23 Comments

10/10 no notes. It's NB approved

Expand full comment

Appreciate the Pictionary line. Love the Shakespeare.

Expand full comment

I can't read Nair without thinking of, well, Nair. Hair removal should not be taken lightly.

Nice work, you two! The Hunt for Gay October was especially cream.

Expand full comment

I was trying to make a nair joke, but it was a real head scratcher

Expand full comment

Easy - Bikini Island reference. If I had known...

Expand full comment

Damn, the fact that I missed a bikini atoll and a nair joke is unforgivable

Expand full comment

I can't believe I just called it an island.

Expand full comment

Oh my y'all gave no impression that you wanted to revert to the "old days"!! I know you agree with me completely, the whole thing just got me thinking about what I've seen in my (long) life and how far we've come. Clearly at high risk of waaay overshooting the mark now which is definitely cause for concern and certainly not cool/potentially dangerous, man :-). We are all on the same page here, for sure❤️

Expand full comment

I don't think either of us had that misimpression! I, at least, was just taking the opportunity to positively affirm that belief! Hey, it's a wonderful thing to reflect on progress made and successes one. I hope everything I write or help write has that effect.

Expand full comment

Just a little hedging

Expand full comment

One more thing (because don't get me started on the non-scientific aspects of this subject :-): Growing up I had at least one friend whose father was an FBI agent and his job was to interview friends and acquaintances of potential hires for what was then the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) contractor who ran the massive facilities -- that was Union Carbide for many years followed by Martin Marietta. He would pointedly ask them, for example, if a young man "had ever shown an aversion to girls". The thinking was that being gay even in the late 70's/early 80's would make a person vulnerable to blackmail (was the fear unfounded? idk, maybe not but look at the devastating cost of this notion paid by Alan Turing in Britain decades earlier). This was the justification for discriminatory hiring practices even in the case of part-time high school summer workers at "the lab". While the pendulum would be swung into a massive over-corrective arc if Sneha Nair has her way I'm sure that much of the more basic modernization that's taken place (in step with legislation & societal acceptance ofc) since those days is a good thing

Expand full comment

Like what nika said, be far from us to even infer that someone’s sexuality or gender identity is a reason to disqualify someone for employment.

Expand full comment

Thank you for sharing that story! And absolutely, we should be very grateful and proud that the hiring and employment practices of the past are...mostly past. To whatever extent they still exist, we should be working to supplant them with more fair and effective policies! You'll never hear a word out of me suggesting that people's sexuality or gender should, itself, be grounds for exclusion from this field! We have much to celebrate!

Expand full comment

Quick correction: the National Nuclear Security Administration is the NNSA, to avoid confusion with the National Security Agency (NSA).

Expand full comment

Thank you so much! We will correct!

Expand full comment

Fixed

Expand full comment

Great job team -- you assigned yourselves a difficult mission exploring the issues at hand here in all earnestness while loading your piece with plenty of excellent and absolutely unavoidable jokes. 5 ⭐️'s, highly recommended

As a former denizen of a place nicknamed "The Atomic City" this scares the bejeezus out of me and surely has my hometown's graveyards full of the spinning remains of dudes who, patriarchally like, helped first split the atom and stuff.

In conclusion I'd like to note that "Sneha Nair, Special Assistant to the Nuclear Security Administration" is a real tongue-twister that sounds like a psyop if there ever was one, just sayin'☢️🤨

Expand full comment

Eric Weinstein has semi-seriously suggested we conduct an above ground H-bomb test due to the total lack of seriousness we've developed around nuclear weapons. However, the NSA cracks codes so I think we're safe here; nuclear weapons and their related technology are the purview of the Department of Energy.

Expand full comment

The DOE also is in the cross hairs as well, how can we forget undersecretary bag snatcher?

Expand full comment

Slim Pickens already made the bomb gay in 1964 when as a “straight” man, rode a nuclear weapon reverse cowboy in complete sexual ecstasy into the heart of the Soviet Union. On top of that it was the work of Hollywood.

If that’s not the best of gay American pride, I don’t know America. I am not going to stand by and let pinko commies turn the gay bomb queer.

Expand full comment

Frankly, I should have used that clip instead of the “boom” at the end in order to keep it thematic. Good call! @John McWaters, can we switch that out? I’ll provide the clip once I get back from writing.

Expand full comment

🫡

Expand full comment

Hell yeah brother!!

Expand full comment