Hey! It's Valentine's Day! That means the chocolate is on sale tomorrow (woo!), there's lot of people wearing red today (which, woo, because I like red), and there's glancing coverage of romance. I said this earlier in the collection of links on Wednesday, and had it made into graphic form just for fun:
Happy Valentine's Day to us!
AND ON THAT NOTE. It's time for Conversation Hearts of Awesome II: The Desolation of Smaug!
Theresa Romain gave me the heads up that yet again, you can create your own conversation hearts.
Ha. Try and get any work done today! Just try!
I made you some. A few valentines, from me to you!
If you make your own, please share, either in the comments, or email them to me and I'll put them in the comments for you.
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Need additional Valentines? NPR has some for you! I'm rather fond of the Carl Kasell one, myself.
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If you like history, here's a link that will make you VERY happy: the Museum of the City of New York has digitized over 135,000 images from its archives, and made them available online.
There are theatre shots, architechture, celebrities, and more – it's all fascinating. And it'll probably cost you an hour of productivity but if it's research it TOTALLY counts, right?
Thanks to Ed Champion's Twitter feed for the link.
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Here's a neat and fascinating article examining romances: Sarah Skwire takes a look at entrepreneurship and economics in historical romances in Economics With Romance.
I have found that historical romance novels are most interested in thinking seriously about work. Romance novels set in contemporary society tend to see work as merely a part of the background. Of course the hero and heroine have jobs. Everyone does. Often, while the work is the excuse for bringing the hero and heroine into initial contact with each other, writers don’t explore their characters' feelings about work particularly deeply, nor do they show the hero or heroine actively working.
But when set into historical context, writing about work can lead to debates over gender roles (“You get to have an interesting job and I have to learn to embroider? How is that fair?” or “Do you really expect that I’ll give up working when we get married?”), or about the mixed blessing of aristocratic privilege (“My father gambled away the family fortune, so I must work, but I have no skills!” or “I’d really like to be a writer/scientist/architect, but it is simply not done by people of my class.”), or about class and opportunity (“Yes, I stole your wallet, but I was fired from my job as a governess for ‘tempting’ the master of the house, and isn’t it better to steal than to be a prostitute?”). In other words, because of the deep conflicts over work throughout history, work in a historical romance novel can be a source of conflict between the hero and heroine. And romance novels thrive on conflict that keeps the lovers deliciously apart until they find a way to reach a happy ending.
The whole article is a fascinating and unique perspective on the role of employment in the pursuit of self-actualization in romances.
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And finally, RedHeadedGirl, Elyse, Carrie, Amanda and I collaborated on a list for BuzzFeed that had plenty of room for snark but wasn't quite about romance novels: The 7 Worst Moments In NBC's 2014 Olympic Coverage… So Far.
I've been watching the Olympics somewhat sparingly, because each time I turn in, the sexism and condescension of the announcers bugs me more and more. I love winter sports in general, especially snowboarding and skiing, but as many people have noticed, the coverage is particularly shitful this year.
So we rounded up the coverage and identified the standings for this year's Sexism and Condescension Competition. That battle is fierce. And I suspect we haven't yet seen the performance that will win the gold.
I need a moment to just stop and appreciate the existence of a blog where “I wanna sherlock ur holmes” and NPR links fill the same page. **swoon**
**puts out pillows to catch the swooning**
🙂
This is why I start my mornings right here with y’all. Makes my brain and my heart happy all at the same time!
The Buzzfeed link—I lost it when Meredith Viera told us to go google something they easily could have explained rather than some of the inane garbage they were spouting. I mean … no words for that. I noticed the snowboarding comments during the women’s event.
And I don’t understand why there is separate commentary for figure skating during the day vs. prime time! I was so geek to hear Weir and Lipinksi were doing commentary and then never saw it. Is it available only online or is it NBC daytime TV coverage? I feel swindeled!!
I DVR the daytime coverage of figure skating and watch it at night after work. Much less yelling at the TV that way.
The Buzzfeed article was spot on…loved the cat gif at the end…however, all the links in the article pointed back to the article—or am I doing something wrong?
Love the candy hearts. 🙂
Ooh, loved that article about work and romance! Although I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the phrase “bourgeois virtues” used so many times in quick succession…
@rayvyn2k:
I have NO IDEA why the links don’t work. In the Buzzfeed edit screen, they’re all perfect! When I hit “publish” they are all stripped out and go right back to the article in a big annoying circle jerk.
I’m sorry about that. Here are the links if you’d like:
ESPN: Sexxytimes in the Olympic Village
http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/story/_/id/8133052/athletes-spill-details-dirty-secrets-olympic-village-espn-magazine
USA Today on Weir and Lipinski being SO GOOD
http://q.usatoday.com/2014/02/10/sochi-winter-olympics-johnny-weir-tara-lipinski-best-figure-skating-commentators-not-on-primetime/
Johnny Weir Wins Everything:
http://instagram.com/p/kRaa9hBhew/
Linda Holmes on P&G’s “Thanks Mom”:
https://twitter.com/nprmonkeysee/status/432352933846712321
Jen Chaney in Salon on Snowboarding Sexism:
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/10/sochi_olympics_female_snowboarders_survive_crash_landings_and_sexist_comments/
“You smell like Horses & Man”
lololol
I live in Wyoming. I already KNOW what this smells like.
I’ll pass.
Thanks, though.
And then there’s this about a luger who warms up by dancing to Beyonce: “I would like to see something a little more sports specific from her.” Here’s the USA Today link: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/kate-hansen-luge-beyonce-dance/
Dickhead commentator.
Dear NBC: Where’s all the stuff about Russian language, culture, history, food, how much fun the Russian visa process can be without a travel agent? (Answer: Oodles! Everyone should try it.)
I don’t watch daytime television so perhaps I’m missing the good stuff, but NBC’s prime time broadcast this year has been the equivalent of nothing, nada, rien, nichts. I can’t wait for your take on the rest of the festivities.
(SB Sarah, in trying to post this one last time, I discovered that your website doesn’t seem to like Cyrillic characters. When I took those out, I could post anything.)
Oh, how I miss the ABC Olympic coverage, every sport, all the time and not just the American competitors and the people who medal. Remember Eddie the Eagle? Midori Ito’s first outing -all jumps, no artistry? We’d never see that on NBC.
Just for fun every time I left the room during the women’s ski jumping, I re-entered asking “Did anyone’s uterus fall out yet?”
Actually a woman I used to waitress with some 30 years ago chastised me for icing the bar stations and salad bar by carrying around 5 gallon buckets of ice. because my uterus might fall out.
@Stephanie Scott
I think the skating coverage with the awesome announcers is during the day on NBCSN and in their online live coverage… I am not sure if they then replace the video online with the night coverage though…
Oh thank you thank you for the hearts! I lurve them!
Can’t say it enough. Watch the CBC. Canadian coverage rocks.
They show things all the way through, not jumping around from sport to sport, and they show them live (you have to DVR b/c yes, it starts at midnight). We watch entirely out of order, depending on whose turn it is to pick a sport. Women’s aerials were awesome and the commentators did not try to hijack the event with any cleverness. They just told you who was competing, how many times they’d been to the Olympics, that type of thing. And you could watch. Wow, that’s some crazy stuff those women do.
And I think if you click on my link – it should take you to my facebook – where I have the Richland family plastic toys doing winter games photos. And the pancakes that might be trademark infringing colored rings or what not. Because our family loooooooves the winter games like only crazy Canucks can. As I once heard a despondent Russian hockey fan say on television after their painful Vancouver 2010 loss, “We love hockey, but the Canadians put it on their money. They love hockey more.”
Oh the glory days of ABC and the whole “Sport” thing instead of the Nitwit Bragging Committee pontificating over the clips they show between commercials.
@DonnaMarie. I’m laughing so hard I think my uterus might fall out.
@SBSarah, thanks!
@DonnaMarie, I completely agree. The historic ABC coverage was best. I just said to my Hubby the other day how much I missed ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
@Darlynne, You are so right about the NBC nighttime coverage. Just awful.
@Anna Richland, I love love love the toys on ur FB page. My favourite is the one of the Olympic, or is it Battle of the Blades 😉 skaters.
@Darlynne:
I have no idea why my website can’t handle Cyrillic characters.
You should google it! *snorfle*
Thanks for the link to my article! So glad you guys liked it, and many thanks to the Smart Bitches who suggested titles for me to look at!