My life is decidely different than it was a year ago, 3 years ago or 7 years ago. Colin and I move around and like to keep things interesting. Our latest additions to the household have definitely redefined the meaning of “interesting.” And exhausting. So as a sweet little surprise for my birthday, Colin called…
Category: Culture
The Parenting Apocolypse
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Wow there is SO much “content” out there in the World (Wide Web) to inform, amuse, and berate today’s parent. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Some of it is actually useful. Such as the answers to basic questions like “Which end is up, again?” “Will it ever stop pooping?” and the classic follow up,…
Stephen Fry and the Perfect Rant
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Thanks to my husband, I got the chance to listen to the ultimate rant on America… from my favorite Brit, Stephen Fry. He has a fantastic podcast called Stephen Fry’s Podgrams. Some are scripted, others are extemporaneous. That is major. Fry came to America for his BBC series Stephen Fry’s America, now available on DVD.…
On Not Celebrating Halloween
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This will be the Year Without Jack-o-Lanterns. For religious reasons (not our own), Colin and I will be taking a hiatus from Halloween this year. “If [we] believe fully in the omnipotence of God, then concern about witches, ghosts and goblins, and things that go bump in the night, is misplaced. It is God alone…
Defining Blogger Integrity
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NPR visited BlogHer 2009 in Chicago this week and raised the issue of blogger ethics that I’ve been ranting about for years now (can you believe I’ve been blogging for YEARS? How weird is that?) The question is: If a blogger is receiving a product from a company to “review,” what incentive (if you haven’t…
I never really liked fight club
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For some reason, people went bananas over Fight Club. I never thought It was all that great. I am open to influence and convincing of course but to me it was exactly what a good film shouldn’t be– a great idea, tied up in a perfect 107 minute bow. The Sixth Sense and other films…
No Apologies
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The admin in the English Department thinks I am too hard on my students, I can tell by the look on her face. I posted a note on mailbox that it is “Closed for portfolio submissions.” This implies, of course, that I haven’t received all of them, and that some of the students (the ones…
Stories Told
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Why I Love The Moth When I was about seven or eight years old, I got fixated on the idea of creating a neighborhood newspaper. I would gather stories, write them, publish them using my parent’s typewriter, and deliver them to my neighbors’ mailboxes. So I did. I went around interviewing my family, and Mr.…
Garrison Keillor’s Voice
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“You can’t imagine how much a dead man weighs.” – What the grandfather of Gabriel Garcia Marquez often told him. Quoted from “A Writer’s Almanac”, March 6, 2009. I’ve gotten quite taken with the sound of Garrison Keillor’s voice on my Honda Fit speakers. His Lake Wobegone days are too sentimental for me most of…
Host Hugh Jackman Wins Me Over
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…And Other Highlights of Oscars 2009 The reviews of those “dastardly-long” and “always self-serving” Academy Awards shows are here, and as usual the preeminently cranky Alessandra Stanley from the New York Times managed to pass on the her “kind of fun” review. Sigh… I continue to wonder why someone with no joie de vivre is…
A Glutton for Facebook-ishment
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In the latest round of Facebook madness, I am starting to come to terms with my own problem with these waves of social networking sites. I’m investing quite a bit of time there and I am wondering if that time might be better invested typing on the Royal Futura and riding my bike. Background: I…
Planning Oscar
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Well, it is that time of year again. The Nominations are out and I have, as of this moment, 23 days to get two big things done. 1. Come up with a quirky theme/invite for the annual Oscar party. 2. See about 9,000 films in an effort to, this year, FINALLY, win my own ballot…
A Midwestern Crossing
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Photographer David Ottenstein Stops Time in Iowa The last thing I expected to see when I went to a gallery meetup at the Ridgefield Guild of Artists on Saturday was HOME. The Radius 2008 Exhibition featured the best of their emerging artists from the last 10 years, and one of those was photographer David Ottenstein,…
As Right as Me!
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I don’t mean to gloat but– well, oops sorry! Apparently I do! Colin told me this morning that he noticed that when I am right about something and he is wrong, I have the instinct to remind him at least once or twice. “See? I was right! See Colin?? I was right!” My response of…
Three Questions for the New Year: Part One
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I am curious about a few things, most especially considering the monumentally bizarre and historical year that we have just left behind us. So in the quest for deeper conversation, more direct and useful contact with my brilliant readers (that’s you!), and topics of future rants, I have Three Questions for the New Year that…
