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Back from family visit. What did I miss?

JD

You know you're getting old when the forbidden books of your youth become Required Reading. Thus Catcher in the Rye, banned because it spelled out the hackneyed obscenity Holden Caulfield saw on a wall.

I was alternately fascinated and repelled by Holden, whose hatred of "phoniness" seemed part admirable and part refusal to believe that there is always a Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. I was likewise alternately fascinated and repelled by the Glass Family, that collection of mutually adoring Mary Sues and Marty Stus that at least prepared me for late Heinlein's one-man circle jerks. I wrote out my feelings:

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And then Salinger died, and everyone waited for the missing works. (The over/under was PKD's posthumous production.) But nothing has appeared, and I wonder why. Ron Rosenbaum wonders, too.

Thanx to Arts & Letters Daily

A couple of things that shouldn't be surprising

* It is possible to start a relationship at a con without violating harassment policies.

* Some men like to go down on women.

Thanx to matociquala and bart_calendar

"Mom always liked you best"

bart_calendar again. This time on sibling rivalry amongst the Abrahamic religions.

Signal boost

Reporting sexual harassment

Android, transvestite, or alien?

cakmpls on "a woman wouldn't do that."

ETA: One exception: Describing one's own sexually desirable body and sounding like a teenage boy who has never seen one. Horrible Example

MANifesto

One of the posts that inspired me to laugh derisively at Rod Bigg or whatever his name is and his unconvincing textual transvestism came from triciasullivan, and I point you to it because it has much else of interest to say. As a malefan, I hate being part of a culture that does the sort of thing she is talking about. I think men in all the fandoms and geek cultures should sign on to something like this:

We like women. We want women at our consWe want cons that women will attend and enjoy, so we want them to be safe and comfortable at them. Therefore, we do not accept groping, PUA aggressions, treating a costume as an invitation, and other such behavior at our gatherings. We want women in our online discussions, so we do not accept threats of rape or other violence in those venues. We want to read about women, much more than we want to read about men's fantasies about women. Therefore, we want more women being published, and we want the men who write about women to employ means of doing the job better, such as submitting the writing to actual women and listening to what they say.

Improved by mrissa

"Escapism"

A review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane that is more about the reviewer than about the (excellent) book. In this case that's a good thing.

Thanx to Making Light.

Real Defense of the Family

Ta-Nehisi Coates on the end of DOMA.

Wise-Facing on Assbook (or something)

* Sarah Palin wants to start a third party. I hope she is as successful as Ralph Nader.

* Verizon is the PUA of corporations: It keeps pushing us to accept its services.

* Suppose we let Russia give political asylum to Edward Snowden if we can give it to Pussy Riot.

Dix Pix Redux

In the proud tradition of Anthony's Weiner and (maybe) Brett Favre, an airport security supervisor got caught sending out a picture that showed his good side.

Thanx to Jezebel