dostoevsky

6 posts
Dostoevsky gets paid a pittance to run away from children who are trying to bite her. Sometimes she wishes she could chase after them and bite back.

The Easiest Recipe in the World

So it’s nearly Christmas, and you’ve just realized you didn’t get anything for  your annoying cousin Sally. If Sally is like most humans, she probably likes sweets– and these cookies are just the thing to get Sally to shut up. The entire process takes less than ten minutes from start to finish, and your recipients will be fooled into thinking you love them touched by the effort you put into their gift.

I don’t have anyone left to get gifts for, but after an overzealous almond bark-buying spree I did find myself needing to do something to get rid of my stockpile. My two choices were mint chocolate almond bark (which looks deceptively fancy) and almond bark cookies– I went with the almond bark cookies because they’re extremely messy, and if there’s one thing I love it’s making messes. Continue reading →

Crowdsourcing Christmas: Cheap Gift Edition

Tight budgets are no fun around Christmas time (or ever), but with some creativity you can find your way around them and give your friends and family something better than the cheapest thing you could find at Walgreens. My budget for Christmas gifts this year pretty much tops out at twenty bucks– and since that includes shipping to environs as far north as Wisconsin and Glasgow, we’re probably talking closer to ten bucks on materials. I love the idea of sending my friends and family an assortment of handmade treats, but the most complicated thing I can make are boxed brownies. With that in mind, I am turning to you culinary geniuses here at Crasstalk and asking you to post your quickest, easiest dessert recipe. I’ll get things started with my mint chocolate peppermint bark.

Continue reading →

All-American Muslim too Dangerous for Lowe’s, Toddlers and Tiaras Still OK

Lowe’s has apparently pulled its advertising from the only decent show on TLC, All American Muslim. According to The Hollywood Reporter, something called the Florida Family Association encouraged its followers to email the show’s advertisers, stating, “All-American Muslim is propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.” Luckily, TLC says that advertiser support for the show remains strong– I don’t know about you guys, but I think this is the only redeeming show on the network. Continue reading →

Autism Intervention Doesn’t Stop With the Kids

Emotions tend to run extremely high when talking about the autism spectrum disorders, and for good reason. Very little is concretely known about the cause of the disorder, and while there are modes of treatment that are empirically supported (such as ABA therapy), panic runs so high upon diagnosis, the long, hard slog of behavioral therapy is often forgone in favor of the miracle cure.

When I first began working in 2008, prevalence rates sat at 1:125; today they are closer to 1:91. For many parents, it feels like we’re in the middle of an unstoppable epidemic.

The field is tantamount to the Wild West– oversight is minimal, the types of licensure available are few (and the requirements and oversights as compared to, say, those for licensed professional counselors, are extremely lax), and evidence-based treatment is neglected in favor of fad ‘cures’ marketed to desperate parents. Continue reading →

OkStupid: Catch of the Week

Sadly, I have not received any messages as prolific and terrifying as the one featured in this post, but I have received two that show great promise in the field of competitive psychosis and all-around scuzziness.

Your mission, dear readers, is to help me determine who should win the prize for dirt ball of the week– and, if I’m feeling particularly masochistic, I will message the winner and report back with my findings.

First up, we have harmlessbadboy; his message was brief, and left me wanting more. Continue reading →

OkStupid: One Girl’s Descent into Dating Madness

Most messages received on OkCupid rarely go beyond the inane, but there are those that so violently violate the laws of space, time, and reason that the beg to be shared. These are their stories.

OkCupid is a scary place – you have to contend with hipsters, sad old men, and people you suspect are suffering from a thought disorder. It’s this last group that usually sends the most hilarious (and often terrifying) messages to my inbox. Continue reading →