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Happy Thanksgiving and/or Thursday! Open Thread

Happy Thanksgiving, to everyone who celebrates it! And a very merry Thursday to everyone who doesn’t.

Because I haven’t provided a health update in a while (outside of the comments) I just wanted to reassure everyone that I am still here, and still trying to sort through a bunch of medical issues with the help of assorted doctors, some very competent and others not so much.

The issues I’m facing aren’t lifethreatening, but they are still debilitating enough to keep me from regular posting here. Sorry to be so vague; I’ll offer more details once some of these issues are sorted out a bit more. I’ll return to posting as soon as I am able but I cannot predict when that will be.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support. Thanks!

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weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee

I found an article further debunking the manosphere hypothesis that men always toiled to feed spoiled bonbon eating women.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/29/16712638/prehistoric-women-manual-labor-farming-upper-arm-shinbones-archaeology

Everyday Neolithic and bronze age women worked so hard that they had stronger arms than even elite female rowers today.

Hippodameia
Hippodameia
6 years ago

I’ve consoled plenty of co-workers without touching them.

Brony, Social Justice Cenobite

I’m pretty sure social privilege is related to some of the negative feeling, but that’s unavoidable given the fact that the social solutions require attaching some negative feeling to to my experience of my culture as a cis, white, male, person raised in a conservative pentacostal military family. And I have no sisters.

I am “fucked” as the saying goes, but I find it amusing to be able to try to list my axes of privilege. I can even see where my Tourette’s Syndrome lends privilege in context specific ways. I would not be able to do this without learning to accept and introspect about public social criticism. This is how the system works, that kind of knowledge helps.

tim gueguen
6 years ago

Matt Lauer’s crash and burn was the lead story on Global’s supper hour newscast tonight. Which annoyed me, since it’s not an important Canadian story, or a Canadian story period. The appointment of Sheilah Martin to Canada’s Supreme Court should have been lead.

Buttercup Q. Skullpants
Buttercup Q. Skullpants
6 years ago

I have questions. Like, what kind of shirt is open in the back, so one’s hand goes up it six inches?

I’m picturing a hospital gown, but that makes it even worse. 🙁

Welcome to Lake Wobegone, where all the men are below average, and they still get rewarded with powerful positions.

PeeVee the (Tired of the Militant Plasticfaced) Sarcastic
PeeVee the (Tired of the Militant Plasticfaced) Sarcastic
6 years ago

Buttercup, holy crap, that does make it worse…but it’s the up that bothers me…

I am so very tired.

tim gueguen
6 years ago

There are some women’s tops that have a vent in the back, or button up in the back. But I’m kind of having trouble seeing where Keillor could be touching someone wearing one to accidentally end up inside it, if he was supposedly comforting that person. Unless of course she was in the middle of getting dressed.

Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile
Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile
6 years ago

Different dialects: tell us about the unusual American words you use

Whether they were introduced to you by family or friends, we want to hear about the distinctive American words in your vocabulary

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/29/different-dialects-tell-us-about-the-unusual-american-words-you-use

LittleLurker
LittleLurker
6 years ago

@Katamount
Good article, I think. Thanks for sharing.

JS
JS
6 years ago

Unusual American Words… Oh, so many from the manosphere thanks to this site.

Trying to think of some that aren’t MGTABCD…Z related.

Most of them are insults directed at people of other political parties.

I need better friends.

“Redshirt”: college football, person who’s withdrawn from competition for a year, to extend eligibility.

“Redshirt”: The color of shirt you should never wear when beaming down to a planet.

Eh, too tired to think of better ones. Sorry.

I know more odd British words than I do American ones.

Nothing is Permanent But Woe
Nothing is Permanent But Woe
6 years ago

@Alan

‘There’s questions in corners of my mind that lurk;
Like how do the road gritters get to work…?’

“When The Evening Sun Goes Down”, Half Man Half Biscuit

Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile
Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile
6 years ago

Snort. Snorfle. Snerk.

Trump Reportedly Told a Journalist in 2000 That ‘There Is Nothing in the World Like First-Rate Pussy’

Hannah Gold

President Donald Trump reportedly once uttered a sentence to a journalist that combines his two greatest passions: demeaning women, and rating things. That he allegedly said it to a reporter from Maximum Golf, once a real magazine, is just that much more obscenely on-the-nose.

Michael Corcoran, a former journalist who wrote the Maximum Golf story, told the Daily Beast in an article published Wednesday that in the course of reporting from Trump’s club at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, the businessman and future US President gestured toward a “young socialite,” then said, “there is nothing in the world like first-rate pussy.”

The remark never made it to print, at least not all of it. In what was supposed to be the kicker for that piece—and what is ultimately the kicker of the story it has spawned today—Corcoran told the Daily Beast that Maximum Golf’s editor-in-chief replaced the word “pussy” with the word “talent.” Corcoran’s editor, Joe Bargmann, confirmed his account saying, “I was asked to change the last word of the story from ‘pussy.’ When I refused, my top editor changed the quote.”

The White House did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment. Undoubtedly they are busy unraveling the mystery of whether the President truly said what he is video-recorded to have said in the 2005 Access Hollywood tape (spoiler: it was “grab them by the pussy”).

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K4t
K4t
6 years ago

Everyday Neolithic and bronze age women worked so hard that they had stronger arms than even elite female rowers today.

Sigh.

But anyone with common sense and a passing acquaintance with history already knew that was probable…given in prehistoric, pre-mechanized times EVERYONE was strong just to do daily labor. Its only male dominated scientist assuming every tall and/or strong skeleton is male that’s delayed seeing the obvious.

Also too, supposedly educated people, including women, assume it’s normal for females to be physically weak….including, in the past, “informed” people in these parts. Since I’m a female lifter as strong as a man my size(average hiegth, 180-185#, 20-25 % fat) this is a doubly obnoxious assumption to keep encountering.

And you don’t need to be “elite”. You just need to adopt a lifestyle of doing the damn work. Men are driven to it whether they like it or not. Women are told not to bother. It’s really no mystery why modern women are Unnaturally weaker.

Still, it’s a good article.

Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
6 years ago

Australian marriage equality is very, very close – the bill has passed the Senate (with nasty proposed amendments struck down, emphatically), and is off to the House of Reps. So we might have it in time for Xmas after all.

And in relation to the bill, I just now hopped on to Facebook and saw this post from my wonderful, beautiful niece, currently in Thailand with her wonderful, beautiful girlfriend.

“I asked my best friend to marry me – she said yes.”

I has the happy tears, and ALL THE FEELS.

Anne Lewis, Jib Creatr
Anne Lewis, Jib Creatr
6 years ago

@Kat

“First-rate Pussy” would be an excellent name for a riot grrl band.

ETA: Or a website for photos of pampered cats.

Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
6 years ago

@tim gueguen

Not sure where you’re located, but here in T-Dot, that’s the way I remember it going back to the late 80s early 90s. Check out this episode of CityPulse from March of 1985:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W02salOTJNc

TW: Lead story involves rape/murder.

After the death penalty story comes the Ontario election where we get to see a young David Peterson dodging questions and taking pot shots at Bob Rae.

(On a side note, Peterson always struck me as sleazy. He was Chancellor of U of T when I was there and during convocation, the way he leered at the female graduates gave me the willies.)

Man, CityTV was low-rent back then. Even the title cards look like they were done in as a cheap video camera effect.

Hey, Retrontario has a clip of Snowmageddon ’99 too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakguJ75O5Y

Ah, the 90s… Bill Clinton was getting impeached and the Bad Boy guy was mayor….

Any denizens of Hogtown or just Southern Ontario in general, definitely check out the Retrontario website. I have no idea where all these clips came from, but somebody clearly has a warehouse full of old 40 year old VHS and Betamax tapes.

http://www.retrontario.com/

Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
6 years ago

“Redshirt”: The color of shirt you should never wear when beaming down to a planet.

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Shadowplay
Shadowplay
6 years ago

I liked Galaxy Quest’s take on redshirts. 🙂

@Mish – 🙂 Needed a smile today, thank you.

dreemr
dreemr
6 years ago

Re: the open shirt Keillor “innocently” thrust his hand up into –

Y’all are over-thinking this. From my reading, the woman simply had on a regular shirt or blouse that was untucked and for some weird reason Keillor decided to put his hand up underneath it and on her bare skin. Sure, Garrison, I’m sure it was allllll a misunderstanding.

To paraphrase a tweet I saw yesterday, my lifelong tradition of ignoring Garrison Keillor has finally paid off.

In other disappointing news, one of my male “progressive” FB friends just posted “When are we gonna talk about WOMEN WHO FLIRT AT WORK, hmmmm?” bullshit. I do believe he is about to be unfriended.

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
6 years ago

Re: redshirts

I seem to recall that the red shirt who often got bumped off was played by the same stuntman; so there’s a nice bit of head canon that it’s the same chap but he’s immortal which is why he’s happy to tag along each time.

Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
6 years ago

Speaking of Red Shirts, this song gets me every time:

Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
6 years ago

“When are we gonna talk about WOMEN WHO FLIRT AT WORK, hmmmm?”

hey, I know, let’s re-frame the discussion to center cis men!!! that’ll help!!! (/s)

It’s still ok on “the Hill”, tho!

Shadowplay
Shadowplay
6 years ago

“When are we gonna talk about WOMEN WHO FLIRT AT WORK, hmmmm?”

Flirting is fun.

Dude sounds like a major buzzkill to work with. Bet he organises his office supplies alphabetically too.

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
6 years ago

The new US ambassador to Britain was daft enough to do one of those ‘Ask me anything?’

The BBC’s favourite was

Do you sometimes find it easier to pretend to be the Canadian ambassador?

But I like this one because it’s so polite.

I’d like to #askwoody if it’s permissible for people in the U.K. to refer to the US president as a Wotsit Faced Shit Gibbon, as I understand that the correct nomenclature in his own country is a Cheeto Faced Shit Gibbon.

Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
Katamount (formerly Gussie Jives)
6 years ago

Do you sometimes find it easier to pretend to be the Canadian ambassador?

Hmmm… I’m pretty up on the Canadian government, but even I don’t know who the ambassador to Britain is…..

Janice Charette. Cool.

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