Dear readers,. I know that today is the final day of The Toast, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what this space -- and spaces like it -- mean for women.
'There have been stories and speculation about the reasons why and to say it's been a rough ride is somewhat of an understatement. But 12 months on I'm still here.'
Bake Off star Paul Hollywood's estranged wife has very publicly opened her heart about the couple's painful split a year ago
She has filed for a £10 million divorce from Paul, 52, who is reported to have moved in with 23-year-old barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullam.
Now Alex is ready to look to the future, writing: 'I plan to live my new life boldly, grab opportunities with both hands and enjoy being me. PS and I'll be keeping control of the TV remote.' Every cloud...
Paul Hollywood is reported to have set up home with 23-year-old barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullam
Alexandra has filed for a £10 million divorce from Paul, 52, who is reported to have moved in with 23-year-old barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullam
Paul Hollywood as a judge on Bake Off (left) met Summer (right) last year at Paul's local pub where he organised Alexandra's birthday party
The sister of Summer has allegedly threatened to 'get even' with the Bake Off star's ex wife after her 'bulls***' adultery claims which came out in September
It has been reported that a fiery message came via Instagram after Hollywood's estranged wife Alex, 54, claimed in divorce papers that the 52-year-old TV presenter cheated on her.
Paul Hollywood is pictured with his 23-year-old lover Summer Monteys-Fullam on holiday in Mauritius
Despite the age gap, Paul said Summer (pictured) is very mature for her age, sources claim
Hollywood and his new lover, 23-year-old barmaid Summer Monteys-Fullam, claim their relationship started after he split from his wife of 20 years, Alexandra, in November last year.
Summer's sister Saskia has since posted a ferocious Instagram post rubbishing Hollywood's estranged wife's claims.
Paul met Summer last year at Paul's local pub where he organised Alexandra's birthday party and have struck up a close bond despite the 29-year age gap, sources claimed.
Paul and Alexandra, who have a 16-year-old son, announced they were splitting November 2017 - but reportedly parted ways earlier that year.
Days
before John Macris was gunned down in Athens, bodyguards shielding the
notorious underground figure were seen scouring dumpsters outside his
home, suggesting they feared a potential bomb attack.
It was not immediately clear whether the
46-year-old convicted drug dealer had received death threats ahead of
his shooting late Wednesday local time, when unknown assailants ambushed Macris outside his seaside villa, shooting him multiple times in the
chest, stomach and shoulder.
The assassination, as police here have
billed it, took place hours before a security guard took post for a
nighttime shift at Macris’ four-story home in the posh residential
district of Panorama, Voula, about 13kilometres south of Athens.
John Macris (pictured right with wife Viktoria
Karida), a leading Sydney underworld figure, was shot dead as he sat in
his car outside his home in Greece on Wednesday night, local time
John Macris, 46, was shot multiple times before his assassin yelled: ‘I’m going to finish him off’
‘When we saw his bodyguards checking
rubbish bins outside his home, we thought it was odd, but did not make
much of it at the time’ said a female neighbour living along the
cliff-side road where the killing took place.
‘But now, in hindsight, it all makes sense. They [the guards] were probably looking for bombs.’
The killing has sent shock waves across
the posh, tranquil and secluded neighbourhood which the Sydney gangster
chose years ago, to start up a new, crime-free life with his wife and
model Viktoria Karida and their two children.
‘He finished building the home in record
time,’ said Gabriel Parastatides, a neighbour and among the oldest
residents along the tree-lined Troias Street.
‘We would see fancy cars parked outside,
super tight security measures but we coughed it all open to another uber
rich person who’s moved in the block.’
‘We were truly shocked to hear of his
previous life. We had no clue we were living next door to a mobster. He
never gave us that impression,’ Mr Parastatides said.
‘He was a very low profile bloke; not too friendly but always polite with all of us here.
‘He also seemed like a great dad.’
Mr Parastatides was in his home at the time of the attack.
‘No one saw anything. No one heard anything. We just walked out and saw the John’s body in a pool of blood. It was horrifying.’
After dating PR queen Roxy Jacenko, John Macris settled down with former playboy model Viktoria Karida (pictured)
Police say they have launched a massive
manhunt for Mr Macris’ killer. They said investigators had yet to obtain
footage from a rash of security cameras fixed along the front entrance
of the Macris estate.
Still, footage obtained from other CCTV
cameras along Troias Street have spotted the killer, the Athens-based
Alpha television network reported.
The identity of the assailant, the report
said, had not been identified but the image showed a tall man, around
180cm, dressed in dark clothes.
Police have refused to comment.
‘It is too early to make any statement,’ said Police Spokesman Theodore Chronopoulos.
‘We are in the first steps of this investigation.’
Since the shooting, police have gone
door to door, taking testimonies of neighbours. Many of them contacted
on Friday refused to speak.
‘Everyone has seen something, heard
something,’ said Joanna Parastratides. ‘But everyone now has clammed up
because of the violent shooting.
‘Wouldn’t you?’ she quipped.
John Macris had been alternating between living in Greece and Australia for the past seven years
Alex Macris (pictured at his wedding to ex-wife
Jessica Ingham) has made a mercy dash from Sydney to Athens following
the execution style shooting of his gangster older brother John
His funeral was expected to be held on
Friday in Athens, but a source close to the family said they were
waiting for his brother Alex to arrive before the service goes ahead.
Alex Macris, 37, was in Sydney on Thursday when he got the news his brother had been shot dead.
At the time he got the dreaded phone call
Alex was visiting the young daughter he shares with his ex-wife and
heiress to the chicken fortune, Jessica Ingham.
Like his brother, Alex also splits his time between both Sydney and Athens, following the breakdown of his marriage.
Alex and Jess tied the knot in an elaborate ceremony in November 2013 rumoured to have cost in excess of $500,000.
Among the guests was Jess’ close friend Roxy Jacenko, who previously dated John Macris.
Alex (right) was with the daughter he shares
with ex-wife Jessica Ingham, a close friend of PR queen Roxy Jacenko
(left), when he got the call telling him his brother had been gunned
down
Alex Macris married Jess Ingham (right), the
heiress to the Ingham chicken fortune, in an extravagant wedding in
2013. Pictured with her mother Sue Ingham and model Adam Williams
The killer had been waiting for Macris and shot him from the passenger side seat of his car, the Greek City Times reported.
Witnesses to the brutal murder say they
heard the gunman shout, ‘I’m going to finish him off’ before firing a
final, fatal shot, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Two of his young children were reportedly inside the house when he died.
Macris was known to both Australian and Greek authorities, and was nicknamed was ‘Australo’.
Greek authorities believe Macris had been involved in a drug deal and are hunting three gunmen.
John Macris and Karida (pictured), who stars on reality show My Style Rocks, have two kids
He was shot repeatedly while in his car, before a final, fatal shot was fired as he tried to get out
This is a lovely tribute, as is this one for Gilkey:
Zabi, who was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday along with NPR photojournalist David Gilkey, was far more than just a “translator-fixer” for NPR. He was one of a group of Afghan journalists who carry on their crucial work despite great and constant personal risk. They have extraordinary courage.
I first met Zabi early last year, on the recommendation of an Afghan colleague. I was looking to hire a journalist to help me report the continuing tragedy in Afghanistan during my occasional visits there. He’d earned a reputation as an excellent freelancer who’d worked for some years with China’s Xinhua News Agency.
He was a tall man with a warm smile, who somehow managed to couple a casual manner with a quiet sense of authority. It soon became clear that he had a great eye for a story, and that people from every level of society simply liked and trusted him, an essential quality in the journalism business.
Zabi seemed at ease with everyone; he persuaded senior politicians, young male migrants heading to Europe, female victims of war, and many, many more to speak into NPR’s microphone — and, by doing so, to shine a light on their nation’s unending conflict.
no:
I joined a new company last month and I’m pretty bemused at the company/team culture. The company is big on “culture” in general, which is great, but my individual team (~20 people) is VERY spiritual and believes strongly in the power of positive thinking and that Law of Attraction/The Secret thing that was so trendy a few of years ago.
For example, we have a weekly Law of Attraction tarot card ritual, where someone goes around and makes us draw two cards from a couple of Law of Attraction decks at random. Then we have to read the statements on them aloud to the person who is distributing the cards, and then display them at our desks so people know what we’re working on a personal level for the week.
There are also “unofficial” team-building activities every month where we all go to someone’s house, silently meditate for half an hour, and then discuss our personal “visions.” These events are not strictly mandatory, but it’s heavily implied that not participating = not being a team player.
well, it’s good to have a plan:
At one point during the 1985 Geneva Summit, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev took a break from negotiations to take a walk. Only their private interpreters were present and for years, the details of what they talked about were kept secret from both the Russian and American public. But during a 2009 interview with Charlie Rose and Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz, Gorbachev revealed that Reagan asked him point-blank if they could set aside their differences in case the world was invaded by aliens.
when sorry by beyoncè comes on shuffle pic.twitter.com/qZnfaW0idX
— bianca (@jeonxjr) June 3, 2016
Sad news for Veep, AWESOME news for Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
Will you be writing for Veep next season, and does that mean you’ll break down and buy a car instead of relying on ridesharing, which you’ve been doing for the past year?
No and no [laughs]. I am going to Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I’m nervous but excited. The opportunity presented itself. I’m a big believer in growing and changing. And I think this will be such a good chance for me to do something different with more responsibilities. It’s 22 episodes not ten, and my name will be on an episode at some point. So the schedule’s different, and the people are, for the most part, also a little younger, so it will be socially different, and also a little more competitive, which I think will be interesting. I love that show: Andy Samberg is a national treasure.
I LIVE I DIE I HAIRPIN AGAIN
The glorious Omar Holmon of Black Nerd Problems on his love for Lip Sync Battle:
LSB got celebs out here doing choreography, paying homage in themes, and most importantly, straight up cosplaying as singers, divas, rappers… basically as other celebs. This shit is all in fun… but it gets so real. Randy Coture “The Natural” went against Comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. Randy was an MMA fight, his job was clockin’ cats out of this dimension and he out here in short shorts doing a rendition of let’s get physical. Shit just got real. you can’t come into this arena with any Male Fragility or preconceived notions of male masculinity ’cause that shit will have you taking home an L.
There’s levels to this shit too; there’s fun like the Queen Latifah and Marlon Wayans match up. It’s just fun to see this side of your fave celebs living their best lives being themselves, unapologetically. Watching Salt and Peppa, two pioneers in hip-hop get to express their love of pop music for the world to see. Anthony Anderson and Tracy Ellis Ross, the co-leads of Black-ish and two of the funniest people on TV going head to head with their outlandishness? I am here for ALL of that shit man. Especially LL Cool J’s enthusiasm watching everyone perform because you can tell just how badly someone is getting bodied off of LL’s reactions.
Топ 10 Good Antivirus Software 2018 : вы пытаетесь найти бесплатный и приятный антивирус, то есть точное время для загрузки сетевой защиты 2018. прямо здесь я создал список pinnacle 10 антивирусов. в случае, если вам нужно купить ваш компьютер от апелляции к вирусу, тогда вам нужно загрузить любой из антивирусов из этого списка. чистая безопасность 2018 в настоящее время доступна с 1-летним незакрепленным лицензионным ключом. Значит, вы достигли 1-летней действительности чистой защиты 2018 года.
Топ-10 бесплатных программ для антивирусного программного обеспечения 2018 в Индии.
Это высококачественное предложение для тех, кто ищет бесплатный антивирус, и это явно лучше, чем сломанный антивирус, от которого я строго держусь. Вам больше не нужно идти на компромисс с безопасностью, надежно использовать фактический антивирус.
Ни в коем случае не используйте взломанный или похищенный антивирус! что является специфическим или добросовестным воспроизведением интернет-безопасности 2018. Так что не упускайте эту возможность, чтобы получить этот незакрепленный 1-летний ключевой элемент сетевой безопасности 2018.
Just found this classic picture of me with a newborn, which really captures having a newborn.
At the end of a terrible week, I have taken great pleasure in making a series of over-the-top tweets about my HORROR that my fake boyfriend, Tom Hiddleston, is romantically involved with Taylor Swift, a tall, beautiful billionaire with many millions of fans whose entire wildly successful brand is Bad At Dating (remember when she dated the 18 y/o Kennedy kid and crashed his family wedding? remember when she dated JOHN MAYER?) He is behaving foolishly. You are allowed to have ONE thread discussing their relationship, you may use puns and gifs.
— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) June 15, 2016
(I have always enjoyed Taylor Swift and her attractive friends and cat. She is not right for Tom Hiddleston, it will end in tears. This is just science. He will need me to pick up the pieces. Your contrarian takes are welcome on YOUR OWN BLOG.)
also there is zero chance those pics were taken by paparazzi, this is STRAIGHT out of Tay’s camp
Some would say this filibuster was more important:
Senate Democrats have ended a 14-plus hour filibuster calling for gun control reform, after Sen. Chris Murphy said he won promises for votes on two measures.
“It is our understanding … that we have been given a commitment on a path forward to get votes on the floor of the Senate — on a measure to assure that those on the terrorist watch list do not get guns and an amendment … to expand background checks to gun shows and to internet sales,” he said in a statement.
I’m really glad Jezebel ran this interview with a woman who had an abortion at 32 weeks (her fetus was “not compatible with life,” which is the kind of awful phrasing we have to come up with for awful things), because it was brave and detailed and HARD and I feel for her so strongly and we need providers who will perform these procedures. If you would like to donate to help cover costs for pregnant people who need later abortions, you can do so here:
Tactfully, they put us in a room pretty quick, but then a nurse came in who had no idea, all smiling and talking about where we would put the baby. After that, one of the nurses went out and put the sad sticker on our door, as we called it—this purple sticker, which basically means, “be cool in here because bad shit’s going down.” After we got the sad sticker, everyone was very sensitive.
YOUR INLAWS ARE AWFUL and you have to give the damn car back and read them the riot act and it will build Stephanie’s character (eventually):
My son Chad and my step daughter Stephanie were born 4 days apart. Their birthdays were last week and well our sons 16th birthday was practically ruined. Our kids both wanted a car for their 16th birthday. My husband and I have good jobs but with recent expenses that we could not have foreseen, we can’t afford a car right now, no way in hell 2 cars. We explained this to our children and they seemed to understand.
Two weeks ago my husband informed his parents about the situation. It was just causal talk when you catch up with family, there is no way he could have known they were going to do what they did. My husband and I planned on getting them something nice and throwing a party for them both.
Last week Chad turned 16 first and we just got him some clothes he really wanted. He was ok with it, it was something he wanted and he really did not mind. What we got him looked like nothing to what my husband parents got Stephanie.
The day of Stephanie’s birthday, my husband’s parents surprised Stephanie with a brand new car outside our house. It had a ribbon on it and they did not even talk to us about it. They just showed up in it without so much as a heads up. Stephanie was so happy she was on the verge of tears. I looked over the chad and he was pissed, he was trying to hide it but you could tell he was not happy.
Your probably thinking great now the kids have a car they can share, well you would be wrong about that. Not only did Chad not get a car and Stephanie did, but Chad is not allowed to drive it, ever. The in laws have told us and made it very clear the car is for Stephanie. The car they so generously “gifted her” will be taken away if they found out Chad has driven it. They have never liked Myself or Chad, we don’t know why.
I’m looking forward to reading this:
Isenberg clearly means White Trash to be a rebuke for generations of middle- and upper-class Americans who write off poor rural whites as worthless and blame their miserable, marginalized existence not on poverty and civic neglect but on bad genes and weak character. As Toni Morrison observed during the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998 when she called Bill Clinton “our first black president,” the attributes Clinton’s haters found so revoltingly white-trash about him—“single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas”—replicate the “tropes of blackness.” In addition to being slapped with virtually the same stereotypes, poor blacks and poor whites have, as Isenberg observes, “similar economic interests.” But the one trait now most commonly associated with white trash—overt, vicious racism—keeps them at odds.
Awful:
Since the experiment, the authors point out, various public-health researchers have noticed that when they interview African-Americans about their views on the health system, they will often bring up Tuskegee unprompted — it left a deep scar on the country, yes, but on this population in particular. Why should you trust doctors, and particularly white doctors, when the government can allow something this awful tohappen?
Which raised an extremely depressing question for Alsan and Wanamaker, and one that no one had yet fully tried to answer: If you tried to measure the damage done not by the Tuskegee experiment itself, but by the aftermath, in the form of mistrust for the medical establishment, as news of it spread through various African-American communities, what would the resultsbe?
Being a single parent is so so hard, and even if you have a two-parent home, if both of you are working, getting the call from daycare to come grab your sick kid at 11am because they just threw up can play havoc with your job. Not to mention, it’s SO frequently expected that moms will always be the ones to bail out of work and come get the kid, which just plays into a weird dynamic that results in people NOT HIRING women in their childbearing years:
I am a single mother to an 8-year-old and a 19-month-old. My youngest gets sick quite often, and when she needs medical attention or simply a day home from day care, I don’t really have anyone to rely on to help me out. This usually means I have to miss work when she is sick.
In the past 2 months, I had take 3.5 sick days for her and to leave work early twice. I’m anxious this is going to reflect poorly on me, especially since I just started my job here 3 months ago.
What can I do, besides finding alternative child care, to prevent this from reflecting poorly on me? What do you think I should expect as a consequence?
Sister of The Toast Laura Ortberg Turner on Joan Didion’s politics:
Joan Didion is a cipher for anyone who reads her, but especially for the progressive young women who’ve found her in recent years. In that sense, Didion is not so unlike another “Goldwater Girl” whose politics shifted as the GOP shifted away from its laissez-faire roots. Hillary Clinton, influenced by her father’s conservatism, noted the party’s shift after the 1960s in an interview with NPR. Her reflection on the process sounds very much like what Didion might say, if she had anything more to add: “I don’t recognize this new brand of Republicanism that is afoot now, which I consider to be very reactionary, not conservative in many respects. I am very proud that I was a Goldwater girl.”
who was it said that silicon valley dudes were just inventing everything their moms were no longer doing for them https://t.co/O6XMJmhOh5
— (((Neville Park))) (@neville_park) June 15, 2016
What to do if you are refused emergency contraception (you shouldn’t have to, obviously, but I do recommend buying a pack or two of Plan B and keeping it on hand so you’re not running around when you need it):
In the last few years, laws regarding EC have undergone a number of changes. Each state varies in its specific regulations, and the way the regulations shake down can depend on whether you are at a hospital, clinic, or pharmacy. Some states allow private hospitals and pharmacists to refuse on the basis of their personal beliefs. It’s also possible that the provider you encounter is plainly misinformed. No matter your age or gender, you should be able to buy levonorgestrel-based EC pills over the counter. This guide, though a bit technical, has a run-down of emergency contraception policies per state where you can find out more about the state you live in.
Here are some details on the types of EC pills and how to get them at a store or online. When you can, it’s nice to have EC on hand ahead of time just in case. It’s super-easy to order it online—and some delivery services will even take insurance. If a time comes when you need EC, you’ll be glad you have it and can take it right away.
“For people of color, achievement is a double-edged sword“:
This tragic parallelism reveals America, yet again, to be a country born out of paradox – founded on freedom and built on slavery, we have emerged as a dichotomous nation with only the extraordinarily wealthy and the exceedingly poor. We’re a country that boasts constitutional human rights but can’t come together on the fact that human is human is human, no matter whether we pee standing up or sitting down, sleep with men or women or both, choose to have an abortion or to kneel with our heads to the ground when we honor our god.
I love Kate Beckinsale’s Bad Parenting, her daughter is 17 and whatever who cares.
I need to you share my love for Clea DuVall’s work on this season of VEEP, please:
BABY: [knocks plate off of table]
ME: that’s right
in postmodernism we reject the notion of ‘totality’
Baby Jenny Holzer:
BABY JENNY HOLZER: [spits up]
MAN: Oh, baby Jenny Holzer, what a mess
BABY JENNY HOLZER: SPIT ALL OVER SOMEONE WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MILK IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THEIR PERSONALITY FAST
How To Talk To Babies About Post-Structuralism:
ME: what do we need to understand before we can understand post-structuralism
BABY: fnehhh
ME: very good
we need to understand structural linguistics
now what does “fnehhh” mediate between
BABY: fnehhh
ME: that’s right
it mediates between abstract ideas and reality
BABY: fnehhh
ME: you’ve made your point, don’t belabor it
How To Talk To Babies About Semiotics:
BABY: read dog book again
ME: okay fine
show me where the yellow doggie is on this page
BABY: [points]
ME: good
now show me where the brown doggie is on this page
BABY: [points]
ME: now show me where the author is
BABY: [stares blankly]
ME: that’s right
the author is dead
How To Talk To Babies About Marxist Theory:
BABY: [sleeps]
ME: HAVE YOU QUESTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT THE DRIVE TO ACCUMULATE CAPITAL TODAY
BABY: [sleeps]
ME: no of course not
you just CONSUMED and PASSED OUT
like a plutocrat
BABY: [sleeps]
BABY: [tears apart newspaper]
ME: that’s very good
the apparatus that props up capitalism will destroy itself some day
How To Talk To Babies About Gender Theory:
BABY: [nurses]
ME: you realize youre literally consuming me
BABY: [nurses]
ME: wow
its like de Beauvoir never even wrote The Second Sex
Baby Jacques Derrida:
WOMAN: and here is the bunny
do you see the bunny?
BABY DERRIDA: pbthtbhth
WOMAN: can you say bunny?
BABY DERRIDA: bunny
WOMAN: can you pat the bunny?
BABY DERRIDA: there is nothing outside the text
Baby Michel Foucault:
WOMAN: who’s the baby?
whooooo’s the baby?
BABY FOUCAULT: I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am
MAN [ducks face behind cloth]: peekabo!
peekabo!
I see you!
BABY FOUCAULT: visibility is a trap
FLASHBACK TO WHEN SHE COULD FIT EVEN A LITTLE BIT IN HER CHAIR. Now she just lies next to it and sulks.
Jo Cox’s assassination is a nightmarish tragedy:
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the country would be “in shock at the horrific murder”, describing the MP as a “much loved colleague”.
He added: “Jo died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve.
“In the coming days, there will be questions to answer about how and why she died.
“But for now all our thoughts are with Jo’s husband Brendan and their two young children. They will grow up without their mum, but can be immensely proud of what she did, what she achieved and what she stood for.”
Julie Rodgers is great, and one of my favourite queer Christians who talks about homophobia in the church:
It’s no surprise, then, that subtle disdain for L.G.B.T. people would eventually be expressed more overtly. In the case of the shooting at Pulse in Orlando, it was devastating. The Christians I know were grieved by the massacre and they want to know how to help. The best thing they can do is repent for the ways they’ve helped create a culture that devalues L.G.B.T. people made in the image of God, and then begin to tell a better story about us in their circles.
Nikki’s dad is sick, and I would very much appreciate your prayers and Good Vibes and expressions of love and care for her at this time.
Break up with him:
My boyfriend of about 5years is a big gamer. I’m not. The last video game I played was probably Oregon Trail or something in grade school. He’s always talking about how he wishes that I played video games so that he can “feel more connected to me”. His ex was a “gamer girl”, and he loved that about her.
Last night I had some free time so I decided to create an account and send him a request to play with me. I made my username a pretty specific inside joke between the two of us and sent him a flirty message (with another inside joke) asking him if he wanted to play. He didn’t flirt back or anything, which struck me as kind of weird, but whatever. He’s usually kind of a straight-to-the-point kind of guy over text/email, so it kind of made sense. He agreed to play as my “teammate” (if that’s what you would call it).
Seeing as I’ve never really played a video game before, I was naturally pretty bad. We have a very lighthearted, jokey relationship, so I’d send him little funny “whoops, I fucked up” messages when I’d do something wrong. He didn’t respond for the first few. At this point, I still think he knows it’s me, so I figure he’s just concentrating.
Then things took a weird turn. He started getting really, really verbally abusive. Saying horrible, largely misogynistic things to me. Calling me specific names that he has told me on several occasions that he would never use because they “sicken him”. He even told me that he wished someone would “put me in my place” in explicitly violent terms.
It was freaking weird. I’m 100% convinced he didn’t realize it was me, despite all of the obvious hints, so I know he wasn’t intending to direct those insults at his girlfriend. But the nature of our inside joke that I used for my username made it kind of clear that I was a girl.
I just can’t shake the fact that he would say these things to other human beings. He has specifically commented on how immature and stupid “keyboard warriors” are and how he’d never do that to another person. Many times. And he has always, always spoken out against violence toward women.
At the time that she invited me to touch the upper-left quadrant of her left breast, I was merely an unkempt person Kim Kardashian West had met one time. And yet, on just our second short meeting, I felt comfortable enough to ask her to “please describe what your boobs feel like.” That’s how we got here.
“Really soft!” exclaimed Kim, seated primly in an out-of-the-way patio booth. She was eating half a salad. I was eating a hot dog and fries on her enthusiastic recommendation. (“I love the hot dog here,” she said with a sparkle, neglecting to mention I would have to order this item from the kids’ menu.) (Real good hot dog.)
“You wanna feel?” she asked.
“Yup,” I said.
Zadie Smith on Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah:
‘There’s an essay of Rachel’s about comedian Dave Chappelle that I love called If He Hollers Let Him Go, a sublime title borrowed from Chester Himes’ novel. It’s a good example of her technique: even if her subject is a superstar, she approaches them as a human being, with a great attention to the detail of their local and historical context. Her writing on black culture has a vertical depth; she writes about the history of African Americans in the US, but it’s never dry or academic as there’s so much love in it. She loves the people, the details, the landscape, the language. Her non-fiction reads like a rich fiction. It’s uncommon to read a voice that mixes anger and joy so beautifully and with so much skill. She doesn’t write rants, she writes eloquent, appreciative tirades. If she thinks Kendrick Lamar is a genius she will go to any rhetorical length to convince you of the same. The energy in her writing comes from a place of aesthetic delight.
‘We hardly see each other but I email her, especially with any relevant news of Beyoncé, and I’m so delighted by her when I see her. She’s always full of enthusiasm for a weird song, a weird book, a weird piece of art; she has eclectic and enlivening tastes. She was the first person I spoke to about the hip-hop group Odd Future. I thought I was pretty fly for knowing about them, but she’d already interviewed them. I’m lucky to know someone as cool as Rachel, even vaguely. She brings news.
This is ringing bells of I EXPECT FREE EMOTIONAL LABOR all over the place, please listen to the cues you are getting:
Dear Prudence, I am in the process of ending my 20-year marriage. For the last year, I have been talking to a former co-worker online who went through a similar process a year ago. Our conversations are platonic, about relationships and how I’m feeling, and are a source of support for me. My friend has a habit of saying “I’ll talk to you after lunch” and then not communicating for a day or so. When she does come back online, no mention is made of her final comment. I find it disingenuous not to make note of the fact that she didn’t follow through, and I have told her so. I have also explained that I don’t expect her to be available or to keep her word to the letter, but that it speaks to a lack of concern to skip over a dangling promise. I recently told her that I could not continue to talk under these circumstances. I am struggling with self-esteem issues and need support and validation to help me through my transition. It kills me to not talk to her, but I am tired of ruminating over this perceived slight. Am I being oversensitive?
—Silence Is the Best Medicine
EAT IT, HATERS, I NEVER BOUGHT YOUR LIES:
In reviewing the scientific evidence over the past 25 years since its last analysis on the matter, the WHO concluded that coffee should no longer be considered a carcinogen and that it may actually have positive effects for your body when it comes to two types of cancers — those of the liver and uterus.
Now before you start ordering that second steaming cup, it’s important to know that the WHO report wasn’t all good news. There was another significant finding: “Very hot” beverages “probably” cause cancer. This is mostly based on studies related to the consumption of a traditional drink called mate or cimarrón in South America, where the tea can be taken at temperatures around 158 degrees Fahrenheit (or 70 degrees Celsius). That’s significantly hotter than people in North America or Europe usually consume their drinks.
