Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Monday, August 13, 2018
Why We Kneel: John Crawford III
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In 2014, John Crawford III was at an Ohio Wal-Mart, buying whatever one buys at that store, when he happened upon a pellet gun.
On surveillance video, Crawford is seen holding the gun, which was not packaged, while talking on his cell phone, allegedly to the mother of his two children; perhaps was asking if he could buy it …
At the same time, another man, Ronald Ritchie, was on his cellphone, calling 911 to say that that there “was a gentleman walking around with a gun in the store” and that “he’s like pointing it at people” and “waving it back and forth.”
The video shows Crawford continuing through the store, looking at this and that, and appearing to still be on his phone. The gun is pointed at the ground and several people pass him by, seemingly unconcerned.
Then, police enter the frame to his side and Crawford turns his head, falls to the ground, scrambles in the other direction, then turns back around before ultimately falling again to the ground.
It’s unclear whether he dropped the gun before being shot or after. What is sure is that he was killed for being a black man in a Wal-Mart with a BB gun.
Now, I get it that he was a man with a gun, I get it that police officers have to be cautious, and I get it that they were responding to a call from Ronald Ritchie saying Crawford was waving the gun around and pointing it at people.
The trouble is, once the surveillance footage was released, Ronald Ritchie changed his story and said Crawford never pointed the gun at anybody.
Too late, though, because James Crawford III was shot to death, because a white man feared the image of a black man with a gun; and police officers didn’t take two seconds to ascertain what kind of gun Crawford had and what he was doing with it.
And, to be clear, I know, I know, that, had it been me, or any other white guy, this would have ended quite differently.
Still, there was a trial, like there was a trial in the Emmett Till murder. After a grand jury watched hours of video, listened to audio recording and heard the testimony from 18 witnesses, they decided, after three days. that the officers were justified in the shooting.
Ronald Ritchie is 2018’s Carolyn Bryant and James Crawford III is 2018’s Emmett Till.
Two black men were murdered after being wrongfully accused by white people.
It isn’t over; I don’t know if it will ever be over, but I do know that we all need to speak up when we see racists in action, when we hear racists in action, when we realize that a racist is sitting in the Oval Office.
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Why We Kneel: Emmett Till, 1955 and 2018
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Most of you know the story of Emmett Till, but bear with me …
Emmett Till was born and raised in Chicago, but in the summer of 1955, when he was just fourteen, Emmett went to visit relatives in Mississippi. One day he went into to town, to a grocery store, and spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the wife of the white owner of the store. There has been some dispute over what occurred inside the store; some say Till was flirting with Bryant, and perhaps even whistled at Bryant.
But we do know that Carolyn Bryant told her husband, and a jury, Emmett Till made physical and verbal advances toward her, though, decades later Carolyn Bryant admitted she’d lied about a great deal of what had happened, especially when she’d said Emmett Till grabbed her waist and uttered obscenities.
But by then it was far too late.
Several nights after the store incident, after Carolyn Bryant lied to her husband Roy about Till, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam went armed to Till's great-uncle's house and took Emmett Till by force.
They took him away and beat him and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and tying a heavy cotton gin fan around his neck, sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River.
Three days later, Till's body was discovered.
His body was returned to Chicago where his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket, so the world could see her son’s bloated, mutilated body. That image, and I will not show it here because it’s far too gruesome, sparked the Civil Rights movement.
A few months later, in September 1955, after a nineteen-day trial and an hour of jury deliberations, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam were acquitted by an all-white jury of Till's kidnapping and murder. And then, in 1956, in an interview with Look magazine, and protected against double jeopardy, both men publicly admitted that they had murdered Emmett Till.
After Milam and Bryant were acquitted, they initially remained in Mississippi, but were boycotted, threatened, attacked, and humiliated by locals. Milam died in 1980 at the age of 61, and Bryant died in 1994 at the age of 63. Bryant expressed no remorse for his crime and in fact said:
"Emmett Till is dead. I don't know why he just can't stay dead."
Here’s why … In 2007, fifty-two years after Emmett Till was murdered, historical markers to be erected at locations related to his death—at the river where his body was found and at the spot where Bryant’s store once stood.
But the sign at the river has been replaced three times; the first was stolen in 2007, the second was destroyed by gunfire in 2016; the third sign also has a bullet hole in it.
That’s why people kneel during the anthem; sixty-three years after Emmett Till was murdered because a white woman lied to a jury, his life, his death, are being assaulted.
This is not just an old story, stick around ….
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Sunday, August 12, 2018
Saturday, August 11, 2018
It's Snarkurday!
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Ouch! When Fadi Fawaz found out that he didn’t make it into his late boyfriend George Michael’s will, he went on a Twitter tear, saying:
“George I hate you.”
He then Tweeted, again, on how George died, speculating, again, that it was a suicide.
Nice. Your love has died, and didn’t leave you anything in the will—George’s cousin Andros Georgiou says the estate was divided up between charities, his sisters, and a couple of his housekeepers—and this is how you act?
Maybe George knew that and that’s why you got zip, zilch, nada.
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In I Need A Silkwood Scrub-Down news … last week Kelsey Grammer appeared on Conan and talked about his tattoo … located just above his old man junk because nothing is cooler than grandpa with a dick tat.
And the tattoo is the name of his fourth wife, Kayte Walsh, who apparently demanded the ink:
“I think it was more, sort of, an ownership thing. My wife said, ‘Why don’t you get a tattoo?’… I guess, maybe, it was based on the idea if ever, I thought maybe a peccadillo outside the marriage, was a good idea. Whoever it might be, would read that this particular piece of equipment was already signed for, and owned, by someone named Kayte.”
Seriously. If Kayte thinks a tattoo will stop Kelsey Grammer, who cheated on his third wife with his fourth wife, from cheating, she needs one on her forehead that reads:
“Vacant.”
Just sayin’.
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We never hear from Charlie Sheen unless he’s pulled a knife on someone or crawled back to rehab or claims he’s too broke to pay his bills.
Ding.Ding.Ding. It’s that last one! Sheen is once again ALLEGING that he is too poor to handle paying child support to both his exes, Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller. He has filed a request with the court system asking to have his child support adjusted because his finances are no longer in the tens of millions and he can’t afford his kids:
“I have been unable to find steady work, and have been blacklisted from many aspects of the entertainment industry.”
To be fair, as fair as one can be with Sheen, he pays first ex-0wife Denise some $20,000 a month for their two girls, and gives Brooker Mueller about $55,000 a month for their two boys.
I guess boys cost more?
Charlie says he has less than $10 million in the bank … oh the pain … do you need food stamps? Or, better yet, go get a job washing cars, being a pimp, making mochas.
I mean, that’s what a judge might tell any deadbeat dad, much less one with 10 million in the bank.
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Kim Kardastrophe. Plastic surgery addicted homophobe.
It’s true; Tyson Beckford saw a photo of Kim online and suggested that her plastic surgeon biffed her right hip, and then said he’s did not care for women who had plastic surgery. Now, that’s not nice, even if it’s directed at media whore Kim Kardastrophe who just said a few weeks ago that she was easing up on her social media posts and then tripled her posts.
But I digress. Kim saw Tyson’s response and she said:
“Sis we all know why you don’t care for it.”
Media whore. Plastic surgery addict. Homophobe.
Oh, and let’s not forget that this same week, she cheered and when her family said she was so thin that she looked anorexic because, you know, anorexia is a diet.
This bitch.
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Oh Britney Spears … stop talking. Stop “singing” too, for that matter. This past week, while performing onstage at Brighton Pride, BritBrit forgot where she was and turned to a backup dancer to ask:
“Where are we?”
The dancer replied:
“Brighton Pride bitch.”
Okay, maybe that last word was just me, but then BritBrit shrieked:
“What’s up Brighton Pride!”
Oy.
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Oh, incest is good for a laugh, no?
Former Kardastrophe wannabe—she’s Rob Kardastrophe’s ex—Blac Chyna has a new, eleven years younger boyfriend, rapper YBN Almighty Jay, who recently posted to Instagram that he is Blac’s “oldest son.”
Cuz, you know, incest is a joke.
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More Kardastrophe news? Too bad, you’re getting it anyway …
On a recent episode of Keeping Up With The Kardastrophe’s one Khloé Kardastrophe spurted out some really stupid shiz from that mammoth mouth of hers:
"I was pregnant during this entire season of KUWTK. Some women get “pregnancy lips”. I was one of them. So my lips look crazy and massive. Trust me. I know and I hated it. A lot of wild sh*t happens to your body and face while pregnant. It’s out of our control. Most people don’t have to film during an entire pregnancy so just watch the show and be kind about growing body and lips. Pregnant women should be off limits.”
Siddown. Cuz if you hated your fat lips, then why all the Instagram photos of you and your lips? Not the baby bump, but the ginormous lips?
Be honest, you took the fat from Kim’s ass and Kanye’s head and injected it in your lips.
Okurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Add Kathleen Turner to the list of people who give no f**ks … right alongside one Miss Patti LuPone.
Turner gave an interview in which she tore into everyone from Elizabeth Taylor, Nicolas Cage, Burt Reynolds, the Friends cast, ____, and Hollywood.
She starts off with saying Taylor was all wrong for the role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? —roles Turner took to Broadway:
“[Taylor] has a bad voice, badly used. In any case, people are after me all the time to do Sweet Bird of Youth, and I’m like, ‘Enough Taylor shit!’”
Then comes Cage and that weird voice he did in Peggy Sue Got Married:
“It was tough to not say, ‘Cut it out.’ But it wasn’t my job to say to another actor what he should or shouldn’t do. So I went to [director] Francis [Ford Coppola]. I asked him, ‘You approved this choice?’ It was very touchy. He [Nicolas Cage] was very difficult on set. But the director allowed what Nicolas wanted to do with his role, so I wasn’t in a position to do much except play with what I’d been given. If anything, it [Cage’s portrayal] only further illustrated my character’s disillusionment with the past. The way I saw it was, yeah, he was that asshole.”
Next up, Burt Reynolds:
“Working with Burt Reynolds was terrible. The first day Burt came in he made me cry. He said something about not taking second place to a woman. His behavior was shocking. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t someone’s equal.”
And as for that other misogynistic tool, _____:
“He goes to shake your hand and with his index finger kind of rubs the inside of your wrist. He’s trying to do some kind of seductive intimacy move. You pull your hand away and go yuck.”
As for the cats of Friends, where Kathleen played Chandler Bing’s drag queen father; she claims she didn’t exactly get a warm welcome from the cast because they were such a little clique and anybody on the outside really didn’t matter to them. When she was asked about their acting talent, she replied:
“I won’t comment on that.”
And then she gave a little gossip, of the Blind Item Variety.
“I’ll give you an example, but you mustn’t include her name. [Very famous Hollywood actress] has played the same role for 20 years. She even looks pretty much the same. She’s probably one of the richest women out there, but I would shoot myself if I were like that, only giving people what they expect.”
Sounds a little Julia to me.
Gosh, I’d love to sit in the shade and sip some tea with Turner.
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Friday, August 10, 2018
I Didn't Say It ...
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David Tennant, actor and former Dr. Who , slamming _____ on behalf of the Scottish people:
“When he was over here and he was talking about England and he was saying ‘I’m going out to Scotland for my golf course in Scotland cause people in London are protesting but obviously [in] Scotland they really like me.’ Can I say on behalf of the Scottish nation, we f***ing don’t?”
It’s hard to pinpoint anyone who really does like him, save the racists and the religious hypocrites.
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Rob Reiner, comparing _____ to sitcom character Archie Bunker:
“People always say, ‘you could redo ‘All in the Family’ today,’ [but] I said ‘What do you mean? We’re living it.' We’ve got Archie in the White House.”
Except Archie had some redeeming qualities while _____ has none.
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_____, Twitter attacking CNN’s Don Lemon:
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”
Basically, _____ took to Twitter to say that two black men are dumb.
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Don Lemon, firing back on Twitter:
“Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages?”
Snap.
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John McCain, accusing fellow GOP Senator Rand Paul of “working for Vladimir Putin” after Paul opposed a Senate unanimous consent request in support of Montenegro’s bid to join NATO and then left the room:
“You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin...trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject of an attempted coup. I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable—that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number, perhaps 98 at least of his colleagues, would come to the floor and object and walk away … The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no argument to be made. He has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So, I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”
And I think that’s true of most in the Grand Old Party, er, or as Paul sees it, the старинная вечеринка.
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Ivanka _____, wants y’all to know that kids in cages was a low point for her:
"That was a low point for me as well. I felt very strongly about that and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children so I would agree with that sentiment. Immigration is incredibly complex as a topic. Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am the daughter of an immigrant, my mother grew up in communist Czech Republic, but we are a country of laws. She came to this country legally and we have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone. These are not easy issues, these are incredibly difficult issues and like the rest of the country, I experienced them actually in a very emotional way."
She was vehemently against it but said nothing. Complicit.
And this “coyote” business? Really, Ivanka? That’s like DeVos saying e need guns in schools because of grizzly bears.
You’re complicit, but here’s someone who said it better than me …
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Ana Navarro, on The View, about Ivanka:
“When Ivanka first came on the scene … I thought this was a great thing, I thought she’s going to soften up her father, is going to be a good, positive influence on her father. This act of, ‘I am vehemently against this, vehemently against that, but at the same time I remain in this complicit administration and I cash in and laugh all the way to the bank, getting patents in China, and selling stuff here and selling stuff there.' The act is getting old.”
Ivanka is a pandering feckless asshat like Daddy.
Don’t let her posturing and calm demeanor fool you; she’s as guilty as the rest of that Klan.
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Thursday, August 09, 2018
Bobservations
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Yesterday I woke up and, because it was still dark outside, noticed a flashing light. I looked over and saw Carlos’ alarm clock flashing 12:00 because clearly the power had gone out sometime during the night. I nudged him.
“Charlie [that’s a name his Aunt Gloria calls him, and so do I from time to time] Charlie? The power went out.”
He mutters, Uh oh, and I doze off again. But I hear him get up, and hear the shower running and about a half-hour later, I wake up. I stumbled to the kitchen and he says:
“The power went off last night.”
I say:
“I know, I woke you up and told you.” “No. Max woke me up by crawling on top of me.” “Maybe Max began crawling on top of you because I woke you up to tell you the power had gone out and you moved and woke him up.” “I think you were dreaming.”
Yes, I dreamed the power went out and dreamed that I woke up and told Carlos about it, and then, miraculously, my dream came true.
I’m that good.
I’m hoping that my dream where Carlos listens when I speak will come true, too.
Oy.
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I follow a page on Facebook about ‘What’s Going On …’ in our local area. People post questions about looking for a contractor, or someone to do some work; they advertise yard sales; they recommend businesses; and then there are others.
Some posts, I hate to say, are so illiterate, I literally have to read them out loud in what I call my toothless cousin-f**ker voice just see make sense of it; that gives me a laugh. But this week a woman posted about buying truck parts at an Auto Zone and the nice young black man that helped her carry them to her truck. I didn’t see the point in mentioning he was black as it had nothing to do with the story until she added:
“It was nice, him showing me the respect I deserve.”
Seriously; but then another woman posted:
“I know him, he helped me at the Piggly Wiggly.”
Now, the first women never mentioned the young man by name, which caused me to think that, if you took these people at their word, there is one, just one, nice young black man in Smallville who runs around helping white women—and you know they’re white women because of their FB profile photo—and giving them respect.
Oy. But then …
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Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw, a 32-year-old Bluffton, South Carolina was caught speeding through a stop sign at over 60 miles per hour.
When stopped by police, Cutshaw was slurring her words and a breathalyzer showed her blood-alcohol level at .18 percent –well above the .06 legal limit. But Cutshaw said she shouldn’t be arrested because she is a "very clean, thoroughbred, white girl” and a cheerleader and a sorority girl who graduated from a "high accredited university" and because her partner's "a cop."
When officers asked what being a "white, clean girl" had to do with anything Cushaw replied:
"You're a cop, you should know what that means."
Cutshaw was arrested and jailed on charges including drunken driving, speeding, disregarding a stop sign, possession of drug paraphernalia, and marijuana possession and being a self-entitled white privileged girl.
Sorry, hon, add criminal to your list of accomplishments.
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If you need proof that Mike Pence is a lying hypocritical tool, look no further than an article he wrote back in the 90s demanding Clinton resign for having an extramarital affair.
But cut to 2017 and he has no problem licking the boots of a serial adulterer.
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Element TV Company, a South Carolina television maker, is laying off 126 of its 134 workers because of _____’s tariffs on imports from China.
That skeleton crew of eight employees will stick around in the hopes that the plant can reopen in three to six months.
_____; making America great again by helping 126 people lose their jobs.
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Boy band singer, and openly gay, Lance Bass said he’s “heartbroken” after placing a bid to buy Brady Bunch house, and thinking he’d been the highest bidder, only to find that he wasn’t.
“Super excited to announce they accepted my offer on the #BradyBunch house last night!!! This is going to be a fun project!”
Then came this:
“Marcia Marcia Marcia! Im feeling heartbroken today. As many of you may have heard, we placed the winning bid on the iconic Brady Bunch house—at least that’s what we were told. The agent representing the estate informed us we made the winning bid (which was WAY over the asking price) after the final deadline for all offers had passed—even writing up the “winning bid” for my team after informing me of the good news. Isn’t a deadline a deadline? This was a dream come true for me and I spent the night celebrating amongst friends, family, and fans alike. The next day, due to “unforeseen circumstances” the same agent informed us that there’s another Corporate Buyer (Hollywood studio) who wants the house at any cost. We were prepared to go even higher but totally discouraged by the sellers agent, they will outperform any bid with unlimited resources. How is this fair or legal?? How can I compete with a billion dollar corporate entity? I truly believe I was used to drive up the price of the home knowing very well that this corporation intended on making their offer and it’s not a good feeling. I feel used but most importantly I’m hurt and saddened by this highly questionable outcome. I just hope it is not demolished. Thanks for all the love and support. #CrushedDream #ShadyAF #DouglasElliman #ShadyBrady”
Lance believes he “was used to drive up the price of the home” as a “Corporate buyer” did make a bigger bid, and that buyer is HGTV, who it has purchased the home and plans to “return it to its ‘1970s glory’.”
Right. I’m seeing gray everywhere … and shiplap.
Oy! Again!
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Todd Kincannon, the former head of South Carolina's Republican Party, was arrested last week after he choked, stabbed, and mutilated his mother's 10-year-old beagle at her Greenville county home. Upon his arrest, Kincannon said he killed the dog because:
"I'm the second coming of Christ and I got a command from God to do it."
Officers who responded to the call say Kincannon came out of his parents' home in his underwear and covered in blood and dog hair and announced that “every 1,000 years there needs to be a sacrifice and blood must be spilt." He held up his arms to show what appeared to be dog bites and said:
"I have a sign. I'm about to get crucified in the media."
Yes, you are. And he will be charged with animal cruelty though there is no report that he will be taken in an evaluated for some sort of mental break.
I mean, this story, and the fact that in 2015, Kincannon was charged with criminal domestic violence after threatening to kill himself, his wife, and her family; in 2015, his law license was suspended following threatening emails he sent to people in connection with that arrest.
A grand jury indicted Kincannon on domestic violence and kidnapping charges last year but those charges are still pending.
Seriously? This man should have been locked a long time ago but, you know, Republican, South Carolina, domestic violence.
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Now, for some fa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-bulous news … the fa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-bulous Jessica Lange is coming back American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
Makes perfect sense because this season is said to be a cross-over between Murder House and Coven, both of which starred Lange.
I.Am.Dying. Especially when it’s been confirmed the show had been renewed for two more seasons beyond Apocalypse.
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Gosh, I love this … after Donald _____’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized—with a pick axe no less—the city of West Hollywood issued a resounding “Fuck You, Mr. President” and passed a unanimous resolution to remove the star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sorry, not sorry.
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We watched a couple of movies this weekend, the first being Trumbo, about the Hollywood blacklist of suspected Communists in the 40s and 50s. One of the people who helped to end the blacklist was actor Kirk Douglas who hired Dalton Trumbo to write the script for Spartacus and made sure he was given credit on screen.
The actor who played Douglas, Dean O’Gorman, top, just oozed sex appeal onscreen, especially in scenes as Spartacus in his little, er, not so little, leather jock strap.
We, or I, also watched Home Again, a tired Reese Witherspoon rom-com where she plays a forty-something woman who takes in three twenty-something young men and falls for one of them.
Sadly, she fell for the wrong one, because she didn’t fall the quirky, cute and sweet Jon Rudnitsky, bottom, who played George.
As Julie said in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Huge.”
Steaming hot or quirky cute ... I don't have a type.
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