In the late 1950s Evelyn Fox Keller, then a PhD student, was the object of a rather successful demoralization campaign in the Department of Physics at Harvard University (Working It Out, 77-91). Why she was admitted to the program if her abilities were not in fact trusted is a fair question whose answer, I wager, … More Evelyn Fox Keller
Research for the present, frivolous post led me to a marvelous quotation: “Do you know the sum total of my ambition? It’s to have an intelligent, well-read man shut himself up with my book for four hours and to give him an orgy of historical hashish. That’s all I want.” –GF, January 1860 (apud Henri … More Gustave Flaubert
The latest newsletter of the LFT: Fiscal insanity grips legislature In a breathtaking display of fiscal irresponsibility, lawmakers have advanced three separate bills that would abolish the state’s corporate and personal income taxes, leaving multi-billion dollar gaps in future budgets. The House Ways and means Committee approved: HB 634 by Rep. Hunter Greene, (R-Baton Rouge), … More Peligro
This is Little Jimmy Rushing, going to Chicago. This is Joe Williams. A “monkey woman” is a woman with a monkey on her back. Some white guys did a good rock version of this song, and Ernestine Anderson has a cool version of it. Axé. I know you can feel my New Orleans vibe across … More Migration
This is one more of my morose posts, designed to shed pain so that I can move on in life. Why I am in this degree of pain it is hard to tell, but it is as though I had murdered someone. The phrase “you have no power over me any more” helps a great … More Intimidating, Selfish, Threatening
I was born already tired of hearing about Tillie Olsen because in graduate school, the older students would insist she be included on every woman related syllabus, and they evinced some sort of secret knowledge that she was the answer (she was always to be assigned as the final reading in the course, the period). … More Tillie Olsen
Despite the fact that I should not need or want glasses because I have contact lenses, I do want them and I am convinced I need them; despite the fact that I can survive with two different pairs of dime store glasses, I want real ones and I think this is reasonable. Despite the fact … More On Corrective Lenses
Marilyn Young has had a very interesting career. In her essay in Working It Out (213-227), you can see that she thought of herself as a professional historian far sooner in life than I or most people I knew in graduate school in the eighties did. I do not really know why this is or … More Working It Out: Marilyn Young
This took place in my pre-Katrina neighborhood, y’all. I do find some things insipid in comparison to it, yes. Axé.
I have a Flax dress (a 2008 dress, sort of a cross between the bias slip dress and the sunshine dress) and the head painter informs me it is too sheer. It scared the carpenter, who is afraid to look at me now, and who informed the head painter that this dress could be detrimental … More A Serious Question on (a) Dress
