“In October or November, we went to dinner at Yusor and Deah’s house. Right after we left, Yusor heard a knock at the door and it was Hicks. She told us he was angry and said we were noisy and there were two extra cars in the neighborhood. We used visitor parking but he was still mad. He said we woke up his wife. It wasn’t that dark yet. It wasn’t late. And it wasn’t that loud. We were playing a board game called Risk. I mean, I know I was mad because they were beating me at the game, but that was it. While he was at the door talking to Yusor, he was holding a rifle, she told me later. He didn’t point it at anyone, but he still had it. Yusor called to check on us after we left, to make sure he hadn’t approached us. We thought that was so weird—our neighbors don’t come to the door with guns! So when I heard the news it was shocking, but it wasn’t a surprise that it was the neighbor.
When I heard the news report and drove down there from Raleigh, I hoped it wasn’t anyone I knew. But I saw the apartment on the news and it was his apartment. If it wasn’t a hate crime, what was it? If you have a problem with your neighbors, you write a letter; you don’t shoot people. I think they were targeted because they were different. He was always so annoyed with them for little things. They are talking about a parking dispute online—that’s definitely not true. There’s plenty of space, and Deah had just gotten off the bus. I wonder if he just thought Deah was some white guy before his wife moved in.”
-Amira Ata, My Best Friend Was Killed And I Don’t Know Why
Friend of the Toast Tracy Clayton (Brokey McPoverty to you Twitter types) wrote about anxiety medication and revolutionary acts:
I buckled down and did every behavior-modifying exercise that Gail told me to do. I stopped ordering my groceries and actually went to the store. I actually went inside that gym I had my eye on (I didn’t work out, I just walked inside, which was actually a huge accomplishment). I pushed myself to go out with friends at least once a week. On top of that, I did everything the internet told me I needed to do to beat anxiety. I did yoga, tried to meditate, practiced Buddhism for a while (and by “practiced Buddhism” I mean I read three-quarters of Buddhism for Dummies). I took a multivitamin. I kept a journal. I eventually hit a good stride, and by the time I decided to move back home to Louisville, I felt very proud of the person I’d become. She was cockier, louder now that the boulder had been moved at least partly away.
And then I turned around and she was gone.
Man, remember that old McDonald’s commercial where Chris Meloni plays a super angry, aggro guy on a blind date? I’ve watched it like four times today.
I LIED MY ASS OFF TO GET INVITED TO FOCUS GROUPS
Saeed has (OF COURSE) already brought up the delicious possibility of a crossover episode with The Good Wife, and I now live in hope:
Laverne Cox is going from Litchfield Penitentiary to the courtroom.
The Orange Is the New Black breakout has been tapped to co-star in CBS’ buzzy legal drama Doubt, The Hollywood Reporter has learned…
Cox, in one of the biggest showings of diversity yet this pilot season, will co-star as Cameron Wirth, a role specifically created for a transgender actress. The character is described as a transgender Ivy League-educated attorney who is as competitive as she is compassionate. She’s fierce, funny and the fact that she’s experienced injustice first-hand makes her fight all the harder for her clients.
“When Maxwell Osborne, an African-American designer who is one-half of the men’s wear brand Public School, stood on stage at Lincoln Center with his business partner, Dao-Yi Chow, to receive the 2014 CFDA Award for men’s wear last June, he was, he realized, “the first designer of color on stage accepting this award since Sean Combs won it in 2004 for Sean John.”
“It was mind-boggling,” he said, “both in a good way, because we had won it, and in a bad way, because it was crazy that there had been no one else of color up there in all that time.”
Much has been made in the news media and within fashion itself of the lack of ethnic diversity among models, but in many ways, the situation on the runway simply reflects an even more extreme situation in the power structure of the industry itself.”
GUYS, I saw The Boy Next Door this week and I got what I came there for, but I would not have minded it if things had been a good 40% more campy. I want some REAL SCHLOCK for the next time I go to the movies. Last year I had such a good run. What can I see that’s out now that will rival I, Frankenstein or Pompeii 3D? (First clown to bring up Jupiter Rising to me gets hammerbanned; you know my feelings about the Wachowskis.)
ELLEN CLEGHORN: STILL THE BEST
JET: From which doctoral program will you receive your degree?
EC: I’m getting a PhD in Performance Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. I went back because I asked myself, “If you could do anything what would you do?” And I said, “Go to graduate school.” I’m writing about Black comedy and comedians, specifically and in general; “fancy-schmancy” humor philosophies; and Black humor practices as critical race theory deconstruction methodologies. How do you like me now?
http://wapo.st/1zX1VqT
THIS WOMAN
She’s awesome, but it bummed me out that she named her agency the Alliance Against Mistresses, instead of the Alliance Against Cheating Corrupt Scumbag Husbands.
Oof, I didn’t catch that. Fuck those Cheating Corrupt Scumbag Husbands. I’m hoping it’s a misleading translation and the actual sense isn’t “fuck the mistresses” but rather “fuck the (apparently common) practice of taking mistresses and cheating on your wife.” Maybe?
“Alliance Against (having) Mistresses”
Especially since it seems to have started out as the Fire Phoenix agency, if I read the article right? Fire Phoenix is a much better name, come on.
I see that as a companion to this article:
http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/postca…
I know I’m a bit late to this, but man, I loved Parks and Rec’s “male men”
That storyline made me so, so happy. Leslie Knope would read The Toast.
“You’re ridiculous and men’s rights is nothing!”
What if Amy Poehler DOES read the Toast? ANY ONE OF US COULD BE AMY POEHLER.
Quick reminder that Margaret Atwood is one of us. Please keep your comments brilliant today, all. No need to feel any specific anxiety over this whatsoever.
*faints casually*
WAIT WHAT?
So do I tell or not tell my numerous Mags stories gained while a coffee shop waitress in the Annex in Toronto?
*fans self* oh dear oh dear. The things I have said in these comments!
*sharpens tongue on the shattered fragments of male egos*
just saw that too! so great.
“Oh, and where are the ‘Male Men’? There you are. You’re ridiculous. Men’s rights is nothing. *moves swiftly on to deal with some real shit*
<3 Leslie/Amy!
I also had to keep stopping the Washington ep to google who all those senators were. (i’m british. would probably still have to if american tho?)
Yeah, I didn’t recognize most of them, and when their names were revealed I was mentally going “ummm okay she’s known for….” and probably missed some jokes. There are so many dang people running this country you’d have to be quite good with names & faces to know them instantly.
I always cringe when I see those “late show host goes out asking random Americans to name important government figures to show how ignorant we are” bits.
I hate those, too. I can recite the kings and queens of England from Aethelred the Unready to QEII, but I’m not likely to be able to identify Senator Whoever from Bumfuck wherever unless I happened to catch the national news on that particular day.
I just watched that episode last night! When they showed up, I laughed so hard I scared the cat.
How dare you sully the glorious palette of the noble avocado, He For He sign? HOW DARE YOU
“Men have had a very rough go of it — just recently” “Can we for once have a discussion about feminism where men are in charge??”
Just. perfect.
This was brilliant. I was legit pissed for Leslie when Ben won Woman of the Year though.
Also, I may have to swap costumes with my wife this year for Halloween (I was Winter Soldier Cap, she was Rosie the Riveter) so I can be the Hulk Hogan Rosie in the poster above. Hulk Hogan is ridic anyway, and that is even better.
Allow me to suggest my all-time favorite sexy Halloween costume: Sexy Hulk Hogan.
Isn’t that really just a Macho Man Randy Savage costume, though? 🙂
Srsly I may be him this year. I have the boa and I’ve been wanting some zubaz…
Oh man, focus groups. I did one when I was in grad school for deodorant, I think, and I actually got to go to the UNILEVER HQ and I thought that was a Big Important Thing at the time. I got $175 out of it though and that was far more than I had at the time.
I still get requests for them on occasion, but they’re always in the city and during the day while I work. I would gladly pretend to wear fragrances again for $300.
Growing up my parents would pimp me out to focus groups which was usually boring but kinda fun and sometimes we got a toy (Barbies!) along with a check. I remember doing a cereal one for Trix where they served us bowl after bowl but they all tasted the same to me. And another one where we watched commercials and said if we’d want the toys advertised.
Please refrain from tasting the knob.
When I was 6 or 7 I participated in a focus group for Fruit Roll-Ups! I remember watching commercials but not actually getting to eat Fruit Roll-Ups, but surely we must have? I think I got $20–big money for a first-grader in the early 80s.
When I was underemployed, I made a little cash by being the site manager for the focus group leaders. I would come in before the people who ran the groups did, set up chairs in a circle and receive/set up the catering… they would always let me hang out in the room and listen to the process (also to be there in case someone couldn’t find the bathroom or whatever) but mostly I just read magazines. I did it a few times in this huge art loft that was used most often as a photography studio, so there were huge white artsy-looking chairs and floor to ceiling windows. It was a really cool gig and paid pretty well for just like 4-5 hours of work. And interesting sometimes too 🙂
In mourning for those poor kids and hatred for that raging racist. I cannot fucking believe that every major news network is calling it a) a dispute over parking and b) not an act of racism/terrorism/Islamophobia.
As if those two are mutually exclusive. I mean, it’s perfectly plausible that a) the parking dispute was a factor and b) it never would have escalated to this extent had he not been an islamophobe.
THIS. The media likes to believe an act can only be racially motivated if it was THE ONLY factor involved. Many micro slights happen to people of all races ALL DAY and the vast majority of them are handled as another annoying stranger on the st or neighbor. The racism can be the MOTIVATION to escalate these issues into something horribly horribly worse. Many people are just very uncomfortable confronting these kinds of bias and use anything to deflect. Its our job to change the narrative and not let them.
exactly! his wife has now said he had “a parking dispute with neighbours of all creeds and colours”. Disregarding the fact that that is basically a quote straight outta the Onion, if the Onion had imagined these awful murders, the key point is HE DIDN’T SHOOT THE OTHER NEIGHBOURS. so yeah, definitely race or religion-related hate crime/ terrorism.
“He wasn’t racist! He would have murdered anyone in cold blood over a parking spot!”
He also lived in a complex with lots of college kids, so presumably there was noise sometimes. Wonder if he showed up at non-muslim neigbours’ houses with a gun to complain about them playing boardgames?
Right? It was a parking dispute…with a violent racist. That’s why it ended with murder, and not the way basically every other parking dispute ends.
Yes, yes yes. I live near Chapel Hill and am familiar with that area. People are fucking insane over parking in a lot of those neighborhoods – local people get pissed about the students taking up all the parking and having parties, etc.
I 100% believe that asshole’s Islamophobia was responsible for his actions, let me be totally clear. Because he may have had issues with other people and parking but he didn’t go execution style murder any of THEM. Because he is a violent entitled racist piece of shit.
But people keep saying “no one gets shot over a parking dispute” and I’m like…people murder people over incredibly stupid things every day. At my last job (which was murder related), I was constantly amazed at the shit people killed other people over. Beating someone at an X Box game. Calling someone’s wife ugly. Running over someone’s mail box with a lawn mower while drunk. Eating all the beef out of the beef stew on the stove. None of these are made up at all. And it’s fucking reprehensible either way!
What I do resent is the typical reaction of the media in cases like this, where it’s like they want to find some REASON for his acts other than “violent entitled racist piece of shit behaves as one would expect”, whereas non white offenders are not afforded that same benefit of the doubt.
I have to ask, what was that “murder related” job? I can think of anything from homicide squad to crime scene clean-up to the murder beat on a newspaper to grief counseling to …
I worked for indigent defense, but the part that only did murder in my state. So if you were not rich and arrested for murder, we worked your case, assigned your attorney, hired the investigators and experts, etc. My job was to put together a file for every person arrested for murder. I literally had to pay attention to every single murder that happened in the state. For three years, every single one. I knew it was time to go when I’d feel a brief sense of relief at a murder suicide, cause I would have less work to do. IT SUCKED. It was also hard to like, enjoy being around people sometimes? I was like yeah we’re just one drunken barbecue argument away from you stabbing me to death with a meat fork, so…
Wow. One of those jobs where I heartily salute you for doing such vital work, but I can sure see how it would have to be a limited engagement gig or you’d go mad.
It’s funny because I was always really into true crime and gritty horror stuff and still am kinda, but this was like day in, day out. Regular people getting killed for just the doggone dumbest shit you can imagine. It also made dating hard, because I’m sitting there wondering which one of us was the most likely to murder the other eventually, statistically speaking.
I’m trying to figure out where this sits relative to news stations immediately finding and posting up a Facebook picture where the victims are like flipping off the camera or something, “just sayin’!”
Seriously. Three people were shot – I think it’s safe to assume something beside a dispute over parking is going on. To keep bringing it up also smacks of victim-blaming – like they could possibly have done something to justify being executed in cold blood. It’s really obnoxious how the media (and the police, it appears from the quotes?) is dancing around this.
What happened is horrifying and I hate to think that the families have this to deal with on top of everything they’re going through right now.
Yeah, to even bring up the parking dispute is absolutely unfathomable. Shooting people does not equal an escalated parking dispute. That’s why I’m confused why his wife thinks talking about it in any way helps. ughhh
I get why the police might be calling it a parking dispute, if using a term like “hate crime” has legal implications they need to avoid at the moment. But c’mon, every non-legal entity commenting on this, y’all can say it.
This feels like the latest in a series of shootings over annoyances…loud music? cell phone in movie theater? Like…do we have some collective need to pretend they are really about those things? Or are we supposed to be learning the lesson “never piss off a white dude?”
The other thing that I find boggling is that people act like it’s somehow BETTER if it was “just a parking dispute”. Shooting three people in the head over PARKING is not reasonable or acceptable. “Sure, he was a violent murderer with no sense of proportion, but he wasn’t a RACIST”.
Right? I remember the same thing about the George Zimmerman case. Wait wait wait– we’re arguing over whether or not he’s really an all right guy, deep down? When he already admits that he SHOT HIS NEIGHBOR IN THE HEAD?
RIGHT????? I cannot BELIEVE his wife thinks she made either of them look better by justifying “he’s not racist!!! just willing to murder THREE PEOPLE over a parking spot! but don’t say he’s racist, he’s not that terrible!”
I can’t.
I found that very interesting, as local news is saying she’s in the process of divorcing him now…
Why she would even begin to defend him then is even more confusing…
ugh that makes me sad, like did she really choose to defend him or was she totally bewildered and put on the spot and just didn’t want to make herself seem like “woman who chose to marry asshole?”
No clue. I can’t tell if she was in the process of divorcing him, or has now decided to divorce him – I’ve read both.
But many other people are married to murderers who don’t have press conferences on their front lawn? It’s one thing to be blindsided by the press at the grocery store or something, but she went pretty far out of her way to talk to the press…..
ahh gotcha, I didn’t know she actually offered a press conference vs. just being asked. I just find it so hard to wrap my head around how 1. the media is looking for earnest defenses of this guy, or like some justification for doing what he did, and 2. she’s providing that. Scary how fast this “he may be a murderer but he’s not a RACIST” narrative is getting propped up.
In the elevator TV at work yesterday, the headline was “US citizen shoots three Muslim students”, which made me not happy. As if they were not US citizens.
That is such a twisted headline, are you kidding me? Unreal.
I’ve been finding it weird that all the headlines I’ve seen about it (in the UK) are along the lines of “Three Muslims killed” – making it clear that it was likely to have been a hate crime is of course really important, but by solely referring to those killed by their religion also seems odd.
The perpetrator is a dude who makes a habit of walking around with a fucking rifle but like who HASN’T gotten a little heated over a parking space before, amirite?
I couldn’t finish the piece posted above — it was heartbreaking. I can’t even imagine — losing your best friend like that to such incredibly senseless violence.
I’m also finding the whole “atheist” angle really weird. And someone asked Richard Dawkins what he thought? And he was like “this shooting is really terrible”?
It’s like the news outlets are like “if it HAS to be Islamophobia and racism, then at least let’s try to pin it on atheism. Let’s ask prominent atheists if they think shooting people in the head over parking spots is ok.”
WHAT THE FUCK.
“Look, hating Muslims isn’t a Christian thing! Atheists hate Muslims sometimes too!”
“I went to work at a job that I absolutely hated without feeling like I was dragging seven burlap sacks full of dread and regret. I made it through the day without having to leave my desk to go catch my breath or cry in the bathroom…”
Wow that would sure be nice. I need to find a way to get through the last couple of months I plan to be here. CBT has been enormously helpful in getting me better at coping and getting me the space to see how unhappy I am and where I want to go, but the relentless dread and sadness and anxiety of continuing to put in my time so I can move on on my terms is really difficult for me. Hm.
ETA: Especially since I can tell that today is a “cry in the bathroom” kind of day.
Hi, creating a (more) anon account to say, I am sending you internet hugs. My husband is going through the same thing. He has to hang in there until the end of June to leave gracefully, and it’s brutal. I know internet hugs are even less useful than the real ones, but just hold on. February can’t last forever.
I am sorry. I have worked a job or two like that and it is so hard. Good luck on getting out soon.
So much support. I have been there, it’s terrible, but it will absolutely get better. I hope those last couple of months pass quickly for you.
Lots of sympathy from me, too.
CBT is great, but doesn’t fix the underlying physiological stuff. It’s like: okay, now I have the know-how to knit a sweater, and I have enough yarn, and I’ve learned a bunch of tricks to fix problems that occur, but my needles are still broken and splintery. I can make that sweater, but it’s going to be awfully difficult and slow going and a lot of times, I’m just going to want to give up on all that new stuff I learned to make it work.
EDIT: I want to add that CBT really is fantastic! Because when someone loans you a set of needles that aren’t broken and splintery, you are a WHIZ at knitting that sweater, and if somehow you can tape your needles to make them unbroken (even if they’re still splintery), you’re also able to knit that sweater oodles easier and better than before. Basically, CBT makes your life a lot better, but you sometimes need help with the background stuff, and that makes it a lot more frustrating.
I’m sorry for your bad day today. It’s OK to cry. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself. I’m thinking of you, imagining you prevailing in every situation you face.
I want some REAL SCHLOCK for the next time I go to the movies.
100% read that as “REAL SCHLONG.” Have you seen Shame?
see also: Spartacus.
Dinotopia!! (that’s all I can muster this morning. Great books, truly. I hope that illustrator is still working.)
He is! Our library has his “Color and light : a guide for the realist painter” from 2010 which features this awesome picture that is now my life goal (having a dino to nanny my future children)
That commercial has All The Problems. No, I’m sorry. I mean Larry has All The Problems. What a knob.
At least now we can read people’s ok cupid profiles where they defensively list all the stuff about them that we are just going to have to accept if we want to be lucky enough to date them, instead of having them do it once they’ve shown up at the front door.
Mallory, I think you should come with me when I go see my first love Colin Firth beat people up with spy umbrellas in Kingsman:The Secret Service. It looks to be ridiculous.
Someone remind me of Mallory’s feelings on the Wachowski’s?
Second the request. It’s a bummer because we had such a delightful thread about that particular movie in the other day’s roundup… It’s been added to my singlehood Valentine’s Day plans!
I also enjoyed the chat we had on Friday’s open thread about the sartorial choices and all-out insanity of JA.
On a sidenote, I’m convinced that hunk-thing Channing Tato is actually part-wolf-alien, so this is a film where he can finally be himself. We should support him in that.
I missed that! Off to find it now…
BANNED.
LITERALLY 100% OF THEIR MOVIES SUCK EGGS
Even Bound?!?!?!?!? O Mallory
In the words of Graham Chapman–You make Speed Racer said.
Oh, uh, I actually did NOT know your feelings about the Wachowskis, I guess maybe I would have tempered my enthusiasm a little if I had.
No, I wouldn’t have.
Sorry.
there’s no regrets in Jupiter Ascending
Please know that your uncontrollable enthusiasm is 100% the reason that Jupiter Ascending is the movie my fiancee and I are seeing at the big fancy movie theater for Valentine’s Day.
Well the good news is that you will now have a good set of criteria for whether or not you want to go through with this marriage!
I’m going to see it based almost exclusively on your thread of “here are things that exist in this movie.”
I love you Chris Meloni but I won’t go on a date with you to effing McDonald’s. I mean at least Taco Bell. Have some class.
at least go to one of those fancied-up White Castles gosh
The IHOP near me is doing a fancy Valentine’s Day dinner! I am mightily tempted.
IHOP is eminently acceptable for dates, weddings, bar mitzvahs, christenings, etc.
Wakes
Bachelorette parties
Work conferences
Dr Who watch parties
I could do this for a while.
Well, my last trip to IHOP was actually celebratory – my friend’s car was stolen but we found it three weeks later parked six blocks away.
Carl’s Jr./Jack In The Box or GTFO.
I read Ms. Ata’s story and my heart shattered. Crying in my office.
I am so, so heartbroken for her and for the rest of Yusor, Deah, and Razan’s family and friends. I completely lost it when I saw that she was using present tense.
Anyway, I am not a big believer in retributive punishment or incarceration generally, I got a lot of problems with the prison industrial complex, but I just looked deep in my heart and found that I am 100% comfortable with Craig Stephen Hicks going to jail forever.
Not one single twinge of concern. So.
Yup, I’m with you. I’m generally against prison altogether, but that guy can fucking BURN.
Oh God, that Muttville site…ALL THE HAPPY TEARS. Senior dogs are always overlooked by adopters and it’s a real shame because they can be such awesome companions.
When my Mojo shuffles off his mortal coil, I’ll be checking out seniors needing homes without question.
This fall I got myself a pair of older cats who had been at the shelter for more than a year and a half. The shelter staff were clearly rooting for them, which I figured was a good sign. I have no regrets. They have no bad habits. They sleep on my butt. They are perfectly delightful furry little weirdos.
I highly recommend acquiring elderly shelter pets.
Old dogs are the best dogs.
Oh man I’m like 15 minutes from the Muttville location and I cannot have a dog right now but I really just want to wander over there this weekend and make some rash decisions (or really I should just look into volunteering, a much more reasonable plan).
I’ve inherited my boss’s elderly border collies, and it’s going to break my heart when we find a foster home for them. They can’t keep living in the store, but they’re the sweetest dogs in the world.
BRB going to get ALL THE DOGS, oh god, let them all come live with meeee.
My own elderly dog would not allow it, unfortunately. She has chased a dog off my lap before in an uncharacteristic display of aggressive haterade.
Wait, you haven’t seen Seventh Son? I mean, I haven’t either, but that seems absolutely like a Mallory movie.
There is also a new cheesy horror movie coming out about bringing people back from the dead and it’s called (of course) The Lazarus Effect. It also stars Mark Fucking Duplass so it’s got to be a masterpiece.
This looks SO BAD and I’m SO EXCITED. Olivia Wilde! Donald Glover! Hilarious fake science! It’s gonna be awesome.
Yusor Abu-Salha did a StoryCorps interview with her former elementary school teacher. You can hear part of it here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/12/38…
She seems like such a great person.
Emily Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani give advice and generally be adorable and funny as shit.
http://www.avclub.com/article/romantic-pointers-p…
Also in podcast neredery, new U TALKIN’ U2 TO ME? Hope it’s a great ep!
http://earwolf.com/episode/live-from-sf-sketchfes…
That Chris Meloni McDonald’s ad is fucking with my head, because it was 100% the way some Law & Order: SVU episode would begin. Run, scrunchy-bun girl! DON’T GET IN THAT CAR!!!
And then when Detective Stabler went around to interview witnesses, they’d all be like, “Well, the perp looked like you, but angrier, and with a cheap haircut.”
Or the kind of suspect that Stabler would interview and rough up a little bit, asking him what kind of issues make him talk to women like that. In his bad-cop-yelling voice.
We’re looking for films made of pure schlock and nobody’s suggesting Fifty Shades of Grey?
schlock =/= coercion, abuse, and rape
From the reviews, I think the movie is lighter on those things than the books are.
“light rape” is still rape.
(i have so many ragey feels about this book/movie as a misrepresentation of the BDSM lifestyle… i… i just can’t even.)
Absolutely! No argument with you there. And I hate 50 Shades too as a terrible representation of BDSM.
I have not seen the film, so I can’t say whether there’s anything that qualifies as rape at all — I just meant to report that the movie seems to be less problematic (or less GLARINGLY AWFUL in how their relationship is depicted, maybe).
I am on the other end of focus groups/interviews, plus surveys and stuff, for a living. Fortunately I am in healthcare and it gets real easy to tell when someone is lying about having something like Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Fun fact: doctors can make a SHIT TON of money on this kind of stuff, if they aren’t already making enough tons of money.
Rejected scenes from The Boy Next Door
Creeper: I got you this.
JLo: You’re so sweet! Wait. Is that…the ghost of Homer, reciting the Iliad? That must have cost a fortune!
Creeper: Nah, I was doing a Ouija board and he just popped up.
Creeper: I got you this.
JLo: You shouldn’t have! …Omg, is this the Antikythera Device? It must have cost a fortune!
Creeper: Nah, I found it in a dumpster.
Creeper: I got you this.
JLo: Awww, thanks! Oh my god…these are the remains of Alexander the Great! They must have cost a fortune!
Creeper: Nah, I found them in some tomb. Figured no one would miss them.
Creeper: I got you this.
JLo: omg, is this a 3,000-year-old manuscript of the Iliad? You fucking idiot, why isn’t this in a museum?
Creeper: Uh…I…uh…btw, I don’t want you to wear sexy shoes. Let’s do it?
Re: lack of POC in fashion, there are DEFINITELY a lot more women of colour making plus size clothes (in pretty much all price points) BUT that market is only just starting to become acceptable and it has its own fashion week. It will be interesting to see if this ever shifts.
Oof, the focus group thing. I am also constantly trying to get into high-paying focus groups, but I am also an academic who does research, so I feel bad misrepresenting my demographic to get money. I don’t want to screw up other people’s data! On the other hand though, I am broke.
I'm hearing you on the cry in the bathroom thing. I got told I might get fired today. Maybe. At some point in the future. But you know, maybe not.
Hear hear
If you’re looking for great schlock, I’d recommend Lair of the White Worm on Netflix. Peter Capaldi and Hugh Grant fight a snake vampire queen/high priestess of ancient Roman snake god.
wow that sounds simultaneously awful and brilliant. What stage were they at in their careers? Is this a film they’d like to forget? Having said that it sounds a bit like a Dr Who (or maybe Torchwood) plot so Capaldi is obvs a fan of snakey sci fi schlock.
I hate those, too. I can recite the kings and queens of England from Aethelred the Unready to QEII, but I'm not likely to be able to identify Senator Whoever from Bumfuck wherever unless I happened to catch the national news on that particular day.