"‘Abroad’ is home for millions of us."

Riverbend reviews the most recent Presidential propaganda fest.

Cuppa Tea, Cuppa Tea, Saddam Got Fragged, Cuppa Tea...

My contribution to today's Big Brass Alliance blogswarm:

Wide-eyed lapdog Tony Blair was said to be "a bit astonished" by the publicity generated by secret memos which claimed he rushed to a dinner which consisted of mad cow and kidney pie. "People say the decision was already taken. The decision was not already taken... The trouble with having a political discussion on the basis of things that are leaked is that they are always taken right out of context." He added, "The context was, we were clearly going to have tea first, hours before the dinner was even prepared!" While the leaked dinner menu explicitly listed "mad cow pie" as the main course and "spongiform cake" for pudding, Blair focused on teatime, claiming distortion of his daily schedule even though teatime, as well as his early-afternoon siesta that same day, were in fact mentioned on the leaked itinerary.

I honestly don't know how Tom Burka does this sort of thing all the time...

Silly Site o' the Day

I don't hold out high hopes that I'll get the position for which I interviewed yesterday, so as mentioned previously it looks like I'm stuck here through the summer. But you know, if you really want to feel like you're on constant KP duty, why not play Peel the Potato? The hardest part is twirling it around so you get the back and sides. Via Hanan Levin.

Liberal Coalition Mini-Blogaround

Well, the rest of my blogroll has been skimmed, the Mets are losing, and Robin's watching some Eagles farewell concert (this is their "farewell tour #1," he tells me), so I may as well convey my official welcome as a member of the Liberal Coalition to our newest members, as well as a farewell to one and welcome-back to another:

First off, I wish Natalie Davis peace and comfort in whatever the future brings her.

Welcome back, Clonecone, who as usual thinks of the children, especially someone else's children.

New LC member Bora Zivkovic, aka Coturnix, has two blogs. In Circadiana he rounds up some science news and throws his support behind a 28-hour day Hey, only if it includes four more hours of sleep! And in Science and Politics he talks about a Republican justice candidate who's seen the light, sending his son off to Boy Scout camp, and the Hitler Warhol Theory.

New LC member Horatio of Docedahedron is not just another brick in the wall. Ah, but remember that old saying, Horatio, "It feels so good when I stop."

New LC member Jane Hamsher of firedoglake (moved up to the LC section on my sidebar from the News+Views Gals section) compares GM with Honda. I'd say Honda wins on non-obnoxious ads alone...

New LC member Kathy Kattenburg of Liberty Street(also moved up to the LC section on my sidebar from the News+Views Gals section) tries to dissect Guantanamo self-contradictions and gives me a headache too, and says Bush doesn't even know the meaning of suffering (sure he does, it's what other people do, not to mention the frogs he usred to blow up as a kid!).

New LC member TJ of Welcome to Gilead - um, how can I put this? He doesn't seem to have posted in almost a month. Perhaps my fellow LC member might consider admitting as our 40th active member someone who has expressed interest and is actively posting, particularly about subjects many other blogs just gloss over? Just a suggestion...

Like I said, we still have a few kinks to work out. No better public venue on which to follow the ins and outs of liberal blog alliances than NTodd's Multilateral, so I assume interested readers can stay tuned for further LC updates there!

Memes I Like

From Lis: "If, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog."

Pass it on.

And get ready for the Summer of Truth. I'd be very pleased indeed if some enterprising local freeway blogger made my daily commute around the Cross County Expressway, Major Deegan and/or Sawmill/Henry Hudson Parkway more enjoyable. Like putting up a sign saying "Want to support the troops? Bring them home instead of buying stupid ribbon magnets." Ah well, I can dream, can't I?

Maintenance Notes

As Terry Welch has finally returned from his tour of duty in Afghanistan (welcome back, Terry!), I've moved Nitpicker, the blog he does with CJ Finis, down to Dynamic Duos on my sidebar, and linked CJ's solo blog, Synaptic Sync, to her name under News+Views Gals. Still have a lot of blog-skimming (I can't kid myself any more) to get through, including the long-awaited Liberal Coalition blogaround I've been promising, before deciding which of the new Alternet blogs, if any, to add to my sidebar; for now the ones done by women are in my Where The Women Bloggers Are section on my Bloglines subs (see sidebar). Mostly just trying to stay awake through the rainstorms...

Silly Site o' the Day

Still hoping to do a Liberal Coalition blogaround this afternoon, when I return from the morning interview. Keeping all appropriate digits crossed, as this is my last chance to get out before my boss' return. Hey, Psychic Cow, how do you think I'm going to do? What? All you want me to do is guess your udder color? Geez, what a ripoff, I thought you were a psychic cow! Via Hanan Levin, natch.

Silly Site o' the Day

A fun version of the "Ho'od Win?" game the comic book geeks used to play on Usenet - Googlefight! Via Frank Paynter. It's also a useful tool to find out how much 'net publicity one story is getting over another; for instance, "Downing Street Memo" had 1,710,000 results, whereas "Michael Jackson" had 25,400,000 results. So Michael Jackson wins, and we all lose..

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Desi, a Motown-swipin' tribute to Google UK.

RIP Paul Winchell

Mark Evanier has a lovely eulogy and remembrance of a personal hero of mine, in both the fields of entertainment and medicine.

BéruBBQ, or My Big Fat Greek Blogger Gathering

On Friday evening, Julia threw another one of her terrific soireé barbecues, this time to celebrate Michael Bérubé's ongoing recovery from his emergency appendectomy, as well as to take in the local Greek festival and just generally pal around as we NYC-area bloggers are wont to do. And because so much of the conversation was on an intellectual level at least four or five strata above me, I took pictures, as I'm wont to do. You saw the infamous scar yesterday; here's some more fun stuff!


Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden in front of the garden area; Julia's backyard is always lovely and pleasant (as, in point of fact, are Teresa and Patrick)!


Did we mention that MadKane has started podcasting? She was going to pass around the recorder so we could do a group podcast, but Julia (back to the camera, talking to Uncle Donald, and if you squint you can see HM in the background) suggested we all get a little mellower before that happened, and of course we got so mellow we forgot to do it...


Julia's Beleaguered Husband tends the grill (whence came magnificent steaks and chicken and hot dogs!), as Randy Paul looks on. Because I tend toward taking unposed pictures I often do get these back-to-the-camera shots, so all due apologies to those whose smiling faces didn't make it in this time.


Left to right: Rob with his Hulk shirt (yes, he inked the image on the shirt) reminding me not to get my thumb in the way, Janet and Michael, and Scott Lemieux.


Even though it's smile-for-the-birdie posed, this picture of the Two Robins (my husband and eRobin of Fact-esque) is one of my favorites.


The Talking Dog holds the Loquacious Pup, still struggling to wake up from her nap in the car on the journey to Julia's. One of the great things about Julia's backyard gatherings is how all-ages-friendly they are, and how the folks who haven't brought their kids along inevitably wind up talking about them, which delights me.


Julia's neighbor made this wonderful corn-based concoction, the taste of which was indescribable but terrific, although Randy and his wife Mércia recognized it as being of South American origin.


And then it was off to the Greek festival at the nearby church parking lot! You can just about see Lindsay Beyerstein there on the right, looking off towards the house as we waited for the rest of our contingent. And I'm pretty sure that's my car on the left.


At the festival. Water Gun Fun, I tell you!


And bouncy castles aplenty! This picture is for Robin's dad, because I'd never heard the phase "bouncy castle" until I came across it recently in an email he sent.

Patrick and Teresa stopped to listen to the Greek music, as Patrick was fascinated by one of the stringed instruments, whilst Julia treated us all to loukoumades (fried honey puffs which she accurately described as "like zeppoles only coated with honey" instead of powdered sugar, which makes them crusty and crunchy on the outside).


The music got a bit loud for us, so we waited for the others outside the entranceway, where a few flea market-type tables were set up. What's the collective noun for Godzilla, anyway? I decided to call this a Mecha of Godzillas.


We then returned to Julia's for coffee and dessert (Lindsay brought yummy homemade cupcakes, and of course there was baklava!) before the drive home.

Hey, did I mention that we passed the Mets bus convoy and police escort as we going to and from the party? They were on the Manhattan-bound side of the Grand Central Parkway near Shea as we drove down, and on the other side of the Major Deegan traffic jam by Yankee Stadium as we headed home. Thought that was pretty cool. Oh, and I also found out my EZPass suddenly doesn't work... but I digress. A lovely gathering as usual, with great food and scintillating conversation and smiles all around - thanks again, Julia!

Update: The invité d'honneur muses as to whether blogger gatherins are the new salons (or Algonquin Round Tables if they're in restaurants, I suppose)...

Silly Site o' the Day

Still too hot out for me to want to go to the movies, but I'll see what Robin wants to do after he wakes up and we have our Sunday English brunch. Lots of blog reading on which to catch up, plus the rest of the pictures from Friday night, and I also want to do a bit of a Liberal Coalition blogaround to welcome new LC members, so I have a fairly full sitting-on-my-tushie day planned as is. Oh, speaking of the Liberal Coalition, LC member Moi passes along an Amazon wedding registry page for Scientology celebs way too much in the news. Wish I could add this to the list...

Silly Site o' the Day

Man, it's after 1 already? I can't seem to wake up today. That was some blogger gathering... Hey, did I mention that Michael Bérubé showed us his appendix scar?

More pictures later, or maybe even tomorrow. Too tired now. Great party, thanks Julia! Oh, yeah, in case that wasn't enough of a Silly Sight, I have a Silly Site too, courtesy of, oh man, I don't even remember any more, I've seen it on so many blogs. Anyway, it's a Burger King/Star Wars tie-in thing, a 20 Questions-type game called Sith Sense. I was thinking of "sleep," so I gave it to Vader when he suggested "nap." But I think it took him more than 20 questions...

Survey Says...

Ooh look, a pretty button!



Took me two tries to get the login code emailed to me, and three tries typing in the Pen-Elayne URL before I gave up on the survey program being able to find this blog (maybe they should Google my first name!), but I guess it was fun anyway. Lots of questions about people in different professions that I know, whether they were friends or family or acquaintances, and whether I knew them from online or offline. Since I don't generally ask my online acquaintances what they do for a living, about 90% of the affirmative responses involved relatives or offline acquaintances, mostly business contacts (lawyers, insurance people, secretaries, etc.). If you click on the pretty button you can take MIT's survey too.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Arthur Hlavaty, a script where you can write your name in Egyptian heiroglyphs. Here's how mine came out:

(Yes, that's in table form, and comes right up to the text on the top; wish I could figure out how to use the proper part of the code to fix the blank space in my Estrogen Month wrap-up post...)

Numero Uno

Neil Gaiman mentions that he's Neil Number One when he Googles his first name. I never used to be Elayne Number one, because there's a fairly famous comedian who spells her first name the way mine is spelled, but right now I'm atop the Elayne list (and third on the Riggs list) and you get this blog if you type my first name and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky." So, are ya, punk? Of course, as Robin says, "one good Google-bombing and it all changes..."

Silly Site o' the Day

The shoulder area has improved, thanks to Tish's reminder in the comments about the arnica which I really ought to have been using all along (and possibly thanks to the doctor's-sample Celebrex I took last night), and I slept on my side for the first time in almost a week, which meant a nigh-uninterrupted night. Unfortunately, same old crap at work this morning (apparently being "the office secretary" somehow translates into me being forced to deal with property management issues because others don't want to, never mind my lack of experience and extreme discomfort); fortunately, another interview next Wednesday. I feel like I'm at Zombo.com - or is that Obmoz.com? Via Hanan Levin.

D-Day

D as in Depressed. Not only is the shoulder problem not going away soon, but my boss returns to the country in two weeks, which means today is pretty much the last day I could have gone job-hunting and expected to be able to set up job interviews prior to his return. It was a good month and a half, I had four interviews and one call back, which was better than the last time I was able to look for a new job, but I received no offers. I think one place was going to offer me the position, but from what I saw the psychological fallout of that job would have been too similar to the one I have now, with none of the positive aspects (not the best commute, no internet access, no direct deposit, I'd have to start a probationary period for insurance and vacation, etc.), and they'd have taken out so much for health insurance that I'd actually be making less money even with a higher base salary.

I'm leaving the link to my resume on the sidebar, because I still do want out of here even if I won't be able to go on interviews again until the end of August, and D also stands for Damn Good Executive Assistant, which I am. I have over 25 years' experience, I type well over 100 wpm on good days (around 95 on bad ones), goodness knows I can find my way around the 'net pretty easily, I'm even a Notary Public. If you know of any Exec Assistant job openings in Manhattan or Westchester County, please email me; thanks!

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, that didn't help at all. My doctor said there was nothing to be done about my shoulder pain, which she believes may be tendinitis, except get some physical therapy on it. I wish I could still go to my friend Jan, I miss seeing her so much and she's such an expert! But I no longer work in Manhattan, and she doesn't take my company's insurance, so I'll try to get things done locally with a total stranger. The pain has receded at least to the point where I can turn my head to the left (a necessity when driving around here and trying to merge into oncoming traffic!) without wincing too loudly, and just about slip a shirt on and off, and I seem to have mobility again while sitting and standing. Still can't lie on my side though, which unfortunately is how I sleep. Hoping the cold pack and/or heating pad and ibuprofin regimen helps, although my ALT levels don't like OTC pain-relieving drugs of any sort. Naturally, since I've been taking said medications a couple times daily, today would be the day she drew blood again to retest my ALT levels... Anyway, hoping to be okay again for the weekend, as I've finally given in to Robin and agreed to sit through Star Wars Episode Three, Let's Get Sithical. Which brings me to a site recommended by John at pleasant, where Darth Vader looks for his wife only to find her in another movie.

Silly Site o' the Day

Right shoulder still bad (rotator cuff?), left shoulder getting that way too. I'm sure when my doctor sees me tomorrow morning she'll pronounce me a bloody mess, but who knows? Here's some more cool stuff I can't afford without more disposable income than I have at present - via Becky at Archaeopteryx, some car emblems to put that silly "Jesus fish" in its place. My two favorites, had I enough disposable cash to get 'em:

I love that they face each other (or face away from each other), it's very symmetrical.

Silly Site o' the Day

Not feeling very silly this morning, I fear. I can't move my right shoulder (yeah, that's the one I use when controlling a computer mouse and such) without getting excruciating pain - my shoulders have been bothering me for a couple weeks now, and the pain had finally receded by Friday, but I guess after the 4-hour trip to and from my parents' place on Saturday things flared up again. I hardly slept last night, as I'm used to sleeping on my side and any movement towards that position was agonizing. I can lay on my back but that brings on the breathing difficulties and the snores wake me up again. Then I get to work and find that the construction company working adjacent to my boss' property has torn down "our" chain link fence before any of us could stop them, claiming it was on the property line rather than on "our" property. My boss (still vacationing in Greece) will not be thrilled, but it's not like they're going to put up the fence again. I could use at least a smile, and thanks to Avedon Carol I got one from The Official God FAQ.

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Father's Day, Dad! May the Yankees win this afternoon and make your day. Father's Day started in 1909, when Mrs. John B. Dodd (and hey, you don't meet a lot of women named John these days, ba dump bump) wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran. Which segues rather clumsily into today's Silly Site, The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation. Via Cathie from Canada.

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to the parents' place in a few hours, to meet up with my brother and sis-in-law and fête Dad on this Father's Day weekend. (Speaking of which, check out this wonderful post from Patricia Sharpe about her dad the mayor, as well as Roy Edroso's tribute to his dad.) A very happy birthday to my friends Pat Prentice and Alan Davis, and happy anniversary to Alan and Heather! And don't have a cow, man - have two cows! Explanation via Hanan Levin.

Mister Fantastic

Because Deja Pseu demanded it, in the comments to my earlier post, here's the man with the nigh-unspellable name:



I didn't think it would be this easy to find pictures of good-looking actors in repose...

More Riggs Artwork

Robin's been meaning to update the portfolio and art-for-sale sections of our website for awhile now, and he's just taken the first step towards doing that. Here's his gallery page on the Comic Art Fans website; feel free to peruse what's for sale in his classifieds section! He even has, God help us, a PayPal account now; I like the speed of the transactions, but I'm a bit surprised at how big a chunk they seem to take out in fees...

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

I love when they sleep in the same position:

Although to be fair, Amy has tucked her head under her paw, something Datsa doesn't (or can't) do...

Silly Site o' the Day

No takers on my old magazines, so they get tossed this evening. Comics reading down to less than one box, even factoring in the new non-DC stuff that arrived yesterday. Hoping to catch up on blog reading today, which looks to be a quiet office day, but of course after I return from the 'rents' place tomorrow there will be a whole new cycle on which to catch up. Never ends, does it? :) Friday Cat Blogging is coming this evening after I get home to snap a picture or two of the li'l darlin's, but meanwhile Judi at Dave Barry's Blog directs us to a site where guys put stuff on their sleeping cats and take pictures.

Silly Site o' the Day

The incomparable Julia finds this site for way cool pressies - The Unemployed Philosopher's Guild. The Freudian slippers are probably my favorite, although I quite like the idea of a Mad Hatter pillbox...

Out with the Old

For the first time in at least a week, I was able to drive to work today with the windows and sun roof open, and the resultant breeze actually felt cool and refreshing. Most local weather reports say the oppressive heat and humidity should break by tonight or tomorrow; it'll be nice to give the air conditioners a rest.

Last night I rifled through the last three issues of Previews, which wasn't easy as about 85% of the comics offered therein give off a distinct vibe of "go away, female! we're not interested in your money!", and many of the ones that don't feature in-your-face distorted boobies talk about "product" rather than "story," which is also an immediate turnoff. While I can appreciate writers' and artists' desire to Make Money Fast by trying to sell high concepts to Hollywood while the comic-to-film irons are still hot, I'd still rather read a story than a concept.

I am also preparing to throw away about a year's worth of political magazines and local newspapers. I haven't been able to make enough leisure time to read it all since we moved to our current apartment and my commute went from public to private transit and blog reading took up so many of my spare hours. This hasn't been an easy decision, I'm rather hard-wired never to throw away unread material to which I've subscribed, but it finally piled up to the point where I decided to stop kidding myself, at least until I get a job in Manhattan again. So unless anyone out there wants any recent issues of The Progressive, In These Times, Funny Times or Ode, not to mention around eight months' worth of the weekly Riverdale Press, they're going in the recyclables bin tomorrow. The only unread magazine I would have regretted tossing is CBG, and Steve's taking those.

My comics reading is down to one box, and I'm hoping to get it down to about a half a box before turning back to my own fiction writing, but we'll see. At least I've cleared the cobwebs, and that's a start!

Silly Site o' the Day

Once more via Hanan Levin, there's a site that tracks weird things people buy and sell on eBay. Have I mentioned Robin's auctioning some original pieces he inked over Alan Davis (see below)? He's doing it via email, though, not eBay. Sales end tomorrow, so please contact him ASAP...

Beefcake - It's What's For Dinner

With a tip of the hat to Amanda and eRobin, 'cause y'know, there's a lot to be said as well about a few of today's matinee-idol actors, particularly if they can also sing and dance:





Yes, I'm partial to pictures of nice-looking, talented guys in repose, could you tell?

Silly Site o' the Day

More cool Flash games, via Hanan Levin. He's partial to Znax, himself. Me, I look forward to exploring all of them, in my *ahem* copious free time...

Art Auction Announcement, Take Two

Well, much to our surprise, the auction site Robin used didn't draw a single bid for the Superman piece he inked over Alan Davis, so he's going to sell them via email bids. Here are the five sketches pencilled by Alan and inked by Robin, who notes "These are all considerably tighter and more finished than our convention sketches, some with backgrounds. Alan has drawn these on British A4 size Bristol (that's approx. 8.25" x 11.75")."

Sgt. Rock

Thor

Spider-Man

Supergirl and Batgirl

Superman

These are all one of a kind unpublished pencil and ink pieces; however, in the interest of full disclosure, the Supergirl/Batgirl piece has a bit of a history. It's based on a large piece that Alan and Robin did for the auction at Heroes Con which now appears to be in the collection of Anthony Rodriquez. Alan then decided last year to draw this more considered version, which he emailed Robin with the suggestion that it be inked over blueline to sell at the Big Apple con last November. You can see from this scan it was clearly labeled as such. There was also another blueline copy but this time at 11"x17", which Robin inked while at the con and donated to the ACTOR auction (no scan of that one but it was also clearly labeled as inks over blueline). However when Alan sent Robin the other sketches he included the original pencils to this piece, too so this is on the actual board that Alan drew it. Anybody who's interested in any of these sketches should email Robin directly as soon as possible.

Jacko Gets Off

Not guilty on all counts. My coworkers are walking around with their mouths agape, shaking their heads.

Oh, The Places She'll Go

Carolyn Ibis has begun a travel blog detailing her trip to Europe. Ooh, I'm so jealous, her itinerary has her in Bristol next month! On the other hand, spending July in the land of no air conditioning isn't exactly my favorite thing to do...

Silly Sites o' the Day

A special Silly Site post today, what with all these women bloggers (hey, where are we, anyway?) getting out their tits wits as a result of continued rudeness and sexism from the male half of the blogosphere. Submitted for your perusal, so far:

Elise's pop quiz

Lauren's sensing humor

Amanda's got the vapours

Roxanne's Write Your Own Caption

Tami's Female Problems

Liz's Real Woman's Issues

Sheelzebub's missive to the Dear Ladies

MadKane's first audioblog post, Ode to Misogyny

More contributions to this Carnival of the Cu-- uh, Comebacks as they happen!

Silly Site o' the Day

Not as much reading headway made yesterday as I would have preferred - still way too many blog posts to get through, and somewhere around noon my eyes just grew too weary - but at least I'm down to only one box of comics, so that's something anyway. The heat/humidity wave is supposed to break at last on Wednesday night, so until then I'm pretty much staying put in venues with air conditioning. This morning I finally had a chance to watch Tom Lehrer perform some mathematics-related songs, via Mark Evanier. Very cool; he looks great for however old he's supposed to be now! It's all still there - voice clear as a bell, great nonchalant piano playing, a real treat. Thanks Mark!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Eszter, Hitachi has done a very clever Schoolhouse Rock-like animation called Get Perpendicular to explain... uh, something technical about data storage. I'm not very techie, I'm afraid.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Another twofer today!

Is this how they pulled off that relative-size thing in the Lord of the Rings trilogy?...

Pandathon 2005

While I confess I still come down pretty squarely against the idea of blog-begging or putting ads on one's blog site in order to raise money to pay for said site - and I suspect I will as long as the option exists to blog and post comments and even upload pictures for free (I'm proud to say I've yet to spend a single penny to blog and it's going on three years now!) - I can totally get behind the idea of blogging to raise money for worthy causes outside of one's own insular hobby. I was proud to participate in Blogathon '03 and do my part in raising $519 for the Global Fund for Women, and even though Blogathon's official site seems to indicate they may do it again this year our corner of the blogosphere has a Pandathon tomorrow! All day Jesse, Amanda and guest bloggers will be blogging away to raise money for Amnesty International, so if you have some spare disposable cash please consider supporting this! (And while we're talking disposable income going to a good cause, Laura only needs $300 to qualify to walk in the 3-Day next month to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation - g'wan and give her some dosh, and get lots of neat thank-you gifties in return!)

Silly Site o' the Day

Yeah yeah, not posting until mid-afternoon today. Busy with lots of work for which I wish they paid me (mostly personal assistant and property management stuff; I miss being just an executive assistant!), and at least I'm catching up on my reading. Less than 300 total posts to get through now in most of my Bloglines sub-categories, which should be a piece of cake with the weekend coming up. And last night I finished the 3 months' worth of Vertigo comics from the monthly DC comp box, so there's only the Wildstorms to get through (and I only read about half of those titles anyway) before finally getting down to one box, containing the "indies" (non-Marvel/DC stuff) which have been piling up for, again, a few months now. And now I'm down to barely a dozen Silly Sites to pass along, some of them pretty old and half of them generators of some sort (are generators the new quizzes?). Here's an oldie for a mashup called The Beastles that I saw on pleasant last year. If you have any Silly Sites you want to bring to my attention, please email me; don't suggest anything in the comments 'cause then it'll already have appeared on this blog, duh! :) Thanks!

Silly Site o' the Day

Dang, that boobie post I haven't written is nagging at me. The more I see female bloggers decrying boobage in one context and supporting it in another, the more I want to scream out that our ability to determine the context of boobies in our culture is completely out of, um, as it were, our hands. I dunno, maybe I'm a'scared of the revenge of the "lactivists" or something. I just want to be loved, is that so wrong? So it remains unwritten. That frustration, combined with the weather forecast for the next few days (i.e., we can't shut the AC off for the foreseeable future, and I'm probably not going to risk heat stroke by going to the MoCCA Art Festival this weekend or anywhere else that requires me to be outdoors for any length of time), makes me want to scream the way Darth Vader did on Wheel of Fortune. Via the Pig of Death.

Still Not Getting It

Mark Morford's latest column is something of a shocker. It talks about "secret online clubs" cropping up all over the country that basically come down to an underground movement supporting anorexia. What's even sadder is that Morford, for all his platitudes about how terrible it is that these girls "all apparently want to be sickeningly, unhealthily, grossly skinny," he completely glosses over one of the reasons many of them worship "Ana" - that they're told and shown over and over by the media that Fat Equals Bad. Not only does Morford ignore this fact, he even adds to the problem with this aside:

But the good news is, barring any permanent damage to their organs or bones or whimpering souls, the vast majority of girls will grow out of the savage Ana/cutting self-abuse phase, just as the vast majority of teens of both genders hopefully grow out of whatever tragic/moronic/morose anxieties that wrap around them like boa constrictors during those deadly and precious years from about 13 to 18, when all is harrowing and pimpled and angst ridden and torn and before it all starts to get a tiny bit easier. Before, that is, the time when it all starts to calm down and gel and make a tiny bit more sense, when it evolves into the more relaxed, less traumatic adult phases of, you know, obesity and sexual anxiety and alcoholism and a rabid addiction to eBay. Ahem.

Emphasis mine, naturally. And yes, I've written to Morford pointing out his wilfull blindness. Never mind that I'm highly skeptical as to whether "the vast majority" of teen anorexics and bulimics actually do "grow out of" it, particularly considering the incredible fatphobia that still exists in this culture. Maybe Morford never heard of Karen Carpenter, or Terry Schiavo, or Princess Diana, or any lower-profile adults who didn't "grow out of" it at all.

Silly Site o' the Day

Because I'm in that kind of mood, here's an Evil Clown Generator. Via Susie Madrak.

Art Auction Announcement

Robin has recently inked a few pieces for fun over some of Alan Davis' original pencils. You can take a look at them here:

Superman

Supergirl and Batgirl

Spider-Man

Thor

Sgt. Rock

The first of these pieces has now been put up for auction here at the Comic Art Community auction site. Bidding closes at 4:30 PM Eastern on Sunday, June 12. Here's your chance to get your hands on a Davis/Riggs original that nobody else has or will ever have! Please spread the word in the comics community; thanks!

Silly Site o' the Day

Yeah yeah, it's noon already and I haven't posted. Work stuff, comics reading (I really want to add more comics content to this blog, I miss writing about that hobby/artform/industry!), catching up on other blogs, etc. You know the drill. Plus it's so darn hot I'm feelin' downright ornery. Enough to play Ted Nugent’s Clock Tower Rampage. Darn you anyway, Hanan Levin!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via An Angry Old Broad, it's the animation site Peace Takes Courage. Ava and Tamara are no longer posting to the blog now that a forum has been set up (isn't going from a blog to essentially a message board kind of, I dunno, a step backwards?), but the blog page has a good list of their animations to start.

To Hear Me Roar, Please Remove Fingers from Ears

Good posts from both Echidne and Athenae on the Campaign for America's Future blogging panel being asked the by-now-inevitable question of where all the women bloggers are (to which I now always answer, celebrated during Estrogen Month and on my sidebar and in two sections called "Where the Women Bloggers Are" here on my Bloglines subscriptions), and superlative response from Heidi MacDonald to a recent Times of London article about Sin City that basically observed that many comic book readers and creators indulged in misogynist fantasies. I continue to believe that visibility of women in supposedly male-dominated venues often comes down to our comfort level with how much the people at the upper echelons of those venues willingly choose to ignore us in the day-to-day, only trotting us out as tokens to refute outsiders' beliefs that these venues are indeed practicing institutionalized sexism.

There's no excuse for Take Back America 2005 not to have used women bloggers who were invited to the conference on that panel; that's like Panel Guests 101 to those of us who have arranged things like this. I've never run any comics panels without at least one woman panelist (and the panels haven't been about "women in comics"), and I can tell you from experience it's not that hard to find last-minute substitutions. All you have to do is a little legwork; Susie and Melanie (both A-listers as far as I'm concerned) were sitting right there, they couldn't have been too hard to find. The onus here lies completely with the panel organizers. Just as the onus to prove Kevin Maher's Times article wrong ultimately lies not with male fans parading out token female creators but with the people who have the power to hire and promote female writers and artists to counter the idea of the comic book industry as an almost-all-male bastion. And I think that's what frustrates women political bloggers or women in the comics industry or women in any male-dominated venue the most - that we can be talented and prolific and as visible as we can possibly make ourselves, but as long as we're seen as playing on male turf (and yes, I know it shouldn't be seen that way but that's another essay) we have to constantly target the keepers of that turf to include us, and that tends to sap us of both our energy (which could be better used in other ways, like writing blog posts or telling stories) and our sense of power and autonomy.

Update: Hats off to Lance Mannion and his "wonks versus writers" response to the "women bloggers" issue. As someone who's always been a writer and never had any interest in being a wonk, in having a laser-beam narrow focus to this blog, I applaud him.

Over a Barrel

All right, he's got me. I've been thinking about putting PZ Myers' Pharyngula on my sidebar for awhile anyway, but this post seals it. A Koufax Funniest Post nominee if ever there were one.

Silly Site o' the Day

Fever seems to be gone at last, but of course that's what I said yesterday morning. Staying inside in the AC and still plowing through comics. Like A Creationist's View of DINOSAURS and the Theory Of Evolution by Jim Pinkoski, first seen at Pandagon but now making the usual blogospheric rounds. Pinkoski has a new comic out, by the way, talking about how the Bible is the "ultimate 'Star Wars.'" I guess this Bible story stuff never goes out of style. (Yes Cliff, I'll be getting on that Megillat Vashti script for Mike to draw just as soon as my life circumstances improve a bit, I promise...)

I Take It Back...

Fever hasn't broken. Damn good thing I'm not in Philly today. Bleh. Light posting continues.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, sleep seems to have broken the fever, at least. It would help more if I didn't wake up to an e-mail from +one of the 300-plus member Big Brass Alliance mailing list members criticizing me for what he considered as inappropriate contributions to the list, such as praising Newswriter for compiling all members' URLs into one of her blogrolls and joking that she should separate them by gender, which he took as a complaint; or offering what I considered helpful advice about turning the list into a Yahoo group, which he also took as, yes, a complaint. Oddly, he had no criticisms of any of the other 60+ emails on the list, some of which were actual complaints (mostly about how many emails were coming through). So of course it has me thinking, if someone constantly reads complaints into what I mean as actual helpful emails (including one of praise), is it them or might it be me? Do I actually give out the aura of complaining? Have I done it on my blog? Or was that just me last night? What do y'all think? I think I'm going to watch Revenge of the Brick again. Via the Pig of Death.

Obligatory Canadian Comics Content

Yes, there may very well be some comics content on my blog in the next couple of days. Ironically, tightening finances preclude our attending the Wizard World East convention this weekend, where we'd planned to be if Robin were working (it still amazes me, he's one of the best artists in the business and it's been about two months now; comics industry folk, please peruse his portfolio and email him with offers!) and if I'd had a damned debit card. It's funny, I remember going to college in the days before ATMs, and now I can't seem to get by without my debit card. Because my bank has no branches around where I currently live, I use the card just about every other day to make purchases and get cash-back (I much prefer a debit to a credit, as I know if I use the former I've already paid for the items right out of my bank account). Well, said bank neglected to send me a new card when my old one expired, which made for a bit of an embarrassment at the dry cleaners yesterday (and Rob's right, I've been with them for 25 years and the service just keeps getting poorer, so as soon as my heretofore-only-hinted-at life circumstances change I think I'll be looking for a new one that offers a comparable checking-with-interest account). So as I was in the City today anyway for an inter-- um, for something having to do with the aforementioned life circumstance change, I trundled ("trundled?") on up to the Upper West Side and cashed a couple checks so I'd at least have some money for the 7-10 business days it will take for the new card to arrive. The customer service person couldn't tell me why it had never been sent out, but in a way it's a good thing because their card division, which it turns out keeps separate records from their banking division (don't ask!), had my old address from 13 months ago so, since the forwarding order has probably expired, I'd never have received it if they had sent it out. Why it was never sent is still a mystery, and this is me not holding my breath for the CS guy to call me back with his discovery.

And good thing, too, as I suddenly took violently ill this evening and can't figure out why. But I digress.

The comics content portion of this post concerns my friend and superlative comics essayist Rich Watson, who finally took some sensible advice and turned his email newsletter Glyphs into a blog. I'm very pleased to add him to my blogroll, and look forward to his continued coverage of the black comics community. Now I think I'm going back to bed to either sleep or read comics.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

A nice two-fer today...

I was actually pretty surprised that they both fit on the cat window seat, but Robin tells me they've taken to sharing this view a lot during the day.

Silly Site o' the Day

Look! More romance cover "remixes!" Via Cory at BoingBoing.

A Matter of Trust

Today's big story sure to "cancel the news" (as Randi would put it) is all about a report appearing in the journal Nature about how scientists have discovered that a nasal spray containing oxytocin, a chemical that is produced naturally in the brain (as opposed to oxycontin, the "hillbilly heroin" to which Rush Limbaugh was addicted), makes people more likely to be mindlessly trusting and, say, give their cash to a complete stranger. This merits over 200 articles on Google today. Yes, it's important in a sense, it'll be great fodder for comic book plots and movies I suppose and, in real life, the implications may be equally chilling (particularly for a large part of the American populace that seems to have given up critical thought by this point anyway), but I can't help but wonder what real news it's obscuring. That I have a bit of a jones for nasal spray may or may not make me a prime candidate for imminent loss of skepticism, but for now I highly doubt it.

Silly Site o' the Day

Another heavy workload day, so I expect continued light posting, although my "rights versus entitlements" essay is threatening to give me a major headache unless I put it to pixels so you never know. In the meantime, dig that crazy frog! Via Mark Evanier.

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! Or should I say, Psycho Bondage Bunnies? Via Karin Kross, who advises it's probably not safe for work, and I would tend to agree.