Fascinating woman.
This book has been recommended to me for years and I never read it. Recently, I finally bought it and have been engrossed in it ever since. This book should be required reading for ALL women. I now realize that I had only a very surface understanding of how my own body works. This is a great book. The author just wrote one for teenage girls that I plan to buy for my daughter soon.
As we drive up to his school so I can drop him off for the day:
“Mom, can you please turn that down. I don’t want all my friends to know my mother listens to emo music.”
(We were listening to The Decemberists)
This seems hard to believe, but feminist nemesis and lightning rod Caitlin Flanagan’s much-hyped book apparently only sold 8,700 COPIES.
That’s similar to the sales for K-Fed’s CD.
Can you imagine being lucky enough, as this family is, to choose AMONG 70 DIFFERENT PUBLIC SCHOOLS available in their own community? Including the “Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy?”
We went to the Christmas tree stand one block from our house last night, picked out our tree and then brought it home and decorated it.
Here are all the PHOTOS OF THE EVENING
Decorating the tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. The cousins came to help and Dr. Neighbor stopped by. We were going to make cookies but never got to that. We all had a great time, although as you can see from the photo below, Elliot began fading at the very end and in fact, was sound asleep on the couch within 90 seconds of this photo being taken.
This was Jon’s first real Christmas tree. I would never want a fake one, but that’s just me. When I was a kid, my father would take us all out on our farm to find and cut down and haul back a fresh cedar tree. Cedar trees are the REAL Tennessee Christmas tree.
The Sevierville Mountain Press has it ALL WRONG in a recent editorial.
In the op-ed, the writer argues that public breastfeeding is “sometimes” okay, as long as the woman feeding her baby realizes that, “Breastfeeding is one of those things that can be offensive.”
Wrong.
What is considered “offensive” in public has changed over the years, as we have become more enlightened as a culture. Not so many decades ago, it was considered “offensive” for an obviously pregnant woman to appear in public. Only 40 or 50 years ago, mixed-race couples were deemed an offensive sight in public. At one time, the severely disabled were kept behind closed doors so the public’s sesnibilities would not be offended by the sight.
Now, of course, we realize that all of these cultural prohibitions were oppressive, ridiculous, and worked against the greater public good. The same is true of today’s (decreasing, thank goodness) disapproval of women nursing their babies in public.
Breastfeeding is both a parenting necessity and a public health issue. Babies who are not breastfed are more likely to become sick with illnesses AS MINOR AS COLDS, AND AS SERIOUS AS CERTAIN CANCERS.
Additionally, (although far too few American women are made aware of this, even as we are told to lose weight, exercise more, and do our monthly self exams) breastfeeding also protects adult women AGAINST CANCERS.
Recognizing the importance of making it easier, not harder for women to breastfeed their children, many states have PASSED LAWS recognizing a woman’s right to nurse her child wherever she has a right to be. Perhaps the editorial writer for the Mountain Press was unaware that Tennessee is one of those states, and nowhere my state’s law does it mention the need for women to be “discreet” so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of busybodies who have nothing better to do than worry whether they see a flash of skin while a baby is latching on or finishing up.
In the immortal words of Mr. T., I pity the fool who asks me to cover up or be more “discreet” in feeding my child. The problem is theirs, not mine, and the time has come for those folks to just get over it.
These are the THE WORST MAN SHOES EVAH Don’t you agree, Betsy 1 and Betsy 2?
I mean, I don’t care if it were Jude Law himself who showed up on my doorstep wearing these awful shoes, I would have to suddenly develop a bad headache and be unable to go out for the evening.
Back in the day (early-mid 1980s in rural Tennessee), the only videos my family owned were “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Muppets Take Manhattan.” We had no cable TV - actually pretty terrible TV reception in general - and no video rental store within 25 miles, but we somehow ended up with a VHS machine and those two videos.
What to do but watch them ad nauseam? Yes, my siblings and I could quote from the original ROTN chapter and verse. We still do, to amuse one another at family gatherinegs (but only after the drinking games).
So I was saddened to hear that the “Revenge of the Nerds” remake that had inexplicably been planned has now inexplicably BEEN CANCELLED.
Take a listen to THIS EXCELLENT SERMON from Knoxville minister REV. CHRIS BUICE.
(I am the last person in America who does not own an iPod)
Last night, Jon and I stopped by Barley’s in the Old City for a little bit for the lovely celebration OF B.J.’s LIFE planned by her husband, Jake. I met Jake in person for the first time, wishing very much that we had gotten a chance to get together with their family before B.J. died.
I loved looking at all the photos of her and of her artwork. She was objectively, a very beautiful woman and she looked prettiest in the photos of her with her two supercute little boys, who are now left without their mama, who was way too young to be taken away from them.
I hope to have Jake and his boys over to our house soon. I know Elliot would love to make some cool new little guy pals, and I want to get to know Jake.
I am honored to have been at the wake. There was clearly love all around. And I also had the best martini I’ve perhaps ever had. It was perfect 
And when I die, that’s the kind of thing I want folks to say about my going-away party.
This morning I am taking Jon to my Unitarian church, which I’ve attended sporadically for many years. Once again, I am making a New Year’s resolution to attend more regularly — may also join Jon’s church (Presbyterian) and go there, too.
In case you’ve ever wondered what Unitarians are all about, here’s the denomination’s creed. But before reading it, you should know that NOT all UUs necessarily believe all of that. I don’t. I certainly do not believe that all religions have intrinsic merit. That depends on how you define a religion.
My experience with UUs is that their fundamental religious practice, on a daily basis, is practical good works: environmentalism, social justice, fighting racism and homophobia, feeding the poor, building houses, etc. I am down with all of that.
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What do Unitarian Universalists believe?
WE BELIEVE in the freedom of religious expression. All individuals should be encouraged to develop their own personal theologies, and to present openly their religious opinions without fear of censure or reprisal.
WE BELIEVE in the tolerance of religious ideas. All religions, in every age and culture, possess not only intrinsic merit, but also potential value for those who have learned the art of listening.
WE BELIEVE in the authority of reason and conscience. The ultimate arbiter in religion is not a church, nor a document, nor an official, but the personal choice and decision of the individual.
WE BELIEVE in the never-ending search for Truth. If the mind and heart are truly free and open, the revelations that appear to the human spirit are infinitely numerous, eternally fruitful, and wondrously exciting.
WE BELIEVE in the unity of experience. There is no fundamental conflict between faith and knowledge, religion and the world, the sacred and the secular, since they all have their source in the same reality.
WE BELIEVE in the worth and dignity of each human being. All people on earth have an equal claim to life, liberty, and justice-and no idea, ideal, or philosophy is superior to a single human life.
WE BELIEVE in the ethical application of religion. Good works are the natural product of a good faith, the evidence of an inner grace that finds completion in social and community involvement.
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If you want to learn more about Unitarian Universalism, this is a GOOD PLACE TO START.
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