Reading List: D&D Yoga, Orientalist Restaurants with Sh!t Food, and Pieces of Human Garbage.
Darlings! It’s been a wee bit since we last chatted, so here’s a bunch o’ stuff I’ll be consuming through my eye lasers this weekend, once I’m finished with Eric Hoffer’s book on the cult of mass movements which, hoo boy, is a bit on the nose for this time and space - see: The dangerous cult of Donald Trump.
You know, with all of the new stories of sexual harassment and assault in the news, I’ve had a few people opine on how it is the responsibility of the abused to report the crime, lest others be abused. Why, they ask me, didn’t the individual go to the authorities? And then you read about Harvey Weinstein hiring former Mossad agents to impersonate women’s advocates to get close to both accusers and journalists, and then you’re like OH WAIT, the chance for a performative-liberal Hollywood billionaire to hire Israeli spies to discredit me, or other forms of retaliation that can span legal action, workplace retaliation, slutshaming, physical threats, etc, nah we think we’re good on the whole ‘telling anyone’ business.
And don’t get me STARTED on Roy Moore in Alabama and his defiant non-response to the allegations he initiated inappropriate sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl when he was a 32-year-old Assistant District Attorney. Bonus: if you want to truly scream into the void this fine morning, check out Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale’s thread, wherein he calls up leaders in the Alabama Republican party and gets their hot takes on the whole thing.
If you’re asking “But Amy, what about this terrible jerk of a political persuasion that is opposite and/or aligned with yours?” let me assure you there are far too many to devote a personal newsletter to - see: This Is What a News Cycle That Holds Sexual Predators Accountable Looks Like - lest that personal newsletter cause me to fly into the sun.
Related, from McSweeney’s: I’m Asking For Privacy While I Seek Treatment For Being A Piece Of Human Garbage
Presented without comment: Why This Fungus Has Over 20,000 Sexes —> and this is from Discover Magazine, you dirty birds. SCIENCE FTW.
This may be from 2014, but it is still important: Flexible fantasy: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ yoga is a thing. Speed up to 2017: for those wondering, Goat Yoga in D.C. has been cancelled. Sorry, Maria.
And the winner of the best review for the worst restaurant goes to Hot Joy's Food Is Almost as Bad as Its Cultural Cluelessness.
I heart you, my doodles. Be kind to each other.