Avatar

One Spooky Bitch

@torballs / torballs.tumblr.com

Tori. 31. She/Her. Boston. Genuinely the worst.

I’m watching that documentary “Before Stonewall” about gay history pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.

So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.

Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

It appears that no one has made the connection between Dale Olson the publicity agent instrumental in the AIDS debate and Dale Olson the 22-year-old first openly gay man on TV. So I thought I’d make it. For Pride month, an unsung gay hero.

RATING: RELIABLE

you can listen to the clip of the 1954 interview here and find him on wikipedia here

Kill yourself? No no, noble warrior. I said "kill those elves!" Those bastards have had it coming for far too long. Here, take this axe.

AXE OF FROST added to your inventory.

Good luck out there.

QUEST STARTED: I Guess They Have It Coming

What!? Those brutish dwarves would have you slaughter us wholesale? They've got another thing coming. Thank you for speaking with us instead of choosing violence. Now...

BOW OF THORNS added to your inventory.

Go give them what they deserve.

QUEST UPDATE: I Guess They've Got Another Thing Coming

Psst, hey. You want the real source of the elven/dwarven conflict? I hear the goblins are orchestrating the whole thing. Here's their location... And a little someone extra.

Map updated.

DAGGER OF SHADOWS added to your inventory.

They'll never see you coming.

QUEST UPDATE: I Guess They'll Never See You Coming

Hey, warrior. You didn't think you could just waltz into the goblin chieftess' tent and not be noticed, did you? Especially when I know you were coming. Speaking of... Wanna fuck? You can think on it. I know you've got a lot on your mind.

GOBLIN CHIEFTESS PHONE NUMBER added to your inventory.

You'll be cumming all night, I promise.

QUEST UPDATE: I Guess I'll Be Cumming Tonight.

COMPLETE: I Guess I'll Be Cumming Tonight.

REWARDS: 220,000 GP, GOBLIN WIFE, ENCHANTED WEAPON (x3), 1,013 EXP

Do not attempt to out-malicious-compliance the staff at the malicious compliance conference.

Some dipshit decided to pay the conference fee ($250) in quarters. He handed us a wrapped plastic bag full of loose change. "It's all there," he said with a shit-eating grin, "you can count it."

Oh buddy. We're going to count it. What were you expecting?

At about the time I got to $60, he offered to give us $300 collateral so he could get his badge and go to the conference.

No, bud. You get to watch the most dyscalculic staffer count to a thousand while all your friends go in to the breakfast and find seats for the first talk.

"Ruining someone's day" is the favorite hobby of everyone here. Why would you hand us the perfect opportunity to wreck your shit and think that was an own? Half the con is calling him "Untraceable," the other half is calling him "Quarter Boy" and nobody cares what he says his handle is.

I spent an hour counting that and made him go fetch me baggies to hold it every fifty dollars.

This ended up being a good bonus prank for me too, because when the counting was done I wrapped the bags in gaffer's tape and spent the rest of the day handing it to people very casually while saying "oh here, hold this for a sec" and then watching they weren't ready for the weight (I only did this to people I know well enough to know this wouldn't hurt them).

It's an infosec conference, so it's a weekend in a hotel full of people whose favorite thing is breaking the law and whose second favorite thing is following the letter of the law while cheerfully violating the spirit.

Thank you, that means a lot coming from you, @unyanizedcatboys

two very good fictional relationship dynamics:

1. i would find you and love you in every universe. our love is inevitable and transcends reality as we understand it

2. this is the only universe where the dominos fell exactly right so that we could fall in love. we have something unique and we have overcome so much to get here

Avatar
Avatar

my second grade teacher tried to gently break the news to my mom that I couldn't read at a parent-teacher conference lol. she's all like "I know this is hard to hear but she's very behind I'm sorry" mom comes home and is like NIA! EXPLAIN THIS!! I'm like mooooooom those baby books at school are so bo-RING! 😂

image description: a tweet from  ر ت  ت  ت   (@ raniawrites), timestamped 7:38 AM on 19 Feb 23

many years ago, I had a meeting with my God son’s teacher, she was worried about his speech development bc according to her “he NEVER speaks”, I asked him - “Gabo, what’s going on?” he looked up from his book & calmly said “ Oh I just don’t have anything to say to that woman”

I had the exact same thing happen when I was a kid; my kindergarten teacher swore up and down that I was completely illiterate, cause I'd take the baby books in the classroom, flip through them, then never touch any of them again. My parents kept informing her that no, seriously, the kid can read, the kid is reading full chapter books on their own, of course they don't give a shit about See Spot Run

Teacher continued to insist they were wrong and in denial about their kid being illiterate. She throws such a shit fit over the matter that the principal has to get involved, and I am brought to his office for a specific literacy test in front of him, my teacher, and a parent. they expected my mother to show up, on account of it being 2004. Mom has a full time job doing something sciency at the pulp mill, and no time for this nonsense. Dad runs a small construction company, and absolutely has time for this nonsense. We're off to a good start already.

Teacher is very smug about this, fully expecting me to once again prove my complete dumbassery. My daycare was attached to the school, and that's allowed me to build a reputation in advance. I'm that one kid that slammed their own head into a windowsill for unclear reasons, then failed to understand why adults were concerned about the blood pouring down my face. I've accidentally wounded myself so many times that my incident folder needed to be expanded. There is significant evidence for me being a dumbass of epic proportions.

Unfortunately for my teacher, I'm also a dumbass who can read.

I am handed a book. It is a picture book about an elephant. I refuse the book, because I find it boring and patronizing. I have no idea what we're all doing here, and nobody has made any real effort to explain the situation to me. The teacher looks triumphant. The principal winces.

Dad persuades me to just read the dumb book out loud. I begrudgingly comply.

I tear through the entire thing in about a minute, then throw it aside in disgust.

Dad was prepared for this moment. He is here to produce maximum chaos. The principal and teacher are still trying to understand what the fuck just happened, when Dad produces a different book and hands it me. He suggests I read a chapter of that to everyone.

I take the book, and happily begin reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The principal is giving the teacher an unimpressed Look. The teacher is torn between wanting to strangle me, and wanting to strangle my dad. My dad is 6'3, which means neither option is very appealing. Neither staff member was emotionally prepared for a five year old to break out a novel. Dad has been arguing about this for weeks now. He is enjoying the vindication. He helpfully informs the principal that I've already finished the first two books, and am eagerly awaiting my older sibling being done with book three so I can start reading it.

The principal, now looking very tired, suggests that maybe I should go back to class now.

The teacher hates me with a passion and vengeance for the rest of the year. I am an autistic five year old, and therefor completely oblivious to it. I remain unaware of this entire story until my parents explain it to me as a teenager.

Avatar

posting this on twitter will get you put into witness protection

The magic of childhood is that you were constantly encountering new things. The best way to feel that way again is to fill your life with new experiences.

Hey students, here’s a pro tip: do not write an email to your prof while you’re seriously sick.

Signed, a person who somehow came up with “dear hello, I am sick and not sure if I’ll be alive to come tomorrow and I’m sorry, best slutantions, [name]”.

Avatar

I mean, if someone wrote that to me, I’d probably believe they were sick.

“Slutantions” has me crying laughing

i once emailed my professor with a migraine. a mistake.

“I amsick will not to choir because i have a heache. i Hope its very and i am so sorry

love,

blue”

the subject line was “OW”

Avatar

THE SUBJECT LINE IS THE BEST PART JSJFJSJDJS JUST IMAGINE GETTING AN EMAIL WITH NO CONTEXT OTHER THAN “OW”

As someone who has taught college, please send those emails because 1) We WILL believe that; no one would write that on purpose and 2) we need a laugh sometimes.

On the other side of this, once after getting taken to the ER by ambulance, I got an email from the professor whose class I’d passed out in, and the message had no text, just the subject line “you good?”

Reblogging for the last addition

Claritin makes me weird, but I have allergies so there’s about a month and a half block of time where I’m taking Claritin and am just weird most of the time.

Anyway, my last year of college, I got the flu or something in late March and was also taking Mucinex. I told my professor I couldn’t come to class one day by email except I couldnt think of what to say, so my medicated ass decided to make a Fry meme. I think it said something like “Not sure if I can go to class with a head the size of Texas, bottom text.” I didn’t think until the next day that it probably wasn’t socially-acceptable to tell your philosophy professor you weren’t coming to class via Tumblr style memes. When i got back to class, i found that she’d printed it out and taped it to the classroom bulletin board.

Oh shit you guys i turned on my WinXP laptop that I used to use back then.

IT WAS ON THE DESKTOP. THIS IS WHAT I SENT.

It’s even worse than i remember it

Avatar

I laugh myself hoarse every time this post comes around, so here it is again.

Once emailed a professor from my hospital bed high on painkillers after a really bad car crash which my heart actually stopped the email “Dead cant class sory”

Man, how did you guys get all the good stories? When my work study coworkers hauled my lacerated-to-the-radius butt for a work-related injury, the nurse was just like, “I’ll sign you out of class,” while I walked in circles around the waiting area shouting, “I CAN’T MISS CLASS! I’LL MISS LEARNING THE FIFTH POINTS OF CALVINISM AND ARMINIANISM!”

It probably didn’t help she was signing me out of one of my favorite professor’s classes.

You know, it occurs to me that the known internet phenomenon of Reddit “am I the asshole?” posts having completely misleading headers is actually a really great example of a far less known but far more common practice of extreme journalistic spin in cases where there are large monetary incentives to diminish the story in question.

Like, if you see a Reddit post titled “Am I the asshole for buying my wife a new dress?”, the post is pretty much always something totally deranged like: “I (48) really dislike the way my wife (20) dresses, because I think it’s too revealing and makes her look slutty, which was fine when we started dating five years ago, but it makes me feel like she’s going to cheat on me now that we’re married. I’ve politely asked her to get new clothes multiple times, and every time she refused because she said she liked her clothes, and didn’t want to waste money buying new ones. Yesterday I couldn’t take it anymore so I threw out a bunch of her old dresses and bought her a new one that was more modest looking. She started crying because one of the dresses I threw out had been left to her by her mom who died when she was a teen, but I couldn’t have known that it had sentimental value. She said that I should have asked, but obviously if I asked she’d have just told me not to throw out any of her clothes, including the ones that weren’t sentimental. Also, the more modest dress I bought was pretty expensive, and she never thanked me for it. Am I the asshole here, or is she being unreasonable?”

Similarly, whenever you see a headline like “Woman Wins Millions From McDonald’s Because Her Hot Coffee Was Too Hot”, if you dig a bit, you’ll almost always quickly find out that what actually happened was: A 79-year-old ordered coffee which, unbeknownst to her, was being served extremely dangerously hot, because McDonald’s was trying to have coffee that stayed warm over a long commute without spending any extra money on cups with better insulation. The coffee spilled on the old woman’s lap, giving her severe third degree burns over a huge portion of her body, including her genitals. She got to a hospital and they managed to save her life with skin grafting, but she became disabled from the accident, and her genitals and thighs were permanently disfigured. She tried to settle with McDonald’s for her medical costs, and McDonald’s refused to cover any portion of her medical expenses at all, and so she sued. At trial, the jury discovered that this same exact thing had happened seven hundred times before, and McDonald’s had still decided not to change their policy because paying out individual suits was cheaper than moderately reducing their coffee profits. As a result, the jury awarded punitive damages designed to penalize McDonald’s two days worth of their coffee profits, in addition to the woman’s medical costs.

I think it’s largely the same phenomenon, but I know a lot of people who are familiar with the first case, but don’t know to look for the second. If you see some totally outrageous “how could a person ever sue over this stupid thing?” case, you should immediately be incredibly suspicious that that’s all that actually happened, because a lot of the time, it absolutely isn’t. The people who have the most incentive to make their opponent look not only wrong, but completely crazy for having any sort of grievance at all, are often the actually unreasonable ones. 

Anyway this is all to say that if I see ANY of y’all automatically siding with McDonald’s over the recent case where 4-year-old girl was severely burned by their chicken nuggets because “hurr durr dumb kid didn’t know that chicken nuggets were hot, people sue over anything lol”, I will grab that McBoot you’re licking and shove it all the way up your McFuckingAss.

Avatar

Supernatural is great because Eric kripke said I am going to make such a kripkean little tv show and Kim manners said I’m just gonna shoot moody small towns like the xfiles again and jensne ackles said dean winchester has tricked me, texan triple pisces male model jensen ackles into being here, so I am going to make this the problem of homosexual high schoolers, and jared padalecki went I’m in a jared padalecki commercial!