wedidthetimewarpagain

[wedidthetimewarpagain]

i'm always a little cautious when it comes to certain missing child reports because of shit like this. my dad had the cops convinced I was being *held hostage* when I VOLUNTARILY decided to stop seeing him. everyone's quick to believe a parent but you'd be surprised the kind of people who can end up parents! don't get me started on "teen runaways"- kids don't typically literally run from home for fun. sneak out for a party maybe but not run for their life

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"message" acrylic on wood

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Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant

by Billy Collins

I am glad I resisted the temptation, if it was a temptation when I was young, to write a poem about an old man eating alone at a corner table in a Chinese restaurant.

I would have gotten it all wrong thinking: the poor bastard, not a friend in the world and with only a book for a companion. He'll probably pay the bill out of a change purse.

So glad I waited all these decades to record how hot and sour the hot and sour soup is here at Chang's this afternoon and how cold the Chinese beer in a frosted glass.

And my book — José Saramago's Blindness as it turns out — is so absorbing that I look up from its escalating horrors only when I am stunned by one of his gleaming sentences.

And I should mention the light that falls through the big windows this time of day italicizing everything it touches — the plates and teapots, the immaculate tablecloths,

as well as the soft brown hair of the waitress in the white blouse and short black skirt, the one who is smiling now as she bears a cup of rice and shredded beef with garlic to my favorite table in the corner.

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GOG is taking a stand against payment processors caving to fundamentalist religious groups and is offering a bunch of "banned" games for free. (via Ashley Lynch on bsky)

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thoughts on Katy Perry/Justin Trudeau?

It genuinely doesn't even compute. It gives me a feeling of unreality. Lots of things nowadays make me feel like "we can't be living in the real world, this can't be happening" but this is by far the most lowest stakes thing that makes me feel that way

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Good addition to the list of words here

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hitting return early on libby when there's people waiting and feeling like a benevolent queen distributing alms to the poor

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Extremely shocking article about what a local independent bookstore has been going through for the crime of carrying books by and supporting Palestinian authors:

According to Lisa Gozashti-Riddle, Brookline’s longtime co-owner and manager, the shift began in January 2024, after the store had hosted a virtual poetry fundraiser for Mosab Abu Toha, a celebrated Palestinian poet whose English-language library in Gaza had just been destroyed by Israel. “We had 20 poets from around the world, including Mosab, who joined us from Egypt,” she told me. They raised more than $30,000 to purchase and ship books to a new library in Gaza upon reconstruction. After that, the threats started. “I was trying to protect my staff while fielding all the calls myself,” she said. One caller asked to speak to “Hitler.” Someone else, in a message, said that Gazans “don’t read books. They only want guns.” To avoid another flare-up, the store moved pro-Palestinian programming online. But the scrutiny didn’t stop. “People started coming in daily to count the number of Palestinian books we had. I’ve seen the spreadsheets, the circle graphs, the reports they’ve sent out accusing us of bias.” Some called the store a “hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism” and accused it of “inculcating the youth.” Then came Becoming Baba. “This wasn’t a book we flagged,” Gozashti-Riddle said. But the emails came anyway. Some asserted that hosting me was “an act of incitement.” One message said, “We can overlook the author, but if that woman attends, you’re sending a message that pro-Israel Jews aren’t safe at Booksmith.” The message linked to Canary Mission. “That was a watershed moment,” Gozashti-Riddle said. “We realized the people organizing this weren’t rational. And when you’re dealing with that level of irrationality, it’s scary.” So the staff took precautions: installing peace marshals from Jewish Voice for Peace and alerting local police. “After your event, I finally started using the word harassment,” she said.

I would note that Aymann Ismail (the author) is not himself Palestinian. He is an Arab-American who wrote a book about being a father where he briefly mentions watching videos of fathers mourning their children in Gaza and thinking of himself and his family and that, apparently, is enough.

ETA: if you are paywalled, here is an archive link

[wedidthetimewarpagain]

Honestly a lot of body positivity stuff makes me feel worse about being fat I’m not gonna lie.

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not that i doubt tumblr’s userbase is overwhelmingly white (that seems pretty self evident) — but i do absolutely doubt the accuracy of a handful of snowball surveys (like a rebloggable poll for example) many of which are starting at an OP who has an even more disproportionately white followerbase than general tumblr. a couple of these polls i’ve seen even start from original posters that are straight up racist. that’s just bad data at that point

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Apparently there’s a “kids shouldn’t be allowed in grocery stores” thing being spread on TikTok because they might scream or run around and look yeah that’s annoying but at a certain point you’ve gotta just put up with kids being a little annoying in public. Sure the kid pouring milk in the isles is the fault of a shitty parent and should be asked to leave, but a single mom with an otherwise controlled by crying toddler isn’t doing anything wrong. I think you’ll live if someone’s two year old starts screaming in their arms in isle 3. It might be annoying but that mom is probably having a worse day than you

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i'm all for seeing twinks getting hurt but i draw the line at chiropracty

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i seriously think abetting the surveillance state is a moral failing. this is about ring cameras and other such devices

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well this fucking sucks