So, I've ranted before (http://open.salon.com/blog/lekkers/2009/02/11/camille_paglia_you_couldnt_be_less_relevant) about Camille Paglia, which is why I was like, "Today, I will not say anything about Camille Paglia."  But then, goddamn, she brought up Rush Limbaugh.

 Here's a gem:

"Why have… Read full post »

I was talking to someone at work the other day, and it made me think that the world is becoming more and more polarized every day.  I don't mean politically -- well, maybe it is, but I don't mind that.  Off to the camps with you, Republicans!  I shall make you toil… Read full post »

Over the weekend, Handsome and I took on a boarder.  It feels so ... 1910 of us.  Like, I'm going to stock up on potatoes and take in extra laundry next.

Actually, it's not that radical of us -- this person is not a new immigrant stranger from the steel plant. … Read full post »

My mother bought me a subscription to Vanity Fair Magazine, chiefly I think because she always takes the issues off of me for herself when I'm "done" with them.  Fair enough: I look at the pictures, when I want, depending on my mood, to feel A) bad about being fat and… Read full post »

In the year before I was to start graduate school, I'd been sleeping with this guy that kept threatening to kill himself.  I want to be clear that he had real problems -- his father had beaten him, I am convinced that he was at least clinically depressed, and at most… Read full post »

I started reading Camille Paglia again today.  I don't know why.  She tries to be so painfully undeservedly self-congratulating that it's like ... it's like listening to Sarah Palin, with an added layer of irony -- when the big SarahPAC rags on "intellectuals" (by which she appare… Read full post »

I was sharing one of these recipes at work today, and thought, heck, I'll share some of the laziest vegetarian soup recipes in the world with you good folks.

Stuffed Cabbage Stew

Half a head of cabbage, chopped into bite sized pieces

A bunch of flat-leafed parsely, chopped

Garlic to… Read full post »

I just read Roy Hobbs' well-written post about his encounter with the crowd that showed up at his local Denny's last Tuesday for the free Grand Slam Breakfast (you can find the post here: http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=101987.)

The author seems skeptical about the whole proceeding -- as he ill… Read full post »

Today I ...

... pulled a pair of dirty pants out of the hamper to wear to work.

... surprised a co-worker with how young-looking my husband is.  (They'd never seen a picture.)

... resolved for one more day not to take down the "Merry Christmas" gingerbread house on my… Read full post »

The Super Bowl and its hangover are over now, and apart from my beloved Steelers winning a record-breaking sixth championship, the end of Super Bowl Sunday brought more good news: we're cancelling the cable!

I hate television, but when Handsome bought the giant flat plasma screen TV, I bowed to his… Read full post »

It's Friday and it's snowing AGAIN, and I do not have anything particularly interesting to say, except I do have a question, two questions, actually, one specific, one general.  We're about to have a little "Steelers Party" at work, and also, up by the city building, they're going to have a… Read full post »

We tried to go to work this morning and discovered that the roads up to our house were untreated -- we were trapped on top of the hill, at least until a plow came through.  I called to inform my boss, and while Handsome attacked the sidewalk with pet-safe de-icer pellets… Read full post »

We bought our first house last year and we have a backyard and so we decided to hang up a bird feeder on the patio.  There are ten million or so happy little birds out there every day.  Being a dork, it was not sufficient for me just to make all… Read full post »

(I noticed that ePriddy posts lovely haikus sometimes.  I decided to share a not-quite haiku I wrote this summer, as a way of reminding myself that someday, despite all appearences, winter will end.)

Air like your hot breath

and asphalt to reflect

light, fumes,

a whole shining day.

 … Read full post »

I had a dream last night that I was smoking crack with a friend of mine.  I've never smoked crack, but in the dream, I was really, really high, and I'm like: how does my brain know how to simulate in a dream-state what it's like to be high on crack? … Read full post »

I took the day off yesterday and after sleeping in, I watched TV for several hours around noon.  Barack Obama in high definition with the voice of Brian Williams guiding me gently through the pagentry.  I voted for Barack Obama as an act of electoral will in the valley of a… Read full post »

It snowed over the weekend, not too much, thankfully, and it only laid on the grass.  It was a constant, pleasant-to-watch, big-flake snow flurry, and I say "pleasant-t0-watch" because we'd already been grocery shopping and there was a ton of football on TV and we didn't have to l… Read full post »

Our rat is sick.  We had to cancel our New Year vacation plans because on Wednesday, before we left, we realized that Mary Jane, who came into the house via the Humane Society on the North Side with her friend Ratty, whom we renamed Madeline so as to call her Maddie… Read full post »

This'll only take a second.

Now, I've read Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, and also Wendell Barry, and I subscribe to Gourmet Magazine, and I'm pretty up on food, food politics, and dieting -- I once starved myself thin to the tune of 80 lbs. in 9 months! (Don't try it… Read full post »

Mom broke her ankle on Christmas Eve.  She called me at work to inform me that she'd fallen in the mud trying to get to the car to go to the grocery store to buy Ranch dressing.  Her ankle hurt a great deal, but she was refusing to go to the emergency… Read full post »

Yesterday, I wrote a fairly lengthy blog expressing my continuing bewilderment at the way in which Americans maintain willful ignorance about their food system, and so sustain disasterous agricultural practices and suborn needless and horrific cruelty.  This came about because of Barack Obama's… Read full post »

... is you have to have read "Fight Club."  Such was the proclamation of my graduate advisor.  But I totally never have.  Love the movie, though.  Love it.  Just ... never got around to reading the book.

Which is just like what happened with "The Wind in the Willows" app… Read full post »

So, I was catching up on my reading after the weekend, and ran across this in Salon's War Room blog by Thomas Schaller, in a post called "Lionizing the shoe thrower" from 10:46 this Monday:

"Look: Bush has wreaked havoc on Iraq. Death, dismemberment, disfiguring, displacement and political disarray a… Read full post »

Today has been a particularly frustrating day, and this is a pure bitch about it.

 As previously mentioned, I work for the government, a county agency that helps folk -- early intervention, prevention, crisis management, aftercare, all that stuff.  But all day today I've suffered -- as a ti… Read full post »

Apparently, yesterday was "A Day Without Gays" wherein gays and lesbians were supposed to "call in gay," thus literalizing and demonstrating the consequences of the marginalization that many great American douchebags would like to impose on them.  It put me in mind of the National Day of Silence… Read full post »