May 2013
24 posts
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“You’re so used to this kind of smoothness in writing, this feeling that you, the...”
– Zadie Smith
I read this interview with Zadie Smith from the Rumpus and I really feel like we could be friends now.
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“Every single one of Tumblr’s 178 employees will get money from the $1.1...”
– Everybody who works at Tumblr just made a TON of money.
Let’s be honest, I basically work for Tumblr anyway. I spend just about my entire work day on Tumblr, too. That has to be worth something, maybe $50? What is life, really? And what do I have to do differently with mine?
Maybe I could...
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‘Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race’ →
Tom Matlack asked his friend Steve Locke to write for us about race. He declined. Here’s why.
“I don’t want to talk about race because it gives weight to a fiction that was created to oppress. It has no basis in biology and is a social construction in this country that was engineered to maintain access to free labor. The fiction created by race distorts the reality in which we...
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“At the most basic level, there’s nothing any more wrong with aspiring to...”
– Ta-Nehisi Coates - How the President Talks to Black America
I like this particular quote, but the whole article is interesting, thoughtful reading.
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Why "Feticide" Charges Are More Complicated Than... →
Charging Ariel Castro with murder for allegedly causing his captives to miscarry their pregnancies sets a dangerous precedent, says Michelle Goldberg.
Michelle Goldberg argues against the murder charge at The Daily Beast:
But if he is convicted of capital murder, it will ultimately be an injustice—not to him, but to the rest of us. That’s because it will mean that legally, ending a...
Why isn't New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting... →
Unfortunately, though, I’ve learned to redefine what constitutes an American tragedy. American tragedies occur where middle America frequents every day: airplanes, business offices, marathons. Where there persists a tangible fear that this could happen to any of us. And rightfully so. Deaths and mayhem anywhere are tragic. That should always be the case. The story here is where American...
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iinventedeverything:
more to the point. i don’t want to cut off my breasts to make sure i don’t get cancer. i will if i have to, but i don’t want to.
i want to clean up the bajillion pounds of heavy toxins all over the industrial corridor and flying off of the freeways up and down the I75 corridor. i want to clean up the water, i want to stop fracking, i want to plant sunflowers everywhere so...
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OKAY FINE, you guys. I will read those books.
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“But this soundtrack asks: What kind of effects did the music Fitzgerald features...”
– Melissa Sexton - on Jay-Z and the Gatsby soundtrack
Seriously, what is Watch the Throne if not a modern day homage to The Great Gatsby? I am sure that all [okay, most - I think I can safely hypothesize that it’s 99.9%] of the criticisms of this soundtrack reveal a scant, embarrassing...
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Mother's Day Lessons From a Vampire Weekend Mom →
This sounds like a wonderful family.
After talking with Najmieh Batmanglij, and later with Zal and Rostam, it seemed to me that some of the attitudes she and her husband, Mohammad, held about family life were inspiring enough to be distilled into a little list.
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FDA says morning-after pill to move... →
Honestly, this is such a step in the right direction, and I’m really overjoyed beyond belief that the FDA is making such a wise choice to reduce the number of abortions in America. But I am still such a selfish, terrible person that I cannot help but be happy along with being so, so angry and also curious about how critical for me this would have been six or seven years ago. If I could have...
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“Boca Raton, Florida (June 17)
I actually saw it happen. A bird falling from...”
– Susan Mitchell, “Notes Toward a History of Scaffolding” (published in The Next American Essay)
April 2013
28 posts
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“Your mother showed me some of your landscapes and animal paintings and I thought...”
– Bill Clinton, the only person with the cojones to bring up the most important part of George W. Bush’s life right now - his paintings. Here’s to Bill Clinton, for devoting his retirement to saying what we’re all thinking.
“These days, nothing says amateur hour quite like an alphabetical bookshelf.”
– Sloane Crosby
On The Move: Three Books To Keep Out Of The Boxes : NPR
(via shareyourshelf)
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“I’ve finally written a book that isn’t a ribald satire and because it’s actually...”
– Gary Shteyngart, on his upcoming memoir.
I only have to wait seven months to read Gary Shteyngart’s memoir, so that’s good news.
“What we’ve said to the girls is, ‘If you guys ever decided you’re going to get a...”
– Obama. (via evanfleischer)
I’m sure this is a joke, but this is actually my dream.
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“Sociology arguments that tell us that over time our social networks are becoming...”
– Steven Farber, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Utah, from Atlantic Cities - Is Your City Getting in the Way of Your Social Life?
An argument against commuter culture, in favor of creating communities, working in city centers and gathering in common places. I live in a city...
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American Girls Aren't Radical Anymore →
Since the company was bought by Mattel 15 years ago, the dolls and their stories have shied away from the controversial subjects that once made them distinctive.
By contrast, the original dolls confronted some of the most heated issues of their respective times. In the book A Lesson for Samantha, she wins an essay contest at her elite academy with a pro-manufacturing message, but after...
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kateoplis:
“When a society spends thirty years not only allowing a small number people to amass ludicrous amounts of money for valueless transactions that serve mostly to further exacerbate the dangerous imbalance in income stratification at a time when “equality of opportunity” is no longer a concept to which the monied class and its elected representatives can pay lip service with a straight...
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“This got me wondering. If it is possible that arrogance is really passionate...”
– Ernie Schenck
This is my biggest difficulty in my job, and in my creative work, generally. Creativity is obviously having a great idea, but it is also having the confidence and conviction to see it through. And that’s tough, especially in as a person who despises arrogance and cannot...
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Kermit Gosnell and the Anti-Abortion Movement's... →
An anti-abortion group says it spent 20 years praying outside his clinic. Why didn’t any of the women tell them what was going on?
This article is so strange to me. The anti-abortion movement continually fails and refuses to recognize the difference between safe, legal abortions performed by licensed, caring medical professionals and the dangerous, illegal abortions that restricted abortion...
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Once upon a life: Helen Oyeyemi →
Helen Oyeyemi, the youngest woman on Granta’s most recent list of the Best of Young British Novelists, is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants who is still searching for a city to become her home. Her essay about the cities she keeps leaving resonantes with me not only because I feel trapped in place, but because of the anxious wondering that seems to come with our age - she’s 28.
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The Meaning of the Boston Marathon | The New... →
thebluehour:
“There’s something particularly devastating about an attack on a marathon. It’s an epic event in which men and women appear almost superhuman. The winning men run for hours at a pace even normal fit people can only hold in a sprint. But it’s also so ordinary. It’s not held in a stadium or on a track. It’s held in the same streets everyone drives on and walks down. An attack on a...
“My lawyer gives the same speech to everyone who wants to do business with me...”
– Nicki Minaj, Elle, April 2013 (via suvetar)
#black feminism coño!
(via bad-dominicana)
When I get stressed out at work, sometimes I write...
To give you an idea of what my week has been like, this is what I did in the fifteen minutes just before 10 am yesterday
Kramer uses Jerry’s iTunes password, but causes an uproar when he lends it to Neumann, pushing Jerry’s account over 5 computers. George realizes his favorite restaurant is actually gluten-free.
Elaine hates Jerry’s younger girlfriend (Zosia Mamet) because...
““You have to be like a beast. You have to be a beast. That’s the only way they...”
– Nicki Minaj in her MTV special, on bossing up and leaning in.
You tell me your feelings about Nicki Minaj and you know I’ve got at least twenty too, but I listen to this every day before I go to work and it’s not a bad choice.
But when you’re a girl, you have to be, like,...
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“There’s an arrogance in high school students that manifests during the...”
– Kendra James: To (All) the White Girls Who Didn’t Get Into the College of Their Dreams
THE WORLD CANNOT SUPPORT THAT MANY BALLERINAS. 