1980s hair.  The final frontier.

Being a failure at most everything in the 70s, especially the Farrah Fawcett look, I was more than happy to usher in the next decade with some hair styles that were a bit more "cutting edge". Of course, looking back on it now, it's completely dated… Read full post »

The Susan G. Komen Foundation has just issued a statement from Nancy Brinker reversing its decision to defund breast cancer health grants to Planned Parenthood. This statement was published, among other places, at DallasNews.com, and reads as follows:

We want to apologize to the American public

… Read full post »

Not content with the state legislature's decimation of tenure and bargaining rights for teachers last year, the Tennessee State Board of Education is trying to do its part to demonize and demoralize public educators as well.

The State Board of Education is the gover… Read full post »

The TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio, Inc., has announced its list of 2011 nominees for Outstanding Creative Achievement in audio technology and production.  These awards recognize those who work "behind the scenes" in creating music for film, television, video games, live broadcasts… Read full post »

It was almost two years ago that I wrote my farewell blog to Bill Moyers, who retired from his weekly television series, Bill Moyers Journal, on April 30, 2010.  Since then, Friday nights at our house have often involved the following conversation:

Jim:  What do you want to watch?

Me: … Read full post »

Well that's certainly a tawdry and misleading headline, isn't it?  I should be ashamed of myself!  No, this post isn't about sex with ghosts.  I'll leave that to American Horror Story.

This post is about Christmas and the struggle to feel the Christmas spirit when so many things, inter… Read full post »

Although it has been nearly forty years since the Supreme Court banned sex segregation in "Help Wanted" ads, there might still be a very few jobs that one could consider to be the provenance of only one gender or, at least, performed better by a particular gender. Up until to… Read full post »

Reading the news that Michelle Duggar has suffered a second-trimester miscarriage, ending her 20th pregnancy, has left me wondering just how to react.

I guess my first impulses were somewhat less than charitable, and I settled on, "Hey, I've finally got something in common with her." Because I think… Read full post »

In 1976, I was a painfully shy, clumsy, skinny, glasses-wearing high school freshman, occupying that no man's land between Tiger Beat and Seventeen, trying desperately to find some place, any place, to fit in. It was a time of satin bomber jackets, Love's Baby Soft, Bonne Bell Lip Smackers, feat… Read full post »

A wistful and melancholy song from the soundtrack of The Painted Veil, a 2006 film based on the book by W. Somerset Maugham.  Set amidst an outbreak of cholera in China in the early 20th century, it depicts the troubled relationship of Walter and Kitty Fane.  Although the movie ends… Read full post »

Several months ago, I was introduced to, and then had to introduce all of you to, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, a delightfuly surreal video featuring a very outspoken one-eyed talking seashell.

After I told my sister about the video, she went a little cuckoo for Marcel, so much so… Read full post »

I was inspired to dust this one off after reading Frank Michels' yard sale post from yesterday.

Before you jump all over me, let me start off by saying that I'm not talking about all yard-salers.

Single moms and stay-at-home moms on tight budgets, no problem.  (Unfortunately, tho… Read full post »

When my  husband and I went to London in 1985, it was at the height of the "Dark Cowboy" craze in Britain.  I remember shopping at this tangled maze of shops in a big building on Kensington High Street.  You could buy all kinds of "western" themed apparel.  Decorative silver tips… Read full post »

 (Photo by John Partipilo, The Tennessean)

The stormtroopers arrived in the middle of the night, as they so often do, in order to take advantage of the vulnerability and disorientation of the sleeping Occupy Nashville protestors.  An incredible series of photos by… Read full post »

(In case it's not clear, the photo below is a parody of this website.  I admit that the site is almost a parody of itself, so my attempt may seem redundant, but I thought it was worth a try.)

Read full post »

After all of the horrible death penalty stories coming out of the south, from states like Texas and Georgia, it is good to know that sometimes the desire to be merciful outweighs the demand for vengeance.

I don't have the time to write a full blog about this, but today… Read full post »

You know, I've been feeling lately that I don't have much of a stake left in this country that I've always called home, like I don't have control over anything anymore.

Thank goodness New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made me part of something again!  When asked to comment on… Read full post »

Why don't Baptists have sex standing up?

Because that might lead to dancing.

~Oscar Wilde

Leave it to Oscar Wilde to come up with one of the funniest lines ever about dancing and religion. But there's more than a grain of truth in this famous saying. There's a reason that… Read full post »

In a bold move, Microsoft today unveiled a font that will now be available on all of its new computers, as well as being made available free of charge for uploading to existing PCs.

A Microsoft spokesman explained that, "In an effort help our more conservative Windows users&n… Read full post »

Carlene Carter was really something back when I first moved to Nashville.  The daughter of June Carter (granddaughter of Mother Maybelle) and Carl Smith, and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, she's definitely country music royalty. Plus, she was married to Nick Lowe, so she has some serious power pop… Read full post »

I'm having a party at my house. The video below was filmed there just recently. (As you can see, I am a lot shorter and pudgier than my avatar would indicate.)

Labor Day is one of the few holidays where I feel I have a tangible connection to the source.

Columbus Day?  Not Italian.  St. Patrick's Day?  Not Irish.  Easter?  Not religious.  Memorial Day?  No family members, save for a first cousin once removed, have been kill… Read full post »

It's not the kind of story you hear every day (which is probably a good thing) and I would assume that this goes double in Idaho.  But maybe not?

(Reuters) - Police in Idaho Falls said on Tuesday they have told a 34-year-old man to stop wearing a bunny suit in public… Read full post »