"In English, both senses of ‘gender’—the general meaning ‘type’ and the more specific grammatical distinction—coexisted happily for a long time. As late as the eighteenth century, ‘gender’ could still be used in an entirely sexless way. When the novelist Robert Bage wrote in 1784, ‘I also am a man of importance, a public man, Sir, of the patriotic gender,’ he meant nothing more than ‘type.’ …In the twentieth century, ‘gender’ became simply a euphemism for ‘sex,’ so if you find on some official form a request to fill in your ‘gender,’ you are unlikely nowadays to write ‘patriotic.’"
Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass
(Source: theskyeisthelimit)
(Source: puttingmannersonafeminist)
(Source: theamericankid)
"r
Of course, all of us should be honored to be listed on the TIME 100 alongside the two men who will be slugging it out in the fall: President Obama, and the man who would defeat him, David Koch. Give it up everybody. David Koch.
… Little known fact, David’s brother Charles Koch is actually even more influential. Charles pledged $40 million to defeat President Obama, David only $20 million. That’s kind of cheap, Dave. Sure, he’s all for buying the elections, but when the bill for democracy comes up, Dave’s always in the men’s room. I’m sorry, I must have left Wisconsin in my other coat.
I was particularly excited to meet David Koch earlier tonight because I have a Super PAC, Colbert Super PAC, and I am — thank you, thank you — and I am happy to announce Mr. Koch has pledged $5 million to my Super PAC. And the great thing is, thanks to federal election law, there’s no way for you to ever know whether that’s a joke.
By the way, if David Koch likes his waiter tonight, he will be your next congressman.
Craig Newmark is here someplace. Craig Newmark, there you are, Craig. Nice to see you again, my friend, founder of Craig’s List, recent TIME 100 honoree.
This year Craig’s List made the decision to no longer accept prostitution ads. It was the right thing to do, though, of course — no, give it up, it was the right thing to do. Though, of course, it was hard on the Secret Service.
They left with Secretary Clinton, right? Good. Okay.
… Interestingly enough, the Pulitzer Committee did not give out an award for fiction this year, which is surprising since both Rumsfeld and Cheney released their memoirs.
… But perhaps the most influential person on the list is here, Sara Blakely. The inventor of the Spanx. Give it up.
No one, no one has done more to control women’s bodies, except maybe Cardinal Dolan.
"From STEPHEN COLBERT’s Time 100 gala remarks.
Killed it.
(via inothernews)
There are those who have no time to do anything but toil; those who, by no design of theirs, must work to survive - and thus they feel the pain or pleasure of that work. Much of the men and women in texts are not such active laborers, and their stories are those of aristocrats languishing in ennui, or the bourgeois clambering for love and connections and success (of which they have little and will find little). This can illustrate a number of things about social stratification, but it can also illustrate this: that when people have the time for comfort and solitude they will still throw themselves into the tragedies of companionship, love, and hate - often repeatedly. People would rather be unhappy than feel nothing, and would rather be rejected than know no one.
(Source: blasphemies)
Frank O’Hara, Mayakovsky
Silent film title cards
The Yankee Clipper
A lonely Fitzgerald wrote this card to himself
"Avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavour, laziness will not do."
Dead Poets Society (via polinomial)
This reminds me: On the first day of my senior year of high school my European history teacher, Mrs. Young, turned to a boy sitting in the front row and declared “I LOVE YOU.” She is short, as old as my parents and positively motherly and the declaration was straight up weird. She then asked, “Which is means more? Saying that, or saying, I really really really love you!” ’very’ and ‘really’ aren’t just lazy, they don’t mean very much.
(Source: blankpagesandinvisibleink)
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