Link farm woman
Workin’ on a link farm
Trying to raise my hit rate
Plowing through my RSS
Pokin’ your posts.
Yes, I’m feeling silly. It’s Monday, I’m allowed! Besides, I’m married to the only Baby Boomer in North America who does not think “Spinal Tap” is funny. I have to work it in when I can.
Links!
First of all, tonight is the first night of Passover — and apparently the President and First Lady will be celebrating. I like it. Passover is probably the most universal of the Jewish holidays, and except in ultra-Orthodox circles (I assume), it’s very common for Jewish families to invite non-Jews to share in their celebrations. I also like that the first seder in the White House happened under the administration of the first African-American President and First Lady. If anyone has the right to the Exodus story in this country, it is African-Americans who, like Michelle Obama, are the descendants of slaves. Chag sameach, Mr. and Mrs. Obama.
And speaking of matters faith-related, check out this fascinating article: “Is Hearing God Like Being a Skilled Athlete?” Without making any claims for or against the existence of God, the article looks into the capacity for religious experience, and how that capacity is developed.
From God to dog: an excellent resource on why the “dominance theory” practiced by Cesar Millan, et al., is misguided and potentially harmful. Lots of good advice here. Thanks to Vera Wilkinson at The Cooperative Dog for the link. (You can become a fan of The Cooperative Dog on Facebook, and Vera posts some terrific stuff — a nice mix of the fun and the educational.)
In more doggie news, this headline from the Sacramento Bee may seem odd on the surface: “UC Davis Study Shows Dogs Can Help Youngsters Read,” but the story itself is quite nice. Apparently kids who have problems reading aloud improve significantly if they can read to an attentive, affectionate, yet wholly nonjudgmental audience: dogs!
“Avatar” is apparently the film I am most interested in talking about, and least interested in seeing, this year. Here’s another article that addresses the points some commenters were making about the appeal of the film being partly in its evocation of how biologists see the world. I don’t agree with all the writer’s points, but it’s intriguing nonetheless.
And here’s one article I do agree with, by Peter Straub, about genre and, specifically, horror. As you all have probably figured out by now, I am a great horror fan, and have always found particularly annoying the notion that 1) there is something psychologically wrong about wanting to read horror, and 2) horror isn’t “real” literature. Mr. Straub lays the smack down. (And perhaps later on I’ll discuss in more detail why I’ve been on a particular horror kick lately.)
In addition to being a horror fan, I am also a girly girl. Which is why I am annoyed with the “Pink Stinks” campaign. We don’t empower women by disparaging femininity. This campaign reminds me of a bizarre incident that happened when I was a college professor: another instructor complimented me on the sweater I was wearing, and asked what color it was. I replied, trying very hard not to look at her as though she’d lost her mind, “It’s pink.” I mean, this sweater was flat-out Pepto-Bismol pink, no possible option of “light red” or “dusty rose” or “burnt peach” about it. My colleague immediately replied, “Oh, it can’t be pink, it’s too nice!” Clearly, she had such a negative mental image of pink that the idea of an independent, intellectual, professional woman dressed in the color was literally unimaginable to her, even as I stood before her in all my peppermint glory. (Here is another article on pink, by a delightful writer I met at the New Haven event.)
This article in the New York Times has haunted me, though it gives no real answers. But we have all known people determined to sabotage their success through whatever means, people who define themselves by their failures, their resentments, their illnesses, their weaknesses.
Finally, I’ve been meaning for some time to write an ode to my new favorite television show, “Parks & Recreation.” Procrastinate long enough, and someone else will do it for you! You can ignore the inside-baseball aspect of whether Leslie Knope is a “good feminist” or not, and focus on the rest of the entry. So many sitcoms today are based on cynicism and the cringe factor, including the increasingly unwatchable “The Office.” “Parks & Recreation” is about people who genuinely care about their jobs, each other, and their beliefs, but it completely avoids sentimentality. It’s darned smart, too: a recent episode took on the liberal versus libertarian positions on food policing, in a way that made a good argument for both sides, and all this in 23 minutes of television that included a B and C plot. Not bad.
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I’m a huge sci-fi/fantasy buff (mostly fantasy), and I get similar attitudes from people that you probably do about reading horror. It’s becoming somewhat more “acceptable” these days due to the Harry Potter craze, but at the same time it’s seen as being more for kids and young adults.
Not that there isn’t a lot of light fluffy fantasy out there (which I freely admit I read sometimes) but some of the most intelligent books I’ve ever read are fantasies. Read ‘Lions of Al-Rassan’ by Guy Gavriel Kay and THEN tell me that all fantasy is fluff.
Another SF/F reader here (and genre cozy mysteries, too!), and yeah, I get that from people all the time. I just smile, ’cause what else can you do?
I loved the Obama sedar story, although I found it odd that the writer (who I assume, based on his name, is of Jewish heritage at least) kind of harped on there being no rabbi involved. Judaism is not a mediated religion (that is, no priests or other religious professionals between each of us and God) and Pesah is very much a home and family celebration, rather than a synagogue one. And the activities indicated (questions, questions, question/talk, talk, talk) is exactly what I always try to produce when I host a sedar. (Plus, my family traditionally sang .”Let My People Go”, so the mix makes perfect sense to me.”
Chag sameach, ya’ll.
Chag sameach! Tangentially, I was very happy to see the mention of May Day flower baskets on your other blog. I did these as a kid in Iowa, but I’ve never met anyone outside of Iowa who had even a vague recognition of the practice of hanging May baskets on people’s doors and running away. Maybe it’s an Iowa/Missouri/Kansas thing? Whatever it is, it’s charming and I wish more people knew about it!
Ah the Seder Supper, when I was doing my confirmation community service, it was the easiest church event to do. I actually did it 2 years in a row. The food was decent, and I learned a lot….most significantly how IMPORTANT the old church ladies are. THEY KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE!
RP, I grew up in western Massachusetts, and we did the May Day flower basket thing (this would be in 1960s). I thought it was great fun, and I too wondered if it had gone away.
Multnomah County, Oregon library does “Read to the Dogs”. I think it’s great.
I started wearing pink at age 46. I inherited an ancient blue bike (first bike in 20 years), and when I went in to the bike shop to buy a helmet, the totally surprising (to me) words that came out of my mouth were, “I want a pink one!” Now I have a pink helmet, new pink bike (birthday gift), pink shorts, pink sneakers, pink handkerchief, and big pink bag (homemade, with zipper. I’m so proud) to put in the blue milk crate. I keep looking for a pink windbreaker at Goodwill. I know I’ll find one eventually, and then my outfit will be complete!
Happy Passover to you and you and you, Elijah. Just wanted to thank you, Robin, for linking to my pink story in Slate! If you or your readers want more color goodies, I write a twice-monthly blog for PRINT on color. Here’s the latest post:
http://www.printmag.com/Article/That-Gorgeous-Plum-%28and-Yellow-and-Mint%29
Soon all the color-yumminess will be available at http://www.printmag.com/colorswatch.
AND for link-farmers celebrating Pesach, I thought you might enjoy a tale I wrote in Tablet about the first Seder we ever hosted while living (for the first time) in Berlin:
http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/1462/guess-whos-coming-to-seder/
Phew, that’s enough linkage from me. Enjoy your holidays!
Jude
Shulamuth, you just reminded me that I was talking to the mom of a couple of my students, and she said that their rabbi wouldn’t let them have a seder in their synagogue unless he was present.
She also said their rabbi is kind of a control freak. But I thought that was odd as well, since while I’ve been to seders where rabbis were present, they weren’t leading. I’d think they’d want a break from having to lead something for once.
I can see a rabbi not wanting a seder in their shul unless they were there, esp. if it’s a Conservative or Orthodox synagogue, just in case any rules accidentally get broken. But in a private home? (Or, in this case, a public building serving as a private home?) Yeah, you don’t need a rabbi for that.
Happy Passover, Robin.
Thanks for the link about Cesar Millan. I’ve been reading his site and a lot of others that are focused on dominance and submission, and it’s good to see that that’s not the only way to do it. Especially since I have a shy puppy who’s overly submissive. It’s great that she’s cooperative and eager to please, but I want her to be happy–not scared of people. And I definitely found nothing on Millan’s site about how to bring an overly submissive dog out of his/her shell.
Karen Pryor’s work might be helpful, KellyK. And do check out Vera’s links on “The Cooperative Dog.” Also, “It’s Me or the Dog” is a much more positive-reinforcement based show, if you like watching dog-training shows.
If you don’t mind advice from someone who is not a professional dog-trainer — i.e., me — I’d suggest training your *friends* is more important than training your puppy. Ask your friends when they come over to simply sit quietly on the floor and avoid eye contact with her until she approaches them, sniffs them over, and then makes a clear indication (by getting a toy, or poking at them with her paw or nose) that she wants to be played with or petted. Puppies are SO CUTE one just naturally wants to swarm them with attention, but that’s too much for a shy dog to take.
When she’s outdoors, work on training her to focus on *you*: that you will let her know when she can run around and when she needs to heel, that you will let her know if she can approach another person or dog. If she knows you will be a buffer between her and the scary outside world, she’ll do a lot better.
Thanks, Robin! I think you’re right about the importance of making sure people don’t swarm the puppy.