sundries

[rm]

Nine teenagers have been indicted on a range of charges including statutory rape, criminal harassment and violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury in the case of a girl who was systematically bullied until she hung herself. People -- students and teachers -- knew what was going on, and did nothing. If you see something, say something.

Snyder's of Hanover is planning to market some "gluten-free" pretzels that won't actually be certified as gluten-free because "it's too much trouble." That's okay, Snyder's of Hanover, because it's not too much trouble for me to tell the Internet that I will never buy another Snyder's of Hanover product, even one that naturally includes no gluten-containing ingredients, because you don't care if I'm in pain, if I can't work, or if I develop cancer or epilepsy! In an interview with an executive they were incredibly disrespectful about the disease and the needs of people with it. You might want to write them a note (info at the link) or be all Google-bomby like me! Snyder's of Hanover has issued an update about their gluten-free product launch, however, it's still deeply problematic and we're waiting on more information.

The silence of Maghen David: Only 30 Jewish people are left in Kolkata, which once held thousands.

The time-travelers have relented and CERN finally seems to be working.

In an attempt to pass a bill that would prevent officials in Oklahoma from enforcing the parts of the federal hate crimes law designed to protect LGBTQ, the state senate has somehow managed to pass a bill that actually stops officials from enforcing the parts of the federal law about race and religion instead.

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against a New York school district with the district now agreeing to protect LGBTQ students from harassment. This was the case where before the settlement was reached the DoJ actually filed a motion to intervene on the student's, who was being harassed due to perceived sexual orientation, behalf.

Finally, for the news portion of the day, Half of Americans would support a gay president. *peers at Torchwood West Wing/The American President AU again* Apparently, a gay quarterback in the Superbowl would be even more okay. I live in a world with queer superheroes, so I'm not sure I even really understand why we need polls like this. Who anyone fucks: not about you, unless it is you.

Angel watch - 1.11, 1.12, 1.13

- 1.11: "Sonambulist" Pretty good, although I feel like everything that happened happened too fast -- Kate accepting vampires, Kate not trusting Angel, Kate trusting Angel, blah blah blah.

- 1.12: "Expecting" Loved this. Now is there anything RTD didn't swipe from Angel for Torchwood? Okay, I realize "fucked up alien pregnancy episode" is as required as much as "random Nazi allegory episode", but still! Lots of fun, seriously ridiculous. Wesley manages to NOT fuck something up. Actually, I'm impressed here, and actually in each of these episodes, how tender Wesley is with scared people. It's sort of out of nowhere, but it's rather lovely because it doesn't seem smarmy or like he's trying to get something out of them by doing it.

- 1.13: "She" Hrrrrr. I liked it. I suspect a lot of people hated it. There was a lot going on here, most of it disturbing, but the level of clutter in the episode made it harder to focus in on the elements of the thing, which was a shame. I'd like to see these aliens (wait, are they aliens or demons? I find the Whoniverse makes me call everything aliens. Demons?) and their culture resurface later. I also feel like when I finally get to Dollhouse, I'm going to want to come back to this episode to look at Whedon's issues. Episode was like a cross between the terrible Gor books at the St:TNG "gay" episode. Thought the episode would have been slightly more effective if the "unmade" girl had been more present and obedient rather than quite to empty. *shrug*

General stuff:

- OMG, Wesley/Cordelia/Angel is so still my OT3 of the week. Show me the fic, people.

- Wesley's self-hatred is being played for laughs, but it's hitting me where I live. I don't identify with him, but I feel really, really bad for him.

- Hahahahaha, the dorktastic dancing!

- I find myself developing a fond curiosity about Los Angeles. And I swear I hate it -- I've been there three times, and I keep it away from me -- I'm there for a job or a con and I go to the In-and-Out burger and then I go home. It's a bad place, the enemy. I can't drive; I'm not attractive or successful there. It's a terrible, frightening, specter of failure place for me. But I see this show, and regret a little that I never quite gave it a go, that living in New York has meant I never had to.

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Do you want me to be your cheerleader for the Torchwood/West Wing/American President AU?

I will, 'cause I'm utterly self serving here and really want to read it!

I really liked Somnubalist, but I then I like religious symbolism that means absolutely nothing to me :)
She could have been awesome. Too much happening and clunky ending.

[iterum.livejournal.com]

That Oklahoma thing should be exploited to show it for what it really is -- "Hey, guys: it only takes a numerical typo to make a law like this say that Oklahoma doesn't care about violence against Christians. Is that really the sort of thing the state should be allowed to vote on?"

It's probably too much to hope that the error was introduced on purpose to create just this sort of "teachable moment."

Of course, on the general principle involved (states' voting to ignore federal laws), see this from today. It doesn't mention Oklahoma, but it does point out the not-so-fine tradition of using state sovereignty to undercut human rights.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

However, I'm reasonably sure that while they can vote to ignore it all they like, that doesn't mean the feds will actually let them. SCOTUS case law on this issue is pretty clear.

[zmayhem.livejournal.com]

Damn you, you're the first person who has ever made me want to go back and rewatch "She." (I'm one of the tiny handful of people who stuck with Dollhouse through the crappy beginning all the way to the messy, incoherent but deeply interesting end; it has a lot of fail and some major Fail, but it's a ridiculously interesting, worthwhile failure. And now your talk about "She" is making me say, hmmmmm.

(Plus, dorktastic dancing!)

[electricalgwen.livejournal.com]

*hand up* Another devoted Dollhouse watcher here. I didn't always agree with what they said, tried to say, or thought they were trying to say but probably actually said something else - but it was always, always good for thinking about.

[karnythia.livejournal.com]

I made the mistake of looking at the comments on CNN. I hate people. A lot.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

You and me both.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

One of the things I love about Wes is that he can be both genuinely caring and completely uncompromising and it's not contradictory, it's just brilliant characterisation. The self-loathing... heh, well. Whedon isn't really about fixing people in Angel. I adore Wesley's arc but lots of it I find very hard watching, and it's always those small, sad, personal spaces where it hits me, and actually the very fact you're talking about his kindness is breaking my heart, because that's so not what's going to come back to him.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

And Alexis Denisof just knocked my socks off in later seasons.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

E-mail fired off to Snyder's. I use to eat their pretzels. Really good ones, too. But no more.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Who anyone fucks: not about you, unless it is you.

YES THIS

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

SECONDED.

[marita-c.livejournal.com]

I think Angel's version of LA is a little like how the city looks like from an insider's POV.

Personally the place terrifies me. LA, the city and the experience, kind of looms in my future, and I have to make a conscious effort to treat it as something exciting, a challenge, ground I can concur (or have a lot of fun trying). Whenever I stop making the effort I revert back to more pessimistic (realistic?) thoughts, that I'm completely inadequate, that LA will squash me like a bug and I'll run back home crying (where everyone will mock me for ever deluding myself).

So yeah, I get how LA is the enemy, but at the same time, I think that very thought is probably the obstacle to making it there...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I have been bitter at Snyder's of Hanover since they discontinued their hot dog flavoured potato chips. Punks!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's so... Australian! You know they do "burger flavored" and "chicken flavored" chips, right? With Homer Simpson on the bag!

[stephl.livejournal.com]

Wesley has one of my favorite arcs in all of fiction, and Alexis Denisof handles it so beautifully.

Hahahahaha, the dorktastic dancing!

This redeems "She" for me.

"Sonambulist" Pretty good, although I feel like everything that happened happened too fast -- Kate accepting vampires, Kate not trusting Angel, Kate trusting Angel, blah blah blah.

My regret about this episode is that I would have loved to see vampire Penn around for more than one episode. I liked him a lot.

[laughingirl.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to go back and rewatch Somnambulist ever since Jeremy Renner got nominated for an Oscar. :)

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Now is there anything RTD didn't swipe from Angel for Torchwood?
No.

re: Somnabulist -Penn, btw, was up for an Academy Award this year, along with Sally Sparrow. Yay the SF ghetto!

Also, I hate Kate. RTD did her A LOT better in Gwen.

re: Dollhouse. It's definitely all of Whedon's issues front & center. It's just too bad it sucks.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate Kate? I find her inoffensive (and that's really the most offensive thing about her so far).

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Oh Oklahoma. The joke is that Texas doesn't float away and become an island because Oklahoma sucks so much.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I've got a pretty reliable digestion, and when I ate a moderate quantity of Hanover's pretzels with cheddar, I felt a little queasy-- enough that they aren't worth eating again even though they're very tasty. I wonder if there's something besides gluten they're not bothering to care about.

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

Those pretzels taste like "you know this is *not* good for you, now give me *mooooore*". It's worrying. I tried some from another company, which were not as bad, but tasted not as good. I'll have to try to make those at home one day. No shortage of pretzels in Bavaria...

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

That Snyder's thing reminds me of a lot of companies that market to vegans. "We don't care at all about honesty; we just want to make a buck by slapping a trendy label on something." Except gluten-free is probably worse, since it actually makes you physically ill instead of just, y'know, violating your deeply-felt personal ethics.

I'm not fond of LA, either. New York is the better deal--no need for a car, and more interesting, diverse cultural options.

Heh, I forgot Kate was ever on Angel. She was a cliche, and I don't think she ever fit that well into the overall tone of the show. Have you met Lilah yet? She's incredibly awesome.

I don't know how likely it is that Angel really sheds insight into Whedon's writing. I always think of David Greenwalt (and later Tim Minear) as having way more influence on that show, at least until Joss got more involved again in the final season.

Wesley is so, so awesome. I was never a huge Angel fan, but your discovery of Wesley is making me want to rewatch it just so I can see his arc again.

[cinnamonteal.livejournal.com]

As someone with severe seafood allergies, there are times when vegan is the food option less likely to give me a trip to the ER, but not always ... because you're right. "Vegan" and "gluten free" are labels people stick on without doing their research or bothering to stick to the rules.

For example, my workplace cafeteria (if you ASK them) lists fish sauce and worchestire sauce as ingredients in several of their "vegan" dishes. Because if you grind it up small enough fish ceases to become fish?

*sigh*

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

"Kind-of gluten free pretzels" sounds not only callous, but also brain-breakingly self-defeating. People who don't/can't eat gluten won't buy them because they can't be sure, people who do/can eat gluten won't buy them because there's likely to be compromises in taste and texture, and everyone is going to be a lot more pissed off by a bad attempt than by none at all.

What *have* those marketing folks been drinking?

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

*peers at Torchwood West Wing/The American President AU again*

That idea is so full of awesome that I momentarily lost my power of speech.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Have you missed my incredibly detailed nattering about this? I have an outline and everything.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of bitterly delighted at the Oklahoma thing, I wish they'd passed it into law. Here's hoping the hypocricy is a little more obvious now.

I lived in LA for ... a decade? A little more? It's one of the most 'alive' cities I know. It's a person, a being in her own right -- not a nice one, no, but there's no denying she's there. I lived in the apartment building where the 'Black Dahlia' lived before she was murdered, across from the peach tree of immortality. LA is that sort of place. In many ways, I wish I could still live there but the air and the slow attempts to destroy what made the city live got to me, finally.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear about charges in the bullying case. But did you notice - not one thing has been done to the adults who saw this and did nothing. Not by the school board, not by the local authorities. Perhaps the parents should consider bringing a civil suit against the school board, that might wake them up a bit.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

- Ex-boyfriend was living in Oklahoma when I rescued him by renting him a U-Haul. I read him that very article last night when it came up on The Advocate's Twitter feed. He was unsurprised.

- This is me, also eying your AU.

- Do you think CERN had to negotiate with the Time Agency? Because, you know, I hope so if only for the "wait, aren't you that guy from Torchwood?" moment in which pre-Jack is all "What? No." and then shags the whole research team.

- Fuck bullies, and fuck Snyder's of Hanover. I'll try to remember to spread the word and/or write them a nasty note. I mean, would they be so casual about peanuts? (Or hell, ARE they that casual about peanuts? Other contaminants?)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Do you think CERN had to negotiate with the Time Agency?

According to their Twitter, they did, hee.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

The Jews of Kolkata story is very sad.

Is it wrong of me to wish that someone would compile a cookbook?

[ljs-lj.livejournal.com]

The Snyder's of Hanover thing reminds me of last summer, when I thought I might be allergic to peanuts and was waiting to see an allergist. I went to the Hershey's and Nestle websites to see which chocolates generally didn't have peanut contamination, and the two companies were worlds apart: Nestle basically said "Most folks with food allergies are making it up", while Hershey's said "We recognize it's an issue, we are vigilant about marking our products when there's even the tiniest chance of contamination, all our products are well-labeled, we want your patronage!" Needless to say, I made a big post about it on my livejournal to get the word out about Nestle and have avoided their products since.

In-And-Out burgers are all right - much better than McDonald's or Burger King - but the best hamburgers from a franchise are from Burgerville, which is a Portland, Oregon-area chain. They use local products as much as possible and I've heard good things about how they treat their employees, too.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I knew Nestle was evil for other reasons (marketing of baby formula in countries without clean water, primarily) but I didn't know about this. I'll keep up my boycott!

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Heh. For me, as an Angeleno with loud, proud, messy and contradictory love for My City, Los Angeles is near unto another character in and of itself in Angel.

In fact, my fave ep ("Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been") is that precisely *because* it is so very very Angeleno. I know the locations they use for the series so well, and they tell me I am Home. That this is not some alien world, but is instead familiar and comforting.

Which, backed up against the demon underworld in this comfy place makes for interesting contradictions for me.

Wesley is full of self-hate. but you will see that it actually drives him to be the better man for it.

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

I now want to re-watch Angel.

Though it never made me want to go to LA. It seems the kind of city where one is never "there".

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

- 1.13: "She" - wow i can't even remeber that episode...
and RTD stole lots of things from joss whedon, and didn't do them as well :(

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

Another cheerleader for Torchwood/West Wing/American President AU here. It's probably just the image of Jack kissing the Prez that's hitting all my pervy buttons.