Spinning Wheel

• In high school, I won a WBRU radio contest and the prize was a poster and soundtrack for the movie "High Art." Since then, the film has always had its own little niche in my heart (right next to "Bound"'s little niche), and I finally actually watched the damn thing on Monday. Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell were stunning. But the truly incredible performance was by Patricia Clarkson as the drugged out German actress Greta. This woman's filmography is incredible! Glad she's finally getting her due.


• Do I really agree with D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams about something? ESPN's inexcusable snub of D.C. in its "50 States in 50 Days" excursion needs to be challenged! Here's the web form you can use to do so. The Washington Area Frisbee Club also produced their own press release. And I thought WAFC only obtained field permits for us Ultimate players -- who knew they were political activists too?


• One of my favorite Minnesota Women's Press columnists, Susan Raffo, wrote a sassy response to the bogus research about male bisexuality that was recently released.


• The Made in Hong Kong Film Festival is back on at the Freer! "Love Eterne" is mine on Sunday.


• Will someone please explain what our House Democratic Leader is doing podcasting?


• Well, I guess deregulation of energy companies works really well, doesn't it Michigan? It led to such low-cost energy, that you ran out of funds to help poor folks not get their electricity cut off. Seems as effective as the deregulation of the airlines!


• Since I was earlier chastised for having nothing to say about the John Roberts nomination, I'll direct you to the National Women's Law Center Nomination Watch blog. There, I've said something.


• So not only is Wisconsin attacking its gay university system employees, but Hawaii is maintaining gender identity discrimination. Yeeha!

No Bugs Sucka!

This is one of the best pictures of me ever taken! I wish I could have protective netting surrounding me 24 hours a day, so no evil spiders ever invaded my personal space. Thanks, Ross!

DTWOF: The Blog

Comic genius Alison Bechdel (whose Carleton book-signing I staffed!) has her own blog! Check out Dykes to Watch Out For: The Blog -- the new hot spot loaded with super-cool dyke talk and previews of new DTWOF strips. [Found via Blogs by Women.]

Egg Cream

I am at work at 8:19 p.m. and desperately craving an egg cream. Apparently, people spend their time theorizing about the origin of the egg cream or about the origin of its curiously innacurate name. If I only had my hands on the proper ingredients, I would make this recipe, or this recipe, or this recipe, or this recipe...

United Feminists of America

According to a Washington Post article published in today's edition, feminists long ago formed a union and created a "Code of Conduct for Honorable Feminists." Well, that's not exactly what the article said, but it may as well have.

Surely your average successful lawyer has faced this dilemma: give up a career or take care of the family. But not the Chief Woman Lawyer of America -- she shouldn't quit to take care of her family, should she? What kind of message does that send? "I was on a radio show and someone called in to say, 'Would we ever see a man retire to take care of his spouse?'" says Suzanna Sherry, a law professor at Vanderbilt University who has written about O'Connor. "This is why she's never been considered a feminist's feminist. A feminist would say: 'Well, why would she do that?'"

Rule of the Code #1: Care about no one. Feminists (even 75 year old ones) are not allowed to leave their jobs to take care of any family member. Thou shalt maintain your professional standing until you die.

Corollary to Rule of the Code #1: Men never care about other people, so why should we? Men would never retire from their jobs to take care of an ailing family member. Remember that.

Her public persona in Washington was maternal, nurturing, genteel, soft. She let her granddaughter write a book about her featuring a picture on the cover of the two of them holding a teddy bear. On her clerks' door she left a Xerox of her hand with a note that read "For a pat on the back, lean here."

Rule of the Code #2: Hate stuffed animals.

Corollary to Rule of the Code #2: Be hard; do not support anyone else.

Now, I am certainly not the softest gal on the block, but I would like to think I could keep my feminist union card if ever I chose to leave a job to take care of a lover in ill health. I also would like to maintain that card in the highly unlikely event that I had a grandchild and decided to pose with it and a teddy bear. Insinuating that O'Connor would never be embraced by feminists because of loving her husband or grandchildren is ridiculous.

Not all feminists are harsh, single-minded, and selfish. Sticking with one's job is also not harsh, single-minded, and selfish. Not all men are harsh, single-minded, and selfish. Articles written from such a perspective (even if in the Style section) perpetuate unhelpful stereotypes.

And if you believe that all feminists think alike and would define feminism in the same way, I invite you to my office some time. It's a supremely blissful environment with absolutely no conflict ever.