Grace Lavery / Joseph Lavery & Daniel M. Lavery / Mallory Ortberg - "Straight with extra steps" couple trooning out to avoid "dwindling into mere heterosexuality"

[Free the Pedos]

It’s really wild to see Mal, with all of her advantages in life, take a CNA role, which is usually for people from more hardscrabble backgrounds. I don’t think she knows what she’s in for.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

She thinks she's in training to be a candy striper.

The reality is going to hit her hard.

This is insane because it should be pretty easy for someone like Mal to go do some kind of real medical training program to make more money and do more good. You know who really does sit and have little chats and ask people if they can get them anything? Medical assistants. And it's very easy to become an MA. They sit and take histories and have little chats and make people feel comfortable before the doctor comes in. They're very important to the functioning of a clinic or hospital, and they make more than a CNA.

But we see this with lots of cows. They somehow don't go actually do the research necessary to match their goals with their available resources (both internal and external).

 

[Aunt Carol]

It’s really wild to see Mal, with all of her advantages in life, take a CNA role, which is usually for people from more hardscrabble backgrounds. I don’t think she knows what she’s in for.

There's going to be some culture shock, and I'm interested in seeing how it affects her. If she can get multiple thinkpieces out of cooking some meals, or owning a backpack, imagine what it could do to Mal's writing to spend 40 hours a week with actual humans. Especially the "classroom" phase of her training program; cheek-to-jowl with about a dozen other Adult Learners, hearing their family stories and observing their level of functional literacy.

Not to get optimistic but there's a chance this is a good step for her and her writing. If she can train her twee superficially-observational semi-humor to elderly slice-of-life and caregiving, there's a larger and less-critical audience for her. Chicken Soup sells better than Toast.

 

[Bookwork]

Meanwhile, down in the Chatner comments:

Tard Baby points to an actual adult motivator for employment. . .
Tard Baby confirms that manipulating others is in fact gratifying to her . . .

Normies join in telling Tard Baby about the realities of CNA work - just one example . . .

And on Twitter, she's always glad she dumped daddy, except . . .

Spoiler: Text for all of the above

Chatner​

Daniel Lavery
and it's got HEATH INSURANCE BABY!!!

Daniel Lavery
listen I have a real Pollyanna complex so the idea of winning over a grumpy curmudgeon to become his best self due to my delightful personality is very appealing. the thing is you've got to figure out how to make your character defects work for you!! I'm putting my narcissism to good use!!

Rosie
Congrats on the new book and the job! I've done a similar job here in Australia and it's really rewarding. I always enjoyed working with people with dementia as it's a great area where a bit of kindness and compassion goes a long way.

My favorite tip for people with dementia is just tell them a litte bit of the story at a time. The thought of a shower can be overwhelming. But if you help them to sit on the toilet, then help them take off a wet nightie and wrap them in a warm towel, then offer some warm water... it goes a lot more smoothly.

Perhaps look into home care - usually a bit more time to spend with people, not as rushed as residential care?

Shoes wise hmmm, perhaps waterproof sneakers from Merrell or similar, if you are doing lots of showering?

Twitter​

Daniel M. Lavery
I've never regretted ending my relationship with my father but seeing the trailer for the new Naked Gun movie came close. that's classic ftalking to your dad business

 

[mold]

I've not read her books but I'm badly allergic to Mall's cutesy blog like essayistic style.
]

her books are bad

 

[AfghanBlue]

There are orders of sisters in Anglicanism - the sisters in Call the Midwife are Protestant not Catholic IIRC. But it’s possible a Protestant charity school could’ve had religious ‘sisters’ present.


I don’t think most English writers were obsessing about nuns in the Brontes’ day Mal is just being an edgelord.

Mal will never clock that as an American in a much more Catholic country culturally in some ways (home of comedy figures like Fr Guido Sarducci & the ladies of Sister Act), she’s thought-projecting Catholic nuns into a space where ye olde WASPs never would have done that.

It’s all in her head

Has Mal ever like.. Been to England?
Either on a holiday, extended or otherwise with Joe, or to do something like a PhD or something academic herself?
Or did she truly just decide herself Learned after undergrad and directly into vomiting it back out with great authority?
I know next to fuck all about that era of literature, asdie from being English and liking literature and history.. but if I was as interested in it as Mal affects to be, I'd probably have at least done a little bit of background study.

Do we think she's even read the books themsleves twice? Or just liked the vibe and has been rehuffing the same fumes of a memory of a memory unexamined since first sighted as a sheltered American teenager?

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Daniel Lavery
listen I have a real Pollyanna complex so the idea of winning over a grumpy curmudgeon to become his best self due to my delightful personality is very appealing. the thing is you've got to figure out how to make your character defects work for you!! I'm putting my narcissism to good use!!

This is extremely ominous.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

Perhaps unrelated but a friend of mine teaching at Berkeley tells me that English departments everywhere are cutting down on the gender stuff as a liability. So perhaps betting the farm Joe's teaching in not the best idea.

He's tenured so good luck trying to get rid of him for his views suddenly becoming unfashionable, which is exactly the reason tenure exists. I don't like Joe but I do like academic freedom and if the occasional smelly throuple is a side effect I'm willing to live with it.

 

[Autistic Nonetheless]

Spoiler: Nothing much, just Joe talking about movies

In all honesty not a terrible list. Mostly recent, mostly popular stuff, mostly English language. Lots of Oscar nominees.

But I do really like The Master, and Under the Silver Lake was super underrated so I cant fault him there.
Carol > Lady on Fire but both are fine, if unremarkable.
Florida Project is mah and Sean Baker's most sentimental movie.
I dont remember much about Speak No Evil except a generic liberals are cowards message (or am i thinking of The Square or a dozen other euro flicks)
Also I don't like any David Lynch after Eraserhead and I never seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but that's on me

I give it a 'fine, I guess'/10

PS: Synecdoche was boring and I dont care who knows it!

 

[Aunt Carol]

I never seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch

I'm surprised it's still popular with the queers; the title character is an MtF who was a young gay teen in post-war Germany and got coerced into a sex change by his older GI lover, so he could be a war bride. There's a lot going on and it's not really trans-positive.

Maybe nobody's seen it since it came out and is going off posters and vague memories. It's the same as The Crying Game but in reverse.

eta:

 

[Autistic Nonetheless]

MtF who was a young gay teen in post-war Germany and got coerced into a sex change by his older GI lover, so he could be a war bride.

I think this tracks with joe's ideas of people transitioning for moral reasons.
He gives off the impression that he doesn't believe transgenderism even exists.
He is 100% into forceful feminization .

 

[IglyUglyOh]

He's tenured so good luck trying to get rid of him for his views suddenly becoming unfashionable, which is exactly the reason tenure exists. I don't like Joe but I do like academic freedom and if the occasional smelly throuple is a side effect I'm willing to live with it.

I agree that tenure is important but look for ICE or someone to show up and arrest him. Trump seems intent on breaking California & breaking universities.

 

[IglyUglyOh]

I agree that tenure is important but look for ICE or someone to show up and arrest him. Trump seems intent on breaking California & breaking universities.

I’m not saying I support the Trump admin but look for him to make it hard for the Grace Laverys of the world.

 

[Potatis Salad]

I agree that tenure is important but look for ICE or someone to show up and arrest him. Trump seems intent on breaking California & breaking universities.

As a Joe fan, I'd love to see all his "genuinely shaking, absolutely terrified" dreams come true, but I don't think he's losing his job unless he pulls a Rhys.

 

[Dick Johnson]

she is a good writer. publishing has been so easy for her that she's published a high proportion of crap. she's never had a good editor. but she's a talented writer, that's why Joe took her out.

in other news Mallory will be the only white person working that job, this is going to be amazing

I don't tend to like her writings as whole pieces, but in everything she does there seems to be at least one sentence that makes me chuckle with appreciation. The lack of good editing is a killer, though, and she desperately needs someone to help her shake her worst impulses and push her for stronger plots and greater cohesion in her long-form stuff.

I mean, Cormac McCarthy wouldn't hold the esteem that he does if he'd moved without hindrance toward meandering plots full of page-long sentences.

Does Mal's new job require any sort of written reports? Maybe having to convey information in a succinct manner would help her tighten up her prose.

Perhaps unrelated but a friend of mine teaching at Berkeley tells me that English departments everywhere are cutting down on the gender stuff as a liability. So perhaps betting the farm Joe's teaching in not the best idea.

"Maybe the hornyposting attention-seeker who makes their students read blow-job poems aloud is actually kind of sex-pest-y."

He's tenured so good luck trying to get rid of him for his views suddenly becoming unfashionable, which is exactly the reason tenure exists. I don't like Joe but I do like academic freedom and if the occasional smelly throuple is a side effect I'm willing to live with it.

He might not be fireable, but I bet there are other ways for a school department to box him up and store him if they think he's becoming a potential liability (or he's just made enough internal enemies that someone would want to keep him from having any real influence - which he may well have done, given his previous cryptic statements about having been raped as a form of punishment.)

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

He might not be fireable, but I bet there are other ways for a school department to box him up and store him if they think he's becoming a potential liability

That would be such a massive win for Joe I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to make it happen. Free money for life, he isn't tied to the Bay Area (his own status obsession excepted), AND he gets to play at being The Dissident Academic for his adoring fans. He might even get some real writing gigs out of it. So much attention!

 

[Bookwork]

Mal has a hiking buddy. I wonder which of her personality traits she's chosing to display to make a friend. Has she created any small problems yet to ensure engagement?

Spoiler: Texr

this state is like a damn Terrence Malick movie. If you're in Sonoma County you gotta hike the Islands in the Sky loop near Duncan Mills. only downside is later there was a tick on my PHONE, but I destroyed him

 

[Zemblan Physics]

Mal has a hiking buddy

Fuck. I realized reading that post that in my head I treat Mal like an actual tard - my spontaneous reaction was a heartfelt
”awwww good for her, she made a friend”.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Does Mal's new job require any sort of written reports? Maybe having to convey information in a succinct manner would help her tighten up her prose.

Not usually at the CNA level. In a rehab it's pretty checkbox-y unless something really wild happens; narrative only comes out for a fall or a skin tear or two residents fighting. They appreciate descriptive adjectives in the comments when you're recording stool.

 

[Bookwork]

They appreciate descriptive adjectives in the comments when you're recording stool.

You know way too much about life, Aunt Carol. Way too much.