cat, popcorn, and "whitney s.", but it's not swt.
. . .
Feb 27, 2007
Feb 21, 2007
February 21, 2007
A fine day to be born.
My newest niece, weighing a whopping 6 lbs, 1 oz, joined the clan about an hour ago! I don't even know her name yet, but she has made me an aunt for the fifth time over. And wee Liam Isaac O'Neal, 5 lbs, 12 oz, presented himself to the world around six this morning. Make way, make way!
[update: Baby Girl McShane is to be known in future as Carolyn Graham McShane, a whole new person!]
. . .
My newest niece, weighing a whopping 6 lbs, 1 oz, joined the clan about an hour ago! I don't even know her name yet, but she has made me an aunt for the fifth time over. And wee Liam Isaac O'Neal, 5 lbs, 12 oz, presented himself to the world around six this morning. Make way, make way!
[update: Baby Girl McShane is to be known in future as Carolyn Graham McShane, a whole new person!]
. . .
Feb 20, 2007
jeanne + kim: 2/17/2004, 2/17/2007
My sister Jeanne got married this past weekend for the second time to the same terrific woman, Kim. The first time was in San Francisco in 2004, when the mayor there told the city clerk to start issuing marriages licenses to any couple who wanted one, gay or straight. Unfortunately, the California Supreme Court later annulled the gay marriages, and besides, we weren't all there to celebrate, so another fiesta was mission critical. It was a beautiful, happy wedding and I was honored to stand up with them.
the lovely brides:
. . .
the lovely brides:
. . .
a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a capsule
This message, inside that sea-green capsule, hit me in the head at a party. After much puzzling, I have concluded that "630" is a time, and "695 Park betw 67/68" is an address, although I am still confused because 695 Park, the address of Hunter College, does not fall beween 67th and 68th Streets (it's between 68th and 69th). Why I was chosen to receive this message, or what I should now do with it, remains mysterious.
. . .
. . .
Feb 14, 2007
unqualified
the job search progresses. I don't think I qualify for the one at the university of nebraska for which a candidate with a "terminal degree in discipline" is preferred. "let me see, she cheated on her final exam? let me do a few calculations...yes, 7 spankings and a suspension seems about right." and that's if the degree doesn't kill you first.
. . .
. . .
Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination Against India's "Untouchables"
My friend Jeena Shah co-authored this shadow report on caste discrimination against Dalits (untouchables) in India, as part of her clinic experience at NYU. See also the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice' website (scroll down to "What's New"). Jeena and the other co-authors will be presenting the report to the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination next week, which is pretty damn exciting.
Apparently the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination has already posed several of the questions suggested by Jeena et al. to India, under the following protocol (as described by Jeena herself):
"One of the obligations a country has under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination is to periodically submit reports on what they've done to eliminate discrimination and what problems they are having. India is up for review this year. India submitted its periodic report (failing to address caste discrimination at all - saying that caste discrimination doesn't fall under the Convention, in contradiction to what the Committee has said). After a country submits their written report, the Committee asks them specific questions, and then during the session (next week) India has to come before the Committee and answer those questions. In our report, we drafted a list of questions we wanted the Committee to ask India based on our research, and about 15 of the questions the Commmittee posed to India were pulled from our report. India is obligated now to answer those questions. (You can see the questions we wanted asked in the first 10 or so pages of our report - where we summarize the critical issues and bullet point questions under each issue.)"
. . .
Apparently the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination has already posed several of the questions suggested by Jeena et al. to India, under the following protocol (as described by Jeena herself):
"One of the obligations a country has under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination is to periodically submit reports on what they've done to eliminate discrimination and what problems they are having. India is up for review this year. India submitted its periodic report (failing to address caste discrimination at all - saying that caste discrimination doesn't fall under the Convention, in contradiction to what the Committee has said). After a country submits their written report, the Committee asks them specific questions, and then during the session (next week) India has to come before the Committee and answer those questions. In our report, we drafted a list of questions we wanted the Committee to ask India based on our research, and about 15 of the questions the Commmittee posed to India were pulled from our report. India is obligated now to answer those questions. (You can see the questions we wanted asked in the first 10 or so pages of our report - where we summarize the critical issues and bullet point questions under each issue.)"
. . .
Feb 12, 2007
Feb 11, 2007
Feb 10, 2007
spring! break! 2007!: a tour of past empires
portugal! and england!
Some juicy facts about Portugal (culled from wikipedia et al.):
Like Nebraska, Portugal has a unicameral legislative body. It's the world's largest exporter of cork, and port wine and madeira both come from Portugal. There are more activated cell phones there than there are people (pop. ~10.5M, only ~2.5M more than NYC). They have a civil law system. Portugal ranks 20th in the world in beer consumption, at 59.6 liters/capita annually (the UK comes in 6th, with 96.8 liters, and the US 13th, with 81.6). There's a cartoon festival every year, one of the biggest in the world, and a cartoon museum in Porto, Portugal (they dig that word, port).
"Portugal came into existence as an independent nation on June 24, 1128, when Afonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, defeated his mother, Countess Teresa, and her lover, Fernão Peres de Trava, in battle... In 1373, Portugal made an alliance with England, which is the longest-standing alliance in the world....In 1910, a revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy, but chaos continued and considerable economic problems were aggravated by the military intervention in the First World War, which led to a military coup d'état in 1926. This in turn led to the establishment of a right-wing dictatorship by António de Oliveira Salazar. In the early 1960s, independence movements in the colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War. In 1974, a bloodless left-wing military coup known as the Carnation Revolution led the way for a modern democracy as well as the independence of the last colonies in Africa shortly after."
"In 2006 the world's largest solar power plant began operating in the nation's sunny south while the world's first commercial wave power farm opened in October 2006 in the Norte region. As of 2006, 55% of electricity production was from coal and fuel power plants. The other 40% was produced by hydroelectrics and 5% by wind energy. The government is channeling $3.8 billion into developing renewable energy sources over the next five years. Portugal wants renewable energy sources like solar, wind and wave power to account for nearly half of the electricity consumed in the country by 2010. 'This new goal will place Portugal in the frontline of renewable energy and make it, along with Austria and Sweden, one of the three nations that most invest in this sector,' Prime Minister Jose Socrates said."
Some juicy facts about Portugal (culled from wikipedia et al.):
Like Nebraska, Portugal has a unicameral legislative body. It's the world's largest exporter of cork, and port wine and madeira both come from Portugal. There are more activated cell phones there than there are people (pop. ~10.5M, only ~2.5M more than NYC). They have a civil law system. Portugal ranks 20th in the world in beer consumption, at 59.6 liters/capita annually (the UK comes in 6th, with 96.8 liters, and the US 13th, with 81.6). There's a cartoon festival every year, one of the biggest in the world, and a cartoon museum in Porto, Portugal (they dig that word, port).
"Portugal came into existence as an independent nation on June 24, 1128, when Afonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, defeated his mother, Countess Teresa, and her lover, Fernão Peres de Trava, in battle... In 1373, Portugal made an alliance with England, which is the longest-standing alliance in the world....In 1910, a revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy, but chaos continued and considerable economic problems were aggravated by the military intervention in the First World War, which led to a military coup d'état in 1926. This in turn led to the establishment of a right-wing dictatorship by António de Oliveira Salazar. In the early 1960s, independence movements in the colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War. In 1974, a bloodless left-wing military coup known as the Carnation Revolution led the way for a modern democracy as well as the independence of the last colonies in Africa shortly after."
"In 2006 the world's largest solar power plant began operating in the nation's sunny south while the world's first commercial wave power farm opened in October 2006 in the Norte region. As of 2006, 55% of electricity production was from coal and fuel power plants. The other 40% was produced by hydroelectrics and 5% by wind energy. The government is channeling $3.8 billion into developing renewable energy sources over the next five years. Portugal wants renewable energy sources like solar, wind and wave power to account for nearly half of the electricity consumed in the country by 2010. 'This new goal will place Portugal in the frontline of renewable energy and make it, along with Austria and Sweden, one of the three nations that most invest in this sector,' Prime Minister Jose Socrates said."
And about the UK, all we really need to know is that the Beatles came from there, right?
. . .Feb 7, 2007
i like the way she thinks
Bimbette looking up at cliff face: Hey, do rocks eat other rocks?
Guy: ... Huh?
Bimbette: Do rocks eat other rocks? You know, so that they can grow into bigger rocks...
Guy: Are you serious? No, rocks do not eat other rocks.
Bimbette: Then, like... How do they get bigger?
Guy: [Silence.]
Bimbette: Like, what do they eat?
--Merewether Beach, Newcastle, Australia
(from overheard on the beach)
. . .
Guy: ... Huh?
Bimbette: Do rocks eat other rocks? You know, so that they can grow into bigger rocks...
Guy: Are you serious? No, rocks do not eat other rocks.
Bimbette: Then, like... How do they get bigger?
Guy: [Silence.]
Bimbette: Like, what do they eat?
--Merewether Beach, Newcastle, Australia
(from overheard on the beach)
. . .
Feb 6, 2007
devil's avocado*
I've always wanted to know this and today JEC inspired me to find out, and lo, lawyer=testicle! that's a jackpot I wasn't even looking for.:
"The history of avocado takes us back to the Aztecs and their language, Nahuatl, which contained the word ahuacatl meaning both “fruit of the avocado tree” and “testicle.” The word ahuacatl was compounded with others, as in ahuacamolli, meaning “avocado soup or sauce,” from which the Spanish-Mexican word guacamole derives. In trying to pronounce ahuacatl, the Spanish who found the fruit and its Nahuatl name in Mexico came up with aguacate, but other Spanish speakers substituted the form avocado for the Nahuatl word because ahuacatl sounded like the early Spanish word avocado (now abogado), meaning “lawyer.” In borrowing the Spanish avocado, first recorded in English in 1697 in the compound avogato pear (with a spelling that probably reflects Spanish pronunciation), we have lost some traces of the more interesting Nahuatl word."
--answers.com
'Twas a major mail day here in the BK. And check out what they have now!
. . .
*spicy!
"The history of avocado takes us back to the Aztecs and their language, Nahuatl, which contained the word ahuacatl meaning both “fruit of the avocado tree” and “testicle.” The word ahuacatl was compounded with others, as in ahuacamolli, meaning “avocado soup or sauce,” from which the Spanish-Mexican word guacamole derives. In trying to pronounce ahuacatl, the Spanish who found the fruit and its Nahuatl name in Mexico came up with aguacate, but other Spanish speakers substituted the form avocado for the Nahuatl word because ahuacatl sounded like the early Spanish word avocado (now abogado), meaning “lawyer.” In borrowing the Spanish avocado, first recorded in English in 1697 in the compound avogato pear (with a spelling that probably reflects Spanish pronunciation), we have lost some traces of the more interesting Nahuatl word."
--answers.com
'Twas a major mail day here in the BK. And check out what they have now!
. . .*spicy!
Feb 5, 2007
Feb 4, 2007
28 coincidences
RCS and EJG turn 28 today. Both are Yale 2001, both live in NY, both are my friends, both are 28 today (and for those of you greedy for the other 24 coincidences, we'll just count their last 24 birthdays). I just thought of a good game! Today's Super Bowl Sunday, today's RCS and EJG's birthday. Let's have a faceoff! If the Colts win, RCS (for argument's sake the more colty of the two) wins the birthday; if the Bears do, it's EJG's.
happy birthday and good luck boys.
. . .
happy birthday and good luck boys.
. . .
Feb 3, 2007
carnegie hall
RCS and I went to a "psych folk" concert last night at Carnegie Hall. I had no idea what to expect, other than maybe it would be like Joanna Newsom's stuff (whom I saw play a while back with RCS et al.). We saw Cocorosie
(one of the Cocorosie sisters does sound uncannily like Newsom), Cibelle (eh but for her fab dress), Aden , Vetiver 
(boring), Vashti Bunyan (eh, also on the boring side), and Devendra Banhart , all introduced by David Byrne (the usual two plus a mutant).
Devendra Banhart was the only one who really seemed comfortable up there on the Carnegie Hall stage, crackin' wise, with the exception of one fabulous Cocorosie beatboxer who laid down on the floor during one song he wasn't in on. I think my only disappointments of the evening were that David Byrne didn't actually sing anything on his own and that the seating was so cramped that my knees ached. It's so weird that in really nice ritzy concert halls they pack people in so tightly.
Afterwards we went to a random midtown irish pub, where they played bad music almost without exception, and watched rugby on tv, which I'd never done before. They were playing in crazy fog, so much fog that sometimes that's all you could see on the tv screen. It looked like they were having a blast. I bet rugby players are fun to hang out with, especially if Kristin is typical.
A good new-yorky night.
. . .
(one of the Cocorosie sisters does sound uncannily like Newsom), Cibelle (eh but for her fab dress), Aden , Vetiver 
(boring), Vashti Bunyan (eh, also on the boring side), and Devendra Banhart , all introduced by David Byrne (the usual two plus a mutant).Devendra Banhart was the only one who really seemed comfortable up there on the Carnegie Hall stage, crackin' wise, with the exception of one fabulous Cocorosie beatboxer who laid down on the floor during one song he wasn't in on. I think my only disappointments of the evening were that David Byrne didn't actually sing anything on his own and that the seating was so cramped that my knees ached. It's so weird that in really nice ritzy concert halls they pack people in so tightly.
Afterwards we went to a random midtown irish pub, where they played bad music almost without exception, and watched rugby on tv, which I'd never done before. They were playing in crazy fog, so much fog that sometimes that's all you could see on the tv screen. It looked like they were having a blast. I bet rugby players are fun to hang out with, especially if Kristin is typical.
A good new-yorky night.
. . .
Feb 1, 2007
beep beep beep
I wish that pants had some kind of alarm that would go off when I accidentally left the zipper down. beep beep.
. . .
. . .
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