sundries

[rm]

If you live in New York City, don't go to The Ding Dong Lounge on 106th and Columbus. I've been going there for a few years, and I've friends who have been going there forever, but then one of their bartenders tried to rape my friend and then somehow thought the whole thing could be smoothed over by buying her partner a drink. Yeah, not so much.

The protest movement in Iran now features men wearing traditional coverings for women, in response to the Iranian government trying to use female attire to humiliate men. featherofeeling also links us to NYTimes coverage of same.

A look at some statistics for those 57 - 85.

It would be completely stupid to get matinee tickets to The Mikado for like two days after Patty and I return from our cruise, wouldn't it?

lord_whimsy informs us of the return of the monocle.

Jesus fucking christ flights to England are expensive (more than I paid to go to Australia). If anyone sees a sale, please let me know, since Patty and I are going in April and I'm returning again in July (for which I wish there was some sort of grant to apply for -- actually, I found several, but the timing is ALL WRONG). Also, absurdly, the cheapest flights seem to route through Zurich, which is a long fucking detour (9 fucking hours going E-to-W after the hop from England) I don't need.

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

God. What a dreadful experience for K. And no, so not her fault.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Grief. I have no words; and if I did, they'd probably be unprintable. I gathered that this had taken place - I hadn't appreciated it was actually a barkeep, someone who is supposed to have some form of duty of care towards the customer, who had been the attempted perpetrator.

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Ding-Dong Lounge is the only place in the city where I have ever gotten a "suspicious" drink. This was years ago, and probably predated the tenure of this particular bar-keep, but ... yeah. Bad ju-ju. While I doubt there's much the cops could or would do about this scenario (just ... fill in this space with incoherent snarling), it might be worth calling the proprietor and politely suggesting he rethink his hiring practices.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

That's such a horrendous thing. Not her fault in any way or form. What gets me is that this guy can't be charged with anything other than being "inappropriate". Never mind that he violated someone's space, ruined a place that used to be fun for her and continued to objectify her by apologising to her partner! God, I don't have enough words.

I saw story on the Iran protest movement and I thought it was one of the best things I'd ever seen.
It's probably one of the better subversion tactics I've seen; "you think feminising someone is humiliating? Fuck You!"
It's amazing.

[amore-di-libri.livejournal.com]

That is really freaking scary and I never want to be in a bar or any area within any kind of radius of that bartender.

Also, I'm sorry but is it very bitter of me that while I was reading the articles on the men wearing hijabs in support of a man, all I could think was "Well, where were you guys when WOMEN and GIRLS were being humiliated and robbed of their dignity/freedom/choice by being made to wear compulsory hijabs"? Just because it's traditional doesn't make it any less of an oppression.

I mean, the professor at Columbia acknowledged this at the end of the CNN article, but I'm wondering how many of the other men who are engaging in this form of protest feel the same way.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

To your second paragraph - word. That's all I could think, too, and I was pleased that at the end of the CNN article the professor point it out with something akin to remorse. Unfortunately, I suspect most men are not seeing it from that perspective, though perhaps the implications of it will grow.

It reminds me of how a lot of male-directed homophobia emerges from the idea that being female is worth less - same overall concept, different angle.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

That's horrifying. I posted some support over at kalichan's lj. I sincerely hope that she takes this up with management - this guy does not deserve to be a bartender.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

O.O

WTF?!?! I've got nothing else in my brain now about that entire incident except that. Holy freaking...I'm SPEECHLESS.

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

OMG.

What everyone has been saying,

And also: "and they make fun of women for going to the restroom in pairs". Not that one expects to be assaulted in the loo, but--we still obviously need that safety in numbers thing when we least expect it. (spits in disgust)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I don't get to NY bars very often (being pretty happy out here on Long Island and all), but that's one place that is off my list

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Could you link? I'd like to RT it.

[humascot97.livejournal.com]

If possible, you may also want to post the information about Ding Dong on newyorkers.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'll wait for Kali to say that I can (I believe she also is planning to make another post about the whole thing). It may also be better for someone else to make that post, as I'm not well-liked over there by a couple of grudgy trolls, and I would hate for Internet oddness to takeaway from the obvious FYI factor.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

It felt awkward commenting on her journal with this since we don't know each other, so I'll comment here. After my experience last time I was in NYC, I'm even more pissed off than I would be under normal circumstances -- in other words, this has hit the 11 on my amp.

If I can do anything to help spread the word, please let me know.

Bartender deserves to be horsewhipped.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I mean, she's okay for values of okay. But she has a lot of other stressors right now making this extra unfun. It was also our writing bar for one more level of how pissed off are we.

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

I'm about ready to nuke this year from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Not before I take a hit out on it. :O)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Oy vey re: flights to UK. One rec: on Twitter, @airfarewatchdog will tell its followers when the airfare sales are. (Not always helpful, but if there are UK airfare sales, they'll let you know.)

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

That's...a good reason to tell a couple of friends. Ones with evil minds. Oh, I'd tell. I'd tell anyone who'd listen. JEEEEEZ.

No, not completely stupid. Get the tickets.

And did I ever mention that the Beatles were directly responsible for the development of the CAT scanner? They were - go win a bar bet with that. That's what I think of when I hear that song. ^^

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

If it helps any, if you can get cheaper flights out of DC airports (Dulles, BWI, or National) y'all are welcome to crash with us here at Chez Whitby. Any of the abovementioned airports are about 45 min. away (depending upon traffic) and it's not a problem to get you to one.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And we'll look into it. It's a good thought.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

What a horrible experience for your friend-- way to go for outing the bar and the name of the bartender. Word needs to spread about what the man did, it needs to be made public for the guy will try this again with another woman (if he hasn't already).

Has anyone thought for forward her post to the establishment?

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is coincidence, but I tried to log onto their website and their site is down. Wonder if anyone else had the forethought to contact them about this.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think they probably just forgot to renew the domain. She's deciding what to do next.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. I do believe this is something she should be deciding.

[fragiletender.livejournal.com]

One of the airlines flies Bristol to New York direct now, can't remember which one though.

[austengirl.livejournal.com]

There are no words for what happened to your friend. The douchebag needs to be fired, pronto.

I was looking at UK-US flights on Sunday for July and dear god they are steep. I'm kind of surprised the NY-Lon fares aren't better, I always assume they're better cause it's generally cheaper to fly transatlantically from there than any other British city.

STA travel did have slightly cheaper fares than expedia or travelocity, so they might be worth a look. If it ends up being significantly cheaper for you to connect through another European airport, my recommendation is Amsterdam Schiphol, it is the easiest to navigate of the ones I've been to. I will certainly keep my eyes open for any fare sales.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

*nods* When I had a NY - Schiphol - Newcastle itinerary, Schiphol was quite the civilized airport to fly through.

I wonder if it's the phenomenon of nonstops to lesser-known airports that's throwing things out of whack? I was surprised to spot on my return flight from Chicago TARDIS that, while I'd been able to book JFK-ORD, my return leg was ORD-LGA, and there *were* no ORD-JFK flights that night (Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, admittedly).

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they're not priced so high because they're expecting crude to pop back up to $150 BBL in the summer, rather than the relatively low $70 or so they are now. When I was working in Zurich, it was about $500 - $700 r/t from JFK to ZRH in the summer.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I am so happy to know that it's not just me who's gobsmacked at the price of flying to UK from the US. It doesn't help that I'd need to fly from the middle of the country first.

[rm.livejournal.com]

When I went to Ireland in 1995 (which granted, really was a long time ago now) it as $400 RT

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I just looked up a price from St. Louis to London, and it was $721 round trip, taxes and fees included.

[austengirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely used to be able to go roundtrip between the east coast and the UK for around $300. This was late 90's/early 2000's. Looking at flights now to Boston (and there are no direct flights from Manchester, so we'll have to connect somewhere) it's £575 and up.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

That's about what it used to cost me r/t from JFK when I was seeing someone in Peterborough.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Have you tried KLM? Partnered with Delta, routes through Amsterdam

Flights

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

Transatlantic (and other long-haul) flights to London are pretty expensive at the best of times. Flights from the US to other European cities can be considerably cheaper. The trick is to look for flights into Britain from those cities on British 'budget' airlines. Easyjet are pretty good, but do not under any circumstances ever go with Ryanair.

The disadvantage can be getting from the long-haul flight to the short-haul airport.

Another possibility would be to look for flights to other cities in England. Again there's the problem of getting to London from there, but the same budget airlines run services within the UK. That said, Birmingham International has a mainline rail station, from which you can get an express train direct to London. Book the ticket in advance, though, for maximum cheapness.

Re: Flights

[austengirl.livejournal.com]

The baggage allowances on the budget airlines tend to be a lot more restrictive than the transatlantic ones, which can nullify any savings you've made if you have to pay a small fortune for having an extra suitcase or baggage over their weight limit. It annoys me to no end that Easyjet and Ryanair charge for checked baggage now and that some US airlines seem to be following suit on domestic flights.

Manchester airport has a train station with direct trains to several cities and very frequent connections to Manchester Piccadilly station where you can get a train to pretty much anywhere. It's about 40 minutes from us, so if you do need a place to crash, our spare room is very comfy. :)

Re: Flights

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

Argh, yes, you're right, sorry, I should have thought of the baggage issue.

[(Anonymous)]

It's because the UK government upped the tax on flights, and then is upping it again, in some cases and routes by 86-120%

you could try flying into Paris and taking the Eurostar into London. that might be cheaper