Is a puppy. Is a sad, abused puppy. No one loves the puppy. No one feeds the puppy.
The Koch Brothers are basically comic-book villains:
Out of the blue in the fall of 2010, a blogger asked Jane Mayer, a writer with The New Yorker, how she felt about the private investigator who was digging into her background. Ms. Mayer thought the idea was a joke, she said this week. At a Christmas party a few months later, she ran into a former reporter who had been asked about helping with an investigation into another reporter on behalf of two conservative billionaires.
“The reporter had written a story they disliked,” Ms. Mayer recounts in “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” out this month from Doubleday. Her acquaintance told her, “‘It occurred to me afterward that the reporter they wanted to investigate might be you.’”
I picked up the February 2016 Town & Country with Ivanka Trump on the cover, and I would now like to share my favourite parts with you:
This hideous necklace that probably costs the same as your student loans:
Jay McInerney as an “undercover sommelier” in Sag Harbor:
Which obviously made me think of:
This paragraph:
I feel negged by this gin ad:
THAT IS A BAD IDEA, GUYS:
A look back at Grease (also, lots of stuff on Allan Carr, with whom I am OBSESSED):
There were so many reasons Grease should not have worked, so many times one decision made in the other direction could have blown apart the entire production like a house of cards. But Grease had Carr—“he was like Uncle Allan,” Didi Conn, who played beauty-school dropout Frenchy, says today—and, in the end, that’s what transformed it from fluffy hokum into a celluloid icon. Its stage version still pops up at high schools every year and is now being reimagined as a live, one-night-only television event on Fox, airing January 31. “Without Allan being the showman, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off,” says John Travolta, who carried the film as good-hearted bad boy Danny Zuko. “He was the Barnum & Bailey of it all.”
“Allan would come in standing on the dolly cart in his caftan, with his arms outstretched like Moses, and he would say, ‘Children, children, gather round,’ and then give us the reports on the dailies and how they were being received,” recalls Dinah Manoff, who played Marty, one of the Pink Ladies, in the movie. “There was nobody like him. He was really the star of Grease.”
ALSO:
Production was halted after Kleiser caught an infection in his foot from the filthy water of the Los Angeles River during the drag-racing Thunder Road shoot. He was resting in his trailer when Travolta walked in to give him a Scientology “touch assist.” Using his index finger, he touched Kleiser in various places as he said, over and over, “Feel my finger.” Kleiser would respond, “Yes,” and Travolta would answer, “Thank you.” This went on for an hour. “I was lying there with this fever and he’s poking me and poking me and poking me and I’m like, ‘Yes, I feel it.’ ‘Thank you.’ Then he left. The next day I was better, and of course he claimed it was because of the touch assist.”
Just another article on how parental leave is a joke in this country:
A friend of mine, I’ll call her Elena, worked for many years for one of New York’s top restaurants, rising over time to the position of maitre d’ — a very huge deal (monumentally huge, actually) for a woman in the hospitality industry. After six years, she learned she was pregnant, and worked all the way through to her delivery date, in her final month scaling back what had previously been a 60-hour-a-week job to 50 hours, before taking an agreed-upon ten weeks of unpaid leave. Just before the end of those ten weeks, she found out — via a customer — that in her absence, the restaurant had given her position, permanently, to someone else.
Devastated, Elena confronted her boss, and was offered a position instead running the restaurant group’s casual offshoot, a major demotion for an employee of her stature. “I found out through a customer after being there six-and-a-half-years,” she told me. “I gave my life to that place. It ruined my first experience as a mother because my milk went off. I couldn’t feed my baby.” She started crying, as we spoke. “It’s been five years, and I think there were better ways of doing it.”
The chef-owner of the restaurant where Elena worked eventually apologized to her for how she was treated, but it was much too little, far too late. And it happens all the time.
I don’t know if you’re following how many Scandinavian countries are responding to the refugee crisis, but Denmark has passed an incredibly scary bill:
Denmark’s minority government eventually backtracked on parts of the plan to confiscate migrants’ valuables in order to secure wider backing.Asylum-seekers will now have to hand over cash exceeding 10,000 kroner (€1,340, $1,450) and any individual items valued at more than that amount, up from the initial 3,000 kroner proposed.After thorny negotiations with the other parties, Integration Minister Inger Støjberg agreed to exempt wedding rings and other items of sentimental value.
You had me at “weed suppositories for your menstrual cramps“.
I absolutely adore Jillian Bell, and she has PERFECT comic timing.
My alumni magazine just emailed me to ask if I would be willing to participate in a profile of myself as a Prominent Harvardian, and now I’m just:
The necklace is a rattlesnake whose tail is so painfully swollen that it’s biting itself in agony, right?
Earwax collected from Q-tips and dipped in gold?
I was thinking ear-waxed Q-Tips and gall stones, glued and smashed together like a Rice Krispies treat. But, YMMV.
Brain twins high-five!
my first thought was that it looked like those novelty balls idiots hang off their cars
Almost identical to a poop my baby had yesterday. Color and everything. (No long string on the poop though, luckily.)
I think it’s a vermicious knid.
Popcorn sculptures made out of gold.
2nd-ing the Ouroborus of Pain explanation.
Just before the end of those ten weeks, she found out — via a customer — that in her absence, the restaurant had given her position, permanently, to someone else.
That is horrifying. Change your appalling policies about parental leave (and, you know, employee rights in general), America!
Both types of wardrobe dilemma described in Town & Country are very different to my own morning wardrobe dilemmas. (How did you manage to read it without screaming in class-related rage? This is where I fall down when trying to read stuff for posh people, like when I tried to entertain myself by flicking through the job adverts in The Lady.)
Congratulations on your Prominent Havardian status! (I have sadly resigned myself to the fact I am never going to be considered a Prominent Oxonian.)
Me neither. Insignificant Oxonians unite!
*high-fives*
The one couple from my college who have been together longer longer than me and my boyfriend (they got together in Freshers’ Week; we waited until Hilary of 1st year) just got married, and it was announced in the section for news of my cohort in our annual newsletter. I immediately asked my boyfriend if we should get married just so we could have something to send into The Postmaster. He declined. We are not even Prominent Oxonians among the people we were there with.
Most of our long-term couples hit the wall and got divorced/split up at abotu 10 years in. I can only think of two couples who are still together and neither were until 2nd or 3rd year. Mind you, we are all old so they are approaching 20 years, which isn’t bad going.
We are exactly one month short of seven years so far; I will keep a wary eye on the state of our relationship in three years’ time. (Two friends I matriculated with are now engaged to people they have been with for less time than us. Another person from my year at my college got married to one of the students in the year above us about two years ago now. We are lagging behind horribly at Adult Relationship stuff.)
Have you seen Jon Mulaney’s bit about “Why buy the cow?” Because that’s all I could think of when you mentioned that other people have gotten married who have known each other for less time.
Wise words from my wise mother: That’s not a race you want to enter, much less win!
*fistbump*
Got her job taken away after 10 weeks of UNPAID leave is more
brb googling where she worked 5 years ago in order to boycott this restaurant to the end of time
edit: oh right it’s anonymous – I wish Eater had named & shamed this place, in this case they absolutely deserve it. I imagine the subject of the story didn’t want to for fear of impacting her career, which probably means nothing has changed.
Seriously. I hate when articles like this a coy about this shit. Name and shame. If our federal government won’t fucking do anything about this (and given that half the political spectrum thinks women should stay home and pump out babies, they won’t), at least put the fuckers who do it ON BLAST. Make it something people just kinda know – “Oh yeah, that guy’s a sexist with no respect for parents.”
I think it may have been less of a journalistic choice and more a “interviewee asked not to be named so she wouldn’t risk burning bridges” kind of thing.
Spoiler alert, this place is every nice restaurant in your town!
Sadly, it probably doesn’t really matter, because they would ALL do that.
I am not sure the writer actually understands what denim and hoodies are, since there’s no reason one would have to choose between them rather than wearing both.
I guess my font size was too small because I saw that as denim and noodles and didn’t understand how to wear the latter.
Like a jaunty scarf.
i <3 u
if it’s not something a dandy might’ve worn in the 18th century it might as well be a tattered leopardskin loincloth, y’know?
I’ve never heard of The Lady and oh, wow. I assumed by ‘job ads’ you meant ‘jobs for fancy executive ladies’ but NO OF COURSE NOT WHAT LADY NEEDS TO WORK FOR A LIVING??
edit oh mygod their advice column:
Dear Thomas,
I was somewhat stunned to receive an email last week that began: ‘Hey, Annie’. Isn’t this rather familiar from someone who doesn’t know me? I have no idea how to reply.
Annie Bailey, Bangor
Dear Annie,
It sounds as if the email came from America.
“Faints dead away”
That advice is amazing! Just splendid!
(As an overly familiar American, I often use “Hey” in emails because “Dear” is kind of weird to me now. How is calling a stranger dear, much less one who is offended by the use of “hey,” accurate?)
America, that land of gross informality.
It’s one of our best traits.
Agree with my whole soul re: changing parental leave policies, but this restaurant group seems to have violated even the meager protections we DO have. Since she was a full time employee for over a year of an employer that (I presume, since it’s called a “restaurant group” and has more than one establishment) has 50 or more employees, she was entitled to that leave without losing her previous position. It’s appalling.
James Bond is not an “Ideal bachelor”and he most definitely does not practice the art of seduction.
However, I prefer Daniel Craig to Jack Dorsey.
But who wouldn’t want to be swept off their by a man running not one but two companies hemorrhaging money?
Pshhhh. Companies don’t need to, and in fact shouldn’t make money!
lady’s got a type
I keep reading that as Jack Donaghy.
Jack Donaghy > Jack Dorsey
If we’re playing “who would I rather…date, Jack D wins hands down.
My brain wants to make it Jack Dorso from Arrested Development. SWOOP ME!
Holy cow, me too! I was momentarily befuddled!
(“It’s after five. What am I, a farmer?”)
I thought the Bond character was originally written as an uncouth cad.
A+ usage of Courtney gif, she was the smuggest smugger to ever smug on MasterChef and that is truly saying something
Can I just say, because I have to tell SOMEONE, that I went to high school (and middle school, and elementary school), with Courtney and it is SO deeply weird seeing her be in a popular gif. Like I thought it was bizarre that she was on master chef in the first place but this is something else.
What was she like???
Well I can’t say we were particularly close or even really friends. It was a smallish school so everyone knew who she was — she was mostly known for being dance-obsessed and a little bit irritating. Like take her personality on master chef and dial it way down, allow for teenage insecurity and the difficulty of navigating high school and you’ve pretty much got her. She was kind of popular-adjacent: she had the looks and the clothes but wasn’t close friends with that crowd.
But she really was a gifted dancer and basically spent all her time taking classes and then talking about it lol. There’s actually a totally humiliating home video of the two of us in a ballet class when we were about five. She was the star and I was the kid who had NO idea what was going on.
Tell us more please!
My friend had a lovey article on Literary Hub yesterday. It is called Our Fairy Tales Ourselves: Storytelling from East to West, Marie Mutsuki Mockett on What a Story Can Be. Here is the link: http://lithub.com/our-fairy-tales-ourselves-story…
Ah, this is great, thank you for sharing! This really hit home for me since we are raising my son on a diet of both Japanese and American books and stories (including Nontan!)
Thank you for sharing this!! I’m so fascinated by stories and how we tell them and how that is affected and also affects the culture they come from.
I just… want to feed your dog. All the things. My delicious rare rump steak? Of course, Sansa, how could I say no?
(I’m a cat person, dammit!)
My puppy used to cry when he finished his food and saw only an empty bowl. Poor, poor puppy.
Our corgi will scratch at the bowl and sometimes carry it around. Our other dog will just silently get on counters and tables and eat whatever’s around (it is the only time he is ever silent or graceful).
So wait, Denmark is now going to force refugees into poverty? Cause thats exactly the recipe to create generational mal-will, disenfranchisement… terrorists. Denmark just voted to start home-growing their terrorism.
They did. But the Danish People’s Party wouldn’t necessarily mind. The climate in Denmark right now is truly alarming. I… think that they might actually do something really horrible if a Muslim committed an act that could be viewed as terrorism.
They literally just made it law that the Danish state gets to rob refugees. No one passes a law like that on accident. Especially not a parliament like Denmark’s, where every party that gets more than 2% of the vote gets a seat in parliament. Imagine how many different people (and how many different parties) had to agree on this to make it happen.
Ugh that Denmark article is so horrifying.
Asylum-seekers will now have to hand over cash exceeding 10,000 kroner (€1,340, $1,450)…After thorny negotiations with the other parties, Integration Minister Inger Støjberg agreed to exempt wedding rings and other items of sentimental value. WOW how magnanimous of you.
I am so saving this to share the next time someone on Facebook posts an article about how perfect social policy is in Denmark.
As a Dane, plenty of people here are horrified too. The debate on the refugee crisis and this particular law has escalated way beyond the rational and it feels like the entire public debate has derailed into being just one high-pitched shreek, set to images of the Worst Internet Comments Section Imaginable
Yiiiiiikes that sounds terrible for the good people of Denmark of which I am sure there are many.
My parents live in southern Sweden (Skane) and things aren’t exactly that much better. I gotta say it was pretty eerie when I flew over there for the holidays with the new fencing built at CPH and police everywhere. I’d thought I’d forgotten my passport when we were heading somewhere and everyone was super worried.
Also they live near one of several developments that were being planned to help house and settle refugees that were all firebombed in one night! So, you know, not just Danes? Oof.
Welcome to the United States!
…the US doesn’t force refugees into homelessness just to fuck with them, dogg
Sorry, should have been more clear. I was referring to this:
it feels like the entire public debate has derailed into being just one high-pitched shreek, set to images of the Worst Internet Comments Section Imaginable
Well… Scandinavia isn’t the United States. The normal thing in Scandinavian countries is that you can’t get your way by yelling. The political systems REQUIRE that you can negotiate with other political parties, unless you can convince more than 50% of the population to vote for you out of at least 5-10 reasonable choices. Or vote for your party, actually, since we don’t have presidents. The American system rewards polarisation and personal charisma, the proportional system rewards cooperation, compromise and negotiation. Also, the culture in the Nordic countries is less yelly in general and less fond of extremeness than in America. This is a recent shift in the political climate, away from what’s usually normal. This change has only been going on for a few years, not more than a decade, and it’s only gotten worse.
Do you see the problem now?
Yeah, I see the problem. Sorry; it was just kind of a grim joke that went awry. It’s an issue we’ve been dealing with for a long time.
There are several joke responses to the Danish article in this comment section right now, which comes off as if people don’t care or don’t get what the problem is. There’s nothing quirky or funny about this, and it’s not just a normal “been there, done that” thing either. It’s a creeping but drastic change, in the countries that are usually believed to be the most socially progressive in the world. So, I hope you get why I feel that this situation is very different from the US, but I’m still sorry that your political situation is so bad that this comes off as normal.
It’s becoming normal everywhere, I’m afraid. The right-wing xenophobic Scandinavian voter is probably not much different from the Trump voter.
So there’s all sorts of articles about that law in the UK papers but they all mention that this is the same as what Danish nationals have to do to be able to qualify for public assistance. (sell all their stuff) Now I’ve got no problem believing this is a racially motivated law, I mean they were saying that they were specifically passing it to make Denmark ‘less attractive’ to refugees, but not being from there, I don’t know the nuance about this.
Something seriously, seriously dangerous is happening in Denmark. Did you read the entire article? Did you see this thing right at the end?
Danish lawmakers last week also passed a resolution pushing the government to look into the consequences of building temporary housing complexes outside cities for refugees, like the country did during the Balkans war in the 1990s.
The move is backed by the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which sees it as a first step towards building state-run camps where refugees would stay without integrating into Danish society.
I already wrote this in another comment, but this party, the Danish People’s Party, are more than just “anti-immigration”. They’re right-wing nationalists, actual nationalists, and openly hateful towards Muslims. These people are in government right now – they got 21% of the vote and formed a coalition with the other right-wing/conservative parties. They have real political power.
And it’s the same in Norway. Their racists have 16% of the vote and are also in power with the normal right-wing parties. Sweden, meanwhile, has a weak minority government of spineless social democrats (after eight years of libertarians), which didn’t deal properly with the refugee situation at all and folded incredibly quickly under pressure (oh, and the nationalists have 13% of the parliament seats).
I don’t know anyone from Norway, but the racists are winning the public debate in Sweden and seem to already have won in Denmark. Their vocabulary is spreading, they get to choose which issues everyone should focus on and they get to suggest the solutions. Everyone else has to debate THEIR opinions first, instead of sharing their own. I mean, every country has racists, but this is a real societal change.
I don’t know man, it’s pretty easy to order a bespoke suit.
It’s pretty easy to order caviar, too, they usually just have it on the menu, you just have to say you want it and the waiter will bring you some.
It takes no special skill to learn about expensive things now that we have the internet.
This must drive rich people crazy! Anyone can have stars upon thars. Nothing is secret or exclusive anymore. PEOPLE ARE RICH NOW WHO DON’T KNOW OUR WAYS!
I like that this plainly drives the Old Money nuts, but they’re still not smart enough to invent a restaurant that you can only find about by, like, telegram or something.
*pitying smile* Don’t worry at all, dear, your telegram must have just been lost in the post.
it’s just as well, I found this new place where you can’t even read the menu unless you can afford a tutor who’ll teach you to read reconstructed proto-Indo-European
A la guerre comme a la guerre then. We must lead our lives as we see them; but I am charmed with your courage and almost surprised at my own.
Sorry, I always think it’s annoying when people coo over the mere fact of a reference, but this is such an A+ reference I can’t get over it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFzCEfNoTCM
I worked on Nantucket one summer, and watching all the fights between Old Money and New Money (over things like wind farming and SUVs) was quite, quite hilarious.
Actually, I was just reading about a restaurant like that somewhere in LA.
I actually find this…weirdly interesting? Obviously still worthy of mockery, but I am interested in signaling, and the Internet has destroyed a lot of traditional signaling mechanisms. Tom Ripley wouldn’t be so amazing now, because tons of people can lay hands on nice clothes and credit and enough data to fake being rich, use the right shibboleths, etc. I wonder what the next evolution is.
yeah and rich people have got a major problem because the point of all of this stuff isn’t just to have it or to do it but to be seen doing it, so there’s no real way to keep it a secret. What’s the point of belonging to an exclusive club if no one knows that you’re a member? But how do you keep the club exclusive once it gets out onto the internet where everyone can find out about it?
I am interested to see how this shakes out too.
this is totally fascinating! a new-money or aspiring type could get around the suit thing via internet research on fine clothes, or going aggressively the other way and showing up in pajamas and a hoodie. Being able to act at ease in a schmancy restaurant or club, though, exuding that sense of “I totally belong here,” that’s gotta come from experience. Or just a certain personality that’s at ease everywhere?
Just a certain personality. For example, I’ve never been intimidated in a fancy store, because those people are at work and I’m not. The other customers don’t intimidate me either, because those people have no sense about what to spend money on. Same goes for fancy restaurants. I can’t dress myself, but I just look them square in the eye and pretend my outfit is fine.
Excuse me while I sit at your feet & learn your delightful & powerful ways. I need them.
In my experience, the real Old Money wears sweaters with holes in them and doesn’t care what they look like. Because they don’t have to.
(Reference: my former employer, who sat on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation and looked like an itinerant handyman).
Yeah, Mike Perry (writer from small-town Wisconsin, author of Population 451) has talked about going out to lunch with his editor in New York, wearing old jeans and sweatsocks with holes in them, and feeling insecure about it until his editor told him, no, they all think you must be really important to come in here dressed like that.
We have a new client at work who’s part of the DuPont family, and she dresses like a broke college student.
Based on my brother’s reports about the Old Money peeps he encountered at Haaaaaahvahd, I am 100% sure this is true.
Sadly, Brother picked up a less-than-delightful impulse to out-grunge grungy-Old-Money while there, and has been offending others’ olfactory senses ever since.
The Internet has been a lifesaver for me because the power players in my academic department are still very heavily invested in signaling. Without the Internet I would never have learned to pass.
A+ Sneetches reference!!
kids these days, with their aesthetic appreciation of the finer things which they will probably never be able to afford anyway!
…because the previous generations made it so but are too buried in their own smug shit to realize it!
Also, I really thought, “Do rich people have bionic eyes? How could an eye be reserved for a specific class?”
Not even the entire class, SPECIFIC members of the class. Not even everyone who’s wealthy and leisured is allowed to have this kind of eye!
yes, this fact has been documented ever since Lucian’s True History revealed that on the Moon the rich have multiple pairs of eyes:
Vera Historia 1.25, tr. Fowler:
“It is with some hesitation that I describe their eyes, the thing being incredible enough to bring doubt upon my veracity. But the fact is that these organs are removable; any one can take out his eyes and do without till he wants them; then he has merely to put them in; I have known many cases of people losing their own and borrowing at need; and some — the rich, naturally — keep a large stock.”
(link: https://lucianofsamosata.info/TheTrueHistory.html )
Here we see dangerous crook C.P. Hashbrowns, waiting to be released from tired baby jail.
It may be of some interest that this potato is learning to sit! And he has almost had all his shots too (things got delayed a couple of times because I can’t drive and the doctor wasn’t sure he was big enough).
I am still not 100% convinced that Charlie Potato Hashbrowns is a real dog and not an excessively adorable stuffed animal.
If he was a stuffed animal, I am pretty sure I would still have a fully functional duvet rather than a bunch of stuffing on the floor.
But, I mean, I could be wrong! I am frequently wrong.
Ho ho, but he could be liberating that stuffing, mistaking it for kin.
I remain similarly unconvinced.
Someone call the SPCA, this link roundup is full of poor tormented animals! Empty bowls! Carriers! SHOTS!
(Okay, I can’t talk, I’m soaking my cats’ wet food bowl in the sink, thus delaying their wet food by like THIRTY MINUTES. Cruelty and abuse is everywhere.)
THIRTY MINUTES? That’s hard, man, that’s hard.
I have to shamefacedly report cat cruelty here too. This morning, instead of immediately feeding Feline Julie Andrews when I woke up, I… went to the bathroom first. She had to wait two or three entire minutes for food.
I am not proud of my actions.
My cats will certainly huffily report that they had to wait an extra hour last night for their treats. What is this world even coming to, they will say.
I went straight to the kitchen to feed Clio and Calliope, but I forgot I actually had to collect and open a new box from the hallway, meaning I picked up a food bowl and set it down empty for almost 90 seconds. I am history’s greatest monster.
Oh the SPCA is in on it too, look at these poor shelter puppies getting baths and basically being tortured.
My heart, it is bursting at the sight of these sweet babies!
Now they’re torturing humans who can’t have dogs. It comes full circle!
I opened a can of pears this morning and the Chihuahua was most put out that it wasn’t a can of wet food for him.
I’ve never even fed my kitties food that gets opened by can opener (a few cans with pop-tops; now the divas only eat the BBF pouches) and they STILL freak out when I use the can opener.
(Of course, it’s possible now they’ve just trained me into a Pavlovian response of, “All right, all right, here are some damn treats, can I please please just cook my dinner?”)
Yes, I noticed that about my cats too. They seem to have some kind of race memory when it comes to the sound of the can opener. (And knowing to rush to join me in the bathroom when I don’t close the door.)
No seriously, what IS that bathroom thing. They can be fast asleep in a totally different room of the house, and as soon as I sit down on the toilet they’re at my feet.
Diesel-cat gets SO EXCITED when cans open.
It could be refried beans, or tomatoes, or even (ask me how I know this) shoe polish. He will run into the kitchen and look expectantly at whoever owns the can because maybe this time it’s tuna fish.
I have one who gets excited when I merely stand up. Maybe I’m going over to open a can of wet food! [Dashes over to location of bowls.]
I might have spent half an hour last night showing my husband every pic of Mx. Hash browns that I could.
He really is very photogenic for a potato!
Chaaaaaaaaaarlieeeeeeeee
he is the BEST
I think maybe I saw a spot of Charlie Potato Hashbrowns on Dogspotting today????? Was very excited, but couldn’t be sure.
OMG where is this
What type of dog is the esteemed Mr. C.P. Hashbrowns, Esq.?
He is a shihtzu mystery mix. Possibly his daddy is a grand pyrenees (according to my father, who is very insistent on this point and HAS met the dog in question but also knows shit about dogs), or possibly a border collie or australian shepherd (according to the ladies at the vet).
Basically I’m waiting to see how big he gets. At this point, it looks like he’ll end up somewhere in the twenty to thirty pounds range!
Have you thought about creating a tumblr for him? I can think of many toasties who’d love to follow it…
Thanks! Whatever he is he is 100% adorable trouble.
The Walrus ran this fantastic and heartbreaking article on grief in the Internet age last week. http://thewalrus.ca/modern-grief/
Esophageal cancer is what will take my dad from us soon, and every single time he emails me I archive it and save it. I don’t know if I’ll ever look back on them, but I can if I want to. What a blessing and a curse the Internet can be.
I am so sorry. My grandfather (before I was born) and my great-grandmother both died from cancer of the oesophagus; it is shit.
I’m so sorry. <3
Oh, didn’t need my mascara to run just before going out to lunch.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Relatedly, my co-worker lost her husband rather suddenly this year. Several months later, she gets pulled over leaving church (after a grief support group) because her husband hadn’t renewed his license, and the car was under his name. Co-worker’s response to the cop: “I wasn’t aware dead people could get driver’s licenses.” Understandably, the cop didn’t give her a ticket.
My mom passed away from cancer about 2 and a half years ago. Over the summer, when I moved across the country away from home, I went through and deleted all my old emails. When I got back far enough to the ones from her, it was hard, but I just felt like I couldn’t hold on to them. Everything else in my inbox was either deleted or sorted away to another folder, it would have felt so glaring to just have them there, in any way. But then I also have two saved voicemail messages I have never listened to that have been in my phone for years, because I can’t remember when they are from and I’ve always been afraid one is from her and I couldn’t handle that. Same with a unread message on facebook. If I just don’t scroll down that far I can pretend it’s not there. It’s weird in that I’m perfectly fine having and wearing some of her old clothes, but then I see an old email and I just freeze up. Grief is such an odd thing.
*offers Toastie hugs*
Those are some IMPRESSIVE sad eyes, Sansa. Well done.
Especially for a dog who I take it just ate a whole bowl of cereal, excepting only the bowl and spoon.
Toasties I am finally getting my IUD in approximately four hours, and I might be freaking out a little bit? Encouragement/reassurance/cute animal gifs would be appreciated. (Also, thanks to everyone who’s provided advice and suggestions during this saga – don’t think I could have done it without you. <3)
You can do it. And then you’ll have an IUD, and they are wonderful, wonderful.
It will be just fine! Take advil beforehand!
YES DO THIS ^
Yay IUD!
DEFINITELY TAKE ADVIL BEFOREHAND
Because every clinic seems to have a different idea of how much pain-numbing women deserve when undergoing something significantly less painful than childbirth (or actual childbirth probably, idk), and if you go in assuming they’ll give you anything at all then at best you’ll get a “lol well I could find you some advil but it won’t kick in until the procedure’s over, sry”
A minor complaint, because it’ll all be over so quickly and it’s totally worth it. But still. Definitely take something before you go.
You can do it! Insertion pain varies wildly from person to person! Plus the pain is usually over pretty quickly and after that you won’t have to think about birth control for YEARS!
It’ll totally be okay. Treat yourself to something comforting if you can (I believe I ate frozen yogurt and watched Love and Basketball). Also, for me the insertion and cramps were not as bad as typical menstrual cramps.
Take some naproxen (Aleve) right now and it will be much nicer. Pick up some pads on the way to the appointment if you don’t have some on hand already (this is much preferable to getting them after the fact, guess how I know?) and make arrangements for Netflix and pizza and warm blankets for the rest of the afternoon. You’re going to do great.
OMG, where was this advice when I got mine?
(This is the perfect advice.)
I was thinking happily just this morning about the ease of my IUD. My insertion process was probably on the easier end of the spectrum, but I still cuddled up with some hot water bottles because hot water bottles are great. Pick up delightful lunch on your way home and have no guilt about being excessively kind to yourself over the next few days. Even if your insertion is easy like mine, you still did A Thing! Things deserve kindness.
Also Aleve. Buy stock in that.
Good luck! I got mine at age 25, I think? Maybe 24? (I got it out a couple years later and am now pregnant.) I had no bad experiences with it at all. I know some ladies do, but mine was relatively fine going in (some pressure/pain but never ever approached the I CANNOT HANDLE level, was very manageable) and it went very, very quick. I had no period and very rarely cramps the entire time it was in. It came out SUPER easy when I was ready. All in all, it was super easy, by and large stress and pain free. Hope it all goes well for you!!
Take pain meds before (Advil or Aleve, unless your doctor’s given you something stronger). Get a heating pad after, and rest as much as you can. You’ll be just fine, but take it easy on yourself.
Gooooo you! If the doctor or nurse offers you a little snack and a sit down afterwards, totally take it. Maybe you’ll even get a Capri Sun!
Yay!!!! Congratulations!!!!!
Talk to your ob/gyn while it’s going on to distract yourself from the process! Also take ibuprofen like an hour or so beforehand. There will be a bit of pain and cramping after, but then you’ll be without pregnancy for yeearrrrssssssss!!!!!
You’ll be great! Getting mine was really not a big deal at all (I know experiences vary, but still). Take some painkillers before you go, and if you drink alcohol then a nice glass of your favourite beverage later in the day is also good. And then no more worrying abuot birth control for a good long time. 😀
It is totally worth it. Like the everyone else said, take Advil or Motrin before and after. You might want to ask your provider to write you a script for 800 mg Motrin. I love my IUD. It gives me such peace of mind. I’m on my second 10-year IUD. When they replaced the first one with the second one it was entirely and completely painless.
It is 80% a mental thing! Not to belittle anyone’s physical pain, but the weirdness of the insertion and the anticipation thereof is what gets you, beforehand. After that it is a mundane thing to cope with, and if you’re lucky it won’t be a big deal at all! (I blithely went back to work and had almost no symptoms from both my insertions, but maybe I am really lucky…you could be too!)
It might suck – mine did – but if it does suck, it’ll only be for a little while, and then you’ll have an IUD and it’s SO GREAT to not have to worry about bc for ages!
You might be totally fine afterwards, but if you can, arrange to take the rest of the day off so that you can go recover and do self-care things. Have a heating pad and nice foods and comforting things available for yourself! Even if you have a totally-not-a-big-deal appointment and you walk out feeling tickety-boo, then you’ll have nice things to celebrate years of baby-free-ness with!
It’s so worth it! You’ll be fine. I will not lie to you, it hurts, but not for long, and then you have SO MANY YEARS OF BIRTH CONTROL! (idk which kind you’re getting, but if it’s a Mirena: also no period!)
DON’T GOOGLE ANYTHING!!! You will be fine.
Insertion will feel super weird, but it will pass quickly.
I wasn’t in any pain to speak of after I got mine, but I did feel kind of woozy for the rest of the day. I wish I’d had a friend go with me to drive me home and celebrate my triumph. (I was fine to drive, I just wish someone else had done it for me.)
Ugh what is that T&C article? From what I can see of the other paragraphs it seems to be extolling the virtues of driving yourself to death in the kind of car Jeremy Clarkson loves to get his clammy hands on, on a stretch of that ludicrously treacherous Riviera road with all the hairpin curves and sudden rockfalls, whilst wearing Savile Row’s poshest and sneering in several different (but still Western European, natch) languages at the crowd of supermodels in your backseat.
ELIGIBLE BACHELOR 4 LYFE
I will spare that issue my monthly Throwin’ o’ the Magazine Across the Room In Rage.
(Received for other reasons than alumna ones.)
My school’s magazine is a running joke among alumnae (and the occasional alumnus) for making most of us feel absolutely terrible at how little we’ve accomplished.
yeah everyone from my school that I know has kind of given up on the alumni magazine now that Lupita Nyong’o was in Star Wars.
It’s like. I don’t know guys, who cares.
The latest issue of mine showed fellow alums inventing gene spllcing and saving tiny babies from something and all I’ve got to show for my life is I’ve invented a new muffin and a fabulous cookie.
Muffins and cookies sound very important to me!
I feel like many graduates of prominent universities end up doing actively evil stuff in the course of their careers (cf. the housing crash).
So, if you can avoid doing anything actually evil, you’re WAY ahead of the game. Inventing an awesome cookie recipe is just an added bonus.
Funny – I get the Yale School of Drama alumni mag and they’re adorably coy about it. Probably because they’re way invested in the regional theater market and their entire existence is built on reassuring students and alums that this is the most likely path to success, not the highly unlikely Oscar/Star Wars route. So it’ll just be in the class notes like “2012:…..and congratulations to Lupita Nyong’o on her upcoming role in Eclipsed, now transferring to Broadway, as well as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
Yeah, I guess Yale Drama has to have a process in place already though; Lupita went to my undergrad, and before her our most famous graduate was Ken Burns, and honestly I’m not even sure he finished? I think I heard that Liev Schrieber was there for like a semester or something, too.
When Bradley Cooper was doing Bradley Cooper things the New School sent so many emails “New School alum nominated for an Oscar!”
My undergrad has an extremely well regarded university and journalism program. Since I did neither, I never read the magazine, since everyone in it was in one of those two programs. I have not yet worked for NASA or won a Pulitzer for reporting! I’ll just go live in a hole then.
One of my former grad schools does a special magazine edition that’s something like, “40 Amazing People Who Changed The World Before They Were 40!” and it has made me want to go live in a hole since I finished that degree at 33. (I’m 41. Clearly I’ve contributed nothing to the world and the hole I crawl into should be my own grave.)
I also receive this for reasons other than alumna, and my reaction is the lazier version of yours – though now I am looking forward to that copy. I find it’s best to read only the classifieds and nothing else.
I get three letters into the “Letters to the Editor” and go “why did I read these? I promised myself last time I wouldn’t read these any more!”
The classifieds are the best part! Desperate, pretentious twits who think that listing their favorite philosophers and saying they like weekends in Prague will find them love!
Protip: Few people would turn down a weekend in Prague. This does not make you special.
They are so funny! I keep trying to set people in my life up with the people in the classifieds. Strangely, everyone now leads with “so how old is this person?” – they never like the answer.
The classified ads in the Oxford alumni magazine are amazing. Also there are adverts for online dating sites reserved for people who went to fancy universities.
Through multiple moves I have not been able to get my alma mater to stop sending me their dumb magazine. I finally got them to stop calling for donations, but the magazine never ceases.
(Fun fact: if you get a call from some innocent student worker about donations and by the end of it you’re both weepy over how everything has gone south in your life, they will finally take you off the “call for donations” list.)
My undergrad university never calls me, but my graduate school *sends emails beforehand* to let me know when they’re gonna call. It’s once a year and I just have to spend the weekend ignoring any calls from their number.
There’s never any escape from magazines though.
I get calls and requests for donations from the school I didn’t graduate from. That’s always an awkward conversation. “Yeah, I had a mental breakdown of sorts and had to leave. Oh I did graduate eventually I just went to a different school to do it.”
“Oh yeah, the department where my adviser in charge of internships was a drunk who always said there are no internships and to go away? The university where the career center constantly gave me contradictory advice about resumes and cover letters and then basically shrugged when I asked for help finding work?”
I worked for my college once phoning alumni for donations, and it was a terrible experience. We were not supposed to end the call; even if the person said they had no interest in donating, if they didn’t hang up we had no option but to keep asking them. I felt like a monster.
Yeah, it was a hell of a call. There I was falling apart and I could feel the girl on the other end of the call freaking out and so I’m trying to find a way to be like “Hey, don’t be discouraged! YOU could still be okay after graduation!”
The PBK newsletter has a “Life Outside Academe” column now, where they deign to profile someone who is successful in *shudder* commerce or government. What is the world coming to?
“Well, Betty is the Regius Professor of History at Oxford, and Aissata isolated a new element, and Merlwyn will just have to console herself with an enormous pile of money.”
I mean, they also serve who only make dick jokes that inspire other people to make *funnier* dick jokes, right?
The solution is to go to a tiny liberal arts college without any graduates of real significance in the world. That way, you might not have accomplished anything, but neither have any of your fellow alums!
What about the fellow alums who are actually fairies and enchanted players from the days of Shakespeare? Though I suppose they’d keep that out of the mag.
… Tam Lin reference?
SPOILERS:
Yup! Though now that I think about it the fairies were just professors and TAs and not alums, right?
+10000000
They should run the accomplishments we really are impressed with: “Erla Winzitz has successfully negotiated a 40% discount on her phone plan. Teshnie Ackle can now park both cars in her garage! She wishes to thank everyone who has been supportive during her journey. Flossom Badenpip successfuly convinced her supervisor not to open attachments to emails from people he doesn’t know.”
PS I could write fake names for days.
PPS Erla is a real name! I had no idea.
“Mrs. Peel showered AND cooked dinner today. With vegetables!”
Not gonna lie, if my name was Flossom Badenpip I’d consider that my crowning achievement and do pretty much fuck all with the rest of my life too.
Floss on probably doesn’t need to work, but she can’t abide untidiness so work she must.
I think just bringing the joy of a name like Flossom Badenpip to the world is accomplishment enough.
Thank you! It’s always hard to feel like a real creative type when your major skills are inventing intensely silly names and knowing which colors look good on people. The Toast as always, saves me.
Monthly? That is far too often to be infuriated. Mine is only three times a year (and the college-specific one is annual); I particularly enjoy hate-reading the personal ads.
You are right- I checked and it’s every two months. It just *feels* monthly (the one from my college is quarterly.) Also my father DOES get it for alumnus reasons and gets the one from the Divinity School, too.
I mean, there are articles about many fine people doing wonderful things in these magazines, it’s just that there are also a bunch of Charles Murray types taking up more space than they deserve. (The way they somehow claim the status of going there while pissing on the university for being part of the liberal establishment could supply material for an article in itself.)
“You might know Foria from Foria Pleasure, the cannabis sensation enhancement oil (I tried this as well and can recommend it, vividly).”
BRB, making plans to visit Colorado next month when I can finally have PIV sex again.
ETA: Wow, Justin Timberlake and I share a birthday! Thanks for the info, Jillian Bell!
Somehow I know off the top of my head that fellow N’sync member JC Chasez and I share a birthday.
For anyone who enjoys hate-reading luxury magazines, I whole-heartedly recommend Bloomberg Pursuits. My husband gets a free subscription through his office (though not a big enough paycheck to indulge in any of the pursuits), and I devour it every time it comes. Among my favorites are how to update the décor in your private jet, and how to buy a $20,000 sweater that purposefully looks like it cost $100. It is also incredibly cis white male oriented, and completely oblivious that other types of people exist, except as valets or something.
http://www.bloomberg.com/pursuits
In balance, I will add that Bloomberg in general does some VERY good business reporting.
I got a mystery subscription to Dwell Magazine last year, and I love it so much. It’s a bit of a conundrum, because half the time, I’m like “OHHHH I’D LOVE TO LIVE IN THIS PLACE IT’S SO BRIGHT AND SPACY AND HEAVENLY” but then there’s an ad for a sofa that literally costs what we paid for our house and I fall over laughing.
There is a fabulous book based on a blog that basically makes fun of Dwell and the blog is “Unhappy Hipsters” and I LOVE IT and basically begged for it for christmas a couple years back as the only gift that would mean anything to me.
Also i had to google to remember the name of the book because I just call it the hipster book and it is “It’s Lonely in the Modern World”: http://www.amazon.com/Its-Lonely-Modern-World-Ess…
Oh god Unhappy Hipsters made me laugh so hard it hurt.
For the similar entertainment value, I can recommend Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me by Lucia van der Post (http://www.amazon.com/Things-Wish-Mother-Had-Told/dp/0738213837).
The chapter on gifts for people who have everything suggests buying them an avenue of trees, a customized perfume, or a private island. She says she was very poor when she and her husband moved into their first house, a house that had four stories.
On the plus side, apparently technologically incompetent rich people hire others to put music on their iPods for them, which sounds like a great job opportunity for those of us who can use iTunes.
I recently saw this review of a watch which raves about the fact that it’s “only” £3750. Um. http://www.menshealth.co.uk/watch-review-oris-cal…
YOU GUYS. Barbie has announced THREE NEW BODY TYPES and like
though I am a long time doll collector, I have bemoaned the lack of body diversity in playline toys (and don’t even get me started on that disaster Lammily)
and for the first time in my life I am looking at a doll that looks like me
(I am probably going to have her rerooted from blue hair to pink, though)
*shouts from a mountaintop* REPRESENTATION IS FUCKING IMPORTANT
that is all
This is neat, but I’m kind of frightened by how skinny ALL of the dolls’ calves are. They’re barely existent. It looks like they made the “original” Barbie even skinnier than it was previously. Maybe it’s just me?
Also, on that first page, the doll on the left with the blonde cropped hair and black vest/white skirt is totally Jennifer Lawrence and it’s eerie.
Yeah, I saw these and kind of thought — this is a step in the right direction, but still not quite enough? Only one WOC in the ad I saw, and there wasn’t a ton of weight fluctuation, just Slightly More Robust than the Average Barbie. But again — a big step for Barbie.
There are quite a few uber dark-skinned black Barbies (one or two per collection). They’re on the website. And there was one in the Tall collection (I think?) that could be coded in multiple ways, IMO — Latina, Indigenous (Native American), medium-skinned Mediterranean or Eastern European, maybe even Romani?
Wish there were some more non-black Barbies of colour, though. (e.g., only one East Asian Barbie? And only in the Original category? Really?) And yeah, more weight variation would have been nice.
Holy cow, that doll is Jennifer Lawrence.
I’m just so thrilled to see a doll with hips and thighs that I can ignore the calves. I ordered the blue haired doll posthaste.
!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m screaming at everyone who will listen!!! Thank so much for being the bearer of this good news!
This is awesome! I’m not a collector, but I played with Barbies SO MUCH as a kid, and I am VERY tempted to get one of those curvy dolls.
Thank God there is finally representation of white girls with blue hair. About goddamn time.
Okay I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not, but I was actually pretty impressed with the range of skin tones in the other dolls. Like someone mentioned above, not perfect, but a huge step for Barbie.
You’re right, of course, it is impressive and the dolls are gorgeous. I just instinctively responded with sarcasm, my native language.
Barbie’s marketing has been all about girl power recently and I’m into it. Like hell yeah Barbie has a million jobs and a sweet ass house and also 3 boyfriends all named Ken (if your Barbie was my Barbie). WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING!!
Then you never mix up their names!
One of my Kens was not actually a Ken but a Civil War Union army soldier doll (????) that somebody gave my brother, but he was Lieutenant Ken, to help Barbie keep track of her boy toys. What a player.
All named Ken, you say? Well, I distinctly remember the “Craig” Barbie I had because his legs kept falling off. And when I worked in a bookstore a friend’s favorite pursuit was browsing the Barbie magazine for kicks – our favorite Barbie boyfriend was named Blaine. (And this was long before Glee happened.)
Keep those Kens in their places!
My mom had two college friends whose names were both Ken. They were roommates, and they also drove the same type of car and got matching belt buckles that said “Ken”.
When someone called, they’d say, “Which Ken do you want? The Ken who drives a Dodge Dart? The Ken who wears a ‘Ken’ belt buckle?” (etc.)
Apparently my work filter blocks Barbie links (who knew?) but I’m so excited to check these out!
Go to barbie.com directly. The link provided above didn’t work for me, either.
Still restricted, sadly, because it contains ‘corporate marketing, entertainment’ which makes me wonder why Facebook & Buzzfeed aren’t blocked…
Maybe because Facebook Is Important?
Haha, mine says “Games”
I ordered that very one ~2 hours ago. (:
When Jillian went Juggalo is still my favorite Workaholics episode.
Omg such a classic. I’m watching Workaholics right now! I think my favorite episode is Ders Comes in Handy, which does not have nearly enough Jillian!
Jillian being in charge of the Costco runs was also amazing.
I think of that episode every time I go to Costco.
“It’s the prophecy. It was foretold like a thousand years before dinosaurs.” The mushroom trip episode is my favorite, but every episode could use a little more Jillian.
“Catherine Zeta Joooooones, she dips beneath lasers, ooooOOOOoooohhh”
(ok, I have *two* favorite episodes)
The best part of that one for me is his response, “but like, how cool would it be to deny the prophesy?” to convince him to help, because it’s just SO REAL. Work with the trip, not against it!
Toasties! I know this isn’t related to the link roundup, but I keep spacing on the Open Threads. Last year I bought a couple reusable pads to try out and see how I felt about them. I’ve finally turned the corner from still a bit strange to who knew that bleeding on something then washing the blood out could be so satisfying? I want to start buying more pads, but there are a TON of pads out there with a TON of accompanying options which is, frankly, my problem. I’m overwhelmed. My period isn’t very heavy, so I’m mainly looking for ones that are 1) good at staying in place, 2) comfortable, and 3) relatively unbulky. Does anyone have any recommendations?
I’ve not tried the other options, but I’m pretty happy with Gladrags.
No direct help here, but I could swear that there were a bunch of comments in this comment thread that might be helpful?
Thank you! I know there have been a number of comment threads before this, but I have no idea how to find them again.
I really liked Lunapads
http://lunapads.com/
I started out with the party in my pants pads which I have really liked for their fun fabrics, and I think they have a starter pad promotion which is nice. That said I have had some difficulty making sure the thicker pads I have get completely clean through multiple washings and their “oh just throw it in the wash nbd” directions are not super helpful.
Ooh, yeah. I’ve been soaking mine with oxyclean, because I can’t convince myself that I can just throw them in a normal wash and all will be fine.
Back when I was period-ing, I got several from Party In My Pants. Loved them- stayed in place and did not feel bulky to me at all.
I prefer Glad Rags to Luna Pads (only two I’ve tried), but I will take Dear Kate panties every time! Luna Panties are good too, and they have ribbons that hold extra layers of absorbancy in for medium flow days.
I like Luna panties, but I wouldn’t recommend just the pads, I found they didn’t stay in place very well.
#HAM4HOGWARTS
THIS IS THE BEST THING.
Ivanka Trump has clothing and shoe lines that are actually kind of cute (and sometimes reasonably priced) but I refuse to ever buy anything from her on principle. She does not need the money or validation, and really, everything in life has been handed to her. Not that me not buying the stuff is going to make a dent in her profits, but I’m immovable on this.
I bought one of her shirts from TJ Max right before trump announced.
I still love that damn shirt, but feel vaguely dirty wearing it now.
I have a pleather jacket from her line and I feel weird about it but I also love that jacket. Dammit, Ivanka.
I have a pair of shoes from her line that I bought for a wedding. They are beautiful and comfortable and I paid full price for them. I haven’t worn them since Trump announced and I feel sad whenever I look at them. Then I feel silly because I already spent the money and its not the shoes fault.
I regularly pick up her stuff at TJMaxx and immediately put it back on the rack when I see the label.
That’s what I do too, and then I push it aside with excessive force.
I have a beautiful a-line dress from TKmaxx that I didn’t realize was Ivanka Trump until recently. I can’t throw it out because its amazing, but it makes me like it less and I’m sad now.
Just tear out the label!
Her taste–or, at least her taste in hiring people who have taste for her–is a LOT better than what I would have expected from someone in her position. I guess it took an extra generation for the old-money aesthetic to kick in?
My mom got me one of her coats without realizing it…and I was three years overdue for a new coat…and it looks good and fits me really well…but Trump *sweats guiltily*
Ugghhh I have a pair of Ivanka Trump shoes. I wear a size 4 and my choices are limited. But I feel gross every time I see the brand name written on the sole.
Poor Sansa. She needs to come hang out with poor Adele, the cat forced to *share* a queen sized bed with some dumb human.
The “weed suppositories for your menstrual cramps“ article reminds me of the time I had a procedure that involved getting a local anesthetic to my cervix. The second that the doctor injected the anesthetic down there, my tongue also went completely numb. It totally freaked me out but I guess the two are connected as I have heard that some people can taste things that go in their lady bits.
I have heard that some people can taste things that go in their lady bits.
Really? Is this really a real thing? I need to know more?
Someone told me that there is some homeopathic thing where you put a garlic suppository in your vagina (I do not remember why) and some people will taste it. This is all I know.
Garlic cloves are pretty effective anti-yeast infection suppositories for me when I can tell one is on its horrible little way. And, yes, my mouth definitely gets all garlicky. I think both areas being mucus membranes have something to do with it, but I like to make-up facts like I’m 6 sometimes.
I read a fascinating article about singers and menopause. It talked about a husband and wife medical team who kept getting complaints from professional sopranos that their voices were going wonky during their periods. The husband kept giving them variations on the “It’s just your imagination, dear” lecture…then the wife actually looked at their evidence and realized, yes, the singers’ vocal chords were going through a similar cycle every month. Oops.
Whaaaaat? That is crazy and fascinating. Butalso hormones go literally everywhere so not that surprising.
Yes, and yes. And also: I have discovered that wrapping it in cheesecloth is Very Helpful for Removal Purposes.
(I have short fingers, and I do not want to be the person whose home remedy winds up being the LOL story at some doctor’s dinner party.)
I can report, anecdotally, that this is totally true, on both counts. Also, that garlic has staved off many a nascent yeast infection before it could fully establish itself in my nethers.
This is a real thing; I can tell you from professional experience that some people, with local anesthesia to the cervix, also get ringing in their ears!
Does it go in the other direction, tho, because I feel like if more people had (or even talked about?) weird-genital-sensations during cavity fillings the world would be a different place?
I have had a few fillings in my life and I never felt anything in my cervix. Though, I have to say, I am not really aware of my cervix most of the time anyway.
I had no idea this was A Thing, but my entire life I’ve had a strange thing where if I really poke inside my belly-button, I get a sharp pain deep in my lady-bits (maybe cervix??).
same!
My ladybits are isolated I believe, but my boobs and the insides of my knees are definitely connected sensation-wise.
::wise nodding:: elbows and belly-button.
There is a spot at the base of my spine which, if scratched, causes weird unpleasant sensations in another spot in my vulva. I assume it’s a weird nerve things.
There’s a spot in my neck that refers sensation into my ribcage. And there’s a spot near my left shoulder blade that refers sensation EVERYWHERE.
Being poked in the bellybutton makes the very ends of my toes feel all weird. I don’t actually like the feeling of it, but I get excited about the neuroscience behind it because I am a weirdo nerd.
human bodies are amaaaaaaaziiiing
Moderately related to taste/lady-bit connection: does anyone get a really really itchy vulva when her seasonal allergies are bad? This happened to me for the first time last spring (I am almost positive) but my googling led me to like, one mom forum with a lady wondering if that could be what’s bothering her 7yo, and nothing else. I swear there’s a connection!
This is the best Sansa photo ever.
Sure, Town and Country, but how many magazines are basically “here is what the rich people are doing, now buy some shit?” I’m all ragey about it.
Maybe I will start a magazine devoted to the doings of the humble. I realize this probably means I can’t feature Lin-Manuel since he won that MacArthur though.
You can sneak him in, because he’s all in on being humble in the “having humility” sense. (NOT saying you didn’t know that! Just wordplaying. And shamelessly taking any opportunity to say something about Lin-Manuel Miranda.)
I just love David Crosby’s response so, so much. I have a sneaking suspicion he’s a creep, but he is just being an old, grumpy man there and I LOVE IT.
I also find it bizarre that people ask celebrities to be their prom date. It’s just…tacky. And creepy.
As a Canadian, I’m perpetually astonished whenever I read about maternity leave policy in the States. How Republican politicians don’t see it for the gross human rights violations that it is I will never understand.
Also, Hamilton yesterday was beyond amazing! I’m so glad I got to see it. My favorite surprise was how much of the company was onstage at any given time. I nearly gave myself whiplash trying to take it all in. And I got almost the whole original cast, only Anthony Ramos and Jasmine Cephas-Jones were absent. Then in the evening we got same-day tickets to Fiddler, and the guy who played Tevye looked exactly like my dad from where I was sitting, so I have all the feelings about that too.
Republicans do not care about people. Unless they are generating cold, hard, cash. The Dems are slightly better.
I can’t remember the last time the GOP did anything to benefit actual human beings.
You have to remember that the Republican Party is, at this point, basically just the Death Eaters. Though Voldemort is considerably less physically repellent than Donald Trump.
But at least the death eaters don’t market themselves as pro-life and pro-family values. It’s the hypocrisy that gets me.
Hiiiii I saw Hamilton yesterday, too! It was amazing. The soundtrack doesn’t do any of their voices justice, especially Chris Jackson and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
And Daveed Diggs’ French accent was on point for all of act one. I loved all of it, it’s so hard to pick a favorite character or part of the show
Republican politicians in the US don’t believe people are entitled to food. So, you need to work from that baseline. It’s okay, those of us who aren’t Republicans don’t understand it either.
I’m really just piling on at this point, but Republicans tend to think of “human rights” as a secret UN conspiracy to take away our “freedom”.
I mean, we tortured guys?? So, we’re pretty okay with human rights violations.
Wait, how is the NYMag that interviews GOP voters in Iowa and New Hampshire not included in the link roundup? It’s just about the saddest and most racist thing you’ll read all day!
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/01/iowa…
“I’m tired of political correctness all the time. We have contract workers that work with us, and a lot of them are Muslim. We have to honor their rituals. If they need to pray during the day, we have to allow that. There’s something wrong. It’s harder to be a Christian now in America.”
SOMEONE ELSE PRAYING NEAR YOU IN A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT MANNER IS NOT THE SAME AS PERSECUTION
:: incoherent sputtering ::
I was really, really hoping that was a New Hampshire resident. I’m from Iowa, I love Iowa a tremendous amount, but goddamn, these people are awful and make my home state look terrible.
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been volunteering with voter turnout here and I’ve met a great many lovely progressives (and a handful of wacko progressives, I guess every side’s got em). But then, I’m in DSM.
But I totally feel you about the caucus in general. There are already enough national outlets preparing their quadrennial think piece about how Iowa is a shitty hillbilly state that should have to vote last or something. Don’t help them along!
It’s not that I think Iowans should vote last, but I am wondering why they are always first. It really skews the candidates’ pandering. Why not rotate the states each presidential cycle? Imagine if they had to pander to California or New York once in a while.
Oh yeah it’s a weird system, and even though I relish my disproportionate political influence I don’t think it’s fair or deserved. But also, there’s sort of a tradeoff where whoever goes first has to experience like 2 years of intense presidential campaigning, so it’s not entirely a privilege.
That was the opening topic of the Diane Rehm show this morning! Except they kind of elided over it and didn’t actually answer. 🙁 Apparently the answer is “just because. also Iowa and New Hampshire have it written into their state laws that their primary/caucus is 1 week before any other in the country”.
Isn’t that CONVENIENT. *side-eyes their state legislatures*
10 bucks says they regularly complain about banks/restaurants/shops being closed on Sundays
When Sunday shopping was first allowed in my province, I was working in retail. Multiple elderly women (it was always an elderly woman) doing their after church shopping would come to my till, with purchases, and chastise me (the lowly teenage wage slave) for having the nerve to be open on Sunday. We were pretty much the only store open on Sunday on the main street in my small town, so you’d really have to put in an effort to be there. Argh!
Holy crap, the hypocrisy there. Berating you for being open WHILE ENGAGING IN COMMERCE. IT’s such a pity you couldn’t pointedly ask whey they aren’t observing the Sabbath at home.
I used to get that shit from church ladies BUYING DONUTS FOR CHURCH. The fact that they didn’t spontaneously combust from the hypocrisy was a contributing factor to my disbelief in a just and loving god.
It’s the other side of the issue, but I had customers tell me they were so sorry I had to work on Thanksgiving. While buying coffee from me. On Thanksgiving. Folks, if you think stores shouldn’t be open then, stop rewarding them for being open!
we should be allowed to forcibly convert the guys we hired cause they’ve got no rights and get paid below market rate, dammit! It’s the American way!
“I’m tired of being a decent human being all the time. We have contract workers that work with us, and a lot of them are Muslim. We have to honor their rituals. If they need to pray during the day, we have to allow that. There’s something wrong. As a Christian, I don’t recognize my religious privilege in America and take it for granted all the time.”
Fixed that for them.
It is so exhausting being a decent human being!
“My other daughter is mixed race. She is pretty much a liberal. She has been ripping me up one side and down the other. She goes, “Trump is an atrocity.” I’m like, “You don’t understand him. He is for the people.” She thinks he’s racist. I told my daughter, “What you don’t like is he’s just like you: He tells you like it is.””
Oh, that poor daughter.
Also: “This is the other thing that I can’t get my Democratic friends to understand: Bringing in these refugees, why are there so many men? If you want to convince me, where are the women and children? I don’t have a problem with women and children. ”
Lady, you have one source for your news, and I know exactly what it is.
I am really upset on behalf of both that guy’s daughter and that one other guy’s wife, whom he apparently mansplained into having an “epiphany” about why abortion is wrong.
What really kills me about the “why so many men???” line of questioning is that, like, the obvious answer is “they don’t want to be press-ganged into a terrorist group.” Because those are their options: join ISIL, or run (or die). Why aren’t these concerned Americans glad that the refugees chose to not join a terrorist group?
Exactly! But noooo, it’s easier to believe they’re all ISIS plants.
“I just want to feel safe like I felt like I did with George W. after 9/11. He had just taken office, and that kind of ruined his presidency, in a way. Our president now isn’t tough at all. I don’t think he cares. I think he’s an economic — I can’t say Hitler. But part of me feels like he does the national debt on purpose, because I feel like he hates America.”
my mouth is open and yet i cannot scream
“If we don’t protect our nation, if we don’t protect Israel, in the biblical standpoint, we have a lot to be accountable for.”
*incoherent sobbing*
“he does the national debt on purpose”
I’m joining you in silently screaming. THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS!!
changing my username to Economic Hitler
Please don’t; GoatseFanfic makes me laugh every time you post a comment. Economic Hitler would just make me cry.
Yay for feeling safer under a war criminal!
It’s pretty distressing to think that some people actually take comfort knowing their leaders will torture to keep them safe (even though it doesn’t, willful ignorance, etc.).
Reading that snippet actually made me feel horribly ill. I grew up outside DC. My dad worked at the NSA and my mom worked for DoD and had regular meetings at the Pentagon; on 9/11 we spent several hours terrified that she would never come home. Bush made the fear worse. His actions made us more acutely aware of how many high value targets we lived near, made it impossible to handle the trauma due to consistently being triggered. His actions are a huge part of why I usually can’t say any of this outloud.
The idea that the things he did, which set me up for some killer, untreated for years PTSD, that make me feel ashamed to speak because what he did to others is so vastly worse, made people feel *safe*… I have no freaking words for how angry and sick that makes me feel.
:((((((((
I’m sorry you’ve had to endure all that.
My dad was still in the military on 9/11 and for me the terrifying threat wasn’t that we would be attacked again, it was that my dad would be sent to a war zone. Luckily he was able to retire before that happened. Anyone who thinks that a warmonger is going to bring peace of mind must live at a very far remove from the actual impact of those decisions.
“He does the national debt on purpose.” Does it how? How does one “do” the national debt? Is it like a trendy dance move? It would be weird to do a trendy dance move by accident.
So the “testicular fortitude” person says “Carly Fiorina impresses the living death of me”? Is this an expression anyone recognizes? Cause all I can think is Death-in-Life and Life-in-Death from Ancient Mariner and – I guess Carly Fiorina would kind of fit in, but I don’t think that’s what this person intended?
Spell of Living Death from the Snow White Disney cartoon, perhaps? Ugh. Blerg. Gahhhhhhh.
Ted Cruz is the most conservative guy in the bunch and he’s frankly the smartest guy in the bunch. I was leaning toward Rand Paul until Rand started to give me the impression that he was a little soft. Largely, the reason why I’m a conservative is because I’ve been on public assistance my whole life, and I have always felt ashamed of it. I have two major health conditions — cerebral palsy and an injury to my left hemidiaphragm. The whole idea of welfare and entitlements is to create a permanent underclass. They’ll give you plenty of handouts, but they won’t give you any hand-ups.”
I just…I just don’t…I just can’t…wat. wat. wat. aggggghhhhhhhhh
Oh damn that is profoundly sad, the bit about the reason why I’m a conservative is because I’ve been on public assistance my whole life, and I have always felt ashamed of it.
Yes, this philosophy is a Thing, and it blows my mind. I remember talking to some people I knew who literally lived in a house with a dirt floor (rural South), who were Republicans because they sincerely believed that Republican economics were going to trickle down to them. It made me so angry that politicians would willing deceive the good-hearted, hard-working poor. You can tell all the Horatio Alger stories you want to, but these poorly educated, socially-disconnected, not very healthy people were NEVER going to be self-made millionaires.
“I’m not like those poor people who get handouts; I DESERVE the support I get!” is sadly also a Thing.
I’m torn between sadness at his shame… and confusion that he hasn’t investigated programs for disabled workers, like New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation, which I think might be the hand-up he’s looking for? Although to be fair I don’t know if that program is well-advertised.
“I grew up as a strict constitutionalist. Let’s say my brother got caught with a pack of cigarettes in his room and my mom went to punish him. My dad said, ‘What are you doing in his room? You can’t punish him, you didn’t have jurisdiction to do the search.'”
Amazing.
I mean…that’s just obvious. After all, your brother bought that room in the house with his own WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR DAD WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU.
Heaven forbid a parent behave LIKE A GEEDEE PARENT, amirite?
“And I would actually vote for a dead cat before I’d vote for another Bush — I would vote for Hillary over Jeb.”
Well, there’s some sense there.
“I like Ben Carson. I think he’s very logical. He’s just so noncombative and nonconfrontational, the opposite of Trump.”
“When I think of the President of the United States, I best like to think of him asleep.”
“I did six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and I have a lot of disabilities from the war and the training. We’re paying a lot in medical bills. I hate it.”
This person is supporting Donald Trump. I am very close to supporting Mencken’s view of democracy.
“President Kennedy seemed to be all about rights and exposing corruption and stuff like that and that’s how Trump reminds me of him. He’s kind of a cross between Kennedy and Reagan.”
/ takes to the sea
// runs into Peter Theil
/// realizes even the sea isn’t safe anymore
//// takes to space
///// runs into Elon Musk
////// realizes even space isn’t safe anymore
/////// grimly smile as you pilot into the sun
tbf corruption doesn’t get much more naked
From what I have gleaned, Trump along amongst the rest of that crowd actually supports the ACA or at least more expansive healthcare than most other Republicans will admit to, so that’s…sad and unfortunate, but not completely mixed up.
I thought he was pretty staunchly against it (at least as much as he actually holds any positions, which is to say, he’s been staunchly against it since he decided to run for president and *mcconnaughey-finger-flutter.gif* never you mind where he was before that)
And this is why Trump is such a bad choice, because no one can pin him down on anything except hot air! which is admittedly also difficult to pin down.
he must have changed his talk recently? i remember a bunch of thinky blogs and such at the start of the debates about how odd he way to be a Republican front-runner because he actually supported some of the things that Republicans loathe.
But he embodies the kind of masculinity that staunch right-wingers apparently want, which is the brash, abrasive, toxic masculinity which shows up immediately when you question entrenched privilege. So it’s not about what he believes, but how he believes it.
Have you heard of Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus? Tom Hiddleston starred in it in London a couple years ago, it was broadcast in theaters here in the U.S.
It’s about a Roman general who’s pretty popular, people want to elect him as consul, but the problem is that he not-so-secretly LOATHES democracy because UGH THESE STUPID PLEBES, and what follows is a pretty amazing trainwreck, as you might expect. But damn, sometimes I think his arguments (in pretty Shakespeare verse) had a lot of merit.
I’ve heard of it, but never seen it or read it. I could see that being pretty great with Hiddleston (although the wikipedia summary mentions a dramatic battle, and as great as Hiddleston is, he has to be the least physically imposing actor in the world).
Lol, I think the battle was offstage. He did a good job staggering around with wounds, though. And his mother-character was properly terrifying… Oh yeah, I found one of her quotes lecturing her daughter-in-law:
VOLUMNIA
If my son were my
husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence
wherein he won honor than in the embracements
of his bed where he would show most love.
And she totally fetishizes his wounds, thanking the gods for them and planning to use them to his political advantage. Creepy mom award.
Ugh. Weird. But I am kinda fascinated.
Volumnia is amazing. I wrote my undergrad thesis on her, Lady Macbeth, and Paulina of A Winter’s Tale.
Sweet! I had fun writing an essay on Juliet and Emilia (from Othello), who were both pretty take-charge women.
Was Paulina the one who shouted, “Let he who makes trifles of his eyes be the first to touch me!”? Because that is one of my favorite Shakespeare lines.
Nice! Yes, she’s the one. I started senior year with the vague idea “I’ll write something about women in Shakespeare” and eventually narrowed it down specifically to the women who take charge of their families. It was very fun, and I ended up feeling quite fondly towards the three of them, which is a very odd feeling to have about Lady Macbeth, let me tell you.
There’s also film version with Ralph Fiennes, and Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia.
I saw a production, many years ago, that starred Charles Dance. Let me tell you, no one–no one!–can convey contempt for the plebes better than he did: so very, very above them that he didn’t even bother to sneer. Of course, this is the same level of contempt I believe that Trump feels for the electorate.
How dare you compare the contempt of Donald Trump to the contempt of Charles Dance. How dare you. Charles Dance hates while being majestic af.
Now that you’ve brought this up, I’ll be thinking of Hiddleston going “your voices, your voices” while snatching up people’s ballots every time it’s pointed out what contempt Trump has for his own supporters.
Also has possibly the most homoerotic speech in Shakespeare. You noble THANG, you.
Yeah, the interviews are various degrees and flavors of ridiculous and/or scary, but those are great photos; they look like a collection of veteran character actors. The guy to the right of the title with the blue bandana around his neck (Timothy van Deest, 64, airline agent; From: Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Supporting: Undecided, considering Carson, Rubio, Cruz, Fiorina, Paul, and Trump) reminds me of latter-day Bowie.
“I am a urologist. Male gynecologist.” Nope, sorry. Not a thing.
As if he wasn’t weird enough, he’s got 9 kids between the ages of 16 and 30.
Why would anyone want 9 kids? He’s a doctor–so is he an incompetent one who doesn’t even understand birth control or is he “morally opposed” to it? Or he is one of those weirdos who wants to create their own personal army?
They’re probably part of the Quiverfull movement, which is just terrifying.
I heard that the militant killed in Oregon this week had no less than 12 kids, augh. There’s a terrifying overlap of “violent anti-government ideology” and “pro-create as much as possible.”
He was a kid hoarder. Took in a bunch of foster children (and was well paid for it by the government). That’s how he paid his bills.
“I am an internal medicine doctor. An adult pediatrician.”
Oh god, I’m only on the first one, and my brain hurts.
“I call myself a liberty Republican. I supported Ron Paul in the last two elections. I got interested in Donald Trump back in February. I put 32 liberty Republicans into a boardroom with him, and I drilled him for 25 minutes on tough issues. Even when you didn’t agree with him, you knew that he was going to do exactly what he thought was right—”
Hold the phone–isn’t that a BAD thing? If you don’t agree with what he thinks is right, then why would you want him to do that thing? O.o
“Give us hell, Quimby!”
“Just think of what a cabinet somebody can make. Whoever wins, it’s a Republican person, you got a beautiful cabinet you can pick out of this group. Beautiful cabinet.”
BEAUTIFUL. CABINET.
Beautiful cabinet filled with binders of women, amiright?
Binders FULL of women!
Can someone just put Donald Trump IN one of his beautiful (tacky) gold plated cabinets?
“Today, on ‘Presidential campaign, or Antiques Roadshow?’….”
“I think in terms of this heroin epidemic, one of the things that I believe is when I was growing up we had strong families with a support system, we had neighborhoods that we could go and get into a baseball game, a football game, get into a fight.”
Sooooooo…. fighting > drug addiction? Cool. Cool cool cool.
Well, it’s probably healthier to get into the occasional, one-on-one fistfight than to develop a heroin addiction. Just a PSA for all the kids out there who are trying to decide between their only two choices, wholesome old-timey violence or opiates.
I can’t believe millennials complain so much. They have ONE decision to make, and there are only TWO options to choose from! GOD. MILLENNIALS. UGH.
“Wholesome old-timey violence” made me laugh so hard I scared the cat.
I think he means a boxing match? Like football game, baseball game, boxing match……..
Still disagree w/his political opinions, obv, and I don’t even like boxing, but.
I am now convinced that some of my fellow Americans don’t even know what a president is.
I am going way slow on this article because Work keeps interfering (WTF Work), but HOW IS IT that no one can do math? “I think the budget is just obscene. When we’re $20 trillion in debt, that’s crazy. What is it, like, $50,000, $60,000 per person that our grandchildren and our children all owe?”
Hmm, let me run the numbers a sec – $20 trillion divided by approximate US population of 300 million, is $66.67. Is one thousand times that close enough?
GAHHH @ “The Republican Party has been on the right side of social issues for the last 200 years, and this [gay marriage] is just the one time when they’re on the wrong side.” Just the one time in two hundred years!!!
that’s a new and inventive way to use the Abraham Lincoln was a Republican line, which is both true and nonsense when used to defend modern Republicans.
Do you think he’s also including the Southern motherfuckin’ Democratic-Republicans? I’m pretty sure he’s also including the Southern motherfuckin’ Democratic-Republicans.
The Southern Motherfuckers are an older party with only a coincidental similarity in names. Therefore, if you and Alexander Hamilton both want to fight the entire Republican party, you and he are beating up entirely different groups of people.
I will wager literally any sum of the money that I do not have, up to and including “the cost of the moon if it were made out of gold” that this dickhead lumps them in with modern Republicans so he can trace the party’s lineage back to Thomas Jefferson.
(Also: I tried very hard to find the “will fight anyone, including himself” A.Ham image, but I cannot locate it. Plz imagine it here. He’d definitely help me beat up modern Republicans!)
For you future visual A.Ham referencing needs: http://punkscully.tumblr.com/post/133830870626/li…
You’ll have to crop to get just Ham, not sure if/where that version already is.
Oh oh also re: fighting Trump http://purelintrash.tumblr.com/post/135854657061/…
also the GOP isn’t even two hundred years old, it was founded in the 1850s
This is obviously a minor point, but… 20,000,000,000,000/300,000,000 = about 66,667.
No, not at all a minor point. I am wrong, dammit, I was billioning when I should have been trillioning. I am the one who can’t do math. My exasperation fuse was blowing out all over the place. Shame on me, or can I say cave[M]at[H] emptor, apologies to Mallory Ortberg, National Treasure?
“He [Obama] feels that global warming is more important than people getting killed in San Bernardino. People look at that and say, ‘What is he, crazy? You want to spend all these dollars that we don’t have on stuff that ain’t going to happen for 200 years? Are you crazy?’”
The climate won’t change for 200 years. Yep, crazy.
I suppose all the places that are experiencing devastating floods are just overreacting.
And Virginia has only had two total weeks of winter so far.
Also the fact that no, your grandchildren are not going to have to pay back the entire national debt. It is not a 30-year mortgage. People who try to understand global economics in terms of personal finance=face in palm.
I think he’s talking about two different things in a kind of incoherent way? Like, the sense I’m getting is that he jumped from talking about the national debt to talking about young adults’ students loan payments, but did not explain the switch in subject.
That guy supports refugee rights, accepts that climate change is a thing, and believes that making it harder for people to buy assault weapons is a good thing. He sounds like a pretty reasonable person. Why would he think Ted Cruz is ok?
I live in Iowa mostly voluntarily, and my children are native Iowans, and everything about this article makes me want to cry, bash my head in, or run screaming. Some of them, all at once.
“A lot more people are getting offended by little things than they used to. There’s a lot of controversy with that. Like the whole happy-holidays thing. I said ‘happy holidays’ to a customer last week. He said, ‘No; Merry Christmas.’ And I said, ‘Merry Christmas.’ It’s shit like that.”
I like the cut of this man’s jib.
<3 <3 <3 this guy –> “The idea of liberty has become popular in the last three or four years, and a lot of people have latched onto that.”
” Trump’s ideas and my ideas are pretty in tune. I had an epiphany 15 years ago when I said, “God, I want to own my own business, be a millionaire.” It took me ten years to make my first million, and then that exponentially grew. People say Trump’s not nice. Well, I’m not nice, either. Sometimes harsh words will motivate people. ”
That’s a surprising amount of self-awareness. This guy has no delusions that his presidential candidate is going to help anyone, and he’s okay with that, because fuck everyone else! The bootstrap method worked for his white male ass.
On the other hand, I actually want to have coffee with 20-year-old Ashley, because unlike the above dude, she actually gives a shit about people and clearly uses her brain:
“There’s a reason why I never supported Trump or Cruz: I think you have to treat other people with the same respect you want to be treated with.”
and this:
“What really bothers me about voters my age is they’re so concerned over social issues. I’m like, “Guys, Roe v. Wade’s never going to be overturned, so stop crying about it. There’s nothing for you to worry about.” I personally believe in traditional marriage and I am pro-life, but both of these things have been decided by the Supreme Court and they don’t bother me. I’m not God; I don’t have to judge other people. Our president doesn’t have to spend his time worrying who can get abortions and who can get married. It should be decided by the states, because every state is very different. I went to Missouri a couple weeks ago, and it’s a completely different planet.
I don’t see why gender should play a big role. I think every human being is created equally, men and women, black and white, age, it doesn’t matter. Some people say nothing else matters to them besides the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman. That’s like somebody saying I want Donald Trump to be the next president because he’s a man. It sounds just as ridiculous.”
I like this septuagenarian, even if he does think Fiorina is a reasonable choice:
“I think Donald Trump is a parody of what a campaign ought to be and I’m ashamed of my party for the support that he seems to be getting. I wonder who these people are because I don’t know any of them.”
Three cheers for another septuagenarian (break freeeee of the GOP, lady):
“We’re all immigrants, okay. Yeah, we like to pretend we’re not, but we are. It bothers me. I don’t like the direction the Republican Party is going.”
“But even in our business, working, it’s hard to find people that want to work, show up every day, and are good workers. I mean, I don’t know if a younger-generation mentality — they think they should just be given everything or they shouldn’t have to work for it, or whatever. But I know everybody is having the same problem, trying to find good-quality workers.”
This dude is 31. You have no right to bitch about “the younger generation.”
I am pretty sure that if we get to Ashley soon enough, we can save her.
This is why we need a ToastMobile™.
Should it be made of shells and powered by cherubs? Or would that send the wrong message?
I was thinking more of a dirigible powered by male tears, but I like your idea as well.
I like this version and its steampunky implications.
What a sad and fascinating piece. I thought they did a decent job of humanizing their subjects. It’s heartbreaking to see people marginalized by Republican/neoliberal policies who just want more of those policies. This is what Fox news and a terrible education system have done to so many average Americans.
Yeah, I wouldn’t have linked to this piece had it contained any “look at these fucking idiots” rhetoric; not helpful and it gives those fucking idiots something to complain about! I did love that they addressed why no POC were interviewed.
It’s a delightfully subtle “Republicans racist AF” jab, while also being honest journalism.
I’m torn between “jesus christ New Yorker, not everyone in Iowa is that bad” and sighing in sad recognition. At least they didn’t quote anyone from my hometown this year. (Last time around I heard quotes from people I knew on the radio, and I know they’re bad, but good gravy I don’t need to hear it before breakfast.)
I’m sure lots in Iowa aren’t like that! Because there are Democrats in Iowa, after all. These are just those determined to vote for a Republican candidate.
Those people are definitely not the majority! They ought to do one about Democratic caucus-goers where they get my mom to say something nice about nature conservation or something.
And you got to do what you got to do to keep your country safe. If it’s banning Muslims … I don’t know.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say I do know: banning Muslims would be a terrible idea.
People talk about, Does a woman have a right to her own body? I said sure, but you’re talking about two bodies, two separate individuals, genetically. My wife was kind of, “Well, I don’t know if I could ever tell anybody they can’t have it.” And then we’d have discussions. She had an epiphany.
Ughhh. Good thing there was A Man there to explain to his wife why her silly lady feelings were wrong!
He’s almost too good to be true – WHO THINKS THAT ABOUT TRUMP? (Actually, this column explored that aspect of Trump’s persona :http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2016/jan/27/donald-trump-attack-ad-immigrants-gun-control But still.)
He feels that global warming is more important than people getting killed in San Bernardino.
… it sort of is?
“Crime…boy, I don’t know.”
Every once in a while, I make excellent life choices and because of that, I just returned from a two hour long beauty treatment. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Granted, I always had a hard time relaxing thoroughly, and this was no exception, but I do feel calmer, and my skin feels great, and smells great, and while I lay there under several towels and blankets, I thought about the past few years and had some enlightening realisations. Yay!
Self care for the win! Love that you did that for yourself.
I have scheduled myself a little spa time with a girlfriend this weekend, and I am confident it will be amongst my better January decisions.
If you like Town & Country, you might enjoy David Tang’s stellar “agony uncle” column in the Financial Times. Unfortunately I hit a paywall just now before I could find a particularly great example, but last year my husband bought a paper copy of FT before a flight and I was so impressed that I took some photos that are still on my phone:
Anyone want to place bets on who the titled lady was?
So Jamie Lee Curtis A) was the pitch lady for bowel-problems-yogurt B) is married to Baron Christopher Guest C) seems like the sort of person that might purposely eat nothing but beans and garlic ahead of a fancy dinner just to fuck with people
I want to believe it’s Kate Middleton.
Might be a woman of the Swedish royal family – I’m thinking Nobel prize dinner?
Princess Estelle does look like the type…
Now I kinda want to invite her over for a playdate so she can have a farting contest with my kid…
I’m captioning this picture with a Mr Burns “Eeexellent…”, or “Fools! They suspect nothing!”
The FT also includes a weekend supplement that is called, no joke, “How to Spend It.” It provides tips on things like how to buy your own island.
No different than the Friday bargain bin, really…
There is a Friday supplement with the Times called Bricks and Mortar, about property stuff, which is clearly aimed at people who want to buy country estates and ruinously expensive central London houses. Once there was a feature asking “Would you pay an extra half a million for a house near a good school?” and it made me want to set things on fire. (An extra half a million? On top of a normal house price?)
The FT also includes a gardening column by Robin Lane Fox, Ancient History don at Oxford; my partner has been taught by him and has a wealth of terrifying stories about his eccentricity.
FT’s website is (luckily) one of the ones that you can fool by going incognito in Chrome! Highly recommend 🙂
Toast friends, if you are having a hard day I encourage you to check out calherps, a guide to the reptiles and amphibians of California.
http://www.californiaherps.com/turtles/pages/a.ma…
It is full of photos of turtles and frogs and charming descriptions of the photos – like the author is concerned that you might think they harmed or inconvenienced a herp at some point. It is most soothing.
AW, SANSA YOU POOR BABY. Don’t worry, this too shall pass, in the mean time, get scritches from EVERYONE.
If I see one more person chastising Amber Rose’s response to Kanye I am going to Hulk out. You don’t get to say that shit about someone and their baby and expect the Miss Manners response.
The “Old Loves” tumblr account, which usually posts photos of former couples from Hollywood a couple decades back (Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, sometimes even older), yesterday posted quite a few pics of Kanye & Amber Rose when he was still completely smitten by her. I just sipped tea and enjoyed it all. Celebrity drama & in-fighting is my absolute fave.
(NY Mag’s round-up of the Ye/Wiz fight is hysterical, btw.)
Yeah, and she clearly said it because she knew it would shut him up. Which it did! Immediately! She probably has unbelievable amounts of dirt on him but went for the one thing she knew would embarrass him enough to make him cool it.
This is the 6th day straight that I’ve had a snow day. I don’t know what day it is or what real pants look like. Also, I may need some positive vibes because I need to make phone calls to the houses of 2 guys that are supposed to be helping out on an important project due soon but have been invisible.
you keep referring to this “Sansa” as a puppy but you have clearly been duped and are allowing a small bear to live inside your house.
It’s a reverse goldilocks situation.
Congrats, Nicole! This is forcing me to reconsider my previous position that all alumni featured in the Harvard magazine are automatically The Worst.
From the link about Denmark:
Danish lawmakers last week also passed a resolution pushing the government to look into the consequences of building temporary housing complexes outside cities for refugees, like the country did during the Balkans war in the 1990s.
The move is backed by the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which sees it as a first step towards building state-run camps where refugees would stay without integrating into Danish society.
Oh my God. Oh my fucking God.
This party, Danish People’s Party, are more than “anti-immigration”. They’re right-wing nationalists and openly hateful towards Muslims. They make up a huge part of the ruling parliamentary coalition in Denmark.
My faves part is the beautiful circularity of the argument. “Muslims don’t integrate peacefully into European society! That’s why it’s so important we prevent them from integrating peacefully into European society!” It’s like a particularly shitty ouroboros!
And when it ends in flames they will of course consider it proof of their rightness and not at all the obvious consequence of their wrongness.
They will. And then what will they do to the Muslims?
I mean obviously that’s a rhetorical question but once you’ve taken a religious group’s gold and forced them into ghettos there’s uh, there’s some precedent on the next step of escalation.
Horrifyingly I’m not sure if I’m being glib or realistic with that comment.
This is just so deeply fucked.
It’s not really a rhetorical question, I’m actually worried.
Yeah, I don’t believe that they don’t realise that. They’re politically astute and they have an anti-Muslim agenda.
The Anti-People Party?
This is horrific.
Recently I watched a French movie about a Syrian refugee who was trying to make it to Britain. He couldn’t get across the channel and got stuck in France. The government basically refused to acknowledge all the refugees who’d gotten stuck in that city–no assistance, no housing, and the were laws against French citizens giving them help. It was ridiculous. Ignoring refugees won’t make them magically disappear! Is any country handling this well?
Germany is supposedly still being reasonable, but if they’re the last ones in the EU, I wonder how long it’ll take them to decide they don’t want to.
Funny you should say that though, because refugees ARE disappearing. Sweden has lost track of more than a thousand unaccompanied minors. Where did they go? What kind of person picked them up? Nobody knows, because nobody’s looking for them. The European Union is the world’s largest economy and it’s hell-bent on not accepting refugees. This isn’t incompetence, it’s a wilful decision to shut the fleeing people out. They die on our doorstep.
Holy fuck
——– Original message ——–
I am desperately hoping that at some point someone says, “So, if the consensus is that we can’t take immigrants into Europe … How much violence are we willing to tolerate to make that happen? How many kids killed trying to cross the Atlantic? How large a shanty town in Calais,many in Macedonia? How many people freezing to death in tents in Serbia? What’s the actual limit of what people will tolerate to keep Europe apparently rich and peaceful?”
Also, the fact that this shit happened on Holocaust a Memorial Day. When David Cameron referred to Corbyn meeting “a bunch of migrants”. Fucking pious hypocrisy when it comes to “this should never be forgotten”, inhuman punishment for today’s refugees.
Once I was babysitting my cousins in my aunt’s in-laws guest house (lol) and they had a stack of “Garden and Gun” magazines which claims to showcase “the true Southern lifestyle”. They are from Connecticut, and the magazine was almost entirely ladies in floor-length gowns holding guns in like, a random field. I am not ashamed to say that I stole several copies and my other aunt and I destroyed them the next day with great joy 🙂
All true. But I got a delicious recipe for bourbon slushies from that magazine once, so it’s not ALL bad.
Okay, that might be the weirdest niche magazine I’ve ever heard of.
Runners-up include:
– “Varmint Hunter” (which my boyfriend found in a rural barber shop)
– “Veterinary Economics” (which I found while cleaning hotel rooms)
So is Denmark gonna have customs guys pick you up by the ankles and shake you right there at the airport, or…?
If there’s one thing better than a huge displaced refugee population, it’s a huge displaced refugee population scrambling to survive with less than a month’s worth of living expenses
Denmark doesn’t have a huge refugee population. Nobody wants to stay there, for some reason. And yes, they will search everyone who asks for asylum. There was an interview with a cop who said that he was prepared to pry gold teeth out of people’s mouths if he was asked to.
They basically believe that asylum seekers don’t really have the right to own anything, because the Danish state is doing them a favour by allowing them to apply for asylum there (which is their human right, according to that famous UN document that Denmark has signed). So the system should “pay for itself” – meaning that the refugees should pay for it, meaning that the government has the right to their cash and their expensive stuff.
does anyone actually believe money is the issue tho because I feel like fifteen seconds of thought from even the most hardbitten nativist woulda lead to the conclusion that shaking down some refugees for what’s in their pockets and effectively preventing them from meaningfully contributing to the economy thereafter is a uh suboptimal way to go about defraying your costs, or avoiding endemic refugee-related crime, or doing anything else except maybe setting up an incredibly transparent excuse to purge them later.
No, money is not the issue. disenfranchisement is the issue.
The ARGUMENT is about money, but the ISSUE isn’t. I hate to Godwin this (mainly because people feel like as long as nobody’s wearing a yellow star and dying in a gas chamber, there’s no problem) but the Nazi German state argued the same thing. From their point of view, Jewish people didn’t “really” own their own stuff, because they didn’t “really” live in Germany. Any resource they had rightfully belonged to the German state, so it wasn’t stealing or even confiscation to take it “back”. Same thing with disabled people – “we” shouldn’t have to pay for “them”, they’re using up money that rightfully belongs to us. The Nazis removed the means to exist way before they removed the right to exist.
Asylum seekers are by definition not citizens of the state. Denmark is arguing that it’s unfair that “we” should have to allow “them” to exist in Denmark as some kind of equals, so “in fairness” they should not own anything expensive that the state might want. They’re not worth enough for Denmark to spend its own money on their survival, so Denmark shouldn’t have to pay a krona more than necessary. Ergo, the refugees must pay. It doesn’t matter if searching them costs more money than is seized – it would be worse to know that one of “them” got away with having something nice. It’s not an economic issue, it’s a “moral” issue.
It’s also, if course, a huge, HUGE middle finger to anyone who wants to exercise their human right to seek asylum in any country they want. It’s the world’s biggest “beware of the dog” sign. If they treat refugees badly enough, people from war zones may not try to seek shelter there at all! Awesome!
he was prepared to pry gold teeth out of people’s mouths if he was asked to.
I…why do people try so hard to force us to Godwin them? I don’t understand this drive to be as much like the SS as possible.
Congrats on the profile, I can’t wait to read it! I hope it’s fun for you, too. You deserve to be recognized for the good you do!!
After reading about Grease’s origins, I really want to see the original musical.
Also, my feeling is that if you’re going to do a remake, you should probably go all out and make it an all drag queen/drag king revue.
First of all, a drag version of Grease sounds amazing. I remember a Tumblr post that fancast Taylor Swift and Kristen Stewart as Sandy and Danny, and while those might not be everyone’s first choices, it was still a solid idea at the time. I think they also cast Nicki Minaj as Frenchy. I’d love to hear other fancasts!
Second–I did the original musical in high school (played Frenchy, which was totally fun) and it’s definitely different. Not entirely, but there are a few more songs, and Sandy doesn’t even go to the school dance–she was holding out for Danny but obviously he was a douche, and she sings a ridiculous cheesy song about being alone on prom night. Also, the last song isn’t “You’re The One That I Want”–it’s a song called “All Choked Up”. It’s still a duet between Danny & Sandy, but it’s waaaaaaay more about sexual frustration and a little racier, and I actually like it better. (The show is racier on the whole, I think.)
“We Go Together” is the last song in the film.
Oh, right. I always forget about that one. It always seems like a credits song to me. Second-last song, then.
If you’re interested in Allan Carr, there’s this thing from a few years back: an interview with “Snow White” from the Oscars show that Carr produced, which was the last professional job that he had, and generally considered to be one of the most embarrassing Oscar moments (and dig if U will the double standard: it pretty much killed Eileen Bowman’s career–she had some minor parts in the nineties–but Rob Lowe skated away from it, even with his sex tape scandal the following year). There’s a mention in there about some unnamed guy buying the Snow White costume for $23K and being buried in it; some people assume that that was Carr.
Poor Sansa!!!
Hope springs eternal in the canine head;
A dog never IS, but is always TO BE, fed.
So I never really liked Grease? Like, even when I was a small child, when I saw the movie I was like, “Who are all these old people and why are they acting like asshole teenagers? And why should I root for any of them? They’re all assholes!”
The music is really good though, granted.
I saw an ad last night for the Fox live performance this Sunday I think? Julianne Hough is Sandy and Vanessa Hudgens is in it, can’t remember anyone else. They will have an audience, which I think is one of the criticisms about the live musicals ABC? NBC? CBS? have been doing, that there is no audience. I think I will check it out!
Aaron Tveit is playing Danny, and he is an experienced (and beautiful) Broadway actor with a phenomenal voice. Pretty sure the Fox version will be worth at least some amount of watching just to hear him sing. There are also a bunch of bona-fide Broadway folk involved on the creative side (the director, Tommy Kail, also directed Hamilton).
The only live production I saw was The Wiz, which was really damn good IMO. The presence or absence of an audience didn’t really register at all.
The Wiz was LEAGUES better than either Sound of Music Live, which was mostly a snooze, or Peter Pan Live, which was also a snooze but featured Christopher Walken acting like…he was very drunk and also in some pain?
As a youth, I had a friend try to teach me the Grease dance once, and I was very confused why people in Greece were jitterbugging all over the place.
I’ve never liked it! The first person who showed it to me loooooved it, and after we watched it, I couldn’t believe that’s what all the buildup was for. And I don’t even like the music. This is just one of those things in our culture that I am not a part of, and I’m at peace with that.
The music is really good, but I never quite enjoyed it. Sandy changes her hair, makeup, values, and personality to suit a man who was embarrassed to be seen with her in public a few weeks before even though she is objectively beautiful.
Preach. I felt the same. I just thought “why am I supposed to eat up this stuff which is in direct conflict with everything we are being taught about self-respect by people who love us…?”
Grease the movie came out when I was ten. I had no nostalgia for either the 50s or high school, having experienced neither, and the whole thing left me cold. My favorite part was always Andy Gibb’s extraordinarily 70s disco title song, which was not even in the original musical.
A few years ago, my chorus did a “Best of Broadway” show, which included a Grease medley. Many of the members are seniors. Cue massive incomprehension of how to do the hand jive on stage.
I googled private jets after Nicole’s tweetstorm yesterday and now all of my cookie ads are for private jets, so, bad targeting private jets?
Tentatively putting feelers out: has anyone else read the ARC for A Fine Imitation by Amber Brock? I don’t want to poke around google or Goodreads or LibraryThing (my ARC is from LT Early Reviewers) for fear of influencing/biasing my read, but I’m on page 27 and very worried that there will be Tragic Lesbians in the main character’s backstory and I need someone to assure me either way so that I can read without worry. (I don’t know if I want the MC’s best friend to be in love with her or not, but not knowing is frustrating as heck.)
this would probably be an open thread thing but I can so rarely get to the OT because of work.
Um…so, I’m the author! I don’t want to spoil anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled, so I hate to post a definitive answer here in a public comment thread. Email me maybe? amber at amberbrock dot net.
Can I just freak out that my book got mentioned in the comments of my favorite website? I feel so…legitimate.
Haha! It seems like a book that people here will like! I’m really curious about the characters and their motivations even on page 27. 😀 Of course, you’ve got the alternating chapters, so the 1913 ones are full of life and exciting times once she meets Bea in chapter 1, and then 1923 is lonely and dull and I want to know what happened to Vera, why did she lose the excitement.
I’m so flustered now because omg the actual author saw this and replied?! and what if I’m COMPLETELY off with my question and it’s like “Keri what book are you even reading????” but I hope you’ll take it as intended, that I’m invested pretty well even this early, to the point of worrying that Bea’s character (and her relationship with Vera) could easily go two ways at this point based on things said so far, and I like them so much right now I don’t want them to suffer a tragic romance.
The back of the book has the blurb about “Vera knows a little something about keeping secrets. After all, she … closely guard[s] her own from her time at Vassar, when her friendship with the bold, artistically gifted Bea Stillman brought her to the brink of catastrophe and social exile” and in old media, women artists were often depicted as gay, sexually free, or both. Vera doesn’t seem to have ever fallen in love before and she’s pretty cool to all her friends, but she’s attracted to Bea in a way she’s never been before. And Bea is all about passion and not boring Arthur and mentions “you don’t need a husband for romance” which could go both ways. (AND I have a bad habit of reading women friendships as being romantic sometimes because that’s how it used to be coded, and there’s not a lot of it? and i watch too many silent and Pre-code movies.)
At this point, you’re still establishing characters and backgrounds before you get to the more involved plots, and anything could happen. Also, the back-blurb makes it clear that there is a man that Vera falls in love with in 1923.
I’m not going to ask because I ALSO let my curiosity overcome me and peeked at some pages towards the end and think I got a vague enough answer without spoiling the entire story for me. And it’s still a case of “I’m not entirely sure which way it will go, or which way I want to see it go” but what I saw made me satisfied that no matter what the big scandal was, it will be satisfactory. 🙂
(I’m a slow reader these days, with work and exhaustion, but I’ve been really looking forward to reading your book, ever since it arrived in the mail a few weeks ago.)
It’s so funny, because *I* was all flustered when I saw your first comment! I’m a constant Toast reader (and sometimes I think Mallory and I are secretly the same person somehow, because Chaucer and art and luring tiny feral kittens to safety…but I digress). Scrolling through the comments and seeing my name was surreal, like the Internet version of seeing a stranger reading your book on a plane (I would guess–it hasn’t happened to me [yet!]). Which is basically why I answered, because I was so wowed that a Toastie was reading.
Anyway, I can absolutely see how you would have that question, and I’m just flattered that you’re reading and thinking so deeply about the characters! I’m glad you found something that let you keep going.
I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading! 🙂
I really hope you come across people reading your book on airplanes! It looks like PenguinRandomHouse is doing a bang-up job with promoting (at least 2 rounds of LibraryThing ARCs, for example) – and the cover is so pretty, with the metallic green and gold and soft black, it’s gotta make people want to pick it up. 😀
I’ve read a good deal further now, had to prop the book open over dinner, it was so compelling. I hope all the readers enjoy it as much as I am!
I *love* the cover. Sometimes I pick up my copy just to pet it. My department head (I’m an English teacher) scolded me for getting fingerprints on it. 🙂
I also felt negged by that gin ad. It’s brought up a lot of feels for me. >:-(
Congrats on the Harvard alum appreciation nod, Nicole! I was pretty darn pleased when my alma mater flew me out last year to meet with prospectives as living, breathing proof that you can get a writing-adjacent job with a Creative Writing degree. But my college wasn’t Ivy League, so you are definitely competing (and winning) in a higher class.
Ah, speaking of luxury magazines — my one and only internship during college was with a Modern Luxury offshoot called Houston Brides. My primary job was calling various businesses to fact-check details and prices, and oh. my. God. It was an education. I still horde a treasure trove of anecdotes, like the $400 mink eyelashes (WHO WILL NOTICE THEM?) or the 0.25 oz of perfume that cost $125. (My favorite part of that last one was calling the perfume department at Saks Fifth Avenue, where I only mentioned the name of the perfume before the young man launched into a beautiful monologue extolling its virtues. It was a one-of-a-kind experience, I wish I had a recording.)
Mink eyelashes!
Side note: from the photos in the Link Roundups I get the impression that Nicole lives almost entirely on her bed. I heartily approve of this lifestyle.
And it miraculously always appears to be made up and is large and luxurious-looking. I have bed envy.
I’m assuming she has 1 bed for sleeping and 1 for lounging.
THIS is the kind of inspirational detail that I want to read about in an alumni magazine.
…wait. Jay McInerney is Town & Country’s wine critic?
I don’t even know where to start is the “oriental” design ad:
Should someone tell them that “the orient” is a little broad and out of favor as of like 1800?
Is that a pun?
Is it Expressed like past tense of “to express oneself” or Expressed like “express shipping”
Why is “Japanese” in quotes? Is it because they are doubting the validity of the term? Should I read it like sarcastic air quotes?
I’m pretty sure that’s a woodpecker which is like native to the americas? I just googled “oriental woodpecker” and it didn’t autocomplete so I’m going to say that’s not a thing.
I won’t buy them unless they are guaranteed to be made by Shanghai Lil.
Wait, the Japanese flatware pattern was introduced basically immediately on the opening of Japan (I have an interest in that era in design) — but it was discontinued, then rebranded a century later as “Audubon” pattern. What is even going on? Is it being re-reissued as a retro design???
I think it’s just à la “the orient express” to appeal to rich folks who imagine themselves on fancy trains, tho.
Shadow isn’t going to be The Rock! But this dude looks OK. http://www.tor.com/2016/01/28/american-gods-adapt…
I like him on The 100, which is a surprisingly good show.
He is also A+ at Being Shirtless. I don’t really remember Shadow being shirtless that much in the book, but I’m sure they could work that in there.
i’ve just started binge watching The 100 and do heartily confirm his A++ shirtless skills *fans self*
Oh man, I’ve never seen the 100, but I’m iust so happy they didn’t white wash Shadow! I mean, I don’t think they would have been able to get away with it, but who knows. And those are some A+ shirtless photos..::
Ah, man, I was hoping for Jason Momoa. But this isn’t a bad choice.
that’s so awesome. I am hoping this show is good.
Nothing destroys your hope for the future of Europe and humanity quite like learning that Denmark, a country that managed to save 99 percent of its Jewish population from the Nazis, is now doing this bullsh**t. Yes, Danish Jews were well integrated, but if Denmark could do the right thing despite the goddamn NAZIS, why can’t they do it now? Do these Danish legislators even know their own history?
Is this the best thing that happened yesterday? I say yes!
http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/neil-degrasse-tyso…
Absolutely.
On that paragraph mentioning James Bond:
If by “ideal bachelor” you mean “every woman he touches dies in order to further the plot of the story” then yeah sure. An ideal (and forever always) bachelor.
WM has new Paid Time Off program which is pretty decent for WM, but it really doesn’t address maternity leave. Sure, you can use your PTO to have your kid and spend some time with said kid, but if you aren’t FT or Salaried you won’t get the amount of time you deserve. And it doesn’t roll over. But it does pay out at the end of the WM fiscal year. Also: PTO will not only pay you while you take your days it also gives you time off while you are taking your time off. Everyone was pretty shocked by this bit of decency, including my store manager.
same!
You can sneak him in, because he's all in on being humble in the "having humility" sense. (NOT saying you didn't know that! Just wordplaying. And shamelessly taking any opportunity to say something about Lin-Manuel Miranda.)
For you future visual A.Ham referencing needs: http://punkscully.tumblr.com/post/133830870626/li…
You'll have to crop to get just Ham, not sure if/where that version already is.
Oh oh also re: fighting Trump http://purelintrash.tumblr.com/post/135854657061/…
Absolutely.