My University’s Very Odd Holiday Message

About a week ago, my university sent out a holiday YouTube greeting to its employees (and presumably to students, too). I’m sure the folks in marketing meant well, but it’s an absolute trainwreck of a message that exemplifies much of what’s wrong higher education in our neck of the woods, and I’m sure at other [...]

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When Sleeping Tigers Go on the Prowl

I think the adage about dogs goes for sleeping tigers as well: one should let them lie. But what if the tiger doesn’t stay in his bed? Tonight my husband heard light footfalls on the stairs. He observed this stripy person perambulate as far as the landing … … and then turn around, ascend the [...]

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Tuesday Recipe: Assertive Chard

Okay, so technically I made this yesterday. And to be honest, there’s not really a recipe. The only trick to it is that you need to have 1) planted your own chard earlier in the year, and 2) nursed it through the first several hard freezes. Mine survived only thanks to the ministrations of my [...]

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Beyond the “Faux Hos” – What about the Faux Academics?

So there’s another possible case of a blogger creating a false persona on the web – and this time, not just gender but sex is in play. At Carnal Nation, Monica Shores alleges that Alexa Di Carlo, who chronicles her career as a paid escort at the Real Princess Diaries, is not a sex worker. [...]

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If You Thought Flying with Kids Was Already Hard …

… wait ’til you see the new TSA regulations! Now, I’ll admit that when I learned that the latest terrorist attempt occurred on Northwest’s Amsterdam-Detroit flight, I was a little spooked. Since that’s a flight I’ve taken several times in the past, even a highly inept terrorist seemed pretty real to me. But, oh, these [...]

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A Little Post-Christmas Revisionism on Original Sin

If I were still in Germany, yesterday would have still be Christmas – they celebrate a second Christmas Day, without even renaming it “Boxing Day” – and so I’m going to declare Christmas still in season. Or maybe I mean, it’s still open season on Christmas? Really, I just want an excuse to write down [...]

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Merry Christmas …

… from the Frog Queen and her froglets! They should actually be tadpoles, now that I think about it. Here’s wishing you a happy holiday, if it’s one you celebrate.

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Whereupon I am Reminded: Pumpkins Don’t Grow in Cans

At 4:30 today, my husband and I settled up the idea of making a turkey-dinner-without-the-turkey for our Christmas meal. Hey, we east mostly veggie, and to be honest, the whole family could happily crawl into a barrel of my stuffing and eat our way out over the course of a week. So I found myself [...]

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Health Care: Hoping for a Backroom Miracle

You know what a thousand times more frustrating than trying a homeschool kids who think they’re on vacation? Following the debate among progressives on the Senate giveaway to health insurance companies. It’s making me downright Grinch-y. I’ve been trying to find a way to imagine that the good will outweigh the bad in the Senate [...]

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Tuesday Recipe: Kiss Cookies

Sugarmag has a touch of the holiday blues, but she mentioned she might make kiss cookies with her kids. So I’m posting my version of my mom’s recipe here (which I’m pretty sure is not far removed from the official Hershey recipe), in hopes that her spirit will lift while she’s in the kitchen. Maybe [...]

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Turning back toward the Sun

I hate the shortness of the days. I’m not even really complaining; when I lived in Berlin (at the 51st parallel, same as Winnipeg) I sort of went to bed in November and stayed there until March. Or so it seemed. I’m just bright enough to realize that southeast Athens is kinder to me in [...]

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Sex Writing FAIL: Chatty Condoms, Dripping Oysters, and One Bullet-proof Pussy

A couple of weeks back, Ann Bartow of Feminist Law Professors ran a post on the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Writing awards, in which she observed that misogyny breeds “bad sex writing, as well as bad sex generally.” I had no idea just how bad – and how misogynistic! – until the Daily Dish [...]

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Catholic Nurse Cites Her Conscience in Refusing to Help Gravely Ill Woman

There! Much better! My title carries a whole different set of connotations than the anti-abortion media’s headlines: “Catholic nurse forced to participate in abortion, lawsuit filed” (Catholic News Agency) and “Nurse ‘Forced’ to Help Abort (the New York Post). Despite vigorous googling, I’m not finding much other reporting on this story at all, except from [...]

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Would Joe Lieberman Please Take Aim at Bundled Payments?

In comments to Jeff Fecke’s post on health care reform at Alas, I expressed my skepticism that the Senate health care bill will be better than doing nother. Ampersand kindly pointed me to two columns by Ezra Klein. This first piece was quite reassuring, because I didn’t realize that the proposed Health Exchanges would have [...]

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If Oral Roberts Was All about PIV …

… then why the heck did his folks name him Oral, fer cripesake? Via Unrepentant Old Hippie, a posthumous glimpse into a side of the preacher man that we never knew: Here are highlights, again thanks to Unrepentant Old Hippie: “The vagina. Only one organ made can bring forth life. It’s the male organ. It’s [...]

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Bending Gender Online for Fun, Profit, and Faux Feminism

The feminist blogetariat is abuzz at the revelation that freelancer and professional blogger James Chartrand is actually a lady, and that ze could only make a real living after swapping genders. Sure, hir story definitely demonstrates that sexism is alive and well. The fascinating thing about this story, though, is how many layers it has, [...]

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I Just Got Shotted (against Swine Flu)

(From ICHC?) Actually there’s not much scientific evidence that handwashing prevents flu – though it definitely reduces bacteria, so it’s worth doing anyway. But never mind that. I’m doing a happy dance because I just “got shotted” (as my son the Tiger used to say) against swine flu. Yippee! It may not protect 100% either, [...]

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Is Every Spousal Assault “Abuse” and “Battering”?

I’m going to back off my promise not to comment on the Tiger Woods story, because there’s one facet of it that’s got me ruminating on what we mean when we talk about “domestic violence,” “battering,” and “abuse.” We will probably never know what transpired between Tiger, his wife Elin Nordegren, and a golf club. [...]

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Celebrate Hanukkah – with Orrin Hatch!?!

Maybe you’ve already heard this at Feministe, where I picked it up. If not, enjoy the wonderful weirdness of Hanukkah lyrics penned by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, which last I heard was the Mormons’ promised land. The song’s backstory is here. Musically, it’s good enough that you can happily hear it more than once. And is [...]

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The Promise of Ultrasound, the Perils of Radiation

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather my breasts bounce back some sound waves (to the extent that they still bounce at all) instead of glowing from repeated mammograms. Two new studies, when read together, raise some intriguing questions about how we might catch breast cancer in young women without overreliance on mammograms. First, [...]

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