Penguins

Pulp Librarian on Penguin book covers in the 60s. (Small quibble: blue was general nonfiction. Biographies were purple.)

Right to refrain

One reason we have a rape culture is that we have a pushiness culture. “The sale begins when the customer says no.” Example: alcohol. We know from a recent Penn State case that frat boys enjoy getting someone horribly drunk even if they don’t want to screw him when he passes out. Annalee on Twitter discusses a milder form.

Thanx to arkuat

And for the second time this week the company that protects me from malware sent me a bit of malware saying in essence, “We’re going to switch you to a more expensive system unless you say no. []Yes [] not now”

“A Discordian is prohibited of believing what he reads.”

Discordian Timeline [Historia Discordia]

Thanx to RAW Illumination.

And of course

#ChurchToo [Jezebel]

Thanx to Metafilter

Alleged satire

Man baffled his personal experience isn’t the universal human experience [The Beaverton]

RIP

Farewell, Anthony Bourdain. I loved Kitchen Confidential, and in this time of ICE, ICE, Baby, it is good to remember that he said,

I am not “boycotting” anything. I choose to not patronize chefs who tacitly support deporting half the people they've ever worked with.

Persevering

It has been known for years that the Peter Principle is overly optimistic. During Watergate, Jimmy Breslin noticed that the Republicans had augmented it with the Principle of Upward Failure, in which the individual starts at his level of incompetence and rises in the hierarchy until he is indicted. Rudy Giuliani, who found his level of incompetence as a peacetime mayor, continues onward & upward.

Not quite genuine statement from Ontario

Best fake politician statement since “My fellow Americans, I have just spent five hours trying to do something impossible: explaining sex to Kenneth Starr.” [The Beaverton; uses language]

Strange new concept

SF books that don’t take place in a bleak dystopian future [Bustle]