We are the raccoons in charge around here

"But!" she said:

People who see a clean, trash-free river are more likely support laws to curb more harmful "systemic" forms of pollution. People who participate in river cleanups take pride in their work--their river!--and become evangelists for protecting it.

There are so many reasons a person may choose not to come out and there is no reason a person would owe the public or a stranger that information. Certainly it's not owed simply because someone is famous.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.

So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.

Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

!!! 

me, falling in love with every woman I see whose purpose is to eat and be pretty:

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lin is the only other major character who looks human throughout the movie - I’m not certain she started out human, but I suspect she may have, and may have fully traded away her humanity. I do think it’s significant that she, unlike Chihiro and Haku, doesn’t reclaim her name at the end of the story.

She’s the first bathhouse worker who is kind to Chihiro, helping her get her clothes and navigate her first work assignment and sneak food. One of the core themes of Spirited Away is finding your footing in a new and terrifying place, and Lin and Haku are key allies in Chihiro’s struggle to gain the skills and self-assurance she needs in order to thrive.

Lin’s human appearance helps us and Chihiro feel more sympathetic towards her . Her familiarity with the system of favors and bribes makes her appealing as a role model who can demystify Chihiro’s new environment for her. Unlike the more inhuman occupants of the bathhouse, Lin looks like someone Chihiro could become in the future, and that’s a good thing! She’s living proof that the bathhouse is not such a monstrous and scary place. Because Lin treats the bathhouse like home, Chihiro begins to see it as a home, too.

And once Chihiro starts to think of the bathhouse as her territory, she realizes that she has agency in this place as well. She uses its rules to her own advantage to free Haku and herself.

And that is the point of Chihiro’s journey in Spirited Away: it’s a metaphor for starting over in a new place and overcoming fear of the unfamiliar. After all, the frame story is Chihiro’s family moving to a new city. At the beginning of the movie, Chihiro is despondent, unhappy to be leaving her old friends behind. By the end, after making it through the spirit world, she’s taking a much more active role in helping her parents settle into their new home.

Because Chihiro has a mentor and friend, she learns how to survive and even do well in the Bathhouse. It’s because of Lin that Chihiro is able to not accept her place within this system and instead fight back, and in the end to make things a little better for everyone.

There’s something there about community, and easing the path for those who come after you. Lin doesn’t regret her choices because they were the best choices she could make, and that’s okay. It’s not a tragedy. She got as far as she could get, and because she did, she’s there to help Chihiro get farther. 

When my best friend got married, I couldn't be the best man because he had years prior promised the role to his younger brother. Not a big deal, not like I was super broken up about it. But he decided I must have a title, and therefore I would be dubbed The Worst Man. We both had a good laugh and mostly forgot about it.

Then comes the wedding. In the course of 24 hours, beginning after the rehearsal dinner, I:

Shaved my beard at the bride's request, looked in a mirror, discovered what dysphoria feels like for the first time

Had a blowout at like 11pm on the way home from an errand after the rehearsal dinner

Opened the trunk to get the spare, found the bag of potatos I'd bought the day before had frozen overnight and then unfrozen, causing them to rot rapidly and release foul-smelling juice everywhere.

Tried to put on the spare tire and found the mounting plate had become misaligned and so the bolts couldn't go in all the way

Called my dad for advice, basically got mocked and insulted

Called a tow truck and finally got it fixed, drove home feeling like shit, finally fell asleep several hours after midnight

Woke up the next morning feeling like shit, bone tired

Drove to the hotel to get hair and makeup done, drove to the venue, realized I was wearing the wrong shoes

My partner couldn't bring them to me so I had to drive all the way back home

Driving back to the venue I fell asleep at the wheel, luckily I immediately drifted into a car next to me rather than flipping the car

Fuckin wide awake now

My car's all scraped up along the side by the wheel of her car, and the passenger door no longer opens

Her car is completely unscathed save for a tiny scratch, like so small it will buff right out. Not even through the clearcoat. But she insists on calling the state troopers. Wouldn't accept my phone number to deal with it after the wedding. Wouldn't accept insurance information. Had to be cops.

Cop takes half an hour to get there

Gives me an expensive careless driving citation (fair)

Finally make it to the wedding, with enough time to finish getting dressed and be ready for it to start

Make it through ceremony (very exciting, love these guys)

Go downstairs and pass out on a couch, completely miss the reception dinner

Am finally woken when the dinner ends and my friend notices I'm AWOL

But here's the rub. Aside from everything that happened to me? Literally the entire wedding went off without a hitch.