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                    <td width="724"><p><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><b>October 
                        2005</b></span></font></p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e944"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        3 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                &nbsp;9:11<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    AM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e944"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Despite 
                        the dreary, inevitable outcome there was one thing I 
                        learned listening to the Roberts hearings. <a href="http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/s065.htm">Stare 
                        decisis.</a> I love the way that sounds. It sounds like 
                        a good name for a seventies pop rock band. It sounds 
                        mystical. Whimsical. I was even encouraged by the idea 
                        that a case could be made that since women have been 
                        living with Roe v. Wade, especially younger women, they 
                        understand it as a norm. Or something like that. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">It 
                        is one of those legal things that is subject to interpretation 
                        and after thinking about it I began to question the 
                        value of it. There are things that we have understood 
                        as a norm that I'm glad we changed.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The 
                        law is full of beautiful language. I sometimes wish 
                        I had studied more of it. But I know that it is also 
                        full of tedium.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        watched <a href="http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60034580&trkid=90529">The 
                        Stepford Wives</a> this weekend. It's just bad. I watched 
                        it because I wondered how they would portray the life 
                        of a Stepford wife. There was an interesting opening 
                        section featuring fifties commercials in which women 
                        are always cooking or cleaning and dancing at the same 
                        time. But the characters were too hyper and the plot 
                        didn't make sense and the ideas about the lives of women 
                        who work were too over the top. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">It 
                        always seems to me that when we think about the problems 
                        of working women we ignore how many of those problems 
                        could be fixed if men took on more of the tasks of running 
                        a home and raising kids and if the workplace itself 
                        was more family friendly. There are all these shows 
                        now in which men take over the job of the wife. That's 
                        how odd it seems to us, speaking in broad cultural terms. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        also watched <a href="http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=netflix&page=1&offset=2&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3Db3688796a8f85e77%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3Dnetflix%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.netflix.com%252F%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DMyNS%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.netflix.com%2F">Casa 
                        de Los Babys</a>, which was so much more substantive 
                        and filled with real images of the problems of the lives 
                        of women and men and how those problems change in a 
                        cultural context. It's a film that leaves you with lots 
                        to discuss. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">It 
                        was kinda good to watch them both so close to one another. 
                        I often think about how entrenched our ideas of what 
                        it is to be a woman, or a man are. How full of mystification. 
                        No one is served by them. They act as stare decisis 
                        in the worst possible way. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1446)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1446"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1143" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1143"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1143"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e945"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        4 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                &nbsp;12:40<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e945"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Welllllll. 
                        The good news is that I have a small piece in the new 
                        <a href="http://www.bitchmagazine.com/">Bitch.</a> It's 
                        about the Sims. I got paid. That was nice. The bad news 
                        is it was really rewritten. What they did goes past 
                        editing. Some of it is mine. But in one sentence they 
                        reference <a href="http://www.lydia-lunch.org/">Lydia 
                        Lunch.</a> I don't know who she is. Well now I do. But. 
                        Jeez. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">There 
                        is this one sentence. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="358">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="352">
                                    <p><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:9pt;">It 
                                    was social engineering with myself as the 
                                    almighty deity, a role that apparently still 
                                    compels me. </span></font></p>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        don't know what it is about that sentence but I HATE 
                        it. I wrote:</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="346">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="340"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:9pt; 
mso-fareast-font-family:" Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><font face="Lucida Sans">It�s social engineering and I am the all-mighty
deity with the power to click. </font></span></td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Not 
                        in the paragraph they used part of it, which changes 
                        not just the words but how they were used in the piece 
                        as a whole. And I don't like the rhythm. Rhythm is big 
                        for me. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">So. 
                        It is what it is. I am feeling really hurt and angry 
                        and frustrated. This was a good thing. Being published. 
                        Being published in a magazine that I dig. Making money 
                        on writing. But I don't really care if anyone reads 
                        it. It's just not that good. Maybe it was never that 
                        good. I have to get some perspective. It's probably 
                        not that&nbsp;bad. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1447)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1447"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1144" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1144"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1144"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e946"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        10 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                &nbsp;9:22<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    AM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e946"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I've 
                        been curled up in a ball of cranky and, truth be told, 
                        I still am. Not physically so much but emotionally. 
                        Physically I've been cleaning. Cleaning always makes 
                        me feel better. And I watched a <a href="http://www.siddharthasintent.org/Pubs/Phorpa.htm">dear 
                        movie,</a> which concluded with the thought - if a problem&nbsp;&nbsp;can 
                        be solved then why be sad? If it can't be solved then 
                        why be sad? I'm paraphrasing but coming at the end of 
                        the movie it made sense.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        wrote some text for <a href="http://www.helanderdance.org/">Salt 
                        and Rain.</a> It was great to work with Danelle. She 
                        called to say that it went well.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        did get a rather convoluted apology <a href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1144">from 
                        Bitch</a>. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Yesterday, 
                        this being North Beach, there was a parade. Today American 
                        Indians have taken over Alcatraz. It might be a clash 
                        of stories but everyone has their time and place. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">It's 
                        also fleet week. The Blue Angels were flying all weekend. 
                        Noisy. Annoying. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">So. 
                        You know. Life goes on. I'm just trying to uncurl. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1448)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1448"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1145" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1145"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1145"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e947"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        12 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                &nbsp;9:39<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    AM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e947"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">For 
                        much of my blogging life everything in my day was fodder 
                        for a post. I thought about that last week when I was 
                        coming up the back stairs and noticed four crows sitting 
                        on a lamp post. Kristina had done a number of <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/redzenradish/88303.html?mode=reply">birds</a> 
                        <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/redzenradish/89408.html?mode=reply">on 
                        a</a> <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/redzenradish/91823.html?mode=reply">wire</a> 
                        posts. I thought I might be able to put something together. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        then there are those moments when I am walking to the 
                        pool and I notice all the people doing some kind of 
                        exercise. There's a tennis court behind the pool and 
                        a large open space beside in which I've seen soft ball 
                        games, Tai Chi, drill teams with flags, very small children 
                        on tricycles, joggers. Yesterday three men were doing 
                        some kind of martial art with sticks. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Or 
                        the furniture on the side walk. Last week, in the block 
                        before the pool, someone had put out a mattress and 
                        box springs. It looked like it was in good shape. It 
                        went away fairly quickly only to be replaced with a 
                        love seat, also in good shape. The love seat is still 
                        there. One drunken looking fellow made use of it for 
                        a nap. The loose pillows are gone. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        still notice things and thing I might write about them. 
                        But nothing forms. It's like the meaning making glue 
                        jar is empty. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1449)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1449"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1146" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1146"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1146"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e948"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        13 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                9:16<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    AM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e948"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        stayed up late to finish <a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/bookerprize2001/story/0,1090,561899,00.html">Atonement.</a> 
                        The writing is fantastic. There are scenes so richly 
                        drawn I will remember them as if I'd been there. And 
                        yet, I have the same feeling I had when I finished <a href="http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/saturday.html">Saturday</a>. 
                        I just didn't connect. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        keep thinking about it. There is nothing about the writing 
                        that I can fault. The plots in both books held my interest. 
                        The central character in Atonement is a young girl who 
                        loves to write. How could I not connect? </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">There 
                        are books that you don't want to end. You don't want 
                        to leave the characters. <a href="http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/michaels/crit3.htm">Fugitive 
                        Pieces</a> was like that.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">But 
                        I keep wondering if connecting is as much about me as 
                        a reader as it is about the book. Sometimes food doesn't 
                        taste good, sleep isn't restful, conversation feels 
                        like static. I don't feel like I'm that far gone. But 
                        maybe. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1450)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1450"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1147" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1147"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1147"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
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                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e949"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        16 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                12:49<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e949"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">When 
                        I went to bed last night I had the sense that it was 
                        an effort in futility. I wasn't quite tired enough. 
                        My neighbors were being noisy. I just knew sleep would 
                        elude me. I slept in fits, never quite diving down very 
                        deep. I had dreams that felt interesting when I first 
                        woke up from them but didn't stay with me. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Sometimes 
                        a dream will come back to me in the middle of a conversation, 
                        or when I'm walking along. Some fragment will pop up. 
                        Sometimes I can't tell if it's a dream or a memory. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">One 
                        of the most romantic things I ever saw was when I walked 
                        out of the guest room at <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~wasinger/bios.html">Tom 
                        and Susan's</a> house. She was in her studio, which 
                        was up in a loft and he was standing blow in the living 
                        room telling her his dream. I just wanted to have that 
                        kind of moment with someone. Which isn't to say that 
                        I haven't told my dreams to my friends a time or two 
                        but ... it was the idea of a romantic relationship in 
                        which the search for meaning was a welcome part.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Another 
                        most romantic thing was a picture I once saw of a room 
                        in Joan Didion and John&nbsp;Dunne's apartment. There 
                        were two desk back to back in a room full of books. 
                        I thought of that again when Kristina and I were talking 
                        about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/magazine/25didion.html?ex=1129608000&en=3f43cc3b5686e242&ei=5070">Didion's 
                        new book</a> and <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/redzenradish/93013.html?mode=reply">a 
                        picture of their living room</a>. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        do actually have romantic thoughts that are more carnal 
                        in nature but ... it's been awhile. It's been almost 
                        two years since I had any feeling for anyone and that 
                        was a loopy and misguided thing. Truth be told I have 
                        not quite let it go, although it's beyond pathetic that 
                        I haven't. So I feed on dream fragments and sneak peeks. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        dunno about romance. I think it's just one in a long 
                        list of things I've decided aren't going to happen for 
                        me. I feel no agency, no will, no magic. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I'm 
                        not tired. I've been awake for awhile. Eaten breakfast. 
                        Listened to <a href="http://sundaysalon.org/larrybensky.asp">Larry.</a> 
                        Cleaned the kitchen. Read some stuff. I feel fine. Sometimes 
                        I go through phases in which I have to nap in the middle 
                        of the day. Not a long nap. Fifteen, twenty minutes. 
                        It's only been true for the last few years. Some age 
                        thing I suppose. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">At 
                        2:00 I'll go for a swim. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1451)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1451"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1148" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1148"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1148"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e950"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        18 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                1:45<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e950"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">After 
                        I watched the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/">Einstein 
                        show</a> I watched two discs worth of the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/">Elegant 
                        Universe</a> and have been wondering about string theory 
                        ever since. Not that I have the brain for it but string 
                        theory is one of those places&nbsp;metaphysics and science 
                        meet up and have a conversation. I like hangin out there. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Too 
                        often in metaphysical circles there is a tendency to 
                        think in hierarchy and dualism. So when we think of 
                        <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/resonance.html">everything 
                        having a vibration</a> we talk about higher and lower 
                        vibrations and raising the vibration. We talk in terms 
                        of good vibes and bad vibes. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The 
                        other day on <a href="http://www.startingovertv.com/">my 
                        soap</a> one of the women asked <a href="http://www.innervisionsworldwide.com/asp/our_founder.asp">Iyanla</a> 
                        how she was and she answered with a sting of superlatives,. 
                        &quot;I'm so beautiful and spectacular and (more), I 
                        can hardly stand it.&quot; I'm paraphrasing. So all 
                        those positive things are somewhat negated by the idea 
                        that it's hard to stand it. I think if I told Iylana 
                        that she might agree. But I think her idea would be 
                        that she needed to have a higher thought. And that's 
                        not what I'm thinking. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">None 
                        of us is able to be positive all the time. Or negative, 
                        for that matter. We all travel in circles. Small ones 
                        in any given moment and larger ones that span years. 
                        Some of are more given to a glass half full way of seeing 
                        the world and some of us lean the other way. Generally. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">When 
                        I go to the pool I feel instantly better. Even before 
                        I swim. Maybe it's the light and the water. And then 
                        there's the rhythmic moving and the breathing. There 
                        are days when none of it gets through my bad mood but 
                        most of the time I feel good there. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">But 
                        then there's the other people.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Today 
                        I met a woman in the pool. She said it was the first 
                        time she'd been swimming in twenty years. The last time 
                        she swam was in China. Before we were let into the pool 
                        I noticed her doing some Tai Chi moves so I asked her 
                        about it. She teaches it. Her English wasn't good and 
                        I have no Chinese but we had a nice chat. Watching her 
                        in the pool was uplifting. She was like a kid. Joyous. 
                        She was all over the place. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">But 
                        there are times when there are too many people in the 
                        pool with too many agendas and I get cranky.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">String 
                        theory talks about how a specific vibration from a specific 
                        string happens in a context. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="306">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="300" height="180">
                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:9pt;">All objects, not just fundamental strings, have resonant patterns
associated with them. Pluck the string of a violin and you hear mainly
one tone. This is the string's fundamental resonant pattern, or
frequency. And the instrument's resonance doesn't stop there. The body
of the violin has resonant frequencies, which work to amplify the sound
created by the vibrating string. There's resonance in objects that
aren't musical, too. Your desk has resonant frequencies, and so does a
flagpole, and so does the Earth.
(<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/resonance.html">more)</a></span></font></td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">We 
                        are all living in a multi layered context and we have 
                        semi permeable boundaries. I'm always trying to feel 
                        into my own fundamental resonant frequency but I'm also 
                        mindful of the world around me. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        had what I thought was a mild disagreement with a friend 
                        once. Her default is to think of what an individual 
                        needs to do to solve a problem and mine is to think 
                        about what in the system needs to be challenged. We 
                        both acknowledged the importance of the other person's 
                        perspective. And, for my part. I know that sometime 
                        all we can do is work on what we can change about ourselves. 
                        I guess it was a bigger deal than I knew because we 
                        are no longer friends.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The 
                        past few years have been tough and I am so grateful 
                        for the people who have hung in there with me. Too often 
                        the positive thinkers can't handle difficulty. If you 
                        need to cry and rage you don't need someone talking 
                        in affirmations. You need someone who can be with you 
                        and hold your hand. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        yes. Sometimes we need to pull ourselves up. Sometiems 
                        we need to ignore the voices of gloom and doom that 
                        live in our head.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Anyway. 
                        Now I have a mad crush on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-witten.html">Edward 
                        Witten.</a></span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Heh. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1452)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1452"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1149" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1149"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1149"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
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                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e951"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        20 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                1:42<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e951"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">A 
                        few weeks ago Bravo had a series of shows: Great Things 
                        About Being ... and there was one on <a href="http://www.bravotv.com/Great_Things_About_Being_Fat/">being 
                        fat.</a> I tried to watch it but it took me a few times. 
                        They repeat shows over and over. I'd watch till I got 
                        too irritated and then click away knowing I could catch 
                        the rest another time. I'm pretty sure I saw it all. 
                        The 
                        show was irritating to me because it was full of cliches 
                        and bawdy, lampoon&nbsp;humor. It's just not my thing. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">They did a kind of count down thing and one of the great 
                        things about being fat was ... Oprah.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Uhhuh. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">That 
                        hit me in more than one way. It seems like no matter 
                        what size she is, Oprah will always be fat. I'm never 
                        the best judge of size because so many people who are 
                        considered fat, or plus sized, look fairly average to 
                        me. And of course bigger people are the average but 
                        I'm just saying that what the culture determines to 
                        be fat almost never looks fat to me. I would not say 
                        that Oprah is fat right now. But she certainly is a 
                        person with a genetic predisposition to be fat. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I'm 
                        not always sure how useful it is to talk about who is 
                        fat enough to be fat. Maybe sometimes. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">There 
                        was this commercial years ago for some kind of weight 
                        loss thing in which the catch phrase was - &quot;inside 
                        every fat person there is a thin person waiting to get 
                        out.&quot; I thought that was like suggesting that I 
                        was &nbsp;somehow sub - somatic. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Being 
                        fat is part of my identity. Maybe all the adjectives 
                        should be stripped away and what's left is who I truly 
                        am but being white, 52, tall, Gemini, all kinds of things 
                        make up how I experience&nbsp;myself. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I don't think 
                        there's anything wrong with people talking about Oprah 
                        as a fat person. She is the model of the obedient fat 
                        person. She took on an athletic level of physical activity 
                        and hyper-vigilance about food and she still makes adjustments 
                        when she gains weight, which she does because she's 
                        always fighting her genetics. I don't really care what 
                        she does. She seems happy with her choices. They aren't 
                        choices I would make. When 
                        I was watching the show I wondered how it would feel 
                        to be her, work that hard and still be talked about 
                        as fat. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Saying 
                        I am fat should have as much impact as saying I have 
                        brown eyes. Some people like blues eyes better. That's 
                        OK. But saying I am fat, owning it in that way, is an 
                        action that I take. It's like coming out. I am saying 
                        that I am a member of group of people who are marginalized 
                        and discriminated against. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I've 
                        been thinking a lot about <a href="http://fattypatties.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_fattypatties_archive.html#112874544451406025">a 
                        post by Pattie</a> with which I very much agree. I never 
                        like tropes of pop psychology. Victim mentality? I have 
                        sometimes judged people for what seemed like a way of 
                        interpreting the world as a hammer with which they are 
                        hit. And I know that some times it seems like the deck 
                        is stacked against me. And sometimes it is. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Great 
                        things about being anything are only part of the story 
                        and too simple and not useful and I doubt the show ever 
                        intended to be&nbsp;anything more than what it was. 
                        I didn't watch it because I hoped for more. I'm still 
                        thinking about it though. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1453)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1453"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1150" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1150"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1150"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
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                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e952"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        23 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                3:13<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e952"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">When 
                        I walked out of the dressing room to get in the pool 
                        yesterday I looked up and out of the windows. There, 
                        on top of the twisty part of&nbsp;Lombard, was a trolley. 
                        There was lots of fog so the trolley was in silhouette. 
                        It was a post card SF moment. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I've 
                        mentioned the group of Autistic kids who swim in the 
                        pool on Friday mornings and the one kid who runs from 
                        the dressing room and heads for the deeper, colder pool. 
                        He is intercepted but then he runs up and down the steps 
                        of the warm pool. There's lots of yelling until he settles 
                        down. The other day he got under the buoy rope, into 
                        the deep end. He seemed to swim well enough. What he 
                        wanted to do was get up on one corner of the pool, dive 
                        in and the do it again and again. And again. The pool 
                        manager was there and is a pretty easy going guy. One 
                        of the teachers was trying to get the kid back into 
                        the shallow end but the kid was just so tenacious. Eventually 
                        they indulged him. He was kinda buggin a few swimmers 
                        and I know it might not have been the best thing to 
                        do but I just loved how willful the kid was. Willful 
                        and jubilant. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        then. Another kid, who likes to play on the buoy rope 
                        and slip over to the deep end was fully into the deep 
                        end. The manager and the teachers were doing their best 
                        to control all of this and still be flexible. I was 
                        giggling. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">But 
                        then one too many swimmers (not a kid) came into the 
                        deep end and I decided to get out. I'd been there long 
                        enough. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">On 
                        Sundays I go the pool during the last hour and there 
                        is a vibe. The staff is pacing. Ready to go home. It's 
                        not too bad. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">My 
                        muscles are thrumming. My head is clear. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1454)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1454"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1151" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1151"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1151"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e953"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        24 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                8:57<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e953"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I've 
                        been defrosting the refridgerator. ALL DAY. It's such 
                        a messy job. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">While 
                        I was doing that I fooled around with <a href="http://www.librarything.com">something</a> 
                        I learned about <a href="http://www.willa.com/weblog/2005/09/librarything.htm">from 
                        Willa.</a> Kinda fun. You can store 200 books for free. 
                        I hit <a href="http://www.librarything.com/profile/Tish">201</a> 
                        and didn't stop me but I didn't want to keep pushing. 
                        I added the widget to the bottom of my page so you can 
                        see five random books. I tried to get them all right. 
                        Sometimes I added a paperback when I have a hardback. 
                        You can serch for&nbsp;them with the ISBN and I did 
                        do some of that but it got to be a bit much. None of 
                        my cookbooks are there. Only two poetry books. After 
                        I was done I kept walking past books and thinking I 
                        needed to add them. It's only ten bucks a year, or 25 
                        for a life time. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Fun 
                        with books. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1455)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1455"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1152" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1152"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1152"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e954"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        27 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                8:57<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e954"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">When 
                        I heard the news about Rosa Parks I was struck by the 
                        fact that it had been fifty years since she held fast 
                        to her seat on that bus. I was two. So much has changed. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The 
                        other day I was flipping channels and I came across 
                        one of those selling-things channels. The product was 
                        one of those hot iron hair combs. It was being used 
                        to straighten the hair of a young African American girl. 
                        She looked bored and mildly irritated but not in pain. Someone off camera 
                        obviously told her to smile and she did. It made me 
                        sad. I remember reading about hair straightening in 
                        Macolm X's autobiography. And I remember Afros and corn 
                        rows and dreads, all of which were part of the new natural 
                        world we were creating, back in the day. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Things 
                        have changed. But women&nbsp;like to play with their hair. 
                        Somewhere a Caucasian girl is trying to sit still while 
                        she get a perm. It's the tyrany of notions of beauty. 
                        It's also just fun. It's really not a big deal but it 
                        just hit me. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        heard <a href="http://www.timwise.org/">Tim Wise</a> on the radio the other day talking about 
                        privalge. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="389">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="383"><p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">
<font face="Arial,"><span style="font-size:9pt;">Whites,
as it turns out, take most everything for granted in this country;
which makes perfect sense, because dominant groups usually have that
privilege. We take for granted that we won't be racially profiled even
when members of our group engage in criminality at a disproportionate
rate, whether the crime is corporate fraud, serial killing, child
molestation, abortion clinic bombings or drunk driving. And indeed we
won't be. </span></font></p>
                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">
<font face="Arial,helvetica"><span style="font-size:9pt;">We
take it for granted that our terrorism won't result in whites as a
group being viewed with generalized suspicion. So Tim McVeigh
represents only Tim McVeigh, while Mohammed Atta gets to serve as a
proxy for every other person who either has his name or follows a
prophet of that name.
                                    </span></font></p>
                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">
<font face="Arial,helvetica"><span style="font-size:9pt;">We
take it for granted that our dishonesty will be viewed in purely
individualistic terms, while the dishonesty of others will result in
aspersions being cast upon the entire group from which they come. Thus,
Jayson Blair's deceptions at the </span><i><span style="font-size:9pt;">New York Times</span></i><span style="font-size:9pt;"> provoke howls
of indignation at any effort to provide opportunity to journalists of
color -- because after all, diversity and quality are proven by this
one man's exploits to be incompatible -- but Jack Kelley's equally
egregious fabrications and fraud at </span><i><span style="font-size:9pt;">USA Today</span></i><span style="font-size:9pt;"> fails to prompt
calls for an end to hiring white guys as reporters, or for scrutinizing
them more carefully, or for closing down whatever avenues of
opportunity have helped keep the profession so white for so long.
(<a href="http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/WhiteWhine.html">more</a>) </span></font></p>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        then last night I watched <a href="http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70023961&trkid=90529">Crash.</a> 
                        It's just an amazing movie. Amazing. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Lots 
                        has changed. And more&nbsp;needs to change. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1456)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1456"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1153" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1153"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1153"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
                                     </font></a></span></p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e955"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        30 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                1:06<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    PM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e955"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></a></span></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        love a good philosophical conversation. It would be 
                        fair to say that I live for good philosophical conversation. 
                        But I gotta say. Most of the conversations about feminism, 
                        especially the ones that happen on the web, give me 
                        a headache. All the where-are-all-the-women-bloggers 
                        hand wringing, teeth gnashing, yadda- yadda. It gives 
                        me a head ache. I've never had any trouble finding them. 
                        Are they linked? Do they get called for the pundit shout 
                        shows? I don't really know. I don't really care. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        have come to believe that my ideas about feminism must 
                        be ... oh ... I dunno...just, different. I mentioned 
                        feminism to a guy a few years ago and that was the last 
                        I heard from him. In all fairness there were other things 
                        going on but it was the mention&nbsp;of feminism that 
                        seemed to fuel his departure. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">But 
                        I've had some loopy conversations with women as well. 
                        It's like saying the word feminist means you hate men. 
                        It's one thing to commiserate about pay and respect 
                        and representation and another to take on a political 
                        identity that might make someone uncomfortable. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Susan 
                        Sarandon, who I admire as an artist and as an activist, 
                        is on a commercial for age defying makeup. So all the 
                        talk about how hard it is for woman of a certain age 
                        to get roles in Hollywood and there she is pimping makeup. 
                        I don't really care if she gives all the money she makes 
                        away, that ad is tired. Instead of defying our age why 
                        not enjoy it? </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        then there was all the chatter about the <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2123659/">Dove 
                        girls.</a> Those courageous fat (cough) women (I mean 
                        come on. They really are not fat.) who posed in their 
                        underwear to sell ... FIRMING products. Help me. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">So 
                        when <a href="http://www.yblogza.com/2005/10/are-women-necessary.html">Mike 
                        points</a> to a <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=509437">couple</a> 
                        of <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6276740.html">articles</a> 
                        about Maureen Dowd's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0399153322/qid=1130702988/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1735961-2270304?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">new 
                        book</a> I read with some trepidation. Which turned 
                        out to be wise. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="360">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="354"><span style="font-size:9pt;"><font face="Arial">Asked if it she who is gracing her own cover, Dowd only utters a street-wise, &quot;I wish.&quot;</font></span><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt;">
                                    </span></font></td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Yeah. 
                        Um. Huh? </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">But 
                        really. Trying to talk about how women feel about how 
                        they look is just exhausting. Many of the smartest women 
                        I know still poke at their face in the bathroom mirror. 
                        It's what Ms. Dowd says about feminism that made me 
                        want to walk into the bay. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="389">
                            <tr>
                                <td width="383"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt;">Feminism lasted
for a nanosecond, but the backlash has lasted 40 years.� 
                                    </span></font></td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Which 
                        nano second was that? Was it the nano second in 1917 
                        when women won the right to vote? Which, ironically, 
                        &nbsp;was six years after Jennette Rankin became the 
                        first woman elected to congress. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        like Maureen Dowd. Generally. Even if she does wish 
                        she looked like a cartoon drawing. I get that she is 
                        being tongue in cheek. Maybe I am guilty of that most 
                        often mentioned (albeit imagined) feminist attribute. 
                        Maybe I have lost my sense of humor. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        watched <a href="http://www.sonyclassics.com/spring/">Spring, 
                        Summer, Winter, Fall and Spring Again.</a> It is a&nbsp;lovely 
                        movie. And it gave me pause. It begins with a monk and 
                        the small boy monk who is his student. The boy is cruel. 
                        But I didn't think it was male cruelty. Just human cruelty. 
                        When the boy is older a young woman comes to the monastery 
                        in search of healing&nbsp;and the two begin an awkward 
                        courtship. When the old monk discovers this he says 
                        it is natural and that it must have been good medicine 
                        because now the girl is well and she should go home. 
                        The young monk is driven by desire to leave the monastery 
                        and returns after he has murdered his wife. It isn't 
                        clear if he was married to the young woman. As the movie 
                        comes to an end the old monk is dead, the young monk 
                        has become an adult and returned again to the monastery. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">There 
                        were ways in which women seemed to cause all the trouble. 
                        Or maybe it was just sex. Either way it gave me pause. 
                        There is a wonderful scene in which the young monk has 
                        a statue of <a href="http://www.iol.ie/~taeger/bio/greenye.html">Tara</a> 
                        and well ... you should see the film. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">After 
                        the film I thought about the antipathy between men and 
                        women. None of us is necessary. We are all essential. 
                        They aren't contradictory ideas. I long for a complex 
                        feminism that articulates how the needs of life too 
                        often bring out our cruelty.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Do 
                        I wish I was a carton red head on a subway full of leering 
                        men? Not really. I want to look like myself. I want 
                        to feel comfortable in my skin. Sometimes I do. And 
                        I want to look into the eyes of a man and forget about 
                        power. Just for a minute or two. At least the kind of 
                        power that needs one person to be less so that another 
                        person can be ... necessary. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
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                                    <p><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt;">It's 
                                    the jelousy, the greed that's the unraveling 
                                    and it undoes al the good that could be. 
                                    - <a href="http://www.jmdl.com/lyrics/song.cfm?id=AllIWant">Joni</a></span></font></p>
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                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1457)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1457"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1154" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1154"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1154"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
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                                                    <p><span class="rss:item"><a id="e956"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">October 
                         
                        31 
                                                </font></a><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">2005 
                                                9:55<font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                                    AM</font></font></span><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"> </span></font><span class="rss:item"><a id="e956"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></font></a></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        had such a nice evening. Someone gave Deb tickets to 
                        see <a href="http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2005/world_stage/guthrie.php">Arlo</a> 
                        and she took me. Even if I had money for such things 
                        I might not have gone, which should not suggest that 
                        I am not crazy about him. I just don't get out much. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">He 
                        was wonderful. I saw him somewhere in Maryland, back 
                        in the day. Way back. So it was a sort of full circle 
                        moment. For all my railing about celebrity culture I 
                        must confess that when he walked on stage I was over 
                        come with the need to walk up and hug him. I think if 
                        I saw him on the street and told him I just NEEDED to 
                        hug him he would hug me. He's just sweet like that. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;"><a href="http://www.themammals.net/">The 
                        Mammals</a> opened and joined <a href="http://www.arlo.net/">Arlo</a> 
                        for a few songs. They were wonderful. Tao Rodriguez-Seeger 
                        is Pete's grandson and Arlo's son plays with Arlo. So 
                        Pete Seeger's grandson and Woody Guthrie's grandson 
                        were on stage together. Something about that rocks my 
                        world.</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I'm 
                        not big on the whole Halloween thing. But <a href="http://blueridgeblog.blogs.com/blue_ridge_blog/2005/10/our_bucktoothed.html">Marie's 
                        pumpkin </a>is too cool for school !!!</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        ... uh. I'm not sure what this means. But ...</span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <table align="center" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;" border="0" width="146">
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                                    <p><div style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; background-color: white; width: 115px; text-align: center; padding: 0 0 10px 0;"><p style="margin: 0"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/23/25822676_789bf55448_t.jpg" style="border:0;"><br /> 		<span style="font-size: 11px;">My <a href="http://fatshadow.com/">blog</a> is worth <b>$31,049.70</b>.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 10px;"><a href="http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/">How much is your blog worth?</a></span></p><p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/" style="border: 0px;"><img src="http://technorati.com/pix/tech-logo-embed.gif" style="border: 0px;"></a></p></div>                                </td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I 
                        found it&nbsp;at <a href="http://www.ashladle.org/">Maria's 
                        Blog</a>. I could use the cash. </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And 
                        <a href="http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/10/30/hackery-on-parade/">Barry</a> 
                        made me smile this morning. As did <a href="http://www.koshtra.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_koshtra_archive.html#112982148744761905">Dale</a>. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:11pt;">I've 
                        been withdrawn from blogging. But this morning I am 
                        clicking and smiling. My heart feels open. I blame Arlo. 
                        </span></font></p>
                        <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
                                                    <p align="justify" style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><SCRIPT type="text/javascript">get_comment_link(1458)</script> <noscript></span></font><a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/b=90000008560_and_e_is_1458"><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;">comment</span></font></a><font face="Lucida Sans"><span style="font-size:10pt;"></noscript> 
                        </span></font></font></p>
                                                    <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;"><span class="rss:item"><a id="e1155" href="http://www.fatshadow.com/October2005.htm#e1155"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1">Permalink</font></a><a id="e1155"><font face="Lucida Sans" size="1"> 
                                     
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                        <p style="line-height:100%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">&nbsp;</p>
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Anon7 - 2021