My grandpa was best friends with her brother because they were distant cousins. I wish I could have picked my own grandfatherās mind for any gossip he may have had but he died when I was like 6.
But from what Gore Vidal wrote and the way she herself addressed him in public she sounds like she was the most abysmal evil cruel twisted motherā¦ just a really nasty and erratic but very complex woman. She was a flapper and notorious party girl in Washington DC when her father was a senator so I just wonder what she must have experienced to make her turn out like that. Iām really curious about her life but I havenāt found a lot of information out thereā¦
Jan 26, 2025
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My dad had always told me we were related to Al Gore and Gore Vidal and of course I knew who the former was but never really bothered to read much about the latter.Ā His first name comes from the family name of his mother.
I started getting into genealogy and came upon an essay by Vidal that had been published in The New York Review of Books called The Ruins of Washington where he writes about our shared Anglo-Irish ancestors who came over in the 17th century and owned a large portion of the land that would become Washington, D.C.Ā Ā Our ancestors sold the land and as the families branched off they migrated further and further south ultimately ending up in Mississippi.Ā Ā
My grandfather was best friends with Goreās uncle and my dad grew up with Goreās first cousins, so though the cousinage between us is distant on paper, the kinship bond and shared culture was still there.
I was so excited to see what else Gore Vidal had written about our family that I downloaded his essay collection The Last Empire, where he writes:
āBut then the Gore genes are strong, making for large noses and ears and, in many, chinoiserie-style eyes, more gray than blue. Blake certainly had inherited the Gore sharpness of tongue ā¦Ā Ā If there is an uncomfortable truth to be told, at least one Gore can always be counted on to bear sardonic wit-ness.ā
āThey are also known for their forensic skill, wit, learningā family characteristics the Vice President modestly kept under wraps for fear of frightening the folks at large.ā
Which is an eerily accurate and specific description of me.Ā Ā As I read more of the essays in this book, I began to realize Gore Vidal was right about literally everything in the world and that his quote in my bio is true.Ā Ā He was so much more than heās known for in pop culture.
As I devoured as much of his work as I could, especially his non-fiction writing, I developed a deep parasocial connection with him and found in him a kindred spirit. Ā Beneath his prickly acerbic exterior was a profoundly vulnerable and emotionally wounded man with mommy issues from his BPD mother.Ā Ā I love his fiercely anti-institutional autodidactic spirit.Ā Ā Heās my role model and I think we also look alike and have similar cunty arrogant vibes/minds.
In The Last Empire he writes that the Gore family will selectively pick and choose who to claim as family no matter how distant the relation is.Ā Ā I delusionally believe that if he were somehow alive todayāand also not ravaged with wet braināas a deep personal mythos weaver himself who had once found meaning in his own family story, he would be honored that I feel this way about him.Ā Ā Thank you if you read this rather lengthy volume of Tater Hole lore š„š³ļø
Apr 5, 2024
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When my grandma's sister passed away around the time my mom was 10 (this was 1982), her husband decided to not really speak to my grandma's side of the family even though my mom and grandma had a really good relationship with their kids (my mom's cousins) and they didn't really communicate with each other as much, and two of their kids ended up becoming pretty well known (one is a chef and the other does stuff with MSNBC) so now I have famous relatives who I only met once when I was 5. They live far away from me and I'm pretty sure they have no idea who I am, and my grandma's sister's husband lives in my state like 30 mins away from me and runs a doctor's office but I have never seen him in my life for the reasons mentioned above. So yeah I have a whole side of my family I don't really know at all. It's also crazy how my mom just casually told me this.
Through that grandparent I'm also related to another bunch of well-known people who came from a town/city in Slovakia according to ancestry.com (back when it was called Austria-Hungary) who likely have no idea of my family's existence but that's a whole different story
Jul 7, 2024
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1) my high school is the center of a Netflix documentary. Itās not good.
2) my mom was in the army and in Germany the same exact time Jeffrey Dahmer was. She was taken in and assessed where he was stationed, but she was not in his regime. my brother and i only found this out a few months ago and we told her about it. she was very distraught
3) my great uncle was in an acapella group that was sampled in Young Thugās āI Know Thereās Gonna Beā. Never met him before he passed though.
4) there is a house music singer named Barbara Tucker who i listened to as a kid. Her song āBeautiful Peopleā got me through some times in high school. Turns out her father was in the same group as my great uncle. I contacted her last summer to ask about him and she even gave me her number (but Iām just gonna respect her privacy). Sheās a lovely woman š
2d ago
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My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebodyābe it a relative or one of my best friendsāwas to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too š
Feb 23, 2025
Schedule sent my resignation email for the morning, effective immediately ā
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Feb 27, 2025
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Iāve been thinking about how much of social media is centered around curating our self-image. When selfies first became popular, they were dismissed as vain and vapidāa critique often rooted in misogynyābut now, the way we craft our online selves feels more like creating monuments.
We try to signal our individuality, hoping to be seen and understood, but ironically, I think this widens the gap between how others perceive us and who we really are. Instead of fostering connection, it can invite projection and misinterpretationāpreconceived notions, prefab labels, and stereotypes. Worse, individuality has become branded and commodified, reducing our identities to products for others to consume.
On most platforms, validation often comes from how well you can curate and present your imageāselfies, aesthetic branding, and lifestyle content tend to dominate. High engagement is tied to visibility, not necessarily depth or substance. But I think spaces like PI.FYI show that thereās another way: where connection is built on shared ideas, tastes, and interests rather than surface-level content. Itās refreshing to be part of a community that values thoughts over optics.
By sharing so few images of myself, Iāve found that it gives others room to focus on my ideas and voice. When I do share an image, it feels intentionalāsomething that contributes to the story I want to tell rather than defining it. Sharing less allows me to express who I am beyond appearance.
For women, especially, sharing less can be a radical act in a world where the default is to objectify ourselves. It resists the pressure to center appearance, focusing instead on what truly matters: our thoughts, voices, and authenticity. Iāve posted a handful of pictures of myself in 2,500 posts because I care more about showing who I am than how I look.
In trying to be seen, are we making it harder for others to truly know us? Itās a question worth considering.
Dec 27, 2024