I keep mentally writing AITA reddit posts on behalf of Harry and Meghan.
"My grandmother rules my entire family with an iron fist. I grew up that way so I was basically used to it -- until I married a wonderful woman and they were so nasty to her and suddenly I could see how awful they were. We moved 5,000 miles away to escape. AITA?"
"My family is trash-talking my wife to the press in a bid to keep me from talking about them publicly. WIBTA if I go ahead and do the interview I've got planned?"
"My family is white but my wife is mixed-race. I have this cousin -- she's a lot older than me, her father was actually in the SS, if you can believe it -- who wore a racist pin to a big family luncheon...
...and when she got called out on it said that she'd been wearing this pin for YEARS and HOW could we POSSIBLY think she was racist. Reddit, is this gaslighting? I think it's gaslighting."
"My mother died tragically when I was only 12. Like my wife, she'd married in, and my family's abuse of her -- well, it was not the direct cause of her death but it was a huge contributing factor. AITA for doing everything I can to make sure this doesn't happen to my wife?"
r/justnomil
"I hope it's OK if I post here if it's actually a GMIL?"
"More than anything else, what I wanted was a job OTHER than the one working for the family business. I had a real job for a while, WHICH I LOVED, but when it came out I was working there I had to quit. AITA if I just refuse to work for the firm anymore?"
"I thought I could just put up with my family's controlling behavior. There were two things that changed that. (1) How they treated my wife. (2) When I had my first child and realized I would do ANYTHING to keep him safe. AITA for moving 5,000 miles away?"
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This is a good thread and a good explanation and I just want to note, for the record, that @mattyglesias ABSOLUTELY KNOWS EVERYTHING EXPLAINED HERE, he just apparently doesn't think writers should be able to make a living off their books.
I think "life + 30" is a reasonable time frame. The one we've got, "life + 70," is too long and we should have told Disney to fuck off with their bullshit way before we hit this point.
If we had life + 30, all of Theodore Geisel's work would be in the public domain this year.
I wrote about some of Dr. Seuss's lesser-known books back in 2015, and if any of the people currently wringing their hands over Dr. Seuss being "cancelled" have ever read "Scrambled-Eggs Super" or "McElligot's Pool" I will EAT MY HAT.
I want to note for the record that it's also not "cancellation" when the people you've entrusted with your literary legacy think that it's in the interests of your literary legacy if some of the books you wrote are allowed to be forgotten.
It is, in fact, entirely normal for a famous and successful writer to have books that stay in print and books that do not. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't age well. Sometimes you can do revisions, sometimes you just let the book slide into obscurity.
I was pondering Internet communities and how certain portions can get really toxic and weird and was thinking about mothering dot com. This thread talks about the straight line that led a depressing number of people from "natural parenting" to QAnon.
When I was a new mom, in 2000, there was a store in St. Paul that sold breastfeeding supplies that I went to, and they also sold Mothering magazine, and I wound up subscribing briefly and finding my way to the discussion boards.
I was a regular poster there for a while. I don't actually remember how long -- after a few months I discovered another community that was a better fit, then moved on from there to a break-away community. (This was a super common experience for an online mom at the time.)
So since we're talking about music and Joe Biden can I tell you how much the Hamilton song "Wait for It" makes me think about Joe and also about Joe Biden vs. Aaron Burr.
"Death doesn't discriminate / between the sinners and the saints / it takes, and it takes, and it takes."
Weeks after Joe Biden was elected to his first term in the Senate, his wife and daughter died in a car accident.
Of his surviving sons, one went on to die of cancer.
The other, Hunter, has struggled with addiction. To try to hurt Biden during the campaign, someone released texts sent between Joe and Hunter while Hunter was in treatment.
I was pondering the fact that on Tuesday we're going to see 8 gazillion Les Miserable "One Day More" gifs and found this delightful flashmob performance from 2014.
I hope flashmob musical performances make a roaring comeback in 2022.
There are lots and lots and lots of Les Miz gifs for your use on Tuesday but there's also this one with Minions:
And if you want a slightly less ominous/more optimistic song from a musical, there's always: