It’s been a rough few days, especially for those charged with caring for children. In the wake of the shooting in Newtown we talked to some members of our own community who have some insight on helping little ones cope with the stress of such awful news. Continue reading
When something as horrific as the mass murder of children in Connecticut happens, we look at Adam Lanza and his family, and we demand to know why this happened. What led to that day? Why didn’t anyone step in? What could have been done differently? I know the answer: nothing. And everything. And it doesn’t matter because it’s too late to stop what’s already happened. I know all this because my own brother is a murderer, too. Continue reading
(William brushing the dirt off? Lulz) Oh, sure she is. There’s got to be some way to inject some Americanism into the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a little monarch, right? There’s probably no better way than to submit that America’s little bundles of baby pseudo-monarchy are probably giving this whole Royal Baby nonsense the empirical side eye that it rightly deserves, yes? Yes. Continue reading
I got to thinking the other day about my own family’s military service. There’s quite a lot of it.
Then yesterday I read about Holly Petraeus’ long-time service to soldier’s families, and that she can trace military service in her own family back to the Revolution.
My brother, sister and a sister-in-law all joined the Canadian Armed Forces soon after finishing high school, although only briefly, as it turned, out for all three. Continue reading
Recently my friend Misty and I were having lunch and she mentioned that she’s looking for a new job. She told me her rather plain middle name and asked me if I thought she should use that on job applications. I told her I liked the name Misty but didn’t have a good answer about what would be most effective at landing a new job. Here’s an essay she wrote about living with her name.
I’m thinking about ditching my first name for job applications, and using my middle name instead. The other day I remembered that while I worked briefly at a restaurant back in 2006, the manager asked me if Misty was a nickname. He might have asked before writing out the first paycheck. When I said no, he replied that he thought it might have been my “dancing name.” His name is one of the most common- one that doesn’t register a blip on any snobbiness radar- yep, John. The Social Security website lists the most popular names by decade here. Continue reading
I’m sorry, Governor Romney. If Ted Danson, Tom Selleck, and Steve Guttenberg raising a daughter together is wrong I don’t want to be right. Continue reading
To say that my home life growing up was anything approaching normal would be a stretch, so it came as no surprise to anyone when I announced to my folks that I was joining the Marines.
I don’t recall exactly what was going through my head when I made the decision; I do remember that I was home alone again, my parents out of town on yet another halleluiah tour of the Baptist churches in the surrounding states. At some point they had stopped insisting I keep uprooting myself to come along with them on these things, and I simply stopped going. They would be out of town three weeks out of the month, leaving me to attend school, work at the local grocery store, and sleep. Continue reading
Right now Gawker has a post up about a 15-year-old Staten Island girl who committed suicide after essentially being slut-shamed by her high school football team. As is becoming the macabre norm, the young girl took to Twitter leaving hints of her state of mind before carrying out the act two days later. “I cant, im done, I give up,” she said. What is going on? And why does it seem like “bullying” has taken on a whole new genesis in the last two decades? Continue reading
Fucking Josh. Well, we all heard what other Romney son, Tagg, wanted to do to the president during Tuesday’s debate. Haha. Oh, Tagg. That is your real name isn’t it? It’s actually “Tagg” with double the “g?” Brilliant. You’re like an ABC Family Switched at Birth conundrum co-starring the Palins of the shit-silliest Alaskan branch of American idiots. So, er, yeah, Tagg, buddy. You wanted to take a swing at the sitting POTUS? That’s a lot of entitled ball swinging there. But sure. Hey, it’s a free country. You know, when the Secret Service are done sexing up ladies in South America, we’d also like them to pay you a visit to discuss the fun-filled history surrounding acts of treason. Oh, but your brother Josh? Wow, intense much? Continue reading
When I created Crasstalk.com on a whim one night late in 2010, I had no idea what it would become. All I knew was that we had an extended network of interesting people who all had a lot to say and wanted a new place to say it.
Ever since then, I’ve been continually amazed at just how important our authors, commenters and readers are to the growth of Crasstalk — and how important Crasstalk is to them.
Over the past year, The Grand Inquisitor, Dogs of War and I have spent a lot of time thinking about how we wanted to grow this amazing community. Our first goal was to put Crasstalk on a solid financial footing – those of you who donated to the site early made amazing contributions but that’s no way to run a website of this size. So we worked hard to drive enough revenue from advertising to support the site without detracting from the commenter experience. We’re certainly not getting rich anytime soon but we’re now earning enough revenue to keep the lights on and even have a little left over for development of new site features and new projects. Continue reading