Back when I went to Bishop’s University, I managed the student radio station, CJMQ. When I started, it was kind of a pirate station. We had an illegal antenna on a roof, and a couple of residences could get us through the radiators somehow. Nowhere to go but up.

Happily, it was 1993. Pump Up the Volume made it cool to be a DJ. Grunge and indie were huge. We went from, like, 12 DJs to 100 and started acting like a real radio station. God, it was awesome. It was like we were on a quest. It felt like a real crusade.
Eventually we decided to try to get an FM licence. This was no easy feat. The bureaucracy was maddening. It cost a lot. We needed to find a proper tower. Long story short, after two years of solid effort, everything came together: CJMQ was awarded 88.9 on your FM dial.
We were going to launch one blissful night in 1995. I planned a massive party and woke up the morning of, not quite believing we’d finally made it. I went to say good morning to my roommate, David, and… Not a single sound came out of my mouth. Not even a whisper.
I had completely and utterly lost my voice. OH GOD NO. I raced to the pharmacy and scribbled a note to the pharmacist: “I’ve lost my voice, and I really need my voice.” She nodded and retrieved two suppositories. They were each the size of large-caliber artillery shells.
I looked at her and wrote: “I don’t talk out of my ass.” She assured me that the fastest way to get the necessary medicine was through my rectum. Years later, I butt chugged vodka—that’s another story: no—but at the time, I was unfamiliar with anus-based delivery systems.
I went home. First things first: I had no real idea of where my anus was. I mean, I knew the general vicinity. But this was a precision operation. So, I reached back and sort of… poked it like a doorbell, I guess? I got the sense that my anus was reluctant to receive visitors.
But the pharmacist said I really had to get the suppository up there, so I lay down on the bathroom floor, on my side, to give myself better purchase. I took the suppository, reached back, and mashed it up my ass. It was like trying to push a big pill down a small cat’s throat.
The situation seemed stable. I got to my knees, rose slowly to my feet, bent down to pull up my pants… And that fucking thing shot out of me with the exit velocity of a rocket. I kid you not, it flew into the tub and ricocheted around like a bullet. It made “ping” sounds.
Oh no. Now what? I collected the hot, mangled suppository, returned to the floor, and kind of smeared it onto my bunghole, like I was trying to grease a tiny Bundt pan. And then I lay there for an hour, hoping I was somehow absorbing enough of it to give me back my voice.
Sure enough, at school later that afternoon, I could talk. Not perfectly, but well enough that I didn’t use the second suppository. We launched. I cried like a baby, thanking the DJs. I loved them so much. And then my raspy, croaky voice was the first sound heard on CJMQ FM.
A little while later, one of the DJs, a sweet girl named Kristy, lost her voice, too. She had her first FM shift, and she came into the station’s office in a total panic. I asked her to hang on a second, and I began rummaging through my desk. I told her I had just the thing.

More from For later read

There is some valuable analysis in this report, but on the defense front this report is deeply flawed. There are other sections of value in report but, candidly, I don't think it helps us think through critical question of Taiwan defense issues in clear & well-grounded way. 1/


Normally as it might seem churlish to be so critical, but @cfr is so high-profile & the co-authors so distinguished I think it’s key to be clear. If not, people - including in Beijing - could get the wrong idea & this report could do real harm if influential on defense issues. 2/

BLUF: The defense discussion in this report does not engage at the depth needed to add to this critical debate. Accordingly conclusions in report are ill-founded - & in key parts harmful/misleading, esp that US shldnt be prepared defend Taiwan directly (alongside own efforts). 3/

The root of the problem is that report doesn't engage w the real debate on TWN defense issues or, frankly, the facts as knowable in public. Perhaps the most direct proof of this: The citations. There is nothing in the citations to @DeptofDefense China Military Power Report...4/

Nor to vast majority of leading informed sources on this like Ochmanek, the @RANDCorporation Scorecard, @CNAS, etc. This is esp salient b/c co-authors by their own admission have v little insight into contemporary military issues. & both last served in govt in Bush 43. 5/

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“We don’t negotiate salaries” is a negotiation tactic.

Always. No, your company is not an exception.

A tactic I don’t appreciate at all because of how unfairly it penalizes low-leverage, junior employees, and those loyal enough not to question it, but that’s negotiation for you after all. Weaponized information asymmetry.

Listen to Aditya


And by the way, you should never be worried that an offer would be withdrawn if you politely negotiate.

I have seen this happen *extremely* rarely, mostly to women, and anyway is a giant red flag. It suggests you probably didn’t want to work there.

You wish there was no negotiating so it would all be more fair? I feel you, but it’s not happening.

Instead, negotiate hard, use your privilege, and then go and share numbers with your underrepresented and underpaid colleagues. […]