The Guardian‘s coverage of the horrifying rights abuses at Chicago’s secret Homan Square facility has been incredible (their complete files can be found here):
Because Homan Square takes in arrestees from around Chicago and does not generate public booking records, family members and lawyers checking their nearest police station are often left without indication of their relative’s or client’s whereabouts.
“They’re disappeared at that point,” said Craig Futterman, a criminologist at the University of Chicago Law School.
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I was watching the Jays game last night instead of Canadian election coverage, but by now there will have been an election, so we can read and discuss! Edit: I’m not a MONSTER, obvi after the Jays game I checked and Harper is so very dunzo. (No one I know actually likes Trudeau, but this was a BIG election for strategic voting, which says a lot about the feeling about Harper in Canada right now.)
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Joel Anderson on the events and tensions surrounding the violence at the Oakland Whole Foods earlier this year.
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Have you seen Irin Carmon’s “Shuttered” feature about the current state of abortion access in this country and the providers who are hanging in there?
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Okay, I think I’m confident y’all are going to have opinions about the Netflix revival of Gilmore Girls, so have at it! Oh, also, SOB, miss u always, Richard Gilmore:
4. “I’m the queen of writing uncastable women,” Sherman-Palladino said of the struggle to cast the role before seeing Bledel. “Rory had to be something you’ve never seen before.” The fact that Graham and Bledel looked alike was something she attributed to magic like “pixie dust.” The series creator said she always wanted Edward Herrmann for the part of Richard. “F— you for dying,” she said as what came off as a tender moment before she added how much she missed the late actor. “Usually, studios and networks give you a lot more shit for this; Warner Bros. got it the minute they got the script. I didn’t even develop it there. [Studio president] Peter Roth read the script and understood.”
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love this (I cannot successfully put earplugs in my ears, they pop right out, though):
For most of my life I’ve been hung up on the fear that I might be judged harshly for my hangups. The world is not generous to uptight women, and every time I bring a sweater or ask for a table away from the door, I am haunted by the image of a thousand shrill Meg Ryans, screeching in unison: ‘‘Dressing on the side! Dressing on the side!’’ It seems unfair that the urge to bend the world to your whim is regarded as a mark of frailty. If anything, it should be regarded as a power move to hack apart reality and reassemble the experience according to your own terms.
The Mack’s website recommends earplugs for loud events — jam sessions, air travel, tactical training, nightclubs, Nascar — as well as for sleep. Mack’s-aided sleep may, the company’s literature suggests, reduce the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression. One particularly ambitious blurb declares that Mack’s earplugs ‘‘help save marriages,’’ and while I can’t speak to this specific claim, I can endorse Mack’s for the unmarried woman who travels the city alone. Once, the streets were rife with catcalls, but now I send them straight to voice mail. With earplugs in, the men seem to shout, ‘‘Hey, baby, I’m proud of your healthy work-life balance!’’ Some might say such shut-it-out feminism isn’t feminism at all. To this I reply, ‘‘I can’t hear you, because I am wearing earplugs.’’
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I just now read Dodai on the fall of Playboy, and it’s good.
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Everything I wanted to read today:
On Nantucket, 80-year-old Connie Congdon and I sat in her dim living room looking at the 120-year-old plaster dildo that a mason had found in her chimney. It now rested in a pink dress box on her lap. At my feet, three sweet-faced Australian shepherd dogs snapped at houseflies. A catbird sang in the street. Her house is an old colonial buried deep in a nest of lanes in the historic downtown.
Connie said she usually kept the box in the pantry, near the urn of her daughter’s cat, Spanky. In the box were the other antiques the mason had found with the dildo: six charred envelopes from the 1890s addressed to Captain James B. Coffin; letters from the same James B. Coffin to Grover Cleveland and Assistant Secretary of State Edwin Dehl; a dirty and frayed shirt collar; a pipe that still smelled of tobacco when I fit my nose in the bowl; and a green glass laudanum bottle. These items must have been hidden in the chimney by James’s wife, Martha “Mattie” Coffin, sometime between when the letters were dated and when she died in 1928. The fireplace was later sealed up, and a closet was built in front of it. With these valuables, Connie kept a CD recording of her late husband, Tom, being interviewed about the dildo for Nantucket Public Radio. “It’s the only recording I have of his voice,” she said.
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Friend of The Toast Elon Green on the lost history of gay adult adoption:
Pennsylvania did away with its gay marriage ban in May 2014. Novak and MacArthur wanted to marry, but their lawyer told them the adoption was permanent, so they could not be issued a marriage license. The bleak news was a momentary setback. “We started looking around and found that the judges in Bucks County were already beginning to talk about this because they knew that cases like this would eventually come before them,” MacArthur said. They were advised to file a petition to vacate the adoption. “The marriage law does not specifically prohibit a marriage between father and son,” their lawyer wrote to the Orphans’ Court division of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County. “However, petitioners believe that other legal complications could result if they were to marry without having the adoption vacated.”
A court hearing was scheduled for May 14. Thirty friends and neighbors attended, “to show the judge this was not your ordinary hearing,” MacArthur said. When, after 25 minutes, the adoption was vacated, he wept.
They married 10 days later. After 52 years, marriage is “anti-climactic,” Novak said. But, he added, “psychologically, it makes you feel better. Like you’re a part of the human race.”
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I had not anticipated how fascinating an article on seed vaults could be:
The seeds live in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, established in 2008 as the largest seed bank in the world. The Vault protects the world’s agricultural diversity by keeping a stash of seeds secure in a location far from harm. If these seeds’ corresponding crops out in the wider world get wiped out by some man-made or natural disaster, the seeds will be brought out to save the day. Until then, these tiny residents, “the final back up,” in their caretakers’ words, will stay in the Vault, supercooled and super-safe, for hundreds or even thousands of years.
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The Awl’s recirc algorithim made me re-read this little collection of ghost stories and now I am CHILLED and also want to hear your ghost stories:
During this period of time, I came in from mowing the lawn one early evening, and my mom informed me that I’d had a phone call. A girl. I was at an age where phone calls from girls were desired but rare, so I was taken aback. Who had called? “Kay,” Mom said, “her number’s on the fridge.”
This was weird. There were no Kays in my junior high circle of friends, in fact no Kays at all that I could think of. But, the previous day, my sister and I had Ouija’d up a Kay, supposedly dead at a young age. This was very weird.
So I hustled up to the parent’s bedroom, which was the place to make daylight private phone calls, and dialed the number. Kay answered. The connection was fuzzy and full of static, like in a wind tunnel, but the voice was clear. “Do you know who this is?” she said. I responded that I had a pretty good idea.
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This profile made me like Ryan Murphy more:
“I’m trying,” he says. “I want to be approachable. My mother used to ask me when I was a kid, ‘Why are you so cold?’ And I’d say, ‘I’m not cold. I’m shy.’ But I think I was bracing for attack half the time, and only recently have I sort of dealt with that.”
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My friend Carrie’s new puppy has very soulful eyes:
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I haven’t clicked ANY of those links yet, but I wanted to say how much I love Toasties because yesterday’s thread about Crimson Peak was a marvelous exercise in civil disagreement. The people who didn’t like it were all “I didn’t like it because X” and agreeing with each other and the people who loved it were left to squee and flail with each other and nobody stepped on anyone’s toes or scoffed at the differing reactions and it was just so great.
I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR.
Edit: Okay, now that I’ve browsed through the articles, I have to say, regarding that dildo article: They have adopted these many years the Asiatic custom of taking a dose of opium every morning, and so deeply rooted is it that they would be at a loss how to live without this indulgence Between the historically prevalent use of masturbatory tools and better living through chemistry, I might fit in better on the East coast than I was previously led to believe.
The only time I ever saw a Toastie step on another Toastie’s toes (… Tostitos?) it was when Toastie 1 made a post about her husband and Toastie 2 replied “your husband sounds like an asshole” or something like that – but then a few weeks/months later, Toastie 1 announced that she was getting a divorce! So make of that what you will.
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if I was Toastie 2 in this exchange, TBH.
I like “Toasters”, as in Battlestar Gallactica , but I think I may be in the minority…
Oh, there was once a linkroundup about “bisexual” vs “queer” that was mostly friendly-difference-of-opinion but also had some toe stepping and hurt feelings.
And Nicole’s prayer post definitely got some people riled up, but in a fairly mild way.
that is a beautiful, beautiful hug
I got to the phrase “erotic scrimshaw” and was like, ok, I gotta close this tab and reopen it when I can settle in for a long and focused read, to do it justice.
I just email/snoozed it to myself for later, because I knew there was no way I could give that piece the love it deserves this morning at work.
It was beautiful.
…the Crimson Peak discussion and the dildo story.
OMG
Height differences don’t usually charm me, but just damn that’s adorable.
Basically, I just want all the Avengers to be in a giant cuddle pile/group hug
I think, given the depth and breadth of the “everyone is poly because avengers” tag on AO3, we both know that you are in very good company.
Toasties, I am very happy the Harper is dunzo, but god damn, why did we Torontonians have to give every single one of our seats to the Liberals? I’m still in shock and unhappy that my NDP MP got ousted.
AND WHY DID WE ELECT AWFUL BILL BLAIR?
Saaaaaaaame. 🙁
The only way it makes any sense is that some people really didn’t understand “strategic voting”, I.e. That it’s pointless in a riding that would never go blue (so all of downtown Toronto.)
Yeah, like I said below, I think that is what happened?
But I don’t think the blame for that is on those strategic voters, if anywhere I think it’s on all the articles and sites and fb posts pushing it as The Way to defeat Harper, without making it clear that it only applies to some ridings?
A lot of truly great NDP MP’s were sacrificed at the altar of Justin Trudeau last night, & I am utterly disappointed. People really didn’t understand what “strategic voting” meant I think.
I think part of it was that it was pushed so hard as The Thing that will Get Rid Of Harper, without any explanations in the quick blurbs about it that you’d see on fb, and news sites, and all that, about how it’s really only useful in certain ridings (like, yeah, none of the downtown Toronto ones) (My girlfriend’s riding lost NDP Andrew Cash for a Very Concerned looking liberal woman, and people are sad.)
Yeah, I was really hoping for a Liberal minority with an NDP opposition (or the other way around, but that seemed less likely). It didn’t seem in the cards based on the polls, but I am truly disappointed at how many fantastic NDP MPs we lost. My old Ottawa riding ousted Paul Dewar, who, when I lived there, was BELOVED and I could not be more shocked.
I can kind of understand it in that if people wanted a majority government (which I did because a minority always seems to mean another election in a year or two, and then what if the conservatives sneak back in) they thought the liberals had more of a chance at one and needed all the ridings they could get. It’s definitely a shame so many long-standing NDP MPs lost out because of our desperation for a non-Harper government.
So sad about all the NDP losses you all had. From Official Opposition back to third?! Boooooooo.
I am HERE for spooky stories! But only because it’s 9 am and I’m sitting in my well lit office with other people. Going to read that and reread Jezebel’s spooky story collection from a few years ago too http://jezebel.com/5854965/ten-super-spooky-ghost…
I LOVE THEIR GHOST STORIES!!! Its that time of year again!
Also, has anyone actually seen that horror movie w the creepy Aryan twins “Goodnight Mommy”? Oh a scale of See Immediately to OMG prob wait until you can watch at home during daylight hours how horrifying is it?
I read a review of it that freaked me out so badly that I will not be seeing t EVER. Until possibly I can wait until I can watch it on my laptop on a sunny August afternoon.
The only theatre close to me that’s showing it has cut it back to two showtimes: One at two in the afternoon when I’m at work and one at ten at night. I have somehow agreed to (i.e. was the one who suggested) going to the ten o’clock showing tomorrow night . . . Meaning I will have to go home and go to sleep as soon as it’s over.
. . . I am never sleeping again, am I?
(Literally the only thing I know about it is that I watched the trailer on Hulu a couple months ago, so . . . I am pretty poorly prepared.)
Please report back!
I went in expecting a horror movie and found it to be more of a (very, very disturbing and sad) psychological thriller that I immediately had to block from my mind afterward. So if you want a eerie, creepy Halloween movie, like I had, maybe not a good fit? I mean it’s still unnerving for sure.
This is exactly what my friend said. She expected a spooky story and it turned out to be really gross.
The Burgomaster and I had a great conversation about ghosts after we saw Crimson Peak. He posited that ghosts might just be things/beings/energy that we cannot see/perceive because they’re so far from our spectrum of visibility. Rather like dark matter. All around us, but unknowable. I am unsure if that’s a comforting thought or an unsettling one.
I love the Jezebel spooky story roundups. I always totally freak myself out with them, and then feel sheepish, but come back for more once the feeling passes.
I’ve “quit” Gawker sites, though– anyone know if this year’s story thread has opened yet?
I’m hoping the Toast will be upping their spooky story game soon because I’m almost done with The Haunted Mirror and my ghost thirst will not be satisfied. May have to put out a call for creepy stories in open thread.
Ooh, ToastGhost thread! A+ idea, would read (although I don’t have any stories to contribute myself, having lead a pretty unspooky life so far.)
I hope so too! But also I just read the Jezebel collection again and almost shrieked when the phone rang so I am not of the stoutest capacity when it comes to ghosts.
I would definitely participate in that thread….
I remember being uber creeped out after falling down a Wiki rabbit hole inspired by this Hairpin article: http://thehairpin.com/2012/10/wikipedia-entries-t….
Real unsolved mysteries! Dyotlov Pass! Bennington Triangle! *shudderrrr*
Coming in late to this, but as someone who went to Bennington I love that there are actually other people who know about the Bennington Triangle.
I don’t have any ghost stories per se, but I have a sequence of objectively spooky experiences from the past year to relate. If no official spooky-story thread, I will happily write them up here for the creeping-out of Toast readers.
I wrote about some ghosts for this very website a few years ago.
GILMORE GIRLS GILMORE GIRLS GILMORE GIRLS
Okay, what are everyone’s hopes and dreams for the four episodes? I pray that we get tons of Paris and proof that Lane finally got to have great sex.
Also Luke + Lorelai 5ever
Dean always reminded me of my high school boyfriend, so I hope that if he also got randomly conservative and racist, he now lives in Florida so we never have to see him.
I hope Lane is having an awesome life to make up for her terrible had-sex-once-and-got-pregnant-with-twins storyline. And I hope Sookie dumped Jackson for FAKING A VASECTOMY because I’m still angry about that.
Lane leaves Zack for Dave Rygalski, obvs. (The great sex is implied in this plotline)
Dave Rygalski is the only thing I want out of this reboot.
My first thought was bring back Adam Brody! And they can have their band! And finally have a world tour together! If they must they can bring the awful twins but it’d be best the bebes stayed with Zack…
Oh man, don’t remind me. I was so angry on Lane’s behalf. She deserved so much better than getting pregnant from terrible first time sex.
Personally, I’m hoping for Mallory’s ship to become canon. But that’s probably a long shot. I’ll settle for rory being accomplished and independent and NOT with any of the guys she dated during the show.
I hope Lorelai realizes that Luke has serious anger control problems (dude drove to another STATE once just to punch Christopher in the face after he found out that he and Lorelai kissed!! HOW IS THAT NORMAL, ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR) and dumps his ass.
BUT THAT WAS DURING SEASON 7 AKA GILMORE GIRLS GAS LEAK SEASON, SO IT DOESN’T COUUUUNT
I fully support declaring season 7 non-canon. Except maybe for Rory choosing herself over Logan, ‘cos that was pretty good.
Yes, I more or less pretend that the show skips from the introduction of April in season 6 to the finale, because April annoys the shit out of me. I haven’t seen the second half of season six or any of season 7 (other than the finale) since it aired.
I didn’t mind April herself; I hated the whole story line where Luke tries to keep her a secret from Lorelai.
I count the last 3 episodes with a bit of mental revision. Because that karaoke scene was incredible and it’s a crime Lauren Graham never won an Emmy. Then Rory choosing herself and the last episode was pretty solid. Nothing else is canon.
All of those things yes. And Rory without a boring/dirtbag boyfriend.
I’m so excited!! And I am now daydreaming about maybe Bunheads becoming a Netflix series, purely because of the ASP connection.
I would watch an entire movie about Paris, or an entire 4 movies.
Yes to all of this, please!
I can’t believe how much I actually liked Bunheads.
The Gilmore Guys podcast has been bringing up the idea/observation that Rory is kind of a crap journalist. I’d love to see her on her plan B or C and have the show explore what happens when you’re a gifted kid that everyone loves but you don’t quite live up to everyone else’s expectations. Not that she’s a super-huge fuckup, but that her life’s taken a different course than she thought.
Ooo, yeah. I’d like to see a Rory having a personal crisis/moment over the fact that maybe the most gifted kid in one town isn’t the most gifted kid everywhere and maybe she wants different things in life than she thought she did, etc. It would be timely.
I really like that idea. Season 6 kind of tried to deal with that idea of how Rory handled life when things stopped being easy, but it got too over-the-top.
How sad will it be to have Emily with no Richard? 🙁 A tiny part of me is thrilled to watch Emily date though…
Dream plotlines:
-Dean died pre-season in a tragic motorcycle accident and it gets mentioned once in the first episode and then everybody acts as though he never existed.
-Logan’s Silicon Valley business whatever-the-hell that he was involved in has gone bankrupt and he comes to Rory, millionaire journalist, asking for a loan. She laughs in his face while polishing her Pulitzer and drinking a glass of merlot.
-Zack is a stay-at-home dad to the twins while Lane tours the world with a reformed Hep Alien, complete with Dave Rygalski (who is now in a polyamorous triad with Lane and Zack; it takes two men to fulfill the sexual needs of such a badass lady).
-In order to accommodate Melissa McCarthy’s busy schedule, she makes only brief appearances in the background of scenes, where her hit cooking show is playing on TVs. Meanwhile Jackson is in prison (see below).
-Lorelai is still in charge of the Dragonfly but also travels the world as a consultant. Jess returned to Stars Hollow to try to pull a Walden over by the lake where the swan attacked him that one time so he could write the Great American Novel or whatever but then got bored and ended up moving into Luke’s old apartment while helping run the diner (since Luke is busy raising his and Lorelai’s daughter). When Rory visits home she occasionally takes a trip to the bone zone with Jess but believe me, he knows his place.
-Paris is a famous surgeon and in her spare time works pro bono as a legal advocate for women’s health issues. She was instrumental in the creation of “Sookie’s Law” which mandates a prison sentence for men who dupe women into getting pregnant.
-Rory is living the dream as Christiane Amanpour 2.0. She is far too busy and important to care about having a relationship. Instead she has a string of lovers, all fabulously attractive. A TV show has been made about her life, where she is played by Krysten Ritter’s character from the bad season.
Have you considered emailing these suggestions to ASP? These are good plotlines and I would like to see all of them on my television.
Sookie with a cooking show would be so perfect! I would watch that so hard.
It would be the most amazing, hilarious cooking show ever.
I was looking forward to watching the new season but instead I think I’ll just reread this comment over and over.
I have been asking (my friends who could have nothing to do with it) for a follow up for several years, wherein Rory is somehow involved in Obama’s White House press corps. That’s probably too much to ask, but I wouldn’t mind! I would also like Lane to be redeemed. Also I could use more Kirk.
Mr LF told me last night there was going to be a reboot, and I was HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS on the basis of season 7. But now I am feeling very hopeful, upon hearing that Sherman-Palladino will be back (and also Graham and Bledel, etc.).
I want Season 7 to have all been a terrible dream. Lorelai didn’t actually sleep with Christopher that last time, and while she was sleeping on his couch she dreamt how terribly it all would have worked out, knowing she’d go back to Luke. He apologizes profusely for getting scared and shutting her out of the April situation, they agree to some counseling to tune up their communication skills, and live happily ever after forever fighting about coffee consumption.
Luke secretly doesn’t care that Lorelai constantly has a cup of coffee in hand while pregnant with their planned-for babies because he knows what we all do– those cups are mostly empty and rarely get sipped from. She’s really only ever been in love with the smell.
Me @ Tom Mulcair
Me @ Justin Trudeau
Me @ Stephen Harper
A++ gif game
Yaaasssss.
Perfection
Heads up to fellow arachnophobes out there: you might want to skip Phill’s description of a Category 3 spider (not in the video above) if you want to sleep tonight.
Yeah, there was no way in hell I was gonna watch that video. Nope. NOPE.
Same. NOPE NOPE NOPE
My favorite part of the Nantucket article is how she keeps it in her pantry instead of the safe deposit box so when she is gone and the box is opened in public the sight of the antique dildo in their mother’s safe deposit box doesn’t embarrass her kids.
my second favorite part is how no museum will take it or display it
It’s not the open thread, but can we talk Star Wars? I bought my ticket! For December 16th, which means I’ll see it before most of the US.
Despite myself, I’m getting excited. That shot of Leia and Han in the trailer? Shivers. Which may have something to do with Han Solo playing a fairly big part in kickstarting puberty for me.
I’m going to have to avoid the Internet for a while, because we have our tickets for December 19th. Since my group is pretty much all grad students and have to be in lab all day that week, one of my friends is hosting a marathon starting the morning of the 19th and then we’re all going to go see it together. It’s gonna be AWESOME and there will be themed snacks and beer and pizza.
The Burgomaster and I saw the preview this weekend and he was practically vibrating with excitement. He turned to me with his Pun Dog face (seriously he can look so much like Pun Dog) and I had to explain to him that I wasn’t emotionally equipped to get excited about this franchise again and sorry, I was approaching it on a strict wait-and-see basis. But I hope for his sake (and now yours) that it’s blow-your-socks-off amazing and delightful.
I’m with you. Even ignoring the issues where the Prequels broke my heart, I’m also going to have problems where the plot WILL be breaking the very distinct canon in my head of the Expanded Universe, so I’m going to spend all sorts of time thinking “BUT IT DIDN’T HAPPEN THAT WAY… oh wait…. i guess it… did?” And if the choices made are sort of logically sound and serve the story, I will probably be able to just sort of go with it, but there is every chance it could actually be a Good Movie and I will still have trouble enjoying it.
eeeeee there is a whole huge GROUP of us going and it’s going to be AMAZING and EPIC and OMG
The trailer last night made me v v happy. Can we discuss theories here?
Theorize away! I’m very intrigued by the absence of Luke, especially.
My guess is there will be some parentage stuff coming up, what with all the “the Force is strong in my family talk”. I think either Kylo Ren or Rey has to be the kid of either Luke or Leia.
Rey has GOT TO be Luke’s daughter–farm girl with a mechanical bent?
Plus, if (as some speculate) Luke has gone over to the Dark Side, there’s a neat mirroring of the original trilogy going on.
His absence in the trailers is… interesting. I wonder if Luke hasn’t just become a bit of an Obi-Wan-esque recluse. He figured out his life’s work just in time for it to become a myth. That might send me straight out into the desert.
Luke going over to the dark side was what I immediately jumped to, but I really hope that’s not the case. We already had his struggle with the dark side in the original trilogy…I feel like if he’s gone over to the dark side in these movies, that’s writing off his character arc.
I think they’ve now released background information that makes this very unlikely, but I’m still convinced that Poe might be related to the Skywalkers, entirely on the strength of like two shots from the trailers where something about the angle, the face he’s making, etc. makes him resemble Mark Hamill a bit.
It’s funny. I’m already so darn pumped for that movie that even the new trailer couldn’t get me more excited. I’m already there. Don’t disappoint me, episode vii.
I have my ticket for the 17th. I am trying to tamper my excitement. But Han and Leia hugging!!!!
Also, I really want to know how the Star Wars sound library works at this point. Do they make new sound effects for the lightsabers/spaceships/etc by altering the original sound effect files, or do they ever record new effects? (Wondering about this led me down the internet rabbit hole, and I discovered that the TIE fighter sound is an elephant noise slowed down)
I’m actually so excited that I’m not even going to watch this new trailer – I watched the previous two, but I want to go in with as few pre-conceptions as possible!
I’m trying to remain skeptical because J.J. Abrams ew. But I do admit it looks pretty cool. I also bet $10 that Luke’s the new bad guy.
I FIRMLY DISAGREE AND AM OFFENDED BY THE VERY SUGGESTION BUT ALSO I WON’T TAKE THAT BET BECAUSE I BET IT’S TRUE GODDAMMIT
Toasts, I stumbled upon this gem of a goodreads review last night, and I hope y’all love it too:
I haven’t finished the vintage dildo article yet, but I have to give huge kudos to the author for having the wherewithal to cold-call construction workers on Nantucket and ask if they’d ever found a dildo in a fireplace.
How do you even START that conversation?
Honestly, it’s such a tiny place (with so little else going on) that I’m sure they’ve all heard about it already.
No, I’m just saying that calling up a stranger and saying, “So…wanna chat about dildos in fireplaces?” would cause me to COMBUST IN EMBARRASSMENT whether the stranger knew about it or not!
AB FAB ANYONE!
VERY EXCITED SWEETIE DARLING
THEY GET BANISHED TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. HOW FABULOUS DAHLING.
GABON.
Reporting in!
I hope Trudeau breaks out his fave party trick when it gets dull at state dinners and other Important Events.
I hope he revives his habit of taking his shirt off and boxing with his political opponents.
I kind of hope he goes full Putin & just starts having topless outdoor excursions as an intimidation tactic. Actually, I’m really looking forward to what happens when he & Putin meet for the first time…
Meh on Ryan Murphy. I don’t think I could ever get behind someone who hates women *that much*.
I’d like Ryan Murphy more if he didn’t fuck up Glee so much and if he wasn’t responsible for the gross, rape-filled American Horror Story, tbh. (Ugh.)
But in less ugh news, my friend Libby’s puppy is tiny and sweet and clearly just needs to be cuddled constantly:
PUPPY! PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY PUPPPPPPYYYYYY!
I don’t think I’m fully processing the Gilmore news/ as excited as I would be because I used to watch it with my mom and she’s dead now. Like many other moms/daughters it was Our Thing. When I went to college (I’m exactly the same age as Rory) we watched while on the phone. I think I’d prefer a Bunheads reunion tbh. I’ve made my peace with GG and I don’t want those wounds re-opened but I can’t not watch….
Anybody else dealing with Feelings because your viewing partner is gone (through friend breakup, romantic breakup, or death)? Not just GG, any show. Are you still going to watch? Are you going to try to watch with a new viewing partner?
I can’t speak to the loss of a beloved viewing partner, but I can say that both Friends and Scrubs have been pivotal in post-trauma healing for my family: my husband and I watched all eight (EIGHT, THERE ARE EIGHT) seasons of Scrubs after his dad died, and my sister watched the entire run of Friends while she was in chemo. Watching either show now is pretty weird, not least because they are very Of A Time.
Last night I caught up on this season of How To Get Away with Murder, and it is better than last season. ASIDE from Viola Davis being incredible (she has a scene with just herself and a tape recorder, and it is amazing), the writers have worked out the characters a lot more from the beginning, and it all works very well.
I love Phill Jupitus! This past summer I was binge-watching Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Simon Amstell! Noel Fielding! Sarah Millicam! I learned SO MUCH about British pop culture between 1996 and now, and was so sad it got cancelled!) and I really came to appreciate Phill Jupitus’s sort of quiet humor.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about my dream NMtB lineup. At one point I’d settled on something, and I’ve since forgotten it, but here are some of my favs:
Dappy
Ed Sheeran
Josh Groban
Charlie Brooker
Martin Freeman
Holly Walsh
Josie Long
(There have been a bunch of women that I love elsewhere, like Sarah Millican, that I think just don’t get used effectively on NMtB…. I’d have loved to see an ep of NMtB with Victoria Coren Mitchell!!!)
I LOVE Dappy! I know he’s marmite, but I guess I love marmite. I’m with you on this list except for Sheeran – I came down on Ellie Goulding’s side during that flap; to my mind, he came out of it looking a bit entitled.
*runs off to YouTube Victorian Coren Mitchell*
OMG, I’d probably want to punch Dappy if I was expected to make nice with him in real life, and possibly wouldn’t even like him much outside of NMtB, but the episodes with him are *amazing*, so.
And on Sheeran, the episode I’m thinking of was pre-Don’t, and featured some hilarious Noel/Ed bits, and it would probably be just as fun to be laughing AT Sheeran as to laugh WITH Sheeran on those bits, so if you haven’t seen that ep it might still be worth it.
Victoria Coren was?is? a poker player who then moved into comedy and panel shows, and met/married David Mitchell. Like David Mitchell, she sometimes seems to double down on a particular opinion that is entertaining, ignoring all of the ways it’s not exactly logically consistent (there’s a clip on youtube about her thoughts on tea that is, frankly, sort of problematic, except if you watch enough of her you notice a certain pattern of these things where, honestly, it’s probably more about making sure she keeps being seen as interesting enough to keep being asked to do panel shows, and given the weird gender politics of the genre I have trouble blaming her for the tactic.) She probably shines best on Have I Got News For You. She is just so outraged and cutting that I even find her sort of smugness endearing (when i might otherwise find it unbearable).
Nooooo! I had missed somehow that NMTB had been cancelled. I loved that show! Especially Simon Amstell/Noel/Sarah Millicam.
Love me some Simon Amstell. There was only one episode with him AND Noel. I love Noel in the context of normal people – I just can’t take his surrealism on its own going on for 30 straight minutes; he is a lovely disruptive foil for everyday people, though!
Oh, damn – I really wanted that article to be about MY Connie Congdon (aka the playwright and my thesis advisor). Tant pis!
Am I the only one who got teary eyed reading about the history of seed vaults?
Ok great but can we get more Bunheads too?
(Deleted and re-replied to an upthread comment.)
That piece on gay adult adoption was fascinating and tragic. My mom’s cousin was adopted as an adult by William S. Burroughs, and now I’m wondering whether their relationship was a marriage? I’ve always thought it was a bit more father-son: Jamie’s his heir and literary executor, and he took care of Burroughs in his old age. But since it hadn’t occurred to me until yesterday that of COURSE adopting one’s spouse makes sense if you can’t get familial rights any other way…I don’t know! It’s rude to ask, right?
I mean, sure, it’s rude to ask “so…. were you fucking him?” It’s totally appropriate to ask “It must have been so fascinating to be close to him, I’d love to hear any stories you were willing to share!” (although, depending on STUFF, even if it wasn’t really father-son, he may not disclose anything that would make that clear…. so…. yeah. But you’d still probably get some great stories.)
CHOUFFE, PUT DOWN THE HAMILTON ANNOTATIONS AND DO WORK
/fails
Perfection
Same. NOPE NOPE NOPE