fat ankles?

So. I bought some gorgeous mid-calf boots last week, and today I had a few free minutes and a web browser in front of me, so I looked up tips on good outfits to wear with the gorgeous boots. The dozen tips I encountered on one website were just surreal. Here's why: the website said that mid-calf or ankle-length boots will make one's ankles look chunky, so nearly all of the tips were designed to combat this. This is just so weird to me! The tips that weren't specifically about looking thinner were about keeping legs looking long.
When did people decide that looking thin and tall was the only ideal? It's odd because some people will always look short and stout, no matter how slim they manage to make their ankles look. By the same token, some people will always look tall and thin, even if they (gasp!) wind up wearing chunky socks and ankle boots at the same time.
Weird.

problematic book clubs

I'm from a flyover state myself, and I feel that allows me to be dismissive of things that happen in them because it's that sort of place. Here's why I had that dismissive - and, as it turned out, completely accurate - "flyover states!" response today:
I heard about a library that has a book club for children. Actually, it has several. All of these book clubs have "for boys" or "for girls" as part of the name. Slow clap. For those of you who might be confused about why this is incredibly problematic, read on.
It's problematic in exactly the same way that a "book club for white children" would be. (By the way, if there's one of those around, don't tell me. I can't bear it.) Boys and girls like the same kinds of books! Sometimes boy #1 will have different tastes than girl #1, but I'd bet girl #2 will have different tastes, too. Or all three will have the same tastes! One can't assume. But by dividing the children so arbitrarily, it reinforces the idea that some books are for boys, and some for girls.
Now, one can make an argument that girls need a safe space, because boys will, otherwise, dominate a classroom. I've seen that sort of argument, and I see some value to it. But this isn't a classroom. A reasonably capable book club moderator can manage different conversational styles - which, of course, do not fall on gender lines - because a book club is shorter and has fewer students than the average classroom has.
And while we're on the subject of gender: let's hope every single child in that town is cis-gendered, or this is just one more way a child can be hurt.
By the way, I'm not normally so dismissive of flyover states; as I said, I'm from one. But I do think it's easier to forget diversity if you live, say, several hours from a major city. I'd pin these poorly structured book clubs on a clueless person who doesn't think about diversity, not on a whole culture.

Dahl

Whenever I hear an adult* speak of the author "Ronald Dahl", I shudder inwardly. It just makes me crazy. "Roald" really is the name, of course; people don't recognize it as a name, assume it can't possibly be that, and substitute the more familiar name. I understand why it happens, but I can't be sympathetic at all.

*I give kids a bye on this one, but also make a point of saying the name correctly, so they learn. I don't always do that with adults, because the touchier ones resent the correction.

Same Love

I was listening to The Heist; all I knew before today was "Thrift Shop". I have a habit of listening to the whole CD on itunes, and then de-selecting songs if I decide I don't like them. So I was listening to one, and I thought, "this is so lame, and I don't need to listen to this woman's vocals ever again", because sometimes I'm judgey like that. And yep: it turned out to be "Same Love", which seems very simplistic to me.