get very drunk. Turns out like 4 ppl care.
I… don’t agree with the commenters above. All I can say is that I have no real desire to treat men in the same shitty way women have always been treated. So I have a personal rule that I try not to discuss anyone’s appearance unless it is actually relevant to the conversation. Saying a woman would never have a successful music career if she looked Like Lemmy or Stephen Tyler would be a relevant conversation. “Which of these dudes is the ugliest one?” I’m not so sure about that.
Thank you for this, too. Part of the reason that I am here is for this dissenting opinion, because I am feeling shitty, and I cannot work out if it is because his point is legit, or if it is because he’s being shitty to me.
I am fully with you – One of my fav quotes about feminism is something along the lines of when we said we wanted equality, we did not mean that we wanted things to be as awful for men as they are for ladies.
I think my squick comes from the fact that the conversation – who’s uglier? – IS really shitty. Except that the context of these _particular_ men’s careers as ugly-dudes-that-are-awesome-rock-stars-anyway maybe opens this up as fair game? Like, I specifically shut down people who responded with “I wouldn’t do either” with “no one asked about whether you want to rub junk with them”, i just want to know which one ppl find more aesthetically pleasing (ST’s scarves or Lemmy’s hat?). Maybe I should have phrased it that way? Is that less shitty? Or is it still shitty?
Well, you’re absolutely right that both these men became sort of… cheerfully famously ugly, without it impacting their lives or the way people saw them in a significant way. In fact it can even make them seem cooler – which women don’t have the option of, not ever. ANd your BIL could have contacted you privately if it was really bothering him, but it sounds like he didn’t.
Nope, and he ended today’s discussion with advice for the feminists.
I’m not worried about BIL – he can take it. I am worried that my question contributes to a toxic narrative. Which i think i can admit, and have it be ok. I can learn, even if i’m not hugely fond of the source. Thanks again for your persepective.
*nods*
That’s pretty much my rubric, too. I want a world in which we don’t think anyone’s looks are up for comparison or ranking, and in which no one’s humanity and career is affected by a characteristic that isn’t changeable (or isn’t changeable without surgery / self-estrangement / dysphoria).
At the same time, I recognize that we don’t have that world, and that being “hard to look at” (BARF) is held against women in ways that they aren’t against men.
Hey guys, there’s an event that some friends of friends are involved with on facebook, that is suggesting people wear “respectful native american costumes” or “seppuku outfits” If you have a FB account and want to do a good thing today, can you call them out? https://www.facebook.com/events/1804474603115307/
Seppuku outfits? Isn’t that…suicide? You should dress up like someone who just committed ritual suicide? What kind of party is this?
It’s a “pioneer party” with a loose Oregon trail theme…the “joke” is it’s a costume for people who think it’s “Organ Trail”.
Also BTW “pioneer” isn’t really neutral either for a low income minority community that is facing the same rental increases and displacement as all of NY.
It looks like they’ve retracted the “respectful Native American costumes” bit so that’s. . .something?
Someone in the comments says she’s working on a performance to address the genocide/colonization issues. Which is nice I think…but is that part of the official deal? The whole thing is a fundraiser to make a bus that looks like a whale. Ughhhhh. Also note that seppuku stayed in, and my comment is gone.
“seppuku outfits”
Anyone want to talk about this week’s (two) Person of Interest episodes and the utter magnificence of that one glitch at the beginning of SNAFU?
Oh, I have only watched SNAFU so far, but yes! That was super delightful. And the processing of ethics and context for The Machine. I love Michael Emerson and Amy Acker so much it hurts. Their roommate status! AHHHH….
Root sending Harold on a shopping expedition to decorate her room!
I read somewhere (tumblr) that Root always wore black nail polish on her fingernails, but when she went into hiding and had to switch identities every couple days she couldn’t afford to do that anymore. I’m *pretty* sure it went on to say that Amy Acker then decided to paint her toenails black instead, just so Root could have that little bit of continuity.
I loved her bedroom so much. It looks like it should be inside a van with a bikini warrior airbrushed on the side.
There are two this week??? I’m on holiday and missing them NOOO 🙁
Yeah, they’re doing this weird compressed schedule where they air two a week until they last several episodes, at which point they’ll go back to one a week. They’ll all be here when you get back from holiday! At which point you can squee (or drink yourself into oblivion, depending on how it goes) with us 😀
Ooh I only watched one yesterday, time to find the other one.
Yeah that glitch was amazing. I love when they embrace the silliness and let the actors play around with being each other or being totally wacky cover identities.
EXCITED FOR EP 4 for reasons not to be stated in case anyone is totally unspoilered.
YES it’s going to hurt so much though
I am totally unspoilered for Ep 4 and, after what they did to Carter, this new series is so stressful to watch.
It both hurt and warmed my heart how Ep 3 returned to the one-number police procedural that got pretty much destroyed in the last season. I am a sucker for police procedurals and loved that straightforward format as much as the dystopic turn it took. And watching Ep 3 was like spending time with a lover where you know the relationship is coming to an end, but there’s a lull in the storm and, in that lull, hanging out with them reminds you of how easy it was when you first got together and why you fell in love with them. But you still know it’s gonna end.
*sigh*
(OT) It’s my birthday! Hugs and good wishes appreciated.
And thank you to everyone who offered advice and encouragement about my internship on Tuesday. Yesterday was alright, but today I made two stupid mistakes even though there wasn’t much to do at all. I managed to “undo” them and I know everyone makes mistakes, but it’s just adding to my feeling of uneasiness.
And just now my predecessor came in and of course everyone still loves her. She also didn’t quite understand why I was frustrated because all I did this morning was file away contracts.
(I swear the day I won’t complain to the Toast on Link Roundups will come but I’m afraid it’s not today.)
Happy Birthday!! Doing anything special?
And sorry about the internship uneasiness.
Thank you! I was out with some friends at night, just eating and talking. It was really nice and I got some great presents 🙂
Happy birthday! I hope you get to do something fun.
I hope things get better at the internship. Take it easy on yourself, remember that the whole point of an internship is that you’re there to learn, it’s ok to make mistakes.
Thank you. Yes, that is something I tend to forget…
haaaaaappy biiiirthday!
Thanks!
Happy Happy Birthday! I hope you get some cake!
[Internship News Sidenote: Buzzfeed’s Another Round podcast had a segment on work mistakes a few episodes back. If that sounds like something you might find useful or comforting, you can listen to it here.]
Thank you and yes, there was cake 🙂
I’ll give the podcast a listen tonight, thanks for the recommendation!
Happy Birthday!! Internet hugs and best wishes. I hope today and the rest of this year are wonderful.
Thank you!
Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! *throws confetti* I’m certain your internship will get better soon! No, I’m not going to clean that confetti up.
Thank you!
Happy birthday, have a slice of toast!
That’s great, thank you 🙂
Happy birthday! Try to take time for yourself today just to remember how far you’ve come and how well you’re doing.
Thank you! It certainly didn’t feel like I’ve come far yesterday, but I have nonetheless.
Happy birthday! And for whatever it’s worth, filing contracts was one of the most valuable parts of my first internship – I got to read EVERYTHING and I learned so much about contracts for my industry, which are still a huge part of my job 7 years later.
Thank you. Yes, it is obviously something that has to be done and can be very informative; it just sucked because it was all I had to do and the rest of the week wasn’t any better.
Happy birthday, Merripat! Have a wonderful day, and try to forgive yourself for your mistakes. You’re doing great.
Also, avoid the sugar.
Hahahahahah, you’re great, thank you. No berries for me 🙂
Happy happy birthday!!!! I hope that you do something wildly and wonderfully fun this evening (or whatever time of day it is for you, or will be wherever you are!) to celebrate!
Thank you! I was out with some friends, getting presents 🙂
That is the best, thank you very much!
This story is going largely unexamined and unreported in my town. Eyewitness accounts differ from the official police statement, so any efforts to shine a brighter light on what happened are much appreciated: http://thisisreno.com/2016/05/eye-witness-account…
ETA: UPDATE, sort of: http://thisisreno.com/2016/05/sheriffs-office-no-…
OT but I really, really, really wish Mallory had been Prudie when I was about 15… or 18… or 22… or 26… Her advice and perspective would have saved me from a LOT of bad decisions, wasted time, and general pain.
So this author makes it out like this is some new form of patriarchy, but as a flat-chested person whose lingerie collection consists of sports bras and shirts that don’t require a bra (today: no bra) this sounds awesome and I can’t believe I’m just now hearing that it’s a “trend” http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/20…
You know, with the proliferation of bralettes and all kinds of fashion items that seem to either a) be meant to be worn with parts of your bra showing, or b) a giant fuck-you to women who NEED to wear bras for comfort, I’ve wondered if I did something wrong by wearing bras since I was 12 (since before I actually needed them, but there was no way in hell I was going to be the only middle school girl in the P.E. changing room without a bra) and never going without. I can’t be without a supportive bra. It hurts me to exist without wearing one. I have average boobs (small but the rest of me is small too) but despite not being hugely endowed it HURTS me if I don’t wear a real, structured bra.
I think bralettes can be really cute though, and I would wear them basically as crop tops- but I could only wear them over a supportive bra. I’m thinking my strapless “nude-colored” (read: for women lighter skinned than me) bra will be my ticket to wearing them.
I was the only kid in the changing room without a bra for a very long time and was always ashamed of it. I’m more zen about it now but there are certain clingy/sheer garments that I can’t wear without making it obvious that I’m braless, and that’s a big taboo in many settings. I don’t need it for comfort, just to conceal my nakedness/nipples.
I’m on the other side of this issue, as I find bras uncomfortable – especially anytime I wear one for longer than a couple of hours. But I often worry people are thinking I’m indecent when I go without (I am rather well endowed in that department). But then I get mad at myself for being embarrassed about a part of my body. We can’t win!
I’ve been seeing bralettes around on websites, but I’d always assumed they were a kind of loungewear–more comfy than an underwire, more supportive than wearing nothing. Turns out that I own a bralette, but I wouldn’t want other people to see it any more than I’d want them to see my underwire.
(I have no idea why, but I have a super hard time finding underwires that are comfortable. I endorse any trend that does not involve them.)
Warners has bras without underwire that offer pretty good support! And they even have some cute ones.
I’ll have to check it out! I’m currently wearing one by Hanes.
Ugh, yes! I’ve gotten used to a couple of the underwire styles from Soma but it is so hard to find something between a bralette and an underwire, support-wise.
(Soma is pricier, but they have big sales pretty often if you sign up for their e-mails, and they have a few decent non-underwire ones, too. And the super-soft pajamas I can’t find anyplace else.)
I had a nightmare last night about having to go to a high school with metal detectors and having my brassiere set it off (anything with that much hardwear doesn’t go by a nickname.)
Anyway I think the bralette test would be pretty easy- can you take the stairs without a bra on and have it not hurt? Then you’re probably good to go.
Good lord. I have to hold my boobs going down stairs even when I have a bra on, and I only have a C cup (which is the biggest they’ve ever been, fwiw, I was an A cup until I hit 28 and a desk job). If that’s the benchmark, I’m going to need some duct tape over here, thanks.
god, i freakin love how bralettes look, but as a small-ribcage/large-busted lady, there’s no way they’re ever going to fit. i think i could even swing (no pun intended) the relative lack of support if i could somehow mix and match the large-size cups with the small-size band.
Braletts are hella sexy, but I am a 36f. Its not gonna look sexy on me.
yep, 30 F here and it’s not a good look. boob everywhere. it’s not like, tantalizing my-cup-runneth-over spillage. it’s more like the boob version of those videos of octopi squeezing themselves through cracks in their aquariums.
That mental image is astonishingly accurate.
(32FF)
I got a non-underwire sports bra a while ago (I am used to underwire ones) and trying to shove my 30H breasts into it felt like trying to cram bread dough into a too-small container.
Amen (34GG)
Yeah, I’m super into the kinds of strappy/backless shirts that bralettes are designed to let you wear, and I own several just for that purpose. But ALL of them are too small in the cups (er, triangles), or too big in the band. As soon as they start making them in bra sizes rather than S-M-L, I’m going to own 20.
If you have any sewing ability, you could try making this: http://shop.clothhabit.com/products/watson-bra-bi…
I’m another small-ribcage/large-busted lady, and this pattern is super comfortable/fairly supportive–I wouldn’t go running in it, but have worn it out and about. It’s also super easy to sew.
ooh, thanks for the link! i’m not incredibly adept at sewing (hemming, buttons, etc) but i’m willing to try!
Fuck, I’m just a fat chick and it’s one more thing that’s definitely Not For Me. 44E is not anywhere in their universe of S-M-L.
My mom insisted I start wearing bralette type things (she called them exercise tops) when I was about eight, so it’s weird to me that all of a sudden the unlined, unpadded bras I transitioned to, and spent years seeking out while trying to avoid underwires, are a trend coming in cute versions.
sort of related to this, I have been looking for several years for a tankini that does not have underwire and/or is not padded. I would like to replace my my plain Nike tank suit but bathing suits without underwire or padding don’t seem to exist anymore. Any ideas?
Okay But
““They seem like no fuss,” said Kimmay Caldwell, a bra-fit expert and lingerie marketer. “Right now a woman wants to feel like, ‘I’m cool, I don’t try too hard, I’m totally chill,’ ”
This right here, yup.
Like, the amount of effort we have put into a thing
should not be dependent upon
A MAN’S OPINION OF HOW MUCH EFFORT WE HAVE PUT INTO A THING
I have zero interest in being a “chill girl” BEING PITTED AGAINST OTHER GIRLS
who have to put in effort just to EXIST
LEAVE THE NOT-CHILL GIRLS ALONE
/pmswineragealsolegitangerregardlessofhormonalstategoddamnint
Can we pretend I just copy-pasted the entirety of the Cool Girl rant from Gone Girl in here?
Also, I’m not interested in spending lots of time and energy to convince men that I put no effort into looking exactly the way they want me to look.
This is super-late but I just wanted to thank you for this, as a defiantly not-chill girl. Like, sure, be a chill girl if you want, but (a) not because you (menz) feel you should and (b) don’t pretend that this perceived lack of effort exists in a vacuum from other people’s emotional labour or lack thereof. Grumpgrumpgrumpgrump.
I have zero interest in being chill, but I love bralettes because I’m relatively small chested so I don’t need a ton of support, underwire bras warp in the dryer and become painful, and I like the option of a non-bra looking bra for when I do circus stuff.
32F. Ain’t never gonna bralette, even if I wanna.
LaurenIpsum: I sent you some Toast Post but it got returned to me. I’m not sure why, so I’ll argue with the post office people this weekend. I want my Toast Post matches to get their notes, but the Chicago Postal Service is against me…
Oh, thank you for the update. I did get one card from you! It is the best! I’m gonna try to get mine mailed out this weekend … <3
OT: If you have good thoughts, we need some over here. Best friend’s daughter/H S boys best friend is in the hospital for her third suicide attempt. Her little sister is on my team and is my middle schooler’s best friend (we met because other people were giving us dirty looks for breastfeeding, so we have been longtime family). AND a girl on my team (remember, this is middle school, 14 and under), disappeared for 20 minutes yesterday and nearly threw herself off a building. A friend stopped her (she was on the building by then). By 5 she was at our lacrosse game only slightly shaken (these events happen often enough that her mom has a reaction plan in place).
Sending many good wishes to you, and to everybody involved.
Warm gentle thoughts for her and her family and friends.
Much sympathy. I have a friend who is suffering through suicidal thoughts also, so I know how hard it can be, for the sufferer and for the people who are trying to support them through it. I hope for the best!
Sending loving thoughts to all.
Smol human, big doge. Much cute.
all i can think is, the band the mountain goats, or the animals that are mountain goats?
If it’s the animals, they clearly have not seen the photos of mountain goats standing on the side of what appear to be sheer cliffs.
how do they do that
Magic
Completely OT, I apologize.
But.
My uterus is trying to kill me.
Send help.
Or wine.
Chilled white or rose preferred.
TY
I have only this to offer:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8asVmtIvR9iSFBs…
Ice cream! That’s what I’m missing! Duh.
This is useless and unhelpful but I had horrible itchy dermatographia that went away on its own (and now only shows up in times of stress) so… let us hope/pray that the author’s does too. I sometimes think we are all Skinner’s superstitious pigeons where ailments are concerned.
I don’t have solid assessments about mountain goats. Maybe I ought to build up a few, maybe while considering my solid emotions about Jian Ghomeshi.