Amanda

k*lling baby Hitler should be taken for granted, given access to a time machine, like how the final round of Wheel Of Fortune gives you R S T L N E

Me, to my husband: “Has your feed been flooded with Heated Rivalry content?”

“Uh, no, what’s that?”

“It’s this Canadian gay hockey show.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard there’s a hockey show. It’s gay?”

“Yes.”

“Like for real?”

“YES.”

“So it’s not just people insinu—“

“NO.”

A small gnome statue with a red conical hat, nestled in the powdery snow

Not from this guy though, he’s just chillin [sic]

Two Facebook comments, one after the other. The first: “I liked that they told us ASAP unlike some schools where they tell you at the last minute, and then you have to struggle to find someone to either watch your kid or something.” The second: “Very inconvenient for people who work at 6/7 am, to get a call at 5 am talking about 2 hr late start. How the HELL ? Yeah let me ask my boss if I can open the store 2 hours late. GET REAL ECASD.”

When there is a snow-related change to the school day, there will be opinions on the snow-related change to the school day.

My brain is fucked up in a way that makes me impervious to a lot of, well, also-fucked up cinema. HOWEVER …

The Act of Killing

Actually, I could probably be convinced to watch it again. But I would not be happy about it.

And not a moment too soon

🫥

“You can change the policy all you want but there’s a mechanism for doing so and it’s not doing things an hour before court and it’s not doing some of the things that have been done in these cases,” [U.S. District Judge] McElroy said during the hearing.

(I’ve been convinced since the summer that the way out of this involves people finding other people who, together, can increase their tolerance for taking risks)

Screenshot of a headline from New York magazine: “Is Dupe Culture Swaying Your Diamond Purchases? We asked experts to weigh in on why natural diamonds will always be a worthy investment.” Article by Stephanie Nguyen

I can honestly say, No.

I love both One Battle After Another and Sinners, but if you don't think they're doing at least as much to work you over and get you to a certain emotional place as Hamnet is, I don't know what to tell you. There's no rule that it's okay to go for your adrenaline but cheating to go for your tears.

I’m not a big holiday decorator myself. But I do get a little judgy when others’ outside decor lacks a unified theme.

A house in our neighborhood, for example, features an inflatable angel next to an inflatable axolotl in a Santa hat.

Smdh.

He looks like he’s trying to stop his dog from leaving him

Not that I, beholden to the reality of our current systems, at all advocate for rollbacks of the meager protections PREA affords.

Buuut were it not for the existence of prisons, no one would be sexually assaulted— in prison. PREA is a bit of a smoke screen.

Something I routinely mention about PREA is that it is designed to respond to (and allegedly prevent; but I have some thoughts on THAT imperative, too) sexual violence people experienced *while incarcerated*.

The carceral state is the SOURCE of all violence being “addressed” by PREA.

After the Shutdown: What Everyone Needs to Know About the Upcoming NOFO The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States.

I’m on a meeting about the HUD NOFO and someone just typed “FMR” (fair market rent) in the chat. Which I misread as “FML”.

And, like, same.

Abuse and sexual violence doesn’t require deception at all. It happens right out in the open, and people tolerate it, because it’s a demonstration of power

What if everything everywhere was designed with the intention of having many different people accessing it? People in wheelchairs, tall people, short people, fat people, elderly people, people with less than four limbs, blind and deaf people, people with chronic pain and illness, and on?

This, this, one thousand times this.

He’s back at it.

And he wants you to know that the decomposing body he puts in the makeshift grave he digs will be buried so well, it won’t be … malodorous.

Why would you misconstrue this?

The List Keepers The AIDS crisis shattered Broadway, and the scope of the loss has never been fully accounted for. Some kept their own records.

Here, for those interested:

Those sex scene choreographers/film editors deserve an award, I'm dead serious

I think this was the first piece of yours I read and it hit me right in the heart: then and now.

I posted a piece from Mark Harris about an individual who had kept a list of everyone he personally knew/knew of in the NYC theater/dance/opera community who died of AIDS. Someone interviewed for the story remarked “It’s like the entire company of Wicked dying twice a year for 20 years.” 😔

The Book I Found in the $1 Bin — Split Lip Magazine I liked the cover because there was a sexy man on it and I’m easy to manipulate, so I brought it to the register and paid a dollar. In the sun, I opened the book and found an inscription: To Russel, ...

splitlipthemag.com/flash/1122/r...

A little late for World AIDS Day. A story about lost books and lost writers.

Martin P. Saffen Obituary Clipping found in Santa Cruz Sentinel published in Santa Cruz, California on 2/8/1996. Martin P. Saffen Obituary

But I wonder if that isn’t the prevailing feeling for any of us as our experiences— Things That Simply Happened— get narrativized for posterity or whatever.

There is no (spiritual) sense to be made of it. And? Maybe I can take responsibility for tending this memory anyway. [12/12]

I didn’t learn until years afterward that Martin himself had died, months before I traveled to Washington, in January of 1996.

Maybe one reason I’ve been reluctant to write about this is the implication that I was the chosen recipient of some kind of cosmic gesture. Who, after all, am I? [11/]

After traveling for 20 hours, within five minutes of arriving and stepping into that 30-acre space, there it was, among more than 41,000 panels: the quilt Martin made for Tom.

I wasn’t even seeking it out.

It was coincidence beyond all reason. [10/]

Panels of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt cover the entire National Mall in Washington, DC: October, 1996

The following year, in October of 1996, was the last time all the panels (to date) were included in a unified display on the National Mall. A group of us took a bus from Wisconsin to Washington, DC for the occasion.

The Quilt’s size and the scope of loss it represented was unfathomable. [9/]

Martin and I exchanged a couple letters. I told him about volunteering as a quilt monitor: wearing all white, offering tissues to weeping visitors, and gentle reminders to not step on the panels.

Tom’s wasn’t among them. “I am sorry. I walked the entire display, many times over.” [/8]

Martin’s quilt panel for Tom Eyen. It has a blue gray background and features Tom’s name in gold block letters, along with his life dates: 8-14-40 to 5-26-92. A purple and gold Dreamgirls jacket is the focal point. The panel also features mementoes from and representing Tom’s life: personal photos, a rainbow flag patch and inverted pink triangle patch among others.

So he wrote me, enclosed snapshots of himself and of his quilt panel for Tom— who was, it turned out, Dreamgirls lyricist Tom Eyen.

(Here is a screenshot from the digitized Quilt’s searchable online archive. In 2025, we can check in on the panels, on our loved ones, whenever we want). [7/]