At one point during the 1985 Geneva Summit, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev

  There it is.

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 Топ 10 бесплатных бесплатных антивирусных программ 2018

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.

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kaspersky-  Скачать по  ссылке

Norton -  Скачать по ссылке

AVG-  Download Link 

Quick Heal -  Скачать ссылку
Avira-  Скачать ссылку 

ESET NOD32-  Скачать ссылку 

Macafee- Скачать ссылку 

Panda-  Скачать ссылку 

Escan Anti-virious- Скачать ссылку 

Так что, друзья наслаждаются всем Антивирусом и защитой вашего ПК / ноутбука

Tom Hiddleston, is romantically involved with Taylor Swift, a tall, beautiful billionaire with many millions of fans

Just found this classic picture of me with a newborn, which really captures having a newborn.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 to happen?

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 results be?

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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?

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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.”

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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

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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.

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“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.

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I love Kate Beckinsale’s Bad Parenting, her daughter is 17 and whatever who cares.

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I need to you share my love for Clea DuVall’s work on this season of VEEP, please:

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thank you but let’s not:

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$

The Best Of Talking To Babies About Philosophy

How To Talk To Babies About Postmodernism:

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

CAITY WEAVER PROFILES KIM KARDASHIAN: L.G.B.T. (12 PHOTO)

FLASHBACK TO WHEN SHE COULD FIT EVEN A LITTLE BIT IN HER CHAIR. Now she just lies next to it and sulks.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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CAITY WEAVER PROFILES KIM KARDASHIAN:

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

Sarah Hepola is on her second week of doing “Ask a Former Drunk” over at Jezebe

Dog.

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OH YOU CAN STILL BE FURIOUS:

While I was traveling recently, my husband started chatting with another woman, which eventually led to him sending a nude pic of himself. The woman had asked him to download an app that essentially stole all his phone contacts. She told him to send money and threatened to send his picture to his contacts if he didn’t comply. He reported this to the police, and the next day she sent his photo to several people, including my mother and his boss. He is completely humiliated and in shock. I know he is a victim here, and I want to support him, but a part of me is livid that he got involved in an intimate chat with a strange woman online. I feel like he cheated on me, even if there was no physical contact involved. It is hard to describe how betrayed I feel, but I can’t talk to him about it while he is dealing with such a public humiliation. How do we deal with this in our marriage? Do I let it go, demand counseling—what?

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It’s my site and I can link to two Prudies in one day if I want to:

Q. Husband’s inappropriate jokes: Please don’t judge—my husband came home early unexpectedly one afternoon, and my boyfriend went out of the window through the balcony to try to make an exit. He ended up falling from the apartment and was hospitalized. My boyfriend also has a wife, and I have no idea what his medical progress is or what is happening with him. The story made local news—about a naked man falling out of the apartment and injuring himself. My husband, who thinks it happened from a neighbor’s apartment, keeps making vile jokes about the incident (his sense of humor is usually quite dark). It is like a fresh knife through my heart each time I hear him casually joke about my injured boyfriend. I have asked him to stop, but he thinks it’s hilarious. He has told his friends and family about it with me within earshot. I don’t want to make a huge deal out of this, but it hurts a lot, not to mention that I can’t believe my husband makes light of another man’s serious accident. What’s a subtle way to get him to stop?

A: My God, of course I’m going to judge you. What a strange request.

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I do not acknowledge any remake of Pete’s Dragon, this is Pete’s Dragon, and that is Helen Reddy, and the dragon should look fake and ridiculous:

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Adolescence, pen pals, and the Manson Girls:

One August, I drove six hours south from Sonoma County to see the place where the girls had lived. The drive took me past the apocalyptic wind farms and down the bleached interstate, the exits littered with tomatoes that fall from the produce trucks. The ranch was ten miles outside of Los Angeles, in the commuter town of Chatsworth. I had to call my sister on the phone to give me directions to the place.

“Spahn,” I said. “Spahn Movie Ranch.” I heard her typing.
 “Wait, it’s loading,” she said. “It’s Santa Susanna Pass Road—” 
I found the place, across from a grim, corporate-looking Baptist church and adjacent to a baseball field. When I pulled my truck over, I saw the field was dotted with uniformed boys in the middle of a game, their avid parents watching from the low bleachers. What was this place I was going, my sister wanted to know. I told her it was where Charles Manson had lived with his followers.

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Sarah Hepola is on her second week of doing “Ask a Former Drunk” over at Jezebel, and I think it’s really good and even-handed, as was her book (this is her responding to a woman who thinks she has a drinking problem, but knows her husband will blow off her concerns about it):

I’ve heard so many stories about couples that drink together. Sometimes the alcohol is what keeps them bonded, and sometimes the alcohol is what tears them apart. (Often both.) It’s hard to see exactly how the alcohol is functioning until you remove it, and examine the relationship on its own terms. I wonder if this is what your husband fears — that removing alcohol will disrupt a dynamic that feels cozy to him. These are not low stakes. I’ve seen sobriety end marriages, although I’ve also seen sobriety save marriages. It sounds like quitting drinking will make YOU happier, but it will make HIM less happy. That’s tough. Although I would gently suggest that neither you nor your husband really have any idea what removing alcohol from your life will do. You are operating on assumptions and Hollywood stereotypes and fear, like most humans when confronted with change. I swear half my conversations with drinkers are like, “I have to change!” and the other half are like, “I don’t want to change!” And sometimes the same person is saying both.

---

Lab-grown diamonds are about to take off in a major way, and De Beers is shitting itself:

Official numbers are hard to come by, though there have been some speculating reports. According to Bloomberg, 360,000 carats of lab-growns were made in 2014; research firm Frost & Sullivan believes the demand will jump to 20 million carats by 2026.

In addition to synthetic diamonds’ lower price point, some consumers are drawn to the stones for ethical reasons. Accusations of exploitationand inhumane working conditions in mines cast a dark shadow over the diamond industry. Mining is also said to be devastating to the environment, due to the amount of energy it requires, the potential for chemical leaks, and the harmful effects that removing large amounts of earth has on local ecosystems.

Even with the implementation of a system like the Kimberley Process, a certification program established in 2003 that requires governments to verify that the diamonds they export are conflict-free, Diamond Foundry founder and CEO Martin Roscheisen says the mined diamond industry is one that has almost zero accountability.

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ooh, this is a thorny one, also, I would want to know HOW you know they are having an affair (nothing short of “one of them told me” is acceptable if you’re gonna blow up their spot – the OP confirms in the comments that she heard directly from one of the affair partners, FYI):

Two colleagues (“Chris” and “Jamie”) are having an affair, and have been for several years. They’re both married. Only a few people know (I think), and I haven’t heard anyone gossiping about it.

But now, Jamie’s up for a promotion that would make Jamie a C-level exec and Chris’s boss. I don’t work directly with either of them, but this seems like a terrible idea. It would technically put Chris’s spouse in Jamie’s reporting line. We’re also a large employer in a small town. If things blow up, it will have a real impact on the company’s reputation. We’re already just getting over a low-key sexual harassment scandal from a few years ago.

What’s my responsibility here? I don’t want to gossip, but Jamie’s well-liked and -respected and has a good shot at getting this promotion if no one says anything (and I could even support that if I wasn’t worried about the potential fallout from the affair). If I need to say anything, who do I say it to? The search chair? HR? Chris and/or Jamie?

I did see this article, but I’m in a different position — I’m not making the hiring decision. I’d say I’m roughly equal in the hierarchy, in a very different function.

---

LOVED this feature on the creator of UnREAL, which also confirmed all my suspicions about exactly how accurate its depiction of reality TV production is:

“The night they were going to get dumped, I would go to the hotel room where they were staying and say, ‘I’m going to lose my job for telling you this, but he’s going to pick you—he’s going to propose,’ ” Shapiro said. After the contestant left the set, disconsolate, Shapiro joined her in a limousine while the stereo played a song that the contestant had been primed to see as “ ‘their song’ for their love story with the Bachelor.” Shapiro kept jalapeños or lemons hidden in her jacket pocket—dabbing something acidic in her eye allowed her to cry on cue, which helped elicit tears from the contestant. “I’d have arranged with the driver to have the song play just until I got a shot of her crying—then cut the music so I could start the interview,” Shapiro explained. “They’d often tell us to drive up and down the 405 until the girls cried—and not to come home if we didn’t get tears, because we’d be fired.” In hindsight, Shapiro said, being fired “would have been a great solution to my problems.”

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A quick housekeeping note! IntenseDebate has always had this feature where if someone reports a comment (for spam or grossness), it goes into moderation, I get an email about it, which I either ignore (if it’s something like “crude language!”) or respond “delete” to, which automatically deletes it. But since IntenseDebate is no longer really maintaining itself, apparently that feature broke about a month ago. I had been confused, because I’ve gotten emails once or twice like “a lot of people reported this comment and nothing happened” and I’m like “but I responded ‘delete’ right away!”

What this means in practice is just that reported comments won’t go anywhere until I am physically in front of a real computer, and also that we may have to lock comments once the site ends, which I had hoped not to do (we will obviously open them when new things are posted.) But I’m going to talk to Marco about our options there!

The Pitch Meeting for Ghostwriter

GENIUS: Kids in Brooklyn solve mysteries.

PBS SUITS: Cute.

GENIUS: A ghost helps them.

SUIT #1: Spooky.

GENIUS: It is not meant as such. Crime is the threat. Ghostwriter is an ally.

SUIT #2: So, a friendly ghost. Like Casper?

GENIUS: Casper is the grinning shade of a child. Boisterous, needy — he would be of no practical use on a crime-solving squad. Ghostwriter’s story is much darker.

SUIT #1: Is this like demons? We don’t want the faith-based orgs jumping down our throats.

GENIUS: He isn’t a Ouija board, Linda. Ghostwriter is here to solve crimes, not create drama.

When he lived, Roger H. Twist was a slave who taught other slaves to read, a perilous act of defiance. He escaped during the Civil War…

[collective sigh of relief]

GENIUS: …Only to be caught and killed by slave catchers and their dogs.

[…]

SUIT #2: Oh.

SUIT #1: Does the show…um, show this?

GENIUS: Not explicitly, no. But I’m sure most viewers will pick up on it after an episode or two.

SUIT #3: And Roger H. Twist…

GENIUS: Yes, it’s an anagram of Ghostwriter. Did I explain that Ghostwriter communicates mainly in anagrams? 

He manipulates letters of text in books, newspapers, what have you, to form clues that help the youths solve mysteries. Ghostwriter can summon any nearby letters for his messages, and unlike traditional anagrams, they glow. Ghostwriter’s abilities transcend anagrammar. Most likely because he is a ghost.

SUIT #3: What does he look like?

GENIUS: Kind of like a feed icon.

[???]

GENIUS: Just a general web-logo kind of look. He can change color and like, whiz from word to word. There’s a sound. It’s very hip and dot-com.

[murmurs of approval]

SUIT #2: Sounds nifty, but… That’s not very ghostly, is it? Shouldn’t he be translucent, or have an eerie pallor or something?

GENIUS: You have to understand that his identity as a writer is more important than his condition as a ghost. There’s no spectral moaning or rattling of windowpanes. In fact, Ghostwriter is only able to communicate through the written word. The kids must write to him in order to be understood.

SUIT #1: Learning, that’s lovely. Tell us about these kids.

GENIUS: They attend Zora Neale Hurston Middle School and Washington Elementary. Jamal is the first to commune with our literate spirit. He is Twist’s descendant, and his father, Samuel L. Jackson, gives him the book that releases Ghostwriter’s soul.

The next to see is Lenni. She’s the kind of rapping eleven-year-old hippie who embodies the last days of the millennium.

SUIT #2: They’re animated? Claymation? Puppet? Muppet?

GENIUS: They are flesh and blood. How else would a story with a ghost make sense?

We also have Gaby Fernández, who is the tough and lively avatar of little sisters everywhere. In fact she is so ubiquitous and quintessential that if you had to replace Gaby with another Gaby mid-series, nobody would even notice. Or everyone would. One of those two things.

SUIT #2: Wait, what now?

GENIUS: And Gaby’s older brother, Alex, who’s a total fox. This will eventually be apparent to Tina Nguyen, child journalist and documentarian. I envision a role for one of Jamal’s female cousins, too. It just seems that, in the future of TV, ensembles without multiple young women of color will no longer be relevant.

SUIT #3: Ethnic diversity is neat!

[nobody looks at Carl]

GENIUS: We might add a token white male, maybe a poet in frequent need of rescue, but I don’t know. Guess it depends on Ghostwriter; he chooses who sees him.

SUIT #2: Given that a ghostwriter is an uncredited author for work attributed to someone else, won’t the viewing public be a tad confused?

GENIUS: [gently] No. No, I don’t think the children watching this will confuse Ghostwriter, a lettered phantom who fights crime, with whoever wrote Profiles in Courage.

SUIT #1: And what kind of “crimes” does he solve, exactly? Carmen San Diego already has geographical heists covered.

GENIUS: Anything that would fall under the jurisdiction of Ghostwriter and a diverse team of Brooklyn youngsters. So, for example, Alex is running for class president but someone is conducting a smear campaign against him in the halls of the school…

[relaxed chuckles]

SUIT #3: Oh, okay. So by “crimes” we mean like, schoolyard scrapes. That sort of mischief.

GENIUS: Yes. Also arson, stalking, drugs, gang violence, rare bird smuggling, and time travel. Jamal will be framed. Gaby will be poisoned by toxic waste. The group will be nearly rent apart when a car accident seeds discord among their parents, but chasing down an art thief will restore unity. Craig will disappear forever and never be spoken of again.

SUIT #3: Who’s Craig?

GENIUS: Indeed.

SUIT #1: And they solve these cases through…anagrams.

GENIUS: The purpose of this show is to instruct young viewers in two things: literacy, and delayed gratification.

SUIT #3: Why delayed gratification?

[The GENIUS waits a long time before she answers, and everyone agrees Carl walked right into that one]  

GENIUS: Each Ghostwriter mystery will be part of a serialized arc that spans four or five episodes. Kids will have to watch every episode in order to find out whodunit. Pretty much the only way they’ll be able to see the resolution is during teacher strikes, which will instill in them a lifelong appreciation for robust labor unions.

SUIT #1: Always something we’re looking for.

SUIT #3: Mm.

GENIUS: Ghostwriter rewards the patient, the loyal, the attentive. If that means some fans will reach adulthood without ever learning who Max Mouse is, so be it.

SUIT #2: Here’s my concern: Is this visually interesting? On a dramatic level? Watching kids write…and a ghost make words glow…like, it just seems that a ghost might have more interesting powers than making words glow.

GENIUS: [shaking her head with pity] The audience is no passive spectator, Mitch. It’s interactive. Kids will track the mysteries with their very own Ghostwriter casebooks, which they will definitely all get and keep for longer than a day. We also hope it will inspire them to learn touch-typing, as watching middle-schoolers poke a keyboard is torture.

SUIT #1: The situations you’ve described sound pretty intense. Maybe we can try to keep it light? Little kids will be watching; no need to expose them to gang violence and the like.

GENIUS: It is interesting to me the way adults speak of “protecting” children.

[A calm sip of water. Everyone waits.]

[…and waits]  

GENIUS: Doesn’t this very network proclaim that “knowledge is power?” And who are more powerless than children? “Expose them”? They are already exposed.

SUIT #2: Right, but. Arson. Stalking. Slavecatchers. Isn’t it a little much?

GENIUS: The world is not safer if you close your eyes to its darkness and its dangers. When we shield children from the truths of the world they share with us, we are taking away one of the only kinds of power to which they can lay claim. Ghostwriter gave his life to empower others with knowledge.

[Long silence. Nobody wants to be the first to dishonor Ghostwriter’s sacrifice.]

GENIUS: This is a transformational coming-of-age narrative. That’s why Ghostwriter is of course an anagram of “Growth Rites.” 

SUIT #1: Look, educational mysteries are definitely our jam here at PBS. But we’re wading into murky spiritual waters here. The ghost stuff, concepts of the afterlife and the soul…. Does Ghostwriter have a mission? Is he in Purgatory? Can the show avoid these questions?

GENIUS: The series never delineates a theological perspective. No one speaks of heaven or hell or the soul. The show’s spiritual philosophy is obvious enough from context.

[???]

GENIUS: Words are souls.

[SUITS poise their pencils over their caseboo—sorry, notepads. They wait.] 

GENIUS: They are ourselves, extracted from our bodies, and they live forever.

SUIT #2: I see.

[Not as the GENIUS sees. She speaks almost as if the words are being revealed to her in ready form by a sentient light. SUITS wait.] 

GENIUS: After death we speak through words. It is the only way — but a potent way. Words live. They are real things in the world, and readers are not a passive audience, they are champions who take these words, our clues and promises, and with them shape the world. It is this, more than anything else, that Ghostwriter illuminates.

[She leans toward them, and it is as though her words begin to glow]

GENIUS: Words can touch you — physically alter your body — raise hairs at the nape, hollow the gut, send shivers shoulder to toe — and does this not change our understanding of presence and absence?

[SUITS look to each other. To the words of their notes. They see the other words their words can form, and other faces fill the room. Everyone is here, together, now. Words, they realize, are the salve of loss.] 

GENIUS: I have written these things and you have read them, you have felt my touch, and there is no distance between us at all.