Archive for October, 2010
the radical notion that women are human beings: a work in progress
I think we may be counting feminism wrong. I understand the idea and the need for third-wave feminism, in recognition of the fact that second-wave feminism (Steinem, Friedan, Abzug, 1960s-1970s movement) focused too much on the issues of white middle and upper-class women and not enough on those of the majority of women in the [...]
plants fear me
I think I’ve just achieved a new record for blackness of thumb. Most people content themselves with killing plants on an ad-hoc basis, but I have just managed to pre-emptively kill an entire garden. I went to set it up and forgot two things: I am in Europe. And I wasn’t when I used it [...]
of semi-famous women
I’ve been thinking yesterday. You know what would be fun? Creating a chapbook of poems in the voices of women who didn’t get to speak for themselves or who should be better known than they are. I already have the “Deborah Milton speaks(one of my all-time favorites of my own things) and the villanelle “Cecily [...]
creating ritual, with love
Coolest wedding idea ever, from a commenter to Neil Gaiman. SHort version in case you don’t want to click: when she and her husband merged their libraries, they had duplicates of all the books they both loved – so they gave one of the extras to each wedding guest as a memento. What a sweet [...]
seven degrees
How odd. I didn’t even know Chelsea Clinton was married (just saw a picture of her wedding dress in a magazine) but I’ve actually met her father-in-law. I should note, this was long before his time in federal prison. He came to our synagogue while running for something or other – probably his losing bid [...]
Coronets and Steel
I’ve just finished Sherwood Smith’s Coronets and Steel. The first thing I have to say is thank goodness there’s a sequel planned or I’d be quite annoyed; it ends on a cliffhanger, one that is both hopeful and worrying – hopeful for what’s actually written, worrying given that the book is an homage to The [...]
bye!
It’s kind of a sad day today; for all I know this could be my last day here (Taipei and Linkou, Taiwan) ever. It’s not unlikely I’ll have business trips back to Taiwan but they could be to another city. Ted will definitely be back, probably every 6-8 weeks, but this is his last day [...]
Today (after Scalzi)
Today I do have to think about those four guys arrested for trying to torch synagogues – just like the ones I grew up going to, like the ones my mom attends weekly. Today I do have to think about whether the moves to eject Roma and ban burqas in Europe means they’ll be after [...]
some observations from Taiwan and a couple short reviews
Man, it’s nice to be able to go to bed with my husband every night, and to know that isn’t going to end at the end of this week!!! (Italics and exclamation points fully justified here.) It’s been kind of weird to be sitting at my old desk, good to see my old co-workers, and [...]
speaking up from a different perspective
The following is an expanded version of what I posted on Facebook today, and in a comment to my original post. (Facebook statusesuseses can only be 420 characters, so I had to cut a lot of what I wanted to say there.) Bullying is getting a lot of attention lately, and so I think it’s [...]