The Weekend of Foolish Attention
Bit and bytes of the week
Ouch. Few things bug the shit out of me when the rabid rightwing gets something right. New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik (an unhinged nutbag if there ever was one) gets the presidents of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT to equivocate about the calls for the genocide of Jews being bullying or harassment. “At Harvard,” Ms. Stefanik asked Dr. Gay, “does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no?”
It should’ve been a simple answer. If she had instead asked “Does calling for the genocide of African Americans violate the rules?” there would be no pause, no mushy answer. Bottom line, if misgendering a transgender woman is considered violence, declaring fealty to the elimination of Jews can be considered nothing less.
Harvard, which has an abysmal track record on championing and incubating free and open speech—now, they're into the First Amendment, when it's about antisemitism?
I hate it when those maroons get one over.
On the other hand… Anytime anyone demands you answer a ‘yes or no’ question, it’s a trap. Every single time.
Clark W. Griswold. Every Christmas, my family sits around on Christmas Day and watches our favorite Christmas movies. My dad’s favorite is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and this year, for the radio stations, we watched it on the big screen at the Wichita Orpheum complete with pre-games and secret Santa prizes. I’m certain we’ll watch it again along with my mom’s favorite A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott. We never watch my favorite The Ref but I think I can make a case for Violent Night.
A throwback podcast episode. HIMMEL and I couldn’t find time to record The Literate ApeCast this week so we decided to re-broadcast our very first episode from October of 2017. It’s like listening to our first date. Apparently, it took. I don’t think Ira Glass will appreciate it much.
You don’t even play one on TV. Self diagnosis is nice for a cautionary step but, unless you are fully diagnosed by a medical professional, that online Autism test is not a valid result to then claim to people you are “on the spectrum.” Most of these tests, regardless of how many questions asked, goes a bit like this:
Are you autistic?
A. YES!
B. No.
C. Maybe a little bit.
I decided to go online and take a number of mental illness diagnostics just to see how horseshit they were. Based on the results, while I do not have ADHD or Autism, I am Bipolar, suffer from PTSD, have a bit of OCD, and could have dementia. What a freaking load. On the other hand, maybe I can file for disability?
No. This change is MINE! People are cutting back on tipping, frustrated by ubiquitous requests for gratuities.
As of November, service-sector workers in nonrestaurant leisure and hospitality jobs made $1.28 an hour in tips, on average, down 7% from the $1.38 an hour they made a year prior. The data is according to an analysis of 300,000 small and medium-size businesses by payroll provider Gusto.
Last week, my mom asked me to buy her a buttload of Christmas stamps. On the payment app for the freaking Post Office was a gratuity request. Yeah, I get it. Everybody has it tough but c’mon. I’ve taken to pocketing fortune cookie slips and when confronted for a tip for simply taking cash, I hand over one of the slips. “Keep the change this will inspire.”
If the excuse fits… The president of the Illinois Chapter of the NAACP recently referred to the busloads of immigrants coming into Chicago as rapists and savages on a Zoom call. When confronted with the obvious rant, her excuse came in the form of “A.I. can make it look like you’re saying anything.”
A burgeoning author got caught creating fake GoodReads profiles to boost her own ratings and crap on the ratings of other authors. When confronted with overwhelming evidence that she was an online twat, her response was that that she had been “fighting a losing battle against depression, alcoholism and substance abuse” and changed medication in late November.
My go-to excuse from now on for anything I do that smacks of toxicity or dishonesty will simply be a shrug and the response “Privilege. Also I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder and suffer from PTSD. What’s my name again?”
Enjoy the week cuz it’s almost Christmas!
In short: humanity is a shitty species. Put your faith in dogs, cats, elephants, orange, chimps...hell, the list almost never ends.
My Christmas movie fave is A Christmas Carol, 1951, starring Alastair Sim...watch it every year.
Have a good one, Buddy!
Finger lights are the bomb and I loved the elf names!!!