Tuesday roundup

California police outdo Florida police in clueless brutality.

Steven Strogatz's tips for writing about math are pretty applicable to teaching anything new and scary on the surface.

Ugh, that reminds me, I'm still only a few chapters into the delightfully written "Americanah."

We need to get to the point where food makers are catering to vegans the way they are to the gluten-free. And, tee hee, yellowcake was a challenge.

Um, it's amazing that some people think that vacation is a frivolous luxury expense (as opposed to a new car).

Yup.

So stop telling me—"family values" traditionalists, shitty rom-coms, and Zales commercials—that it is my biological imperative to trap a complete stranger into a lifelong contract based entirely on how many diamonds he's willing to buy me with. Stop telling me that when you're choosing someone to sleep next to every single fucking day until you die, your personalities and goals and aspirations are irrelevant. Stop telling me that my lived experience is "nothing" compared to some numbers cooked up by a repressed bigot with an agenda.

 and yup

I reject all of this stupid, boring, outdated shit. I reject your numbers. I reject the idea that my personality is a negligible variable in the equation of my happiness. I reject the implication that you understand my relationship better than I do. Do not insult my intelligence by telling me that the best way to avoid divorce is to marry a stranger when you're too young to even know yourself. Don't try to bluff me into swallowing your lie that a world with more marriages is objectively a better world. You cannot trick me into believing that divorce is a failure of society and not a grand fucking triumph, and you will not drag me and the rest of society into the past with you.