In some ways, my own silence on the issues of the past several weeks has surprised me. I have a reputation for writing about feminist issues—by which I mean anything that pertains to the notion that women are entitled to the same inalienable human rights that men are.… Read full post »

 Winter 2010-2011

Mud Season 2011

Out of Mud Comes Life: Spring 2011

… Read full post »

It's not pretty. No one is ever going to slather it with hairspray to make it look good for the cover of some glossy magazine. It's a fruitcake. 

Wait. 

Come back. 

As my ex-husband's partner said to me yesterday. "I have always hated fruitcake, but I'd eat this any… Read full post »

Peter Balakian and I communicated last night and this morning. He was kind enough to send me the following letters. The first has been sent to the Turkish government.

The second letter is addressed directly to the genocide deniers, some of whom chose to comment on my post yesterday. … Read full post »

Ssssh. Can you hear us? The sounds we make are muffled. There is not much room for us here in these mass graves. We are stuffed together, face to face, arms strewn across one another, feet covering bellies. We are the dead of 1915.… Read full post »

Is there anything that Tina Brown has helmed that hasn't immediately turned to dross? Forgetting everything she has done in the past, let's just talk about what has happened to venerable Newsweek.

I'm old enough to remember when news analysis on a weekly basis meant three choices: Time, U.S. News… Read full post »

I had to go to the mall yesterday to pick up a prescription. I loathe the mall, and yet, I find myself there fairly frequently. It's not the closest place to find necessities, but it's the only place to find certain necessities--last night, it was plastic insulation for the windows.… Read full post »

A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself.

Gertrude Stein

 I have detailed before the ways I found to make money after I lost my job and left my marriage. 

My real second career, ironically, was back in the academy, after I swore I'd never go back. 

I teach creative writing. And this magazine: NeoVox is what my students produce. 

Now,… Read full post »

Fool me twice. I'm an idiot.

I keep thinking someone in this administration is going to take a stand that will mean something.

It's a small thing, really, but a huge thing when you're a teenager. You need access to emergency contraception and you can't get it because your… Read full post »

I look out my kitchen window. Mist settles itself among the bare trees. I check the hunting stand: empty. That's good. No strangers too close to my house, firing their guns. I know they're after that four-point buck who has wandered through here as the weather has changed, but… Read full post »

I have a history of writing about Plan B contraception, and those who would seek to deny it to women who need it.

Today, in what surely must be an early holiday present for millions of women of reproductive age, theWashington Post is reporting that the FDA is considering making… Read full post »

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

Henry David Thoreau

(Thoreau 1817-1862)

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

James Thurber

  (Thurber 1894-1961)

 It is not enough to stay busy. So, too,… Read full post »

Did you believe it when President Obama declared as one of his first acts of office, that he would close down Guantanamo? Were you like me, ecstatic, that finally we were going to restore to these men, many of whom were nowhere near any terrorist activity, some level… Read full post »

Christ. They're at it again.

Pharmacists in Washington State have gone to court to affirm their right to make moral judgments about clients and deny Plan B contraception. 

It's not like I haven't discussed this before. 

In a way, I don't want to write about this one more… Read full post »

By now, you've heard the story of the high school student who is being harassed by Governor Brownback to apologize to him for disparaging him in a tweet. 

Other than the obvious problem of a grown man, a politican, being upset with a high school student because she said something… Read full post »

 written on four pieces of scrap paper in my purse as I waited for Ray Davies to take the stage

To the drunk guy at the concert sitting directly behind us:

Hey. Don't worry about it.  Going to see a rock 'n roll legend is a common experience… Read full post »

I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound - if I can remember any of the damn things.    Dorothy Parker

(Parker)

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.    Anais… Read full post »

I have refused to take a position on whether she is lying until the facts are in. This young woman grew up in the foster system, was homeless, and there is video of her being sprayed. (I was wrong: there is video of the aftermath of the spraying.) Given… Read full post »

 (another excerpt from the novel in the drawer)

As it turned out, she didn’t see him for several days. She tried not to worry about his absence, but trying not to worry just seemed to cause her to fret all the more. Even Flo noticed, telling her at… Read full post »

Crooks and Liars is reporting that 19-year old Jennifer Fox, who was beaten and sprayed last Thursday at the same OWS demonstration in which an 84-year old woman was sprayed, miscarried her three-month fetus on Sunday.

As someone who lost a three-month pregnancy, I am broken-hearted for this young w… Read full post »

Image by Robert Stiene (Well, not all of it, obviously)

 Anyone who has been on Facebook in the past 24 hours has seen the images: famous works of art with the iconic image of the pepper spray-wielding UC Davis police officer who blasted the protesters in the face. 

Friends… Read full post »

I'm not sure when it happened. I've become a morning person, arising somewhere between four and five a.m., long before the sun has awoken.

I become impatient, waiting for it to get light enough for me to tie on my running shoes, leggings or shorts (depending on how… Read full post »

 Going to have to start calling these "weekend quotations. " I'm on my way out of town for a couple of days, but leave you with these. 

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

Steven Wright

History would be far… Read full post »

 (This is another excerpt from that manuscript in the drawer.)

She arrived with a few minutes to spare. She unwrapped herself from coat, muffler, gloves, and hat; placed them all on a hook in the hallway that served as the workers’ cloakroom; and made her way to her station.… Read full post »