"Kick chalk off campus. Chalk kills manatees and puppies."

[hermionesviolin]

Tammy Bruce is speaking at UMass this Wednesday (7pm, Student Union). If i'm gonna grow up and be the child of Tammy Bruce and Eugene Volokh, i think Tristan Taormino should be my crazy aunt, for the balance, 'cause otherwise my radical queerness (such as it is) seems rather out of left field (though i blame most stuff on my lineage, and it's a left-fielder in actuality too). I'm jealous of Brown for getting her "My Life as a Feminist Pornographer" lecture (this Tuesday. 5pm). And Wooster in Ohio gets "Sexploration on College Campuses," which title makes me wonder what Tristan thinks of Katie Roiphe.

Emma was complaining about her history teacher offering a perspective not usually heard at Smith, which Ruhi said was "refreshing." Normally i'd be inclined to agree (see above re: Tammy Bruce), but having listened to Emma, it didn't sound like he was presenting a particularly reasoned perspective, which made me sad. Speaking of: a reminder that Canada is not perfect. (No i'm not deeply interested in a discussion about whether Canada is on the whole better than the USA, i just get irked when it -- or any other country -- gets presented as Heaven on Earth, and also when the USA gets presented as Worstest Baddest Nation Evar.)

redredshoes talks about the fact that bullimia is what really killed Terri Schiavo and how this isn't getting any media coverage.

The Marines wanted my brother, though he's disqualified due to his unfortunate gene pool. We're gonna have interesting and very disparate lives whatever happens (and yet i expect we will continue to get along well) but that would have been particularly interesting and disparate. I am now deprived of the chance to say, "Hey, my brother's a Marine and he's not scary." From my mother's e-mail (before they knew he'd be disqualified):

It's not exactly ROTC, he'd be a Marine Reservist, with the job of satellite communications -- which means he gets to play with all the cool computers. The Defense Dept gets everything first before civilians.

It also means he's making a 6 year commitment to the Reserves, 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks in the summer for 6 years.
They see him as officer material -- so they are encouraging officer training -- which is a summer thing in 2-3 years (I'm still trying to get my mind around the details).
He would be extremely unlikely to be deployed because they need him in the tech position, not in the desert getting shot at.
And he would leave in early June for boot camp.

MAT class tonight, Meg presented on Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" and gave us a copy of a first draft thanks to another prof (you can read most of it via this essay). Generally i think the published version is a better poem (though it's very different) but there are some bits i wish could have been left in.
"One might think this would have prepared me for losing one average-sized not exceptionally beautiful or dazzlingly intelligent person"
"He who loseth his life, etc. - but he who loses his love - never, no never never never again"

I haven't read much Elizabeth Bishop, but poking around i find i really like "In The Waiting Room".

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. The result: "For sale: baby shoes, never used." It's rumored that Hemingway thought it was his greatest work, and it's invariably offered as the standard to which micro-fiction should aspire.

Other 6-word-story attempts here.

Comments

[hedy.livejournal.com]

I always find it interesting how the marines are potrayed (by multiple facets) as scary OMG could kill you with their bare handz!!!11
Of course, I'm certain part of your remark was on your snerking at the left, and at some point I am planning to do some anti-war/pro-troops processing, especially as the daughter of a veteran.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely big on pointing out how members of groups don't all conform to the dominant stereotype of said group (though admittedly about bitch about The Left as if they're some monolithic entity, but i like to think that mostly i'm bitching about something i'm seeing prevalent amongst The Left or bitching about how people on The Left are feeding bad conceptions of themselves). And i'm sure my life will be full of examples which i can invoke in the cause of "X does not necessarily equal evil."

My mom wrote:

at one point I was thinking how "hardcore" the marines are, and how macho and all. And I fear it leads to (more) closed minded thinking, tho I try to have faith in my children to be open minded and accepting and supportive of others, and I thought, I could have a very conservative macho kind of child AND a gay-rights activist queer child. And people wonder why parents look so tired sometimes !

And about me and my brother:

Neither of you fit into any known boxes very well.

What I find interesting is how well you two get along, given how different you are.
Which makes me think the differences aren't as deep as the similarities.

And I'm terribly fond of both of you :)

[diadeloro.livejournal.com]

I was in that same history class, and yeah, the perspective was a little surprising and old fashioned. However, I saw it more that he was describing their motivations for going (and only with regard to the very early efforts - so no gold-seeking was involved yet), and not discussing at all really what happened when they got there, so it really wasn't too bad.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. The impression i was getting from Emma was that he was saying, "This was their motivation, and that makes them better than everyone else" in a way that discounted the complexity of the issue, and that he was making a judgment call on the exploration types and motivations generally rather than just explaining their motivations.

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

What is with this chalk thing, by the way?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

It was in the corner of a blackboard in Seelye. A smith_step-esque reaction to the Kick Coke Off Campus campaign currently going on.

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

Okay, gotcha. I had wondered if it could possibly be a serious thing (Wesleyan outlawed chalking a few years ago, after all), though I figured there would be more outrage were that the case. (That and that slogan is ridiculous.)

I guess I'd probably end up siding with the campaign, though the issue is of course fairly complex (given that Coke does provide a lot of jobs in my area) . . . I really haven't been paying that much attention to the on-campus doings, though. I did manage to catch the tail-end of the Glee Box thing, but barely. Do you think the Kick Coke Off Campus thing is going to be the fuel for this year's Great Smithie Hormonal Meltdown? I mean, there always is one (over the SGA election last year, trans issues and the constitution change the year before, and the war my first year).

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

And we can't forget the Spring Semester from Hell my first year :)

To be honest, i haven't been paying much attention to "on-campus doings." (I vaguely caught the Glee Box thing, but only in the vaguest of awarenesses.) I really don't know what will be The Meltdown Issue this semester, though, if there is one. (Wouldn't that be wonderful? To graduate without UberTraumaDrama in my immediate wake?) I remember the organic coffee agitating being a big deal a few years ago, but it doesn't feel like the Coke thing has the kind of power and momentum that had -- or maybe i just have less activisty people in my circles.

Danne was telling me this morning how she's on the Kick Coke Off Campus campaign and also applying for a Fulbright, which is sponsored by Coke :)

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

And we can't forget the Spring Semester from Hell my first year :)

Unless we weren't there. I'm sure you told me about it at some point, but I don't remember . . . ?

And yes, a lack of UberTraumaDrama would be nice, so I wish you luck. Dunno, though. All that estrogen combined with end-of-the-year finals . . .

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Trying to put together a list, it occurs to me that the year before the year before was your first year :) And i would argue that there wasn't meltdown around the war like there was with stuff like the constitution change, just because the campus was so much less divided on the war issue. Anyway, Spring my first year was the culmination of racial incidents that had been happening across campus all year, culminating in a 4-hour all college meeting in JMG. Is this beginning to ring bells?

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, right, I'm stupid. I did know about your first year's Drama because some involved party or other went to my mother's law firm for representation (rather a step away from their ordinary clientele, by which I mean the Turtles publishers and such)

[immortalavalamp.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Terry even had an ED...but I love your friend forever because she quoted Wasted by Marya Hornbacher.

I guess she wouldn't be a victim of the evil democrats if it was feasible that she was involved/contributed to her own death...no, it wasn't her choice to be killed by bulimia, but you make choices and decisions. The whole situation is really sad, and I think it's disgusting that it was made out to be such a public spectacle--especially if no one is to learn from it, as they would if the consequences of EDs were publicized, as well. :(

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i'm really pleased that people are being made aware of the importance of living wills, but i know her bullimia barely registered for me (as it was barely mentioned in media coverage) until i read that LJ entry.

I don't think i've read Wasted, but that quotation was one of my favorite bits of the piece. And i'm now much more educated on the effects of bullemia on the human body.

[immortalavalamp.livejournal.com]

I don't have my copy here, or else I'd let you borrow it :(

It's definitely worth the read, though. AMAZING book, especially if you like prose.