Today we went to a restaurant called Hemingway’s. I liked the food there as much as I like the author, which is not at all. Everything we ordered was just as heavy and unpalatable as Hemingway’s prose.
What I really wanted to share about this restaurant, though, was what I saw in the bathroom. This is what one of the walls looks like:
And this is the other wall:
Neither inscription seems all that appropriate in a ladies’ bathroom. Then, however, the place redeemed itself because this is what I found next to the mirror:
A photo like this makes a lot of sense in a town where even this kind of butt has to be defended from people willing to grab it:
I’ve had a brutal day today and so I had to roll out the big guns of self-help in the form of toilet humor.
Clarissa's Blog 
Talking about an asshole, what about this daddy’s boy? http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/14/rand-paul-s-hate-speech-sounded-just-like-al-qaeda.html
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There’s also this little bit of assery:
http://www.shakesville.com/2013/10/updated-commenting-policy.html
More fuel to the argument of musteryou that modern (American) feminism has morphed into mid 20th century middle class feminity. The whole thing reads like a 1950’s ladies club preparation for a tricky social function: “Remember ladies, no white gloves, don’t curtsey, just shake the Duke’s hand firmly but don’t linger and no personal questions….. Oh my goodness, I almost forgot; No eye contact! The Duke has a thing about people looking at his face!”
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Yeah, they’ve lost traction and slid back down the hill. Perhaps quite a lot of contemporary feminism takes its reference from the 1950s. For instance, in one case, I defended Mike from some marauding banshees and I was criticised as “a wife defending her husband”, which sounded like something I’d never encountered in my social life before.
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This commenting policy is like a living creature that keeps growing and sucking all life out of discussions on that blog. I observe it with profound curiosity. How is it possible that nobody on that blog notices how offensive the policy is to women? Surely, if a woman can’t deal with a downvote, she will collapse if she joins the army, has to operate on a patient, drive a car, walk outside, etc.
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“Surely, if a woman can’t deal with a downvote, she will collapse if she joins the army, has to operate on a patient, drive a car, walk outside, etc.”
That’s where their idea of ‘safe space’ comes in. Everywhere else you’ve got to keep up a strong front and deal with stress, but here in this one blog you’ll just get positive feelings and up votes.
Of course, it’s hard to have a disagreement with anyone in such an atmosphere, but maybe that’s not the point of the comment section over there anyway.
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If downvotes on some blog cause people negative feelings and stress and make them feel “unsafe”, I really worry for their mental health. 🙂
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Yeah, there are a lot of very psychologically injured places posting in places like that. Good for them that they have found such places, I guess – if they don’t want anything more combative, it’s their right to associate with other people who want discussions constrained under their particular rules – and for me, the existence of such spaces has the personal advantage of keeping such easily hurt people away from the spaces I frequent, and advertising the spaces they frequent as dedicated to them so I can stay away, which means that they don’t get hurt by my combativeness, I don’t get annoyed/insulted by their insistence for me to conform to a communication style that makes me feel like I’m biting my tongue and being the sort of ladylike mimosa pudica no woman of my family in 2 generations has been, (at least 3 on one side of the family), so we’re all happy.
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In my day life was less crappy.
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It’s amazing to me that you can make me laugh out loud when you are still processing such pain. I think it really speaks to your writing ability and to your strength. I just wanted to say I’m a fellow Hemmingway hater. I just can’t appreciate him no matter what I do.
By the way, how do you feel about James Joyce? I used to be neutral to negative about him and now that I’m in my late 30’s (and now that I’m teaching it), _Ulysses_, now really speaks to me. It used to leave me cold and this past time I read it (a couple of months ago), I found myslef uncontrollably weeping at parts. So I’m just curious as to your opinion on him. 🙂 Also, have you ever experienced a 180 (i.e. used to despise but then suddenly love) with an author? I have had this happen to me a couple of times throughout my life…..
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I read Ulysses when I was 19 and really hated it. Maybe I was too young to get it. I don’t know what will happen if I give it another try.
I used to hate Dickens but then I was assigned Little Dorritt in grad school and got converted. 🙂
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