55 years ago today, I was arrested in the Jackson, MS bus station for using a "whites-only" restroom. #goodtrouble pic.twitter.com/v8zeqfVl75
— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) May 24, 2016
We've been fighting over who can use public restrooms for quite awhile, eh? https://t.co/Rta7M048Rw
— Joel D. Anderson (@byjoelanderson) May 24, 2016
Lest we forget.
Apart from SLDE (Same Lies, Different Era), what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Roger Moore
I can remember when the big bathroom issue was how the Equal Rights Amendment was going to make it illegal to have separate men’s and women’s bathrooms. The right wing really is obsessed about it.
schrodinger's cat
Shahid Kapoor who AL has FPed in Haider, does the Gandi Baat (Dirty talk) and shows some awesome moves on the dance floor.
Iowa Old Lady
Since this is an open thread, if you’re in Madison on Saturday, I’ll be giving a reading at Michelangelo’s at 1 pm as part of the program for WisCon, the feminist SFF con.
Litlebritdifrnt
According to my twitter feed Trump made his much vaunted $1million donation to a veterans charity YESTERDAY in direct contradiction of his campaign manager’s assertions that he had made it months ago. All this was because he was being hounded by a reporter about it.
A Ghost To Most
@Roger Moore:
Slut shamers and shit shamers.
It must be very embarrassing to be an American abroad these days.
slag
@Roger Moore: Let’s be honest. The real issue here is public bathroom design. Public bathrooms, as frequently implemented, are so uncivilized they drive people mad.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
There’s a privy chamber gibe in there somewhere, but coffee not yet brewed for the day much less consumed to lift the veil of being logy.
FlipYrWhig
@slag: But there was the additional weirdness about swimming pools and water fountains too. Mid-century racists had some whole paranoia about Negroes near water.
A Ghost To Most
@srv:
Baud is the ghost candidate. All the dead people will be voting for him. I expect Baud will do well in Chicago.
Mnemosyne
I managed to get today’s baby shower gift completed during my lunch hour — phew! I couldn’t give hand-knitted gifts to all of the other first babies and fail to produce for this one.
slag
@FlipYrWhig: True. Though not near just any water. Near THEIR water.
Mnemosyne
@FlipYrWhig:
Race cooties are transmitted by water. Duh.
scav
@schrodinger’s cat: That one was rather fun in unexpected directions. Been meaning to ask, noticed in passing the BBC has a Bollywood podcast, is any good , too weedy / radio-y or will it help understand things any better? Although, maybe what I rather enjoy is that undercurrent of being utterly lost. Hard to tell.
Baud
@srv: The system is rigged against virtual candidates.
You can vote online for The Voice and for the All-Star game, but not for president of our so-called “democracy.”
Schlemazel Khan
I wish I knew I had guts enough to do what John Lewis did 55 years ago. He was literally putting his life on the line when it would have been so easy to just go along. I have done a few things in my life that were risky but nothing where the chance of being lynched was so close. That takes real courage.
Gimlet
May 24, 2016 by Admin
Today the conservative group American Crossroads, launched by Karl Rove, announced that it is endorsing Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District Democratic primary. Crossroads’ President and CEO Steven Law had this to say about the organization’s rare decision to endorse in a contested primary:
“Congresswoman and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has played a critical role over the past several years in the massive Republican gains we have achieved at the state level, in the U.S. House of Representatives, and in the U.S. Senate.
“Wasserman Schultz’s leadership has also been a catalyst for the emerging civil war in the Democratic Party this year, ensuring that their nominating process will drag on far longer than that of Republicans.
“Voters of the 23rd District of Florida should know – American Crossroads stands with Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in her primary against ultra-liberal outsider Tim Canova, and they should too.”
Iowa Old Lady
@Schlemazel Khan: John Lewis is a genuine hero.
Schlemazel Khan
@FlipYrWhig:
back in the 40’s the resort they were staying at would not let Groucho’s kids swim in the pool. He asked the manager “Since the kids are only half Jewish is it OK if they only go in up to their knees?”
I read about a town, I think it was in Maryland, where Blacks were allowed to use the pool on Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesdays the pools was drained and cleaned and was whites only Thursday-Saturday. That is so weird to me, I don’t understand what the thinking is that somehow you could catch color.
Roger Moore
@slag:
I think the real issue is that we are still obsessed with body issues in general and bathroom issues specifically. There’s no reason other than people being childish about it for this to be an issue at all. When I was in college, the house/dorm where I lived for most of my time had unisex bathrooms and showers. The bathrooms each had two toilet stalls with a shared sink, and the showers had two shower stalls. The only problem I remember with the toilets was one guy who didn’t believe he needed to close the outer door when he was peeing, and even the showers were manageable with a bit of common courtesy. It’s just people having potty issues that makes this any kind of question.
debbie
@Roger Moore:
Poopie jokes have always frightened them.
Mnemosyne
@Iowa Old Lady:
Did you see the pictures of him from ComiCon last year? He cosplayed as himself on the Edmund Pettis Bridge by replicating his outfit. He seems like he would be a really fun guy to have dinner with even beyond his achievements.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: I did see that! Him in a raincoat, carrying a backpack.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
The whole ensemble or just the hat?
Iowa Old Lady
@debbie: No hat.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: and if anyone missed my shots of Lewis at Comic-Con, I am always ready to share them. He was awesome, as were his collaborators.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
Yay you! That was a cute pattern, btw.
@schrodinger’s cat:
I need some recommendations for some Indian movies for my friend who is now in hospice care. She loves to laugh and dance. I would be so grateful for a few recommendations.
Felonius Monk
Maybe this is why the Right is so obsessed with bathrooms:
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Yes, they were your pictures! I couldn’t remember whose they were.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
The ears are not standing up, but the pattern warns that they probably won’t. I’ll tell the prospective dad that he can put pipe cleaners inside the ears for photography purposes.
Prescott Cactus
Dignity
Jon Ralston Nevada political reporter extraordinaire talks about his daughter, who is now his son.
Sweet read.
NotMax
@Schlemazel Khan
Precious bodily fluids and Purity of Essence.
Schlemazel Khan
@Iowa Old Lady:
A couple of my friends from the womens hockey program are going – ot seems like a good time
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Also, the first pictures that come up when you Google his name and ComiCon are a bunch of pictures of him talking to kids, who all look really excited to be talking to him.
Miss Bianca
@Iowa Old Lady: Wish I were going to be there! If I were going to visit the Midwest, this would be the perfect time to do it!
Schlemazel Khan
@NotMax:
Thats why you should only drink branch water & bourbon.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore:
See Trump, Donald J. re Hillary Clinton using the restroom and returning late during a debate break.
Major Major Major Major
Another day, no call. I guess I’ll check in tomorrow.
Off to Japantown for soap and some variety of food. (Inspired by a Yoshida Brothers album I just got.)
Miss Bianca
@Prescott Cactus: I liked that article.
eclare
@Prescott Cactus: Sweet? You didn’t warn me to bring Kleenex! Read about this on a thread last night, and meant to go back, but lost track. Thank you for reposting.
Iowa Old Lady
@Schlemazel Khan:@Miss Bianca: WisCon is always interesting, and Madison is a great town. The con is right by the capitol and there’s a huge farmer’s market on Saturday morning and a half-marathon on Sunday.
slag
@Roger Moore: Nope. Uncivilized. Public bathrooms are typically creepy, sanitarily-questionable, and aesthetically displeasing places. There is no room for debate on this topic.
NotMax
@
Major Major Major Major
Avoid the McBlowfish nuggets.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I’m sure it’s perfect.
NotMax
@slag
Except in Walmart, where they’re kept in better condition than is the rest of the store.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: Fine, mooommmmm
rikyrah
@Prescott Cactus:
It is an excellent read.
slag
@NotMax: Is that true? My city has no WalMart, so I haven’t been to one in many years. And I don’t remember if I’ve ever been in one of their bathrooms.
Woodrow/asim
@Iowa Old Lady @Schlemazel Khan @Miss Bianca: I miss Wiscon, I went for a few years until 2010 or so. Awesome con!
Gin & Tonic
@Gimlet: Is this your usual no-URL bullshit, or are you just embarrassed to link to Karl Rove’s site?
Trollhattan
Will need to recalibrate my ’49er Hate-o-Meter.
A couple digits, anyway. They still suck.
schrodinger's cat
@scav: I have no idea, never heard the podcast. I will give it a listen and let you know about my opinion.
bemused
@Prescott Cactus:
I was surprised to learn recently that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has a transgender son. I always thought of her as a fairly far right Republican but now she is sticking up for LGBT folks. I do not know how she feels about the bathroom bills.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: I love Japantown, just wish I didn’t have to fly across the continent to go there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Iowa Old Lady: Damn. I’ll be out of town this weekend.
Pogonip
The India Club of Dayton, Ohio, was always good for dancing fun. I went to every event they were involved in. Did a lot of that dance where everyone sticks one foot out in the middle of the circle.
Iowa Old Lady
@Omnes Omnibus: Next time maybe.
Juicers are making me feel good. I think I’ll skip the troll fest in the next thread. Don’t want to harsh my mellow, so to speak.
Origuy
@schrodinger’s cat: I read a book review in BBC History Magazine; you might be interested. India’s War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939-1945 by Srinath Raghavan. The review isn’t online yet, it will be at historyextra.com eventually,
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Iowa Old Lady: Have you ever considered coming up to Mpls for 4th Street? It’s a fantasy convention, but it has a very high population of writers, so the panels tend to focus how to write rather than topics primarily of interest to fans.
It’s also small enough that it doesn’t trigger my autism as much as most cons, so I’m wondering why I’m trying to invite more people to it.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: Hindi movies? With subtitles?
One recommendation: Queen, its available on Google Play. Kangana Ranaut was awesome.
Its about Rani (Queen) who is dumped at the altar by her fiance and how she finds herself when she goes to Europe on what was supposed to be a honeymoon trip, alone.
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I love that sentence. If only some of our politicians were as self-aware as you are!
PurpleGirl
@Iowa Old Lady: Wow. That’s great. Wish I could be there. Hope the reading goes well. In my con going days, I never went to a Wiscon. But this weekend I have other plans. Were you ever a member of AWA. (AWA = A Women’s APA; APA = Amateur Press Association,
EBT
@NotMax: Well Todd Starnes is quite the pee enthusiast.
Roger Moore
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Because your generosity exceeds your self interest. Either that or you’re like the rest of us who don’t always think of the big-picture consequences of our actions until it’s too late.
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: A true colossus. Shameful that some folks tried to paint him as corrupt, for a temporary political gain.
Iowa Old Lady
@PurpleGirl: No, I never belonged. I’ve only been writing fiction for a few years. Before that, I wrote about the communication practices of engineers. Really. I did.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I’ve thought about it. It’s Easter weekend, right? We usually go to our son’s house in Chicagoland that weekend, which is why I haven’t been.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: Yay! I knew you could do it.
Anne Laurie
@schrodinger’s cat: When I showed him that clip from Haider, the English/linguistics-major Spousal Unit ordered a copy immediately. (Which we haven’t found the time to watch yet… but once we have, I suspect I’ll be ordering the other parts of his ‘Shakespear trilogy’.)
ThresherK
@schrodinger’s cat: My wife doesn’t know how lucky she is that I haven’t gotten into Bollywood. Yet.
Try Sita Sings the Blues if you want an incredible, immersive piece of auteur animation.
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
Thank you! She doesn’t need subtitles but I like them.
schrodinger's cat
@Anne Laurie: Omkara’s score is awesome too. Vishal Bharadwaj is crazy talented, in addition to being the director, he also composed the musical score and has sung a song each in both Haider and Omkara (Othello). Omkara is set in dusty North Indian plains.
PurpleGirl
@MomSense: This isn’t an Indian movie per se but it has the song and dancing of a Bollywood movie, plus it’s in English. Bride and Prejudice. It’s a riff on Pride and Prejudice. I enjoyed it a lot.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Iowa Old Lady: No, it’s in mid- to late-June. This year it’s June 17-19. You were probably thinking of Minnecon, a large fantasy/science fiction con, which used to happen Easter weekend; for better or worse, it pretty much collapsed a few years ago, largely replaced by Convergence in early July.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I looked it up and bookmarked it. I can’t do it this year but it looks like something I’d like. I prefer smaller cons too. I don’t do well at approaching strangers and chatting.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Aish is bit wooden in that one. I remember seeing it in the theater.
Omkara, title track sung by Sukhwinder Singh.
Prescott Cactus
@Miss Bianca:
@eclare:
@rikyrah:
@bemused:
I get a little extra Ralston I think, because I’m in a neighboring state and his voice carries. . . This tore me apart;
I had to look to see who Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was. . . MUST expand worldview !
Anne Laurie
@Iowa Old Lady: Yay you!
Probably my closest brush with public glory was being on a Wiscon panel, some thirty years ago, with Suzette Haden Elgin (Laadan was very chic at the time.) Afterwards she said something nice — unprompted — about my Star Trek fanfic, which in those pre-internet days meant she’d actually gone to some trouble to find out details about a no-name fellow panelist at a hobbyist convention. Ah, the 80s…
Iowa Old Lady
@Anne Laurie: That sounds like fun! I used to write Tolkien fanfic, but on the internet, it’s easy.
Anne Laurie
@FlipYrWhig:
Uhh… you know there was (is) a subgenre of “jokes” about it being easier to dispose of [offensive-Procyon lotor-human-comparison]s who don’t know how to swim?
Well, you do now. I’m not gonna google for samples, you’ll just have to use your imagination.
Hungry Joe
@Anne Laurie: I took a couple of linguistics classes from Suzette Haden Elgin at San Diego State. She was a good teacher.
agorabum
@Schlemazel Khan: The first time I recall being turned off by the Sanders campaign was when their supporters started attacking John Lewis, because he endorsed Hillary…good times.
Also, John Lewis is an American hero and everyone should know more about him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One has to just love “Do you believe this shit?” expression on Lewis’ face.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
@PurpleGirl:
Recipients were properly appreciative. It turned out that the Michaels house brand yarn had exactly the right Mickey Mouse yellow to mimic his shoes.
Warren Terra
One claim i’ve seen made about Jim Crow bathroom rules – one that I’m not completely sure is true, but that if true would be tremendously relevant to the current Loo Patrol enthusiasm on the Right – is that back in the days of Jim Crow public facilities had three lavatories: the Whites-Only Men’s Room; the Whites-Only Ladies’ room; and the Colored lavatory. As in: they weren’t worried about sex segregation at all, so long as the dusky hordes daren’t ablute in their facilities. i’m not sure how this would best be used, but given the desperate imperative the same Southern conservatives have now discovered to segregate restrooms by gender, their previous indifference would be interesting.