Reading Roundup for September 2018

“Louis C.K. Has Clearly Learned Nothing — and I’m Done” by Maureen Ryan for The Hollywood Reporter: “If you want to defend an unrepentant man who didn’t just make women feel unsafe but who has proved that he’s learned nothing over the past 10 months, if you want to prioritize the ability of a rich man to do comedy over the safety of every human being in his path, do you. But you are not helping.”

“Why “women + nonbinary” is not a good idea” by Bogi Takác for Bogi Reads the World: “I have noticed a trend where more and more venues change their phrasing to “women + nonbinary” only to then revert back to “women only” after a period of time. This can be very difficult for nonbinary authors they published in the meanwhile who are not women. (Including, occasionally, me.)”

“This Gorgeous Portrait Series Celebrates Older Trans And Gender-Nonconforming People” by Sarah Karlan for Buzzfeed: ““Prior to starting this project, I heard from several younger trans people that they had never seen images of older transgender people and that they had no roadmap for what their life might look like going forward,” she said. “I wanted to create this project for them, as well as to record and validate the experiences of older transgender people, many of whom are directly responsible for the world we live in today.””

“Serena Williams and the Game That Can’t Be Won (Yet)” by Rebecca Traister for The Cut: “Women have so much to point fingers about, so many reasons to speak in aggressive tones. In her press conference, Williams mentioned Alizé Cornet, who was hit with a code violation at the Open last week for having briefly taken her shirt off, to turn it back to front, on court, something that men do regularly. Williams did not mention how the catsuit she wore to the French Open — which she had described as both “Wakanda inspired” and a tribute to “all the moms out there who had a tough pregnancy and had to come back and try to be fierce,” and which also had medical functionality, since she has been plagued by blood clots since her 2011 pulmonary embolism — had prompted the French Open to alter its dress code, banning any similar dress in future.”

“Was She J.D. Salinger’s Predator or His Prey?” by Joyce Maynard for New York Times: “My crime — which earned me the dubious distinction of being, in the opinion of one prominent critic, the author of possibly “the worst book ever written” — lay in my decision, after 25 years of silence, to write a memoir in which I told the story of my relationship with a powerful older man.”

“Meet the table busser who’s worked at the same Wilmette pancake house for 54 years” by Christopher Borrelli for Chicago Tribune: “He was 72 now. He had never left, never graduated to serving tables, never became a manager or a chef — he says he never asked to do anything else. So, he had stayed a busboy, for 54 years. The title had evolved since 1964; he was now a “busser.” But he still wore the kind of throwback paper hat that a busser wore in 1964. He made whipped butter, and squeezed the oranges for OJ, but mostly, he still bussed plates and glasses, tidied up the same dark wooden booths, passed the same windows inlaid with the same stained-glass foliage, noted the same line of customers snaking out of the front doors, received waves and hugs (and sometimes Bulls tickets) from the same regulars. He had seen generations of customers and co-workers pass through; he’d been there so long he watched Bill Murray go from neighborhood kid to superstar to venerated elder. When he squinted, the same teenagers were still curled into the same booths, the same infants tossed crayons under the same tables, the same captains of industry put away the same post-workout pancake stacks.”

“Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong” by Michael Hobbes for Highline: “This is Corissa Enneking at her lightest: She wakes up, showers and smokes a cigarette to keep her appetite down. She drives to her job at a furniture store, she stands in four-inch heels all day, she eats a cup of yogurt alone in her car on her lunch break. After work, lightheaded, her feet throbbing, she counts out three Ritz crackers, eats them at her kitchen counter and writes down the calories in her food journal.”