Has Bitty Ever Gotten On Anyone's Case On How To Pronounce Pecan?

Has Bitty ever gotten on anyone's case on how to pronounce pecan?

Shitty put a hand on Jack and Bitty’s shoulders. “Guys, guys, chill—how ‘bout you’re both right?”

Bitty raised an eyebrow at Jack. “All I know is that I’m making a pecan pie. Not a pecan pie. Whatever that is.”

To celebrate Halloween, we’re publishing a selection of excerpts from David J. Skal’s Something in the Blood, a biography of Bram Stoker, out this month with Liveright. Today: letters between Stoker and Walt Whitman, published in full for the first time in Something in the Blood. Stoker, moved by Leaves of Grass, was an ardent fan of Whitman—he and his Trinity College peers called themselves “Walt Whitmanites.” He kept his first letter to the poet, a meandering and adoring document, in his desk for four years before gathering the courage to send it.  

Read on here.

Why the Hogwarts Houses vote for Hillary

Gryffindor: who is braver than Hillary? Speaking up for women’s rights and gay rights in a room full of human rights violators? Defending late term abortion on national TV? Calling out a sometimes-violent bully while he’s trying to intimidate her? Racking up a million firsts? Literally when she was in college she was the first student commencement speaker and on the spot called out the US Senator who had spoken just before her because he was opposed to protesting. She’s been dragged six ways from Sunday over the course of decades and it’s never stopped her standing up for what she believes in. She’s courageous to the core and even in situations that would make other people cry, she keeps fighting.

Ravenclaw: does anyone know their shit or value policy like Hillary? On top of being brilliant and experienced, she values expertise. Her advisors include a Nobel-prize winning economist, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, a former CIA director, a former Secretary of State (in addition to being one herself), and more community leaders, policy experts, think tank leaders, and top professors than you could count. Plus she makes a point of meeting with people like the Mothers of the Movement, which lets her integrate the kind of knowledge and experience that can’t come from books. Her bullpen is deep and her circles are broad. If you want a president who writes policy based on facts, if you care about having a president who knows their stuff and privileges knowledge, this is your candidate.

Hufflepuff: keeping people safe and healthy and creating opportunity has always been at the core of what Hillary does. Working for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which lets 8 million kids go to the doctor? Making sure undocumented families can stay together? Keeping POC safe? Letting women choose? Fighting for LGBTQ rights? All part of Hillary’s past and her plan. She wants to reward hard work, too, with a $15 minimum wage and more protections for workers. She wants to make, and has been making, the playing field fairer and more open for everyone.

Slytherin: no one is better connected than Hillary; do you know how many people she’s supported, how many people owe her a favor? There are a million things the president can’t do on their own because they’re matters of state and local law: policing, traffic stops, sentencing for nonviolent offenses, most prison conditions, sex education, auto emissions, marriage and family law, conversion therapy bans, state tax policy, abortion restrictions. Hillary has helped so many people get elected over the last three decades, there are dozens and dozens of governors and mayors and state senators who owe her their careers and when she says “this is what we’re doing,” they’re gonna do it. That makes her a way more powerful potential president than anyone we’ve seen in decades.

Oh boy. I have Thoughts about this. Third layer: it's hilarious because he's enlightened and self-aware enough to know it's a trap.

Fourth and best layer: but he still can't envision this conversation outside of declarative statements. The answer to break the stalemate is so obviously along the lines of "my understanding of mansplaining is X, but I'd love to know more about yours," thereby conveying familiarity with the subject while inviting the possibility of error and validating the probable lived experience of the questioner. Easy. More people who have been socialized as women could do it. Bonus points for daring to ask why it came up in that conversation, in a nonthreatening way.

But he's not there yet (within the joke anyway)--and that perfectly illustrates the trap of being partway on the journey toward liberatory transformation: the person who knows enough about power and identity to know what not to do, but hasn't yet liberated himself from old mental models & learned styles of communication that don't involve dominating or being dominated.

😂

verdanturf:

boobvoid:

Never in the history of the struggle against oppression in all its forms have we relied on the benevolence of the state. We have always, always relied on one another. We are still here, and we are never going away. Look out for your Black friends, your Brown friends, your Native friends your Muslim friends, your female friends, your gay friends, your trans friends. Stand in solidarity with one another. Show love for one another. Keep one another safe. This is going to be painful, but it’s going to be okay.

Look out for your disabled friends too!

draw some fat elves you cowards you tepid fools