I would be annoyed as a cashier if the customer had both earbuds in, but removing one is a sign that you’re giving me attention I think. As long as nothing is playing that’s distracting you from answering the questions I’m asking.

What if their hopes and dreams are to one day examine all of the world’s ear canals?! You don’t know!

Don’t know if this is still the case, but talking on the phone while ordering used to be a common technique that scammers would use. Keeps them from having to make eye-contact and the added conversation that doesn’t involve you can get you flustered and off your game as a cashier.

The worst part is, it was in AP English. Though also in my crappy hometown.

I never read A Tale of Two Cities, but I absolutely hated Great Expectations. I feel like Dickens in general is massively overrated. Part of the problem is that his novels were serialized and you can really tell. 

I remember having this same conversation back in high school. Everyone in my class complained about how long and boring it was and I was like “It’s a novella!”

Just don’t be a dick.

The quote above says she employs the stereotypes of “the Latin lover, the suffering mother, and the stoic manchild.” I’m not going to spend any more time digging into a book that I don’t plan on reading anyway, but even if you’re right and it’s just thinly drawn characters and poorly researched cultural signifiers,…

I don’t think you’re qualified to tell me what “most women want” during sex. 100% of women want to not be raped and verbal consent is a way to make that less likely. “I thought she consented” is not only a piss poor legal defense but a fucked up moral defense that doesn’t begin to make someone’s actions okay.…

I’m not sure what the specific laws were in Colorado at the time, but states and municipalities have been updating their laws to make it clear that affirmative consent is required, not just assumptions.

Putting Hip-Hop under Jazz is weird and something that no one does. You could maybe argue that Hip-Hop is an evolution of Jazz (though I wouldn’t), but they’re completely distinct genres. Just because both were invented by African Americans, that doesn’t mean one is under the umbrella of the other.

What? You mean a rich, famous guy may have gotten away with a crime? That couldn’t be the case. It must be the thing that you said about rape totally not counting unless the perpetrator wants it to.

Rape does not require intent. Stop spreading dangerous misinformation.

We’re not talking about a hypothetical. There is an actual legal definition of the word and intent is not part of that definition. All that’s required is a lack of consent. 

Rape requires intent.

It’s not worth perpetuating harmful stereotypes for “narrative streamlining.”

It’s not that she felt unqualified to say anything about the book, but rather that she felt unqualified to be the one to write the review of it, which a New York Times review pretty much is, for better or worse. 

A book can be both a cliche-ridden mess to those who have actually lived those experiences and a vivid page-turner to those who have not. 

Harsh but fair.

The recent Chip Zdarsky run on the Howard the Duck comic was great. Though I never read any of the Gerber originals so I don’t have a point of comparison.