Linkspam
Humor
An American Coach in London: NBC Sports Advertises Broadcasts of English Football
"It's football, but not as you know it..."
HILARIOUS comedy sketch of an American football coach, having been hired to coach a British football team...and demonstrating how LITTLE he knows about real football. Jason Sudeikis plays the coach...and I was SO disappointed that this was an ad for sports rather than for a new sitcom; I'd have WATCHED this. A review commented, "The nearly-five-minute video is not only an effective promo-it’s also the best piece of scripted NBC programming in years."
Certain Doctor Who Phrases and how Olive Garden Customers React: An Experiment Done by a Server
SO SO CUTE!!!
[When greeting tables] "Oh hello! I’m The Doctor! I am here to help! Look, they gave me a badge with my name on it in case I forget who I am! Very thoughtful as that does happen.”
Lots of confused faces. Many people laughed. The few who got the reference clapped, laughed, or smiled all big like. One girl who got the reference gave me the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, later I would receive her number.
Education and Language
Open Letter to the Colleges of America
Dear Colleges of America:
I'm writing to tell you about how brilliant all three girls are-how acute their language, how well-wielded their rhetoric. How they cleave ideology with the edges of their insights. I'm writing to tell you about how they came to America, and how they’ve been grieved by America, and how they are certain to transform America.
For Ruba and Alice and Fofo, getting into college will be-at best-unnecessarily complicated, and-at worst-completely undermined. Obviously, I don’t need to tell you that the college admissions process can be daunting, and that it can be positively Byzantine for low-income students, or students whose parents don’t speak English, or students whose parents have never filled out a FAFSA form themselves.
12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms
Why do we still have "wend" and "eke" and "sleight" and "dint" and "roughshod" and "fro" and "kith" in modern English? Check out these awesome analyses of the survival of archaic words. SO COOL.
Social Stuff
How To Avoid "I Deserve It" Purchases (And The Consequences That Come With Them)
Saying “I deserve it” is one of the biggest culprits behind failed diets-and failed budgets. You see something that you want to buy (or eat) but you don’t really need, so you tell yourself no. Then that “no” starts gnawing at you and you feel deprived.
You may begin telling yourself that you’re a grown-up who can spend her money however she chooses. So you decide to treat yourself just this once. The problem, Brewer says, is that it’s never a good idea to make financial decisions based on a feeling of deprivation. Instead, she suggests turning the “I deserve” on its head.
We all have the best of intentions, but it’s those last-minute, emotional purchases that often get the best of us. The next time you’re in danger of thwarting your bottom line, do a quick mental check-whether you’re about to spend $5 or $500-by asking yourself these three questions:
- Have I saved up for this?
- Do I really need this?
- Will this delay me from meeting my goals?
'Fat Shaming' Actually Increases Risk of Becoming or Staying Obese, New Study Says
This was a surprise??
"Research has already shown that stigmatizing overweight people leads to psychological factors that are likely to contribute to weight gain - things like depression or binge eating. This new paper takes that a step further, linking what the Internet likes to call “fat-shaming” to weight gain and suggesting that you can’t scare people skinny."
Race and Sex and Gender
I hate Strong Female Characters
Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong.
10 Responses to the Phrase "Man Up"
Guante's poem about why the phrase "man up" (popularized in Miller Lite commercials, TV shows and real life) is stupid. Original link (with words).
My Danish Teen Sex Epiphany
Raised in America, I had never slept at a boyfriend’s place before. What would his parents think of me? What would I say to them? I walked down the stairs with great trepidation, wondering if I should gather up my things and bolt. Even without articulating it to myself, my real fear was: Would they think I was a slut?
But Peter’s mother, Eva, greeted me at the bottom of the stairs with a huge smile. “Good morning!” she said. “Breakfast is almost ready. Do you prefer coffee or tea?” She was so sweet and warm and matter-of-fact that I wanted to cry with joy. In fact, I think I may have hugged her, right then and there.
FOR WHITES (LIKE ME): CLARIFYING RACE TALK
To give an example of prejudice, when I’m talking about racism, is to start a different conversation.
The scenarios I started with are examples of prejudice. They may be painful or frustrating to the white person on the receiving end. They don’t contribute to creating an environment that results in robust, productive communication across racial differences.
But they aren’t racism.
The prejudices people of color sometimes have almost never make it hard for a white person to secure employment. They never make it more likely a white child will live in poverty than do his/her classmates of color. They do not send whites to prison at rates astronomically higher than our representation in the general (or law-breaking) population. They do not make it difficult for a white child to learn because she attends a poorly funded, overcrowded school and is repeatedly exposed to images and messages (as, incidentally, are her teachers) that she is slower, lazier, more likely to misbehave, etc. than her peers.
Like sexism, I care about this system the most. Unapologetically. (By the way, there is overlap between racism and prejudice. It just so happens, for example, that white prejudices strengthen this system.)
One Easy Thing All White People Could Do That Would Make The World A Better Place
Tremendously effective and thought-provoking, clear description of how it takes white people to stand up to other white people when racial injustice is being perpetrated in order for things to change and people to SEE the error of their own actions. Very much worth the four minutes it will take to watch.
A PERFECT Answer To An Annoying Question
A comedic response to an inappropriately forward question to ask on first meeting someone.
"Race conversations are always tricky to approach and, on balance, I advocate for more of them than less. And, yes, I get that we're all flawed human beings grasping, sometimes awkwardly, for common ground with each other. I get that, I really do."
An American Coach in London: NBC Sports Advertises Broadcasts of English Football
"It's football, but not as you know it..."
HILARIOUS comedy sketch of an American football coach, having been hired to coach a British football team...and demonstrating how LITTLE he knows about real football. Jason Sudeikis plays the coach...and I was SO disappointed that this was an ad for sports rather than for a new sitcom; I'd have WATCHED this. A review commented, "The nearly-five-minute video is not only an effective promo-it’s also the best piece of scripted NBC programming in years."
Certain Doctor Who Phrases and how Olive Garden Customers React: An Experiment Done by a Server
SO SO CUTE!!!
[When greeting tables] "Oh hello! I’m The Doctor! I am here to help! Look, they gave me a badge with my name on it in case I forget who I am! Very thoughtful as that does happen.”
Lots of confused faces. Many people laughed. The few who got the reference clapped, laughed, or smiled all big like. One girl who got the reference gave me the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, later I would receive her number.
Education and Language
Open Letter to the Colleges of America
Dear Colleges of America:
I'm writing to tell you about how brilliant all three girls are-how acute their language, how well-wielded their rhetoric. How they cleave ideology with the edges of their insights. I'm writing to tell you about how they came to America, and how they’ve been grieved by America, and how they are certain to transform America.
For Ruba and Alice and Fofo, getting into college will be-at best-unnecessarily complicated, and-at worst-completely undermined. Obviously, I don’t need to tell you that the college admissions process can be daunting, and that it can be positively Byzantine for low-income students, or students whose parents don’t speak English, or students whose parents have never filled out a FAFSA form themselves.
12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms
Why do we still have "wend" and "eke" and "sleight" and "dint" and "roughshod" and "fro" and "kith" in modern English? Check out these awesome analyses of the survival of archaic words. SO COOL.
Social Stuff
How To Avoid "I Deserve It" Purchases (And The Consequences That Come With Them)
Saying “I deserve it” is one of the biggest culprits behind failed diets-and failed budgets. You see something that you want to buy (or eat) but you don’t really need, so you tell yourself no. Then that “no” starts gnawing at you and you feel deprived.
You may begin telling yourself that you’re a grown-up who can spend her money however she chooses. So you decide to treat yourself just this once. The problem, Brewer says, is that it’s never a good idea to make financial decisions based on a feeling of deprivation. Instead, she suggests turning the “I deserve” on its head.
We all have the best of intentions, but it’s those last-minute, emotional purchases that often get the best of us. The next time you’re in danger of thwarting your bottom line, do a quick mental check-whether you’re about to spend $5 or $500-by asking yourself these three questions:
- Have I saved up for this?
- Do I really need this?
- Will this delay me from meeting my goals?
'Fat Shaming' Actually Increases Risk of Becoming or Staying Obese, New Study Says
This was a surprise??
"Research has already shown that stigmatizing overweight people leads to psychological factors that are likely to contribute to weight gain - things like depression or binge eating. This new paper takes that a step further, linking what the Internet likes to call “fat-shaming” to weight gain and suggesting that you can’t scare people skinny."
Race and Sex and Gender
I hate Strong Female Characters
Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong.
10 Responses to the Phrase "Man Up"
Guante's poem about why the phrase "man up" (popularized in Miller Lite commercials, TV shows and real life) is stupid. Original link (with words).
My Danish Teen Sex Epiphany
Raised in America, I had never slept at a boyfriend’s place before. What would his parents think of me? What would I say to them? I walked down the stairs with great trepidation, wondering if I should gather up my things and bolt. Even without articulating it to myself, my real fear was: Would they think I was a slut?
But Peter’s mother, Eva, greeted me at the bottom of the stairs with a huge smile. “Good morning!” she said. “Breakfast is almost ready. Do you prefer coffee or tea?” She was so sweet and warm and matter-of-fact that I wanted to cry with joy. In fact, I think I may have hugged her, right then and there.
FOR WHITES (LIKE ME): CLARIFYING RACE TALK
To give an example of prejudice, when I’m talking about racism, is to start a different conversation.
The scenarios I started with are examples of prejudice. They may be painful or frustrating to the white person on the receiving end. They don’t contribute to creating an environment that results in robust, productive communication across racial differences.
But they aren’t racism.
The prejudices people of color sometimes have almost never make it hard for a white person to secure employment. They never make it more likely a white child will live in poverty than do his/her classmates of color. They do not send whites to prison at rates astronomically higher than our representation in the general (or law-breaking) population. They do not make it difficult for a white child to learn because she attends a poorly funded, overcrowded school and is repeatedly exposed to images and messages (as, incidentally, are her teachers) that she is slower, lazier, more likely to misbehave, etc. than her peers.
Like sexism, I care about this system the most. Unapologetically. (By the way, there is overlap between racism and prejudice. It just so happens, for example, that white prejudices strengthen this system.)
One Easy Thing All White People Could Do That Would Make The World A Better Place
Tremendously effective and thought-provoking, clear description of how it takes white people to stand up to other white people when racial injustice is being perpetrated in order for things to change and people to SEE the error of their own actions. Very much worth the four minutes it will take to watch.
A PERFECT Answer To An Annoying Question
A comedic response to an inappropriately forward question to ask on first meeting someone.
"Race conversations are always tricky to approach and, on balance, I advocate for more of them than less. And, yes, I get that we're all flawed human beings grasping, sometimes awkwardly, for common ground with each other. I get that, I really do."