Signs and Symptoms of the Corporatizing University

Trickle, trickle, dribble, drip. One day in October, I was talking with a student after class when we heard the unmistakeable sounds of water. A few steps down the hall, we heard the gush that could only be a broken pipe. Our admin argued successfully with the facilities folks who wanted to put in a [...]

Read Full Post »

Shaking It to the Wikisamba

Just for the record: I would not care to samba with Julian Assange. Anything more intimate that square dancing, and I’d wonder what tricky step he might try … bareback, of course. Hmm, maybe “dosido your partner” means something different to Australian men of mystery? Anyway, Gayle Force posted this irresistible clip. (Don’t see it? [...]

Read Full Post »

Memo to New York: Sometimes A Snow Day Really Is a Snow Day

I kvetch a lot about snow days on this blog, because the North Dakotan girl in me is annoyed and appalled at how my little town in southeast Ohio shuts down as soon as a dozen snowflakes stick to the ground. But this North Dakotan girl also knows the difference between a snow flurry and [...]

Read Full Post »

What We Do and Don’t Know about Julian Assange, Sexual Assault, and Douchebaggery

I haven’t blogged about Julian Assange and Wikileaks because I’ve been trying to understand before I judge. I’m still not willing to offer any final judgment on the rape allegations against Assange. That’s for a Swedish court of law to do, assuming that he’s extradited and the prosecution continues to press its case. I feel [...]

Read Full Post »

Why I Support Wikileaks

Before I dive into the thorny mess of the rape allegations against Juian Assange, I want to say this: For the record, I generally support what Wikileaks has done. Too many secrets corrode democracy. We now live in a national-security state that is also a surveillance-and-secrecy state – what Glenn Greenwald memorably describes as “the [...]

Read Full Post »

Bringing Santa (and His Myth) in for a Gentle Landing

People go to such lengths to keep the Santa myth alive! Kenneth Rapoza, writing at Salon, details the lies he spins to preserve the magic for his children: We send letters to the Santa Claus Main Post Office in the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland. A real place. We even got letters back from them [...]

Read Full Post »

Dear Santa: Please Bring Me a Pooping Dachsund Game!

My seven-year-old Tiger would put Kackel Dackel at the top of his Christmas list, if only it were available in the U.S.! (Amazon.de has it but the shipping times were too long.) This toy has got everything: animal cuteness, extruder action, and scat! (Click here if you don’t see the clip. Via Andrew Sullivan, who [...]

Read Full Post »

A More Zest(ra)-y Sex Life for Women?

Gratuitous flowers for a sex post: Cascading morning glories captured by me, Sungold, in October, back before the frost bit ‘em. The Denver Post ran an article today asking why an arousal-booster for women called Zestra can’t find TV stations willing to run their ads, even as Viagra ads are literally driving in circles around [...]

Read Full Post »

Name Your Baby after “The Problem that Has No Name”

Betty Draper of “Mad Men,” played by January Jones. Photo from examiner.com (Columbus). I claim fair use. Confession: I find lists of trendy baby names fascinating. If you share this mildly guilty pleasure (“guilty” because it’s so easy to snark and criticize), the list for 2010 is up at Babycenter.com. But what caught my eye [...]

Read Full Post »

Snow Daze Caturday

(Dazed kitteh from ICHC? captioned by me, Sungold) Despite having foolishly booked my return flight to Ohio through Chicago, I managed to avoid getting stuck there in last weekend’s blizzard – only to be snowbound with the kids all this week. We’ve had three full snow days and two mornings with two-hour delays. The high [...]

Read Full Post »

John Boehner’s Tears: Hypocrisy or Brain Damage?

It’s possible that John Boehner cries easily for the reason I do: he’s easily touched and not so hot at self-control. But I’m not buying that. As Rachel Maddow pointed out in her excellent segment on Boehner’s waterworks, if the fate of America’s children reduces him to tears, he could actually take steps to improve [...]

Read Full Post »

Tuesday Recipe: Howard’s Cream Candy

Howard was a singular figure: a gay man in a tiny mid-North Dakotan town in the middle decades of the previous century. Courtenay had just under 300 in-town residents according to the 1940 census (trend: declining). It had lady elders running the Presbyterian church (first and foremost, my grandma), a general store, and plenty of [...]

Read Full Post »

Messed-up FIFA Caturday

Why Qatar is the wrong choice to host the 2022 World Cup: (Soccer kitteh from ICHC?) Lots of oil. Plenty of petrodollars. A severe shortage of LOLkittens.

Read Full Post »

Mother-Blaming Alert: You Are What Your Mother Eats

Earlier this week, I talked to my husband and kids, who are keeping the fires burning in Ohio while I’m visiting family in California. All of them were aggrieved. My husband was planning to fix broccoli and noodles for dinner. Both boys were insisting that they would not eat it and furthermore never had liked [...]

Read Full Post »

Copycattywampus Revisited

Those of you with any contact to academia have probably already seen this fascinating first-person exposé of professional plagiarism, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. “Ed Dante” (whose name is as genuine as “Sungold”) makes a little over $60K annually churning out faux dissertations, term papers, and plain old essays. His story is a [...]

Read Full Post »

Detour around the Rapiscan

Maybe you’ve heard the rumor that the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA are making lists of dissidents who oppose TSA policy. The rumors come from some pretty fringy sources (Canada Free Press and a survivalist site, Freeze Dried Food). I wouldn’t put this past the DHS, but if there’s any truth to it, [...]

Read Full Post »

Menopause and a “Broken Thermostat”

The other day, I googled “cold flashes.” That wasn’t a typo; I didn’t mean “hot flashes.” I meant COLD. I’m not at menopause yet, and judging by family history I’m probably a good half-decade away. But over the past several years I’ve had even more trouble than usual staying warm. My internal thermostat went completely [...]

Read Full Post »