martinimade

"After RuPaul’s keynote (the final event of the con), one 19-year-old girl summoned the courage to go up in front of hundreds of fellow fans and ask her idol, through so many sobs we could barely understand her, “How do you wake up in the morning and tell yourself you’re beautiful?”

It was a startling moment, but one I’ve come to expect from Drag Race fans after watching, loving, and researching the show’s larger impact for years. The series has always leaned into the human ache to find self-acceptance, and it came up again and again throughout DragCon."

-- Caroline Framke at Vox on RuPaul's Drag Race, a show that both my daughter and I love. My Queen-of-choice will always be Bianca Del Rio, btw. Bob the Drag Queen is a close second.

"Like many things in the world of Trump, the event was both corrupt and inept."

- Adam Davidson, "Trump Steaks, but for Hotels."

• Some of the moments are terrible.
• Never change, NYC.
• If only I needed more mugs.
• Never mess with a Maine-r.
• Oh Pittsburgh, My Pittsburgh.
• It's really not about the typos.
• Why ten-year old girls need Girls on the Run.
• Radiolab had me at Venice. 
• FYI: Oneonta has one, too.

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

-- A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams. a tip of the hat goes to one Julie Powell, however, who pointed it out.

• Whenever life becomes too much, I find comfort in looking at images from space.
• I don't know how I feel about this. I mean, it's cool, I guess?
• To which all the women say, "in other news, water is wet."
• I kind of want to go to this.
• #12.
• Adding this to the list of things I need to make.
• Singing the praises of the stage managers.
• If you’re in Wards 3 and 4 in November....

"I join my family on Emerald Isle for Thanksgiving and have a great screaming fight with my Republican father, who yells at one point, “Donald Trump is not an asshole!” I find this funny but at the same time surprising. Regardless of whether or not you voted for him, I thought the president-elect’s identity as a despicable human being was something we could all agree on. I mean, he pretty much ran on it."

-- David Sedaris in the Paris Review, "A Number of Reasons I've Been Depressed Lately"

My latest Dry Martini column is live over on the Mother Runner site! It's about the Vermont City Marathon and my nemesis Voldesun.

• "... each resident 433 pills."
• Vacuuming the whale.
• Another use for your theater degree. 
• Every runner needs a herd.
• It's the cake. (And I'm totally getting this book.)
• Knitters are up to more than you may think. (Related.)
• Milk a goat.
• What veternarians know about humans.
• It really is the greatest city in the world.
• Not reeling.