Handling Criticism: Decide Who Represents You

On September 25, Guido Barilla, part owner and chair of pasta maker the Barilla Group, appeared on Italian radio show La Zanara. In a discussion with the show’s hosts on using families headed by same-sex couples in adversiting, Barilla made a number of comments that revealed ignorance of and prejudice. (All quotes from Guido Barilla have been translated.)

For us, the ‘sacral family’ remains one of the company’s core values. Our family is a traditional family. If gays like our pasta and our advertisings, they will eat our pasta; if they don’t like that, they will eat someone else’s pasta. You can’t always please everyone not to displease anyone. I would not do a commercial with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect toward homosexuals – who have the right to do whatever they want without disturbing others – but because I don’t agree with them, and I think we want to talk to traditional families. The women are crucial in this.

He also took the opportunity to suggest that same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. Continue reading “Handling Criticism: Decide Who Represents You”

Handling Criticism: Decide Who Represents You
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St. Paul's Catholic Abuse Scandal Heating Up

They were, and are, pillars of the community. Saint Paul is a Catholic city, you see. Walk through the Catholic cemetery in the northern part of the city, and looking at the monuments is like looking at the street signs. So these men, these archbishops, were welcomed anywhere, feted, their opinions sought.

And they moved their child-raping priests around to new parishes and hushed up their crimes just like those other respected men in other cities. The only difference was that when earlier scandals broke, they assured us that they were following the proper procedures to make sure they didn’t happen here. Minnesota Public Radio just uncovered one of those former priests living “less than a block from a school”. Continue reading “St. Paul's Catholic Abuse Scandal Heating Up”

St. Paul's Catholic Abuse Scandal Heating Up

The Evolution of Sara Mayhew's Latest Lie

Once upon a time, that time being March of this year, Rebecca Watson participated in a panel discussion of Reddit at SXSW with Gawker’s Adrian Chen and Slate’s Farhad Manjoo. The panel is best known for Imgur founder Alan Schaaf’s apparent inability to understand that Q&A time is for questions, but it also garnered a certain amount of the standard Rebecca/woman-ha-opinion-a hatred. This time, it involved Wikipedia vandalism in addition to the standard Twitter mob.

Rebecca tweeted about the Wiki vandalism: “I point out bigotry on Reddit at SXSW. Redditors vandalize my wiki page, send me insults, and attack other women w a similar name. They mad”. Many responses called Rebecca a liar, denying that making a small (incorrect) change to a quote, like a small graffiti tag, constituted vandalism.

One person went a different route. Continue reading “The Evolution of Sara Mayhew's Latest Lie”

The Evolution of Sara Mayhew's Latest Lie

In One City Alone

The first reports out of the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan said that somewhere over 100 people had died. It was one of those statements that was obviously true but absurd to make with a storm this big. The problem was that the storm had also knocked out communications. Now that news reports are making it out, the picture is very ugly.

Haiyan raced across the eastern and central Philippines, inflicting serious damage to at least six of the archipelago’s more than 7,000 islands, with Leyte, neighboring Samar Island, and the northern part of Cebu appearing to take the hardest hits. It weakened as it crossed the South China Sea before approaching northern Vietnam, where it was forecast to hit land either late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

On Leyte, regional police chief Elmer Soria said the provincial governor had told him there were about 10,000 deaths there, primarily from drowning and collapsed buildings. Most of the deaths were in Tacloban, a city of about 200,000 that is the biggest on Leyte Island.

On Samar, Leo Dacaynos of the provincial disaster office said 300 people were confirmed dead in one town and another 2,000 were missing, while some towns have yet to be reached by rescuers. He pleaded for food and water and said power was out and there was no cellphone signal, making communication possible only by radio.

Reports from the other affected islands indicated dozens, perhaps hundreds more deaths.

The Foundation Beyond Belief has identified a relief organization already in place and with low overhead costs, Citizens Disaster Response Center. While the number of dead is mind-boggling, for every death there are hundreds without clean water, food, or shelter. If you can, donate here. All the money will go straight to Citizens Disaster Response Center.

In One City Alone

Saturday Storytime: Yuca and Dominoes

Some of my favorite fantasy stories don’t necessarily have anything supernatural in them. This is José Iriarte‘s first fiction sale.

Carmencita sways into Ana Teresa as they stagger down the sidewalk, shooting pain up and down Ana Teresa’s bad leg and nearly knocking her over. The sour stench of vomit wafts off of Carmencita. She says, a little too loudly, “You’re a good friend. I’m glad I’m stuck here with you.”

Ana Teresa is in no mood to listen. It’s Carmencita’s fault they’re walking through Miami’s Little Havana at two o’clock in the morning, drunk and underage.

“Thanks,” she says anyway. “We’re not stuck, though. Keep walking; we’ll make it. If we’re lucky, your parents and my grandparents won’t even find out.”

Carmencita shakes her head. “I don’t mean here. I mean, yes, here, but not here on Eighth Street. I mean all of it. We’re all stuck here. ¿Entiendes?”

“No, but that’s okay.” She doesn’t expect Carmencita to make sense right now anyway.

“We’re stuck at Casa Varadero. Nobody . . .” she trails off. Ana Teresa puts a hand on her friend’s arm to steady her. “Nobody ever leaves,” she finishes at last.

“I’ll leave.” Damn right she will leave. She has too many awful memories tied up with the ancient apartment building for her to stay. Two more years of high school and then she is done with Casa Varadero, done with Little Havana, done with Miami, even.

“No you won’t,” Carmencita says, her head shaking. “It’s a curse. Or something.”

Ana Teresa frowns. “Don’t be stupid. It’s an apartment building, not a jail. People leave all the time.”

“Yeah? Like who?”

Several darkened shops and businesses fall behind them while Ana Teresa tries to think of an example. She stares in the windows while she focuses. A bakery with a giant hand-lettered sign that says, “Pasteles de todos tipos.” A Spanish bookstore. A Domino’s Pizza.

“Hector,” she says at last.

Carmencita snorts. “Weekend neighbor. Doesn’t count.”

“Osvaldo and Cristina.”

“What are you talking about? They’re up on the third floor, right over you guys.”

“Now. But they used to live on the first floor, and then they moved away when Osvaldo got a job in Vermont.”

“Right, but they moved back when Cristina’s asthma flared up. Which means I’m right. You can leave, but you always end up back here.”

She shrugs. “Whatever.”

Carmencita drapes an arm around her. “Like I said, we’re stuck.”

Ana Teresa wrinkles her nose at another wave coming off of her companion. Tequila, garlic, and ropa vieja.

“I will leave,” she mutters. “Count on it.”

Keep reading.

Saturday Storytime: Yuca and Dominoes

The Invisible Lighthouse

Thomas Dolby is currently on tour, and if you have any fondness for the man or his music, you’ll want to see this show. For that matter, if you have any interest in independent film-making, you’ll want to see this show. I saw it last night, and I’m still trying to process what I saw. This is slightly inconvenient, as the review I wrote of it is already online.

Dolby has made a film about the Suffolk coast where he grew up and now lives again, about being surrounded by history, about memory and story and impermanence. Then he left the film unfinished, so he can narrate and play it to small audiences with the help of a world-class sound designer.

And that is only one part of the evening in store for you if you go. Don’t miss it.

The Invisible Lighthouse