Let’s start with some housekeeping. As previously stated, the site will stay up basically eternally, though we will probably lock comments to avoid The Spam Influx. I’ll open them when we do occasionally post things (I would add us to your RSS feeds, and/or make sure you follow @TheToast on Twitter, so you do not miss it when we do.) I think there will be a joke post once in a while, or when Nikki’s book comes out, obviously we’ll do a thing, or just once in a while, for fun.
Our Toast emails will still work, if you need to find us.
Okay, end of housekeeping.
I have some thank-yous to do. I will forget a lot of people, but here is a start:
Mallory Ortberg
Nikki Chung
Marco S-V
Jaya Saxena and Matt Lubchansky
My husband, Steve Strong
My mom and dad and my stepmother, Amanda
My brother, Michael, and his wife, Jenna
My aunts: Maureen, Joanne, and Peggy
My uncle Don
My perfect nieces, Emily and Katie
My okay children, Amelia and James Tiberius
Amelia Lester and Johnny
Anna and Nathan and Nicholas and Wilson Ratner Hetherington
John and Nancy and Laura and Johnny and Zack and Baxter
Sam and Donnovan
Aurora Elkins
Choire Sicha and Alex Balk
Roxane Gay
Kate McKean
Elon Green
Carrie Frye
Jazmine Hughes
Samantha Powell
Jasmine Guillory
Ezekiel Kweku
The women of God Thread
Jesus Christ
Anyone who has ever babysat for me.
Sansa
Everyone who loved The Toast
This was wonderful. It has been wonderful. It will always be a beautiful memory for me. You are all the greatest. You are so smart and funny and nerdy and sweet and passionate and generous and loving. I care about you deeply, and I will miss having this one place to hang out with you every day. Have great lives.
Let’s share some links, now.
It is the centenary of the Battle of the Somme (it went on for 141 days, but began July 1st), and the Guardian’s coverage is really excellent, and heartbreaking, and I’ve been hitting refresh on it all morning.
I was talking about beloved Canadian kids’ show Street Cents, and someone linked me to THE ORAL HISTORY:
John Nowlan: The writers were fabulous. We had villainous characters and plots and at the same time we had a lot of product tests, and we weren’t afraid to throw brand-name products into the pit. We had an expression: “fit for the pit.” And every week there was a product that did not live up to its advertised hype, usually a brand-name product. And we were thrilled to be able to throw it into our make-believe pit with a loud explosion and a lot of fake smoke, so we had great fun with that.
Jonathan Torrens: I remember that the pit was just a 650-watt light with a red gel on it and a smoke machine. In the early going we probably only had one version of the prop that we were throwing in the pit, so if it landed on the light and got singed, that was it.
Mike Clattenburg: When you threw something in the Street Cents pit, the line was always, “[This product] is fit for the pit!” They’d throw the product in the pit: BOOM! It would explode in a huge flash of fire and smoke. We examined this product called Miracle Thaw, it was some ridiculous way to thaw meat on a piece of metal. Anyway, Jono and I changed the line to, “Go on wit ya, Miracle Thaw!” Then threw it in the pit. BOOM! It was so funny to us, but everyone else thought we were fucked. I only shot one take because the pyro was a big reset. I think I caught some shit for that. It went to air.
The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned the federal government’s approval of a controversial pipeline proposal that would link Alberta’s oilsands to British Columbia’s north coast.
In a written decision, the court says Canada fell short in its duty to consult with aboriginal people before giving the green light to Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway project.
FINALLY, the law is on someone’s side:
I’m still nursing my five-month-old and work full-time, which means I breast pump three times a day. Two months ago, it was announced that our office was moving down the road. I followed up with our office manager as well as the assistant, as a detail like needing a private room with a door that locks — just for me — was probably not on the top of their minds. Each time an email was sent about the move, I followed up, and got a “oh yeah…we’re working on it” response.
In hindsight, I should have shared what the expectations — and laws — were. I don’t think the office manager or assistant have HR backgrounds nor have set up breast-pumping stations before, so I have to assume what happened next was an honest mistake.
Fast forward to yesterday, the first day in the office. On the tour in the morning, I was shown a bathroom on the other side of the campus, with the promise of a half fridge to store the expressed milk. I’d be sitting on a toilet (without a lid that seals off the toilet bowl) to pump, holding the pump in my hands, since there is no place to set it down. (I could share more details, but the more I write, the more angry I get. I mean, my kid will eat this – and I’m pumping it where people poop? C’mon!) Since this “room” was not set up yesterday, I pumped once in a bathroom close to me and nearly cried the entire time. I was pretty humiliated.
My boss is out until next week, and I’d like to work with our office manager to find a more suitable solution before sending it up to HR. Office space is tight; there are conference rooms available, but they don’t have the ability to lock.
I’m frustrated at how this has been handled, so fear that I’m going to come from a place of anger OR not stand up for myself. (See previous feelings of humiliation.) It’s now much into the workday of the second day at the new place, and no news.
Do not miss the 10am Eastern Time post.
I’m worried we never really did our part in helping Nicole with the link roundup. For the last roundup, I went ahead and found a whole bunch of them for her:
I hope this helps.
Exactly perfect number of Links.
(My partner got me OoT for my birthday and I am SO EXCITED to finally beat it on my own).
I cry-laughed. Or laugh-cried. Whatever. Thank you.
I know this is a solemn occasion and all, but know my workplace computers won’t let me see these pictures because it’s classed as Pornography.
My mind went to a similar, if differently-geeky place…
🙁
I like to imagine that I Can Hear The Bells is a love song sung by Navi to Link.
*LISTEN!*
I can hear the beeeells.
etc. etc.
This is perfect, you magnificent genius.
oh my god
The Toast’s Last Day Made Horrifying, yeesh
It was already horrifying, though.
Let’s find a new house!
The whole sea lay spread out in front of him, grey and streaked with even white waves right out to the horizon. Toft turned his face into the wind and sat down to wait.
– The last chapter of the last book
I named myself Toft because, like Toft from Moominvalley in November, I liked to imagine that I knew this wonderful family in real life, despite having actually never met any of you in person. But now I think I’m going to go to a Toast meetup for the first time on Sunday, so my story on the Toast seems to be ending the same way the series does, if you believe that Toft really did meet the Moomins at the end. Which I do.
Thanks for this; I am feeling all kinds of things now.
Oh the feels, that’s beautiful. <3
Yes, here they come!
And also this. Comforting and serene.
Now I am crying because Moomins.
May the spirit of Little Myy be with all Toasties!
Myy is the best! <3 <3 <3
Aaaaaaaaaaaand the Toast has collided full-steam with my childhood, excuse me while I just crawl under my desk and–
I’M SORRY. but right under that table with ya. (I lived in Espoo, Finland from ages 11-13, so I have intense nostalgia feelings for the Moomins, the language, & anything Fazer, while feeling slightly like I shouldn’t love them so much, being just an American.)
hi dad
Well played, honey. How long were you planning this?
It occurred to me in the middle of the night last night and I was like “I MUST DO THIS.”
YOU KNOW I DID THIS LIKE TWO YEARS AGO
this is an excellent Link roundup.
Los LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINKS
This is the fucking funniest, most perfect first comment ever.
What happens at 10, Nicole, you beautiful space witch and fearless leader????
The identity of The Bartender revealed at last???
I hope so!!!!!
THE BARTENDER HAS BEEN HILLARY CLINTON ALL ALONG.
QED
(Also when is 10, because it’s 2.42 in the UK and I am very bad at timezones)
10 = 3 Y’all are five ahead of eastern.
its in 15 minutes!
Thankyou!
Wow.
oh my godddddddddd
THIS WAS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING
HOLY MACARONI
I have to admit I thought it was going to be Margaret Atwood! I’ve been thinking about her and imagining she has to use extra concealer after minor fits of weepy resignation about today, though I’m basing that on my own actions and she can probably will puffiness away through sheer witchery.
Here’s one last link: someone seriously overthinks Steve Rogers’ running route in the opening of Winter Soldier
That was the best thing to read. I love when people get really overinvested and instead of turning into the tinhats who believe costars are sleeping with each other, they create beautiful things like this.
omg, this is so my thing. I can rant forEVER about not just the motorcade route after Mrs. Landingham’s funeral, but also the camera angles in which we can see it from the Cathedral. (shortest version, no, and also no.)
Oh my god that whole entire post but most especially the part about their headcanon that Steve Rogers would hate the WWII memorial because he totally would, for all stated reasons, my god this post is glorious.
I would counter that rather than overthinking it, she thinks about it JUST ENOUGH
YES. I have so many feelings about Steve Rogers’ running route now.
YES. That was delightful, and I agree with all of her conclusions.
That post about Steve’s running route is AMAZING, thank you for sharing
in an update: she’s a toastie: http://sashayed.tumblr.com/post/146753130160/good…
Of course she is. 🙂
Incredible. Thank you for sharing!
Welp, my work filter thinks THAT link is pornography.
Well. Last time through I guess. I am probably going to miss the rest of the posts today (I got a wedding to officiate), so:
I think you are all good, and I hope that you have good things and meet good people and go to good places, and that the days you are happy are long, and the days when you’re sad are short.
Godspeed you guys.
You’re good too.
It’s easy enough to say it, but hard to believe I’m good enough to have deserved to find friends in a place like this.
I’d hazard a guess that very few of us believe we’re good enough to have deserved this.
Thanks for being here. The comment section was a better place for having you in it.
You are! YOU’RE GOOD, BRAAK, DEAL WITH IT.
I feel the exact same way. Seriously, I do not deserve this place or the people in it.
And somehow, a whole bunch of people who don’t deserve this community came together to create this community.
My plan is for this to be my final comment on the-toast,because I am replying to the most perfect summary ever of the-toast. I have loved you all. I miss you all. The-toast is dead,long live the-toast.
Well, that puts a crimp in my plan to tell you how wonderful and important you are, because I wouldn’t want to tempt you into commenting again. So I guess I won’t tell you that.
I felt the same. How unbelievably lucky we are to be good enough for this place,
You are more than good enough.
Thank you
This comment makes me feel weirdly like Mary Poppins, because things like precisely good enough in every way spring to mind.
I did *not* get enough sleep.
You belong here. I was happy you were here. Rich tapestry, etc.
If it makes you feel any better, here is a corgi gang initiation.
A+ corgi gang initiation
Braak, every good comment section needs its trickster :p
I mean, the commentariat of the Toast is so amazing, it inspires me to be a better person. Sometimes I’ve felt like I don’t deserve to post here because I’m just not nice enough! But I try to absorb the calm, honest kindness and, to the best of my ability, pass it on.
Also now that I’ve seen what a comment section can be, I accept NO EXCUSES for sub-par comment sections!
Yeah, right? It turns out that there’s basically no reason why comments can’t be good, and I will no longer accept failure on that score.
We’ve seen everything the world can be, but now we have to go back to the way it is.
You’re one of the good ones out there, don’t stop.
I have enjoyed your comments immensely. Hope to see you over at slack from time to time.
Good luck with the wedding! That’s so exciting. Lots of Toast hugs for you and yours.
Godspeed. Your review of Jupiter Ascending is one of my all time favorite things I discovered through the comments here.
Oh, SECONDED, omg that was one of my favorite/most influential moments of Toast comments.
I don’t think I would have seen the movie without the Toast comments – just one more way the Toast enriched my life.
Sent from my iPhone
SAME. I never would have seen it without braak’s amazing defense/praise.
every once in a while i’ll get a comment on that blog post from someone thanking me for writing it, and every time it makes me feel genuinely proud
NO U.
(My future plans include stalking you on twitter, so, I staunchly refuse to say goodbye. Even though yours is the first comment to make me cry. Rude.)
Seconding all the prior sentiments
Edited to fix typo
Back atcha! (sobs) It’s been a great run
UGH NO STOP, don’t want to actually get all weepy, I log into twitter occasionally so I’ll see you there
(seriously, that was an A+ farewell, should be in a book or something)
I have always appreciated your comments so much! We think you are good, too. All the best.
I love you all. Good night, and good luck.
Sigh. okay, so we’re doing this.
Oh my, yes. Getting liquored up at 9am and interneting would be a totally legit activity, right? That’s what they mean by “working from home,” don’t they?
I’m not saying I might have downed something before I left for the office this morning but I totally might have downed something before I left for the office this morning (I don’t drive to work).
I can’t work. I can’t even read links. WHY NOT?
Can we postpone this whole thing until 5 PST?
Can we postpone cancel this whole thing until 5 PST?
Fixed that for you.
*cries*
It’s Bailey’s-in-the-coffee o’clock here, come join me!
*clinks amaretto-in-the-tea*
I’m already crying. I may need a sip something just to settle.
10:39. Not too early for a cider.
Especially after that HRC post, jfc
CleverManka, I got your mix CD yesterday! Thank you so much, it was the highlight of my week. I have already listened to it several times and I love it!!!
I am really sorry that I haven´t finished your mix CD yet. The CDs that I need are still at my parents´ house. I had a couple of rough weeks (job trouble and a health scare) and didn´t visit my parents and get the CDs as planned. Is it okay if I sent you a post card first and the mix CD later? I´m very sorry. (If it helps, the post card has a wolf that looks a bit like Sansa on it.)
This might be a stupid question, but do you get my packet if the address has CleverManka (instead of a real first name + real last name) on it?
Thank you so much for the mix CD. I´m sorry I haven´t send you your mix CD yet. You are one of my favourite commenters on the toast and I am looking forward to your new webside. 🙂
Oh, I’m so glad you liked it! YAY! No worries about getting it out soon. Really, I promise! Getting it even months later would actually be SUCH a nice surprise, so really NO RUSH. I hope things are better soon! Job and health problems suck, bb. I hope my new website won’t disappoint.
And yes, my postal delivery people are very used to delivering mail to Clever Manka. =D
Thank you, you´re the best! I will at least send you a post card this month, but I´ll probably need longer to send you your CD. Thanks for being so nice about it. 🙂
Also, I am extremely delighted that I can put “Clever Manka” on the address. (Our postal delivery people are pretty good if the house number is missing, but they probably wouldn´t deliver a letter without a “proper” name.)
My first (and last) CleverManka-gif!
I’m not crying, you are crying!
…
Okay, we are all crying.
All I have to say is this: thank you, thank you, thank you.
Cosigned.
And me too.
Count me in too.
me tooooooooooooooooo
Yes this
Word!
and me!
Oh Toasties, where will we go, who wander this wasteland in search of our better selves? (sorry George Miller, I’m stealing your lines). You are all wonderful and amazing, and it is so heartening to know that a place as kind and funny as the Toast has existed.
Nooooo, that quote!!! *claws at face in distress*
Never fear, we shall ride Eternal in Valhalla, shiny and chrome.
A++++++++
Here’s a toast to the Toast Diaspora!
I made sure to check the Toast before leaving home today, and now I have to hope for quick subways so I am at my desk with the Toast loaded at 10am! Wish me luck!
I thought I was ready for this. That was a mistake.
This.
If it helps, you have a great IntenseDebate handle, and you should feel pretty great about that.
I was like, the Toast, oh no, bummer, I’ll really miss it, but then today I’ve spent all day struggling not to sob at my desk.
SAME.
Thank you Nicole! These link roundups have been my morning thing for two years now and I’ve loved each of them like a finely-set piece of jewelry. Highlights were (a) all longreads, but especially the ones from Texas Monthly, (b) anything about people cheating at unusual sports an (c) anything about cruise ships.
(this is a not too important question, but if the comments are locked, will we still be able to delete posts? Say, if I want to tell people here my email or instagram or something but don’t want to leave it up on the ‘nets in perpetuity.)
And… fine, because this is the last day, I’ll listen to some Eagles.
Just email me if you want to delete something, I do not mind doing it manually.
Thank you so much!
I posted my insta and twitter under my real name here — I’m planning on editing it w/in a few hours. Not sure if i can do that after someone comments, though!
I love you all and will miss you and just…thank you. I can’t express how much this space has meant to me.
Me too
HAVE GREAT LIVES EVERYONE!
YOU TOOOOOOOO
KEEP IN TOUCH OVER THE SUMMER
Last night in Boston (Cambridge actually) we had a Toast Wake at The Friendly Toast. A brilliant person who was part of our party had the brilliant idea of asking A Man to take our photo, so we could all be in it at once (actually more people showed up later).
We are holding up our favorite “If X Were Your Y” titles.
STAAAAAHHHPPPPP
We went around and talked about what originally brought us to The Toast, what we’ll miss most about it, and how we’ll possibly cope going forward. It was a proper wake. Thanks Renjender for making it happen!
This is a delight from top to bottom!
I am one of the More People who showed up later, I loved meeting all of you that I met, you are all perfect and beautiful and lovely.
Classic Boston area Toastie moment:
I am distracted by a conversation on one end of a table. I look up to see the other half of the table staring pointedly at me, with about half of their hands raised. I am confused. Turned out we were doing a poll of how many people at our table went to Smith and between me being me in person, as well as me having introduced myself by my username, the other half of the table knew I was a Smithie.
Oh, I love this.
Wilson, ’07
A girl from my church is starting at Smith in the fall, so I’m going to consider her an honorary Toastie.
Aww the Friendly Toast :’) wish I’d had the bandwidth this week to join. Did y’all get the postcards? I hoarded them for Toast Post purposes and finally got to send some out this year!
Several of us snagged the postcards specifically for that purpose!
I’m so sorry I missed it – I got back Wednesday night from vacation and wasn’t up to leaving the house – but I’m so glad y’all got together. <3
This was such a great send-off, complete with Toastie Libations (a direct quote from the menu) and the sea witch decor over our table.
I know in my heart of hearts that I am Flying Witch. So I was mildly disappointed when I got home and asked my husband (without context, mind you) if he was Jungle Monster, and he said no.
#BanAllMen #NotReally #Really
Aww, I am the one who asked A Man to take our picture, and I wish when he’d asked who we were that I had replied with “a coven”. I also have just typed up our contact info so we can all hang out again! It was so great, thanks for organizing it!
I wish I could describe the looks on The Man’s face as he was taking the picture and sortof… realized something.
We didn’t help with our laughter.
I will treasure the memory of the look on The Man’s face, even as I’m not quite sure what it means about him, or me, or us. Also, it was lovely to meet you!
I’m so sad that I couldn’t make it. :'( I live quite a ways away (central Maine), but I would absolutely make the trip to hang with Boston Toastie Witches, if you plan another meetup!
Central Maine is so beautiful! I think there’s a Providence-area meetup being planned right now, come find the #_newengland channel on the Toast Slack!
Please include me on your mailing list! I am local and nice (sometimes)!
I don’t know if we have a mailing list, but we’re in the _boston_toasties slack channel — I’m stirringsofconscious there, go find me and I’ll make sure you’re included in the future!
What a treat to see so many fabulous Toast readers and writers in one place.
I’m so sad to have missed it!
I am so bummed I couldn’t be there. I hope that info about future Boston Toast gatherings will be shared on Twitter, or FB, or basically anywhere.
You’re all so beautiful!
I do not know any of you (as far as I can tell) but would like to join future similar meetups, if there are any!
THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL.
I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it! I wanted to, but I was too nervous. (Definitely *not* too witches, tho ;p ) Hopefully I can be there next time — assuming there is a next time (which there probably isn’t) …
It me.
Yes. These are the feels.
SAME
Haven’t read yet, but oh god, I can’t with today.
I wish The Toast had a yearbook so I could sign it.
I’LL MISS YOU, TOAST. Though I admit that I’m cheered you’ll post a few things in the future, even if it’s not regular. THE TOAST IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE TOAST.
Incidentally, I tweeted a bunch of my favorite Toast pieces last night and this morning! Here’s the start of the thread.
WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE
I’ve been up since 4 a.m. & have been trying to come up with the perfect last comment, but everything just sounds like a lame yearbook LYLAS acronym. My BFF from high school never signed my yearbook because we always meant to “get around to it” and never did. I hardly ever see her in person any more, but we have talked on gchat everyday for the last 20 years. I’m pretty sure this is a perfect metaphor after all.
Thank you Mallory, Nicole, Nikki, et al for EVERYTHING.
<3
I just really want to bring this back to the middle school days when all the slightly edgy kids signed their yearbooks with HAKAS (have a kick ass summer). It seems like an appropriate sign off.
Thank YOU, my dear. (You know why.)
I became aware of The Toast a little too late for my liking, but I’ve very much enjoyed coming here since I learned of it. It’s the friendliest, most amiable, comment section in all the land. Well, I assume, because it’s the only comment section I read any more.
Thank you to Nicole and everybody else responsible for the site. I look forward to continuing to enjoy and learn from your unique brand of humor and decency on Twitter. I’m happy for you to have created such a wonderful niche in an internet that is not always such a happy place.
Thank you for everything Toasts!
THERE IS TOO MUCH HAPPENING TODAY.
HUGS
HAGS
I LOVE YOU ALL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbx7ss4F7JE&f…
Eagles, Rush, T&S, whatever. But Cyndi? That’s what finally got me.
WHEN YOU SAAAAY IT’S THE END
I’LL HAAAND YOU A LINE
I’LL SMILE AND SAY
DON’T YOU WORRY IT’S FINE.
(It is not fine).
AND YOU’LL NEVER KNOW SECONDS AFTER YOU KISSED ME GOODBYYYE
(of the many things I love about Cyndi Lauper, the fact that she sings EVERY WORD IN ALL CAPS is near the top of the list)
She Feels Things in ways I could never imagine and then tries to convey it through her voice even though us mere mortals will probably never understand the true depth of her Feeling.
(((((HUGS))))))
<3 <3 <3 <3
You’re amazing, Nikki!!!
Oh crap now I know I’m not going to stop crying today.
IF YOU FALL I WILL CATCH YOU
I WILL BE WAITING
guys should I go full True Colors or would it be too much
HEY YOU WITH THE SAD EYES
NEVER TOO MUCH
I SEE YOUR TRUE COLOURS SHINING THROUGH
SAAAAAAAAAAME <3 <3 <3
And also, thank you so much for everything. The Toast has made me a more well-informed, thoughtful and (hopefully) kinder person. Love to you all.
I don’t know if I ever posted this in its fullness before, but – this website has honestly helped me gain so much self-confidence and taught me so much about what it means to be human. Thank you all.
Oh I wish I had discovered you all earlier. This is the first website where I’ve felt confident enough to comment and interact with other users, you’ve all been so welcoming and kind. Thank you for everything.
Welcoming and kind and smart and funny. I stumbled on the Toast by accident (don’t even remember how) about six months ago and wish I’d been here much earlier. Thank you all.
Toasties, as you take to the sea, be well. May the stars shine bright for you, and may you always remember you were part of this outstanding place, and were loved here.
Of all the beautiful and wonderful comments, this is the one that is right now leading me to tears.
If it makes you feel better, I teared up seeing your reply. Sending you good wishes.
I see below that you, too, are a hugger and if I could, I would hug you and weep and you could weep on my shoulder as much as you wanted.
Thank you so much for this. While I have never commented before, I think the magic of the Toast is that I still feel like a part of the community. (Also, I was clearly mistaken in thinking I could keep it together today…)
This is the comment that got my tears flowing, and they keep going as I read everything all you wonderful Toasties have to say at the end of all things. Thank you so much for the lovely Toast benediction, GingerHawk.
*hugs* (if you would like them, happy thoughts if not!)
*hugs back*
*responds with gif because verklempt*
This toast is such a warm blanket for my soul right now–safe and cozy and lovely. Thanks for adding to the tears.
And now, my eyes are stinging with tears…what a lovely, lovely comment. Thank you!
Poignant, classy, just like all you are.
Off to ugly cry
So long, everybody! This feels like the last day of summer camp when we’re all crying and hugging and promising to keep in touch. WE CAN DO IT, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY. See you all on #ToastieTwitter!
Toast. Toast. I’ll miss you.
Okay I don’t know why but that amazing sign about the hole in the ice is Finnish and I am Finnish and the Toast has posted something Finnish in its last link roundup and I’M GETTING ALL CHOKED UP BY THE ICE SIGN.
What if we go to the ice hole together? Is that ok?
I am reading a book by Catherynne Valente right now!
Cyndi Lauper Time after Time was the first song on my iPod yesterday.
That ice sign is a full life philosophy. I’m getting patriotic and I’ve never been there in my life.
Sending you imaginary salmiakki, Scandyhoovian!
Maude: What a fuss this is — so unnecessary.
Harold: Don’t die, Maude, for Christ’s sake.
Maude: Oh, Harold — oh, don’t upset yourself so.
Harold: I love you. I love you!
Maude: Oh, Harold… That’s wonderful. Go and love some more.
*cue the Cat Stevens*
Hope to bump into you all around the internet sometime!
oh I simultaneously hate you and love you for this. Harold and Maude for life and death.
Yeah, well in the end I only played myself. Just drove Baltimore to DC listening to Cat Stevens and ran the full emotional gamut from ‘misting up a bit’ to ‘I am bawling now, bawling is all I have ever known, and will ever know’.
“Oh Very Young” hollowed me out
(((hugs)))
Oh my God yes. This is the perfect reference.
Goddammit
I was fine until this. Now sobbing all over the place.
STAHP
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I don’t think I realized until this week how much the Toast has changed me until I read how it impacted other people. I always thought of myself as understanding a lot and being very open-minded, but the incredible honesty, humility, and wealth of knowledge of the editors, writers, and the commentariet of the Toast showed me how much more I have to learn, the importance of being kind to myself in my ignorance, and also the weight of emotional labor.
Thank you. You’re all the bee’s knees, the absolute berries, the cat’s meow.
The dog’s bollocks.
Thank you. I was running out of old-fashioned expressions.
Although I would argue that the dog’s ovaries would be more appropriate.
The whole bottle and a drop. (from Kitten with a Whip)
Oh my god I love that.
The ant’s pants.
YESSS, I love ants so much, even when they’ve been crawling from underneath my bed lately. (But they’re little and kind of cute.)
The real deal.
The true blue.
This. Having a thoughtful community of people to bounce ideas off of that consistently encourages empathy, compassion, and concern is so useful to have in life! I have some of that in my in-person life for sure, but they’re not there every day in front of me and available like the Toast community was.
Thanks for helping me (and each other) always try to be better.
^^This is perfect.
I know. I never really thought I’d get that on the internets, but I have and it’s been amazing. I will miss it sorely.
And now I need to figure out slack.
The cream in my coffee
TOAST LIVES TOAST DIES TOAST LIVES AGAIN
See you all in Valhalla. Shiny and chrome.
We will ride eternal.
I wanted to post a badass gif of a Viking woman but google just came up with some terrible ‘sexy Viking’ costumes. #malegaze
Now I’m thinking of the Rumple Minze ads, with the woman riding the polar bear.
oh ok so THIS is what makes me cry???
Me too on the chrome-tears
This link roundup has been a part of my wake-up with coffee every morning for the past 2 years. I’ll miss it terribly. Thank you for the work you put in to make everyday interesting, funny, witty, absorbing, surprising and a learning experience.
For the next few months, I’m going to revisit earlier Link Roundup posts and read everything I didn’t get to on the first go-round. Denial? Maybe, but I’m not ready to let go yet. I want to go gently into that good morning.
That’s my plan too! there are too many good links — Nicole has curated my internet experience and I am afraid to jump into the wild abandon alone.
Me too! I have certainly missed many articles. I will have them later.
Me too! I purposely missed all sorts of stuff the last two weeks so I would be letting myself down gently.
Yup, did this same exact thing. I didn’t even read any of the links today, but part of that is because I’ve been crying. Kind of a lot crying.
I just… I just don’t even know what to do, today.
(I usually delete my IntenseDebate notification emails, but since The Announcement I’ve been saving some, and a lot of them are alerts of you. xoxoxo )
Today in Feminist History…
The Toast, a lovely, wonderful, funny feminist site, closed it’s doors, and I was too sad to write about anything else. So here’s a toast to the Toast.
(Just FYI though, I will be posting my “today in feminist history” posts on my wordpress blog every weekday (hopefully), and I will be doing a weekly post at clevermanka’s site starting… 7/11 I think!
Hooray! I was going to ask if you had somewhere to keep these going! *Bookmark’d!*
THANK YOU, for doing this every day here and on your site, and soon for clevermanka.net, and yes, your first one goes up 7/11!
My mom’s birthday is 7/11 so I will be watching with breathless antici …
pation.
I’m so glad you’re going to continue these. I have really enjoyed them. Thank you so much!
OH NO, I was holding together so well and now THIS
Yep. There I go.
Oh yeah, this is the one that brought the tears
Oh noooooooooooo, it’s okay, I am crying with you.
Absolutely brutal.
Typing on a cell phone through tears is NOT EASY, burningupa☀️
I FEEL YOU but also that emoji in my username is adorable.
The one advantage of this method of participation.
On this day 3 years ago, The Toast, a lovely, wonderful, funny, feminist site opened its doors. Queer librarians, weight lifters, gal scientists, and space witches rejoiced and came together to form the best place in the internet.
Aaaand here come the waterworks.
I’m fine it’s fine I’m not having a “and one by one, without any fuss, the starts started going out” moment or anything
no
nononono
I LOVE YOU ALL AND I’LL MISS YOU. Now we must all go out and take over the world, and let everyone know that the Toast is what got us there.
Re: Battle of the Somme commemoration, I am not into these kinds of things at all but I did see a thing I liked. I don’t know whether other places in the UK (or elsewhere) have done this, but when I got off the train this morning there were guys hanging around in WW1 uniform – but not like, loads of them. They were fairly sparsely scattered and just doing normal things, and the effect was really uncanny. It was like seeing a ghost for a second. Thought it was really effective.
Yes, they were at train stations all over the country as people were commuting this morning, sometimes singing the WWI song “We’re here because we’re here” and handing out information about specific soldiers. There are more photos and responses under the #wearehere Twitter hashtag – it seems to have been a pretty subtle but moving intervention http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/somme-moving…
That’s beautiful. I went to see the Welsh National Opera’s production of ‘In Parenthesis’ on Wednesday night, which was incredibly moving. I recommend the narrative poem to everyone – it’s one of my favourite pieces of literature to come out of the horror that was WWI. As a Londoner with Welsh heritage it hits particularly hard.
It’s such a great idea – respectful, not glorifying anything, and just eerie enough
I went to a conference a few years ago about silent film and WWI, where one of the events was a screening of the silent documentary, “The Battle of the Somme”, as it would have been shown in 1916 (in a period venue, with recruiters in military uniforms harassing young men about why they hadn’t joined up, etc.)
My partner was playing piano accompaniment for the film, and there was a violinist as well.
It was an extremely harrowing film, as you might imagine, but a very memorable experience. The scale of loss during just that one battle is hard to wrap your mind around (including 50,000 casualties just on the first day).
Bereft. Just wrung out.
Thank you so much for all the mornings of links, Nicole. My work productivity is about to get a lot better, and I’m not happy about it. <3 you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
With the Toast going away I feel like we are now going alone to the hole in the ice.
Thank you Nicole, Mallory, & Nikki for a wonderful three years.
no, we will go to the hole in the ice…together
The hole in the ice is the friendships we’ve made along the way
THANK YOU.
And thank you for having the guts to walk away from something wonderful. The next time I am trying to find the courage to walk away when I know I need to, I will think of The Toast.
You are all perfect snowflakes, mud pies, horseshoe crabs, and monkey puzzle trees.
THE MONKEY PUZZLE TREE SISTERHOOD, FOREVER. <3
We made something beautiful here: Nicole and Nikki and Mallory, everyone who wrote and drew, everyone who donated and boosted, everyone who commented. So glad The Toast and I were in the world at the same time.
Thank you, Nicole!
Thank you, The Toast.
Thank you, Toasties.
I <3 you all.
Yep
Toast!! I will miss you so much.
LYLAS, HAGS, all other middle-school yearbook greetings, etc etc love u always.
Toasties- you are all such wonderful people. Let’s take to the sea together with the wind in our sails and fellowship in our hearts.
My heart is too full. I will see you all around and bless the time we had together.
Thank you!!!
The Toast is ending and my therapist just told me she’s taking a sabbatical for a few months next year.
Why? why.
<3
((((hugs))))) if you want them
All I can think right now is; Don’t be sad its ending, be glad that it happened.
I have a lot of feelings and thoughts and thank yous, but they don’t feel significant enough for this.
Thank you to Nicole, Mallory, and Nikki for creating the best place on these here internets.
Stay gold, Ponypeople.
Thank YOU, Nicole and Mallory and Marco and Nikki and everyone who contributed to this incredible internet oasis!
Thank you everyone, for everything. May you be safe. May you be happy. May you know peace.
Nooooooo I am going to be on a plane at 10, I don’t want to miss what happens at 10 🙁
Nicole, thank you for all these link roundups. I’ve learned so much more about the world than I would have.
I will try to write a better send-off post later in the day. But thank you all.
You won’t be disappointed when you get to see it, I think!
I want to cry but my parents would be so Confused
You beautiful, beloved thing. Thank you all. May we all continue to be both fiercer and kinder because of this.
Yes, fiercer and kinder. Thank you for that.
Not mine, but thank you. Someone on here the other day wrote it. Wish I could remember who.
It seems it was renegadeoboe, First of Her Name, according to malamagistra.
All hail renegadeoboe!
A-fucking-men!
No fair with the Tegan & Sara song, that is Playing Dirty. Even if they tell hilarious stories about their mom first.
I rarely comment but I do want to say now before it’s too late just how much reading the Toast has meant to me over the years, but especially these past few months–I was home alone on maternity leave, dealing with all of the weirdness of a newborn and postpartum depression, and visiting the Link Roundup each morning felt like a life raft. Being here reminded me that there is a world full of smart and funny people with many wonderful and important things to say, and it gave me a lot of hope that someday I’ll get through this and I’ll be one of those people again.
So thank you all, and may you all have much happiness.
same same same! I rarely commented because I usually had a baby in one hand, but the Toast was a constant companion through my maternity leave. If X were your Y made perfect 3am feeding reading. I’m so sad about the Toast closing, but grateful that it happened and that I was able to experience it in real time.
Oh same too! The Toast has kept me company and my brain working with a small boy and new baby in the best way. So sad today but so happy to have had the experience.
I first found my way here when dealing with depression (not postpartum, but still) as well and the comments section was like a go-to lifeline to help me feel less miserable.
I’ve never commented before, but I was coming here to say the exact same thing. The Toast was a beacon I turned to again and again, when i felt so lost as a new parent. Not only did reading it keep me feeling like a person beyond diapers and feedings, but I think it (and all of its thoughtful community here in the comments) is what really inspired me to seek treatment for my postpartum depression. I am so grateful for that, and thankful to all of you for being here. May the Toast live on in all of us!
Uh, guys, I cannot get “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” out of my head and I’m really ashamed of my brain’s very poor, painfully on-the-nose taste.
Hahaha, okay, but that is amazing. (and now it’s playing in my head too, so, solidarity!)
Partly, I’m just mad that something broke up my internal perma-loop of Lemonade.
I was crying before I made it to the links man. This place has been the best thing to happen to me on the Internet. I don’t know what else to say but thank you to all of you.
Also I have a dumb meeting at 10. What happens at 10? *weeps*
“for I have loved you dearly, more dearly than the spoken word can tell”
Love to all of you, my beautiful Toasties! June and July 2016 are truly the best of times and the worst of times all at once. I am still on vacation, and I have loved every minute of it.
On Wednesday afternoon I saw Hamilton. With every single original cast member (of course Rory O’Malley was the king, but you know what I mean). I still don’t quite believe it happened. So many lovely Toasties were cheering me on in Slack and genuinely delighted for me. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’m so glad to have had this community and that its spirit endures in other places.
dakimel saw it last night and has her own story to tell. I’m beyond giddy and happy for her too. (Check Twitter if you need to know right now.)
And today, at 5:30, I meet insertcoolnamehere and dakimel in person.
My heart is full. I love you all. Thank you again to Nicole, Nikki, and Mallory for everything. May we meet again.
I have not met insertcoolnamehere but I can attest dakimel is fantastic. You’re in for a treat.
Don’t Go Alone to the Hole in the Ice is my favorite Decemberists song and I will sing it mournfully for you, dear Toast.
The Decemberists are my favorite band and you still had me for a second there.
I don’t think there’s anything I could say that hasn’t already been said. All I can say is goodbye and that I love you all, you poetic, noble land mermaids.
I LOVE YOU GUYS.
Thank you for everything.
So flattered by the above sentiment.
This is brilliant. You are brilliant. I am so glad to internet-know you. ((Toasthugs))
I got a little misty when I was on the list of people to thank, right after Sansa. I’m so grateful we had this weird, wonderful place full of brilliance and absurdity and wisdom and love.
Welp, I thought I was doing ok, but I read this post and started crying at my desk. Here we go!
Thank you so much for creating this site, Nicole and Mallory, it has been a joy to read your thoughts for three years (!!!!) and to be a part of what you have chosen to share with us. Thank you for making the safest and most wonderful space on the internet I never knew I wanted. Thank you for being your perfect selves and for encouraging us all to be our own perfect selves, too. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this community, it has been a joy and an honor. I appreciate all of you so much and I wish you all the best (though you can also find me on twitter under the same name for continued yelling). I have learned so much from everyone here and will treasure it always.
Also I am seriously considering getting a Toast tattoo (“a willing foe, and sea room”).
I don’t even want a tattoo but I would seriously considering getting a Toast tattoo.
I distinctly remember the first time I heard of the Toast: I was working at a summer camp in 2013 and I was enjoying a rare day off, sitting on the couch at my honorary mom’s house. I was in google reader (RIP — the end days!) and there was a post from the Hairpin about this new site, the Toast. Huh, I thought. The premise sounds good and Nicole and Mallory are fucking great. Sounds similar to the Hairpin, but ok, I’ll keep it in mind! Reader, I have not looked back, and the Toast has held the strongest place in my heart since that day. Thank you all for everything!
I don’t think I’ll ever find a place as thoughtful and kind and clever as here again for a very long time.
But thank you to everyone that made it so. I’m very glad and feeling very lucky to have had “something that makes saying goodbye so hard” even if it was only for a little while.
Bye ladies!
Hold up Nicole is your husband’s actual name Steve Strong? Like, your last names are “Strong” and “Cliffe”?
I am suddenly very curious about Nicole’s kids’ last names, because JAMES TIBERIUS STRONG would be amazing (as would James Tiberius Cliffe, do not get me wrong).
yeah I am surprised Nicole went into websiting when it is obvious that she and her whole family should be like private eyes or something
Uhhh next career, duh.
Shhh, you will blow her mild-mannered cover! They are obviously a family of superheroes.
The REAL reason The Toast is ending is because they need to go on a Top Secret Mission and it’s not safe for us to know details
I am 100% comfortable with this scenario.
Both Nicole and Steve are into skiing, right? They probably combined their names for the most badass possible mountain children: THE CLIFFE-STRONGS.
I HOPE SO!!! we have already seen fleeting seconds of Amelia on skis, so this must be true. (Sorry Nicole, I hope this isn’t weird to speculate about your kids, it’s just that they’re superheroes.)
“Cliffstrong” is a wildling name
Yeah, that’s pretty obviously not a real person. It’s a superhero alias for someone sent by mysterious forces to fund the Toast.
I was just talking to a co-worker (I work in a hospital) about doctors’ names that sound like superhero names: Doctor Justice, Doctor Odin, Doctor Stoneking, etc.
Yeah I think there’s a certain kind of last name where if you have it you’re obligated to at least TRY to become a doctor because of how rad the name would be.
I once taught a kindergarten class with a wee girl named “Destiny Bloodsaw.” I think her parents considered their last name and made the right call.
Her too options are Doctor Bloodsaw or THE BLOODSAW WWE EXTREME CHAMPION
My mother works with a hand surgeon named Dr. Mitten.
I have a friend with the surname Payne. She has received her PhD.
that is correct
That’s a pretty badass combo!
I don’t know what to say beyond “thank you” – thanks to the amazing writers, thanks to the fearless leaders, and thank you to all of the members of this community. It’s an amazing feeling to realize not just that one isn’t alone, but that one is surrounded by smart, thoughtful, hysterically funny people. I know we’ll keep the spirit going in some way, but I’ll miss what we had all this time.
I love you all. Thank you so much for this community – I’m so lucky to have found you. <3
Just told Slackbot to remind me to come back at 9:55, because I do not trust myself and refuse to miss whatever is coming.
Thank you all for making me feel as if I knew at least a little bit about what the kids in my classes are on about. Thank you for all the art history jokes. And the sick burns on >500-year old historical/literary characters. Thank you for the Link Roundup, that has daily distracted me from my own book but made me a more interesting, thoughtful person and exposed me to some terrific writers. THANK YOU.
Ah, shit, I’m going to miss this place so much.
I definitely wondered if the OINTB writers were fans of the site and wrote in that storyline as an in joke for us,
Thank you, all. This place was the friendliest, funniest, smartest, kindest place on the Internet, and I got involved at a moment when I desperately needed all of the above.
I hope to see you all on Twitter ( @bread_n_roses ) and Slack. If any one wants to join the Toastie Trying to Conceive Googlegroup, it’s at toastoneggs.
To the sea.
Okay, before I read anything else, I have to get this out because (surprise surprise) I only just got here and I’m already crying. Of course The Toast would end the same day my period is due, foul hormones conspiring against me!
Anyway, as many have already said, it’s hard to put into words what The Toast means. I followed you gals here from The Hairpin and suddenly I went from having “this site I really like” to “this really cool place to hang out where the articles were just what I needed (even when I didn’t know it) and the conversations were always great and interesting.” The Link Roundup alone has become such an important part of my weekday morning. It’s the first thing I check, sometimes it dictates what I’m going to be thinking about for the rest of the day. I was out of town in March for a week where I had limited internet access and the sudden loss of my morning Toast was pretty harsh. The Toast felts both like I site I could write for (and now I’ll eternally curse the unfinished article in my documents folder) and a site that was constantly challenging me or encouraging me to think about new things or to see things in different ways. Also, it’s really damn funny.
I’m just so grateful for everyone that has worked to keep this site so awesome and to the beautiful comments section (you, my fellow Toasties, are the BEST…AROOOOOOOUNNND). Thank you thank you thank you. Now we must all Take to the Sea.
Coming out of my lurking shell on the last day to say THANK YOU for creating such a wonderful little corner of the Internet for the last 3 years, folks.
I discovered the Toast when I moved to Alberta a year ago (often known as Canada’s answer to Texas) from the West Coast. Seeing Toast articles and community made me feel not so alone in my beliefs in this area.
Will miss this. <3 <3 you are all wonderful.
I’ve been a Toast lurker for years, but I’ve never commented until today. The wonderful writing and kind people here have been such a balm over the last few years, which have involved a lot of sometimes overwhelming learning and soul-searching in my personal life. The Toast has given me the courage to be at peace with myself in a way that no other online space ever has. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I have spent the last week being mostly sad and furious about Brexit and my stupid, stupid country, but today I am even sadder about the end of The Toast. I should have known that something that burned so bright could not last, but we will always have the memories (and the archived site).
I raise a glass to The Toast and all my fellow Toasties, and for a final time, I take to the sea.
Nicole, your husband’s name is Steve Strong?? This is MARVELLOUS.
And, good bye Toast xxx
The end is nigh. NIGHHHHHHH!
Thank you everyone involved in making the Toast and everyone involved in making the Toast comments the BEST PLACE ON THE INTERNET (potentially also offline).
Thank you for the little things and the big things and the funny things and the hard things and all the things that none of us will ever know about or be able to put into words. I will think of this place often and try to live my life in a way that is true to its spirit.
Before I dissolve into a puddle of tears, here is an amusing picture of toast hand warmers (?) to soothe us in these dark times.
those are delightful.
The little toast (toastino?) looks so gleeful!
keeping us toastie!
They warm your hands and your heart!
AND they help you type comments of a Toast-level quality!
Thank you Nicole! Thank you every-Toastie.
I am very jetlagged and weepy and might not be around for Cocktail Hour, but just wanted to say that I have followed Nicole since her book review tumblr because as soon as I found it I knew she was a Book Kindred Spirit.
And WHILE I’M BEING EMO: I’m blown away every day by how intelligent and warm-hearted and fucking hilarious the community is here.
Very sad I couldn’t make it to the Minneapolis #toastwake last night, but I toast all of you in my heart.
We’ll meet again! Stay tuned in the _midwest slack channel or find me on twitter (liz_the_lemur) and I’ll add you to the Twin Cities Toasties list.
Great news! Yes, I follow you on twitter (it’s me, Maria) I’m just a bit more incognito here.
Oooh of course! 😀
The internet does not exist for 35-year-old men. It exists for us, too, and this was a good place to exist on it!
I am not a queer librarian, nor am I a body building archivist. But this was my internet home full of other unapologetically smart and interesting and funny ladies and people, and I’m so happy to have been a part of the whole lot of us!
Oh friends, I embrace you all. Except those of you who are not into Toast Hugs. I offer you your choice of the the other Toast love languages- words of affirmations, pet pics, book recommendations, and gifs.
Thank you Nicole and Nikki and Mallory for everything here! Some years ago I sat down and write a thing about Seamus Heaney for a friend, and when you guys started the Toast I sent it to you and you published it. I know it sounds silly but getting the news that you were going to do that was one of my watershed moments – I had done something I thought was good, and you said It IS Good, and from then on I hesitated MUCH less, professionally and personally. I pitch, I sell things, I believe in my own judgement, and The Toast was one of the places that helped me towards that confidence. I will be grateful for that, but also for the unbelievable stuff we’ve been privileged to read over the last few years. May we all go on making our own things with confidence and joy, you guys. Good luck to you all. And thanks again.
I’ve not been a member here long, but my best friend Daisy and I became best friends through this website, and we’ll always hold it in our minds as a pristinely beautiful memory of funny things we read in times of anxiety or depression or joy or friendship formation. That this thing will leave behind a community of people that it brought together is a miracle.
Goodnight and good luck.
I love you Toast. I thought I was a heartless ice queen but apparently not. Angel from Montgomery is my favorite song of all time. Blessings to all of you. Namaste.
<3 <3
It’s like the last day of summer camp and then some. GO AWAY MOM AND DAD I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME YET
Dammit, this was a superb and excellent Link Round-Up (as every single one has been) and there’s so much that I want to talk about like Enbridge, and the Somme and STREETCENTS but but but heart is too full.
Thank you, Nicole, for compiling a fascinating and wonderful look at the world every day. And thank you Toasties, for ALWAYS making the comments worth reading.
Me to co-workers: (Opens up bottom drawer. Removes cutting board, knife and onion.) “I think it’s pretty obvious why I’m crying at my desk.”
Ave atque vale, toast.
Thank you Nicole!! I did not always have time to read the links, but I loved reading the round up.
Dearest Toasties. What Gifts of the Toast are you taking with you? What Gifts do you want to give to each other?
I’m taking with me the gift of self knowledge – The Toast has helped me be much more comfortable with my queer identity and been a tremendous help in my journey to be more visibly bi while married to a wonderful cis man.
And the sword of Oh Hell No to cut through misogynistic nonsense.
May you all be too witches.
I received from the Toast the courage to call out bullshit! Bullshit of all kinds – racism, misogyny, sexism, abelism… I will go forth on a mission in this world to be critical and not let people stay stupid stuff around me.
Thank you to The Toast and everyone who made it the wonderful, welcoming, weird place it was. All the writers, artists, contributors, editors, commenters, everyone who was involved in any way. I’m so sad to see it go and that I didn’t find it sooner. I don’t know where and if I’ll ever find another site this educational, comforting and hilarious again. I’m glad I got to be part of it, even if only for a short time.
I hope all of you go on to great things that make you happy.
I am so sad about this, but also so grateful for the Toast and all of you lovely people here. I will have to gird my loins and dive into Twitter, Reddit and Slack, as I don’t want to lose this community.
I’ve not been a member here long, but my best friend Daisy and I became best friends through this website, and we’ll always hold it in our minds as a pristinely beautiful memory of funny things we read in times of anxiety or depression or joy or friendship formation. That this thing will leave behind a community of people that it brought together is a miracle.
do you hear the people sing/
lost in the valley of the night/
it is the music of a people who are climbing to the light/
for the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies/
even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
(I’m gonna miss this place, though)
As sad as I am, and as sad as this is – I’m glad the ending of the Toast is with a final, decisive period. So many sites and communities I’ve loved have had the slow drawn-out death of a bad opera, or been swallowed up by their hosting services crashing, or we’ve all drifted away. At least this is ending on a very high note and we had fair warning.
J/K I’M STILL SUPER SAD. At least I have all the snack food I bought on vacation to console me. Anybody want a Jaffa cake?
The last site I loved that shut down (RIP the Dissolve) did so in the middle of the day with essentially zero warning. In the comments section I got word of various new communities springing up in its wake, so it didn’t turn out too bad (the spinoff facebook group that I’m in is a lot of fun) but this is a lot better.
VERY TRUE, it’s just another example of how excellent the Toast is.
Very, very true. It’s so hard to let go (what will I do with myself now?) but it could be a whole lot worse. I’m grateful for that.
STILL SAD THOUGH.
I love Jaffa cakes, and I’ll eat a sad Jaffa cake with you.
Dear everyone: Thank you. <3
Editor/Goddesses: thank you for leading us to so much good writing, including your own!
I will miss The Toast’s cheerful misandry, and am glad to have a mermaid tote to remember you all by.
I toggled between ‘verklempt’ and ‘dying laughing’ reading this link roundup, which feels appropriate for The Toast. Thanks Nicole, Mallory, Nikki and everyone else who made this place happen. It’s been a haven, and right now I’m just trying to be grateful that it ever existed at all rather than despairing that it has to end.
You guys, a year ago today my post ran on The Toast and now I worry that I killed it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
No, my dear Toastfriend, you did not kill it. You contributed to it’s glory and wonder. You should have no regrets and should feel deep pride. Nothing which burned so blindingly bright as The Toast could last forever. It is hard, but it is time. ((Toasthugs))
THANK YOU I LOVE YOU ALL
House keeping question. Where’s the RSS feed follow button?
I don’t know either….
The URL is http://the-toast.net/feed/ if that helps – I couldn’t find a button either, but my RSS feed…thingy (yeesh) gives me an option to put the URL in directly. Yours might as well.
also STREET CENTS!!!!!!
It’s really happening. Love to you all. I am going to miss regular Toast posting so very much and am so grateful we got three years of this brilliance.
Thank you so much. All of you. I so regret not becoming a part of the commenting community due to my stupid particular brand of anxiety, but I had to at least pop up to express my gratitude on the last day. I love you all, and I am going to miss this place so, so much.
(Also, one time my emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend popped up the comments with a particularly asinine string of “well, actually”s and Mallory and many other commenters shut him the fuck down. So, thank you for that especially. It was an unexpected, beautiful gift.)
I don’t have adequate words right now, so I’m just gonna post some gifs:
I have nothing delightful or wise to say. I am too sad for any wondrous insights. But I know I will never forget what The Toast has meant to me these last three years and all the wonderful Toasties. I love you all!
And thank you to Nicole, Nikki, Mallory, Marco, Jaya, and absolutely everyone who ever wrote or drew or loved The Toast. This place is magic!
Also I am @rallisaurus on Twitter and Instagram. Come find meeeeeee
You guys! When I left summer camp, every year, I was always just, “Later, beyotches!” But now? I will miss this place with the intensity of a thousand suns. It has meant so much to me too. My new goal is to find some way to try to replicate this place in real life, in some small way. Not sure how to do that, but I will try. I think I need to go to library school. Embrace my librarian (or archivist) destiny. Also I need to get a twitter account and follow the Nicoles and Mallory and actively figure out the Slack thing. (I’m a member, but haven’t figured it out yet.)
xoxo everyone!
I LOVE EVERYONE HERE I HOPE ALL OF YOU HAVE AMAZING LIVES I WILL DRINK IN YOUR HONOR TONIGHT
I love you guys! TO THE SEA!
Thank you to Mallory, Nicole, and Nikki for giving us this site and each other! I’ll miss you all so much. Be healthy, be happy. Wear sunscreen!
the only good thing about this is my boss isn’t here today so i can weep freely.
goodbye, my toast– you have meant so, so much.
My boss isn’t here today either and I am not doing ANYTHING but weeping over the Toast
My regrets: not finding the Toast sooner, lurking too much and rarely commenting, never figuring out how to properly embed gifs, not tipping more for Mallory’s perfect write-up on Gigi: http://the-toast.net/2016/01/06/gigi-mostly/, and not tipping more for every post with a spot-on Buffy reference: http://the-toast.net/2015/10/27/reasons-i-would-m…
Farewell my fellow misandrist mermaids! I will miss you all terribly. In the immortal words of John Waters, it’s now our time to “go out in the world and fuck it up beautifully.”
I don’t know what to say except for thank you – to everyone who is or ever was part of this website, on the giving or receiving end. I truly believe The Toast changed me for the better, helped me to be informed and to (try to) be my best self. I’m going to miss all of you so terribly, and I’m glad I got to stay home today (for health reasons, not Toast reasons).
See you on the other side.
Holding everyone and whispering “This was so good. Oh God, this was so good.” http://geardrops.tumblr.com/post/144850780711/i-h…
Thank you to Nicole, Mallory, Nikki, and everyone who’s made the Toast and the community what it is.
I’m raising a cup of tea to you all – hope to keep in touch on Twitter, and to see some more London Toasties at Saturday’s Toastwake.
Vulpes Libris did a tribute. https://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2016/07/01/dir…
Oh no, what a day. You’re all the best, this place is the best, and I feel like I will be adrift on the Internet for a while, desperately clicking on any article that sounds like it could be about Channing Tatum/the Mitford sisters/Western art history.
It’s been an amazing time, thank you to everyone.
nothing to add but my gratitude! thank you for this lovely, weird, hilarious, warm and safe (but not too safe) space. thank you for all the beautiful writing.
oh man delurking to say how much I’m going to miss this awesome website, both the content and all the fabulous toasties who comment 🙁 really looking forward though to see what Mallory, Nicole and Nikki do next.
Remember to stay hydrated today friends. Take some breaks to drink some water, ok?
NO WAIT you can’t have the last toast the week I left my laptop in an airport in another continent. my last day to comment on anything to anybody and I have to do it with my thumbs, on a phone, like the brutes of the forest. like the protomammals that crawled onto the beaches a thousand thousand centuries ago. this is all wrong
P.S. with apologies to isak Dinesen from whom I first read this story and to myself for recycling my favorite tragic metaphors, this is all just like queen Sigrid who invited all the petty kings of Norway to her castle to vie for her hand in marriage and, when they were all ensconced in the great hall eating and drinking, closed the doors upon them and set the castle on fire, declaring that in this way she would teach the petty kings of Norway to come and woo her.
the toast is Sigrid, we are all the petty kings of Norway, the house is burning, I am sure we are all grateful anyway. goodbye toast goodbye
Regarding the Ask a Manager link, what do people think about the “My coworker complained about my burping and farting” question? I work with people who make a lot of unpleasant noises (loud mouth-breathing, frequent burping, lip-smacking) and I hate it SO MUCH. It’s not just being annoyed, but closer to misophonia – I am filled with overwhelming rage or I just feel really disgusted and uncomfortable. I have never said anything, because I assume people can’t help it, but it makes me very miserable.
Are headphones an option? stg that’s the ONLY thing that is saving me right now.
Unfortunately not – I work in a library, and the problem is when I am working on the enquiry desk (where I spend more than 50% of every day) alongside a loud co-worker. (When I am not on the desk I am free to roam the library doing tasks as/where needed, so can escape noise.)
Ah, I see. Well, I think you can probably try bringing it up with them by making it not about them–“Hey, I’ve always been really sensitive to noises like chewing and lip-smacking, and I find it really distracting when we’re at the desk. I’d really appreciate if you could try not doing those things!”
I love you all.
It’s Ironic (in the Alanis Morisette fashion) that I get Hamilton tickets the day The Toast closes. I will go back and read all those posts and actually get them. I will laugh alone into the night. (and then I will take my feels to slack cuz I’m pretty sure I saw a Hamiltoasts channel there)
“thank you” feels so inadequate when everyone on the Toast is too witches, but it’s all I’ve got–thank you!
I am so sad. It took me awhile to really begin commenting and learning what an awesome community this is, I feel like I wasted so much time.
catch you all on the flip side (or, you know, in the slack group).
I meant,
ONE LAST TIME
I just remembered that I had a dream last night where I came to the offices of The Toast and waited a long time to meet Nicole and she was kind of an asshole corporate businesslady (sorry, Nicole, I swear it’s only my subconscious that blames you for shutting the website down apparently???) and then Mallory came passing through and was this lovely waiflike joyful angel (kind of like Elfine in Cold Comfort Farm), and I wept with joy at getting to hug her, even though I was really pretty aggressive about demanding a hug and in retrospect my waking self recognizes that as a real dick move, and then I met Obama except also he had a son and I didn’t like the son very much but Obama basically has to shake your hand if he meets you on the street because what if a camera saw? so I got to do that but it wasn’t as exciting as Mallory
So anyway I guess I’ll miss this place and miss you all. Very soon I’ll be back home for vacation and I’m planning on rereading the whole archives to this place. My mother will be there, and The Toast has turned into a strange and delightful feature of our relationship. This was the first place I thought to come tell when I kissed another woman for the first time. It’s been a place I can always come to feel clear, simple belonging in a way that’s so unostentatious you forget how rare it can be. I’ll carry that with me when I get my misandry mermaid tote, which shall never leave my side.
To all of you: a willing foe, and sea room.
I have work to do today, but I can feel my face doing that thing that my mother’s face does when she drops me off at the airport after visits, and I don’t know if I can keep it together. I’m so glad I have Toast Wake tonight (DC people–4:30 to whenever in the Portrait Gallery courtyard!).
I have loved you all.
oh shit, really? maybe I will go to that, that’s a good courtyard for tragedy
This is going to get buried but…I knew a guy who worked on Street Cents. I met him in library school. He did research for the show. When he first mentioned he worked for the show in class, a bunch of us were like REALLY?! TELL US MORE!
I was so worried “closing July 1” meant no content today, and I’m so glad that there will be at least a few postings today. I really needed to finish out the week. Ugh, this is so heartbreaking.
Thank you, Mallory and Nicole and Nikki, for your time and patience and wit and humor. Thank you for all the times you made me laugh, and for all the ways you taught me and opened my eyes. Thank you, Jaya and Matt and Roxanne and all the other incredible contributors.
Thank you to all the commentators who made me think or comforted me or linked me to yet another article that killed dead time at work. Thank you for being fiercely smart and fiercely funny and having good hearts.
Ahhh, I CAN’T DO THIS.
Ah, I wasn’t ready for this.
Thank you! I will miss The Toast and this lovely community.
Thank you guys, I’ll miss you all. This site and the people on it have helped me through so much these past few years and I will be forever grateful, and The Toast will always have a place in my heart. Thank you so much. Y’all are pretty spectacular humans.
Thank you so much, to everyone involved with this beautiful site! Several of you have taken the words out of my fingers – The Toast has made me kinder and more fierce (thanks to renegadeoboe for that phrase! it was so perfect!). I have learned to become more empathetic to others and more confident in myself. The Toast has been an amazing part of my life.
Even though I didn’t comment often, I will miss you all so much!
I will miss you, The Toast! Thank you for the amazing, funny, insightful, DO NOT WANT THEM TO GO BUT I WILL DEAL months and years. <3
ETA: Aaaaaand One Last Time came on just as I posted this. T-T
I love you, Toast, and Toasties, and every. word. was magic, for a time.
Fortitude, gratitude, may we wear our grief with grace.
My mom is in town right now and I almost feel like she’s acting as emotional support. I tried to explain The Toast to her and what it has meant to me. She immediately recognized it as a source that I have sent her several articles from over the last 2-3 years and The Hairpin before that. My mom is the kind of woman who loves The Toast, even when she doesn’t “get” all of it, and loves that I love it. My dad is a Dad Magazine-style dad (he sent my mom to my house with some cooling bandanas for my dogs). My friends are all wonderful and weird and geeky and clever. The Toast has enhanced my life in little every day ways, it has challenged my thinking, it has educated me, made me laugh, comforted me, but perhaps the lasting legacy of The Toast for me is the love and respect that comes through on The Toast has helped me appreciate the wonderful people in my life even more.
Thank you for filling my heart up, every day Toast and Toasties. I am forever better for knowing you and will carry forward a better, more loving, less apologetic person for all of the articles, Link Roundups, and thoughtful comments.
gratitude to you all for this weird, beautiful space. there are truly no words that adequately describe how the toast community has inspired, challenged, and changed me. thank you.
<wraps entire body around Nicole’s ankle to keep her from leaving>
I just want to thank The Toast for being and to Mallory, Nicole and Nikki for all their hard work. The Toast started right after I moved to this country and it seems fitting that it is ending two weeks before I leave here.
Friends, The Toast will never be truly gone as long as we spread all the learning and love we got from it. Take to the seas, weather the storms, and know you are loved.
[notcrying}
My grandfather served as a soldier in WWI, but – very fortunately for his descendents – after the Somme. ‘Very fortunately’ because he served with the Newfoundland Regiment, which suffered over 90% casualties on July 1, 1916.
July 1 is Canada Day, and in Newfoundland is also known as Memorial Day in honour of the soldiers who lost their lives in the battle of Beaumont Hamel on this day in 1916.
I know this is the last link roundup– but it still doesn’t feel real. I have no idea how many things I’ve read because of the Toast that I wouldn’t have read otherwise, but it’s a LOT. Thank you to everyone who wrote, who commented, who got me out of my own head and into other people’s heads, because that’s what happened here and it was beautiful.
I love you all so much I’m staying up to read! It’s midnight here and you go out with the new day.
Me too! Has anybody tried to plan a Toastwake in Australia?
Thank you Toast for being the Toast.
Why does my boss expect me to do work today? Doesn’t he understand?
Farewell you beautiful space witches!
http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000004498…
SPACE
People. Writers and posters and lurkers. I have enjoyed your wisdom, your knowledge, your wit, your wedding dresses, your dogs and cats, your weirdness and your quips. I have enjoyed your company, your weaknesses and your bravery in admitting them.
Because I’m shy and a bit odd, the Toast is the only place I felt comfortable writing an occasional comment. Bless you, you wonderful (literal or figurative) queer librarians!
There was a long list collated in the last link roundup of similar potentially-Toastie place. Plus, there’s always the Toastie-slack or ToastCrumbs Reddit.
Blog list compiled from many excellent Toasties:
1. Toast crumbs and Toastie Slack, obviously
2. The Hairpin, for the obvious reasons
3. English Major Humor, for all my random nerdiness
4. Pajiba, for such articles as “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Isn’t Interested in your Bullshit”
5. Signature Reads, for well-thought out book reviews and such
6. Fred Clark’s “The Slacktivist” over on Patheos for religious interest
7. The Catapult, great essays
8. The New Republic, where Suri Kim’s excellent article was published
9. Atlas Obscura
10. Electric Literature
11. One Star Book reviews
The Establishment (feminist news, essays, humor, Make Your Face)
Reductress (feminist satire)
Wonkette (it’s pretty obnoxious, may be an acquired taste)
<div id=”IDComment-CommentText1025025103″ class=”idc-c-t-inner”> Thank you! I’ve been collecting sources for my own weekly link dump and you’ve got several that I didn’t know about. Here’s the list I had (there are repeats but I’m including links) Ann Friedman‘s weekly newsletter Longreads.com Atlas Obscura This. The Morning News Bitch Media NPR Slate The Atlantic Pacific Standard and yesterday I added Catapult </div> http://www.maximummiddleage.com/home http://pome-mag.com/
Captain Awkward (advice, nerdery)
Ask Polly (advice, weeping at desk with existential feels)
wearyourvoicemag.com
BookRiot, where you can read the comments Language Log Half the time I don’t understand what they’re talking about, but it’s always nerdy fun Roads & Kingdoms for travel essays/photos Role Reboot – I feel like it’s Feminism 101 compared to the Toast, but often good reading Edible Geography Yes and Yes – best life, very fun link roundups TYWKIWDBI The Book Smugglers
http://www.maximummiddleage.com/home
Establishment and Bitch Media
The Marshall Project
The Root sometimes, as well as Racialicious, and sometimes Crunk Feminist Collective
I almost chided myself for crying over “a website”. I am not crying over a website, damn it, I am crying over the decommissioning of the Starship Toast: an adventuring home-space full of my people. The Toast felt like home, populated with kind, brilliant, and hilarious kindred spirits I didn’t think existed in this world, that warmed the cockles of my once-frozen heart every time I visited. But The Toast was also always taking us on adventures: adventures in misandry, in emotional depth, in hilarity, in the arcane, in monkery, etc. Most of all, our adventures felt like a team effort, led by a glorious golden trio of Captains Nicole, Mallory, and Nikki, with all the wonderful contributors and amazing commenters and even us lurkers coming together to explore strange worlds, to wander among the stars, and to drink male tears in our witchy robes. The Toast has meant more to me than I can convey, but based on the comments here I’m not alone. Yet another gift The Toast has given me – feeling that I’m not alone, not in my weird tastes and humor, and not in my deep love for “a website”. Thank you to every single Toastie, you are all marvelous.
YES. THIS. STARSHIP TOAST. i love you
Thank YOU for getting it, for validating my messy emotional comment, and for being one of my people. Fellow Toastie, I love you, too.
I realized last night, I should’ve put this out to Toasties sooner, but better late than never. A good friend’s brother is raising funds for his top surgery, in exchange for art! https://www.gofundme.com/andysartforsurgery
Toasties – you’re wonderful, feral mermaids all. I will look out for you in the real world.
I love you all. I love this space. I will Toast you into the dark.
Thank you so much. Thank you for creating this space which I always think of as an online home. Thanks for all the hard work, the links, the posts that were so funny that suppressing my laughter in the office physically hurt. I sincerely wish you well.
To the sea!
Goodbye, The Toast! I was late to start commenting here, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you for creating such a beautiful, hilarious, kind corner of the internet.
This has been a special place and I am going to miss the collection of writers and artists and the fabulous editors and the very entertaining and smart and awesome comment section. I found the Toast when I was doing an internship (great!) in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere (terrible!) and living with a weird roommate and the streets of the town rolled up at 6:30 so I spent my evenings on the internet. I migrated from the Hairpin, where I didn’t comment, and then I didn’t comment on the Toast for a long time but now that I do I’m going to miss it even more. You all are smart, wonderful people and I wish you all the luck as you take to the sea!
Love U Toast! Link Roundups were the highlights of my mornings and I have learned so many things and had so many excellent laughs on this here website.
may the Toast community live long in the wilds of the internet
thank you thank you Nicole, Mallory, and Nikki, for everything.
I am so grateful for the Toast. Thank you so much for making this place, and thank you also for being willing to give it a wake instead of letting it become something too hard or too intense to keep up.
Farewell, The Toast. I have loved you and your inhabitants well, even if I was mostly a lurker.
One thing the site has given me that I will take with me ever after is my avatar. I’ve always had a hard time deciding what image would be suitable for my online representation, so I never picked one. The day The End of The Toast was announced, I realized that the portrait of perfect female happiness was the image I wanted to carry with me and represent me online across everything that lets you have an avatar. I set them all up that same day. It is a little thing, but deeply felt. The Toast has been formative of who I am and how I wish to be, both online and off.
http://youtu.be/rpjmeyI2pfI
I’m going to leave this here for you all, since it reminds me of you.
I’ll see you all on the moon.
Thank you for everything, The Toast. I will miss you forever. 🙁
I got into the Toast late – I’ve only been a regular reader for the past year or so – but it has been amazing, and you are all amazing, and I will miss it so much.
(Can someone point me towards how to join the slack group, or however it is we are hanging out now?)
E-mail ppyajunebug at gmail dot com for slack! The subreddit is r/toastcrumbs
okay unfortunately i have work i have to get done before i leave for the weekend, but thank you, i love you, i’ll see you on slack.
Oh, Toast. I’m inspired by your beauty, effulgent.
I will miss you.
Has your heart grown a bulge in’t?
It HAS!
For the past year or so these link round-ups have been my moment of respite from my retail job. I always read them on my breaks and it was nice to forget about customer interactions for a while and enjoy the hilarity and poignancy of the comment section here.
I’ve lurked longer than I’ve been a participating commenter, but I’m still really going to miss you all. I regret that I didn’t join in sooner and gotten to know people. I wish everyone the best!
Thank you, everyone at the Toast, for everything.
Me on this site all day:
Even though I didn’t contribute often, I will miss this place deeply. Thank you all for being the most entertaining, heartfelt, educational, and lovely commenting community I have ever seen.
I can’t stay long because I have a flight to catch but I wanted to say I HAVE LOVED YOU ALL and THANK YOU FOR ADDING ALL THIS LOVE AND WIT AND COMPASSION AND HUMOUR AND BEAUTY TO MY LIFE and I know that on Monday I’ll open up the website as usual and be puzzled for a second at the lack of a new link roundup and I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when I remember. Bereft.
This has been so great, and we were all so lucky to have it.
Truth. I’m going to sit down at work on Tuesday, automatically open the page and start crying–and then DM you. Be forewarned.
I just learned of The Toast this week, and now you’re gone for good. I’m sad.
Mallory Ortberg is still my idol.
A thousand thank yous for everything.
It’s been a pleasure to come to this place for the past 2 years. I use Toast phrases in daily convo (“kill all men,” “always the option of taking to the sea,” “a willing foe and sea room,” “life is a rich tapestry”).
Just gonna go silently weep in a corner:
“Rich tapestry, etc.” has winkled it’s way into my vocabulary and gets deployed anytime I want to gently suggest to someone that whatever they’re complaining about that’s weird or bizarre makes somebody happy and maybe they should just chill because it’s not hurting them. So also thanks for that, the-Toast.
AAH omg :,( THANK YOU NICOLE FOR THE LINK ROUNDUPS, THANK YOU FOR THE TOAST, THANK YOU MALLORY, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR BEING THE BEST PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET 🙁
I have been a longtime daily reader and rare commenter. I came here today determined to post something and as usual, several others have said exactly what I was thinking and feeling, but wittier. So that’s what I love about The Toast, among other things, and what I will miss dearly in its wake. You guys are the absolute best.
I have loved you, loved you all. I can’t decide between two goodbye quotes, so here are both:
“Farewell,” they cried, “Wherever you fare till your eyries receive you at the journey’s end!” That is the polite thing to say among eagles.
“May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks,” answered Gandalf, who knew the correct reply.”
And: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
I finally get around to registering and then commenting on the last day? Feels like my usual MO. Sigh.
I have loved this site and all the contributors and commentary since I first found it. I am bereft and will miss it all terribly.
Where else will I fit in online? Where else can I happily lurk and know the comments and gifts will make me happier and better rather than sadder or angrier? Where will the archivists and records managers be now? Where else will there ever be another Georgette Heyer article, cheerful misandry, feminism, art and literary criticism?
With thanks to you all for making the Internet a happy learning environment. Wishing you safe journeys as we take to the sea.
Bye, my friends. Thanks for everything.
Goddamn, it has been a privilege. Thank you all for everything.
We’ll see each other on the other side, and we will know each other again.
As if I weren’t having feelings already, you go and post Angel from Montgomery and Take It Easy! (An underrated great thing about The Toast imo is that it’s pro-Eagles, who are maligned far more than they deserve)
Anyway I’m really sad I didn’t comment more, because you all seem like such lovely people, and now it’s ending. But even though I wasn’t an active part of the community, I always appreciated that it existed. The link roundup and the comments that went with it got me through a lot of mornings at jobs I couldn’t stand, and a lot of mornings alone in my apartment after I got fired from one of them. I’ve learned so much about how to be a person and how to treat myself and others from everyone here. There are whole worlds I would know nothing about if not for The Toast. I’m going to miss this place. Thank you to all of you who made it so wonderful.
I was akways too shy to comment here often, but I just wanted to say I have read this site since its very first day. I followed Nicole here from The Hairpin and found in The Toast a perfect home for my heart in the wilds of this old internet. I am so grateful to everyone involved with The Toast, especially the Nicoles for doing the hard work in making this such a wonderful place to be. I have loved it fiercely and will miss it equally so.
I never got to make an account, having mostly lurked for the last 3 years, but I just wanted to say thank you all so much for such a wonderful website!!!
I feel like reading this site has made me more cleverer and aware of the world, and the community here has given me such a lot of hope (and living in the UK, that feels very needed right now). Plus the jokes. I’ll miss the monks and the art history and the casual misandry and all of it really!
Thanks, Toast!! xx
I love you all so, so much.
Whelp, I do not have anything new or original to say, but I discovered The-Toast too late and it was taken from me too soon. I must post this last comment before the comment ship sails away forever.
I too was here, and I too loved the Toast.
Thank you! Merci, merci! Love knowing that you all are out there somewhere. Losing the Toast and Alex Balk’s alt-text on The Awl…where do you go indeed?
Just thank you so much.
I honestly can’t right now. The only thing keeping me together is being active in Slack and knowing there is a support system there. Thank you all so much for all the love and fabulousness you have brought to our lives. 🙁
Have to post just so I can point to it someday in the future to my kids and say SEE?! SEE HOW COOL I WAS?? You are all amazing, thanks for making the last year since I fount Toast to be so excellent.
THANK YOU Mallory and Nicole and Nikki!
And thank you to all the writers and commenters, and to everyone who helped make this space so fantastic. I’m going to miss it.
I’m just going to go through this entire comment section and thumbs up every post because I don’t know what else to do with my feelings.
THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. I can’t even express my love and gratitude for you ladies.
I had a dream last night that I came to the site sometime after 10 and it was just fully gone. I got some kind of error page and that was it forever. I’ll miss you sweet Toast.
It’s like the last day of high school, summer camp, and college all in one.
Thank you everyone for making this such an awesome place to lurk, and for helping me realize there are so many amazing women like me out there.
I’ve not been a member here long, but my best friend Daisy and I became best friends through this website, and we’ll always hold it in our minds as a pristinely beautiful memory of funny things we read in times of anxiety or depression or joy or friendship formation. That this thing will leave behind a community of people that it brought together is a miracle.
The round ups were my primary source of news content for the day – thank you, Nicole, for putting them together every day!
I’ve not been a member here long, but my best friend Daisy and I became best friends through this website, and we’ll always hold it in our minds as a pristinely beautiful memory of funny things we read in times of anxiety or depression or joy or friendship formation. That this thing will leave behind a community of people that it brought together is a miracle.
I’ve never really commented on link roundups before under this name or under my previous name. This is because I always saved reading this for the last part of day so I could read every comment.
I think I’ll miss this most of all and I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am.
I am going to miss this place so much. Everyone else has said exactly what I wanted to say, and I have to add my voice to the choir.
Thank you so much for bringing me good, interesting writing and making this community of delightful people possible. It’s meant the world to me. And I hope everyone – from our wonderful editors to the excellent contributors to the great commentariat – can go forth and continue making other parts of the internet delightful too.
Goodbye, Toast. (After I finish reading today’s posts, that is.)
“Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-Earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”
This quote has been knocking around in my head since the closure was announced. It seems to about sum things up. Its going to take me MONTHS to break the habit of coming here for new posts every day.
Thank you Toast creators, Toast maintainers, Toast writers, Toast commenters, Toast lurkers. Wherever I go in this internets, I will never forget to *creed arms into a sea of haters*.
I’ve been lurking on the Toast for a while and… well, it’s been great, and I’ll probably keep rereading things on here forever, and good luck to you in your future works!
Jonathan Torrens from Street Cents went on to become J-Roc!!!!
I have mainly just lurked here but I just want to say THANK YOU to Nicole, Mallory, Nikki, Roxane and all the other contributors and Toasties for making me laugh till it hurts, feel till it stops hurting, feel less isolated, make steps towards being a better person, and feel validated for seeing Magic Mike five times. Love and best wishes for all the cool stuff yous’ll all do in the future.
I don’t really comment, but I read everything. Have a little issue with putting my feelings into words… for example:
Thank you – I will truly miss the Toast! (my feelings are much stronger than this)
Teach ’em how to say goodbye.
I woke up sad not knowing quite why, but of course it’s because of the Toast’s Imminent Demise. Flying all my flags at half-mast today.
I can only echo everyone else and say Thank You, most sincerely, to Nicole and Mallory for all you have given us, and to the amazing writers and commentariat for being so insightful and inspiring. I’ll miss this place more than I can say.
Street Cents! As a nerdy Buffalo kid who could get Canadian stations, I have happy memories of catching this show and feeling slightly cooler.
I remember knowing that the college I chose was the right one because the people I met on the tour were super enthusiastic about Square One TV. I have been a lurker for about a year, and I’ve been amazed at all the idiosyncratic interests/memories that toast has tweaked. I’m not much of an internet commenter, but I always enjoyed reading the comments and getting the sense that I was hanging out with my people. Now I have the sads. I haven’t been as involved as I would have liked, but I felt like this was a community worthy of the name.
My friend introduced me to this Etsy shop today and so much of the art seems peak Toast:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/theblackapple?ref=l2-sh…
I got the girl reading in the library print to put over my bed, and the girl riding a sea monster print to put over my bath. And since I bought them on this of al days, they’ll serve as a reminder of this space.
I will remember you
Endings make me *very* grumpy, so I might be frowning and crossing my arms, but I am also secretly beaming with gratitude and reflecting on this beautiful space, and what it’s meant to me. I am very thankful to those who worked so hard to make this place exist and I am so excited to see where the now TheToast-less road leads us all. See you soon.
Thank you. Thank you all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJAIvvQM_tM
Thank you for helping me be the misandrist sea witch I was always meant to be.
I’m pretty sure tonight that all the fireworks that will go off across Canada are in celebration of The Toast.
What is there to say? Lots and lots, but I can’t! I’ll have to just settle for saying that I will really, really, really miss all of you very much. It’s been fantastic — and so have you.
THE TOAST.
I have been sadly gone for a minute thanks to new job that does not allow me time to Toast at work, but know that I have been lurking and haunting and have never stopped loving any of you. Thank you for being there for me when shit got rough, for teaching me to fearlessly create safe spaces on the internet, for making me laugh til I cried, and for being so perfectly and inspirationally yourselves. I love you all, all, all.
ps Hillary freaking Clinton is a Toastie I am dead now.
EPWordsnatcher!!! You came back for the end!
It makes me happy to hear you really were Everpresent the whole time.
I know this is very, very late and probably won’t be seen by many… but I want to thank everybody for looking at Charlie Potato Hashbrowns and loving him almost as much as I do. I’ll do my best to keep posting pictures everywhere (my twitter and instagram are chloekevil, my tumblr is totallygayneilmackay, and I’m part of the toast subreddit and I think I should be getting an invite to slack soon? but I don’t know how that works).
But here are some last Toast pictures of my very favourite root vegetable.
I call this one “his feet all red” because references to weird little horror comics make me happy. But really, CP Taters found a mud puddle in a baseball diamond and had a grand old time.
Hanging out, being a french fry, showing off his ridiculous tongue.
I love you guys, thank you so much for all your comments and love. The Toast has helped me become myself in all my parts, both the fiercely ordinary and the happily weird, and it’s taught me more than I can express. I am so sad that it’s ending, but I am glad that I have been part of this community.
No thank YOU for brightening our days with CPH, the cutest fluffiest carbohydrate!
THANK YOU FOR THE POTATO
PLEASE COME TO TOASTIESLACK. We need our pics of our spud! (seriously, email ppyajunebug [at] gmail [dot] com and I will get you the invitation!
Thank you so much for one last tater Toast post! He (and you) is one of my favourite parts of the LR and the community. Fare thee well!
Thank you, Chloe, for sharing the splendor that is Charlie Potato Hashbrowns. His name is now a test for new people I meet. I tell them his name and strangers are either delighted or puzzled. A gentleman yesterday completely reacted against type and said briskly, “That is a perfect name” and giving me a sharp nod. I expected him to be in the “dogs should be named Blackie or Snuffles” category.
Thank you to everyone who made this space what it was. I am sad that it is ending, but I respect the hell out of the decision and the way you shared it with us.
This feels a little bit like college ending: a brief, beautiful time that brought important personal growth and wonderful new people into our lives, and it is sad. But given that I’m still BFFs with people I met in college, I have faith that many of the relationships that were forged here will endure, and even if they don’t, the things we learned about the world and about ourselves will always be with us.
Be excellent to each other.
Oh, I’m gonna miss this place. I’m also gonna be revisiting a lot of articles in the future. Good bye.
What is Toast may never die. See all you lovelies on the other side.
Oh, Toasts. I will miss this. Thank you for everything and everyone you’ve brought into my life. <3
Thank you Nicole, Mallory, Nikki, Marco, Roxanne, The Bartender (whose identity we shall continue to ponder), and everyone. Thank you contributors, and commenters, and donators, and people who clicked on ads. Thank you comment wranglers, and Toast Post coordinators, and meetup coordinators, and everyone who made this a community.
I shall now take to the sea, with a Slack connection (just sent the email) and the drive to proclaim the good news of intersectional feminism and Ignoring Male Opinion Whenever Practical.
Good day, and good luck.
I love you all.
Thank you to the writers and editors for bringing me articles and posts that made me laugh, that made me think, that made me cry.
Thank you to those who spent hours moderating comments to make this place somewhere people could comment with anger, with hope, with despair, with gifs, with subtlety, and with nuance.
Thank you to everyone who wrote comments for helping me spend hours of time and for making me think more deeply, laugh more loudly, cry more earnestly, and live more honestly.
Thank you to everyone who replied to my comments and made me feel at home, who encouraged me to embrace myself or laughed with me or rejoiced with me or just said “Yes, me too,” so I felt less alone.
We are all too witches, today and forever.
This site made me feel like a good and valid person, just the way I am, while also gently making me a better one.
I feel so much more confident in myself, my interests and my perspective – and so much more open to the experiences and perspective of others.
I also laughed. A lot.
Thank you for the toast, the people and letting me know that places like this can exist.
I’m de-lurking on the Last Day because I couldn’t not say thank you, this place has been amazing, and I will miss it sincerely.
Thank you so much, Toastfriends. Thank you Nicole, Mallory, Nikki, and Jaya. Thank you, writers and columnists and commenters. We did something great! I will miss you.
Also, come join us on reddit, where we will create a pale, sad shadow of this community. Wait, I mean… Well, there will be Link Roundups and lots of people are posting pictures of their dogs. https://www.reddit.com/r/ToastCrumbs/
Thank you to Mallory and Nicole and Nikki, Marco and Roxane and Jaya and all the other writers for giving us so much to laugh, marvel, wince, and cry over. Cheers to The Bartender, and love to every other commenter and lurker. You are all The Toast and the bravest, loveliest, funniest, wisest people ever, too witches by far. I’m going to miss this so much.
I’ve said it before, but I truly believe that these Link Roundups made me a better person, because they made me engage with the world around me and think critically every day. I found so many writers and sites that I never would have found otherwise; I learned about all sorts of issues in a more meaningful way. They made me cry, they made me rage, they made me laugh. I am so appreciative. Thank you Nicole, and thank you everyone who contributed to these! I will miss them, but they’ve given me the tools to round up my own links now, and I will keep reading, keep learning, keep thinking.
I’m crying. Someone, mop me up from the floor.
My stomach actually dropped when I read “final link round up”
I’ve never been this sad about a site closing!
I am so bummed!!
🙁 🙁
At least it’s slow so I can take all day to sift through the comments and maybe try to figure out toast slack.
The internet will be a smaller and a less interesting place without The Toast, and I’m going to miss all of you so much. I’m sad today in direct proportion to how much this site and all of you have made my life better and richer and funnier.
As Isobel said on Downton Abbey: “Well, aren’t we the lucky ones?”
To inject a brighter note into this sad day, I wanted you all to know that I met up with some lovely Rochester Toasties for “30 Rock” trivia last night, and we DESTROYED EVERYONE.
Our 1st place prizes included cash and a blue Slanket.
Also… (sobs forever, hugs you all) <3 <3 <3
Hi Toast. You closing is the worst birthday present ever, worse than all the higher tolls and other terrible things that go into effect on July 1 every year. I love you all so dearly and I am kicking myself really hard for never pitching all the things I thought about pitching over the years. Mallory and Nicole, way back in the Hairpin Era you changed the way I thought about writing and humor and the place of Woman on the internet, and I’m proud to cite you as influences. Since then you’ve continued to be great sources of joy in my life and I will of course be continuing to follow you wherever you go creatively until you’re like please stop following me this is getting weird. ~*~*Misandry 4 lyfe sisterz peace out*~*~
(eta: on the bright side this means I might finally be able to catch up on the archives)
thank you Toast for being The Toast and being here and being everything
also I am too all of it including witches and sad and I cannot right now
raising a cup of tea after which I will again be lurking
peace and love and sparkly unicorns 5 ever
I found this site fairly recently and hadn’t worked up the nerve to comment, when The Announcement was made. So I just wanted to join the chorus and express my gratitude to all involved. I will be happily perusing the archives while finding strength in the passion of this wonderful community. <3
Now I am so regretting not pitching a Dickens article when someone suggested it last year.
The toast showed up when I had graduated with a master’s degree that I’d been preparing for since before my divorce was final. I’d worked so hard towards that goal and then had to face the fact that it wasn’t the ticket to freedom that I’d believed it to be for so long.
I realized the awful truth that I was trapped in th this town, with poor work options, and my life was still going to be under the control of my abusive ex until after my youngest turned 18 and after I turn 50.
That was a bleak bleak place but the humor and support of all of you here, and the fact that you never said, “oh, gawd, are you still complaining about him”, always had kind words and helpful advice. Not to mention indulging my misandrist tendencies when my patience ran out.
I may not look like anything has changed objectively from the outside, but I have a lot more strength to continue with the permission to both have a sense of humour and be too witches. I am so hoping I can meet some of you irl someday, and that I can manage to keep touch with many of you online despite being an old and afraid of slack!
Thanks to each and every one of you who ever responded. Thanks to Nicole and Nikki and Mallory and everyone else who kept this place afloat.
Ok, I’ll shut up now. But it’s due to this place that I have a little more confidence that I can take what life throws at me and still keep the fighting witches snarky funny hopeful parts of me alive.
oh my god that picture now i’m crying while singing the theme song of the littlest hobo to myself… going out on a strong note
thank goddess it’s a holiday and i can bawl privately in the comfort of my own home
Thank you for everything The Toast
I have loved you all
Godspeed my friends
I’ve been a lurker pretty much since this site started, and I’m coming out of hiding to say how deeply this place has affected me. You’ve all made me a much better person, in so many ways. Your kindness, your insights, your wisdom–I don’t know how I would have survived the last few years of grad school without it, and I’m not sure how I’ll write my dissertation without this amazing place.
You were truly too witches for the Internet, my beloved Toast.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
I loved this place so much.
Thank you, fellow Toasties, for everything. I hope we do all keep in touch through Twitter and Reddit and ToastPost, and I hope I get to meet some of you in person someday! My heart is full.
The Toast has meant a lot to me. Reading the essays here and following the commenting conversations have certainly led me to be a kinder and fiercer version of myself.
I cannot adequately express how much I ardently admire and love you all.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Thank you, Nicole, Mallory, Nikki, and all of the contributors and commenters. You have enriched my life, and made me smarter, kinder, and even more of a misandrist than I was before. No website has made me laugh or cry as often. See you on the open waters. <3
Oh Toast. You were too witches to last forever. I don’t have the words to say how much I’ve treasured you. Thank you, thank you for everything.
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
A.A. Milne
(sobs) Goodbye Toast.
<3
This degree of goddessy handholding usually brings on the dry heaves in me, but “may this circle be open but unbroken” is 100% my prayer today. Thanks for such good humor and insightful commentary and great connections and resources, each a small thing yet together so powerful we have apparently summoned the future US President. I’ll look for you everywhere–in LaCroix displays at the supermarket, in every library and bookstore, in myself and the hearts of those I hold close, and I believe I’ll keep finding you. Also, fucking-A, Nicole, the Geddy Lee just wrecked me.
I have been lurking here for a long time, and now as it’s ending I do wish I’d joined the conversation a long time ago, but I couldn’t let this end without letting you all know how much I appreciate this website. Between Trump and Brexit the world is seeming pretty awful, but this site has always been a place that felt safe and comfortable and provided exactly the content I never knew I needed. I never thought I’d be fighting off tears over the end of a website, but here we are. Thanks for everything Toasties.
Thank you all, you are marvellous and wonderful and everything about this has been wonderful!
I love you, Toast and Toasties. Thanks for it all. <3
The “How to Tell if You’re in a Jane Austen Novel” was my Toast entry point, and the friend who shared it made sure to tell me that reading the comments was not optional.
And since then – the Toast community in the comments was always the best and brightest. And I know there’s #ToastieTwitter but seriously I just need to go and have a good cry and be glad for something that was really good.
Thank you, Toast and Toasties. You have educated me and inspired me to be a kinder person and a more thoughtful parent to a small she-witch, and to imagine and live my best life.
Thank you, thank you. Goodnight. SOB.
I think I’ll miss the Toast every day. Thank you all for making something so beautiful.
WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE
Thank you, everyone, for everything. This was such a beautiful thing and I was so glad to experience it.
This website has been such a gift. Thank you all for everything.
Thank you SO MUCH! Xxxxx
Dear Toast,
You and your wonderful community have gotten me through high school. I hoped you would be with me through college too, but ’twas not to be. Thankfully I will be entering another badass community of women, so the road ahead does not look too dark.
“Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.”
-Sylvia Plath
I love here and I don’t know what to say but I managed to not cry during lunch and barely held it together till I could get to the car after work so this place has meant so much to me I came here every day and I am so glad you are out there smart and caring and funny. I guess I will start learning how to use slack now.
But…but I just found this site! Don’t go! Also, I’m pretty sure a lot of other Hillary fans are suddenly on here…so keep it going!!
I was off line all day and pour one out for The Toast at a 1st birthday for a friend’s craft beer bar in Brooklyn instead.
I love you.
The Toast has already started leaking out into reality.
Thank you for Rush. How it stirs my heart strings, so.