hats off, Miz T!

so...at last, my friend has launched her hat blog! see it here: tonya gross millinery

wait, it's more than hats - it's millinery! her hats are all hand made, creative and rock.
(i love her cashmere slouch winter hats - plenty of room for girls with 'fros!)

needless to say, check her out.

something about obama

Small Donations Add Up for Obama - New York Times

i just made a donation this morning (not as large as i would have liked, but it's something.) the story of how regular, private citizens are giving directly to candidates is amazing. i don't know about any of my five regular readers, but i haven't given a donation to the main Democratic party since that crushing Al Gore defeat. why give my cash to them when they FUBAR things so completely?

while the obama 'juggernaut' continues i have to admit that i feel a little bad for clinton. i'm sure that feeling of momentary pity will pass soon.

in other obama news, just came across this blog, Think on These Things, that does a pretty good job of delineating the difference between Obama and Clinton - their policy stances, the arguments about 'experience' (hey, guess who's actually passed major legislation and who's just named a post office?) and the sneaky media attacks on Obama.

particularly good is this video of a young black guy laying it down about Obama and healthcare to a pushy interviewer in L.A. Think of These Things is pretty up front about being pro-Obama, so make of that what you will. S/He's laying out a comprehensive argument in favor of a candidate and it's convincing to me.

and, via that clip, here's another blog i stumbled on - Jack & Jill Politics - that looks pretty cool, mixing bougie-ness and political wonkiness all in one.

(what's Jack & Jill? where i come from, if you were black, lived in Baldwin Hills and your parents were of the professional class, you probably participated in J&J. if , like me, you lived below the Hill, your parents were lower middle class and didn't know about such things, then you didn't.)

have i wasted enough time at work?
i think so. back to the grind, folks.

dammit. i knew it was getting harder for me to string more than two complex thoughts together.

[thanks, Orange!]

2007 Haiku Festival

clearly, china just isn't exciting enough for jp.
you can drop a haiku over at his 2007 Haiku Festival.

hear ye, hear ye

in a turn of events that was totally stunning and made me feel like a groupie who'd spent a night with her idol, i am now a new permanent co-blogger over at Bitch Ph.D.!

squee!

i can now spread my tedium to the outer reaches of the b'sphere.

jp in china!

my friend jp is off to china today. and perhaps indefinitely. sadness.
but i'll be reading his travel blog over here.

wish jp luck! (not that he needs it but you never know...)



(and my other friend, liza, has a travel blog about being a professor/corporate wife in india over here. fascinating and also affirming my opinion that, because i am soft and american, i would die in india.)

ok, thanks to shrinkykitten, i now know how to make ice cream in a bag.

ever wonder why you were so dissatisfied with Pretty in Pink and why you can't turn away from Some Kind of Wonderful?

beyond the whole Gen X thing, Atalanta (hee!) discovers the answer here.

(yes, i gave you a shout out!)

Orange Tangerine: Phobias

while i dither at work, frantically trying to prep for tomorrow (now there's a chance i'll have to speak at the press conference!!), here's a post about our sometimes irrational fears from Orange: Orange Tangerine: Phobias.

(in the comments you'll find a short list of mine, which includes having acid thrown in my face. i've been horribly afraid of this since i was a kid. any idea if that's an actual condition or just an extreme expression of my vanity?)

in the world away from crisis communications and appts with community leaders, people are having much more interesting conversations than the ones i'm foisting on you all over here.

like, this conversation over at Bitch Ph.D. about the head butt heard 'round the world. JP has a response of sorts over here.

ok, back to crisis communications.

sad: blackfeminism.org shutting down?

i can understand tiffany's wish to take a break.
sometimes you're up for the mess and sometimes you're not.

but her posts on rape, the duke case, consent and race and class are all good. i haven't written about the duke case because, truthfully, i haven't had time to follow it but tiffany's posts were really solid.

blackfeminism.org

jp's limerick festival!

i'm back from los angeles, where i had a surprisingly relaxed weekend. while i'd love to catch up on everything, i'm too tired. i'm also fighting off some weird cough.

so, go leave a limerick at jp's space. they're fun. (i love limericks. i think they're vastly underrated and, frankly, my favorite way to seduce wordsmithy boys. hee.)

you don't have to read: 2006 youdonhavetoread San Patricio Limerick eFestival!

bitch to david brooks: you missed the point

reliably, Bitch Ph.D. takes apart David Brooks and points us to other pieces covering the same article he wrote to kick off the new year.

my favorite part is her succinct parsing of his blind spot (emphasis mine):

Like a dummy, he goes on to say that "Hirshman has it exactly backward . . . . Power is in the kitchen. The big problem is not the women who stay there but the men who leave." Infuriating, because THAT IS PRECISELY HIRSHMAN'S POINT: that the problem is that men don't do enough of the unpaid, unrecognized, low-status work of domesticity. And that because they don't do it, women are forced into "choosing" between home life and professional life rather than getting to have both.

(and here's a letter to the times that says quite the same thing)

my favorite posts

hugo started a short list of his favorite posts in 2005.
it seems almost pointless for me to do it since i have about 5 regular readers (except when i post about hemhorroids and having bad sex with B-), but here it is.

my faves:
why david brooks is a tool (jan 18)
i choose sex (feb 10)
odd messengers (april 22)
for the librarian (may 7)
the racial summer posts (jul 30, jul 1, jun 23 & jun 4)
ouch. my ass (aug 9)
the MoDo posts (oct 30 & nov 2)

why these? i don't know - some were more written, others more amusing, but i just like these the best.

anyway, happy 2006! may it be slightly more satisfying than 2005.

it's here!: The Carnival of Feminists, Issue 3

Sour Duck: The Carnival of Feminists, Issue 3

i read the previous carnival on philobiblion and this biweekly blogging carnival is a really great collection of feminist writing. maureen dowd should take a note or two.

[via bitch phd]

what's in my purse:

1 marshall fields make up bag containing 3 sanitary napkins
1 red leather wallet with no cash in it
1 red leather business/bus/office card holder
glasses case
black moleskin notebook for journal/story ideas and a place to jot phone numbers
mobile phone
checkbook
a copy of 'More Book Lust'
3 matchbooks from local bars/restaurants
theater ticket for 'Purlie'
theater ticker for Eddie Izzard
lunch receipts from the past week
paycheck stub
1 pen
gummy fangs
1 chanel lipstick in 'bengal'
1 tarte lipgloss/balm in 'wednesday'
1 MAC lip pencil in 'chestnut'
1 lip brush
house/mail key on silver tiffany ball-thingy
1 tampon (i need to be ultra prepared when my uterus decides to go for it)
$5 in singles for the bus/panhandlers

hm. i need to buy cigarettes.

[if you want to peek into other pockets, hop on over to bitch phd]

tampon-po: bowing to the bitch

i'm humbled by the giant minds over at bitch phd.

who knew an ordinary makeup sponge could be used during your period so you could have sex?? my mind is boggled. i mean, my friends used to call me macguyver but, clearly, i have nothing on the resourcefulness of dr. b over there.

enough of politics; now let's talk poop

Orange Tangerine: Wow, that's a lot of repression

orange is a woman after my own heart and her readership! naughty, all of them. over at her place there's discussions about sammiches, boobs, poops and why interracial babies will eventually rule the world.

(bwah ha ha ha! rise up blasiatinos! rise up!)

Negrophile: i wonder how he does it

excellent group of links to articles on race, katrina, pedagogy, media, and other points of interest here.

where does he find the time, i ask you. where??

a good eye: Body and Soul

for really well-argued analysis and a fine sense of integrity as well as a true moral sense, i go to this blog.

her collection of what other blogs/commenters are saying about katrina and the fissures in our race/class consciousness are top notch.