July 2007 – Page 18

Mmmm Chips

$tim\'s$

Tim’s Cascade jalepeno chips are the greatest chips in the world. That is all.

(Kettle Chips are pretty good, too).

I just dragged a huge BBQ grill five blocks and up seven flights of stairs — and now it looks like our rooftop BBQ is going to be rained out. But damn it, I will grill through a thunderstorm if I have to.

What are your plans?

And just a little something to keep in mind today.

Summer, Sex and Spirits

A Planned Parenthood fundraiser. The info:

WHO: Planned Parenthood of New York City.

WHAT: Cocktails and shopping for a good cause. Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC), in conjunction with Brooklyn Indie Market, presents the third annual Summer, Sex and Spirits fundraiser for an evening of mixing and mingling with retail therapy! Brooklyn Indie Market will be showcasing one-of-a kind, independent label goods. A portion of the evening’s sales and ticket proceeds go to PPNYC. Tickets are only $20! Here’s what’s waiting for you at our event:

· $4 drink specials including wine, beer, and mixed drinks!

· ½ price sangria pitchers!

· Live DJ!

· A chance to win a Mystery Prize!

WHEN: Wednesday, July 18 from 5-8 pm

WHERE: Sugar

311 Church Street (between Walker and Lispenard Streets)

New York, NY 10013

WHY: For over 90 years, PPNYC has been a beacon of hope for the thousands of women, teens, and families who rely on us for essential reproductive health care, innovative educational programs and effective advocacy. This event helps raise support our work providing critical information, skills, and care to all individuals, regardless of age, income, or circumstance. To buy tickets contact: PPNYC Special Events Office at 212.274.7260. Tickets also available at the door (cash only at the door).

book recs for children

One of the consequences of being the only literature person in a room full of doctors (parents’ friends, usually) is having to come up with endless recommended reading lists for their children. A lot of Indian parents, and I’m not sure if this happens elsewhere, seem to believe that there’s something inherently virtuous about the act of reading that raises it above ‘lower’ art forms like movies, videogames, comics (which aren’t real reading, apparently) and the like. They want their children to read, but they’re not sure what.

I love doing this. In bookshops I spend more time in the children’s section than I do in the adult’s; something most bookshop owners seem to find suspicious.

After my exams earlier this year my brain briefly rebelled and for a time I could only reread childrens books. I’ve come to love Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books – what a wonderful way to introduce children to issues of gender (and class, but mostly gender) and do it realistically and still be wonderful and entertaining.

I’ve also been recommending China Mieville’s book-for-young-adults Un Lun Dun to a number of people, for various reasons (none of which include making him feel lots of gratitude towards me, at which point we will get to talking and he’ll find out that we like all the same books and..no, it’s nothing to do with that. At all.)

Er. So what’s your favourite children’s book and why?

And now for your daily Misuse of Science…

Courtesy of Broadsheet, our attention is brought to an article in the Calgary Herald, charmingly entitled:

Do hunky men make women smarter?

I once worked in close proximity to a major urban news desk. I’ve written news stories, and been on the other side too, with a stint as a magazine editor. But I still can’t stifle my urge to throttle idiotic editors and kerning flunkies who make up headlines like this. Of course, the story is actually about mice, not people; it’s about potential medical advances that could repair the damaged brain tissue of victims of strokes and accidents, not “making women smarter.” Even for the mice, it’s not about being “smarter,” it’s about very specific mating behaviors.

I can’t entirely blame whoever wrote the headline though, unless they also crammed this ridiculous lead onto the top:

It’s not just the muscles, or the confidence, or the chiselled cheekbones. Nor is it the flashy sportscar or the charming arrogance. No, the charms of the alpha male — the guy who stands out above lesser mortals — may actually help women become smarter.

Whoa, stop the presses! We’d better issue an Are Your Children In Danger? alert immediately on this one! I mean, with all the pressure on middle-class suburban teens these days to excel and get into college, this could cause your daughters to run down to the nearest Gold’s Gym and start HUFFING ON BODYBUILDERS to try and improve their SAT scores. Don’t think it couldn’t happen!

On second thought, maybe we should have a little recap of some Science Facts, and simultaneously expose all of you to my mania for numbered lists:

The virtual moon hut is: OPEN

So, I was going to start off my week (hi! everyone. hi) with a nice long meaty post about “Sicko,” which I saw last week; then follow it with about eight or twelve dazzling epic posts on everything from queer femme gender presentation to a (promised, overdue) review of Dacia Ray’s “Naked on the Internet” to the history of Prohibition to several in-depth movie critiques to a Very Special Independence Day Post, many of which’ve been in the mental moderation queue for, o, a while now. trust me, they will might have been brilliant, someday. maybe this week. maybe.

oh, and I want to ask y’all a question about Battlestar Galactica, but I don’t quite have the nerve yet, because I just now finished the third season and I’m dying to talk about it with someone who UNDERSTANDS, but I’m afraid it’ll All Have Been Done Before and I’ll come off all “Hi! I just arrived from the past!” plus, you know: self-indulgent. and there’s a lot of Very Important Shit going on, penguins starving in Antarctica, alla that, and and and.

unfortunately, most of -those- pieces would require me to have an attention span that outlasts that of your average crank-addled gnat, and right now, at least, it ain’t happening.

so then I thought: well, maybe just go with it, then. Why be coy? Yes, it’s monthly euphemism time, and I don’t know about y’all, but well, frankly, mine tends to leave me kind of, well, ALTERED. as in, state. as in, emotional. as in, I’d have a glass of wine to take the edge off, as it were, for the physical bits; but see, in -other- respects, right now it’d kind of be like gilding refined gold.

So, I invite those of you who feel so moved to share, nay, overshare, your own experience of your Lunar Sisterhood of the She-Wolf Time here. run! howl! slobber! Here, for inspiration, I leave you with a poetical type poeme about the Just Before Time, of my own composition.

An ode to my yoni, womb, and other beloved womanly bits:

the risen tide laps gently within my caves
slosh slosh
oh! the undertow!
oh! the breakers!
oh! a frigate!
if you don’t let the moon’s gift flow free pretty soon
i am coming in after it
with headlamp and pickaxe

Forget Paris

Hilton, Schmilton, speaking of let-them-eat-cakers who got a get out of jail (mostly) free card, Bush just let that momser Libby off the hook.

Yes, I know, we’re, what: surprised by this? But really, you know, talk about thwarted schadenfreude. Can we at least all start cracking terrible jokes about his sexuality? Here, I’ll start: something or other uh-oh Scooter scooted, better hide the the deer and the bears. Something. eh, I can’t be bothered.

Goddam. I wonder how many of the people who were gloating over the celebutante who got hers (poor lambkins, now she’s comforting herself with a multimillion dollar summer house in Hawaii, apparently) even know who the hell Libby is? Or why this matters?

Oh well. I love right now, I really do. “Why, no, the peasants didn’t get any more bread, and the Revolution is a no-go. But check it: we totally made Marie cry. Schweet.”

(x-posted at fetch me my axe)

Share your photos, help LGBT youth

Point Foundation scholar Ceceilia Allwein

A guest-post by Ceceilia Allwein

So you have all those photos online, right??? And those photos are just sitting there looking pretty. Uh huh. Now you can help raise money for scholarships for queer kiddos and activists with those photos!!!!

Hello, dear Feministe readers! Let me introduce myself: I’m Ceceilia Allwein, one of 94 scholars which The Point Foundation currently supports, due to marginalization for our sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity. Jill has so kindly given me a minute in the spotlight to tell you about my experiences and a way for y’all to help out other queer and/or activist students.

At The Point Foundation conference

Ignoring Anti-Choice Terrorism

The car bombing in Glasgow and attempted bombings in London have understandably been all over the news this weekend — after all, trying to blow up a car in order to kill and injure people and damage property in furtherance of your political ideals is a pretty big deal right?

Well, not when the terrorist is an anti-choice activist. This guy was sentenced on Friday for driving his car into a women’s health clinic and then trying to set it on fire. He thought he was bombing an abortion clinic. It turns out that the clinic doesn’t even provide abortions, but that’s neither here nor there — the bottom line is that it’s not terrorism when nice “pro-lifers” are doing it.

Now, the threat of international terrorism certainly feels more imminent and more random. The ideology behind it is ominous. Its backers have succeeded in carrying out devasating attacks.

But anti-choice terrorism is still terrorism. In the first post-9/11 anthrax scare, Planned Parenthood received more than 150 letters and packages containing white powder and threatening notes. The head of Pro-Life Virginia said that he supports the actions of the people sending the letters. A second wave of anthrax letters were sent out to another 200 abortion clinics and advocacy organizations.

There have been plenty of murders and attempted murders, stalkings, threats, firebombs, and arsons carried out by pro-lifers, but they’re rarely labelled “terrorism” — instead, they’re just par for the course.

Repro Rights Reads

Three good ones today:

Salon has an article up on the difficulties facing poor, pregnant women in Mississippi.

Lauren has written a great post about single motherhood and the rational choice to have a child.

And Amanda has an excellent review of one of my favorite books about reproductive justice, Killing the Black Body.

Read ’em.

Month: July 2007