In the decades following her death, Marilyn Monroe has been exalted as the human embodiment of bygone Hollywood glamour and unmatched sex appeal but recently, she has been given another accolade: the counterweight to our culture’s ever-thinner beauty ideal. The oft-invoked argument centers around the declaration that Monroe was a size 8/10/12/14 and if she were alive today, she would be considered overweight and probably, never would have been a star. (These claims are inherently problematic because women’s apparel sizing has varied considerably over the years, rendering numbers utterly useless as indications of proportion and because such conjectures are speculative and sensational in nature.) Continue reading
Daily Archives: February 10, 2012
12 posts
Here’s a million dollars. No, wait. I’m feeling extra generous: take two million. Continue reading
Happy Friday, Crasstalkers. Another week has passed, and you managed to get through it without ripping one another to shreds. Mostly. Join me for a stroll down Memory Lane after the jump.
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Remember when we said anyone who believes Mitt Romney gives a shit that you know he’s rich hasn’t been listening very closely? Yeah, well, not to be outdone, Rick Santorum has a message he’d like to share about his prescription for that little pesky thing called womanhood. Continue reading
Ke$ha sloshes onto the runway, her arms full of knockoff “designer” purses she bought from the trunk of a car parked outside of Parson’s. She brandishes these sweatshop creations and tells the sewtestants it’s time to pick a bag, any bag. Each designer picks a (cheap-looking) bag and inside, guess what! There’s a luggage tag with the name of a season on it.
Who got what? Austin and Kara will always have Spring, Michael and Jerell shiver in Winter. Kenley and Mondo sweat through Summer, and that leaves Mila and Rami with Autumn. Aww-tummmm, Ke$ha intones, sounding like one of those self-hypnosis tapes they used to sell at Waldenbooks. Turns out the two people in each “season” are competing against each other, so there will be a top 4 and a bottom 4. Are you even a little bit curiious about what happens next? If so, there’s more after the jump, but as always, there’s spoilers Continue reading
Matt Abinante – Wooden shoe tulip festival – 2009
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Twentieth century sports history is peppered with, “the first black person to…” stories. From Satchel Paige, to Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Polllard, to Jack Johnson, and of course all of the ladies mentioned this week. If you venture beyond black history, you’ll find dozens of more firsts and more waiting to happen.
These stories are heartwarming. They give hope to the kids training and dreaming on run down equipment. They are a source of optimism for the adults who continue to fight their own daily struggles. But these stories should also inspire reflection. Continue reading
Here at Crasstalk, we have some amazingly funny and insightful commenters and every week, the sharpest comments are rewarded with a COW. But Glinda’s designations aside, we all have a few comments that stick out in our minds as particularly stellar. Continue reading
It is no big secret teenagers tend to be nightmares. Tommy Jordan’s 15-year-old daughter Hannah is not an exception. Continue reading
Do you have an eccentric uncle who lives in a rural Arizona trailer park? Has he recently gone on a rant about hyper-inflation and the economic ideas of Glenn Beck? Did he just spend half an hour talking about how he put all of his life savings into some sort of exotic gold bullion recovered from an 18th century Spanish galleon?
If so, you should make him read this. It’s Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. This year’s letter included a shockingly simple explanation for why gold is a terrible investment. Continue reading