You've just finished uni; maybe you're taking a break from your stressful job, you've got some money saved, and you want to adventure and make a difference. There are children in developing countries, and you've got time and a lot of love and there's a whole world out there. But before you end up as that person on Facebook making the peace sign amid a crowd of brown orphans, stop and think. I might be…
On March 6, 1971 – International Women’s Day – 150 women veered from a march in support of women’s liberation, choosing instead to turn left on Pearl Street in Cambridge’s Central Square. The other protestors continued on their march from downtown Boston but for the breakaway, theirs was a different endpoint: 888 Memorial Drive, a Harvard-owned building occasionally used by the design school. In what they expressed to be a denunciation of the gentrification of…
When was your first time? What was it like? These are bonding questions in this society, in which we are supposed to gain intimacy by sharing the the awkwardness and gentleness and oddness of our burgeoning sexualities. There’s a whole show devoted to the question, in which John Stamos interviews celebrities about their first times. It is a question I dread. I have no idea when I lost my virginity or what it was…
When J. took his first breath, fresh into the world, he was already condemned to be an outcast for the rest of his short life.
His birth certificate bore no reference to his father: he had none. He was--like thousands of children born in the Complexo da Maré, Rio de Janeiro--excluded from society. His mother was HIV-positive and he lived in a 2m by 2m cubicle house without a bathroom. The complex of favelas where…
I was working in a bookstore when The Secret came out. It wasn't an event on par with the seventh coming of Harry Potter, but any time a book gets Oprah Winfrey's thumbs-up a decent clerk must, at a minimum, know where it is on the shelf and roughly what it's about. I didn't even need to meet that low standard—one of my coworkers bought the book and the DVD and raved about both…
This is a true story, or at least, as true as a memory can be. All names have been changed, including my own. My mother always said, “You can write anything you want about the family, darling, as you long as you do it under a different name. I want to pretend that’s someone else’s dysfunctional relatives. Did you see where I left my cigarettes?” When I was fourteen, my mother was fired from a…
Friend of The Toast Rohin Guha -- who I can personally attest has terrific hair and is profoundly charming on Twitter (he also sends very pleasant emails) -- wrote something thoughtful and important about the narratives surrounding media darling Malala Yousafzai and media just-pleasant-acquaintance Nabeela Rehman earlier this week. Yousafzai’s voice is integral. Her story has enjoyed exposure across all major news networks and outlets. But as our news cycle’s fascination with her temporarily winds…
Previously: Cook County Schools, Cook County Jails. B0124. Until last year, Illinois operated a $20-million-a-year super maximum security prison (“Supermax”) in the remote southern city of Tamms. There were only two hundred inmates, making it one of the most expensive prisons per capita of any in the country. It was also among the few prisons to practice complete, utter social isolation. Inmates were kept in miniscule chambers with thick metal doors and plexiglass windows…
It was January 29, 2013 at 11 p.m. when the pain started. A dull throbbing ache in my left lower abdomen that could have been indigestion or cramping. It was uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and I thought the best thing to do was go to sleep. I had flown into Austin the day before, I was tired and in a new place and the next day was my birthday; I wanted to be well-rested. But…
It was ninety-seven degrees outside so I didn’t take a sweater, but I regretted that the moment I sat down on the cold steel stool. Twenty minutes later, David sat down on the other side of the glass and picked up the phone. This isn’t the first time my godson’s been arrested but it is the dumbest. He was both surprised and embarrassed to see me. He said he didn’t call because he knows that…
In 1603, Elizabeth I died heirless and James VI of Scotland became James I of England (the Union of the Crowns). Then in 1707, in a meeting on Edinburgh's North Bridge (apocryphally now a Bella Italia restroom), with protesters thronging the Royal Mile, the Acts of Union were signed, uniting the Scottish and English Parliaments in Westminster, London. Oh, also, Wales and Northern Ireland are a thing. But honestly, we don't have the time for…
Canadians have successfully passed as non-Canadians for years. But how successful are natives of other countries at playing Canucks?
What follows is a decidedly non-exhaustive list of non-Canadian thespians stiffening up their facial muscles in order to portray an array of the Frozen People: Mounties, hockey players, fur traders, beer barons, and more.
1. In the 1936 musical romance Rose Marie, American actor Nelson Eddy stars as Sergeant Bruce, the singing Mountie.
Previously: Veronica Brown and the Indian Child Welfare Act. Though she is now a walking, talking preschooler, the headline read, "Baby Veronica Handed Over to Adoptive Parents." On the night of Monday September 23, 2013, Veronica Brown was removed from the care of her biological father and transferred to the custody of the couple who wanted her. The case that started in South Carolina Family Court as "Adoptive Couple vs. Baby Girl," went all…
