Dying in the ICU is a numbers game; a colors game.  A green, red, yellow, and blue game.  As humans, we’re conditioned to quantify everything.  We stare at score boards, ticker tapes, and polls.  Our joys crescendo when the numbers are right and diminuendo at other times.&nb… Read full post »

The temperature in Phoenix is finally above 100.  It’ll hang there until September, at the earliest.  Walking outside is like dredging through molasses.  The heat slows everything down.  Occasionally, a jackrabbit makes a mad, almost suicidal dash across the pavement. … Read full post »

Straight up.  There’s no other way to enjoy Memphis, other than straight up.  Neat.  Pure, baby.  One grabs Memphis by the bottle and chugs it down.  One does not savor Memphis as much as one consumes it.  Memphis is that girl that likes it rough; pull on her hair,… Read full post »

Then, I noticed the changing of seasons not by the usual indicators; foliage embossing or withering, animals coming or disappearing for months at a time, and rising and falling energy bills, but by women.  

In the Summer, there were the mini-skirts, or the figure-showing white Capri’s, wher… Read full post »

Note:  A few weeks ago, Mary Wollstonecraft asked that I fill out her interview questions.  Things became busy for me and I ended up not writing for almost a month.  A few nights ago, I finally came around and sacrificed some sleep for the sake of answering the questions.

 … Read full post »

Sheldon the Wonderhorse indicated that it was looking for a new sidekick.  Since I've been out of work for over a year, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to send in an application.  

 

 Jon Henner's Superhero Sidekick Resume

   

 
This is me, perched… Read full post »

   

I’m staunchly pro-choice, but I don’t actually have a dog in the fight.  My rights aren’t impacted either way, especially since there’s no valid male “abortion” (failing to pay child support, notwithstanding).  I continue to figh… Read full post »

 

Tomorrow, April 28th, is Equal Pay Day.  I’d like to put aside any feelings we have about how Equal Pay for Equal Work has been politicized far beyond the original message, and focus on the human reality of unequal pay.

The lack of Equal Pay impacts every one of us,/… Read full post »

The equal rights rhetoric on most progressive web sites usually is limited to the problems white women face, with the occasional smattering of race-related dialogue and GLBTQI issues.  (I've written about this before.)  Mama Salon isn’t immune to that sort of narrow journalistic focus… Read full post »

A response to the open call by annette2009

 

6am
and the girl by the bus stop - dancing
I walked
through the church fields
the homeless they congregate there in steep lines
waiting by the closed doors
mercy is fine religious too but only after 7am
before then mercy is sleeping like most of… Read full post »

Occasionally in our wanderings we stumble upon food that becomes archetypes akin to what existed in Plato's world of ideas.  Every time we eat that food, it's compared to the archetype and found wanting.  No pizza ever matches the one I had from Giordano's in Downtown Chicago. 
…

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Thursday, some time around mid morning, or maybe it was just after noon; I don’t really remember and time in this case is irrelevant.  All I know is that I found myself parked at the Café du Monde, somewhere towards the back and corner.  I really wante… Read full post »

   


This is for when I came to the Susquehanna River and the dawn had laid sheaths of fog alongside its banks.  The forest rolled south towards the water and dallied in the fresh light.  I pulled to the side of the road and dismounted, just to see the early sun… Read full post »

 

 

I said be careful!

Now look at what you have done

Lube is everywhere! Read full post »

   
  That's me on the right, shortly before heading out to the battlefield.

I like to hit people with sticks.  But, we won't be talking about my sex life.


There was a time in my undergraduate studies when I decided to reject everything considered masculine. … Read full post »

Don't come now she said

But of course I didn't hear that

And now SHE won't come

   
Elements of Queer Theory deal with the social construct of gender; the post-modern belief that gender isn’t regulated to the possession of certain dangly bits, but to an abstract concept of self.  Releasing gender from medical definitions derived from biological fact has… Read full post »

I often get so caught up in my thoughts and problems that I forget there's a little person who watches most every move I make; when he's not busy destroying (or contemplating destroying) everything that gets in his way.  My gut tells me most parents are like this, except for the… Read full post »

Hellspawn is at a time in his life when he wants to meet new, and interesting things, and destroy them.  While before we allowed him to explore his environment to the most of his physical capacities, Hellspawn's becoming strong enough that he can inflict serious harm on the items he wishes… Read full post »

    House is staring into your soul

House is falling down my must-see-non-cable -TV list, much in part because of the brilliant inner (or outer) geek fantasies of Chuck, but also because the writing for House fell into routine.  Last night's show, though, reminded me why I/…

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    Kudos, Saturn Smith!




Two weeks ago, the OS cover had a nice post on how to fully utilize the Twitter experience.  While Twitter does have its detractors, I naturally gravitate towards it because Hellspawn doesn't quite appreciate my continuous desire to share information… Read full post »

One evening when I was a child, back when everything seemed to be paneled in faux-wood (station wagons, caption decoder boxes, cereal, Michael Jackson, et cetera), my parents sat me in front of a crime drama because they heard one of the guest characters was deaf.  I don’t know if the… Read full post »

Invariably most people succumb to some form of hearing loss before giving leave to Earth, but generally their experiences with the concept of deafness is limited to a few visits to the local audiology office and a beige contraption that makes ugly love to the concha.  Deafness, as enumerated by… Read full post »

Like lampreys, the Deaf attach themselves to free floating communications technology.  Most were not designed with us in mind, but we seize on them anyway and integrate them into our lifestyles and culture.  Who could be surprised at our behavior?  Humans need communication.  We c
…

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I missed Bishop Robinson's invocation last Saturday and was pleased to find some of it transcribed, and a link to the rest of the transcription, over on Joan Walsh's Mama Salon blog.

Unfortunately, the following caused me to bite my tongue.  Et tu, Bishop Robinson?

 

Bless this nation with… Read full post »