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Open Thread: Sir Elton Edition

Well, it’s Wednesday night, which means you’re closer to Friday than you are to Monday! I don’t know about everyone else, but it’s been a rainy dismal day on the East Coast, and I’m ready to kiss this day goodbye.I’m actually setting up this post early because I’ll be out tonight seeing ELTON JOHN! With my mom. My dad was supposed to go, but he had to go to some business meeting to do businessy things. So looks like everything’s coming up Hattie! I’m really excited because I love Sir Elton and his crazy style, his bitchy attitude, and his adorable little baby with longtime love David.

In light of that, let’s jam out to a young Sir Elton and get our chat on. I’ll let you guys know how it goes. Even though I know it will be awesome.

70 replies on “Open Thread: Sir Elton Edition”

In light of Persephone’s amazing profiles on amazing women, I’d like to take the opportunity to share one of my personal heroes. She’s a folk treasure from my neck of the woods, and I’m honestly appalled at how little known she is among us so-called locals!

I remember very distinctly in 5th grade, there was a new school being built on the other side of town. They held an open competition for naming it. So I sat down and typed out my 1 page argument on why the school should be called Cotten Elementary (has a nice ring, I think!) They ended up naming it after someone else, but since then, it’s sort of been a personal crusade to have Libba Cotten honored in our town in one form or another!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3n0qj_elizabeth-cotten_music

Who are the lesser known heroes you like to promote?

A few random thoughts…

It’s 14h30 on Thursday and I’m writing this at my desk at work. I have to finish a crappy technical document that I should’ve handed in ages ago except that I procrastinated horribly. Now I have to finish it today.

Friday cannot come too soon. Apart from a few errands on Saturday morning, I plan to spend the weekend hunkered down with my cats, books and stacks of video files on my computer.

Also, it’s kind of hot today in Cape Town (28C) so I hope tomorrow will be cooler. I shouldn’t complain though. The past few months we’ve suffered through a heat wave of note and that seems to have passed now.

Woo, DIY wedding. The Mr. and I finished hand making our save the dates this evening (we did about 50 tonight and 50 last weekend) and I’ve addressed nearly 50 envelopes and added the website URL on the ones for people who don’t have email addresses. My hand is knarled and claw-like. I think I shall soak in the tub.

What thesis? Pfft, grad school.

I had planned to wait till the summer, after my last semester is over, to start, but then my partner and everyone else kept talking about how GREAT 11/11/11 would be. And I caved. Chances are I probably would’ve distracted myself with it anyway.

Good luck with your thesis! You are probably going with the much more low-stress plan.

Okay, ladies. I need help! (Or a gentle nudge in the appropriate direction.)

I worked, for several years, for a popular chain cafe, as a baker. I was the only female on the on baking staff, and my direct boss was very fond of coming on to the younger female front of house workers, and on occasion, myself. Overall, he’s just a horrible, awful, misogynistic, evil, ignorant man. But, for some reason, the company keeps him on.

His supervisors are aware of the problems he creates and I was told many times there was nothing they could do about him. At one point, he blamed ME when two co-workers got into a fight, and one threatened the other with a gun.

Many long stories short, I no longer work for the company, but my mother does, and she is as determined as I was to take him down. This past week, he flat out refused to do part of his job, and had a verbal argument with her.

My question is this: How does she get this bastard fired? She’s talked to both of his superiors, and they say they care, but there’s no record keeping and nothing ever happens. Is it time to talk to HR? How does one talk to HR with out sounding whiny? How do we get this man who is HORRIBLE at his job fired?

(And I’m sorry if this is the wrong place for this. I checked the work category and didn’t find anything that really pertained to this, and was hoping maybe some of you have had similar problems.)

It sounds like it is time to talk to HR. His supervisors should have passed along your complaints long ago, if only to cover their own asses. The way to do it without sounding whiny is to plan ahead. They will want dates, lots of dates, for everything. Make a list of the issues you have had, remember as many details as you can, and have specific dates for specific incidents. You may also want to have a list of complaints you have made to his supervisors (with dates, of course) to show that you haven’t just suddenly decided to make a fuss about this out of the blue.

And don’t go in demanding that he be fired. Lay out your problems as a concerned employee. There’s a good chance he won’t be fired if this is the first time HR has heard complaints about him. The best you may be able to do is lay the groundwork so when other people complain about him, there will be a record that it has happened before.

That’s what I remember about talking to HR.

I have sufficiently wasted my day off watching a marathon of Gilmore Girls, coloring in a Disney coloring book and eating one too many mini cheese burgers made on the George Forman grill. Oh and I painted my nails neon green in preparation for tomorrow. Did anyone else waste their day today too?

So this is well-timed. I work at a quiet study library (no cell phones, no eating, discussions in the group study room only) and I was just walking around, picking up stray books, etc and a woman stops me and asks, “Is it always this quiet in here?” And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s a quiet study library, we discourage talking.” “Oh good! It’s always so loud at [her home collage]. People talking on their phones — [i]multilingual[/i]. And eating, chatting, it’s so hard to study.” I was just like, “Huh.” and moved on. So not exactly the UCLA girl, but what was with throwing that conspiratorial “multilingual” in there?

A year’s supply of ice cream. A drawing of anything they want by the most talented kid in school. A special merit badge. A dancing animal gif. Season tickets to their local hockey team. Pictures of Persephone editors wearing masks and photoshopped onto the Eiffel Tower. A new set of pajamas.

I don’t know. These are the first things that came to mind.

What are you ladies reading tonight? (Because I’m sure there are also those of you who are home alone with books…) I just started Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Tales, I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to go without reading them yet. They’re lovely but also a bit like being punched in the gut.

Hey, I have a question about Terry Pratchett! I asked it the other day in an open thread but didn’t get any replies… Maybe you (or any other Pratchett fans) can help: I’m thinking of getting my (16-year-old) goddaughter a couple of Discworld books, since she has expressed a preference for long series and prolific writers. Should I start with The Colour of Magic and suggest she reads the books in the order in which they were written? Wikipedia tells me there are several storylines within the Discworld universe… What is a good place to start?

This is such a hard question for a Pratchett fan. His first few books are not his best. The funny is there, but the pacing is odd. If you think she will bull through I’d say start at the beginning, because that’s how I roll. If you think she might not care so much about starting at the very beginning then I’d say start with either “Wyrd Sisters” or “Guards Guards.”

I would recommend the “Witches” storyline, especially for a girl, or the Night Watch storyline, which is my personal favorite! The Death books are also good. That kind of makes it more manageable, and they still mostly go in chronological order–you can follow each “line” on the link pileofmonkeys posted, too.

I agree with SaraB that the first few books are not as good as the later ones. Also, I’m not a Rincewind fan and the first two are about him. However, many other Pterry fans love Rincewind so, take my advice with a pinch of salt.

The third book – Equal Rites – introduces the witches but is also a standalone book, featuring Eskarina Smith, the first girl to be admitted to the Unseen University. The fourth book – Mort – is excellent. I’ve read it at least three times. Your goddaughter could start with either of these, though I confess that Mort is one of my favourites of the whole series.

I am re-reading Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake because I’m thinking of using it for a paper. I read it for the first time five years ago, but on a second reading it feels like a completely different book – I don’t know if it’s because I’m older or because I’ve read most of her books in these five years…

I agree, especially fantasy novels that really aren’t that great. :) I keep meaning to do that with a lot of the series I loved as a kid, although sometimes it is a rude surprise (Anne McCaffery did NOT appeal to my 25 year old self as much as my 12 year old self, for example.)

Hello Persepho-pals, I just want to remind those interested in the basketball Bracket Challenge mentioned on Monday to SIGN UP BEFORE NOON EST TOMORROW. The link is here: http://pmbc-rules.mayhem.cbssports.com/e and the password is aasaysdoit (Also, tart discovered the option for hiding your email after you sign up here: http://pmbc-rules.mayhem.cbssports.com/options-standalone/personal )

Remember, there is an EXCITING PRIZE for both the winner and inverted winner (ie the person who has the smallest number of points). We’ve got a good group going (any surprise, given that this is Persephone we’re talking about??) so I am way excited.

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