sundries

[rm]

Constance McMillen's school cancelled the prom because she wanted to wear a tux and bring a female date. She sued and the court agreed her civil rights had been violated, but the school was under no obligation to reinstate the prom. Various celebs offered to pay for a prom, offered to have McMillen and her date fly out to some cool party somewhere, but she just wanted to go to her high school prom. A group of parents got together and decided to hold a prom. Word was, McMillen wouldn't be invited. Then, at the last moment, the AP reported that she would be.

Happy ending?

Wrong.

Turns out McMillen and some other students deemed undesirable (including at least two with learning disabilities) were sent to a fake prom that fewer than ten people attended while the real prom went on somewhere else.

Graveyard of the Automat Machines. I remember going to the automat in midtown with my parents in the 1970s.

Marketing and organ donation.

Scrabble should be hard. Fuck these new rules.

I've been reading a lot about coal mining death statistics over the last 100 years today, and now have a sudden urge to do a story involving coal mines set right after WWII. I don't know what it's about, or any of the characters, or, you know, ANYTHING, but such is my brain.

Comments

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

I read about Constance McMillen's fake prom yesterday, and I'm still reeling.

What the everloving HELL, parents? I mean, really? REALLY? It's just unfathomable to me.

On the plus side, McMillen does seem to be handling all this shit with grace and gumption, and she's a babe (er, which isn't relevant, is it? But she is), and she's obviously had masses of positive input and support now from the world beyond this tiny, parochial, hateful little home of hers, so I'm hoping that on a purely personal level there will be as much of a silver lining as there is cloud. But - my God. What vicious, shitty, Carrie-level cruelty.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Of course it's relevant that she's a babe - what is she, 17? Given everything else that's happening, I'm sure she'd appreciate being publicly thought of as an International Sex Symbol, as well as a living embodiment of grace under pressure.

Anyway, by the age of 17 she has managed to freak all the adults in her home town into behaving like immature 12 year olds ("Suppose we tell her the sleepover's at Mary's - and then all go to Ann's!") and the entire internet knows it.

The world is her lobster - I only hope she realises this, sells her story for a million dollars, goes to an Ivy League school and comes back to her high school tenth reunion in her own helicopter.

[natf.livejournal.com]

*nods* This.

[sethg]

Obviously the whole point of high school is to serve as an arena where teenagers can play out adolescent power games and even act as proxies for the power games that their parents never outgrew. Perhaps you labor under the sad misimpression that the point of high school is to learn enough math, science, and English to qualify for more advanced education....