madonna and child

yesterday was a sunny day

I need to go outside

This is getting out of hand. I've learned this morning that there are Cloud Appreciation Society, Cloud Junkie, and Cloud Porn pools on flickr.

angry mother

I remember visiting one of my friends years ago when her kids where young. She had a newborn girl and a two or three year old boy, and she was wasn't happy. She was newly divorced. She was tired. She said there were times she was ready to throw her daughter out the window.

Another friend, she's an online friend but it feels as if I know her, has a blog for frustrated mothers: Angry mother hits back.

someone said it looks like a ghost is living here, but it's really just the secret teacher stairs at work

it took for ever to get home the other night

drama

working late

quit smoking, eat your veggies, minimize the alcohol, and take your vitamin d

Today's World Cancer Day. According to Wikipedia, cancer causes 12.5% of deaths in the world. Cancer is preventable, in some cases curable, and almost always treatable.

National Cancer Survivors Day is celebrated the first weekend of June in North America. In 2004 there were 9.8 million cancer survivors in the US.

yeah, really

I'm a member of a site for expat Swedes. Sometimes there are interesting discussions on the forums, but most of the time there isn't much activity.

One topic gets people going, though. Television. There is a flurry of messages anytime someone asks for the best ways of accessing Swedish TV from somewhere.

OK, I'll be honest. I think that's a little pathetic.

mimosa everywhere

And the allergies are here, so it must be spring.

the mission

dan and I drove to monterey on sunday

it's spring but the maple is still in fall

this is the side entrance to the business school

so yeah the weather cleared up. this is the backdoor to the administration building.

thanks, kjelle

Click because it's Friday.

I am still amazed I get to live in california where winter looks like this

yeah, it's funny

reflection

fall in winter

one year later

like I said: rain

whatever it is in the middle of that tree, it looks like a bird in flight

it's been raining a lot lately (II)

orchid

this is from moss landing too, but on the beach

Another thing: I just got myself an account for Photoshop.com. It's free. They let you store photos online, and you can also do basic editing right there on the same site. That's really practical if you want to resize images for posting somewhere, like on your blog.

I'm back, sort of

So, I've been a bad blogger recently. The quarter started, and I've been busy with that. And I've spent most of my computer time updating my photo sites. I'm obsessed with the Hipstamatic application for the Iphone, and I post photos on my homepage, on Flickr, and on my smugmug pages daily.

I love the quality of the hipstamatics, and the fact that you don't have complete control over what you're doing. I've had to unlearn always angling for the pretty framing.

The photo above is from a cemetery in Moss Landing, Calif. Moss Landing is on the coast, north of Monterey but south of Watsonville. Lots of Italian, Portuguese, and Mexican immigrants around there have been, and are, working in farming and fishing. There were lots of Catholic gravesite traditions: fake flowers, angels, and madonnas.

dreary

spring is coming slowly

wild wood

thursday, 1pm

The other day I stopped by 7-11 on my way to work to get some gum. As I parked I noticed a man getting out of his car next to me. I pegged him as some sort of business guy: Dress pants, dress shoes, shirt and tie.

We walked into the store. He headed for the refrigerated section, I for the gum aisle.

We reached the check-out line at the same time. He was getting orange juice and breath mints. Healthy habits, I thought.

Then I realized that there was an air of booze and cigarettes around him. He smelled like a bar.

He probably keeps the vodka in the car.

california in january

Girls I meet walking across campus:

flip-flops, t-shirts, no jackets

Me:

thick wool winter coat

big wollen scarf

doc marten's boots

cambria

So, Dan and I went on a road trip the week before Christmas. We took off from the Bay Area, and drove south. Our first stop was Monterey, where we stayed at a hotel with a fireplace in each room. That was pretty much all I wanted from the vacation.

It didn't rain, we walked a lot and had a lot of good food. They sold tamales in the street at the farmer's market.

From Monterey we drove further south, and ended up i Cambria, Calif. It's a cute little town where you can easily imagine yourself living. It looks like a lot of people run little businesses out of their houses. There are artists, and designers, coffee shops and restaurants.

Main street runs parallel to Highway 1, and that's where all the restaurants are. We had a super breakfast, and a cozy dinner.

There are lots of hotels in Cambria. We stayed at one called Cambria Palms. It wasn't a random choice, we had actually been invited to come and check it out, and we didn't pay for the two nights we stayed there.

The place is owned and run by a young couple from Santa Barbara, and they are renovating and updating a classic California motel. It's cool, and it's going to be even cooler as they keep working, you can tell.

Hearst Castle is close by, so we went there. The view from there is amazing, and the house is crazy.

While on the trip I became obsessed with the Hipstamatic app for the iphone. Hence the photos. It's all I've been doing since.

new times, new brooms, as the swedes say

So, it's a new year, and I thought it would be fitting to overhaul my homepage. I've had some major issues with PC to mac web hosting compatibility, so for now the homepage is here: http://web.me.com/charlottakratz/homepage/front.html. It's not the most elegant of URLs, but hopefully I'll get it sorted out. Let me know what you think, and let me know if you spot any weirdness. (And please please let me know if you can help with getting the iweb page to use my charlottakratz.com domain name.)

iphoneography

Here is a cool photo project, where people were invited to manipulate the same image, using their iphones.

at the movies

before it started raining

by the safeway on winchester in campbell, calif.

christmas eve sundown

san simeon

85 north

hipstamatic

I got the Hipstamatic app for my iphone recently, and I'm completely hooked. The app mimics the look of photos taken with 1960s Instamatic cameras, and it's the most fun thing ever. I've set up a flickr account to show them, here, and I've added galleries to my smugmug pages, here. There is also a flickr group, here.

And look them up on Twitter, or the Facebook group.

come to think of it google, that's what I think of YOU

When someone leaves a voice message on Google Voice the service will transcribe it and send it as a text message. It's cool, and practical, because it's easier to scan a text than listening to someone talking.

Some words stump the software, though.

So, this is the reason I had a text message from a student that began, "Hi Professor crap, this is Laura...".

Thanks Google. If that's what you think of my last name.

I am the captain of my ship

I liked Clint Eastwood's Invictus. It's uplifting, and it's an interesting comment on reconciliation.

Matt Damon plays the captain of the South African national rugby team. He's good. But you have to wonder, why him? I am sure there are hundreds of accomplished South African actors, who would have been able play the same part without having to spend all that time practicing the accent.

Someone did the math and figured that Americans wouldn't watch a movie set in South Africa if it had actual South Africans in the lead roles. Or, using American actors is a way of saying that the themes of racial tension, reconciliation, and forgiveness, have bearing on American society too.

from my two favorite girls

Click here for a very merry Christmas.

or, I could just 'unfollow', I guess

I am following Sarah Palin on twitter. I think for every time she mentions 'Wounded Warriors' I will mention another professional group that unselfishly spend their lives serving others. I'll start with nurses and janitors.

the angry chicken

Here is a link for anyone interested in cool, creative stuff you can make yourself. Cooking, sewing, baking, crafts. And making your own deodorant. I love this blog.

had to go twice to the fed ex warehouse, but who cares

I got a MacBook Pro.

I'm pretty ecstatic.

The end.

I am sorry, but this is just silly

Bill Cosby must have an honorary degree from somewhere because now he is being addressed, and referred to, as 'Doctor Cosby' on morning television. (Yeah, they are all serious about it too.)

so that's a first

There was snow on the mountain peaks this morning, and then in the afternoon - hail!

- Posted from my iPhone

the snl tiger woods skit

Watching this you also learn what a Swedish accent sounds like to the Americans. Turns out it sounds just like a German accent. But who cares.

Oh, wait. I do care. I don't like stereotypes any more than anyone else. And I have to admit it's a little bit startling to see strength and independence portrayed like this.

I hope she leaves him.

Something else, a very funny bit from Andy Borowitz, the Huffington Post:

In one of the largest mass demonstrations in recent history, over one million women claiming to have had sexual liaisons with Tiger Woods marched on Washington today.
/.../

Shandy Shanoyne, a 22-year-old thong publicist who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Mr. Woods, said that she organized the march to demand benefits, such as health care and workmen's compensation, for the golfer's many girlfriends.

"We are sick and tired of being told to take our names off our voicemail greetings," she said. "We have demands and they must be met. Quickly. Huge."

from babs

skin deep: cosmetics safety database

One of my students mentioned the cosmetics safety database the other day. It's a website with a database that allows you to check the toxicity levels of your cosmetics and body products.

The skin lotion I like: 8 out of 10. Woops.

Thanks MacKenzie.

Dan, who reads fine print, suggests checking the info on the rating system, here. An excerpt:

The hazard score represents a synthesis of known and suspected hazards from more than 50 definitive databases. The hazard rating of a product can be higher than for its individual ingredients — it adds up the hazards of all ingredients, and is scaled higher if the product has penetration enhancers or other ingredients that increase skin absorption.

The "data gap" rating is a measure of how much is unknown about an ingredient. Not all ingredients have the same amount of safety data. For example, some ingredients may appear to have low hazards, but this may be due to the fact that they have not have been studied or assessed completely. Other ingredients may appear to have low hazards and have been thoroughly studied or assessed. This score helps differentiate between ingredients and products that have been studied to different degrees.

the way we think out here in the un-real america

I am following Sarah Palin on Twitter. At 8:45 on Thursday night she has this to say:

Flying 2 Dallas now where bus meets us 2 get early start tomrrw w 1000s of good Texans who are lot like Alaskans:independent/bold/patriotic.

I like to think that I am pretty independent, and sometimes bold too. But I am also a bleeding liberal, and I was raised to believe that international solidarity is healthier than patriotism.

I still think international solidarity (or any solidarity, for that matter) is healthier than patriotism.

had to set them straight on the french for 'breakfast'

Put on my smartypants and created an alias for WikiAnswers.

- Posted from my iPhone

from cnn

Martha Stewart on Sarah Palin.

his name was einar

When I was a kid I read a long series of books that had belonged to my mom. The heroine was a young woman, and the books chronicle her life growing up, getting married, and starting a family. Along the way the readers got a few valuable life lessons. What particularly stuck in my mind was the the idea that if you go out without your wedding band, you have to watch out because men will think you are available and it will be awkward.

It was all steeped in 1940s morals and values, and I gobbled it up.

The main character gets married around book 2 or 3. The courtship is traditional and safe, and she marries someone her family know well and love.

The traditional heroine in those books from when my mom was growing up married her first cousin. So, I've always associated marrying your cousin with safety.

In the US, not so much. From today's New York Times:

WHEN Kimberly Spring-Winters told her mother she was in love, she didn’t expect a positive response — and she didn’t get one.

“It’s wrong, it’s taboo, nobody does that,” she recalled her mother saying.

But shortly after the conversation, Ms. Spring-Winters, 29, decided to marry the man she loved: her first cousin.

'a glittering blonde', says the new york times

Seems these two people crashed the state dinner at the White House yesterday. (Yeah really, they did.) Anyone think a guy with a turban would have gotten that far?

I am an american now

I finally agree that mint equals Christmas. The Häagen-Dazs Limited Edition Peppermint Bark is pretty good.

substance, substance, substance

I've read Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue. I was going to say something smart about it, but it's just really tedious. Poorly written, 400+ pages, nothing interesting.

What I remember a week after finishing the book is the constant presence of Ms. Palin's young daughter Piper, 7. Her mom mentions her often, and Piper really seems to be a spunky little girl.

And then it hit me: That's how Sarah Palin wants us to see her. Spunky little girl. That's probably what she was at that age, and it's what she wants to remain.

Sad part is, though, that when you're a grown-up all attitude isn't enough.

anyone see 'history boys'? remember the ending?

if you have cancer, you want to know it, believe me

There are new guidelines out for mammograms and women's self exams in screening for breast cancer. In short, in the US mammograms will no longer be mandatory for women in their 40s, and women will no longer be taught to examine their own breasts for lumps.

I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer when I was 46 years old. I had found the lump myself. I was not part of a risk group. I have no family history of breast cancer. Most breast cancer patients don't.

I understand how statistics work. The bottom line is that on the whole, the gain of all of those mammograms, and all those examinations, don't outweigh the costs, risks (x-rays equal radiation, never a good idea), and anxiety that is created. From the New York Times story: Over all, the report says, the modest benefit of mammograms — reducing the breast cancer death rate by 15 percent — must be weighed against the harms.

If you're part of those 15 percent, things look a little different, though. If a woman like me didn't have mammograms, and didn't know how to do a self exam, chances are that she would live much longer with aggressive cancer spreading, making treatment less effective.

Part of the research that has informed the new guidelines is Swedish. A Swedish friend told me about it a while ago. She also said that in Sweden women are no longer advised to do self exams, because it causes anxiety. Someone on one of the morning shows today said that "our breasts become our enemies".

The bottom line for me is that in the end, life is going to kill all of us. There is no avoiding that. But we have to make sure that whatever we have, that can be treated, gets detected as early as possible.

So, if we won't have mammograms until we turn 50, we need to make sure we learn how to examine our own breasts.

If it freaks you out, get over it. You really have no choice.

you tell me

This is a two month old little girl. I've borrowed the photo from the front page of the November 16, 2009, online edition of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. The headline says that a billion people in the world suffer from hunger. And then there is this pull quote from a UN expert: "There is no lack of food, it's a matter of social inequality."

It seemed to me that a mainstream American paper wouldn't use those words, 'social inequality', so to compare I looked up a similar story in the New York Times. It was the only story on global hunger that had a picture. Here is the photo they used:

And here is the quote from their UN expert: “The way we manage the global agriculture and food security system doesn’t work,” said Kostas G. Stamoulis, a senior economist at the organization. “There is this paradox of increasing global food production, even in developing countries, yet there is hunger.”

There you have it. The Swedes call it social inequality. To the Americans, it's a 'paradox'.

When I was a kid there were posters with photos of starving children on them on the walls of the school cafeteria.

No really, there was.

If I didn't know it before, I learned at the age of 7 that I was privileged. And they told me that with privilege comes responsibility. Where does it say that the readers of the New York Times couldn't handle the same truth?

the little house on the prairie, all grown up

Annaa Mattsson - we've never met, but we did have the same teachers for high school, ten years apart - wrote on her blog recently about having read a pile of American fiction, aimed at women. There was a theme, she said, and she summarized it like this (translation is mine, Annaa writes in Swedish):

A smart young woman grows up in small town, and leaves to a different and preferably larger town for school or work. She starts her career there, and she finds love. Then something dramatic happens, and the young woman abandons her career and, if she can't convince him to come with her, she also abandons her new found love. The young woman then returns to "where she belongs", the small town where she grew up, and her large family. And her friends, who, according to Annaa, have outrageous demands on her time and availability.

What's going on? Annaa asked on her blog. Family and friendship is more important than love and personal success? What kind of crap is that? She didn't recognize this moral-to-the-story, and figured it had to be an expression of American culture.

I have been thinking a lot about women and choices the past few months, because my friend Barbara and her daughter Shannon are writing a book and a blog on the topic. Often when I talk to Barbara or read their blog I have an unsettling feeling of being out of my element. I understand what they are talking about, but at the same time I don't. Sometimes I think I am just stupid, and sometimes I think there are actual cultural differences.

Annaa's question, and her observation, really helped me. I felt validated. I think Annaa did see an American theme. I think there is a strong pull for American women to stay home and take care of their families. To Swedish women that can be jarring, because we've been raised differently, and Swedish society works differently.

After I had been thinking about it for a couple of days, I realized that Annaa had described almost exactly the life of internet sensation Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. She is a woman in her early 40s, who has just published her first cookbook. She also has a large sprawling website. She is incredibly funny and talented, and popular among women. Right now her cookbook is number 11 on Publisher Weekly's list of bestsellers, non-fiction.

The New York Times describes Drummond, and her book, like this:

Ree Drummond lives on a cattle ranch in Pawhuska, Okla. She is also a writer, photographer and home-school teacher to her four children. She is also funny, enthusiastic and self-deprecating, making the book appeal to pavement-pounders and pioneer types alike. A self-described “career gal in black” and a vegetarian, she was between jobs in Los Angeles and Chicago when she met the man who would become her husband during a stopover in her hometown. Now, she is rooted in a community where meat is eaten at all three meals, pasta is still regarded with suspicion and vegetables other than potatoes are considered entirely optional.

I wonder if the popularity of The Pioneer Woman can be explained at least in part by the fact that while she is living out, very happily, women's fantasy of being whisked away by a handsome cowboy (she refers to her husband as 'Marlboro Man'), she is also fulfilling a social norm, the American social norm of returning home. And, not only does she return 'home' as in to her part of the country, she's returned 'home' in the most American sense of all: home to the prairie.

california economy

From the HR department:

Please be advised that pursuant to a recently enacted California state law (the income shifting and tax acceleration provision of ABX4-17), state wage withholding rates will be increased by 10 percent. This increase will be effective with your November 23, 2009 paycheck.

In the event that you wish to make changes to withholding amounts for state taxes, please complete and submit the Form DE 4 to the Department of Human Resources.

Please visit the State of California website for more information on the new withholding requirements:

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/aboutFTB/State_Wage_Withholding_Rates_Increased.shtml

simple swedish

This is funny, but probably incredibly confusing for the non-Swedish speaker when he gets to substantiv (nouns).

anniversary

Today it's one year exactly since I finished cancer treatment!


- Posted from my iPhone

out of office auto-reply

I just got this, in response to an email I had sent:

I am out of the office today on a mandated, unpaid furlough day due to severe state budget cuts imposed upon the California State University system. As a result, I will be unable to reply until my next business day or later.

Most employees of California State University, East Bay are being furloughed an average of two days per month from August 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010, due to deep cuts in State support for the CSU budget. Classes will remain in session on furlough days, but most administrative offices are closed. The Library, Student Health Services, and Student Housing offices will be open, but with reduced staff. The Bookstore and food service operations will remain open with possible adjusted hours. The University Police Dispatch Office and patrols will remain fully staffed.

Please refer to http://www.csueastbay.edu for a list of furlough days for the balance of the academic year. Thank you for your understanding during these difficult economic times.

For the record: All California State University employees are subject to a 10% pay cut. Even if classes won't be canceled during university-wide furlough days - meaning administrators are out - classes may be canceled for faculty furlough days. At California State University, East Bay, each faculty member has been asked to pick two unpaid furlough days per month during the fall quarter. Those days may or may not be teaching days.

hydrangea

marina, calif. nov. 1

I made it 60/40 fennel heavy and that was pretty good

Today's organic produce delivery had advice attached: to make a salad from fennel, mandarin oranges, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Yum.

1945

Watch this and be inspired. Explanations to the images can be found here.

peace

I've been sick with the flu for a couple of days, so I haven't really watched any news. Yesterday I listened to The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and Project Runway.

This morning when I read The New York Times, and then turned on MSNBC, I learned that there has been not one but two mass shootings in the US during the time I was away from the news.

I have nothing to say, other than that it is very sad.

it's gorgeous out here: 68 degrees, sun, blue skies, blue ocean, a little breeze

Why would anyone drive to one of the prettiest places in the world, the Central California coast, only to sit in the car and read? With your back to the view?

-- Posted from my iPhone

here it is, finally: the explanation to the man-flu, and the man-cold

The New York Times is quoting research that has found that "women’s bodies generate a stronger antibody response than men’s do". As there is a shortage of influenza vaccine (the swine variety) they were trying to figure out if half-doses of the influenza vaccine will be enough. The answer seems to be yes. And especially for women.

cheerful, I know

Here is a good New York Times article on cancer treatment.

what oppression looks like

My friend Babs told me the other day that she likes foreign movies and TV shows because in them, people look like people.

I thought of that this morning when I came across a pledge drive on my local PBS station that featured two British actresses. My guess would be that they are in their 40s, because they looked it. They had wrinkles and dyed hair, and one of them was overweight.

There needs to be a movement against the impossible-to-achieve ideals for women that are coming out of almost all American film, TV, and advertising.

It gets into your head, no matter what you do. And you forget what real people look like. So that when you see your own face in the mirror, you think there is something wrong with you.

I remember watching an interview with Frances McDormand about ten years ago, where she said that she would never have any work done to her face because that way when she got to be 60, she would be the only one in Hollywood who would look 60 and she would get all the parts.

Next time I saw her was about five years ago in Something's Gotta Give. And, guess what, she was skinnier than all hell and I was sad.

Then I saw her just now, in this photo on her imdb page. I didn't recognize her. Pretty, yes. But also an entirely new face.

with the intense 1980s revival that is going on, it was bound to happen sooner or later

Today I bought a dress that looks exactly like one had 20 years ago. Black, short sleeves, square neck, mid thigh length. (Size 6, thanks for asking.)

as american as apple pie

my god the rain

California State University, East Bay, in Hayward, sits on top of a high hill. How can it get flooded?


-- Posted from my iPhone

maybe I'd like the guy a little bit better if he wasn't wearing those silly glasses all the time

I've been telling people lately that Europeans really want to like the US, but that it's been really hard for them to do so the past eight years.

I think that's part of the reason why President Obama is so popular abroad. Obama gives people in many nations an opportunity to renew their hope. Not their hope in him necessarily, but their hope in the US.

Guess who just stole this whole line of thought and had it printed in the New York Times?

Yep, everyone's favorite Irishman, Bono.

two smart women talking

Terry Gross interviews Rosanne Cash on Fresh Air. And there is music too.

happy national coming out day

The Human Rights Campaign: The Coming Out Project helps LGBT, as well as straight-supportive people live openly and talk about their support for equality at home, at work and in their communities each and every day.

I just caught the end of an HBO documentary, OUTRAGE: Do Ask. Do Tell. From the synopsis:

An official selection of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, OUTRAGE investigates the hidden lives of some of the country's most powerful policymakers - from now-retired Idaho Senator Larry Craig, to former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy - and examines how these and other politicians have inflicted damage on millions of Americans by opposing gay rights. Equally disturbing, the film explores the mainstream media's complicity in keeping those secrets, despite the growing efforts to "out" them by gay rights organizations and bloggers.

Through a combination of archival news footage and exclusive interviews with politicians and members of the media, OUTRAGE probes the psychology of a double lifestyle, the ethics of outing closeted politicians, and the double standards that the media upholds in its coverage of the sex lives of gay public figures. As Barney Frank, perhaps the best-known openly gay member of Congress explains, "There is a right to privacy, but not a right to hypocrisy. It is very important that the people who make the law be subject to the law."

maureen dowd is super funny

Sunday's column features Bill and W. And they're pissed.

big basin redwoods state park, boulder creek, calif.

clogs, anyone? anyone?

I got this link from Noel. "I thought of you when I saw this", he writes. Why? Probably because I am the proud owner of two pairs of kurbits decorated wooden clogs, dark blue. Kurbits painting is a traditional style of Swedish painting: stylized flowers, colorful and squiggly. (It's what's all over those wooden horses, actually.)

Anyway. Clogs are in every 7 years or so, and this time Karl Lagerfeld is making an attempt for Chanel. New York Magazine doesn't seem to appreciate it. I kind of like these ones.

he could just give the prize money to fund free health clinics

So they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama... I think that's a measure of two things:

First, it's a measure of the impact of the US in the world. This country is so strong, that anything that happens here impacts people in all other nations in the world.

Second, I think it's a measure of how divisive George W. Bush was that anybody who comes after him, and sets out to actually listen to other nations, gets a peace prize.

I also think the Europeans are still in the honeymoon phase with Barack Obama.

more from caitlin, she calls it 'inspirational'

watch it

Just as I was going to find the link for today's hour long 'Special Comment' by Keith Olbermann, I got this email from Caitlin:

It's long, but thoughtful; and I found it politically entertaining enough to watch it twice.

Olbermann: Health care as basic as life itself

Oct. 7: In a Special Comment Hour, Countdown's Keith Olbermann points out that there is no higher human priority than health and therefore no more basic government responsibility than ensuring the care of its citizens.

and then what happened?

I saw Michael Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story tonight. What really got to me was that in his State of the Union address in 1944 (that's 65 years ago) Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a "second bill of rights":

... under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

The Christian Science Monitor calls the scene showing FDR reading this part of his speech a 'previously unseen clip', so I guess I wasn't the only one who hadn't heard about it. The ideas were modern at the time, and they sound familiar to a Scandinavian. But in the US the list is still Utopian.

the value of education

I had a letter from the California Faculty Association today. That's the union that organizes state employed university professors. They say that between 2002 and 2004 half a billion dollars was cut from the California State University budget. In January of this year governor Schwarzenegger proposed another $386 million in cuts.

Faculty have taken a 10% pay cut this year.

Why do I have a feeling the Schwarzenegger children are in private schools?

to all american men: just so you know what people are saying about you

Anna Anka, married to Paul, is starring on Swedish TV in a reality show called Swedish Hollywood wives. Her gender-conservative views have caused concern in Sweden:

Anna Anka, who had a brief role in the film Dumb and Dumber, writes in an opinion piece for the Swedish website Newsmill that Swedish men, once proud Vikings, have been turned into "diaper changing" pansies who are too occupied with equality and instead should be like real American men. [American men] would apparently panic if they were left alone with a child for more than 20 minutes, and don't make dinner or do the ironing. (Full story here.)

I remember a young Mexican-American woman, one of my students, telling the class that her dad would do the laundry and the ironing at her house, but only if the shutters were closed so that no one could see him.

How about some male voices in the discussion about gender roles?

women and a-g-e

Two things have happened recently that have made me think of women and age. First, a recent study showed that statistically American women get sadder as they get older, with a significant leap downwards in the late 40s. Shannon Kelley touched on this in her post on Undecided yesterday.

You don't hear a lot of women talking about why this might be. Women in their early 40s say things like "turning 40 made me feel stronger", but how do the supposedly sadder 47-year-olds really feel?

I am 48, and I am going to tell you what I think.

Turning 40 was a breeze. Turning 45? how shall I put it? Less of a breeze. It sucked, frankly.

At 45 you know that your next milestone is going to be 50, and that takes some getting used to for anyone. I am sure it's the same thing for men. Around the same time, middle to late 40s, your body starts giving in. And I am not talking about sagging, I am talking health problems. Earlier this year I met close friends I hadn't seen in years, and as part of the massive catching up we had to do we spent at least an hour talking about serious health issues.

And then there is the sagging. After 45, if you don't make changes to your diet and exercise habits, you will get fat. Your body burns less, and gets stiff if you don't stretch. Your face changes. Your arms change. (And creams don't work.)

Add to this that however you feel, in the eyes of the world around you, you are old. The check-out guy doesn't flirt. Heads don't turn, faces don't lit up. It's a tiny bit disheartening.

In my late 40s, and especially last year, when I was fat after chemo and my hair was gray because I hadn't gone back to coloring yet, for the first time I realized how much I have been depending on the attention from strangers. Not necessarily a healthy habit. It was a good reminder to have it go away.

It's real work to decide for yourself who you want to be. Getting your head and your body to align again. And act on how you feel, not what others think of you.

Which reminds me of that other period in our lives when mind and body are out of sync. The dreaded teenage years.

Roman Polanski raped a 13 year-old girl in 1972. He was arrested in Switzerland earlier this week. Friends and colleagues have come out in his defense.

Without getting too involved in that discussion, let me just say this: Reasonable people are making excuses for an adult having sex with a 13 year-old. Anyone's mind boggled?

We live in a male-dominated world. That means that the eye we have upon us is male. At 47 women may feel the same way they did at 42, yet "we" see them as old. Why? Because "we" have a male eye.

Anyone who has been a 13 year-old girl, or known a 13 year-old girl, know that at 13 a girl is still a child, even if her body looks grown-up.

The fact that people come out in defense of Roman Polanski is proof enough that in our society it's OK to treat a girl like the woman she looks to be, not the child that she is.

The eye is male. What a woman looks like to a man becomes the truth. What a woman feels like becomes the un-truth.

These are the notions we're up against. Guys and girls, it's up to you to decide what you want to do about it.