On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld a Michigan state ban on the use of race as a factor in admissions to state universities, allowing voters to decide the matter on a state-by-state level. It follows an earlier ruling on affirmative action last June, where courts were ordered to give greater scrutiny for the reasons that such programs exist. Both decisions maintain the principle that there are some circumstances in which affirmative action is permissible.
HELLO and welcome to the 124th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about playgrounds! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
Welcome to this week’s Friday Open Thread! A place for feelings, friendship and photos of pets, people or objects that happens to be around you. There’s one of these every week, but, much like snowflakes, no two are the same.
To continue the brave tradition of open thread hosts posting pictures of themselves and their loved ones, here is my girlfriend Shannon looking hot as fuck, which is what I wanted to do with her at the time this photo was taken. (I am the short person next to her, and we were dressed for the ’80s.)
The sun seemed to shine a little brighter the Tuesday morning that Brown University student, Lena Sclove, stood in front of a group of 50 or more students, staff, and Providence residents to talk about the traumatic event that has affected her life for the last eight months. Standing in front of the University’s Van Wickle Gates, Sclove addressed the crowd of supporters. “It’s sort of bittersweet,” Sclove began with a small smile on her face. “I haven’t seen a lot of you and this campus has come to mean a lot of things to me. And it’s become a very scary place for me, and that’s what I’m here to talk about.”
I’m graduating from college in a month, and I have never had more sporadic emotions about an impending life transition, ever. In the course of a week I swing from lying awake anxious in my bed at 4 AM, to feeling like I will explode with excitement about moving to a still yet-to-be-determined city and building a new phase of life for myself. My general feelings about graduation — and, more generically, moving away from a place I’ve lived a solid life for four years — changes approximately once every 45 seconds.
Good morning, baby betta fish! Today we’re going to very consciously not talk about Avril Lavigne’s new video, and instead focus on other things happening around the world. The 90s are still back, the 00s are almost back, and the world keeps turning, churning out more cute chicks with nontraditional haircuts singing about broken hearts and new beginnings. It’s a whole wide world out there! Let’s begin with the elephant in the room.
Admit it, you like Grease. Maybe you haven’t seen it in awhile or haven’t heard the soundtrack on the radio and you forgot about it. And you probably think it’s dorky or cheesy or just plain awful. And to be honest, yes it is all of those things. Take it from someone who was in musical theater for a large portion of her adolescence, I hate it too. But I also kinda love it BECAUSE it is so cheesy and corny and kinda bonkers (remember that Frankie Avalon dream sequence and/or that final scene of Sandy and Danny driving off into the sky?). No matter how hard I try there’s something about those crazy catchy Bee Gee songs and a movie in the 70s trying to depict a movie in the 50’s that’s kinda brilliant. And the most amazing part of it all is one of the original girl gangs, The Pink Ladies.
Howdy, would-be campers! As you no doubt are aware, A-Camp is in four short weeks! Yes, soon we will all be together, kumbaya-ing it up and eating vegan marshmallows. What’s that? You can’t afford to go? NEVER FEAR, Kipper Clothiers is here!
Welcome to the seventeenth episode of the fifth GLORIOUS season of Glee, a children’s television series featuring costumed performers dressed as animal characters. This week’s episode swallowed and digested a series of crucial topics including seaweed soap, leotards, being punk, missing socks, Cialis, bra-sharing, tap-dancing, synchronized eating and underage driving. Everybody had THE BEST TIME and shared their graham crackers.
Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here. The first scene of the second season of Orange is the New Black is short and intriguing and funny and heartbreaking all at once. And it’s only a minute long so imagine how crazy good the new episodes are going to be. Creator Jenji Kohan has already warned us that things will get a lot darker. Check out the video below to catch up on how things are going for Piper Kerman (Taylor Schilling) following the events of the season one finale. Hint: Not well.
That’s how easy it is to make a gin and tonic. It is, literally, gin… and tonic water. That’s it. It’s also a wonderful spring drink — it tastes like budding trees, blue skies and finally digging yourself out of what seemed like permanent snow (we see you winter — you were fucking cruel). The particular ease of this drink means it’s a great jumping off point for getting a little bit fancy without leveling up the difficulty.
