This week brought us the “If so-and-so were your boyfriend” entry The Toast’s faithful legion of Harry Potter fans were waiting for. (Well, truthfully, I think you’re probably all waiting for If Emma Watson Were Your Girlfriend, but this will do for a start.) ENGORGIO.
“What have you taught him about the value of his own labor? Nothing”: Ayn Rand’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Elon Green sat down with Tom Fontana to talk about Oz and its legacy and its great characters, and a special guest dropped by, too.
Emily Sommer, “I’m Not Cis, and I Don’t Want to Be”:
A friend asked me why I feel the need to be confrontational with those who misgender me. It’s as if I’m running an activist defense subroutine—as if I’m always on edge. I told her that I’m protecting myself. When I’m with friends who respect me and in private I feel as though a weight is lifted. It’s a safe space. It’s what white cis men call “any space”. In this space, I don’t feel compelled to be hyper aware.
How I experience being read is rooted in upbringing. I was never taught that trans status is beautiful.
I’m always shocked that we don’t have MORE A League of Their Own coverage on this site.
And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the bitchin’ with the wicked?’
Emma Bolden wrote this beautiful essay on trying to name her nameless disability:
Because it is impossible, using a shaking body to buy groceries. What do you do when the Rice Chex is on the top shelf? You have to let your hands do what your hands do, and in that moment, you know fear. You taste it, flat and chemical, at the back of your tongue, the worst kind of penny. You lock your knees and you tell them keep still, keep still. And sometimes they do and you’re smiling, nodding at the straight line your legs make. And sometimes they don’t and you’re holding the shelf and the cart and you’re praying, you’re trying to focus on the boxes of cereal, you’re trying to do just this one small thing.
You’ll get aroused when you take the temperance pledge
Peter: now that Ender has gone to space to become a general, we must do our part to change humanity
Valentine: absolutely
what should we doPeter: let’s leave comments about political theory on the internet until the government offers us jobs
I have also worked in an art museum and these poems spoke to my truth.
from today’s art show; I’m calling it a peacock:
GUESS WHAAAT I’m interviewing one of my very favorite authors, Celeste Ng, for The Toast! You have a week, maybe two to read or reread her beautiful novel Everything I Never Told You before our conversation drops.
I hope your weekend is filled with every delight! See you Monday.
