they are fun when you have them, I am not gonna lie

I was strutting (admittedly) down the hallway at work today, when I heard a voice behind me:

Look at you, all proud of yourself, just because you have eyebrows!

True.

Eyebrows are back.

he can say that, because he is mexican too

I was talking to one of my favorite people today, a very passionate gay young man. He told me he had been volunteering his time phone banking, making calls against California's Proposition 8, but that he had had to stop because he was getting too upset, too involved. He was fearing for his health.

Proposition 8 would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. That right is important to my friend. He said the issue is affecting his friendships, and that friends are telling him he shouldn't take it personally that they support the proposition.

Not take it personally?

He said, "I tell them how would you feel if I told you Mexicans can't marry, but that you shouldn't take it personally?". And he said, "I want to vote on straight people's right to marry."

another example of how the world looks different to you, and treats you differently, depending on where you are standing

Mayka explains.

working mom weighs in

On Sarah Palin.

this is interesting

Frank Rich on white Americans.

photos

More orchids.

orchid III

orchid II

orchid I

so yeah

I bought shampoo today. And conditioner.

Which might seem mundane. But after 20 weeks of chemo, and six weeks of no chemo, my hair has gone from nothing, via salt, salt, and pepper, to pepper, pepper, and salt.

So yeah. Conditioner.

lesson from my high school history teacher

In every war soldiers on both sides believe that God is on their side. Because that's what they are told in the churches back home.

maureen dowd on powell

Holy cow. Read it already.

people have too much time on their hands

And thanks to them, we get to play around with this.

[expletive] you, indeed

So today as I was waiting for my turn to be radiated I took notes on a topic I have been thinking about for a while.

As I was sitting there writing, through the wall I could hear the muffled sounds of the doctor speaking in labored Spanish to another patient. And, later, I could hear his voice in English, getting help from an interpreter on speaker phone.

In Santa Clara County 64 percent speak another language than English at home. And, according to one of my students today, in Santa Clara County 2 out of 3 is either an immigrant, or the child of immigrants.

Which brings us to the point: Lately Sarah Palin has been making distinctions between "pro-America" parts of the US, and the rest of the country.

"We believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she said.

To which Jon Stewart, of New York, responded:

"She said that small towns, that's the part of the country she really likes going to because that's the pro-America part of the country. You know, I just want to say to her, just very quickly: [expletive] you."

It's interesting that someone would actually come straight out and define 'real America' in an exclusive way.

Because it follows, then, that there are parts of America that, according to Ms. Palin, are not pro-America, and are not "the best of America."

Where are those places? The big towns? The big cities? You'd have to think that was what Jon Stewart was thinking.

Any definition of America needs be in-clusive. Any definition of America needs to include a big-city immigrant Irish cancer doctor speaking bare bones Spanish to his immigrant patients. And it needs to include those patients, and their young relatives who drive them to the hospital every afternoon.

If that's not the best of America, and the real America, I don't know what is.

19 radiation treatments down, 14 to go

I've read about fatigue that comes with radiation, and I think I have it. At least a little, and at least in the afternoons. After teaching, and being zapped.

I am all for the emotional

god bless america, II

"Doing nothing is not an option."
Frank Rich in the The New York Times.
Blood chilling.

irresistable: red, black, and flowers

- Who bought the coolest Japanese lunch box yesterday?
- Me.

fear not, men of fox news, she's not coming after you with tweezers

As much as Sarah Palin drives me up a wall, in some unexpected ways her being part of the presidential race is pure entertainment.

For instance, it is fun to hear male right-wing pundits and talking heads get themselves worked up over what they perceive as sexism. Never heard that before. Sure didn't hear it when Hillary Clinton was running.

That Newsweek cover there, for instance. I heard references to it in that teaser-TV manner: "Coming up, after the break, why this cover is angering republicans".

So, during the break I picked up my own copy, and looked at it closely. I could not find anything wrong with it.

When the break was over, I heard a frantic male voice from FOX news being replayed on MSNBC:

EVERY WRINKLE IS SHOWING!

I've never heard a man sound so afraid of wrinkles. True fear, I am telling you. Funny, yeah?

So why didn't I find the cover photo offensive? The obvious reason is that I am a woman in my forties, so I know what a woman in her forties looks like. And, compared to that, Sarah Palin does not show a lot of wrinkles on that cover. In fact, she looks happy, friendly, and like a real person. Nothing there to scare FOX news.

november: national novel writing month

November is National Novel Writing Month. Sign up and accept the challenge of writing 50 000 words in 30 days!

today: national coming out day

"Coming out, and living openly, as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, or as a straight supportive person, is an act of bravery and authenticity."

Video from the Human Rights Campaign.
National coming out day link.

And, actually, I think that given the sentiments expressed in the youtube clip below, and the proposal of Proposition 8 in California that would "eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry", the pressure is on for the silent masses of supportive straight persons to be silent no more.

I am in. Everybody has the right to love who they love, right?

god bless america

Thanks to Babs.
It's so scary what is going on.
It does matter what you yell from stage.
It does matter what words you use.

I have an orchid at work

outrage

So I've been sick for a few days and I've been making a lot of my new favorite home remedy, the ginger tea with lemon and honey. (And sometimes a dash of chili pepper, that really opens those sinuses.)

Anyway. For the first few days of sick I had a bag of homegrown perfectly in season delicious Santa Clara lemons (thanks Kathy!). After I had run out of those I've had to rely on Safeway.

I just used one of those Safeway lemons right now. Guess where it was from?

Chile.

Chile.

"being able to answer a question forthrightly"

Sarah Palin answers a question on whether she thinks Barack Obama is dishonest:

“I’m not saying he’s dishonest, but in terms of judgment, in terms of being able to answer a question forthrightly, it has two different parts to this. The judgment and the truthfulness and just being able to answer very candidly a simple question about when did you know him, how did you know him, is there still — has there been an association continued since ’02 or ’05, I know I’ve read a couple different stories. I think it’s relevant.”

sometimes what you think you can do is just a result of your limited understanding

Maureen Dowd asks a question (The New York Times, Oct. 4) I've been thinking a lot about lately:

We could, following [Sarah Palin's] strenuously folksy debate performance, wonder when elite became a bad thing in America. Navy Seals are elite, and they get lots of training so they can swim underwater and invade a foreign country, but if you’re governing the country that dispatches the Seals, it’s not O.K. to be elite?

for a cold

Smash up half an inch of fresh ginger. Put the smashed up pieces in a teapot, add boiling water, and let it brew for ten minutes.

Pour the tea into a big mug. Add the juice from a half a lemon, and a tablespoon of honey. Mmmmm.