Despite being something of an Anglophile who is wholeheartedly devoted to cheese, I had never heard of the Gloucestershire cheese roll until today. According to WaPo (gift link), the annual race is a world-famous, centuries-old tradition.
Contestants line up at the top of a steep hill (45 degrees!), and an official rolls a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down the slope. Contestants run, roll and fall after it, and the first to cross the finish line gets to keep the cheese. The competition often results in concussions, broken bones, internal injuries, etc., according the article.
Would you chase a huge cheese down a VERY steep hill?! 🧀
Welcome to Gloucestershire's annual cheese roll 👉 https://t.co/BgIkivkDDg pic.twitter.com/FSlaFH3gOW
— BBC Radio Gloucestershire (@BBCGlos) May 30, 2023
The cheese has been clocked at speeds of 70 to 80 MPH! A 19-year-old Canadian won the women’s cheese roll this year. She was unconscious when she crossed the finish line but held the wheel aloft in triumph after emerging from the medical tent. Hey, it’s Double Gloucester!
Switching to a topic much stinkier than any cheese on earth, a poor soul at New York Magazine read Mo. Senator Josh Hawley’s terrible Manhood book, and you’ll be shocked to learn that, like many a pencil-necked keyboard warrior, the tome is considerably less butch than advertised:
Manhood is Hawley’s fantasy, and as such it is revealing. Remarkable for its chauvinist delusion and unparalleled in its sheer whininess, it is a study, too, in personal failure. Since the 43-year-old Hawley entered the U.S. Senate in 2019, he has earned a reputation for hyperconservative political views with a fixation on the nefarious influence of Big Tech. Hawley, though, is not the leader he tells other men to be. Any serious accounting of his record must conclude he is a coward. Before the attack on the Capitol, Hawley cheered on crowds; later that day, he ran away from them in the Senate. Manhood does not rescue his image. The book itself is a gutless wonder. Masculinity cannot fail but rather can only be failed by others. It is strong enough to save the nation, but too weak to protect itself from “Epicurean liberalism,” Hawley’s term for a mythical ideology focused on the pursuit of personal happiness above all else.
It sucks that we have to endure the ongoing attempt to subvert American democracy in favor of authoritarian rule by mostly white, hard-right Christian nationalists, but it would be infinitely more tolerable if the fascists weren’t such spoiled, whiny motherfuckers. Wah-wah-wah! God, I’m so sick of them!
Speaking of spoiled, whiny motherfuckers, did anyone see the Succession series finale? I thought it was absolutely perfect. I’ll say no more about it in this post but would love to hear what you thought in comments if you’ve seen it. Kindly warn fellow commenters with a spoiler alert before discussing!
Otherwise, open thread!