I find it pretty upsetting!

People seem not to like Mortal. I like Mortal, he pulls me out of the grays and generally says sensible things. I’m not sure if there was a specific incident or not. I do know the trolls have been after him for a while, and while this commenter doesn’t seem like a troll, some of the other responses in the threads may…

Yeah, sorry, I clarified down post that I’m usually in a university/conference setting when forced to make small talk, where no one is local, so it seems normal to me but is not in most contexts.

There’s been a bunch of fighting (and, in addition to fighting, trolls) for a while now. This is what happens when they don’t ungray good commenters. A lot of the old guard have left, and there’s no new blood.

Seriously! It’s pretty well established that people want to see themselves portrayed in art and entertainment. You’d think they’d be able to transfer that factoid to apply to the rest of the population, not just themselves, but...nope.

According to the people who try, it has been—that’s why we have Shondaland, why Witherspoon started a film production company, why Geena Davis founded her center for media studies, etc. But hopefully the tides are turning, pitch-wise, since women’s stories have been doing so well in the box office the last couple of…

Harder to pitch, but not harder to sell. Women’s stories do very well when properly supported. $$$

Sorry! I’m just realizing now that the phrase is  more “normal” because of academia and grad school and being surrounded by lit and language people and going to conferences etc. constitutes most of my chit chat. Almost no one is from the location you’re speaking to one another in and you’re desperate to make small…

Bari made the whole thing about how it was hurting her without acknowledging how her assumptions were harmful to an entire group of people. That’s pretty childish. If Chrissy’s tweet has a school marm tone, it’s because she’s trying to teach Bari what she refuses to learn as a grown ass woman in a publicly…

probably a healthy mix of both unhinged liberals and trolls pretending to be unhinged liberals. that’s a pretty standard troll play.

“Where are you from” is a very normal small talk stock question, and isn’t offensive. Asking “what country are you from?” gets you in much stickier territory. There aren’t many times I’d ask a fellow English speaker that question, though! If it’s at all ambiguous, the answer comes up naturally enough in the course of…

We got the Tuft and Needle, but at first it was too firm and hurt our backs. We emailed them, and they sent us a topper for free. Fixed the problem and now I sleep like a baby. The T and N slept very cool bare, and still does with the topper. We’re happy.

We got the Tuft and Needle, but at first it was too firm and hurt our backs. We emailed them, and they sent us a…

Yeah it’s the tutu for me as well. The rest is okay, though I’m never a fan of the over-the-skate stockings. Looks very inelegant to me!

I was perfectly willing to believe that Tessa and Scott were not an item, but rather two great artists dancing on ice, until someone put a video together of all of their smooches. I’ve watched it twice, and now I am convinced they’re in love.

Her skating is incredible—her outfit? One of my least favorites. (Except for those fucking GLOVES.)

I Kant accept this!

What always tickles me about those names is that, where I grew up, they were the trailer park names (my people are poor and rural and unkind), while the REST of us lower/middle-class slobs had ARISTOCRATIC names like Samantha and Emily and Sarah. But now you can’t throw a stone in Brooklyn without hitting a Brooklyn…

Seriously! I love Patrick Chan, and wanted him to have a gold medal, but there was a time when you couldn’t fall all over the fucking place and still end up in first place!

A Posteriori Kardashian

remember when we thought BROOKLYN was an outlandish celebrity kid name?