No, I won’t tell your fortune-and why I love Duotrope

[spitkitten]

Originally published at spitkitten dot com. You can comment here or there.

So, I noticed that I have a Wikipedia entry, which is cool (although weirdly incomplete in places, but still-wow*) and that something that is really highlighted in the entry is my Romany heritage.  After reading a dear-hearted internet acquaintance’s (who is also an amazing

Comments

[spitkitten]

You will be a famous writer and lend your pal Caren money.
;)

[maudelynn]

me too

[mschilepepper]

I don't often watch the show, but on Dr. Phil a few weeks ago, he featured a couple who were professional shoplifters, and he used the term "gypped" to describe them stealing from stores. I wanted to fly to LA and bitchslap him, hard and enthusiastically.

[ktsparrow]

I requested a book at the library about con artists -- I'm doing some book research, that's why :). So I get it, and it's this whole nasty diatribe about the gypsy mafia, and so damn racist and bigoted. I still have it and really don't feel like giving it back to the library. Ugh. Anyway, it was eye-opening and made me sad that a book like that is considered legit.

[rusty666]

You're the reason I'm even aware that the term "gypsy" is a racial epithet. I don't know why it never occurred to me before, I guess the portrayal of the stereotype in America is so flashy and, as you said, romanticized. I remember a period in high school when all I thought about was escape, and I adopted what I thought was a style of dress that would prepare me to be nomadic and self-sufficent while travelling the land with my push cart and pets. It was discovering that I would need a camping license in most places and a social security card in order to work that led me to abandon the dream... I even checked out books from the library. I had ISSUES.

Now I have a speech prepared on what I'll say to Veronica if she ever asks to BE one for Halloween.

[ph_unbalanced]

And the ad that shows up on this page is now one for "Gypsy Ringtones" .