I hope Ahmed has the greatest fucking life:
His sisters, 18-year-old Eyman and 17-year-old Ayisha, could hardly keep up with the tweets and stunning news about their little brother. Because Ahmed was never much for social media, the girls set up a Twitter account for him, @istandwithahmed, and watched it balloon to thousands of followers within hours.
“We’re trending no. 1!” Ayisha cried to her sister, holding a cellphone over a stuffed coffee table in the living room.
Everyone loves Kate Beaton:
What is it about the Brontë literature that makes it so rich for mining in your comics?
I don’t know. I feel a lot of comradeship with the Brontës. They’re three women writers, and I’m one of four girls. They wrote, they created themselves, and created these stories and worlds, and they had to pretend to be men in order to get their books published at first, with androgynous pen names. And they created these works of fiction that are not really romances, but because they’re women they’re taken as romances. Like,Wuthering Heights is not really a romance, but people believe that it is, partially because it’s about a relationship between a man and a woman, but also because it was written by a woman. But then you read it and you’re like, These people are terrible!
I cannot turn away from articles about competitive eating. Also, I did not know you could eat GYOZA in competition, and now I think maybe I have a second career ahead of me (I do not, but also competitive eating, although stupid, is less stupid and wasteful than climbing Everest):
Miki Sudo is going to lose.
This much seems certain, given the leisurely rate at which the diminutive competitive eater, currently the top-ranked female in the world, is consuming the endless platefuls of gyoza that surround her at the Day-Lee Foods Gyoza Eating Competition. Dwarfed on either side by men twice her size, all of whom are rapidly shoveling fistfuls of dumpling guts into their mouths by any means necessary, 29-year-old Sudo has taken a far more measured approach, popping individual gyoza back like popcorn.
Oh, man, Neil Patrick Harris’ variety show is not looking great.
*
NOPE
My friend Carrie’s new puppy is sick and has been staying at the vet’s with weird symptoms, and she would love your thoughts and prayers. Here is a picture of her before she was sick:
What does the future hold for you or me or for any other writer? Uncertainty. Almost all books tank. Every freelance writer alive struggles to make ends meet and has dry spells. All editors ignore almost everyone. Let’s not sit around watching the same four or five authors talk about their enormous successes for the next four decades. Let’s not fear the brand-new dewy-faced ingenues making cool shit and then making big stacks of money. Let’s not let our initial enthusiasm for them curdle into envy. There are always more to envy, coming up behind the last batch.
If you remind yourself of the people who break through too much, you ignore the joy of writing.
Over the years, we have come to a strange compromise: speaking half in Bengali and half in English. The linguistic term is “Benglish”. Benglish apparently operates by easily identifiable rules, but it doesn’t feel like it when you’re speaking and doing the linguistic equivalent of trying to fit star shapes into square holes. Conveniently, Benglish combinations centre mostly on action: To-mah-gessa-explain-korr-muh (exactly: “you explain I’m going to”), or Ah-me-try-korr-muh anyway (“I’m try going to anyway”).
Our friend Laura Passin shared this Michalle Gould poem on FB yesterday, I thought you might like it:
What happens to sex offenders who flee to Israel?
Speaking of everyone’s fav Comanche Johnny Depp, check his new project. Way respectful right? http://t.co/cTOkKv7Cu7 pic.twitter.com/TEYuj9HCt8
— Dr. Adrienne K. (@NativeApprops) September 16, 2015
Saying “We mistook the clock for a bomb” is a real greasy way of side-stepping the truth: “We mistook the kid for a bomb-maker.” — Jesse A. Myerson (@JAMyerson) September 16, 2015
Get well soon, Carmella!
I hope Carmella is better soon.
I want to give the Captain Awkward LW a big hug and tell her it’ll all be OK.
Does anyone know if there’s a fundraiser yet for Ahmed’s (eventual) tuition at MIT? Because if that kid isn’t working for NASA in <15 years…
He’s going to have the best application essay ever — colleges will be throwing scholarships at him!
I’d be shocked if universities aren’t getting ready to offer him scholarships right now.
MIT admin here: MIT does need-blind admissions and need-based aid. If Ahmed ends up here for college, the idea is he’ll get everything he needs (living expenses, books, etc. too) to actually come here. So even if there isn’t a fundraiser, he’ll make do. But I should point out that MIT doesn’t do merit scholarships because of this program, so if his family lands somewhere above “all costs covered,” a pot of money would come in handy. WHO WANTS LOANS? Also, THIS TOWN IS EXPENSIVE.
ALSO: I want to gush a minute about the postdoc who offered the invitation for Ahmed to visit MIT (yay!), Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. She is a very awesome lady. She is only the 63rd black woman to receive a PhD in Physics in the US, and is a staunch supporter of underrepresented minorities’ and women’s representation in STEM fields. She has also been the unlucky target of Campus Reform, an organization that has been targeting women and minority faculty and heaping them with internet abuse. I’m so in awe of her willingness to stick her neck out for Ahmed, despite having paid dearly and unfairly for being a black woman on the Internet before.
For more about her (you’ll run into some scary crap in a google search):
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/you-are-the-kind-…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/chanda-p…
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/07/stan…
Her invitation made me cry and now I might start all over again knowing that she’s been put through shit just for doing what she’s good at and she’s willing to risk it again for Ahmed. These are the people to have in your corner.
Does anyone know if this moment is generating any less personal action? That is, I definitely want to help Ahmed, because of course and he seems AWESOME. But I also would like to help other kids like Ahmed, who maybe haven’t been arrested because they were too worried to bring their clock to school, or even start making one, because they were afraid of what would happen. Are there outreach programs or… something… for geeky not-white kids? I’m assuming they already exist, does anyone know of any, and of any ways we can support this?
Black, white, or brown, Ahmed is a tech-geek, and therefore, one of my people.
If i had t choose any cartoonist for a roommate, it would be Kate Beaton.
“STEP ASIDE POPS” landed on my doorstep* yesterday AND I’M COVETING IT SO MUCH!!!!!! I was going to spring this bright golden nugget on Friday’s Open Thread, thanks for the early opportunity!
*shout out to Coles bookstore salesperson in Nelson, BC who made pre-ordering so much fun (and home delivered to boot! Yay!)
Nelson! I love that town. I spent a random spring break weekend there once (it was about an hour drive across the border from my parent’s house) I stayed in a hostel above a bar and hardly slept because of the noise, but still had a great time. If I ever go back, I’ll make sure to visit Coles bookstore.
I love Nelson, too! Wished I lived closer, maybe one day…fun fact: according to a feng shui (sp.?) person of note, Nelson attracts highly creative types due to it’s perfect confluence of earth, sky and water. Hence it’s propensity for farm markets, art galleries, fusion restaurants and funky fashion shops.
My roommate IS a cartoonist. He is, it goes without saying, phenomenally talented. And yet, sometimes, I make him tell me about Kate Beaton, whi he sort of knows. He is very gracious with my fangirling.
As a former teacher , I am obligated to say that that teacher, principal and police department handled this all wrong, BECAUSE:
1. if his teacher really thought it was a bomb, she should have reported it immediately and evacuated her classroom
2. If the principal really thought it was a bomb he/she should have immediately evacuated the school and called the bomb squad
3. if the police really thought it was a bomb, they should have evacuated the school immediately. Instead of interrogating Ahmed without his parents or a lawyer for hours with the so-called bomb just sitting nearby.
That none of these people followed correct bomb threat protocols tells us that they are all either incredibly badly trained in proper emergency procedures and/or they knew the entire time it wasn’t a bomb and they were harassing Ahmed because he was a Muslim boy.
And that none of them apologized for their horrific behavior tells us that his family should sue the living daylights out of all of them.
He posted yesterday on his Twitter that he was going to meet with a lawyer. Man, what an amazing kid Ahmed is.
The whole situation comes across to me like a racist ‘Let’s teach this kid a valuable lesson’ incident. As in, they didn’t actually think it was a bomb, but thought that he had tried to make a bomb because obvs that’s what Muslim kids do. Like bringing the police in to arrest some kids caught with what they think is weed but you know is oregano. Does that make sense?
Yeah I said to some friends yesterday that it seems like there’s an intersection here between anti-Muslim xenophobia and a sort of “teenagers are always suspect, even more so if they look weird or different” that I remember well from high school. I remember how rage-inducing and crazy-making it was to feel like nobody was listening when they asked me questions about what I was doing/saying/wearing, like they literally couldn’t hear any answers besides what they were expecting.
Here’s the thing for me – he took it in and SHOWED IT TO THE TEACHER. SHOWED IT. IF YOU MAKE A BOMB, YOU DON’T TAKE IT TO SHOW THE TEACHER.
You know, I’ve had the same thought at airports. If the TSA thinks the contents of my water bottle are explosive, why is it OK to dump them in a trash can next to the checkpoint?
Not entirely relevant, but anyway, good lord I can’t believe there hasn’t been a groveling apology yet.
Because it’s theater and not real security.
Seriously, if the reason we can’t take full-sized containers of liquids and gels is b/c they are afraid we are going to mix explosives on the plane, why is it totally cool to have a bunch of those same liquids mixed together willy-nilly in unsecured trashcans?
My understanding is that the teacher didn’t think it was an actual live bomb, but rather that it was a hoax bomb – that is that it was created to look like a bomb in order to frighten people but that it didn’t have any actual explosive capability.
He showed it to his engineering/shop/something teacher who said “cool, but don’t show it to anyone else” and then the teacher who reported him saw the circuits in his bag and asked about it, so it’s not like he had initially taken the clock up to her and said “hey, wanna see the cool thing I made?” and she said “OMG it’s a bomb”.
None of that justifies any of the behavior of the school, and they were totally in the wrong and I hope that Ahmed’s family does sue the school and the police department (b/c they interrogated him without parental consent and prob violated all sorts of due process). But I do think that it’s important in all of these cases to get the nuances of the story correct.
But she didn’t know it was a hoax! We’re taught that we aren’t supposed to make that call.
Everyone says that they were acting with “an excess of caution” but their actions show that is untrue. Everything they did was to punish and humiliate, because they didn’t think it was a real bomb the whole time.
Also why handcuff him? They said it was for “safety.” There were 6 officers with guns, and one 14 year old boy. Their intent was to humiliate
I went to a high school a lot like this, really high on control and zero-tolerance, and I entirely believe that humiliation was a major goal. It’s like the perfect storm of how those zero-tolerance policies mix with racism and lead to awfulness.
The police only even charged him (or intended to charge him) with build a “hoax bomb”, which suggests that they did not, in fact, at any point consider that he had actually built a bomb.
And the police admitted he said it was a clock! He said it was a clock, “and did not offer an broader explanation”! Because if you don’t know what a clock is, officer, I’m not sure what broader explanation you need!
(This is also why the hoax bomb charge is trumped up trumpery).
YES. This is what’s been bothering me, and why the teacher/admin/police are clearly racist. Because in my high school, post-Columbine but pre-9/11, one kid once had a paintball gun in his car in the parking lot and the entire school was put into lockdown for three hours. (They figured out it wasn’t a real gun after two and a half hours, but left us in the rooms for another half hour so we could easily fit into a delayed-start schedule, just so you know what their priorities were.) There is being genuinely concerned for your safety, and there is treating the brown kid as less than you would treat other kids.
The thing that made me happiest is that Ahmed wants to help other kids in his situation. What a mensch.
What do you suppose is the “uncommon sport”? My money’s on quidditch.
Game of champions:
(I might be a little biased because my alma mater is a three-time IQA World Cup victor)
I’ll bet there are a lot of broom-related injuries among the men.
That photograph is a work of art. I want it to hang in a museum.
Competitive inappropriate dating. It’s a summer sport.
Competitive eating.
Mine is on Ultimate Frisbee.
That was my second guess. That or disc-golf.
Quidditch is absolutely the first thing that came to my mind. For sure.
I thought curling!
Fencing.
That was one of my first thoughts as well.
Hockey in a warm place?
Here in Warm Place, we call your hockey “ice hockey” and your field hockey “hockey”.
You guys are way off. It’s probably rodeo.
League of Legends.
Kate Beaton is speaking at an event five minutes from my office in October, and I’m going to go and I am so incredibly excited, I’ve been reading her stuff for years and it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to see her in person.
I totally understand her reasons for not publishing a book about her family, but I would love to see a more personal collection from her – she writes really beautifully about what it’s like to be far from home and your family, and that weird guilty feeling you get when you leave your hometown for a place that gives you more opportunity. Love her work, very excited to hear her talk, etc.
I’M SO JEALOUS! (Scrambles off to see if Kate Beaton is doing a book tour….)
She is!!! but it’s mostly east coast only. http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=383
So jelly!
Yes! That Ducks series she did was amazing, as well as the one long story about visiting a nursing home. I hope she does more of those.
Wayyy back when she used to do some more slice of her own life comics. I particularly remember one about living with law students and she draws them and all their word bubbles are like “law law law law.” Those appear to have vanished from the face of the internet however.
I don’t have time to read the Kate Beaton interview right now, but I certainly will pull out my copy of Hark! A Vagrant tonight.
I’m so glad CA put that disclaimer at the end of her answer. Any time age disparities in relationships pop up there is a vocal contingent of “well my parents got married when my dad was 30 and my mom 18 and they’ve been together for 50 years!” Or “my boyfriend is eight years younger than me and I’m 35 and it’s perfect!” And it can work out! But in questions like that one the answer is always “you are a teenager, break up with your almost-30 boyfriend and live your rad life.” Rarely do they need to hear a nice story about the 50s
I loved that too. And she’s so right. When I was 28 I taught some classes to 18-19 year olds, and I could not fathom dating any of them. They were smart, and interesting… but they were basically still kids!
The whole response was great, ““Basic kindness and empathy” is not a down payment on your eternal devotion to an unhappy relationship.” !!! Hellooo, yes.
I really hope the LW breaks up the guy.
I understand it’s probably a typo, but I love the idea of her breaking the guy.
That was my favorite part. And also reminded of how the guy I recently dumped *didn’t* behave with basic kindness and empathy when my dad died and whenever I told him his behavior was hurting me tried to blame it on my dad’s death (as in “I think you’re mixing up that pain with your feelings towards me”) which was one more big glaring reminder that the end of that relationship was a good decision. Ugh, people.
Yeah, my grandparents wouldn’t have met if not for World War 2, but that doesn’t mean people should start encouraging baby Hitlers.
She doesn’t even want to stay with him! She wants to break up and is asking whether it would be a mistake! Arguing that “sometimes those relationships can work out” is missing the point entirely.
Yep, all through my semi-life-ruining long-term relationship with an inappropriate age gap I told myself it was going to be okay because I always heard about these relationships turning out fine for happy old people, and maybe I was just being paranoid and too-critical about his alcoholism and inability to hold down a job or attract women his own age.
SPOILER ALERT
I WASN’T
I mean, I’m a modern example of the age gap thing working out (sort of*) but I also appreciated that disclaimer because while it’s tempting to go “well, actualllllly…” when reading CA’s response or some of the comments, as logicbutton pointed out, it’s not helpful to the LW who pretty much already knows they want to break up with their boyfriend.
*It was a fairly different situation: a) I was 19 at the start, not 15, b) we met online and he didn’t know how old I was until we had known each other for months, by which point he’d already developed a crush, having assumed I was my mid-20s and in grad school, c) we took it super slowly, d) in hindsight it is clear that it only worked out because we both have very specific personalities, and e) neither of us was secretly a turbo jerk.
I watched most of the Republican debate last night, and now I want to take to the sea/live literally anywhere else if one of these people might possibly be in charge of this country. When RAND PAUL is the voice of reason on foreign policy, I need to nope the fuck out of the USA.
Instead of watching the debate I went to a feminist book club in which we discussed A Handmaid’s Tale which in retrospect was disturbingly appropriate.
We watched two new episodes of Miss Fisher Season 3 which just went up on Netflix and I drank bubbly wine. WAY better idea.
oh man CA has smart commenters, and she’s smart enough to let them ask the really tough questions. At least I’m assuming that’s what’s happening here:
http://captainawkward.com/2015/09/01/740-roles-ev…
I meant to post this one here when it happened because it made my eye twitch.
“The very sad, hard thing that I have to tell you is that while King Solomon may have been wise, there is actually no reward for being the most accommodating and silently-suffering partner. The prize for never really speaking up for your needs is that other people feel free to ignore or minimize your needs and act surprised and insulted when you turn out to have them after all.”
Wise words.
That reminds me of this Ask Polly I read recently, which is about romantic breakups but really spoke to me about friend breakups too:
“I played along with anything and everything for so many years, and it never did anything for me. It just made me feel like a crazy, needy person once the truth came out, that I didn’t want to just hang around and act like a guy for the rest of my life. I settled for whatever, time and again, without bringing the full force of who I was into the picture. Eventually, I found myself, through music and writing and through a few strong, committed friendships. And once I understood my own ideas and beliefs about love, and I felt confident enough to express them, I could finally stand up for what I really wanted. I had courage in my convictions. I didn’t have to roll along with ways of living that I knew would never serve me or create a happy, fulfilling relationship.”
ETA — THE TOAST PLEASE STOP MESSING UP MY LINKS HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN I AM PASTING IT AND WHEN I POST IT JUST GOES AWAY
so many giant red flags on that one. red flags all over the place. all three of them. nope nope nope.
The deeper I read the more horrified I am. I have melded into the back of my chair from all the cringing.
Seriously!!! The repeated “Everyone is too damaged to possibly ever breakup with anyone so we must be in this relationship together forever” is……… terrifying.
1. Everyone needs professional help.
2. Someone needs to move out of that house.
3. Husband needs to be a grown up and draw some boundaries, and make some choices.
4. Metamour needs to figure out how to get her needs met or leave.
5. LW needs to figure out how to get her needs met or leave.
6. Metamour and LW need to stop blaming each other for Husband’s unwillingness to make choices.
7. Did i mention the need for professional help? Significant, serious professional help? For everyone?
There’s so much bad, I can’t even tell where the bad is coming from! Ahhhhhhh!
It’s coming from INSIDE THE RELATIONSHIPS.
This made me laugh very hard.
Whhhhhaaaaaaaaa?
What on earth do you suppose the partner did to “cause” his PTSD, and why on earth did they think that having a relationship would be a good idea under those circumstances?
NICOLE I had a dream about the link roundup last night! Honest to god! You linked to a publication of meeting notes that Frida Kahlo took at communist meetings held at her house. They were quite meticulous, and apparently Frida took them with the full intention of making them public some day. There was a strangely large amount of sex involved, and apparently Frida relished the idea of “making her mother blush.” Also at one point Frida wrote, “Marie is quite eerie,” and you said that was the most perfect sentence ever.
INTO IT
I so desperately want this to be real now.
That Johnny Depp campaign — so wrong. Much clueless. Also, I’m pretty sure that Stephen Colbert permanently owns that audio of an eagle screeching. I burst into laughter when I heard it.
http://www.dior.com/beauty/en_us/minisite/th/dior…
I saw it on mute so I didn’t hear the eagle!! I should have known it could get worse.
It’s ‘an incredible assimilation of a project’
r
u
kidding
me
Okay that’s just overboard and I can’t believe anyone was dumb enough to okay that unless it was in the cynical hope of inciting controversy to get publicity.
Sent from my iPad
Ugh, my middle school got evacuated for an entire day once because of an abandoned science fair project in a cardboard box that looked “suspicious” and had “wires and stuff sticking out”… I don’t think they ever figured out whose project it was, or why they’d left it on the sidewalk in front of the school. But if they had, or if they’d been able to assign blame before the cops figured out it was harmless… yikes.
It’s so easy for me to see Ahmed’s situation happening at my school, or any school really, and that’s honestly ludicrous and more than a bit terrifying.
This is somewhat buried here, but: I came out to both parents this week. My mom on Monday and my dad last night. It was pretty brutal to be honest, and I wish it was Saturday so I could spend the day hiding in bed today. But I’m at work being a grown-up and stuff. My girlfriend was amazing about everything. To the point where I have absolutely no idea how single people come out of the closet. Props to you if you did. But really, props to all the queers on here. <3
Such love to you!
Thanks, and to you too!
Congratulations! It sounds like you handled a pair of what sounds like not-great reactions so well. I hope you continue to take care of yourself (with your GF’s help) over the next couple weeks as your parents – hopefully – continue to adjust and react. We are here if you want or need our help! <3
Thank you! My mom was hysterical (I’ve actually talked to her twice so far– and it was the same ordeal both times) but my dad was fairly calm, so I think he will adjust first. It is a big adjustment. And thank you for the offer! I appreciate the love and warmth this morning <3
You are a rock star! It was hard; it was healthy; you did it. I’m sorry your parents made it a brutal experience. Warmth and kindness and welcome and unconditional support are what you deserve. If you ever doubt it, let me know and I will remind you. ::Jedi hugs::
Thank you RoseCamelia <3 Funny enough, those are almost the exact words my girlfriend used last night. It helps to be reminded. Thank you so much for all your kind words, they are appreciated.
Congratulations, Social! If you can’t spend the whole day in bed, at least let your girlfriend buy you chocolate or flowers or whatever would improve your day now. All of us queer Toasties are thinking of you.
Oh I’m going out at lunch and buying a bag of Dove. Glad to have the support of Queer Toast, you are amazing and I love seeing y’all sprinkled in among the commenters. Fam <3
Oh, congratulations, and I’m sorry you didn’t have a more receptive family. That does make everything harder, but they often adjust well in time. Hopefully as you said your dad will be the one to lead the great calming down. Thanks for your bravery–these personal decisions always ripple into the larger world, and I truly believe make it safer or easier for the next person to step forward.
Yay you!
Thank you!
Can you email me? [email protected]
Me? Email you? Sure!
[faints]
Thank you for commenting on this little thread!
*applause* Yay! Coming out is a hard thing and all of us queers are so proud of you! Come have some pie!
Thanks Strophoria! For both the pie… And the kindness! <3
Adding to the pile-on of pride and love. Well done, you! You are an infinite badass and should be super proud of yourself. You deserve all the ice cream/cookies/hugs/puppy gifs/whatever makes you happiest. You rock!
Omg you guys I am crying
Thank you
Go you! Take care of yourself well and I hope things get easier for you soon.
Very hard, but hurray you did it!
I tried to think of something funny to say about the Johnny Depp thing, but it’s so over-the-top that there’s nothing to add. He has given himself body and soul to Dior. This just seems gross and makes me want to avoid the brand, though I’m not their target customer at all so I guess that doesn’t matter to them.
Yeah that ad-copy is… something else.
Yep. Was there anything left over for himself? or his wife?
Makes me wonder how much was there to begin with.
It sounds like a parody, or one of those welcome to nightvale fake ads. Just ridiculous.
Before reading the copy, I thought “sauvage” was a portmanteau of “sausage” and “vage” and I was very curious to know what that might smell like and who on earth would want to purchase it.
I keep pronouncing it in my head as “so vague,” which seems appropriate for 99% of fashion/perfume ads
It’s the French word for “savage.” It also means “wild” more generally (e.g. “pays sauvage,” wild country) so maybe they think they’re not being offensive, but as far as I know it’s not an acceptable way to refer to a person.
I’m not sure it’s considered a slur, but it’s an extremely rude and offensive way to refer to indigenous people in french. Autochtone is the preferred term.
Leave the British adaptions to the sitcoms, NBC
Get working on that IT Crowd you promised us forever ago.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmjpk4_the-it-cr…
This is not good. They brought back Aoyade as Moss, though, so it could have gotten good eventually.
Man I had so much hope, Jessica St Clair and Joel McHale.
I heard that they’re creating a new one with Graham Linehan involved, though.
Listen. If there’s anybody out there who really wants to watch some variety shows, they are alive and well in Asia. The rather large contingent of people on the internet who are into various elements of Korean entertainment means that K-variety at least is very easy to find online with English subs. The fact that it never went out of style there also means these shows are rarely awkward and usually very funny.
Oh, thank you! I didn’t realize they had variety shows along with the game shows (which I can’t bear to watch because I get so anxious for the people competing come on self, wtf). Do you have any suggestions for particularly good ones, especially any with an emphasis on K-pop entertainers?
It’s a shame they apparently can’t be revived in America. I loved variety shows when I was a kid. Heck, I even (legitimately, unironically) enjoyed Lawrence Welk when I watched it with my grandparents. And I thought I loved NPH, too, but that article about his show…um. Ew.
So in re-reading my response I realized it was very, very long. Hah. What can I say, people rarely ever want to talk about this with me and I spend a large proportion of my free time watching k-variety so I got excited. Links and explanations below, but here’s the list of shows I suggested: Running Man; Dad, where are we going?; Superman Returns; Crime Scene season 2; Youths over Flowers; Happy Together; Hello Counselor; Weekly Idol; Strong Heart; Family Outing; Invincible Youth; Hello Baby; Radio Star; and Infinity Challenge. Of these, my favourites are Running Man, Strong Heart, Weekly Idol, and Dad where are we going.
My sister and I both really love Running Man (unless this is what you meant by the game shows?) which you can watch at runmanclub.net or at dramafever if you want something with better quality/more legal. The first link has all episodes, while the second only has only those episodes that aired after dramafever gained the rights to the program from its network.
The next show does not have guests ever, and the regular cast does not include any k-pop entertainers, but I really love Dad Where are We Going. Another similar show is Superman Returns (I have never watched this though, so I cannot vouch for it). Basically, children go on trips with their celebrity dads. Full of adorable children who do as children do, somewhat inept fathers, and some gender essentialism re: parenting roles, but not so much I can’t stand it.
Another that I haven’t watched, but I’ve heard good things about, is Crime Scene (season 2) which you can find here. This one does have k-pop guests and a regular cast member who is part of an idol group, Hani of EXID. It is a game type show I guess, so I’m not sure if it’s precisely what you want but from what I’ve heard it’s good! I think the cast members essentially have to solve a mystery every episode, which the guests assist in, so imagine just watching a murder mystery but with people who are being paid to entertain you.
Along with Running Man, my sister and I also love Youths over Flowers. A travel show about three Korean actors who are just doing stuff in Laos (ep 7 is the first episode of the Laos trip, the first 6 were of the older set of dudes. Unfortunately the only subbed eps of this show are the ones with the young handsome actors. None of the ones with the ‘grandpas’ or older actor ladies are subbed because reasons).
You may also want to check out the KBS youtube channel. They’ve been uploading a lot of their variety shows (with subs!) to this channel. I would recommend season one of 1 night, 2 days in particular. This one does not have guests, and the cast is all dudes, but they are highly entertaining together so I like it. Basically they go on camping trips every week, but have to do ridiculous tasks to get there/be fed.
I also enjoy Happy Together and Hello Counselor (also on the KBS youtube channel). Happy Together might be the closest match to what you are looking for, as I think it is closest to a traditional variety show (maybe?). t has a number of k-pop guests (but not exclusively k-pop) who sit in a fake sauna with the hosts and talk. This is followed by a segment where the guests show of dishes they created that can be made in under 10 minutes for cheap. The hosts and other guests taste these dishes and judge whose is best.
Hello Counselor is almost always entertaining, but can be difficult to watch at times. It’s a show where regular people bring a problem they are having with another person that they then discuss with the hosts and celebrity guests (who help them try to solve it). I find this format entertaining when the issues are inconsequential, fairly normal, or silly (i.e., the adult brothers who had difficulty living together because one would beat box very loudly at all hours). Sometimes though the problems are actually serious issues where I think the people in question probably require professional help and not conflicting advice from a peanut gallery of comedians, entertainers, and regular people.
I also really like Weekly Idol which is a low budget show that airs weekly and only features idol guests, just as the name suggests. Their sort of trademark thing is the ‘random play dance’ where they play random sections of a group’s songs and the group has to perform the correct choreography to succeed. The hosts do tend toward the meaner side of humour that is I think more common in Korea than here, and some people do find that off-putting. I recommend you at least check out their special series <a href=”http://kshowonline.com/kshow/2831-[engsub]-hitmaker-s1-full”>Hitmaker where the hosts create a new group from idols already in (separate) groups, compose a song, and film a music video (this is a highly scripted humorous show, in case that wasn’t obvious).
I wrote so much I had to separate it into two comments! Actually, I won’t add the rest, because wow I wrote a lot. If you do want explanations and links for the others that I cut out, let me know and I’ll add them. I can’t seem to add this to my previous comment, so here’s the link for Dad Where are We Going.
As far as western hemisphere variety shows go, Sabado Gigante is not even cold in the ground yet.
IDK though. I basically associate all variety shows with bits that go on way too long and tired-ass borscht belt-style humor. Basically, I agree with this lady on being a woman who CAN enjoy comedy for its own sake:
“If you’re a woman, engaging willfully with the world of stand up comedy is like choosing to pick up a series of poisonous snakes. The most you can hope for is that it won’t bite you this time. Oh, this one isn’t so bad, OH GOD FUCK NO! One time I dozed off while listening to a Mike Bribiglia station on Pandora and woke up to Daniel Tosh. I can never unhear that shit, and I don’t mean that idiomatically, I mean that I will carry with me the information that I gleaned in the 15 seconds that it took me to stumble to the computer and shut it off for the rest of my life.”
There’s definitely an element of tired, long bits in k-variety as well. It also has its fair share of humour that demeans women (although I’ll add here that by virtue of my very different cultural background I’m certain I interpret things differently than they were intended…not that I am excusing such humour, just that I guess I don’t always know when korean humour is in poor taste and when it isn’t). With k-variety, I’ve found the magic element tends to lie with the main mc. I enjoy watching Yoo Jae Suk’s shows because he’s a little kinder in his humour and less prone to make jokes at the expense of others. On the other hand I can only take another host, Kang Ho Dong, in small doses because he does tend toward the mean side.
I started watching variety though because I like k-dramas, and variety shows are part of their regular promo-cycle for movies/shows. And when I’m not laughing it helps that the guest is someone I’m interested in and want to see. At the end of the day, I realize that variety is not for everyone and that’s ok. I do like it though.
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE
BEEEEEAAAAAAAATTTTTONNNNNNNNNNNN
that is all
AGREED
Okay, I think we need to find out if (a) KB is touring and if so (b) find a bus, get on said bus and follow her in our bus, Grateful Dead-style. We then blog about it, we get literary notorious, a documentary is made about Kate Beaton and her “Kate-Mates”, and we all live happily ever after.
WHO’S IN?
I’ve been looking for something meaningful to do with my life, and this sounds pretty badass.
SO IN.
Omg this part of Uddin’s piece: Coming back to England, I decided that I needed to learn another language. As I messed around with Rosetta Stone (“I am a woman” is still my only Spanish phrase), my parents called me and I bumbled my way through the conversation. I didn’t mention the Spanish. How could I tell my parents I was more interested in learning a language that is completely foreign to them than I am in improving the one they gave me?
This reminds me of the time I came home for my first Thanksgiving after starting college, and told my grandmother I was taking Czech, of all things, in school (and not, she interpreted correctly, doing anything to improve my Spanish). I’ll never forget the look on her face — it was a little bit like this:
That clock story is especially rage-inducing when I think of the white Canadian teenager who actually brought a bomb to the airport a couple years ago and was STILL TREATED BETTER THAN AHMED.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/alberta-…
YOU GUYS
THE ROCK IS HAVING A BABY ROCK
a pebble. he is having a pebble.
😉
AWWW
A chip off the old rock, as it were!
Better start pureeing that cod into baby food…
I really want to compile all The Toast’s best parenting advice/jokes about his diet and send it to him but I don’t know how to make that not weird
AHHHH I KNOW!!
Can we please have an “If Dwayne The Rock Johnson Were Your Dad…” post???
I would sponsor the hell out of that post.
A PEBBLE!
YESSS GOOD.
His other daughter is like… 13 or something now apparently, wow.
(For a second I was like wait doesn’t he already have multiple kids or something? And then I realized I was confusing him with Vin Diesel lmao.)
Dude, me too! My boyfriend mocked me mercilessly for mixing them up and I was like “but they’re both so big and famous!”
My faith in the Rock is so great that when you said he was having a baby I assumed he was doing it BY HIMSELF, like a dude seahorse.
You know, I bet he could.
A pebble!
W H A A TT
1) how did I not already know about this
2) that’s it. My life is officially ruined, I knew his instagram was going to kill me one day and now I know how: baby photos.
Re: CA–
I was the very luckiest version of that girl. In high school, I met an older guy through my sport who was a sort of longish term FWB. His pattern of behavior is certainly pretty sketchy, but my experience wasn’t, shockingly, luckily, unusually. But here’s the thing- He never every pressured me in any way. He *always* had me lead the way sexually. And even more, he always backed WAY the hell off if I was showing any interest in anyone more age appropriate. He never promised me anything, he never asked for anything, he only even flirted with me after finding out that I’d done much more with someone else. I *always* knew that I held the power in the situation (in that I could make trouble for him if I wanted to), and I *never* felt like he would *ever* try to hurt me within our niche sport.
And, as an adult, I am *shocked*. Of all of my varied high school relationships, that one was probably the most functional, which is sort of depressing. But the intervening years have hammered home how DAMN LUCKY I was. And even as charmed as that experience was, and even as I saw literally NO bad effects from it, and treasure those memories, despite all of that, I STILL can’t imagine suggesting to a high school student that they should even try it, that it could be okay, because there is never any reason to think that it might go even part as well as my thing went. ever. under any circumstances. Because, having lived the best case scenario, some of it was his actions, some of it was the way he chose to do relationships, and the choices I made as well. But WAAAAAY too much of it was just *luck*.
Dr. Adrienne K is marvelous. I’ve learned so much from her work (and hopefully shed at least some of my societally inherited biases) and she stays impressively positive and hopeful in spite of all the crap she has to deal with.
Best wishes to the darling puppy.
Thank to this I have a sudden and burning desire to read Sorcerer to the Crown. Also, the blurb on the cover is by Naomi Novik, comparing the book to Georgette Heyer and Suzanna Clarke. It is mathematically impossible to make a book sound more appealing than this.
Oooooooooooooooooooooh.
Yes! Zen Cho wrote the very wonderful story “Prudence and the Dragon.” I didn’t know she had a novel. Thanks for linking it!
well, there’s another book on my To-Read list
I just read it, and can confirm that it is highly recommended. You guys, it is a POSTCOLONIAL REGENCY ROMANCE WITH DRAGONS.
Get well soon, wee doggie; I’m pulling for you! Quickly adding when your pet gets sick, it’s heartbreaking and stressful for the owner, so here’s an internet hug for Nicole’s friend, too.
On a little brighter note: Johnny Depp, you pathetic, sad little man.
What happened to La Depp?! I fell in love with him in Chocolat.
Oh dear. Having an exceptionally rough week and I came specifically to soak up some Carrie’s puppy love. Be well, Carmella, I’m thinking good thoughts for you.
Toasties! If you like that poem, buy Michalle’s book, Resurrection Party! You will like it; it is morbid and creepifyin’.
OH. btw, Nicole, if you are trying to fictitiously kill off your friend Carrie’s new puppy so that you are no longer required to post pictures of your friend Carrie’s new puppy, WE ARE ONTO YOU.
For anyone who facepalm’d after the Matt Damon “let me explain diversity to a Black woman” brouhaha, may I recommend the new episode of Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period, guest starring J. August Richards (of Agents of SHIELD and Angel)? They go deep into the whole issue, and the conversation is sparky and hilarious and enlightening.
We’re all pulling for you, Carmella (and Carrie)! Get well soon!
Smells good!
I’m glad you said that about Everest. I had a mini rant about how dumb and awful climbing Everest is, and I think I shocked my poor cousin. Who I am always shocking. But SERIOUSLY. It makes me so cranky when people think going to Everest is brave and worthy, especially when they also undersell so many of less privileged people’s ordinary, but equally worthy and hard-earned, achievements.