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Things are being simplified a lot for us lately. I think people are hungry for something that shows more respect for the complexity of life, the depth, the grey areas.
– Ang Lee
I am undestroying myself.

-Roxane Gay

Do it, girl. 

Hate mail has never been so adorable. 

jtotheizzoe:

geneticist:

After the Pluto’s demotion from planet-status, astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson received hate mail from thousands of elementary school children. Images via PBS

Well kids, I guess you can add me to the Pluto-hatin’ club. I’ve got your back Dr. Tyson!

If Pluto landed on Earth, it would only stretch from California to Kansas. It’s smaller than our own Moon and half ice. It orbits more like a comet than a planet. It has more in common with the members of the icy and distant Kuiper belt than the larger planets. In fact, it could take the cake as Kuiper king, Emperor of dwarf planets. Don’t hate me, folks. Science is an ever-evolving tapestry, and that tapestry has 8 planets :)

paperlanternlit:

Ellie Rollins is coming to Omaha, Nebraska to read from her middle grade novel, Zip! If you live in Omaha, be sure to stop by!  

paperlanternlit:

Ellie Rollins is coming to Omaha, Nebraska to read from her middle grade novel, Zip! If you live in Omaha, be sure to stop by!  

Probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.
– dfw
Your holiness or your kind of love.

Your holiness or your kind of love.

Look, I believe in love. When I am in love, I am all the way in–-silly letters, pet names, sexual favors, extravagant baking, whatever…But I try not to lose my independence or my backbone.
Roxane Gay on Breaking Dawn 2. Perhaps the greatest summary in the history of movie summaries. 
The business model is based on people consuming more than they should. And so there’s a strong economic incentive for big marijuana companies to create as much addiction as possible.
laughinacorner:


The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during last night’s Presidential debate.
Dear Ann Coulter,
Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?
I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.
I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.
Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.
Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.
Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.
After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me.  You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.
I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.
Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.


Come join us someday at Special Olympics.  See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.
A friend you haven’t made yet,John Franklin StephensGlobal MessengerSpecial Olympics Virginia

via Special Olympics

laughinacorner:

The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during last night’s Presidential debate.

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?

I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.

After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me.  You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.

No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

Come join us someday at Special Olympics.  See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.

A friend you haven’t made yet,
John Franklin Stephens
Global Messenger
Special Olympics Virginia

via Special Olympics

And that was the first introduction of this concept, inauthentic blackness because you’re comfortable around whiteness…
It’s true. You do. 

It’s true. You do. 

(Source: nevver)

The optimism of children boozing under a tree! I feel it bubbling up inside me as if it were the carbonation in Linus’s lambrusco bottle. 

The optimism of children boozing under a tree! I feel it bubbling up inside me as if it were the carbonation in Linus’s lambrusco bottle. 

(Source: nevver)

Natural law is everything and it is always. If you’re going to believe in a higher power, believe in that.
Things are being simplified a lot for us lately. I think people are hungry for something that shows more respect for the complexity of life, the depth, the grey areas.
– Ang Lee
I am undestroying myself.

-Roxane Gay

Do it, girl. 

Hate mail has never been so adorable. 

jtotheizzoe:

geneticist:

After the Pluto’s demotion from planet-status, astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson received hate mail from thousands of elementary school children. Images via PBS

Well kids, I guess you can add me to the Pluto-hatin’ club. I’ve got your back Dr. Tyson!

If Pluto landed on Earth, it would only stretch from California to Kansas. It’s smaller than our own Moon and half ice. It orbits more like a comet than a planet. It has more in common with the members of the icy and distant Kuiper belt than the larger planets. In fact, it could take the cake as Kuiper king, Emperor of dwarf planets. Don’t hate me, folks. Science is an ever-evolving tapestry, and that tapestry has 8 planets :)

paperlanternlit:

Ellie Rollins is coming to Omaha, Nebraska to read from her middle grade novel, Zip! If you live in Omaha, be sure to stop by!  

paperlanternlit:

Ellie Rollins is coming to Omaha, Nebraska to read from her middle grade novel, Zip! If you live in Omaha, be sure to stop by!  

Probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.
– dfw

Honest

Honest

(via nevver)

Your holiness or your kind of love.

Your holiness or your kind of love.

Look, I believe in love. When I am in love, I am all the way in–-silly letters, pet names, sexual favors, extravagant baking, whatever…But I try not to lose my independence or my backbone.
Roxane Gay on Breaking Dawn 2. Perhaps the greatest summary in the history of movie summaries. 
The business model is based on people consuming more than they should. And so there’s a strong economic incentive for big marijuana companies to create as much addiction as possible.
laughinacorner:


The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during last night’s Presidential debate.
Dear Ann Coulter,
Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?
I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.
I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.
Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.
Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.
Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.
After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me.  You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.
I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.
Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.
No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.


Come join us someday at Special Olympics.  See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.
A friend you haven’t made yet,John Franklin StephensGlobal MessengerSpecial Olympics Virginia

via Special Olympics

laughinacorner:

The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during last night’s Presidential debate.

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow.  So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?

I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow.  I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.  In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more.

After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me.  You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor.

No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

Come join us someday at Special Olympics.  See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.

A friend you haven’t made yet,
John Franklin Stephens
Global Messenger
Special Olympics Virginia

via Special Olympics

And that was the first introduction of this concept, inauthentic blackness because you’re comfortable around whiteness…
It’s true. You do. 

It’s true. You do. 

(Source: nevver)

The optimism of children boozing under a tree! I feel it bubbling up inside me as if it were the carbonation in Linus’s lambrusco bottle. 

The optimism of children boozing under a tree! I feel it bubbling up inside me as if it were the carbonation in Linus’s lambrusco bottle. 

(Source: nevver)

Natural law is everything and it is always. If you’re going to believe in a higher power, believe in that.
"Things are being simplified a lot for us lately. I think people are hungry for something that shows more respect for the complexity of life, the depth, the grey areas."
"I am undestroying myself."
"Probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it."
"Look, I believe in love. When I am in love, I am all the way in–-silly letters, pet names, sexual favors, extravagant baking, whatever…But I try not to lose my independence or my backbone."
"The business model is based on people consuming more than they should. And so there’s a strong economic incentive for big marijuana companies to create as much addiction as possible."
"And that was the first introduction of this concept, inauthentic blackness because you’re comfortable around whiteness…"
"Natural law is everything and it is always. If you’re going to believe in a higher power, believe in that."

About:

I'm a Brooklyn based writer and editor. Once I lived in a derelict house, but the year I turned 28 it burned down with very little ceremony. Three things survived: my laptop, my bike, and a bag full of vintage dresses. Everything collected since has been unnecessary.

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