Monthly Archives: March 2017

Defining my existence as inappropriate; why should that worry me?

March 21, 2017societydiscrimination, lgbt, public places, queer, technologyfontfolly

“Sick of your heteronormative bullshit.”

Not long before my 16th birthday we moved to southwest Washington and began attending the church where my maternal grandparents were members. My new Sunday School teacher was a middle-school librarian in his day job. This particular church had all Sunday School classes segregated by gender (which was fairly typical for Southern Baptist Churches³) and by age, so it was a bunch of guys ranging in age from about 14-18 years old. One Sunday morning shortly after we joined the church, the teacher was telling an anecdote from his public school job, and he mentioned the novel Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret?. “Some of you may have heard of it,” he said.

Without thinking, I nodded my head and said, “Yeah, it’s a pretty good book.”

The teacher turned on me as if I had just transformed into a rattlesnake and was switching my tail ready to strike⁴. He had the most appalled look on his face. Then the expression changed to very amused condescension, “Oh, Gene! You would never have read this book! It’s a book for girls, and is completely inappropriate for a boy!”

I shrugged and said, “If you say so…”

He shook his head, chuckling even more condescendingly, and then went back to his story.

But I had read the book, several years earlier. I had gone through a pretty intense Judy Blum phase⁶, see. It started with the novel, Then Again, Maybe I Won’t which was, among other things, about a boy dealing with puberty and significant changes in his family’s financial situation. I had loved the book so much, that I proceeded to read everything else of hers I could get at the public library (or through inter-library loan) in the small Colorado town we had been living in at the time. Sure, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is a book about (among other things) a girl going through puberty and all that entails. But it’s also a book about one’s relationship with the faith they were raised in, and learning to make adult decisions about what you yourself believe.

The idea of boy’s toys and girl’s toys and boy’s books and girl’s books is pretty messed up when talking about small children, but it seems to me it is much more messed up when talking about teen-agers⁸. Some people will immediately point out that the teacher may have been so appalled because he thinks of menstruation as a sexual topic⁹, and good Christian boys who are not yet married¹⁰ aren’t supposed to know anything about sex. As if that argument is any less BS than the idea that a boy could never possibly read and enjoy a book that some people think of as a girl’s book.

It’s all heteronormative BS. My church insisted on separating girls from boys in Sunday School classes in part to supposedly thwart sexual improprieties¹². But heteronormative BS is not limited to members of fundamentalist evangelical churches.

YouTube's completely BS explanation for why they're restricting videos that just happen to be made my Queer people. (Click to embiggen) — YouTube’s completely BS explanation¹⁸ for why they’re restricting videos that just happen to be made my Queer people. (Click to embiggen)

YouTube is hiding some videos touching on various topics related to the LGBT community¹⁷. Not sexual videos. Among the videos that have been found to be hidden the Restricted Due to Mature Content label are: trans people showing how to apply make-up, a gay vlogger talking about 8 LGBT African-Americans who ought to be remembered during Black History Month, music videos without sexual content that happen to have been made by queer musicians, some coming out videos, and so forth.

Before anyone tries to lecture me of all people that this doesn’t constitute censorship (which I never said it did), let me explain. YouTube is privately owned, yes. But it offers a service to the public, and therefore must abide by the legal and ethical obligations that comes with offering a public accommodation. They incur those obligations whether or not they charge fees for the service. Among those obligations is one that is sometimes referred to as truth in advertising¹⁹: if you represent that your product or service does a thing when it does not, you can face penalties. YouTube claims that it is simply labeling content of a “mature or inappropriate nature” so that other users who choose to surf in restricted mode will not see offensive²⁰ material. They also keep referring to it as a voluntary program.

“8 Black LGBT Americans Who Inspire Me” is not mature content. How to apply foundation, eyeliner, and lipstick is not mature content. “How I Came Out to my Family” is not mature content. Nor are any of those inappropriate.

It is also misleading in the press release to say the program is voluntary. Yes, whether or not a viewer choose to see content that has been labeled “Restricted” is voluntary. Whether a creator’s material is thus labeled is not. Neither are the creators informed that their material has thus been labeled. They have to log into YouTube as a different account and set that account not to view Restricted material and then try to view their own videos to see which ones have been labeled “Restricted.”

So I’m exercising my free speech right to call BS on YouTube. This isn’t a misunderstanding on our part. It is a discriminatory business practice²¹. It is more of the same old heteronormative BS where anything that admits that queer people exist is treated as if it is pornography, even when they are doing something as innocuous as sharing make-up tips²².

Footnotes:
1. By “we” I mean my mom, my oldest sister, and myself. Dad had remarried and was living in Utah by that time, with where my step-mom was had just given birth to the youngest of my half-siblings².

2. It is worth pointing out that the precipitating event of my parents’ divorce was the discovery that Dad had been carrying on an affair with the woman who became my step-mom for years.

3. Many years later that particular church decided to allow a mixed gender Sunday School class, but only for the people over 65 years old. And members who happened to be that age but didn’t want to attend Sunday School in a mixed gender setting were allowed to attend the adult men’s or women’s class, instead. When my grandmother told me about it, she actually tittered and made a comment about how radical it was to let men and women discuss the Bible in the same room. My step-grandfather then commented that, “Well, I guess at our age they don’t expect anyone will misbehave.” From which you can correctly infer that one of the things at least some Evangelicals believe is that you can’t put people of the opposite gender in rooms with closed doors without the very real risk that sexual hijinks will ensue.

4. Which may seem like a really strangely specific metaphor, but because one of the churches we had briefly attended during my nomadic childhood had included some members who were into snake handling⁵, I actually had seen another man in a church have the exact expression as this teacher did when a rattlesnake in a jar that most of us didn’t realize one of the members had snuck into the church, suddenly got very tired of being trapped in said jar.

5. Snake-handling: A practice in certain Pentecostal and Evangelical churches inspired by a literalistic reading of Mark 16:17–18. Handling venomous snakes without being harmed is seen as a sign of one’s faith and possession of the Holy Spirit.

6. To be fair, many years later, when I mentioned something about Judy Blum during a conversation at work, at least one of my co-workers gave me a rather startled look and asked, “You read Judy Blum when you were a teen-ager?” When I said that I had and mentioned a couple of my favorites⁷, her response was a very emphatic, “Wow!”

7. Deenie, It’s Not the End of the World, and of course Then Again, Maybe I Won’t.

8. Although, attitudes like this teacher’s make it easy to believe the story that gets shared around from time to time of the adult male legislator with a wife and teen-age children who didn’t know that menstrual blood flow was an involuntary biological function.

9. It’s a biological function that occurs in members of one sex, yes. And it is related to the reproductive cycle, yes. But it’s biology. And sometimes a health issue. Fully functioning adult members of a society ought to have at least a passing knowledge about the health issues of their species, regardless of whether they experience it themselves.

10. I should mention that two of the guys sitting in that Sunday School room with me that morning would, in less than two years time, each have a rushed marriage to their respective girlfriends who would each give birth to their first child only a few months afterward⁹.

11. A situation which studies have shown again and again and again would happen much less frequently if kids are given accurate information about sex, sexuality, reproduction, et cetera.

12. Because sex (and flirting and dancing¹⁴) can only happen between people of opposite sexes, right¹⁶?

13. There is no thirteenth footnote.

14. An old joke which was much beloved by my college debate coach (though I’ve heard it from others before and since): “Why do Baptists condemn sex other than missionary position¹⁵? Because they’re afraid it might lead to dancing!”

15. It’s true, even married people are not supposed to do anything other than very vanilla sex. Which is the inspiration of a similar joke: “Why do Baptists say it’s sinful for a woman to smoke cigarettes? Because they’re afraid it might lead to oral sex!”

16. Which is ridiculous. I know for a fact I wasn’t the only queer boy sitting in that Sunday School classroom that morning. Not that I had any romantic or sexual relationship with the other guys, just that I and two others each came out of the closet years later. One of them I’ve run into a few times since, as he lives in Seattle, now, too. Last I heard, the other was living in San Diego.

17. YouTube faces social media storm over LGBT-blocking ‘restricted mode’

18. You can read a bit more of YouTube’s side here: YouTube apologizes for blocking LGBT videos. Note that the headline is completely false. YouTube’s statement is not an apology for blocking the content. It says the word “apologize” but it’s for our supposed confusion at not realizing that they’re restricting LGBT content for reasons and not because of other reasons. Except we aren’t confused, we understand perfectly.

19. The principle is not limited to advertising. Any communication about the use of the product can be subject to this scrutiny.

20. Oddly enough, a lot of videos spouting off white supremacist, racist, and anti-queer bigotry (often making the kinds of hate speech which YouTube’s user guidelines says are not allowed) are freely available on the service without the Restricted label. So it is reasonable to conclude that the service is applying a definition of “offensive” that tilts cartoonishly far in one particular political direction.

21. Restricting or denying service due to the sexual orientation or gender identity of the people producing it, which is clearly the case in the vast majority of the identified videos.

22. And if you think that it’s universally offensive for people of some genders or some gender identities to wear make-up, then please explain why we keep having to see the horrific spray-on tan of our deplorable president.

Once more, with footnotes!

March 20, 2017writingfootnotes, reading, things I like, writingfontfolly

“….so I put a footnote on your footnote…”

So, I had a funny conversation on twitter the other night about people writing in the margins of books, and A Muse Dreams said she needed to write a post about marginalia¹, and I said I’d love to read it³. She has since written said blog post: Marginalia: When you’re intrigued but simultaneously despise it. You should read it.

In the post, she quoted a college professor who was once shocked that she read footnotes. “No one reads footnotes!” the professor claimed⁴.

The professor could not be more wrong⁶.

The cover of Once More* with Footnotes, a collection of short stories, essays, and other odds and ends that was assembled when Terry Pratchett was Guest of Honor at the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention. The footnotes in the book are awesome.

Lots of people read footnotes. I have been doing a running gag on various blogs over the years where I would do posts several days in a row, each one with more footnotes than the day before, culminating in a blog post which consisted of a single word with a whole bunch of footnotes^7⁸. My footnotes often have footnotes of their own⁹. And sometimes the footnote of a footnote has more footnotes¹⁰. My point is that whenever I have done this, I get several favorable comments, often from people I didn’t know were reading my blog. And not just generic comments, but comments that clearly indicate the person tried to follow all the nesting structure.

Terry Pratchett published a whole book riddled with footnotes, in part because he had been known to throw footnotes in some of his fantasy novels, the footnotes frequently being the location of the funniest jokes in the book. In the early portion of my college career, I and some friends were involved in creating a bunch of faux adventure books where footnotes abounded¹¹. We took delight in constructing footnotes that took up more of the page than the story text. We took even more delight in constructing footnotes that ran on for several pages. We had footnotes that had their own footnotes occasionally, though this was slightly less common than what I do now, because we were doing all of this on typewriters¹⁵—not with word processors.

The award-winning fantasy novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke makes good use of footnotes throughout, to give another example.

Footnotes are great. They are fun to construct¹⁹, fun to read, and serve a valuable role of allowing the author to digress in a way that gives the reader a bit more control over when they follow the writer down a rabbit hole²⁰.

Footnotes:

1. This was my fault, because my first contribution to the conversation that was already going on between three of my friends was simply to exclaim, “Marginalia!”²

2. marginalia noun, plural: marginal or incidental notes; written or printed in the margin of a page.

3. And I did love it!

4. I’ve had people just as emphatically insist that no one reads, period⁵!

5. When I was preparing to go away to university, an uncle and a cousin were recruited by my grandmother to help me move all the stuff I had packed up that needed to go into storage in her garage that I couldn’t take with me. About the fourth box of books one of my uncles picked up he asked, “You haven’t actually read all of these, have you?” And was shocked when I told him that 1) yes, most of them more than once and, 2) I had sold about of third of my collection to a couple of used bookstores recently.

6. All right, I’m engaging in a bit of hyperbole, here. There are many things the professor could say that would be every more incorrect than this, but you get my point.

7. When I did this on LiveJournal, I put all the notes below a cut-tag, so at first glance it looked like a very short post with a bunch of small numbers in and ever-decreasing line of superscripts.

8. I am too easily amused, I know.

9. Because they often need elaborations of their own.

10. cf note #9.

11. Because sometimes just the fact that someone decided to put a footnote on some ridiculous parody of action-adventure dialog is funny before you even read the footnote¹².

12. The problem with that particular technique is, that you have to make sure that whatever joke or other pay-off you deliver in said footnote is more entertaining and/or funnier than the mere existence of a footnote where no one¹³ would expect it.

13. At least, no sane person¹⁴.

14. But we were the sort of college students who were assembling our own hard copy books, sharing them among ourselves, and writing sequels, collaborating on sequels, et cetera. Clearly we were not entirely sane.

15. Half of my work was done on an IBM Selectric¹⁶ electric typewriter at the school, and the other half on the 1952 Remington manual typewriter¹⁷ which my grandmother had given me back when I was 11 or 12 year old.

16. I think what I miss most about those glorious machines isn’t the wonderful CLACK! CLACK of the big clicky keys and the immediate response of the motor spinning the typeball and striking the correct letter against the paper, but rather the constant vibration of the motor you felt constantly against your fingertips.

17. One friend called it ‘The Tank’ because the typewriter weighed at least fifteen pounds and most of it was built out of machine-grade steel. Another friends called it ‘The Threshing Machine’ because the clatter and clacking it made when I was on a roll (typing a bit over 60 words per minute¹⁸, which was considered screaming on the old mechanicals) reminded him of some big farm equipment.

18. My speed on modern computer keyboards is generally a bit over 105 words per minute. And I still can’t keep up with the voices in my head when I’m really into a scene in a story.

19. Even if sometimes a bit messy depending on your HTML parser.

20. Whether figuratively or not.

Weekend Update 3/19/2017: Support trans kids

March 19, 2017newslgbt, news, trans, updatefontfolly

Young girl holds say that says, “I'm the SCARY TRANSGENDER person the Media warned you about.” — “I’m the SCARY TRANSGENDER person the Media warned you about.” (Click to embiggen)

Since I spent the majority of Friday and quite a good chunk of Saturday at the hospital while my husband had surgery and then recovered, I didn’t pay as much attention to the news as I often do. Oh, I did wind up spending a lot of time trying to read news online, but I wasn’t really processing it. When I could concentrate, I worked on a short story that I need to send to a ‘zine editor before the end of the month. Turns out I was also distracted enough Thursday night that I made a rather serious error in Friday links.

One of the stories in my weekly round up of the news this week was: Here’s What Happened At The Parents Of Trans Kids Mardi Gras Float. Which is actually a quite heartwarming stories about the parents of a bunch of trans people who put together a float about how much they love their trans kids and rode Sydney, Australia’s Mardi Gras parade. I originally planned to include that link in the section titles “News for Queers and our Allies,” but I also sometimes have a separate sections for news pertinent to particular portions of the Queer Community. And this week there were a lot of links related to trans people. So I kept moving those links around.

Unfortunately, several of the news pieces this time were about trans people were about less than happy things. Anyway, somehow in the course of moving all the trans pieces together, then moving some of them to another section, then moving others to yet another section, I accidentally moved the happy story about parents who love and support their trans kids to the “This Week in Awful People” section and didn’t notice until today!

So if you haven’t yet, go click on that link and look at the cool pictures and read some good news!

Since we’re on the subject of people being supportive of trans rights: Joe Biden Slams Trump Administration for Rescinding Protections for Trans Kids. Go, Joe! Now there’s a man who knows how to be an ally!

“Instead of focusing on the fact that 40 percent of the homeless youth on the street are identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [and] rejected by their families out on the street, and what do we do about that, we’re now focusing on whether or not a transgender child, which bathroom they can use.” —form Vice President Joe Biden

And if Joe isn’t enough to convince you to support trans kids: Dear Cis People, Please Support Trans Kids

“In their most vulnerable and difficult stage of life, trans kids are not just facing opposition from their peers, but from the government, from society itself.”

Being supportive of your kid shouldn’t depend on whether your kid conforms to your pre-conceptions of the person or kind of person they should be. Antonia Elle D’orsay posted a great cartoon about this earlier in the month:

http://tonidorsay.tumblr.com/post/78926208741/the-difference-between-abuse-neglect-and-genuine

If you can, give a donation to: National Center for Transgender Equality. And if you want to help queer kids who have been rejected by their families and kicked out on the street : True Colors Fund or The Ali Forney Center are good places to start. Many communities have local programs focusing on teen homelessness and particularly queer teen homelessness, a quick Google search with the name of your city or town, and the words “queer teen homeless” should point you in the right way.

Important things to remember

March 19, 2017newsnews, resistance, rightwing, wingnutsfontfolly

I gather lots of memes, info graphics, and succinct comments that I think might make a good companion to a blog post someday. A lot of them are potential illustrations for the next Friday Links. And then I don’t use them all. So I thought I could make a post with a bunch of the recent ones.

About tolerance and intolerance

“The whole 'How come you won't tolerate my intolerance!' is hardly a rhetorical home run, or a recent issue. Karl Popper nailed it in 1952.” (Click to embiggen) — “The whole ‘How come you won’t tolerate my intolerance!’ is hardly a rhetorical home run, or a recent issue. Karl Popper nailed it in 1952.” (Click to embiggen)

About stupidity

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous...” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer (click to embiggen) — “Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous…” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer (click to embiggen)

About the lying liar and his masters

“Turns out, it wasn't Trump's investments in Russia that shaped his pro-Putin views, it was Russia's investment in him.” (Click to embiggen) — “Turns out, it wasn’t Trump’s investments in Russia that shaped his pro-Putin views, it was Russia’s investment in him.” (Click to embiggen)

Who’s going to get hurt by Trumpcare

About economic inequality

Income inequality in America is much, much, much worse than we think it is. (Click to embiggen)

“The concentration of income and wealth is deepening around the world, driven by more than rising paychecks for top American financiers and chief executives. Returns to invested capital are outstripping economic growth across advanced countries, directing a growing share of economic rewards into the hands of the wealthy.” (Click to embiggen)

What we need to do

Friday Links (better things to ban edition)

March 17, 2017bloggingfriday, friday links, links, newsfontfolly

“No woman in a burqa (or a hijab or a burkini) has ever done me any harm. But I was sacked (without explanation) by a man in a suit. Men in suits missold me pensions and endowments, costing me thousands of pounds. A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits then increased the misery to millions through austerity. If we are to start telling people what to wear, maybe we should ban suits.” Henry Stewart, London] — “No woman in a burqa (or a hijab or a burkini) has ever done me any harm. But I was sacked (without explanation) by a man in a suit. Men in suits missold me pensions and endowments, costing me thousands of pounds. A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits then increased the misery to millions through austerity. If we are to start telling people what to wear, maybe we should ban suits.”
Henry Stewart, London]

It’s Friday! It is the third Friday of March. It’s also St. Patrick’s Day, though I didn’t come up with any holiday appropriate links this week.

I set up the Friday Links posts on Thursday evening to publish in the morning on Friday. About the time this posts to my FontFolly.Net blog in the morning, I’ll be leaving the house taking my husband to the hospital. He’s having surgery, it’s a something he’s been meaning to take care of for awhile. If everything goes as planned, I’ll get to bring him home again on Saturday. Between prepping for that, continuing the packing, and usual work things, I didn’t write as much this week.

Anyway, here are the links I found interesting this week, sorted into categories.

Links of the Week

Woman finds boy who left $5, heartbreaking apology note.

If you cried over the first link last week, you may need another tissue for this: Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of ‘You May Want to Marry My Husband’, dies at 51 . (Links to more remembrances are below in the Farewells section)

Daylight saving time is just one way standardized time zones oppress you.

Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute.

One from the archives (I actually remember linking to this and some related stories about four years ago) .

And more recently: Putting the ‘Neo’ Back in ‘Neo-Nazi’.

Last month: A white guy with a net worth of $124m making poor brown people hold up a sign calling for genocide is pure banter, isn’t it?

And to look at it academically: Derogating humor as a delegitimization strategy in intergroup contexts.

This week in awful people who only have themselves to blame

GOP Politician, Trump Surrogate Arrested for Soliciting Sex With Boy. Was state campaign chair for Trump, and he’s voted for anti-trans and anti-gay bills, and more details: GOP Senator Surrenders On Three Felony Child Prostitution Charges, More Details Emerge.

Former Texas Congressman Steve Stockman Is Big Trouble With The Feds.

News for queers and our allies:

Alpha Chi Omega Sorority Announces It Will Accept Transgender Women.

Here’s What Happened At The Parents Of Trans Kids Mardi Gras Float. (It was all good!)

Father and Daughter Come Out as Transgender.

RuPaul marries rancher boyfriend after 23 years together.

Federal regional bank appoints its first gay, black President and CEO.

Students wear rainbow colors to honor bullied trans teen who took her life.

Most Americans support LGBTQ rights across the board.

Science!

Atheist parents are better at raising children.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Aliette de Bodard on Diversity and Gender Roles in House of Shattered Wings.

R. Scott Bakker’s Novels: Brilliant and Deeply Flawed.

The Year in Slush: 2016 – Neil Clarke.

This week in Writing

The best writing apps for your Mac, iPad and iPhone.

This Week in Tech

If Trump Fans Love Freedom, They Should Love Net Neutrality.

The internet warriors: meet the ‘trolls’ in their own homes – video. This is… disturbing and enlightening at the same time.

Stop Auto-Play Videos from Annoying You in Your Browser on macOS.

SYSTEMS SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW WHEN THEY’RE NOT SMART ENOUGH.

This Week in Misogyny in Tech

Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?

Thinx Promised a Feminist Utopia to Everyone But Its Employees.

This Week in Enablers

On Cue, Adoring Pro-Trump Outlets Fawn Over February Jobs Report.

Ivanka Trump’s Bitter Scent.

Culture war news:

South Dakota Governor Signs Anti-LGBTQ “License to Discriminate” Bill into Law.

Bryan Fischer Again Falsely Claims He Never Said That African Americans ‘Rut Like Rabbits’.

Trans Women Are Women. This Isn’t a Debate.

This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:

THE LADY WHO FENDED OFF AN ASSAULT IN GOLDEN GARDENS WOULD LIKE JWP TO STOP USING HER STORY TO FUNDRAISE.

Tenn. protesters drown out Trump backer by chanting ‘bless your heart. One on-line friend explained that ‘Bless your heart’ is Southern slang for ‘You’re a self-defeating fool’; my Great-aunt Evabel (that I’ve wound up quoting a couple of times this week) had a way of saying it scathingly that communicated ‘You don’t have the sense the good lord gave a rock!’

This Week in the Resistance:

If We Don’t Act Now Fascism Will Be on Our Doorstep, Says Yale Historian. Uh, Fascism has already kicked down the door and is in our faces!

How Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson Fought Trump and Won America’s Heart. (the photo illustrations that look like teen magazine covers are hilarious!)

New Fox News Poll Finds Bernie Sanders, Planned Parenthood, and ObamaCare More Popular Than Donald Trump.

This Week Regarding the Lying Liar:

Donald Trump called the economy ‘a mess’ and the unemployment rate ‘a hoax’ when Obama was President—then a miracle occurred.

Intel committee member says Trump ceded US power: He made Putin ‘the most powerful man in the world’.

Did Donald Trump leak his own tax returns? Many pundits believe he did and here’s why. The fact that this Whitehouse had a full statement (with at least one lie in it, of course) seconds after the first tweet teasing the news story is a very clear indication that they leaked it themselves. The article outlines more evidence, and the reasons why they would do it.

Senate Intel Committee Rebukes Trump: ‘No Evidence…That Trump Tower was Under Surveillance’.

News about the Fascist Regime:

Trump Travel Order Raises Specter of ‘Superior Race’: Hawaii Attorney General.

U.S. Ethics Official To White House: No, These Rules Definitely Apply To You.

Conway suggests Obama bugged Trump using ‘microwaves’. Things went downhill from there.

The EPA’s science office removed ‘science’ from its mission statement.

The EPA Used to Tweet About the Environment. Now It Just Tweets About Scott Pruitt – It’s his own PR firm.

Former top Trump aide Flynn paid over $30,000 by Russian TV, top House Dem says.

More Nazis In The White House? Sebastian Gorka May Make Three.

Trump’s Lawyer Threatens Joe Scarborough After MSNBC Host Says Trump Leaked His Own Tax Return.

This week in Politics:

Why Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose With the G.O.P. Repeal Bill.

The CBO has spoken: Trumpcare will create 24 million uninsured people in the next decade.

New Analysis Shows GOP Health Plan Hits Trump Voters Hardest by Taking Away Thousands of Dollars.

Fact Check: Congressman Dave Reichert’s Misleading Statements About the Threats Posed by His Constituents.

Here’s what Trump’s budget proposes to cut.

Republicans dismiss Trump’s ambitious budget blueprint.

This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and the deplorables

Reporter David Cay Johnston’s family bullied by President’s supporters.

Oklahoma officer charged after accusation that he was drunk, naked, and wearing a MAGA hat. The misdemeanor charge is “Outraging Public Decency.’ There’s a story with more details here.

Trump supporter indicted for allegedly attacking Muslim woman working at JFK.

This Week in Hate Crimes

New Orleans church window shattered 2 days after it hosted transgender town hall.

LGBT community center in Washington, DC, vandalized, staff member assaulted.

Man breaks into Arizona mosque and rips up copies of Quran inside.

St. Lousis Jewish Community Center among those receiving bomb threats Wednesday. In other words, they guy they arrested last week and had only linked to about 8 of the threats? Not the only one.

Federal authorities investigating Jewish center threats as hate crimes.

What It Feels Like When a Mosque Is Threatened.

Proposal would increase hate-crime penalties.

Gunshots Fired at Tennessee Funeral After Mourner Makes Anti-Gay Remark About Deceased.

Man charged with hate crime for attack on transgender woman after tryst.

Farewells:

Author, ‘Modern Love’ Essayist Amy Krouse Rosenthal Dies At 51.

Amy Rosenthal’s Lively, Personal ‘Encyclopedia’.

It’s OK to be OK: The subtle inspiration of Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

A Heart-Shaped Life: Twelve Ways of Looking at Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

NYPD Officer who twerked at parade dies of 9/11-related cancer.

Things I wrote:

Weekend Update 3/11/2017: Ex-gay torture, dark clouds, and darker motives.

Orlando Pulse Shooting must be remembered for the anti-queer hate crime that it was.

Sleep disturbances.

Let’s talk about (fictional) talking!

Videos!

This Video of a Rabbi, a Priest, and an Atheist Smoking Weed and Discussing Faith is Delightful:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

MICROWAVES (Are Watching You!) – Randy Rainbow Song Parody:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Chubby Siberian Tigers Hunt Electronic Bird of Prey:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

BUG! “So You Think That You Can Fix Him” by David:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Let’s talk about (fictional) talking!

March 14, 2017writingbooks, craft, dialog, literature, stories, writingfontfolly

“Dialogue is not just quotation. It is grimaces, pauses, adjustments of blouse buttons, doodles on a napkin, and crossings of legs.” —Jerome Stern

There’s a list being shared around tumblr of things that people do in the real world when we talk. People are treating it as a list of things one must to insert into your writing to improve it—which proves that most people don’t understand what dialog in fiction is.

I like to repeat the adage that the difference between real life and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. Storytelling is, among other things, the craft of weaving an illusion. You are attempting to evoke in the reader a dream. You want that dream to be similar to the one you’re holding in your own mind as you craft your story. It needs to feel real, while also making sense—narrative sense. In a narrative, the events that happen are always connected to each other and to the overall story. Things happen for reasons that relate to the intent of the participants and the meaning of the plot. But the real world seldom makes sense narratively; real life events that take place near each other are often unconnected, for instance.

The paradox of storytelling is that you can’t achieve that sense of reality and making sense by slavishly imitating the real world.

That is especially true in dialog.

So, dialog isn’t about exactly transcribing the real way that people talk. It is about creating the illusion of the way people talk, while omitting parts that don’t move the story forward. To get back to the list that’s being shared around: it isn’t that you can’t use any of those suggestions, it is that you should not dump all of them in just because they’re on the list.

If, like me, you read a lot of fanfic and self-published fiction, you see a lot of these awkward efforts to replicate in dialogue certain quirks and eccentricities of expression that people make in real life, or that actors do as part of their delivery of lines. Unfortunately, these replications often serve as a distraction rather than characterization. For example, in dialogue you might mention that when a character responded to a question with the word “yep” that the character popped the p at the end of the word. If the reader has ever known a person who does that in certain circumstances, or seen an actor doing it in a television series, say, they get it. If they don’t, they’re just puzzled. And during that moment that the reader is trying to figure out what it means, they are no longer in your story. You’ve bounced them from the narrative. You have destroyed the illusion you were so meticulously crafting. You are inviting the reader to stop reading your tale.

And if you do more of those things, you aren’t merely inviting the reader to leave, you’re actively chasing them away!

In real life people say “uh,” “um,” and similar non-words a lot more often than we realize. It’s a pause when we’re trying to pick a word, or figure out how to respond to something or just thinking through the situation we are discussing as we’re talking. If you put those non-verbal filler sounds in as often as they happen in real life, it becomes very annoying to read. Part of the reason we don’t notice is because the tone of voice and the cadence of the sentence (and if it’s a face-to-face conversation, facial expressions and other body language) give those non-words meaning to the listener. But the reader isn’t getting all of that. So, when writing dialogue, we use those non-verbal sound indicators more sparingly. We deploy them when we want to indicate the speaker is at a loss for words, or is uncomfortable in the situation, or something similar.

In real life we repeat words a lot. We may put the same word in to a sentence more often than it is needed. Like, we really can, you know, say what we mean to say, like, really, you know, in a really messy way. You know? And you can write a character talking in that manner, but you’ll find it’s difficult to keep up the pattern. And again, the reader needs to know why you’re doing it. If you have a character that is supposed to be annoying your protagonist, having all of their sentences ramble and repeat can make your reader as annoyed with the character as your protagonist is. Again, the key is to choose the non-standard grammar for a narrative reason.

Then there are facial expressions and gestures. I have a really bad habit during first drafts of having my characters nod a lot. You can read through a scene I just wrote and sometimes a third or even half of the switches in dialogue begin with the character who is about to speak nodding. And it’s really annoying after a while. In real life, people nod their heads, shake their heads, tilt their heads, waggle their heads and so on while talking. But just as with “uh,” we need to use it a bit less often than it happens.

The first time someone pointed that out in a rough draft, I went through and changed all of those “so-and-so nodded” to other things. I changed each and every one to a different thing. So the first character, instead of nodding, grinned. And then the next character wiggled his hand to indicate indecision. Then the first character frowned and tilted his head. And so on. When I read the scene to myself aloud after revising it, I started laughing part way through, because it sounded as if the two of them were dancing around each other in an elaborate musical number. So I had made it worse, not better. Not every line of dialogue needs a description of what the character is doing with their body. It is perfectly okay to use “[name] said.” Multiple times.

It’s also all right, if there are only two people in the conversation, to skip the name altogether every now and then. But don’t do it more three or four lines in a row. The reader will get confused, and it is really annoying to have to go back and count, “Susan, John, Susan, John…” when you lose track. And it is super duper annoying when you do that and find it doesn’t work. You get to a line that by your count should be John, but it says ‘Susan frowned in thought. “I don’t think so,” she said.’ I have had that happen in a book published by a large publishing house. I assume that during an edit round some lines of dialogue were removed, and the author didn’t double-check that everything still flowed.

On the other hand, you can get away with a lot of things in dialogue that don’t fly in the narrative portions of the text. People talk in sentence fragments and make grammatical errors, so you can do that in the dialogue. But make sure you know why you’re doing it. And don’t over do it.

While we’re on the subject of dialogue: someone sent me a link to this excellent blog post on how to punctuate dialog. Even if you think you know how to punctuate dialog, go take a look. Everyone can use a refresher every now and then.

Sleep disturbances

March 13, 2017lifeillness, medications, personalfontfolly

Kitten in a blanket. — I just want to stay under the covers.

There are some medications I’ve been put on at one time or another which list “sleep disturbances” as a possible side effect. That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? It conjures up images ranging from insomnia—staring at the clock in the wee hours of the morning wondering desperately if you will ever sleep—to slightly less insidious things—such as a kitten crawling into your bed in the middle of the night and waking you up briefly. Of course, anyone who has owned cats will tell you that having a cat decide that they are more important than sleep can be a nightmarish ordeal that is in many ways worse than mere insomnia.

The first time I was put on a medication which listed this side effect was for an extremely bed sinus-throat-and-ear infection I got some years ago. In addition to a standard antibiotic, my doctor described a steroidal nasal spray. He mentioned casually that sometimes patients have trouble sleeping when they first start taking this. The pharmacist who talked to me when I picked it up said that people often have sleep disturbances. The only person who actually warned me on what to expect was on online friend, who said, “Oh, no! Whenever I was put on that stuff, I had horrible vivid extremely disturbing dreams!”

I didn’t have nightmares that first night. What I had was first an extremely vivid dream in which I was trying to put up new shelves in the apartment I lived in at the time, while my late husband, Ray, was working on a quilt. And it was vitally important that we get these tasks done before someone arrived, and things just kept going wrong. I woke up with my heart pounding and feeling extremely angry at a screwdriver that kept transforming into the wrong kind of tool. It took me several minutes to untangle my thoughts and realize that I had been dreaming. It wasn’t real. It was irritating, but not scary.

And that was what they meant by sleep disturbances. Not an occasional temporary interruption of a good night’s rest, but a string of bizarre and emotionally overwrought dreams that propelled you out of bed confused and temporarily convinced that you had entered the twilight zone. In other words, something much more like being pestered by several deranged pets all night long.

The next time that a different medication with the same side effect was prescribed, my regular pharmacist asked if I had been on this particular thing before and if I knew what the label meant when it said “sleep disturbances.” With a slight sense of dread, I described the nights of weird dreams. “Yep!” she said, with a bit more cheerfulness than it deserved. “That’s usually what happens. Not scary dreams, just weird ones that leave you feeling strange and keep waking you up. Not much you can do, though they’re usually worst the first couple of nights.”

I realize that side effects can vary from person to person. And I also know that people don’t always describe the effects they feel the same way. But still, sleep disturbances didn’t really prepare me for what happened. On the other hand, my regular pharmacist was correct. Each time I’ve been on one of these meds, the bizarre dreams were worst for the first couple of days, and then became a bit more normal for the rest of the time I’m on the medication. Not complete going away, mind you, just less awful.

The same warning pamphlets usually also mention mood changes, or irritability, or lack of interest in sex as possible side effects. All of which, by my experience, are euphemisms for “Your emotions are doing to be wildly unpredictable for days!” A friend who has depression was once put on the same prescription strength nasal spray that my doctor has been fond of giving me for sinus infections lately (different than the first one I mentioned in this post), but no one warned him about possible mood-altering side effects. Or, I should say, whatever warning his doctor or pharmacist gave, did not communicate to him the possibility that his depression would be amplified to previously unplumbed depths. Fortunately, it occurred to him after several days of feeling much worse than usual to ask around. As he said afterward, it would have been nice if the warning had been clearer. Because it’s a lot easier to deal with extra depression (or other effects) if you know it’s coming.

Sometimes the sleep disturbances are just weird dreams. Unfortunately I’m a sleep walker and talker. So sometimes I have woke up in a violent rage about something, talking very loudly and angrily about someone. Usually just identified by pronoun. This wakes up my poor husband. I mention the pronoun thing because, usually the dreams that drive me to angrily leap out of bed don’t stick with me. What I mean is, by the time I’m awake enough to realize it’s a dream and answer Michael’s questions about what’s wrong, I can’t remember the details.

I’m writing about this now because currently I have a sinus infection (along with a chest cold and a nasty cough). I’m on antibiotics for the sinus infection, and since there’s a lot of mucous in my lungs, I’m also using an inhaler a couple times a day, and some prescription cough syrup (which I’m only using at bed time). The inhaler and the cough syrup both cause sleep disturbances. And I’ve had some weird dreams. I can’t decide whether the most annoying one so far was the one where my husband and I were trying to do something but our luggage kept vanishing and reappearing, or the one where it started out with us helping his father (who I am very fond of) do something, but then it morphed into helping my father (who I was not fond of at all while he was alive).

I just hope the cough gets better soon, so I can stop using the cough syrup and the inhaler. I’d rather just be dealing with the antibiotic for the rest of the week, you know?

Orlando Pulse Shooting must be remembered for the anti-queer hate crime that it was

March 12, 2017societybigots, gun violence, hate crime, lgbt, public places, queer, rightwingfontfolly

Photo by Monivette Cordeiro, Orlando Weekly.

Nine months ago today an angry man walked into Pulse, a queer nightclub in Orlando, and murdered 49 people. According to the FBI and his own family, during the weeks and months leading up to the attack, he had become more noticeably outraged every time he saw gay men in public together. He plotted the crime carefully. He set up fake profiles on gay hook-up apps and used conversations there to find out which night clubs would have the biggest crowd. It was a carefully crafted anti-queer hate crime.

A crime that is still being prosecuted: Orlando Nightclub Shooter’s Widow Is Denied Release On Bail.

I’ve written before about why this particular crime hit so hard for queer people in general, and me in particular. I’ve also written about why it is unacceptable to argue there is nothing that we can do about this kind of crime: They used to insist that drunk driving couldn’t be reduced, either. I’ve also written about why we shouldn’t ignore the anti-LGBT hate crime aspect of this act of terror, and why the people who do so are perpetuating and enabling the hate that caused it.

And I’m not the only one: Call the Orlando shooting what it was: a homophobic hate crime, not ‘an attack on us all’.

I didn’t let myself write about the shooting on the 7th- or 8th-month’s mind¹ date of the shooting because the lingering depression from election night made it too easy for me to leap into slathering rages over things. I had a very difficult time writing a post at the 6-month mark because of it. But there are reasons we shouldn’t forget: Gov. Rick Scott Honored Pulse But Never Mentioned LGBT People – Florida’s governor described the shooting as terrorism and never noted it targeted queer people.

I’ve gotten into the spiral of argument with some people that all hate crimes are crimes intended to cause terror, so it is technically correct to call it a terrorist act. And while that is true, it sidesteps the issue of just who was the crime intended to terrorize? We know that the gunman was targeting queer men. We know that because of all the angry outraged rants his family and colleagues have revealed during questioning. We know because he told his wife that he wanted to kill fags (she knew what he was planning, which is why she’s under arrest). We know because of the conversations he had on hookup apps where he would engage in conversation with gay men and ask which clubs were the hottest—where can he go to find the biggest crowds, the most popular places for gay men to have a good time?

He did not commit this crime to terrorize straight Americans. He was out to kill as many queer men as he could, and to put the fear of death into all queer people not to be out. That’s the point of this crime: to make queer people hide, go back into the closet, stop being out and open and unashamed of who we love. And if you don’t refer to this crime as an anti-queer or anti-gay or anti-LGBT crime, then you are doing exactly what the gunman wanted: you are erasing us from public life and discourse.

And if you get insistent and defensive about failing to mention that it was a anti-queer crime? That tells us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that on some level, you agree with the gunman.

That’s not me calling you a bigot. That’s you being a bigot.

If you don’t like to think of yourself as a bigot, then you need to do something about that. A really good first step is to admit that being uncomfortable denouncing a crime as an anti-queer/anti-gay/anti-lesbian/anti-LGBT/anti-trans crime is a symptom of some level of prejudice. Which you need to let go of. Start calling this shooting what it was: a hate crime aimed at the LGBT community.

Victims killed in Pulse in Orlando this last weekend. — Victims killed in Pulse in Orlando June 6, 2016. (Click to embiggen) (Facebook/AP/Reuters/Rex)

Yes, 49 people were killed in Orlando that night. 49 queer Americans were gunned down. 49 queer people who just wanted to be out and happy and not have to hide who they were instead were murdered. 49 queer people were murdered by a man who was outraged at the idea of two men kissing in public. Remember them. Don’t erase their identities. Don’t erase their killer’s anti-gay hatred. Don’t ignore the toxic homophobia the pervades American society and fed the gunman’s hatred. Don’t help the killer erase us. Don’t.

Footnotes:

1. “Month’s mind” a practice in some traditions where family and friends gather about a month after someone’s death to celebrate that person’s life².

2. Yes, I’m pedantic enough that I don’t like using the word “anniversary” to refer to periods of time of less than a year. I know people have been doing it verbally since at least the 1960s, and in writing since the 1980s, and I’m not normally a staunch prescriptionist regarding dictionary definitions, but this one still bugs me a little. Most of the terms that have been proposed to substitute (mensiversary, lunaversay, and uncianniversary) for this monthly commemorations strike me as silly. But knowing that there is an older, if obscure liturgical term, that I can pronounce it easily, I’m going to give it a try.

Weekend Update 3/11/2017: Ex-gay torture, dark clouds, and darker motives

March 11, 2017newslgbt, news, religious right, resistance, wingnutsfontfolly

“Some people are like dark clouds, when they disappear, suddenly it's a sunny day.” — “Some people are like dark clouds, when they disappear, suddenly it’s a sunny day.”

I’m sure that someone will tell me (as they have when other infamous bigots have died) that I should not speak ill of the dead. I will point out that the one of the oldest recorded instances of a this admonishment (a Greek text from about 600BC) is more accurately translated as, “Of the dead, nothing spoken unless truthfully.” So in that spirit, let me say that a dark cloud has passed, NARTH Founder and Leader in Ex-Gay Torture Movement Joseph Nicolosi Dead at 70. And that I wholeheartedly endorse the sentiment in this headline about this death: Ex-Gay Therapy Should Die With Its Pioneer, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.

Nicolosi is just one of many who have profited over the years with the torture and bullying of gay people, often driving them to suicide. He was most recently in the news in 2012 when he tried to sue the state of California to overturn their ban on so-called gay conversion therapy for children and teens. A lawsuit which he lost, thank goodness! And just because another old, hateful bigot has died I know it doesn’t mean that this particular type of oppression is going to end. I can just hope that this death will get is a little closer to that ending, all right?

And in case you don’t know why this practice needs to be banned everywhere, remember that the ex-gay therapists and programs prey on vulnerable youth, making money off their pain, suffering, and sometimes suicides. They use bad therapy including pornography, lies and scare tactics, and discredited medical practices.

The science is clear: so-called reparative therapy fuels self-hatred and depression, increases the risk of suicide, and has no effect on a person’s sexual orientation or desires. None.

Source: thedesmondproject.com/Homelessness-Info.html (Click to embiggen)

Joseph Nicolosi caused a lot of people—a lot of vulnerable children—pain and suffering and actually increased the odds they would commit suicide. His propaganda encouraged parents to kick their gay children out on the street, leading to more pain, suffering and death. And he profited from that pain and suffering. The organization he founded still profits from it. So, damn right I’m going to speak ill of the dead.

And the usual arguments why one shouldn’t speak ill (he’s not here to defend himself, think of his grieving family, et cetera) should all be overruled by the fact that there are thousands of dead queer kids who not only aren’t here, either, but had no one to defend them from Nicolosi and his fellow bigots. Their memory and their grieving families deserve the truth. And the truth is, the world is a slightly better place now that Nicolosi isn’t part of it.

And let’s not forget that Vice President Pence is a big advocate for so-called gay conversion therapy for children. So the fight goes on!

In completely unrelated news, The DOJ Just Called for the Firing of 46 Obama-Appointed U.S. State’s Attorneys, Including Preet Bharara. This was very abrupt, and included at least one such prosecutor who was specfically asked to stay on recently by both Donald and Sessions. A mass firing is unusual in itself, and the initial reports of this made it clear it was very disorganized. At least one of the prosecutors admitting that he learned of his firing from the news—not even from a reporter calling for a comment. Also, the Justice Department doesn’t have any replacement prosecutors ready to nominate.

Which leads one to ask what the rush is. And a few people have spoken up: Feinstein: Trump’s firing of US attorneys hurts independence, and Trump “fires” 46 U.S. attorneys: standard practice or outrage? Yesterday’s round up of links included Trump Knows the Feds Are Closing In on Him – The president’s recent tweets aren’t just conspiratorial gibberish – they’re the erratic ravings of a guilty conscience. And that’s not all: Ukrainian attorney calls for probe into text message claims that Paul Manafort ‘knowingly’ had people killed or Connecting Trump’s Dots to Russia or Donald Trump panics over Russia: Jeff Sessions, Priebus, Bannon all huddled at Mar-a-Lago. Hence the weird claims about illegal wiretapping under Obama that went so far that a Fox News correspondent even called them false!

It’s becoming clear that there is more than enough evidence to indict a lot of Donald’s inner circle over various criminal charges, many of which border on treason. And if such an investigation got enough core Republican voters up in arms, Congress might actually do their job and start investigation the president himself. Getting rid of a lot of experienced federal prosecutors who are, by law, supposed to operate somewhat independently is one way to decrease the chances such a thing will come to pass.

It’s also yet another tin-pot dictator move, which this administration keeps doing again and again.

Friday Links (what would Buffy do edition)

March 10, 2017bloggingfriday, friday links, links, newsfontfolly

It’s Friday! We’re a couple weeks into March already. It’s been a weird work week, because the cold that I didn’t quite shake off has developed an annoying cough and a fever, so I’ve been trying to avoid people since I’m probably contagious. I’ve also been sleeping a lot.

Anyway, here are the links I found interesting this week, sorted into categories.

Links of the Week

You May Want to Marry My Husband. I made the mistake of reading this while riding the bus into work. I was sobbing…

‘Alternative facts’: A psychiatrist explains the difference between falsehoods and lies. There’s a part of me that thinks it is ridiculous that anyone needs this explained. And I don’t think enough attention is paid to the problem of people not caring whether something is true as long as they like it.

A Statue of a Defiant Girl Now Confronts the Famous ‘Charging Bull’ on Wall St.

This Week in the Economy

An Ivy League professor who spent 4 months working in a South Bronx check-cashing store says we’re getting it all wrong.

There’s no bull in the message behind ‘Fearless Girl’ statue.

This week in awful people

Simons’s Renaissance Technologies Equity Fund Rose 4.6% in June. US billionaire Robert Mercer who bankrolled Leave.eu didn’t make $16m after Brexit. His fund made $690m.

Fabulous, Darling!

John Barrowman celebrates 50th birthday by showing off his natural hair.

News for queers and our allies:

95-year-old comes out as gay in powerful must-see video.

Older Queer Voices: The Intimacy of Survival.

Safe as Houses.

Veteran who was to lead St. Patrick’s Day parade quits over decision to bar gay vets.

Science!

How Does the Public’s View of Science Go So Wrong?

Does Ceres still have currently active (erupting!) cryovolcanoes?

The Most Important Idea about the Universe.

Scientists Might Finally Understand One of the Most Basic but Mysterious Aspects of Our Heartbeats.

Mosul offensive: Assyrian artifacts discovered in abandoned ISIS tunnels.

Neanderthal Dental Plaque Shows What a Paleo Diet Really Looks Like.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

‘Buffy’ at 20: 13 Key Players on How It Changed TV and Why There Shouldn’t be a Revival.

‘Buffy’ at 20: Gail Berman Reflects on the Rocky Road to Air and How It Could Return.

‘Buffy’ at 20: What the Critics Originally Said About the Joss Whedon Favorite.

Love science fiction and fantasy series? Better also love being patient.

‘Are you ready to be strong?’: The enduring legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

“Buffy The Vampire Slayer” Gave Me My Own Scooby – Into every generation, a best friend is born.

The Complex Feminist Legacy Of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

20 Things We Still Love About Buffy the Vampire Slayer 20 Years Later.

Wells At The World’s End: The Time Machine.

This week in Writing

In Search of Lost Tweets: On Being a Writer on Twitter.

This week in Words

Prepone – An Indian English word which means “to move to an earlier time”.

Using ‘Lady,’ ‘Woman,’ and ‘Female’ to Modify Nouns – ‘Female’ doctor? ‘Lady’ lawyer? ‘Woman’ politician? Are any of these not offensive?

The Serial Comma – Why don’t they call it the Merriam-Webster comma?

You’re probably familiar with the term hot mess. But do you know how old hot mess really is?

This Week in History

An Unknown Latino Tuskegee Airman Has Been Discovered.

This Week in Tech

Errata Security: Some comments on the Wikileaks CIA/#vault7 leak.

Google’s Algorithm Is Lying to You About Onions and Blaming Me for It .

Google’s “One True Answer” problem — when featured snippets go bad.

Keep your cool when facing possibilities like SHA-1, Cloudflare, and the shoddy Internet of Things.

WikiLeaks’ CIA Hack: 9 Key Questions on Latest Document Dump – How reliable is Vault 7, the information allegedly leaked from the Central Intelligence Agency? For starters, nothing stated by WikiLeaks or Assange should be taken at face value.

Don’t Fall for the Area Code Scam.

This Week in Covering the News

NPR demonstrates how not to report on LGBT issues — four different times.

Rachel Maddow on How She Doubled Viewership Under Trump: ‘I Stopped Covering the Twitter Feed’. “We started covering only what they do rather than what they say,” MSNBC host tells TheWrap of recent ratings surge

This Week in Inclusion

An Asexual’s Defense of Jughead Kissing Betty on Riverdale. “Allowing Jughead to have “an origin story,” as Aguirre-Sacasa says, is not letting the character or the community down (yet). Giving him a coming-out narrative could create a dialogue about the asexual experience we have literally never seen before on broadcast TV. Of course, if Riverdale gets more seasons and it fails to develop Jughead’s asexuality, that would indeed be a disappointing omission, and a missed opportunity to do something truly new and brave with a character onscreen.”

A Bookstore Is Displaying All Books By Men Backward, And It’s Eye-Opening.