Too soon.

I gasped

gwen YouTube video by Violently Ignored

It's in a different special. She tells it a lot, and there are various versions, and they're all fucking hilarious. youtu.be/T5BR-dEi_ZI?...

Margaret's "Gwen" story was the first time I literally fell out of my chair laughing.

"Oprah. Streisand. Both strong Black women."

Let's 👏 go! 👏

Aw, there, their, they're.

Oooh, a classic from Mother!

What's a good comedy special I should watch tonight?

Robert Reich 29K likes, 2.2K comments. "Could This Actually End Citizens United?"

Montana — yes, deep red Montana — has a plan to effectively neuter Citizens United.

No Supreme Court ruling or constitutional amendment needed.

Here's how it works. https://youtu.be/p1fPbGHe3xE?si=QZRQImV8KYD5Y90r

I think I may be getting a dishwasher this weekend. 🥺

As Much as I Appreciate the Trenchant Commentary on the American Healthcare System, I’m Here at The Pitt Because My Appendix Burst “The Pitt is severely underfunded, and if nurses are dealing painkillers just to make rent, that says something troubling about economic instability. It also...

"I can plainly see the staff is so used to bending over backward, they won’t admit they’re broken. It’s a damning indictment of the status quo, and this place is a microcosm of our country’s messed-up healthcare system, and it’s not okay. But I’m here about my appendix."

The store I used to work at is now shut down, probably due to outrageous rent costs, so they reaped the same crop they were sowing. Meanwhile, I work happily at home creating accessibility for disabled audiences of film and television. Phuck ‘em.

Overhead view of my wrist tattoos. One features the Starfleet Delta logo under a rainbow, with the words "The Human Adventure is Just Beginning." The other features an outline of Kermit the Frog, also under a rainbow, with the words, "Keep Believing, Keep Pretending."

I used the money to get the rainbow tattoos I’d been thinking about. So while the company has tried to take down their Pride flags, I used their money to tattoo some motherfucking rainbows on my wrists. >>

Last summer, I received a message from Philz saying they still had an outstanding paycheck for me. After checking to make sure it wasn’t a scam (I think they were clearing their books in preparation for the buy-out), I responded and got a nice windfall. >>

2020 was kind of a blood bath (wasn’t it for all of us?), and made me resent my time there. I was unemployed for several months, burning through my savings and unemployment, until I got my current gig of audio description. It took me a long time to put myself back together. >>

The job paid better than other coffeeshops, which meant a lot of us stayed there for perhaps longer than we would have liked, even as it descended into the typical corporate shenanigans of tightening up on labor costs and dragging their feet getting us digital tipping at the register. >>

Though I was hired in LA, I got to spend a week working at the Castro store by requesting a temporary transfer there so that I could spend my Pride celebration that year in the Gay Motherland. I had a fabulous time. >>

In fact, I showed up to my second interview wearing my Spock hoodie, and was greeted by the assistant store manager, who was wearing a Captain Kirk apron. >>

I had a good time for the most part in my years there. It was, at first, a more pleasant place to work than Sbux. We got to wear casual clothes and serve a slightly elevated product, and I made SO many cool friends. >>

And if you spend years building a business with a progressive veneer only to cash out to private equity and screw your employees out of their ownership stake, then no, you weren’t a “good” company nor a good person before the buy-out. >>

I will point out that Philz was seeded with a lot of Silicon Valley tech money, including Palantir, whose employees we had to give discounts to. It was always my suspicion that Jacob wanted to be a cool tech bro grifter, but could only manage to be a cool coffee bro grifter. >>

A point I keep seeing made that I have to object to is that Philz was a “good” company before they sold out to private equity. I have plenty of stories that would say otherwise, but again, I’m not dragging myself through that nor trying to get myself into trouble. >>

Two years later, that manager was eventually let go (for reasons completely unrelated to me), but I’m not going to get into those sordid details. I don’t want to get myself into trouble nor drag dirt up that people don’t want talked about.

Suffice to say, karma got his ass. >>

Also, everyone liked me better than him, so now he had that working against him. >>

My heterosexual doppelganger at my store confronted our manager after my firing to explain that he’d shot his goodwill and morale in the foot because now no-one knew if they could stand up for themselves, nor if the company had their back. >>

One of my good friends quit a week after I was fired when the company went back on its word not to open the lobby until after vaccines came out, and a customer threw a temper tantrum and shattered our pastry case glass. >>

Between the protests and the pandemic that year, there was kind of a mass exodus of baristas who didn’t feel protected or respected in the stands they were taking or the risks they were facing. >>

So I’ll be brief. In September 2020, after 4-1/2 years with Philz, I was fired for arguing with a customer who refused to wear a mask. When I explained that at a store meeting we were told we could refuse service to customers who flouted the mandate and put us at risk, I was told I was mistaken. >>

I kept trying to write a barn-burner thread in the wake of this no Pride flags nonsense, but I’ve found I just don’t have it in me to re-trigger myself. Philz deserves a lot of righteous anger, but I’ve realized that I’ve moved on pretty well and don’t have the energy to spare for them (growth!).