feminist blogs

The writing bug has been there, itching at me just as much as these stupid allergies. But the shoulder area sprain has really limited my computer time, so I've had to limit my time at keyboard in favor of giving my body a chance to recover a bit. Alas, this means I missed momentous events like Fair Pay for Women day (hey, right now I'm making about the same money as an unemployed man, and anyway I couldn't add to what PortlyDyke says anyway so there you go) and Marie's birthday and Lisa's birthday and even the nuptials of Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson (the perfect couple whom I didn't even know were a couple, that's how removed I am from the music scene). So here I go catching up, whee!:

• Congratulations to Jamal and Karine Igle on the birth of their beautiful daughter Catie!! I wish we didn't live two boroughs away, I can hardly wait to meet the li'l darlin'.

• I've been saving it for awhile but it still makes me giggle: the awful Bendis Doom dialogue (which I mentioned in my last blogaround) inspires the MightyGodKing.

• As Melissa Silverstein mentions when discussing her encounters with Obama-bots, this is not a post-feminist world. It's a sexist one. Another Melissa, namely McEwan, has had an amazing number of great feminist posts I've bookmarked these past couple weeks, incuding ones discussing the origins of her website's name (following on a post by Kate, who also authored a wonderful Obama-skeptical post); weighing in again on Clinton and misogyny; examining the place of frivolous and fun posting (hey, my specialty!) amidst all the sturm and drang; and positing the objectivity of sexism and critique thereof.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the last one, but it's impossible to comment on there because Shakesville just gets so many comments that, by the time I get to the thread, it's already so laden that anything I had to say would get lost in the morass. Fortunately, I have my own blog! See, I get what she's saying about determining the existence of sexism in various situations based on historical and recognizable patterns, and that people who've spent a long time noticing and studying such patterns are fairly expert about them. However, I also think one can get so caught up in seeking patterns in a random world that it's easy to see them where they may not exist -- I mean, look at pareidolia. So I'm not sure that something Observer A sees as sexist and Observer B doesn't is objectively sexist, and I don't think that has anything to do with intent. I minored in Women's Studies in college over half a lifetime ago, I'm not new to this. I just don't think things are as cut and dried as Melissa seems to depict them. We're human beings, we love to ascribe patterns to things. And patterns can be helpful in human interactions, but aren't always a determinant factor. So while I'm about 80% with Melissa here, and I really adore her Matrix analogy, I'm just a bit too skeptical to concede that other 20% yet.

• Of course, sexism is still the norm at MSNBC. Over at HuffPo, Eric Boehlert links to his insightful Media Matters column about how profitable misogyny has been for Chris Matthews, and Rachel Sklar discusses a Countdown conversation wherein Keith Olbermann suggests to one of the network's company players that what Clinton really needs is "Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out." Words fail me. If the former sportscaster maintains this locker room mentality, he'll find lots more discerning viewers opting to watch baseball games instead. At least with MLB you get overt discrimination against women, so you know where you stand (i.e., specatators only, thankyouverymuch). Molly Ivors has given up. At Corrente, both Sarah and BDBlue) are disgusted. The Left Coaster's eriposte has another compendium of reactions. Eric at Wampum links to a MadLib of Chris Matthews hyperventilating after a debate that would be very funny if it weren't so sadly true. Kathy G suggests more concerted action. And eRobin is swinging towards Hillary due to all this nonsense but reminds folks again, as I have, that neither Demo candidate is progressive in any real sense of the word.

• Sexism sometimes affects fantasy worlds as much as the real one. Many feminists like Amanda are shocked by something dreamt up this year at a con in Ann Arbor called ConFusion, which named itself the Open Source Boob Project. Here's an overview. I liked Lisa's reaction of applauding how quickly feminist sf fandom came down on this idea. I haven't been heavily involved in sf fandom in over 30 years, but I remember the years of the Langdon charts, of feeling flattered by any sort of sexual attention because fandom was a haven for misfits and the "mundanes" wouldn't give geeky girls with few social skills the time of day so we should be grateful that men of even fewer social skills wanted to be, erm, socially skilled with us. Pre-AIDS scare, all sorts of sexual experimentation went on at sf conventions; 30 years later I still can't shake the memory of how little self-esteem I had then, and how desperately happy I was to be treated for a mercifully brief time as a sexual object because that's all I felt I had. Fortunately, my feminist sensibility roused me from this path well before I ventured past the point of no return, and I was able to continue living with myself after bidding sf fandom adieu. And lo and behold, geeky guys who actually had social skills wound up befriending me, two of whom I even married (although Robin's not quite as much of a fanboy as Steve, he's geeky in other directions). It's a bit disturbing to see that the more things change the more they remain the same, but it's extremely encouraging that many of today's female geeks have way more self-esteem at their beck and call than I did at their age.

• The other major controversy this week has to do with the aforementioned Amanda, who has been one of my favorite feminist bloggers for awhile. First she wrote an article for AlterNet, the ideas in which were largely taken from a blog by BrownFemPower, unattributed. BFP subsequently stopped blogging, leaving the feminist blogosphere quite bereft. Then Amanda showed off the cover to her new book, It's A Jungle In Here. This was the 2.0 version, as the original had featured a gorilla carrying a scantily-clad woman. The revised version featured art from the Atlas comic Lorna the Jungle Girl, and my first reaction was twofold surprise: that Werner Roth's art was apparently in enough public domain that Seal Press felt they could use it; and that Amanda didn't mind the Roth-drawn "headlight" style which overemphasized certain assets. Hey look, another Open Source Boob Project! But not really being that familiar with the specifics of Roth's art, I was really bowled over when I found out the interior chapter art was full of Lorna coming to the rescue of mansels in distress by defeating caricatures of dark-skinned natives. Yeah, you can't blame people for not being ahead of their time. But that excuses Roth, not Seal Press. Apologies from both parties quickly followed, as they know on which side their bread is buttered and, as a friend of mine once pointed out, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Here's my question, though: couldn't Seal Press have found an artist to duplicate Roth's style and draw an entirely new cover and chapter headers? There are lots of wanna-be pros out there who'd do it for free, just for the chance to get their art seen. Really poor pre-planning all around, I say. Here's what others say, and do read them, they're all important: Pam (Amanda's Pandagon partner), Barry, Jill, Melissas McEwan and Krause, Carla, Lisa (the second half of her Open Source Boob post) and Avalon's Willow. Then read Cheryl Lynn, who keeps amazing me over and over with how cogently she gets to her points. Someone please hire this woman as a pro writer, now! Give her a Misty Knight series and she'll be a happy camper.

• See, with all this going on there's a reason I don't feel I need to read the right-wing blogs. But if you do, you'll want this guide from Roy Edroso with illos by Tom Tomorrow. Tom was the first person to welcome me to the political blogosphere, and Roy has always been a total delight whenever I've seen him.

• A few more political bits and bobs: I concur with Leigh's call for a National Action Day this coming Thursday (aka MayDay) to actually do something constructive instead of sitting around praying. I wish we didn't need this primer from Tristero on why torture is wrong, but this country has become a slightly different America from the one in which I grew up. Athenae finds the disembodied head of John McCain, on jewelry. Florida license plate expert Bryan reveals where the money goes from the proposed "I Believe" plate. And the good Roger Ailes tells the tale of Popeman Ratz and his black and white cat. (No, I don't know the cat's color, that was just a reference.)

• Fun stuff now! Sheila Lennon reports on ROFLCon. That kind of brings LOLdom full circle, doesn't it, since all those wacky abbreviations used on blogs and texting had their origin with sf fandom and zines (I first encountered "LOL" in apas over a quarter century ago).

• Who's sari now? Sara is! I've always wanted to wear saris, now I want to even more.

• Passover's almost, well, over now. But don't let Laraine Newman's remembrance of Passover, SNL style pass you by! Also, via BoingBoing, and this one's for Mom, which imaginary animals would be kosher?

• Speaking of food, Chris Cosentino sounds off on PETA's latest publicity campaign; Michael Symon officially announces he's taking over Dinner: Impossible from its now-disgraced former host; and Larry Gonick makes this turnip recipe look so good I might even try it, once I get a cast-iron pan.

• Dwight Schrute, for one, welcomes our spring overlords.

• Dorothy Snarker is psyched for the female buddy-movie Baby Mama.

• Cool, Darwin's Garden, right here in the Bronx, not more than a 10-minute drive from here! Anyone wanna go? Also at Pharyngula, PZ makes the best case for "anonymity bad, pseudonymity okay" that I've read in a long time.

• John Hodgman really likes this musician:




I would too, if she didn't look so bored playing music so interestingly.

• Ken Jennings has yet another example of Superman being a dick. And we end with Marie showing us some nice examples of graphic storytelling around the world.

Ow, my shoulder. Till next time, y'all!

My job searching is done for the day, I've eaten a hefty salad, I've finished this week's ComicMix column and I've even written another page or so in Megillat Vashti. I feel my writing muscles returning, and have resolved not to neglect that aspect of my life whilst searching for a permanent full-time position with benefits. If I put my mind to it I could do both easily! Of course, then blogging (at least blog-reading) might go by the wayside, but I'm not as caught up in all of this as many of the folks I read. I like blogging, but it's always going to be a hobby for me, I'm never going to be like one of these people. (And honestly, anything calling blogging a modern-day equivalent of sweatshops has a tremendous lack of historical perspective, and insults the memory of the men, women and children who really did labor under horrid conditions. I'm sorry, not comparable in any way, shape or form to eager geeks who choose to park their posteriors at computer terminals cranking out posts for $7 per.) That said, right now I feel like catching up:

• I agree with Lis, this is a very cool promo:



• Used to be, a good ear for different characters' "voices" was essential for a comic book writer. But that was before the current Cult of Personality age, wherein a number of popular writers put whatever words they want to in the mouths of characters that may as well be interchangeable. If the writer has a strong enough personality, he (almost inevitably "he") can get away with it for a time, but after awhile a tin ear tends to piss off discerning readers by shattering their ability to become absorbed in the story. (That's assuming, of course, that the writer even intends to tell a story, rather than making a series of in-jokes winking at his own cleverness.) Lisa Fortuner takes exception to the way Brian Bendis puts sexist words in Doctor Doom's mouth in some Avengers comic I don't read. Kevin Church agrees, and shows how to dialogue the same panel with much more finesse -- sure it's still sexist language, it's supposed to be (he's a badguy!), but it's imperious and slightly antiquated and perfectly "within" the established characterization, rather than the crude, possibly Miller-inspired "Goddamned Batman" school of clunkiness. And of course Bully has a ball making other suggestions of dialogue that would be very wrong in that panel. Lastly, Val gives more examples of inappropriate-to-the-character dialogue from the a recent Buffy comic. Given that we have seven seasons worth of Allison Hannigan's acting and dialogue by which to judge this writing, this kind of thing is bound to be scrutinized even more than the words of characters who've never existed outside of a comic book page.

• Meanwhile, real life also features characters saying things entirely inappropriate to what I'd previously assumed their personas to be. Over at HuffPo, Randi Rhodes' stand-up routine wherein she called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" (rather than umpteen other things she could have said about politicians with which she agreed, like "misguided liars" or other epithets that would have had nothing to do with their double-x chromosomes) is justifiably pilloried by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (who's quickly becoming a HuffPo must-read for me) and Bill Press. I used to love Randi, I even called her my goddess a few times in this blog. But wow, this was so far beyond the pale, particularly for a feminist progressive working in liberal radio, that I'm still reeling.

• Sometimes, of course, culture informs reality. Leigh confesses to some important lessons she learned via Hollywood. (By the way, congratulations to Leigh on being published in the Joss Whedon Nothing But Red antho!) And Jill links to this interesting piece by Peter Sagal on NPR's site about the daughters of Whoville's mayor in the new Horton movie, which also prompted a response from BetaCandy at The Hathor Legacy about reactions to pointing out sexism in children's entertainment.

• Giblets makes the case for blowing up the moon. I'm so glad Fafblog is back to save the universe!

• Via Neil Gaiman, this made me laugh far more than I felt I should have. Ahem. I think I need a cold shower now.

• Over at Corrente, chicago dyke points out something that can't be said enough -- our media, both old and new, keeps thinking this presidential campaign is all about them. Zuzu's put her finger on why a lot of Obama supporters are freaking her out -- to many, particularly those who treat this as one big game rather than something that will affect millions of lives, it's just another form of fandom. And fandom often blinds its adherents to anything negative about their chosen idols, and anything positive about anyone who isn't in their circle. In this particular case, it translates into parsing everything Clinton says even when it's discovered she's told the truth and the media has lied, and rarely examining Obama with anything near that kind of scrutiny (and do check out the video passed along at the end of that link to eriposte's post). When he's been "attacked" at all, it's most often been on cheap-shot unimportant "personality" stuff like his smoking or bad bowling. Meanwhile, Steve Soto joins the chorus of those of us who miss the promise of a return to responsible journalism that Keith Olbermann once represented. The Hillary Hatred is like the stupid, it just keeps on burning. (Insert usual disclaimer here reminding folks that neither Clinton nor Obama is particularly progressive and that I cast my vote for Obama in the NY primary largely on the strength of his eloquence and mostly because Edwards had dropped out of the race by that point.)

• My ex-husband passes along a very important video about the continuing American heartbreak that is the Centralia, PA tragedy.

• Both Lance and LowerManhattanite give Chuck Heston his due.

• Mustang Bobby has been kind enough to praise my blogarounds in the past, but he has a pretty comprehensive one here that's well worth your perusal.

• August doesn't get the whole Hell's Kitchen thing. I don't either; promos for that show turned me off to the whole idea of reality-show cooking competitions for a long time, and I now regret not having watched the first couple seasons of Top Chef, which is guilty of none of Hell's excesses as described by August: "The host of the show is a belligerent maniac who verbally (and apparently as close to physically as the law allows) assaults the contestants to the point of physically and emotionally crippling them." This ain't entertainment to me, either.

• Via Henry at Crooked Timber, the "Colbert bump" can now be scientifically proven.

• Lastly, an important announcement from Liss.

I know the time stamp says 3 PM or so but by the time I finished the post it was past 6:30 and I'm off to make dinner...

A very sleepy opening day for me, as the Yankees-Blue Jays game here in the Bronx was rained out. It never rained all that hard, but it nonetheless made for somnambulent conditions and I guess ESPN got bored or something. Me, I'm never bored with blogs to read!:

• Last Friday was Blog Against Torture Day, which made me say "What th'?" I mean, is there any normal person out there who's pro-torture? Like Lis says, "As far as I'm concerned, this is a matter about which there shouldn't be sides. What's next, Blog Against Genocide?"

• Melissa at Shakespeare's Sister, eriposte at Left Coaster, Susie at Suburban Guerilla and Zuzu at Feministe continue to be among the saner voices out there speaking out against Democrats who engage in Clinton-bashing way disproportionate to her campaign missteps and certainly to her policy proposals. Melissa addresses the bullying backlash. Susie was one of the participants at the Cool Kids Con in Philly this past weekend, and posts about conversations she had with Paul Krugman and Eric Boehlert about bloggers' reactions when they note complimentary things about Clinton (as Krugman does here). The second of these posts is extremely telling, as Susie mentions the reaction the Eschacon crowd gave Boehlert's disappointment over their cult-of-personality antics. Zuzu reminds us why it's important to always call out misogyny. And eriposte reveals something I hadn't even considered about Clinton's recent meeting with the odious Richard M. Scaife, something that I think shows her diplomatic prowess in a very positive light.

• Jackson Williams at HuffPo sort of congratulates Keith Olbermann on five years of Countdown, and probably gives Keith more credit than is due over his treatment of the Democratic presidentical candidates. Today's Countdown Watch yielded 15 unwatchable minutes of Hillary-bashing at the opening, then a half hour of news and opinion like he used to do, then 15 minutes of self congratulations which included making fun of Fox News because someone noted they were the fairest network vis a vis Clinton and Obama, in that they treated both with equal contempt but didn't single out Clinton with misogyny. He did this all with absolutely no trace of irony or self-awareness. I can't say how much I miss the old Keith Olbermann. Maybe we'll get him back after the Democratic contest is finally decided.

• Elsewhere, Susie asks the same question about Mrs. Alan Greenspan that I've been asking for at least a dozen years; and Digby despairs of the on-bended-knee reaction of our press corpse to "Saint" John McCain. But there's good news -- if you include non-news media, Lance figures that the media really is liberal and reflects the ideas of a liberal populace. I totally agree, it's one of the reasons the news corpse tries so hard to repeatedly convince us reality isn't real. Who are we going to believe, them or our lying eyes?

• Mark Evanier notes that Pat Paulson is running for President again, from the grave.

• I Can Has Jones Soda? And speaking of LOLstuff, Lara from the I Can Has TARDIS crew does a very weird Beatles-themed mashup.

• This post from Ampersand was one of the inspirations for my ComicMix column this week.

• Run, it's Evil Bully (to be continued)!

• Was it Keith telling us John Mayer was the worst announcer ever that made John do this heart-to-heart confessional on his blog?

• Did I need io9 to remind me of my love-hate relationship with Sid and Marty Krofft? I don't think so.

• Shut up, PZ.

• Kevin Drum notes the new tradition of making your ten thousandth post about your cat. I'll try to remember that in a half dozen years or so.

• Via Laura, Greg Hatcher illustrates precisely my feelings about "dark Oz" books. Also from Laura, be careful, tomorrow's April Fool's Day and it behooves you to read the internet with an extremely jaundiced perspective.

• An ode to Alfred Pennyworth, by Val D'Orazio.

• What Kalinara said. Parents and teachers should be thrilled when kids read, and most of today's comics aren't as dumbed-down as they may think.

• You know, I like Flea a lot, I just don't know if I care for her as a race.

Whew, made it in before April Fool's Day! G'night, all.

Had my last visit to the dermatologist this morning, now that the eczema is finally fading from my legs. He said I shouldn't be surprised if it crops up again when the weather cools in late autumn, but I'm fine for now. Well, except for my spring allergies, which seem to occur earlier and earlier every year. And the OTC allergy pill gives me dry mouth, which makes me thirsty no matter how much I drink, so I might as well forget all that and plunge into the blogosphere:

• I think some of the bloggers supporting Obama so enthusiastically aren't getting what some of us are saying, which is not that Hillary Clinton can do no wrong (many think she's done a fine job of putting that notion to rest this past week, even without the usual sexist bashing) but that Barack Obama really isn't that different from her, both in terms of human foibles and, more importantly, policy plans, so supporting one over the other to the point of cult-of-personality makes no sense. The main difference is in the way each has inspired others, not in what each will actually do once in office. It's all part of what Susie identifies as the game. I think Clinton might have the edge on the main task at hand, which is undoing the tremendous damage wrought by the radical reactionaries currently in power (damage which will only increase if McCain gets into office), simply because she was around for the damage control last time. But I suspect Obama is equally up to the task of halting this country's backward movement. The only thing that saddens me is how many people seem to believe there's going to be the slightest chance of forward movement societally after one of these centrist Democrats gets elected. I just can't see that happening any more in my lifetime. Meanwhile, as Mary so eloquently puts it vis a vis the internecine Demo-squabbles, "Can we just stop the crap now?"

• It's so cute the way John Amato thinks the pundits who appear on Countdown are exclusive to Keith Olbermann, rather than part of MSNBC's stock of company players who appear pretty much on everyone's shows! The sooner liberal bloggers get hip to the fact that Olbermann (like Obama) may be more eloquent than his peers very often but the similarities between him and his "rivals" like O'Reilly are greater than their differences, the better off we'll be in the media analysis department.

• Cathie from Canada doesn't get the whole institutionalized racism thing so prevalent in the US.

• Via Petulant at Shakespeare's Sister, Sir Ian McKellan answers email about Lord of the Rings. My favorite quote is about "the fevered imaginations of slashers" (as in slash-fiction fanfic writers).

• More cool stuff from Shakesville -- your pareidolia of the day, and a truly romantic tale that doesn't surprise me at all, since I knew both Steve and Robin before we ever met, Steve via his subscribing to INSIDE JOKE and Robin via the Usenet comic book newsgroups.

• The continuing crisis: Tristero weighs in on anti-American creationists and the nonsense surrounding Expelled, PZ Myers and at least one cephalopod; and Peter David eloquently points to a Bible passage which must have gone over the heads of the parents of poor Madeline Neumann who murdered her with their selective superstition.

• More continuing crises: Kilauea, Antarctica, Arkansas... I know many people don't believe our planet is alive and ever-changing because they don't see those changes happen fast enough for our limited lifespans, but that doesn't mean we have to try to speed them up with our carelessness!

• The world's first pregnant man. Isn't this another sign of the impending apocalypse?

• It's a stupid thing, I guess, but it really upsets me that NASA is being forced to shut down a perfectly good Mars rover, which has worked far beyond what anyone initially expected, because of budget concerns.

• Brave, brave Theresa Tschetter takes on Miss Bimbo, complete with LOLspeak. And Bully pictorially wonders what if Clark Kent worked for Barry White instead of Perry White.

• Nobody, but nobody, writes food porn like Tony Bourdain. My oh my, someone pass me the smelling salts.

Lastly, RIP Richard Widmark. Between this and Neil Aspinall, I'm just tired of famous people dying this week; can we have a moratorium or something?

If I'm not yet destined to return to a full-time job, I might as well start to make a difference with my copious free time. Particularly when my nervousness about joblessness leads to sleeplessness. Ness.

• People I admire: Unsprung links to a NY Times overview of Barack Obama's late mother. Susie finds an amazing talk by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor about her experiences having a stroke. Mark Evanier passes along a report on a recent evening with Gene Wilder at SF's Castro Theatre. And I agree with Siva that this letter to the editor from Gene Kelly's widow is pretty cool. One thing she doesn't mention is Kelly's politics, which were solidly liberal back when "liberal" meant something special.

• Thanks Bully, I will never look at the '70s "classic" song Brandy the same way again, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

• Caught in the crosshairs: Curt Schilling on the behind-the-scenes negotiations concerning the Sox' trip to Japan, and Lloyd Dangle on being the evil cartoonist whose work graced the now-disgraced Airborne placebos.

• Everyone's linking to it 'cause it's so much fun: the liberal blogosphere's favorite curmudgeonly cephalopod-loving atheist describes being expelled from Expelled! here, here and here for good measure, while the perpetrators let in the far more famous atheist Richard Dawkins. It's the accent, PZ. You can't help being from from Minnesota, but let's face it, a Brit will always sound cooler.

• I hate to harp on it, but other people aren't letting it go and so it keeps on feeling like a picked scab. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pretty much equal in terms of policy proposals, experience level, ability, ideology, etc. Why is a fawning old-and-new media so enamored of the Bill Richardson endorsement of Obama whilst completely ignoring the Jack Murtha endorsement of Clinton? And I'm saying this as someone who voted for the writer, as John Hodgman puts it. But crikey, enough is too much! I admit Keith Olbermann is often a hard habit to break, to the point where I've started sporadically tuning into his second half hour rather than the slam-Clinton-praise-Obama-worship-horserace-speculation first half hour -- but Robin and I were so stunned by his show yesterday that we couldn't look away. A full hour of breathless outrage that Obama was so personally violated, when it turns out the other major candidates were too. But hey, it was a great excuse to run continual video loops of Obama up on MSNBC for a good 50+ minutes, wasn't it? So, What Susie Says. And What Mark Says, as well. You cannot keep criticizing Fox Noise when your own station is doing essentially the same thing, only betting on a different horse than they are. It's not a friggin' game, we're talking about things that will affect millions of people's lives here. And there just isn't equivalent respect for (or critique of) the two Democratic candidates who are running on essentially the same things. Keith, you've utterly lost the moral high ground here.

• Great post from Sara about the power of television drama to effect positive change. I really teared up at this one, and if that isn't an effective about how stories can move us by showing conflict resolution rather than conflict, without having to be about hate and antiheroes, I don't know what is.

• Digby wonders when the usual political sex scandals start becoming about something more. If Obama regrets that much of the nation's media can't seem have a mature conversation about race, he doesn't want to even broach the subject of how we talk about sex!

• Lastly, yet another good post from Mark about Q&A sessions. I guess it doesn't do any meaningful good any more to just remind the audience that Q&A "isn't about you," does it?

Well, it's been a hard day's night, and I really ought to be sleeping like a log...

This should be read after my post which was originally slated to be part of the blogaround until it got too unwieldy. Then I saw this post by eriposte on Clinton Rules versus Obama Rules, which arrived on my Bloglines subs after I posted my last rant. It reminds me a lot of the "It's Okay If You're A Republican" rules. Ahem: We're supposed to be the good guys here, the ones who don't stoop to tactics like this. Two bloggers who have been all over this have been Avedon Carol and Vastleft at Corrente, and Jon Swift just put in his inside-baseball two cents. I also liked Roy's take on this. Please see Avedon's posts here, here and here. The first one especially interested me as it was about how Ferraro's ill-considered remarks could just as easily be construed as non-racist. I don't agree with what she said, but I don't think what she said was meant as racist, and neither do folks like Earl Ofari Hutchinson (see here and here), Bryan, and Elaine Frankonis. On the other hand, folks like LowerManhattanite make an eloquent case that Ferraro's wording was atrocious at the very least. Meanwhile, the candidate herself is still experiencing continued backlash -- well, "lash" actually since many of her detractors are retaliating against her being her rather than against specific policies and so forth. Susie has some interesting comments un-spinning the old and new media frame about Clinton's work in Northern Ireland and her instant denial as to whether she believed Obama to be a Muslim. Melissa, for her part, blames Al Gore. And eRobin has a good point when she observes somewhat sarcastically, "if Hillary Clinton is even half the brilliant, scheming, all-power, narrative-directing mastermind that certain leading opinion makers seem to believe she is, and if she's no less corporate-centrist as Obama, who seems to be unable to wrestle that power away from her, then I'm thinking she's the person the country needs to lead it." Lastly, it's really nice to see others coming to the same conclusions I've reached about Keith Olbermann, including Jude Camwell and Taylor Marsh. It's kinda nice to have that 8 PM hour freed up again, particularly with baseball season about to get underway.

• I think we're all agreed that August had the best sum-up of the Spitzer scandal. David "This Is Not My Beautiful Governor" Byrne wonders if we haven't been provided with the names of clients one through eight because "it sure smells like a Republican setup." Well, as Ken Houghton points out, Number Six is no longer a number, but a human being, sort of -- he's Prince William's godfather, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6th Duke of Westminster. If anyone uses the expression "Tally ho!" for this aspect of the scandal, they owe me credit. (What's with those gentried Brits, anyway? Joe at AmericaBlog reports that Lord Rothschild is fundraising for John McCain in England, which appears to be breaking US law.) Other good points have been made by Elaine, Hubris Sonic, Xeni, and LowerManhattanite, who gives a nice overview of NY's new governor. I didn't know he was the grandson of Basil Paterson! Man, are there a lot of political dynasties in this country or what?

• Onto less heavy matters. Mark at BoingBoing reports that Joseph Weizenbaum, the creator of Eliza, has passed away. As Firesign fans know, Eliza was one of the inspirations for Doctor Memory in I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus. Speaking of Firesign, Cat does his best to get the 4or5 on Air America during their recent cruise, which he's been documenting on his blog; here's the latest post. Being Cat, he of course has food reviews as well.

• And speaking of food, looks like Tony Bourdain's reaping the blowback from his amusing-sounding Golden Clog awards. Adam at Serious Eats talks about Tyler Florence's reaction (good lord, of course Tony's bombast is a schtick, he admits it himself, the point of the schtick is how funny it is and how well it works!) and some food critic's sudden impulse to slam Les Halles, Bourdain's old haunt. Wow guys, jealous much?

• Onto comics and suchlike: Barista is amused by overanalysis of Superman, particularly by Michael Chabon, while Graeme is not amused that Smallville appeared to base an entire plot around a product placement deal with a chewing gum maker. And Ampersand announces that his first "Hereville" story has been completed; way to go, Barry!

• Other cool stuff: Petulant at Shakesville passes along an interview J.K. Rowling did with a Scottish newspaper wherein she goes into more detail about Dumbledore and The Gay Thang. Also at Shakesville, Wolfrum made me laugh out loud with his tale of someone quite upset that she's not a victim of paredolia. Kevin at io9 reviews a documentary about Harlan Ellison shown at SXSW, and Hanan treats us to some Godfather haikus.

And since Blogger is down for maintenance, nobody will see this until apres Ides, but there you are, at least it's done...

As promised, a blogaround to celebrate International Women's Day. Here's some good links from Feministing to get you started on your celebration. Don't forget to check out all the women-run blogs listed in my Bloglines subs (accessible from the sidebar, right above my Top Six) and my regular reading listed in the sidebar!

• It's not only IWD, it's Cathie's birthday! Hurray Cathie, eh!

• What Avedon said. Especially "It's not the support or supporters I object to, it's the enthusiasm and the fanatics.... it's not as if either Clinton or Obama are exactly FDR incarnate; they are both fairly average "liberal" politicians who are thoroughly schooled in the arts of serial triangulation. They ain't radical; nor are they idealist; they are simply better than any Republican alternative." I think her much-wished-for moment of believing again probably won't happen in our lifetime, based on the hour and a half of brain-leakage I suffered at the auto shop today which had their TV tuned to Fox Noise. These people actually believe Clinton and Obama are "far left" and that populism is dangerous and will drag us "back to the Carter years" (and I'm thinking "what was wrong with the Carter years?") and health care for all would be a fate worse than death (I guess they prefer people without healthcare to die as they're doing now) and omigod I can't remember what else because it was all so relentless and myopic and reality-denying and wrong wrong wrong but, hey, at least I now know whatever happened to Wayne Rogers so it wasn't a total waste I suppose. I now seriously want to see a Wayne Rogers-Mike Farrell "Alda Co-Star" political debate. I would pay money for it.

• What Digby said, too. She starts with "The idea that sexism is politically incorrect is laughable" and it gets even better from there. To me the anti-Clinton hysteria (yes, I use that word ironically) is, as Digby points out, utterly irrational. Just like the anti-Clinton hysteria was in the last decade. Her conclusion is pretty much the same as Avedon's -- we're likely not going to see this mentality fade away any time soon. Too many people have invested too much time and emotion into it to ever admit their entire attitude is erroneous.

• Also at Hullabaloo, dday gives the real reason why the Bush administration wants to coddle telecoms on this FISA thing, quoting Glenn Greenwald: "Bush is finally being candid about the real reason the administration is so desperate to have these surveillance lawsuits dismissed. It's because those lawsuits are the absolute last hope for ever learning what the administration did when they spied on Americans for years in violation of the law." They don't care about the telecoms, they care about covering their own tracks. This entire administration has been about breaking the law then covering it up. I like to believe that history will see justice done if only because they're so incompetent at everything else that this will all have to come out during the next Democratic administration, the one that has to clean up everything. But of course the Republicans will then begin the chorus (they're already gearing up for it) that "it's old news, it doesn't matter any more, let's put it all behind us and move on" so that the cycle of law-breaking and covering up can begin again once they're back in power.

• I don't need to read the Charlotte Allen "tee hee, women are so stupid and by the way I work for the IWF which claims it's non-partisan but everyone knows is about as conservative as the Heritage Foundation" spew in the Washington Post, because I derive far more pleasure and information from the responses to it. And thank goodness there are so many articulate women (and not a few men) with enough energy to tackle this nonsense in such an amusing way! My favorite has got to be Jessa at Bookslut, with this zinger and this follow-up.

• PortlyDyke at Shakespeare's Sister reminds us that Patriarchy Hurts Men Too.

• I can't believe anyone still cares what Chris Hitchens thinks of anything, particularly women. But comedy writer Julie Klausner takes him on in HuffPo.

• I'd been anticipating Bryan, whose blog is currently the place to go for Iditarod updates, putting in his two cents about the "Confederate flag" version of Florida's license plate, since he does a regular Passing the Plate feature. Suffice it to say I was not disappointed.

• Is there some sort of weird epidemic of fake autobiographies again? I thought we were done with that nonsense when Oprah shamed James Frey for A Million Little Pieces, but I guess not. Now comes news that not only was Misha Defonseca not Jewish and not raised/protected by wolves 60 years ago, but Margaret B. Jones was never raised by a black family in south central L.A., but by a white one in Sherman Oaks. Ooh, so close! Some of us are far too trusting, I suppose. Deep down, maybe we all Want To Believe. The Telegraph has a good bit on "the literary tradition of the fake memoir."

• Oh good, I'm not the only one who's noticed the change in Keith Olbermann of late. I'm inclined, of course, to believe it's not really a change, it was there all along and we just didn't notice it until he started, like everyone else at his station, obsessively indulging in horserace speculation to the near-exclusion of any other real-world news.

• It must mean something when various liberal blogs are accusing the Clinton camp of running an ad in which they claim Obama's face is digitally darkened to, um, I guess make him more scary-looking?, and meanwhile some voices in the feminist comics blogosphere are having a very interesting discussion about the lightening of skin color in black female comic book characters. Cheryl Lynn in particular brings the goods. I'd love to get a colorist's take on this!

• Melissa Krause makes a compelling case for why you can't always (or ever?) separate a person's publicly-held opinions from their creative endeavors, using Dave Sim as her example. Although I think the fact that she's never read Cerebus shouldn't prevent her from spelling the title correctly.

• Ampersand links to the new Bad Cartoonist blog and their example of the ultimate in laziness, an editorial cartoonist using the same exact drawing twice in a month and just substituting a different caption.

• Hanan Levin posts the following video of Tony Bourdain interviewed at Google HQ, which I'm swiping because I want more hits. :) Seriously, Hanan's always worth repeated visits, so peruse his blog too! Here's the video:



• Lastly, I really like Lis Riba's links to typing tests, as I like to keep timing myself during my job search. Last time I tested at a prospective employer and actually received my score, I think it was 104.

That's all; don't forget to sprint those clocks forward an hour tonight, my fellow Americans, to begin Daylight Savings Time! Aw geez, I have to redo my AeroGarden's timer again?

Wow, I just found this old blogaround that I wound up never posting. I blame the weird 15-minute snowstorm early on the afternoon of March 1, heavy-looking flakes being blown around by high winds, which disappeared as quickly as it had arrived leaving bright sunshine now with no trace there had ever been any precip. We took advantage of that to toss most of our remaining trash, and I finally unpacked and started it. When we checked the mail after doing the trash run, I was delighted to find my new passport therein. Our original marriage certificate followed a couple days later, so that was a relief. I'd mailed out the application on February 16, and it was all processed ten days later, not to expire now until 2/16/18. It was the last thing I needed to "Riggsify" as the old one had my former surname of Wechsler-Chaput on it, so every time I used it I had to tell the passport person "Look at page 23" for the added note when the surnames on the passport and airline ticket didn't match. Add to that all the interviews this past week and at least one on Monday, I feel like March has begun with a lot of forward movement and promise. This is the month when I'll get a new job! So here's the lost blogaround from a few days ago, to be followed by another one when I'm done with today's reading:

• The big story on a couple foodie blogs is the scandal of celeb chef Robert Irvine. Amy Sherman at Epicurious posted a link to this fascinating article in the St. Petersburg Times about how Irvine's consistently misrepresented himself and his credentials to both employers and financial colleagues. It's one of those articles that gets better and more outrageous as it goes along. My jaw was really dropping by the end of it. Doesn't Food Network have anyone vetting its "star" chefs? Apparently not; as Marisa McClellan on Slashfood reports, Food Network has now fired Irvine. Couldn't happen to a sleazier guy. Makes those of us who don't pad our resumes look bad.

• Speaking of lying, Zed gives a great example of a circumstance wherein lying has definite positive effects. It's one of those things where you go "of course, that's a brilliant way to teach, why don't more people think of it?"

• And speaking of food, I wish I lived near Neil Gaiman so I could have some honey. Actually, considering where he lives, I amend that to "I wish he lived near us."

• Victoria has pretty much had it with biased reporting. I know to an extent everyone has a bias, but why does it always seem to manifest as either bashing or adulation instead of something that's a little less personal? As Susie rhetorically asks, "Must everything to do with the press corps be reduced to junior-high rules?" Yes. This has been today's edition of Simple Answers to Cogent Questions.

• It's Estrogen Month again, and Diane asks, Who's your favorite female blogger? A great question, I want to swipe it and ask it too! Leave your fave estroblogger names and links in the comments. Present company excepted, of course. :) Also remember to check out all the great women bloggers listed on my blogroll, as well as on the sidebar where it says "Where are all the women bloggers who aren't on the blogroll below? Many are here!" That leads to my Bloglines subscriptions, which contain two humongous "Where the Women Bloggers Are" sections. In fact, in honor of Estrogen Month I've once again moved those sections toward the top of my subscription list, right below my Top Six.

• JC Christian hoists Tim Russert's guilt by association game by its own petard.

• Lastly, at Shakespeare's Sister, Kenny Blogginz reveals his newest interview round about Will Ferrell's new movie. Considering Demitri Martin, whom I now think of as "the poor person's Kenny Blogginz," is one of Ferrell's concert-tour buddies, I found this highly appropriate.

Put to bed, and finally posted! Onward.

Dinner's done and I'm all caught up with blog reading, so I can finally get to my blogaround. I've just deleted an entire draft post blowing off steam about a bad experience I had with an agency this morning, in favor of this truncated version: It seemed the recruiter hadn't mentioned on Monday during the "come see us at 11 then we'll send you to see them right away about noon" call that, surprise!, the potential employer wanted someone bilingual (which I'm really not any more), or that they were too busy to schedule anything today, or that hey, I wasn't the only fish in the sea so tough luck! At this point they didn't need to spell it out for me. There was no interview. I suspect the job itself may not have existed. Not only had I utterly wasted my time, but I was left with two and a half hours to kill in chilly Manhattan before my next interview, this one with an actual potential employer that I'd set up directly. (Fortunately, those people were terrific; they graciously accommodated me and moved me up to noontime so I wound up getting all my business done and I was home again by 2. It sounds like a good fit as well; I hope I get a call-back.)

You cannot go through a career expecting coworkers, vendors, customers, etc. to be incompetent and untruthful. It just doesn't work. You must assume honesty and competence on the part of others, or you'll go nuts. Of course, the downside to this is that sometimes you're bound to get rooked. Today's escapade has only further soured me on the supposed value of employment agencies, which I keep trying to give the benefit of the doubt; after all, they're workers too. If you're a recruiter who happens to be reading this post because you've seen my resume, Googled my name and found this blog, I'd love to hear from you, but please don't call unless you have an actual prospect in Manhattan and are willing to set up a real interview with them. If anyone is curious as to the name of the agency that deceived me today, please email me and I'd be happy to oblige. They're the kind of place that gives good agencies a very bad name.

Onward:

• The Law of Threes, indeed: Noted intellectual snob, paleoconservative, marijuana legalization supporter and charter member of the American Boys' Club for the Defence of Errol Flynn (against statutory rape charges) William F. Buckley is dead. All that's left of him now is a passable imitation by Robin Williams and hundreds of YouTube uploads of him attacking Gore Vidal. It rather disturbs me how many liberal bloggers are toasting him, but I think that speaks to their obsession with wonkery (Buckley was certainly an erudite wonk) in this age of the breakdown of any sort of logical political discourse. I have to say I'm with Patrick on this one -- "A poisonous, wicked man. Good riddance." Also see Tristero at Digby's place and Richard at American Leftist. Moving on to some people worth remembering more: Jennifer Baumgardner eulogizes Barbara Seaman on HuffPo. I remember reading Seaman's work in my college women's studies classes. Drummer Buddy Miles just passed away. And a blog commenter named Darryl Pearce died suddenly; lots of bloggers are singing his praises, and he seemed like a great guy, but apparently he mainly commented on the A-list blogs so I never ran into him (I don't have time to peruse most blogs' comment sections).

• The Golden Clogs were handed out as promised last weekend. Co-creator Tony Bourdain follows up with these two posts, both pretty amusing. I loved how disturbed he seems: "I tell you, it shakes you to the core when people you’ve been insulting for years--at every opportunity--are decent to you." I had my chance to comment on this post of his about Romania, because a bit of the episode reminded me of when my family visited in 1973 and bits of it moved me to tears remembering my Dad.

• Speaking of visiting foreign countries, I really don't get what's wrong with being polite and paying tribute to your host by wearing some of their ceremonial clothing when you visit them. It's no different than taking your shoes off when visiting a Japanese home. And every politician does it. For proof, see these photos on the blogs of Cliff Meth, Capt. Fogg, Maru, and Maru again. Oh, and Melissa presents a pictorial called Georgie Goes to Africa, featuring wacky sashes.

• Okay, I'm officially beyond sick of how the mainstream media are covering the Democratic Presidential campaign. MSNBC's tagline for last night's debate said it all with the ultimate in false equivalency: "His words. Her voice." Yes, the stirring eloquence of Obama's every utterance, versus That Voice. Like fingernails on a blackboard. That harpy. That Bitch. How dare she open her mouth! Like vastleft sarcastically notes, "Ungracious loser Hillary Clinton has yet to respond to calls for a concession speech." Not only is Olbermann spending way too much time on this campaign to the detriment of any news of actual importance in the world, but he's firmly entrenched in the boys' club who think Obama can do no wrong but every eyeblink of Clinton's must be scrutinized to within an inch of its life. Oh sure, there was mention tonight, when I wasn't flipping to other channels in disgust, that Clinton criticized the media during the debate, but absolutely no self-examination followed. It was all like "She says we're picking on her -- the bitch!" Oh, and What Digby Said. For that matter, What Melissa Said as well. Especially "Telling women that they should merely abstain from reading and/or participating in [online public spaces that insult women] is akin to telling women their choices are to tolerate sexual harassment in order to participate in it, or segregate themselves and necessarily limit their opportunities in the public sphere. In addition to unfairly punishing women, that's also a tacit endorsement of openly expressed misogyny." I really don't like not being able to watch a news show on which I'd previously counted for somewhat accurate information because their gender bias is so obvious. It's not my fault they're being sexist assholes. I just want the news!

• Thanks to both Bryan and Archcrone for giving Pen-Elayne an "E" blog award. Technically I'm supposed to pay this forward by listing ten "Excellent" blogs on my blogroll, but I think almost all the blogs on my blogroll are excellent, or they wouldn't be there. So I'll just cheat and refer you to my left-hand sidebar. :)

• Although I gotta say Scott's old-time serial reviews always make me laugh, particularly the latest Batman one, introduced by Lorne Greene and his Alpo.

• Lots of bloggers are running Ricky Gervais' story of how he became an atheist, first linked to from PZ Myers' blog. And Keith has a nice follow-up talking about what he believes in now instead of religion. The other big thing everyone's discussing is the Pew Forum poll about the US religious landscape. Except for Jessa, who pleads, and forgive me for publishing her post in its entirety but I found it amusing, "Can we have an end to the religious memoir now, please? We get it. You once believed in god and now you don't. Or you were once a nonbeliever and now you go to church. Congratulations. You're just like most people in the world, you unique little snowflake. Perhaps you can tell us the riveting tale of your weight loss instead?"

Wrapping up with a comics-related bit, Jen Contino has posted an interview with Alan Davis for your reading pleasure. Speaking of which, time to delve back into my unread comics box -- night all!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've closed my open windows, so to speak. But Heidi just got engaged (and here's hoping she doesn't have to search for a new job) and it's Cliff's birthday, and it's snowed outside which sets the perfect mood to sit and type if I can keep my eyes open. I'm just glad my scheduled second interview at a potential employer was moved up to yesterday afternoon, as NYC is looking to shut down early today even though the snow's all but stopped now. Although it's made Maru happy, which she deserves to be since her blog WTF Is It Now?!? has passed its six-year mark; congrats, Maru!

• I've blogged previously about becoming more and more disillusioned by Keith Olbermann's Countdown, the only US news program that had been worth watching. I've seen the sportscaster descend more and more into the stat-driven horserace speculation end of the 2008 presidential campaign -- you know, the part that doesn't matter, as opposed to actually discussing the issues that do. Now the newscast has gone so far as to completely ignore vital goings-on in the rest of the world (Cuba, Kosovo, Pakistan, etc.) and even in the rest of the country (not one word about the NIU shootings) in favor of stuff that is by no stretch of the imagination (except Olbermann's and his fellow pundits') news. But we still tune in sometimes to see whether Keith's ratio of news to nonsense has improved, as he's really kind of the Last Best Hope modern TV journalism has. We're increasingly discovering that this hope ain't much. On Wednesday he spent half an hour discussing supposed allegations in a New York Times article that weren't even the point of the article, and weren't even allegations as much as a "teaser" to get people to read beyond the first few paragraphs. As those first paragraphs implied "SEX!" heaven forbid the usual suspects leave it alone and concentrate on the meat of the matter. And Olbermann is now firmly within this clique of usual suspects. I hope more viewers wake up about this; the degree of difference between Keith Olbermann and other pundits is like that between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates -- when all is said and done, they have much more in common, and pal around, with each other more than they ever will with us. (I mean, Rachel Maddow playing patty-cake with Pat Buchanan? Granted, that's a better left-right match-up than Hannity and Colmes, but the civility is sort of unnerving.)

Fortunately, bloggers are getting the story right. Kevin Drum explains why it's disingenuous of the NY Times' Bill Keller to be shocked, do you hear me SHOCKED, to find out there's sexual innuendo going on in the story and being picked up by most sensationalism-seeking media outlets. The Rude Pundit interprets things thusly: "It's pretty much like the New York Times thought, 'Aw, hell, we gotta do something to make people read this story about the arcane rules regarding favors and campaign contributions, so howzabout some hints at some lobbyist ballin'?'" Roy Edroso is wonderfully skeptical of all the media hypocrisy that adds to the McCain hypocrisy. Pete McGowan illustrates how this story might have legs via the indictment of Rick Renzi, a member of McCain's "Leadership Team," on "35 Counts of conspiracy, money laundering, insurance fraud and wire fraud." Wow! And, of course, What Digby Said. She, like a heartening number of bloggers, wasn't fooled at all by the major media coverage of the, erm, major media coverage. Quoth Digby, "The meat of this thing has to do with favors he [McCain] did for this lobbyist in his position as Chairman of the Commerce Committee, and I frankly don't care whether he did it for money or sex or just because she made him feel young again, it's unethical and hypocritical coming from someone who's running as a reformer." Bucking the trend, publius at Obsidian Wings insists the story actually is "about the affair."

• A lot of bloggers think Republicans aren't the only party to use coded language, and of course they're right since, as I call your attention again to the above paragraph, we need to remember these people all have more in common with each other than with us -- including money, class, methodology, ambitions, etc. Still, even with his eloquence and obvious knowledge that Word Mean Something, the way Barack Obama has spoken about his Democratic opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign didn't seem that unsettling to me. Are accusations of "subtle sexism," as illustrated by Mad Kane and others (Amp has a good roundup), or "sexist dogwhistles" as Zuzu terms it, just a matter of finding something you're hyper-sensitized to look for? I've seen this with feminist cultural critics as well. Because there's so much actual sexism still beating down upon us (see this astute analysis from Melissa about intimidation at political caucuses), we tend to assume it exists everywhere, even in places where it's the farthest thing from people's minds. I'm not saying these folks don't have a good point and argue a good case (and yes, it bothers me that Obama's site doesn't even discuss gender issues), I'm just not sure I agree with it. (I'm glad to see other feminist bloggers like Hilzoy agree with my conclusion; it tells me I'm not utterly crazy for thinking it.) I'm still among the Thinking People who wouldn't mind either a Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama presidency if that's our only choice given neither of them is exactly left of center, and I'm just about tuning out any newly-manufactured controversy as de facto manipulated by our mass media. Seriously folks, EuroNews or the Beeb. There's so much important stuff going on now in the world besides this campaign crap! I mean really, Obama supporters are a cult? Make these idiots read them some Athenae, I says. And seriously, bloggers, isn't a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq a tad more newsworthy than Ann Coulter's credit card being declined or Janet Huckabee staying at a Hooter's hotel in Vegas?

• Of course, that doesn't mean we oughtn't be concerned about stuff like Dallas police officers being given the order to stop security checks before an Obama rally. Oh jolly, just the thing to help some enterprising good-ol'-boy racists. Or perhaps Bill O'Reilly's "hypothetical" lynch mob gunning for Obama's wife for saying she was proud of America for the first time in her adult life (and I know how she feels, even though I was a lot prouder when Carter won back in '76).

• Speaking of which, please read these three very touching articles about the shootings at Northern Illinois University by Liberal Coalition member and NIU employee Michael Spires, who blogs at Musing's Musings: "Let not our own darkness conquer us"; Merci; and NIU one week later: it is what it is. Michael is one of the most eloquent writers I know, and a blogger who certainly deserves wider recognition.

• Amanda Marcotte is spot-on in two of her recent posts, one about credit card debt (which I've never had, and I've often thought that makes me some sort of freak in this country) and how the NY Times just can't seem to report about it correctly (because, of course, they all have more in common with each other than with us... no, as a matter of fact I won't stop saying that) and one about fat-shaming making inroads in chick lit, one of the places one would hope never to find it.

• Of course, we all pay attention when the NY Times comes out with articles we like, such as this one about more girls blogging than boys. Naturally, the "where are all the women bloggers?" set will dismiss this out of hand, because they don't see girls and women blogging about anything (they consider) important. And what was that latest *yawn* basketball score again? Of course then it's right back to skewering the Times, as Avedon does admirably, for articles like this one talking about how stupid kids today are.

• I've been saving this reprinted gem from Kate Harding since Valentine's Day, as it's very keen indeed. Speaking of V-Day, I can has marriage proposal? And Rob and I were too lazy to get dressed and go out in the cold on Wednesday night to glimpse the lunar eclipse which we couldn't see from just looking out the window, but there are plenty of cool photos online, like these from my favorite photoblogger NTodd Pritsky.

• "My first thought was 'Whoa! There must be a really famous person shopping here!' I turned around to see who it was. That's when I realized the famous person was me." Congratulations, or condolences, to Jenna Fischer on her first paparazzo stalking.

• Hey Steve, is Ken Jennings going to be at your OC library soon? Tell him your ex-wife is a big fan who writes about him a lot on her blog. :)

• Yoko Ono, who just celebrated her 75th birthday, insists she's not suing Lennon Murphy over the use of her surname, but over the young singer's supposed desire to use that name as an exclusive trademark. Julian Lennon also had a comment up about this but he seems to have deleted it, as well as his original comment supporting Murphy. Lennons and litigation, perfect together!

• On the weirdly partisan nature of the steroids-in-baseball hearings, What Digby Said, again. "Of course they are protective of a big, white Texas boy using steroids to win by any means necessary. It's a fundamental conservative value!" Oh, snap! Also see Thomas' post at Feministe.

• The snark twins of the culinary world are at it again, as Michael Ruhlman and Tony Bourdain announce the nominees for the first annual Golden Clog awards, and Tony adds another category on Ruhlman's blog to make it a baker's dozen.

• Even when teens get pregnant and follow the repressive rules their society expects, they still get dumped on. Jill at Feministe has the story.

• Your pareidolia for the day comes via Melissa at Shakesville, who reports on Our Lady of the Rold Gold. Speaking of Shakesville, you must read this post about feminism from their Teen Analyst, Kenny Blogginz, who's like a smarter, funnier Dmitri Martin.

Well, at least I finished linking to all the posts I had checked off before Bloglines quit on me. So I'm off to read through some of the DC comp box (two months unread so far) before coming back later for a couple more posts (including Friday Cat Blogging).