Quote of the Day

Just a funny one today, I'm much too exhausted from a day of showing The Dork cool things in Cleveland to write about anything serious. Such as health care reform bills. So anyway...a limerick...

"Some slippery women from Frisco/bought three dozen large cans of Crisco./Stains wouldn't be drastic/they put down some plastic/then wrestled 'til dawn to bad disco."
--Alison Bechdel, 'Limericks for Lusty Ladies,' The Indelible Alison Bechdel

The accompanying artwork is hilarious too, of course, and I'd recommend checking the book out. I'm on something of a Bechdel kick lately after re-reading Fun Home for the third time for class and discussing it so much. I was already a fan of Dykes To Watch Out For, loved Fun Home the first two times I read it, and I'm enjoying this book as well.

Why I greatly prefer the term "European-American" to "white"

A little over a year ago, I wrote about why I mark "white" rather than "other" on forms, even though my ancestry has some holes in it which would make marking "other" completely reasonable.

In philosophy class yesterday, though, I thought of something else, something that I've actually known for a while but haven't thought of in terms of the way people name themselves and others according to race. Namely, that to many people, "white"=normal, and at least in this country it equals American-American, whereas everyone else gets the signifiers "African," "Asian," "Latin," et cetera, before "American." Even Native Americans, the people who actually are American-American, aren't just called "Americans" in common parlance. And while I actually like those signifiers, because they're respectful and truthful and everything, I don't like that European-American is so seldom used for white people. I don't like that people will list people's races as "Wilhelmina is African-American and Hilda is Mexican-American and Megan is Asian-American and Daniel is white."* No, Daniel's European-American, most likely British-American judging by his last name, though for all I know he could be as big of a mutt as I am.** And so this continued setting aside of "white" as "different" and "normal" leads to the exotification of everyone who isn't white and separates people and pretends as though white people are somehow more special and more "American." And if we are going to have a hierarchy of American-ness (which I don't think we should by any means), isn't it a bit ridiculous that someone whose ancestors have been here since the 1600s, brought over on a slave ship and forced to work without pay as part of an unjust economy that ultimately made our country prosperous is considered less American than a girl whose ancestors were still over in Hammerfest, Norway herding reindeer; or in Germany fighting in the Austro-Prussian war; or in Wales farming; or in Dublin, Ireland, writing poetry and preaching until the mid-late 1800s?

So yeah. Those are my thoughts.



*I can't recall anyone on Ugly Betty actually doing this, but I felt compelled to use those characters' names here.
**"mutt," if you're talking to me, is not a negative term. I call myself a mutt all the time. My mom got annoyed with me this summer for doing so, but the fact is, it's the truth. There are a whole bunch of different nationalities floating around inside of me and I don't even know what some of them are, and I don't think it's a bad thing. "Mongrel," though, I will not tolerate (the word pisses me off quite a bit), as it was historically used as an anti-Mexican slur.

Judy Bonds is so awesome

Oh, and if you're anti-MTR and don't feel like getting really angry, do not read the comments on these videos.

Happy Halloween!

I'm throwing a big party and dressing up as Mary Wollstonecraft. Any readers with cool plans?

Environmentalists have antlers?

That's what you'd think, anyway, from reading some of the comments/video text on MTR-related videos on YouTube. There are several instances of pro-MTR lackeys pluralizing "environmentalist" as... "environmentalist."

Um...okay.

Had this happened once I might've silently mocked, but it's all over the place. (And no, I'm not linking to that kind of bullshit. Just type in mountaintop removal on YouTube, you'll find them.)

As for antlers--all animals with antlers do not change their spelling in any way when pluralized. Deer/deer, moose/moose, elk/elk. You know what I mean. I noticed this a few years ago and then it became a joke between me and my sisters, the youngest of whom started drawing pictures of everything under the sun with antlers and then changing their plural forms.

Just some too-late thoughts

It's hard sometimes to filter out the dismissive voices. I buried Miljenko today in my backyard. First I made a coffin for him out of a small shipping box, foam/paper stuff that came with the new computer, 'Elegija,' and three pomegranate seeds. Dug the hole, put the box in, and planted a seedling for a pine tree on top. I'm not sure if either gravedigging or tree-planting is permitted here, but I did it anyway.

And through all of that, through writing the birth year and death day and inscription and name and everything on the coffin; burying him; planting the tree; and finally crying my eyes out about this like I haven't done since Tuesday evening, I couldn't get the dismissive voices of "he's just a lobster" out of my head. Couldn't stop thinking that my mom told me that I shouldn't cry about pets dying. That if I got another lobster and it died, I couldn't get upset like I did with Miljenko. Or my ex saying that my old catfish, Ed II, was "just a fish." And I had had him for over two years. (Meaning Ed III is nearly four.) One of my friends laughing when I told her I cried about a lobster. And so on top of just missing him now I also felt like a fool for doing so, because who the heck cares about little beady-eyed aquatic animals, anyway? Which is why I've shown practically no emotion over this around other people since Wednesday morning. "Pet lobster" is awesome and hilarious, "dead pet lobster" is pathetic and hilarious. To some people, anyway.

I'm sick of it.

Emotions aren't bad, damn it.

A few months ago I read Ernest Callenbach's novel Ecotopia, and while has vision for society wasn't perfect in some cases, one thing I loved was the Ecotopians' normalized expression of emotions. Nothing was repressed, if someone hurt you you told them, you cried when you were sad, laughed when you were happy, confessed your feelings, showered the people you loved with love. Our society's so damn blocked off from that.

A few weeks ago, when I had had a crappy evening and I just wanted to relax, I went to my alcove and started talking to Miljenko, emoting a bit to an animal who I knew couldn't understand but I didn't care. Wish I could do that now.

Some things to like

1. Today at work, I overheard: "What if you punching me in the groin is just a metaphor for something else?" from the hallway. This was followed by the dudes who were talking all arguing about which of them was a pessimist.

2. After I left work, I drove to the library and discovered that my mix CD was not working. So I turned on the radio, seeking anything I could listen to. Found NPR. On which they were talking about coal. MTR coal. They had clips of Judy Bonds. And of Don Blankenship, from which any reasonable person would conclude that Ms. Bonds is very awesome and passionate and Mr. Blankenship is kind of dumb and intolerant and selfish. He actually said that people would have to "teach their kids Chinese" if we went to green energy. Yep. Invoking the Big Bad Asian Scare in order to turn a profit. Nice, dude.

So I wasted a blank CD and got to listen to some mountain news. 'Twas not a bad drive.

ETA: The link to listen to the NPR segment online.

I love this!

'Obvious Child.' So awesome. Just watch.

Obvious Child from Gillian Robespierre on Vimeo.

I love that it's set in an abortion clinic. I love that it's set on Valentine's Day. I spent my Valentine's Day at the abortion clinic, and then wrote a poem about it. Two of my good friends who are dating met at an abortion clinic. This is SO dudical.

ETA: Oh, and the title is derived from the title of a song, much like the title of my pro-choice novel-in-progress.

Some personal sadness

I thought yesterday was going to be a good day. The renowned feminist speaker who my friends and I had worked to bring to campus spoke yesterday, we ate dinner with her beforehand, she was awesome, we had a good turnout. My best friend who I haven't seen in over a month was there, which was completely surprising but I was so excited that I leapt up and gave him a hug without thinking. And it felt like old times when we were talking, old times like last year when he was always around.

And I was in full nerd mode yesterday. Relating entire intricate passages of books in class. Explaining weird biblical references. Knowing the exact page that strip mining is mentioned on in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. (And telling my professor.) Magically figuring out the electronics in two seconds. (I did this on Monday too, so now my friends probably think I'm way more computer-gifted than I am. I'm not saying I'm bad with computers, I've spent the past ten months getting better and better at killing viruses and I know how a lot of things work. But I'm no genius and I'd prefer people not to think I am.)

And then I got home and discovered Miljenko laying on his side with his back against the tank wall, not moving.

And of course I blamed myself until my boyfriend (trying to calm me down), discovered that crayfish die after ejecting either their sperm or eggs into the water once they hit a certain age. And there had been some sperm floating on the tank surface Tuesday morning.

Reinforcing once again that I had one of the strangest pets ever. I just didn't know he was so old.

I miss him. I wrote a poem for him ('Elegija,' Croatian for 'elegy'). I'll bury him in my backyard once it stops raining. And I borrow a shovel and find a good rock for a gravemarker. I might get another lobster, a younger lobster, because in all honesty he was an awesome pet to have and I don't like having an empty tank and his death wasn't my fault so I know how to properly care for a crayfish. But right now I'm just kind of sad.

So I've been reading my 'Feel-Better' books (weirdly enough these are Crossing Troublesome, a book of collected writings about the Appalachian Writers' Workshop; and Vindication of the Rights of Woman, two books that are essentially total opposites in terms of time period, style, and subject matter). And listening to my most elegiac mix CD ever, the soundtrack to my unfinished novel, Ocean of Noise. And it's raining, which makes me feel better; I hate feeling like crap when it's sunny out.

Quote of the Day

"We choose to look at our entertainment choices as a window to what makes our society tick – to our mass psychology and conditioning, and to how we can change things. Yet some people – who could post this opinion on thousands of sites that would welcome it – feel the need to invade another’s site to make such comments. Isn’t that a bit like marching into a wedding and shouting, “Oh, why bother with all these vows? Nobody’s faithful anymore!” When you shove your point of view onto people who’ve created their own space for the purpose of discussing something they know won’t interest everyone, you’re not just opining – you’re being aggressive. You’re telling us to shut up, because our topic is not worth your time. Simple solution: take your own advice. Lighten up! It’s just a website! You don’t have to read it!"

-Jennifer Kesler, on status-quo-defending commenters.

For why this is quote of the day, look here after the ETA. Makes me feel good, that's all.