Apologies for double posting! It was too late to edit my original comment.

So no doubt many, or most, of the purchasers of these "play tents" (the name by which the "expensive children's boutiques out here" refer to them, as CrimsonWife noted in her comment) regard them as tipis and associate them with Native American culture(s) (though tipis are really common only amongst Plains Indians).…

I agree. I don't think there's any minstrel-y mimicking of traditionally "black" features here. Also, for what it's worth as far as the "ethnicity/race" of her features are concerned, Nicki Minaj is also of East Indian ancestry (“My real last name is Maraj. My father is half-Indian and makes the best chicken curry in…

Exactly—and at least such complaints are truly legitimate. Such a scenario did actually happen at my university when the Native American Students Union hosted an information booth in the quad on Columbus Day, several of its more inimical members carried signs to this effect and screamed at white students throughout…

P.S. I just came from Torrid online, where I saw this promising look little black dress with the ominous name "Black Crossback Dress." Because plus size women don't want clean necklines or tend to need bras or anything, right?

Amen! Oh my god am I sick of those cut-outs and keyholes! Arm cut-outs, too. There are so many plus size tops and dresses I would love to buy and wear, but I either loath the necklines or the stupid upper-back/neck or shoulder cut-outs or lace insert would show my bra. Annoying!

Right?! Would it be that hard (no!) to make the same straight size items—but in plus sizes?!? Plus size basics as well as classics and trendier designs in modern colors without the said weird prints and gratuitous bedazzling seem to sell out so quickly. It's truly a wonder that retailers and designers are so clueless…

Seriously! Well said. While recognizing that "coolness" is subjective, there is nothing about Abercrombie & Fitch that says "cool," or even "interesting." It's totally fine to be so, of course, but the clothes are merely ordinary. It's laughable that Jeffries conflates high school mega-popularity with coolness, when,…

That's a helpful way to look at it! Although, I suppose the name "Freedom" would then seem a little on the nose? ;)

So no Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock or Crap Bag, either?

That's really clever. Local commercials are bound to be awful anyhow; they might as well be amusingly ironic at being so!

He looks like Mr. Handsome's (aka Omar Borkan Al Gala) embarrassing pervy uncle. The facial hair is reminiscent, too, sans the bearded jawline.

I bought a washing machine from Mr. Appliance! He is very nice and, perhaps disappointingly, not as wacky as one might imagine, however. And his nutty/ridiculous commercials aren't half as annoying as the grating Kiefer Kia princess ones (which you, too, might be tortured/haunted by if you live/have lived in Eugene…

No doubt many are generally amused by it, which is really inexcusable. However, others (including myself, unfortunately) might simply find the imagery so surreal as to be not at all truly funny but (in not equal measures) horrifying and laughably absurd. Perhaps this has something to do with how we relate to…

OT but somewhat related: Obviously, what this sick woman did was just egregiously abusive, completely horrific, and wrong, wrong, wrong. Having said that, while just Googling fellow penis lopper Lorena Bobbit, I came across this fabulous Samoan/Indian singer from New Zealand, Aaradhna, and her song "Lorena Bobbit."…

I share your sentiments, all of them (including feeling awful about it!).

"You're full of toxins!"

Excellent choices! For myself, I would add, for one, Shirley MacLaine.

I also adored "The Bletchley Circle"! I hadn't realized that Diana Rigg's daughter is in it, however! Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays the lead in Bletchley, recently starred in another BBC period miniseries that I enjoyed about a progressive headmistress in the 1930s: "South Riding."

My pleasure! Happy working/watching!