That’s what I was wondering... are kids going to fear for their lives if they see someone use another bathroom?

“And I don’t think we should be making life more confusing for our children.”

I’m a librarian, working with mostly adults and sometimes, kids. Adults across racial, income and age divides generally have more traditional names. Anyone under 25; all bets are off.

That was something I tried to point when I mentioned how, if this is my experience, it is surely also the experience of people who look at resumes. I'm not trying to argue if something SHOULD BE this way or not or whether or not it's even how people are judged. Only that it is something that will get noticed. Just…

My Dad’s family was from the southern Midwest, and some of the folks down there were uneducated, poor and rural. A nearby family had daughters named Margarita and Dacquiri. A couple years later we visited again and their new baby was named Chablis.

Oh well. The two of you can go together down to the concern police station and file a complaint. They can fire me from my very low paying substitute teaching job and replace me with a fresh eyed non-judgmental person who has no idea about naming trends and has not been around a wide range of demographics. Then, after…

Ah take your concern to the concern police. It’s a totally normal human observation that when you see a roster full of Madisons and Evans and Gavins, you are likely (not always but likely) going to get a middle class group of kids, usually white. When you get a roster full of Antonios and Matiases and Joses, you are…

Like 95% of people are totally unaware of their unconscious/implicit biases. Naming your kid something stupid is fucking up her life.

When you name your kids, it’s about you for maybe 5 years. Then, for the remainder of your kid’s life, your kid Kaj is stuck with being called Guy and Sky, and having to say 4 times a day “Kaj: K as in Kangaroo, A as in Adam, J as Josh, which are all names I’d rather have.” At some point no one is going to think about…

And btw, I’m not full of shit about this. Anything, when it comes to individuals, is not going to live up to stereotypes. But I taught school for nearly a decade and then subbed for nearly a decade more (and subbing is interesting because you see over a hundred rosters a year) and you definitely start to notice all…

lol- we’re cussing already?

I wonder if all the parents who named their sons Atticus are regretting their choice now that Go Set a Watchman has been published.

Pff. He’s clearly not elite.

There was a time when I was a really little kid when the working components of your phones were not considered your property in any, way, shape, or form. It wasn’t until I got older—maybe around 8 or 9—when you could purchase a whole, working phone and actually own the phone whether it was connected to a line or not.…

That’s why they have gummy everything now, adults who for some reason refuse to swallow pills.

I have a black cat who sits on the edge of the tub and pokes at me from outside the shower curtain. She jumps up there the second the water is turned on. The couple of times that she has accidentally fallen in proves that she doesn’t like being wet but rather just punching at me from the dry side.

Forced cultural assimilation is looked down upon for good reason—it privileges the value system and traditions of whatever the home country is, reinforcing the marginalization of the immigrant. What happens, however, when the immigrant’s culture generally tolerates violence against women?

It is not forced cultural assimilation to explain that in the new country there are laws, and those laws must be obeyed. Rape is against the law, even if it is of one’s spouse. This does not seem to me to be remotely controversial.

Please immediately deploy this modern Goofus and Gallant program to middle schools over here thank you.

You can’t say borderline anymore...people I talk to in my job can’t read for shit. It’s becoming more illiterate than borderline literate. This world scares me.