He Could Rate Me a 1/10, and I’d Still Call Him Dzaddy
Hump Day Motivation - 11/24/2020
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This is a *special edition* of gangletown’s Hump Day Motivation (HDM), an edition meant to inspire joy (or at least distraction) and get us through rough mid-week moments. The HDM is typically released every other Wednesday for paid subscribers only, but today’s letter is for everyone! Why? Because a lot of y’all are new and because Happy Thanksgiving!
Here are a few of the things bringing me joy today. I hope you love them!
1. Rate ME, Hasan Minhaj!
Happy Hump Day, you thirsty animals! Gay+ Twitter finally got wet this week over Hasan Minhaj. I don’t know where in the hell these people have been for the last few years, but…welcome to the party! If you’re also one of those people not acutely aware of the mouth-watering deliciousness of this man, let's catch you up in a quick but reductive way. Minhaj has been in the public eye for a while. Some of his most notable credits are on The Daily Show, Netflix stand-up specials, and his own show Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.
So, why does everyone seem to be discovering him all of a sudden? (“So why now? Why this sperm?”)
Last year, Minhaj did an episode of Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector Test show, and this week a clip from that interview has gone viral. Here’s the TLDR version. Minhaj rated Dax Shepard a 6.5/10 on the attractiveness scale. He then spoke out about the differences in how our culture assesses hotness for people of color and white people. He also touched on how that impacts opportunity in the entertainment industry. It was honest, smart, and totally bonertown. Are you sweating? I’m sweating. Minhaj’s words make a lot of sense, and the internet under-lords are basically chiming-in to yes-and (verb) his sentiment. And to tell Minhaj how damn hot he is.
My opinion? Hasan Minhaj is so hot that he could rate me a 1/10, and I’d still call him Dzaddy. Twice. And THAT, my dear gangles, is why he is being crowned the HDM DILFoftheWeek!
Here is an article outlining everything, and the full interview is linked below.
2. Elizabeth got married.
I’m sorry. Did you hear me? Elizabeth. Got. Married. Elizabeth got married! Elizabeth got married!!
One of my nearest and dearest peeps walked down the aisle on Sunday and tied the knot with her now-husband, Grant Lyons. The couple had originally planned to wed on the fourth of July with a healthy crowd of family and friends in attendance, but they had to adjust because of that bitch Rona Corona, DDS. They moved the date to November 22nd but kept IRL attendance to immediate family only. Smart move because Covid is still a nightmare.
Other family and friends were still invited to watch the ceremony via a live stream. And that we did! And it? It was GLORIOUS.
Y’all. Everything about the ceremony was pure southern magic. In 2020, we need good things. We need joy, romance, and whimsy. Seeing Elizabeth walk down the aisle gave me all of that and more x 100. I cannot even imagine how difficult it must have been to change their wedding format in the way they did, but it turned out to be a truly stunning and safe event for all of us. I am still crying about it.
Please help the celebration continue by sending the new Mrs. Lyons some big love. You can do that in the comments (below) or drop her a line if you know her personally.
3. American Royals
When it comes to the kind of content I like, I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a bit all over the map. In addition to sit-com, monster movies, and Camus, I love a romance. I love a romantic comedy. I love a soap opera, a high concept, and a frothy good time. Did you read or see Crazy Rich Asians? I did. I can extremely fucks with Crazy Rich Asians-like books. Or Riverdale? I don’t not watch that sometimes…
As part of my “audiobook roulette” game, I started the book American Royals by Katharine McGee last week. Spoiler Alert - I’m going to describe what this book is about.
The premise of American Royals is “what if America had a royal family?” The world we enter is one in which, instead of creating a democracy the way the United States actually did, George Washington became a monarch. In this story, the whole complexity of the monarchy thing is built into the world. We’re in the present-day and following the Washington family (…ancestors of Georgie-boy). The main stories are centered around the young generation's women, ranging from about seventeen to twenty-two. They include Beatrice, the eldest, as well as Samantha and Jefferson, younger twins. Being the first in line for the throne, Beatrice is set to be the first-ever Queen to inherit the throne.
All in all, the crown's actual inner-workings are at best a fourth-fiddle plot (in the first book) because most of the substance is centered around relationship drama. Jefferson is dating Nina, a commoner that also happens to be Samantha’s best friend. His ex-girlfriend Daphne is a low-key sociopathic mastermind. Beatrice is falling in love with her security guard while she is supposed to be finding a king consort…you get the idea. It’s all very *complicated*.
This book was such a silly, dramatic escape. Honestly, I had a blast with it. Is it ground-breakingly cerebral or philosophically enlightening? No. But I enjoyed it so much that I promptly binged the sequel Majesty as well. That’s right! I consumed both of them from top to tail. And ya know what? I’m pretty sure that a third one will be coming out next year, and I’m a little annoyed that I have to wait for that one.
WhatchaReadin? Now that I’ve finished those, I’ve moved on to Memorial by Bryan Washington on audio, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins in hardback, and I’m slowly doing a bit of audio+hardback on Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall. If you’re interested in getting any of the books I’ve been reading, check out the gangletown affiliate store via bookshop.org.
4. We Adopted A Dog During a Pandemic
ICYMI. You can catch up on recent editions of gangletown - including Monday’s We Adopted a Dog During a Pandemic - in the archive.
That’s it! Do you feel over-the-hump? Good! And there’s more where that came from. The next Hump Day Motivation comes out in two weeks for paid subscribers only.
AND - If you love what’s happening here, will you consider sharing this week’s HDM (or another piece from the archives) directly with one person? Or - dare I say it? - two persons? It is the best way to help as gangletown grows.
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