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After many months of disabled comments, this blog is finally interactive once more. If anyone is still reading me, please leave a comment.
It's not healthy how excited I am about this....
My current Internet obsession is following the saga of Cathy Seipp, with whom I didn't always line up politically, but who I respected as a writer and a strong opinionated woman, and am sorry I never got to meet.
There's a line in the title song from the show Cabaret -- "I made my mind up back in Chelsea...when I go, I'm going like Elsie."
I made my mind up as a reader of Cathy's blog over the past few months. When I go, I want to go like Cathy, with such incredible dignity, wit, humor, and such devoted friends and a truly wonderful daughter.
So many blogs, so little time....
I'm finding that I'm spreading myself way thin, trying to maintain Israelity, contribute to Pajamas Media, and keep things going here. It's not like y'all probably haven't noticed.
ANYWAY, so as an experiment, I'm going to try moving my personal blogging over to Israelity, where I'm spending time anyway and see if that doesn't make me more prolific. Please, please, please, if you haven't already, put it in your bookmarks and add it to your feeds.
Hot off the press in this morning's newspaper:
Opposition Chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) has joined the list of Israeli and international public figures running internet blogs.The blog was launched Tuesday night, and its main purpose is to get Netanyahu's message directly across to the public, since the media has not been giving him sufficient airtime, he's now found a way around them. Netanyahu's associates have nicknamed the blog 'The Bibi blog', and are very excited about its launching. According to them, Netanyahu wants to reach each and every citizen, and if a blog is the only way, then so be it.
So far the blog includes Netanyahu's weekly article, pictures from his life, forms for joining the Likud, news clips, videos of Netanyahu's speeches from around the world, and of course many reminders of the fact that he warned of the dangers or Iran, the disengagement, Hizbullah and more. Netanyahu's opening message to the public starts by expressing how pleased he is to be able to have an open dialogue with them through this blog. He also welcomes feedback and ideas through talkbacks. He also says that he will be "presenting my views and the plans that me and my comrades plan to implement when we return to power." For Netanyahu, this blog is part of a three-part plan to reach the public. This plan includes touring the country and visiting developments towns, the traditional media, and now, this blog. He stressed his appreciation of talkbacks and emails and said "what could be more important for a public figure?" in order to keep in touch with the people. For now, Netanyahu says all talkbacks are welcome, even those less positive ones and said "I am known to be a democrat."
For those of you unfamiliar with the local jargon, "talkbacks" are comments. They are the subject of great controversy in Israel at the moment. Unlike major newspapers in the U.S., it is standard operating procedure for the Hebrew press online to allow comments at the bottom of every article. Combine their huge readership with the cloak of anonymity and the "talkbacks" have become a hotbed of nastiness and libel, and there is a major backlash against them, hence Bibi's remarks at the end of the article. For now, the Bibi Blog is only up in Hebrew, but if I know our guy, an English version will be coming soon. (Until that happens, if any Bibi fans in the blogosphere are planning on translating him on a regular basis, let me know.)
In the midst of the Lebanon War, I predicted that the Bibi-led Likud, which was decimated in the last elections, was going to make a huge comeback with the slogan "We Told You So." It looks like that comeback is happening now. Bibi is definitely back - check out this confident performance on the Bill Maher show.
(Crossposted on Israelity)
So, so much to catch up on -- my adventures in America, and the ongoing antics of my kids and what's going on over here.
Sorry for the silence, but if you were paying attention, you knew where to find me over at Israelity and Pajamas Media. I'm having a particularly good time at Pajamas, blogging on non-Middle East topics like the midterm elections (as a dual US-Israeli citizen, I'm having trouble deciding which country's leaders are more ridiculous and embarrassing)
But I've been told that people miss this blog, and I miss posting here, so I am taking a vow of at least one post a day, no matter how short. It's all well and good to showcase the work of others, but I need to jump in and write as well.
So the JIB has been hoisted....it's time for the finals in the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.
If you like this blog and would like to vote for me (among some very stiff and worthy competition) you can do so in either the Best Overall Blog category or the Best Life In Israel Blog category.
This time, it's one person, one vote (I can see Mom phoning the relatives now...)
Once more, many thanks to Dave for his excellent work on organizing the awards.
I'm talking, of course, about the Jewish and Israel Blog Awards, hosted by the incredibly generous Dave, who is investing so much time and energy into doing this right.
If you want to vote for little old me, check out the categories of
and
Realistically, I have a far better shot at winning the latter category than the former, since on an overall scale, it's hard for a single-person blog to compete with the group blogs, which are updated far more frequently and are able to cover more ground because of their larger number of posters.
These are the preliminary rounds, and then there are going to be the finals, where it will be decided who will wear the crown and who will be first runner-up (and get to take over the title if someone finds out that we posed nude for Playboy in our youth.)
And obviously, check out the other categories as well. The whole point of these exercises, in my opinion, is not deciding who's "the best" but giving people a chance to check out blogs they might not otherwise have discovered.
Let's face it, a lot of us are into blogs for noble, uplifting reasons, but still....there is also more than a small element of voyeurism.
Sometimes, you read a blog and you really feel like you are peering through a keyhole that you're not supposed to look in. You tell yourself that the person wouldn't be putting it out there if they didn't want others to read what they write (and invite them to COMMENT on it) but it still feels like an invasion of the most intimate elements of their life.
That's how I felt reading Frum Affair, in which an Orthodox woman pours out her heart following an affair with another Orthodox man, in which they appeared to have done "everything but..."
Via Miriam
Oooh, I've been nominated for a Wizbang Weblog Award again. How fun.
Like last year, I'm in the category for "Middle East or Africa" blog, which means that like last year, the Iraqi blogs are likely to kick my tushy.
That's OK, but I'd still like to finish respectably, so don't just sit there, go vote for me! Early and often....
Speaking of voting often -- last year, I believe I was the only Israeli blog nominated in this category, and this year, I have two worthy compatriots joining me. The way these awards work is that you can vote in the same category in a different 24-hour period. So if you like Dave or Imshin's blog as well as mine, vote for all three of us. I'd like all the Israeli blogs to do well.
(My, we Israeli bloggers are a mutually supportive group...I just hopped over to Dave's blog to cut and paste the URL for the link above, and I saw that he suggested doing the same thing...)
Imshin's probably too busy meditating to realize that she's nominated for anything yet.....
I'm expecting the blogosphere to be a barren wasteland today, what with Thanksgiving. Can I hear my own echo? (echo, echo!)
Or maybe later on in the day, folks will be so sick of their families that they'll be holed up with their computers. Who knows?
Yell if you're out there....
Well, we've seen blogs for every other obsession -- now here's a great shoe blog.
If I know women, this site, is going to ramp up the hits very quickly. And if it sells shoes -- there were quite sophisticated ads on the site as soon as it opened -- soon we'll see handbag blogs, makeup blogs, lingerie blogs (well, OK, there's plenty of guys with lingerie blogs up already.)
(Via Buzzmachine)
I sense a pattern in my blogging over the past year and a half. I'm in a groove, blogging away, writing something nearly every day.....and then I travel. Things get so crazy with the preparations for going away that I nearly stop blogging. During the trip, things are so intense, that it's like life is on fast-forward, and there's no time to sit down and write about it.
Then I get back....and there's the jet-lag, and the unpacking, and the jerking kids back into their schedules, and the catching up with everyone and everything and the loose ends that have dangled during my absence.
And before you know it, I haven't blogged, and SO much has happened that I feel like I should catch up on, the amount of catching up just feels too overwhelming. So I don't blog some more.
I need life to be more boring so I can blog -- and catch up on the last month or so. Of course, asking for life to be boring in Israel is pretty unrealistic.
One minute you're throwing out an idea on your blog...."you know, it's about time all of us Israeli bloggers writing in English met each other." The next minute, you're there, meeting everyone, having a great time. And the next, it's written up in Ha'aretz.
What a crazy hi-tech world we live in.
The newspaper printed my URL, but didn't link to the site. It will be interesting to see if it affects the number of hits the blog receives.
Last night was the first official English-language Israeli blogger gathering. No less than 20 bloggers showed up....which is amazing, when you consider the fact that when I began blogging a year and a half ago, you could count the number of locals blogging in English on one hand.
I'm a little too exhausted these days to write a detailed wrapup of the meeting, so I'll do the bloggerly thing and link to other people.
Here's the Treppenwitz report on the bloggerfest and here are Sarah's impressions Here's Imshin's lovely wrapup. The scoop from the lovely Rebecca, who won the award for travelling the furthest....(she was visiting from Canada)
Adrian has the full roll call of attendees -- I thought the turnout was incredible... And I even conned everyone into travelling to Ra'anana....
Man, I'd love to go on about it. But the baby is asleep for the night and mother's law dictates that one must sleep when the baby does.
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Whoops....With all the back to school craziness, I didn't even see that my profile/interview was posted this Friday on Normblog.
Tonight's the night of the big first-time-ever Israeli blogger bash! We're expecting around 15 Israeli English language bloggers....very exciting, eh?
If any of you were on vacation and missed the fun in the comments of this blog, we are having the first -- hopefully not last -- Israeli English-language blogger get-together on Sept. 2.
Contact me for the details if you are a blogger and want in, including the URL of your blog so we know you are not just a random wacko (like just because we have blogs, we can't be wacko....or maybe it's proof that we're wacko...)
Lots of discussion in the comments of the previous entry about making the long-overdue blogger bash for Israelis who blog in English happen. I'm happy to keep the discussion going here.
OK, so Blogrolling doesn't want to take my money for multiple blogrolls. Fine. I'm going back to one big roll.
However, the free blogroll that they've chosen to keep up is called "Israeli Blogs" and their continued technical genius doesn't allow me to change the name.
So until my own personal technical genius helps me straighten it all out -- all of you on the blogroll are officially Israeli. I'll arrange it so you don't have to serve in the army.
Actually, it's kind of amusing having Allah there, no? Especially since we've all just learned that he lives in New York City. Makes sense -- that's where all the Israelis are living nowadays.
So I keep trying to enter my credit card info at Blogrolling to pay for my Blogrolling Gold status and it keeps rejecting my data on some technical grounds that it won't explain.
So I go to Blogrolling and fill in their E-mail form to ask for help...and it won't accept my E-mail -- another unexplained technical problem.
I guess they just don't want my money.
If you've been eliminated from my blogroll, don't take it personally. It's just because I didn't pay my bills for Blogrolling Gold, which allowed me to have multiple blogrolls. I think I'm going to go back to just one big blogroll, but I'm too tired/lazy/pregnant to do it at the moment.
I shouldn't whine, but what the hell, it's my blog and I'll whine if I want to. It's HOT around here, and I'm carrying around my own personal oven. I'm officially waddling: I'm feeling chronically sore from my stomach to my knees, sitting down and standing up is a chore -- and every time I stand up, I have to pee.
And it's what I call hell week -- the year-end parties for my kids' classes and afterschool activities, which somehow aren't considered respectable if they don't last for three hours, most of which one has to spend squatting on a child-size chair -- which isn't doing much for my groin situation.
Anyone who thinks that a description of a battery of gynecological exams can't be hilarious, must read this....
This woman is possibly the funniest and wittiest writer in the blogosphere, but only a certain predominately female readership is drawn to her blog because of the subject matter -- her blog, after all, is titled Chez Miscarriage.
But if someone asked me which blog could most easily be turned into a fabulous book, it would be hers. She could also write for Saturday Night Live and be as clever as Tina Fey. I am, indeed a fan. I must be -- nine months pregnant and addicted to an infertility blog.
Yesterday, I cleverly crammed the Big Three Hoops Of Fire (physical exam, pap smear - or "bagel and a pap shmear," as I like to call it - and mammogram) into one afternoon. I decided to go to my male internist for the physical exam and pap smear, because I've come to loathe my OB for reasons that deserve their own blog entry. That's how I ended up lying on an exam table, reading "National Geographic" and waiting for the pelvic party to begin.
I didn't know this, but apparently, male internists don't do very many pap smears. In fact, it would appear that they only do one - probably some time during their residency - and then silently draw their trembling arm over their flushed brow and think to themselves, thank God I'll never have to do a pap smear ever again! And when a male internist who never performs pap smears is forced to perform one on a woman he knows to be an infertility patient, he apparently thinks of her as a whore and himself as a virgin. After all, countless male physicians have strolled through her vagina like tourists searching out impressionist masterpieces at the Musée du Louvre. My, but her endometriosis reminds one of Seurat's pointillism, does it not? And, as it turns out, when a male internist virgin is confronted with an infertility whore's vagina, the result is a major attack of Pap Smear Performance Anxiety.
"I'm sorry," my internist stammered as he adjusted the sheet covering my legs, "Am I hurting you?"
I put down the magazine and raised my head up off the table. "You're not even touching me."
"I'm sorry."
"Look," I sighed, "Please stop apologizing. There's really nothing to be nervous about."
"Oh, I know," he quickly said, "I know that you've had much more invasive things done to you by many more physicians who are far more specialized than I am in these matters - BECAUSE YOU'RE SUCH A WHORE - but I don't want to hurt you."
I looked skeptically at the speculum, visibly trembling in his hand. "You're going to need a longer speculum," I noted, "I have a long vagina."
"Thank you," he babbled, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
A few minutes later, he slid a finger into my vagina and left it there, as placid and inert as a sleeping puppy. Minutes passed. Crickets chirped in the fields. A light snow began to fall. Night approached.
"What are you doing?" I asked him, lifting my head in amazement.
"I'm lightly pressing down on your vaginal floor muscle in order to relax it," he said.
For the record, I want you to know that I did not say, if you feel around in there, you should be able to find the doctors' assigned seating area. I also did not say, oh, oh, that feels really good, now move your finger back and forth, oh yeah. I also did not say, wow, I can see why you're so nervous, your penis is really tiny!
But I wanted to. I wanted to say those things very, very badly.
Isn't she great? (Guys? Are you laughing or appalled?)
While I'm on OB/GYN topics, there is a comprehensive and really compelling piece in today's NY Times about the agonizing choices to be made now that extensive prenatal genetic testic is available.
What defect, if any, is reason enough to end a pregnancy that was very much wanted? Shortened limbs that could be partly treated with growth hormones? What about a life expectancy of only a few months? What about 30 years? Or a 20 percent chance of mental retardation?
I'm about as pro-choice as they come, but a few of the anecdotes in the story really gave me pause -- not that these people should be legally prevented from terminating, but on a moral and ethical plane in what looks like a quest for the "perfect baby."
Dr. Jonathan Lanzkowsky, an obstetrician affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, described one woman who had been born with an extra finger, which was surgically removed when she was a child. Her children have a 50-50 chance of inheriting the condition, but she is determined not to let that happen. Detecting the extra digit through early ultrasounds, she has terminated two pregnancies so far, despite doctors' efforts to persuade her to do otherwise, Dr. Lanzkowsky said.
Other doctors said that they had seen couples terminate pregnancies for poor vision, whose effect they had witnessed on a family member, or a cleft palate, which they worried would affect the quality of their child's life.
In an extreme case, Dr. Mark Engelbert, an obstetrician/gynecologist on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, said he had performed an abortion for a woman who had three girls and wanted a boy.
We get so jaded here in Israel sometimes, that any contact with any form of idealism regarding the winning of hearts and minds in the Arab world feels rather surprising and different.
So my hat's off to Jeff Jarvis and his spanning-the-blogosphere effort supporting the Spirit of America project.
Jeff writes:
This is important work on so many levels: As Dan says, no matter what you think about the war, we have a human obligation to help the Iraqi people. But it is also enlightened self-interest: If we can help the Iraqis build their nation and their democracy and if we can connect with them on a personal level -- if, to be blunt, we can demonstrate that Americans are not ugly -- then we create a foothold for democracy, freedom, modernity, civilization, and just friendship in the Middle East.
I confess: the burned-out disappointed Israeli peacenik in me says, "Yeah, right, dream on, guys."
But you know what? It sure as hell can't hurt. So -- I say go for it.
We've got ourselves a new Israeli blog baby, according to the new mothers' fellow blogger and friend.
Guess I'm next in line.....somehow it being June now makes the due date seem a lot closer (time goes by slowwwwwly in late pregnancy)
Amish Tech Support Lives No More
Yet Laurence Simon is Still Full of Crap.
You blog away diligently, day after day, and still, your statistics stay flat.
"Dear Lord," you say, "aren't any more people going to come see what I write?"
You pray for more traffic.
Only one deity comes through for you. And it ain't the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It certainly isn't the guy in the blogosphere that everyone worships.
So a hip new LA gossip blog opens up, and how do they get going?
By linking Protocols and Steven I. Weiss!
The ever-persistent Steven got the attention by picking up the phone and asking the Kabbala Centre what a "kabbalah wedding" entails -- following up on rumors of kabbalistic Demi Moore-Ashton Kutcher nuptials.
The LA Blog chides our Steven:
[Ed. note--That sounds uncomfortably close to "reporting." You're a blogger, now put that vodka bottle back in your craw and keep typing, monkey!]
Those dudes in LA are so out of it, they don't know that Weiss is actually a formerly freelance and newly anointed fulltime journalist, newly hired by the Forward.
Journalist/blogger or Blogger/journalist? Oy vey, what a dilemma!
Well, here's a new blog to remind me that I really don't want to be "out there."
Roger Simon says to read an entry in Imshin's blog because "it's good for you."
I say you should read Imshin because it's fun and entertaining!
Which reminds me of the old beer commercial: (for Imshin and others unschooled in American pop culture, the commercial has these two guys arguing about the reasons one should drink a particular light beer. One says you have to drink it because it "tastes great" -- the other because it's "less filling.")
I've been a journalist and I've been a blogger. Journalism is harder.
The following is a crude analogy, but I've used it before and I'll use it again.
Journalism is prostitution and blogging is recreational sex. When you blog, you do it when you want it, how you want it, and on what topic you want it. It's all yours. You hope that others are getting off on what you write, but your livelihood doesn't depend on it. It is all about putting yourself out there, satisfying your own writing needs and proving to yourself how clever you are. If you don't feel like doing it, you don't have to do it. You are free.
With journalism, and other forms of professional writing, you have a lot of people to please and prove things to. You have an editor and a newspaper owned by a big company to please. You have to write about what that editor and that newspaper considers important. You have to do it in a manner that pleases them. And you have to do it all day, every day, except for weekends (if you're lucky.)
And then there are the clients -- your readers. You can't just worry about your pleasure in writing, as you do when you blog, you have to care as to whether they are deriving pleasure and interest from reading you. You care because your livelihood -- paying the rent, feeding the kids -- depends on it, and your career and professional identity is on the line.
Sure, your ego is involved, too. And sure, hopefully, you enjoy it somewhat and don't feel exploited doing it. But let's face it -- anything fun that becomes work -- even the most glamorous stuff like writing, acting, playing sports, or playing music -- is less fun when it's your job.
These thoughts were inspired by recent articles like this one and this one have stirred up the pot once more on journalism vs. blogging, and whether the blog phenomenon is really a revolution or just a blip on the fad meter.
All in all, I tend to agree with my pal Laura in Apt. 11 D, who says we should keep expectations modest:
Look, blogging is never going to replace the mainstream press. We need proper journalists out there doing serious leg work and research to produce quality articles. Most bloggers have day jobs. Bloggers is merely a way to burn off some steam at the end of the day or to rough draft ideas for future work or to bounce around ideas with virtual friends. Perhaps, we bloggers, have excessively hyped up this medium and created unrealistic expectations.
Blogging is a highly imperfect art form. The backwards sequencing is confusing. The lack of coordination of discussion means that talk is disjointed, redundant, and monopolized by the few biggest bloggers. And longer posts tend not to be read.
That said, so what? Blogging has many virtues. (I have to run, so this will be short.) It is a means for regular people without university degrees or press credentials to speak their mind, and perhaps to make a name for themselves in the rarified world of blogging. It's a form of political participation. It can be a way that marginalized groups, like adjuncts or stay-at-home moms, can find each other and perhaps become politically organized. It facilitates networks of like minded individuals, who then develop other projects. It can be a way of centralizing information about a certain topic.
Blogging will never replace the Times or the WSJ. But it is a new way to communicate and to participate. I love blogging, warts and all.
Lately I've been feeling more and more tension between being a female childbearing blogger and an Israeli/politico blogger.
Call it late pregnancy hormones, but I'm envying some of the more personal girlier blogs and wishing I felt I had more license to whine about how tired and grungy I'm feeling. I mean, how liberating it must be to run a blog called My Bitchy Pregnancy.
Instead, I feel this obligation to readers to ruminate on "Whither Gaza, Sharon, and the Disengagement plan what's gonna happen if Sharon loses this referendum" and how bloody stupid it was of him in the first place to run this thing by the Likudnik politicos for their seal of approval.
It's as if Kerry got elected and decided to let the DNC vote on whether or not we should keep our troops in Iraq.
But back to me and my blog. Sometimes I wonder whether this mix of the personal and the political is a good thing, and I should split into two separate blogs. It's wrong to feel this way, but my sense is that referring to my pregnancy too much makes this look like a less serious "Mommy blog," or to use the more PC term "domestic blog." That it undermines my credibility and lets down people who check in over here to read about Israel, not prenatal or maternal angst.
Somewhere along the line, blogging about your cats became cooler than blogging about having babies.
Hey, I've noticed a number of blogs who are normally very supportive of Israel that remembered to take note of ANZAC Day, but didn't wish us a Happy Independence Day....
What has Australia got that we don't? (Besides peace, a lot more space, a much better water supply, etc. etc. ...)
I'm trying to recover from the celebrations, from keeping the kids out too late to see the fireworks, to hosting the extended family (eight adults, ten kids) and having the house look like a bomb hit it (guess we should watch that expression around these parts...) to the ramifications of all of the meat consumption yesterday. The national cholesterol level is definitely sky-high. Despite the messy house, it is so nice to have a backyard, even though it's a small one, so we don't have to crowd with the masses searching for any green spot in the country to set up their grill....
No complaints here: a good time was had by all, we certainly enjoyed ourselves.
Those who wanted some politics with their barbecue headed out to Gush Katif for the day. At our house, the discussion was fairly apolitical except for some brief heated discussions regarding what kind of compensation schemes should be offered to the settlers who will leave Gaza....
Big changes over at the Protocols blog.
Young whippersnapper Steven I. Weiss, the most active and feisty Jewish blogger around has accepted a staff writer position at the Forward and will be getting his own in-house blog over there, and so will no longer be a Protocolian.
If Weiss stays as hungry and energetic as he is now, I predict a big journalism career trajectory for him. Good luck. (Does the fact that he's going for a regular paycheck mean he's getting ready to settle down? Line up, girls.)
In the meantime, enjoy the Elder and wiser voice of guest blogger Andrew Silow Carroll at Protocols who is filling in while Steve makes his move. Andrew holds the very respectable establishment position of editor of the New Jersey Jewish News, but we hope he'll let his hair down a bit here in the blogosphere.
Andy and I go back a long way: in 1989 (!) we had adjacent cubicles as reporters at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Later we were neighbors in Washington, DC when he wrote for and then edited the Washington Jewish Week and I was the Jerusalem Post correspondent.
And our paths crossed again when he spent two years in the Holy City as a Jerusalem Fellow and lived near my in-laws in Katamon.
What can I say? It's a small Jewish journalism world.
OK, I expect thousands of letters of protest to descend on Ha'aretz for leaving me out of this article on English-language bloggers in Israel.
Equally heinous was the absence of a mention of the goddess Imshin.
Not that I begrudge those who were mentioned, but sheesh, what am I, chopped liver?
Man, you leave the country for a few weeks for your Passover vacation and you cease to exist. Poor me.
It's such a bummer that I just spent two weeks in and around Boston, and yet had to return home to Israel just a few days before the big Blogger get-together.
Also, I'm just missing my 15th Columbia Journalism School class reunion on April 23.
It would have been so interesting to attend both of them. As a journalist-turned-blogger, I would have loved to get into a real-life discussion like the one sparked by Jay Rosen's post on whether blogging is journalism. I agree with most of the points he makes.
And to think that I was in Harvard Square just a few days ago!
Alas, the reason I couldn't extend my trip is not just that I had to bring the kids home post-school vacation -- that could have been worked out somehow. Also, I wouldn't have been able to extend my medical travel insurance. You can't get any of the insurers in Israel to cover you abroad past the 26th week of pregnancy....
Congratulations to Salam, who, in addition to acquiring a big-time media career and a book deal, won the Bloggie Award for Best Middle Eastern Blog, beating out yours truly.
Seriously, folks, was there any competing with him this year? The results were pretty predictable.
No matter: I'd rather miss out on an award than have to go through what Baghdad residents have had to endure this year (well, what they've endured for the last 30-plus years, actually)
Thanks to all who voted for me!
Whoops, nearly let that milestone slip by, didn't I? My first tentative posts were on March 2nd, but I'll declare today my blogoversary and reprint my first substantive post which I wrote a year ago today.
It's a good reminder of why I started -- to vent some of the tension I felt regarding the upcoming Iraq war and its possible repercussions in Israel. Reading it now, it all feels like a long time ago....
Living Life on Hold
Even after ten years in Israel, it still blows my mind that the world revolves around the Jewish calendar in these parts. I'm watching the evening news, and the incredibly serious Mideast analyst intones, "The Turkish decision as to whether or not to allow U.S. troops to launch an attack from their territory means the difference between a Purim war or a Passover war." It conjures up such vivid images in my mind: are my kids going to be huddled in a bomb shelter in their pirate and princess costumes, or might we conduct our seder in our sealed room? And if so, how exactly will we hide the afikomen?
There are a lot of calming noises coming from the government. They repeat like a mantra the fact that they believe that Iraq has far less capability than they did in 1991 -- at least conventional capability -- and we have a lot better defensive weapons than we did in 1991. It is a vast contrast between what I saw when I visited the U.S. in February. The dynamic was completely the opposite in America -- the government was trying to get everyone mentally prepared for a terror attack, and it almost seemed, super panicked -- and most people I knew were just refusing to buy into it. Here in Israel, everyone seems ready to break out the masks and dive into shelters at any second, and the government and the army are telling them to chill out.
Existential worries aside, what is driving many of us nuts over here on a personal level is the inability to plan your life. You are afraid to plan a birthday party too far ahead of time because there might be a war, you can't plan a trip abroad and leave the kids with your in-laws because there might be a war and you could get stuck overseas.
So you obsessively check CNN and Fox News, compare them to the reports in the Israeli media, and surf the Internet hourly, trying to get a handle on what exactly is going to happen when so you can plan something more than 48 hours ahead of time.
Yeah, yeah, I know this seems trivial and bourgeois in comparison to the huge problems caused by the prospect of war, like the economy and investment climate and worse, the indefinite postponement of really confronting the burning Israel-Palestinian conflict in a meaningful way. But trust me, it's not easy: it raises the overall irritability level tremendously.
The calmest people I know are my friends who plant their heads deliberately in the sand and refuse to read a paper or listen to the radio. All they want to talk about is whether they are going to see "Chicago" or "The Hours" first and what costume their kid wants to wear for Purim. I rather envy them. It's not easy being a news junkie.
My brother sent me this column from the Boston Globe.
Its bottom line: Howard Dean is losing, therefore the blogosphere is irrelevant.
Not too simplistic, eh?
But I'm currently getting my ass kicked in the Drysdale contest on the Wampum blog. (It's the token category for the non-lefties)
So if anyone wants to on hop over there and vote for me by leaving a comment, they are cordially invited.
Also, you can cast a vote for your favorite lefty blog in any of the other categories. I particularly recommend voting for The Head Heeb in the "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition" category.
A welcome back to the blogosphere is in order for Adi, whom I had feared had hooked up with a rabbi who forbade blogging. Happily, this is not that the case.
Last we heard from Adi, he was a college student contemplating becoming Orthodox and dipping his toe in the Israel yeshiva experience. Now he seems pretty settled in Jerusalem, at least for a while, diligently pursuing further spiritual enlightenment...
His new blog has a cute Yiddish/baseball pun of a name: Home Beis
("Beis" means "Home" in Yiddish)
Hey, cool, I'm nominated for another blogging award -- the infamous Bloggies.
In the category of Best African or Middle Eastern Blog, no less. I'd put my chances of winning this slot as slim to none -- I'm up against the big-time Iraqi celebrity blogs -- I mean, last I heard, Salam Pax was giving Ted Koppel tours of Baghdad, and so far, I haven't been invited to show "Nightline" around Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
But as they say, it's an honor to be nominated and any support is appreciated....
But.....does he read MY blog?
All about Friedman and company in this great chatty report from Jeff Jarvis on the glamourliteratijourno Opinion Awards event at Tina Brown and Harold Evans' fabulous digs.
Ugh, how did Roger manage to transition so quickly in a post from discussing Wesley Clark's candidacy to an anecdote about eating dog? That caught me unawares.
Yuuuck. I can't imagine eating mystery meat in a foreign country as Roger did, and then being told it is a dog.
I know logically that this shouldn't disgust me more than eating a cow, sheep, or chicken, but it just does.
He said it didn't taste much different from any other meat.
Speaking of Roger -- he loved "Lost in Translation" so much that when a friend asked me what movie to see, I told her to go see that -- and she hated it. But her husband liked it. I'm getting curious, people are either raving about this film or utterly disliking it.
And while we're in Hollywood, Nancy Rommelmann writes about why she doesn't get excited anymore when someone contacts her about turning one of her articles into a movie.
I'm impressed by the fact that she is probably the only parent at her daughter's school who goes out of her way to AVOID chatting with Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, whose daughter goes there too (Nancy wrote an article on the Idaho town where they moved some years back and pissed Bruce off...) I, of course, want to know if Ashton Kutcher has shown up at the school with Demi and whether he's gotten misidentified as a student.
Here's the New York Times' take on the new outlet for teenage angst. And a New Jersey story (via Buzzmachine) that found some parents who claim they don't read their teen's blog out of respect for his privacy and creative freedom.
Yeah, right. They are so lying.
I would love for my kids to have blogs when they become teenagers. It will probably be the only way for me to know what they are thinking.
If you want to read a blog by a teenager who is a wonderful writer and actually thinks and interacts with the adult world, check out the fabulous Cecile Dubois from my blogroll.
I don't think I was even a fraction as articulate, charming and sophisticated as this girl is. I give lots of credit to her mom, obviously the source of her writing talent -- and her right-leaning views, which appears to get her into some sticky classroom discussions in her LA high school....
Imshin is back. Finally. Thank goodness. Eight days without Imshin and I was beginning to go into withdrawal.
Blogger meets blogger. They fall in love. Bloggers elope to Las Vegas.
Who says that technology is unromantic?
It's her incredibly personal writing which makes me believe that Michele is the bravest of the high-traffic bloggers. I'd like to see one of the Big Boys open themselves up the way she does.
Here she writes about her worst New Year's Eve ever, one that none of us should have to experience.
A survey in the paper showed that only a quarter of Israelis celebrate the Jan. 1st New Year, the vast majority of whom are 20-somethings who will use any excuse to party.
I married an Israeli non-New Year's Eve celebrant -- he grew up Orthodox, after all. I must say that I don't miss the intense pressure to whoop it up on this particular date, so I don't insist on a big celebration. I do insist on a midnight kiss, though. He's usually working from home, so I usually pull him off of the computer for a few minutes to do the honors.
This year, I have a funny feeling I'm going to fall asleep before midnight anyway.
I've already made Michele an honorary Jew....I can't think of a way to upgrade her further at the moment, but it is just too cool that in the middle of her Christmas preparations, she took the time to start a drive to give to an organization that sends pizza, donuts, and other goodies to IDF soldiers.
Here's where you can donate to the cause.
With all of the hullabaloo regarding Saddam, I almost forgot to extend my congratulations to Dawn Olsen on the birth of her son Alexander.
He's a cutie, and she looks damn good for someone immediately postpartum.
It's too late for Saddam, but not too late to vote for me (or vote for me again) as Best New Blog in the last days of the Weblog Awards....
I see that Imshin is kicking some serious butt in her category
And Meryl is in the tightest race of the awards...
Speaking of blog competitions, I have to give this guy my vote in the New Weblog Showcase for his post on Firas Houri, the Israeli Arab who came out on top in Project Y, the Israeli television reality show. After all, it's an Israel 21c story. Let's all of us give an upbeat Israel story some extra exposure by voting for it.
By the way, I have inside info that CNN was supposed to interview Firas for a story today....but the interview was cancelled when the Jerusalem bureau had to get busy with post-Saddam coverage. Hopefully, they'll reschedule...
Steven was pouting because he didn't think he received enough credit for his Tom Friedman-pushes-lawyer scoop in the New York Sun.
Steve should have been in this game long enough to realize that the last thing a journalist wants is to give credit to other journalists....
But now, in any case, he can turn that frown upside-down because the Instapundit himself has sat up and taken notice of the young Elder.
Instalanche goes to Jewsweek, though, not Protocols.
If you are female and hope to bear children some day, I strongly suggest that you do not read this post. It may just change your plans.
I can't believe I've gotten sucked into checking my status in the Weblog Awards quite so frequently. (VOTE FOR ME)
I'm just so excited that I'm turning in such a respectable number -- up to 44 votes! (VOTE FOR ME)
At least Kevin doesn't have to worry about any cheating on my part -- I'm not technically proficient enough to know how. (But you could VOTE FOR ME)
Lest this become a truly self-serving post, I'll mention the races I'm watching and who I'm cheering for:
Best Overall Blog -- On this one I feel very strongly. A Small Victory should be getting a lot more votes than it is. In my opinion, Michele's is truly the ultimate blog, because, in addition to putting her opinions out there and linking interesting stuff, you really feel when you are reading her blog that you are getting to know a real, actual person. I don't get that from any of her competitors. I think she straddles the line perfectly between the mushy-gushy touchy-feely journal-type blogs and the drier, info-laden blogs.
Meryl Yourish should win in the female-authored category for the same reason. I had her close competition blogrolled for a while, but eventually stopped reading because it was too boring.
I voted for and am pulling for Michael Totten in Best Liberal Blog contest though I would imagine that if he wins, the hard lefties will claim they wuz robbed since Michael's not particularly reflective of their views on foreign policy. Again, I like how he writes about Portland and his travels on his blog and doesn't simply write about politics.
In the Large Mammals category, it looks like my pal Roger has things all sewn up. Since he didn't need my help, I threw support to Kesher Talk, which is my opinion is the best Jewish-interest blog out there (sorry, guys.)
Finally, I put in a vote for Israellycool in the Crawly Amphibians category, 'cause you gotta support the home team.
We've got two bloggers who are ready to pop any second: Dawn Olsen and Moody Mama.
Reading about how they are feeling as they round the end of the ninth month of pregnancy could serve as a good form of birth control. Everyone send your teenage daughters to read about how it feels.
Dawn's even calling on the blogosphere to push her into labor.
NOW LET'S START THINKING LABOR!!!! Please!!!!! Dear!!!!LORD!!!! I am as huge as a house and I need a forklift to get out of bed. I had a piece of glass in my foot and couldn't read down to get it out - FOR FOUR HOURS. I pee my pants everytime I sneeze, which is often since I have had a cold for about three weeks now. My head is pounding and I have the temperment of a rabid squirrel who is being poked with a stick. Quite sincerely, I am probably the most repulsive beast on earth. PLEASE SEND SOME LABOR VIBES MY WAY!
Guaranteed to make every woman glad she's not Dawn, and make every guy glad he's not her husband Eric.
Now who's going to be the first woman to blog through labor? The truth is, if you've got a good epidural and a hospital with Wifi, it's entirely possible.
Another grouchy pregnant lady who has many more months to go, laid it on the line even more bluntly by calling her blog My Bitchy Pregnancy.
But lest we all lose perspective on the miracle of childbirth, there is the newly pregnant Aidel Maidel, who is thrilled about it, after a struggle with infertility.
And then there are the women who keep their sense of humor in the most unhumorous situation possible -- struggling to conceive and bear a child. Among them -- Chez Miscarriage and A Little Pregnant. And here's an infertility story with a happy ending.
I discovered several of these blogs on Dawn Friedman's site This Woman's Work. Dawn's been through the infertility mill, and is now experiencing something even more difficult -- the adoption process.
I'll confess that I sometimes purposely look at these blogs in order to give myself a slap on the face when I dare to complain about my kids driving me crazy....it helps to not take your kids for granted when you read about the extraordinary lengths people are going to in order to have them....
Dinesh of Points of Departure is back home in India. His was a really unique and fascinating blog, chronicling his time as an Indian Hindu student in Beersheva, living in and learning about Israel.
Here is his farewell post. I really wish he'd given us some notice that he was going, I would really have like to try to meet him while he was here....
Anyway, good luck to you and your spiders, Dinesh. Let us know if you come back to visit.
I must say, I am totally surprised by the number of people voting for my blog in the Weblog Awards. Obviously, I'm getting my ass kicked by the big guys, but as they say, it's an honor to be nominated, and last I checked, 26 people had voted for me. So thank you, whoever you are. (And extra special thanks to Matt for nominating me and cheering me on.)
I'm in the competition for "Best New Blog (Started in 2003) which isn't the category I thought I would be in -- I more expected "Best Foreign Blog" or "Best Female Authored Blog." (I wish that Jonathan's nomination of Imshin hadn't come in too late in that category...I would have started a campaign on her behalf...)
But whatever, it's fun to be part of it. And at least I'm going to be beaten by a deity, not a mere mortal.
So if you want to vote for me (or anyone else in my category) click HERE....
Everyone should head over and wish the Head Heeb a happy one-year blogoversary.
If you don't read his blog already, start now!
What did they put in Meryl's Thanksgiving turkey? What an incredible rant.
I don't think that I wish quite so many people dead as she does, but I relate to the anger and the outrage.
I confess that I'm particularly fond of the post because it has three links to Israel 21c at the end.
It will be interesting to see if and how Salam Pax responds to Diana's open letter.
I was just catching up on some blogs I hadn't checked in a while, and realized that we were overdue for a "Mazel Tov" to Sha! for his new addition.
Congratulations, and I think that Lia is a lovely name.
I just spent some time hanging out with a friend I haven't seen in a few years. We sat down, and he filled me in on his life; what's been going on with him personally and professionally. I asked questions and he answered.
We came to the part of the conversation in which normally, etiquette would dictate that we switch roles -- he would ask for an update on me and my life and I would provide one.
I waited for him to ask me something. Instead, he just looked at me and said, "Well, I'd catch up on you, but I really feel like I know about everything you've been doing. After all, I read your blog."
So, what's the story, is the Hasidic Rebel history? He hasn't written anything in a month and a half, since he announced he was forming a Yahoo Group....
Meryl Yourish does a wonderful job in responding to an Egyptian who sent her an E-mail asking her why she is a Zionist.
I, for one, will be totally interested as to whether she recieves a response and what it will be.
This is how the new media works, I suppose.....
1. Jeff Jarvis sees an item in the Daily Telegraph on the new BBC Middle East ombudsman and posts it on his blog, BuzzMachine.
2. Steven Weiss, one of the bloggers on Protocols, sees the item and posts it on his blog.
3. I see it on Protocols and post it on my blog.
4. Gil Shterzer sees it on my blog. He realizes that it hasn't hit the Israeli media yet -- guess their London correspondents are asleep on the job. He E-mails Ynet, the web site of Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, and gives them a heads-up.
Ynet runs the item as one of their top stories. (Hebrew link)
So the story travelled from the British press to an American non-Jew's blog to an American Jew's blog, to an American-Israeli's blog, to an Israeli's blog, to the Hebrew press.
I feel just terrible. The vast powers of seductive Jewish women are wreaking havoc with Allah's wardrobe. So much so, that he's considering taking us to court on the matter -- he wants to force all of us to buy him new trousers to replace those he's ruined.
While I know many brilliant Jewish lawyers who could easily kick his ass in court, I prefer to be non-litigious about it.
So I'm going to order him 50 pairs of the nice green pants pictured here. I'll send them off as soon as I get his snail mail address (!)
And my deepest apologies. We don't mean to be so incredibly attractive and irresistably beautiful, we just can't help it.
But Allah, I'm warning you...if you want to keep your new pants tidy, DO NOT, under any circumstances look at this web site.
And don't forget to keep things in perspective. Pants can be replaced. Other things can't.
My poor mother, a smart and educated woman but not wise in the warped humor of the blogosphere, totally freaked out when she followed the link to Allah in my blog. She truly thought I had become the target of a scary Moslem extremist. I calmed her down, but felt bad. The poor woman's got enough to worry about with her daughter and two grandkids living in Israel...
Oh, and welcome, Yahweh.
It's the first time I've ever been singled out by a deity. Cool.
He's got a lot of readers, too.
An Allah-lanche?
Never thought I'd say this, but Allah Akhbar!
UPDATE:
Woman! Persist in this and you shall find yourself on Allah's glorious list of females who make him feel funny in a special kind of way!
Posted by: Allah at November 5, 2003 07:24 AM
Sounds great, Allah, who says interfaith relationships can't work?
So let's go for it -- let's get together for a drink in my neighborhood! How about one of those crowded Tel Aviv bars or coffee houses? I hear that you and your disciples enjoy hanging out in those kind of joints. You'll love my friends -- really nice guys in green uniforms who would love to join us and chat with you.
I must say, I am totally enjoying my first Halloween as a blogger. Usually, October 31 often slips by without my realizing that back home in the United States it is time to be spooky and get stomach cramps from eating too much candy.
But it's impossible to read A Small Victory and not get caught up in that Halloween spirit. Makes me kinda homesick.
When is someone going to invent virtual trick-or-treating?
Happy one-year anniversary to Mamamusings -- it was the wonderful Liz Lawley, together with MB Williams, who made me aware and later addicted to this thing called blogging.
Should one be grateful to one's "blogmothers?" I suppose so, but in a way, it's like being grateful to the person who first turned you on to heroin.
All three of us are members of an obscure cult of women who were pregnant with children due during the month of September in 1996 and joined an E-mail support group to share our tales of morning sickness. Almost eight years later we're going strong and discussing 2nd grade math homework.
Being somewhat technically challenged, I often don't understand what in the world my techie academe friend Liz is blogging about (For example, did you all know that in academic parlance, blogging tools are called "social software?" I wonder what "anti-social software" would look like.) But I like her blog just the same.
Another important blogoversary greeting goes out to that red-headed wonder and fellow Rhode Islander, Sheila O'Malley, through whom I can live out my unrealized fantasy of being a New York actress.
OK, yes, yes, a whole bunch of blogs went down today, present company included and according to sources, there were some nasty folks behind it, trying to take down an anti-al-Qaeda site called Internet Haganah. They did so by attacking Hosting Matters, which hosts this blog and others.
Annoying and all, but being Israeli, I can keep it in perspective. I went out and partied with friends at a crowded Tel Aviv restaurant this evening and so I'm just glad and relieved it was my BLOG that was attacked and not ME....!
Well, I suppose that Gregg Easterbrook can take solace in the fact that thousands of people like me who never watch ESPN and rarely read the New Republic, who had absolutely no clue who he was, now know his name and will pay attention to his byline.
Speaking of a high profile, our own Roger Simon is the star of this piece in the LA Times. It will be kind of ironic after all those novels and screenplays, all of those years of serious literary craft, if Roger achieves his highest level of fame as a blogger.
The Times piece is pretty tough, saying that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck....the duck being anti-Semitism.
Meryl Yourish, who appears to be the party who brought the Easterbrook comments to the fore, doesn't think he deserved to be fired by ESPN, but after careful consideration, she doesn't regret saying what she did.
From the beginning Stephen I. Weiss of Protocols has been offering an interesting minority perspective
Though, as usual, I'm not crazy about his tone or insults, it's an opinion worth considering.
Here's what the New York Times says.
Every week, a diligent young blogger named Kelley does a lovely wrap-up of the week's blogs on her blogroll, which she calls the Cul-de-Sac. She often includes me, for which I'm eternally grateful. ( She's not doing it this week, though, she's too busy cavorting in Hawaii -- lucky girl)
But I digress. Since I've been gone so long, I've done some catching up, so I thought I'd share. I'll call it the Jew-de-Sac.
First, here's Imshin filling us in on her trip to Holland, which sounds much more culturally enriching than my trip to Eilat. But there is one thing I can tell her -- after shlepping the kids round the Eilat Marine Park, and seeing every frigging kind of fish that exists...she is truly Not a Fish.
Meryl is right where I left her last week, taking Arafat's pulse every few hours or so.
Both Meryl and Roger Simon weigh in strongly on this Easterbrook piece in his New Republic blog.
Protocol's Stephen Weiss wraps up all of the reaction, and gets into a fight with Jewschool's Mobius about the whole thing (it doesn't look like these two liked each other very much to begin with....should two nice Jewish guys really get this nasty..?)
The Rebel seems to be too busy with the holidays to post. He hasn't written much of substance in a while...
Also Diana appears to have vaporized once more....or maybe moved addresses again? Anyone know what is up with her?
Judith lays into a nasty LA Times piece written by an NYU academic.
Michele (honorary Jew category) is obsessed with the Yankees and down with a bad back -- ouch, feel better, Michele. And condolences to Lairs regarding Chicago.
If my brother Adam was in Israel, he'd be up all night following the game....I want the Red Sox and all, but not enough to give up my night's sleep. Good night, all.
I'm off on a journey during the kiddos Sukkot vacation. I'll be checking in, but not as frequently as I'd like. So I'm giving some guest bloggers license to hang out and trash the place.
I was just thinking: once upon a time, after a terrorist attack in Israel, I used to have to make a whole round of overseas phone calls; "I'm OK, I'm all right, I'm alive."
Then, once the Internet took hold, I could just send out E-mails.
Now it's really easy. I just have to post to the blog, and anyone who is worried can check my blog and know I'm still breathing.
Something very nice -- Sitemeter shows that whenever there's a terror attack, all of us Israeli bloggers immediately check each other's blogs to make sure everyone is OK.
My blog does get a rise in hits in the 24 hours following an attack. I figure that its people wanting to check up on me or just wanting to see "how the Israelis are feeling" about what's happened. While it's always nice to welcome more visitors to the blog, I'd much rather take fewer "hits" in every sense of the word, thank you very much.
UPDATE: The suicide bomber was not only female, she was a lawyer.The headlines of the Hebrew papers today call her "Satan's Attorney." The black humor has already begun around here -- "Good, that's one less lawyer..." etc.
Michele was trying her hardest to have a Zen, rant-free, anger-free weekend -- but the Haifa bombing broke her resolve.
This story details how the attack was a huge blow to Jewish-Arab cooexistence in Haifa. I hope that maybe this strategy will backfire -- that it will make Israeli Arabs realize that they are targets, too, and discourage them from aiding and abetting suicide bombers.
Meryl's job-hunting. Sounds like the tight economic times are affecting her one-woman business.
Meryl, how about if you let us bombard prospective employers with E-mail telling them what a smart lady you are? Nah, you don't think that'll help so much, eh...
If the Cul-de-Sac qualifies Kelley as a link slut, then thanks, honey, for inviting me to the orgy every week!
This morning was a perfect example of how blogs have changed my reading habits and are changing journalism as we know it.
It all started when I checked one of my regular reads, Electric Venom. There was a post by guest blogger Kelley pointing me to a piece in the New York Times by David Brooks describing alleged discrimination against political conservatives in academia.
So immediately, my first thought is, "well what would the Invisible Adjunct say about that?" I go to her blog and -- bingo -- right up at the top is a post with her thoughts on the issue.
Then she goes on to link a post on another blog, Crooked Timber with a great discussion of the article in the comments among multiple academics.
Among those participating was Jacob Levy of Volokh fame, who had spoken to Brooks while he was researching the NYTimes piece and Levy wrote that he had "tried to make the “No, really, c’mon it’s not like that” case, but (as happens in 725-word op-eds) not much of my conversation with Brooks made it into the piece…"
So there you have it. I don't think you can argue that blogs are replacing big journalism -- after all, the jumping-off point for all of this was The New York Times. But in a few short minutes, I got to explore the issue far, far, beyond what the Times had to offer, I got to hear what academia had to say on the subject -- DIRECTLY, without being filtered through a reporter .... and I even discovered what had been said to the NY Times writer that hadn't gotten into the piece!!
For a while now, one of the jewels of the blogosphere has been The Unbroken Glass . Written by a woman who identifies herself only as "She," we have heard unvarnished tales of dates, many disasterous, as this Orthodox Jewish gal searched for true love, and she welcomed contributions from those who wanted to commiserate.
Well, not only did she find her man, but the whole story could be followed on the blog. Almost a year ago, she wrote about how this guy who she dubbed "Peter Pan" stole her heart, and then smashed it into a million pieces.
While he liked our gal just fine, the man had big-time fear of commitment, which is how he earned his nickname.
He now seems to have gotten over his little problem. The last post on the blog announces such in a dramatic fashion...
September 16, 2003
And they all lived happily ever after...
Hi.You don't know me.
You may think you do, but you don't. In particular, you think you know me as Peter Pan.
This is not important.
What is important is that this evening, at about 9.30pm, I asked She to marry me.
She said yes.
That is all.
Posted by pp
No one knows if she's going to post the details of their renewed romance, or if she's getting all discreet now that she's got her man. But one may assume that she's not going to be interested enough in the singles scene to keep her blog up. Maybe she'll hand it over to another single woman....
Kelley justifiably takes to task some moron researchers who are trying to claim that morning sickness (AKA all-day sickness) is all in our heads. Yeah, right. That kind of ridiculousness makes me want to...you know.
UPDATE: For yet more prenatal gross-out description, Dawn reminds me why two pregnancies were enough for me.
Judith is on a roll. I agree with her here, (on ethnicity) and here as well. (on feminism, inspired by a stupid comment on an excellent post on Kate's blog.)
You know I kept silent during the recent Judith vs. Dean dust-up, but I must say -- all of the name-calling aside -- that I come down firmly on Judith's side when it comes to the issues.
I've enjoyed reading Dean's blog in the past, but I just don't relate at all to viewpoints like this one.
I and most of my friends describe ourselves as feminists, and I simply don't view us as being "shrill, angry, self-righteous and selfish."
He goes on: "You know the type I mean: those who are unable to concede any possibility that men have ever gotten the short end of the stick in any important matter. Those who act as if stay-at-home moms are freaks and traitors. Or who treat women who (gasp!) like being called "Mrs." instead of "Ms." as if they're submissive boobs."
Considering that many of my feminist friends ARE stay-at-home moms at present, I don't know what he thinks he's talking about.
Anyway, speaking of Kate, don't miss her contribution to Michele's 9/11 memorial. Great memoir writing. She's going to shame me into finally writing down my own memories of September 11.
Marduk is in mourning. It sounds very sudden and sad.
Alisa has officially "crossed over" from being a U.S.-based blogger to an Israeli-based blogger. I'm looking forward to meeting her in real life as soon as she gets unpacked.
Ha, ha, I finally met Imshin in person and managed to fool her into thinking that I was not a deranged serial killer or axe murderer.
She's so gullible. Just wait until I arrange our next meeting in a dark alley.
Seriously, though, all of you Imshin fans out there should know that she is just as lovely in person as on her blog. She looks younger than I expected -- though I knew we were about the same age, somehow because her kids are older and because she often sounds so damn WISE I thought she'd look older than me. But she doesn't.
It's funny how the first time you meet a person you know intimately from the Internet it is so completely weird, but after you do it for the third or fourth time, it feels almost normal. I've had practice: I joined a mailing list for pregnant women due in September 1996 when I was pregnant with my first child. Seven years later, the list is still going strong and I've met many of the women on it over the years, including the two women who seduced me into a life of blogging, MB and Liz. This was the first time I'd invited a blogger to my home, however, and I did tidy up more than usual, worried that she'd blog to the world that I was a slob.
Though, who knows, perhaps evil does lurk beneath Imshin's virtuous exterior. She implied as much in her post by linking to this picture.
That's OK -- I went to college with uberproducer Joss Whedon, so I know exactly who to call in order to fend off her dark side.
Diana has many fine insights here on blogging and the blogoverse.
I disagree with her on the rewards of getting published vs. blogging, though. Maybe the journalists at the top of the food chain feel like they are "influential." The rank and file certainly don't, as I can attest.
As someone who has worked as a journalist for many years, I can tell you that I didn't feel more influential than I am when I am when I'm blogging. Getting paid is nice, though.
While I was on vacation, I lurked around the late summer blog fights, primarily Electric Venom vs. Da Goddess and Dean Esmay vs. Meryl and Judith.
I didn't write about them because I don't have a lot to say about them, other than the fact that it is interesting to see what the hot-button issues are that cause bloggers who agree on many many subjects part company and then even get nasty.
Who needs pop psychology books when you can read Dean Esmay and Venomous Kate pondering the male-female conundrum for free?
I had to re-read their conversation to figure out what exactly they were trying to say, but I think I get it now.
Once again, she says what I think. Why do I even bother blogging? She can do it for me.
The Hasidic Rebel has taken down comments. I hope its temporary, his comments were a fascinating read.
And I'm happy to see that I've been "Yourish-ed." Although she only thinks my chick flick list is "okay." Damning with faint praise?
And what does Laurence have against Practical Magic?
Michael Totten is off of Blogspot and I really like his reasons for supporting Arnold Schwartznegger's candidacy.
And last, but definitely not least, hearty congratulations to Judith on her Kesher Talk Blogoversary. A must-read blog: really a great job. I respect Judith's discretion, and wouldn't want to get her in trouble, but I would pay money to know what her day job is. If it's not in the Jewish world, then it's a huge waste of a mind and writing talent....
Michele got married last year on her 40th birthday. How cool is that? Since I've only been blogging for six months, when I read when her anniversary was coming up, I went back and peeked in her archives. And yes, my question was answered. She DID blog on her wedding day.
I like this post about her kids getting older. Funny, how we're around the same age, and yet I'm so far behind her as far as children are concerned. I'm busy freaking out about my oldest child starting first grade and she's mourning the end of her youngest leaving elementary school this year.
It's interesting how those of us who were so bound and determined to spend our 20's free of family obligations and fully focused on me, myself, and I, and obsessed with our freedom, now have the tables turned on us.
As we hit our 40's, those who had their kids young now have older, more self-sufficient offspring and hence, more freedom. Their kids are busy with their lives -- and while their parents worry, they are pretty liberated -- and we late spawners can't make a move without a babysitter.
It's strange for me to think that if I'd had kids in my 20's instead of my 30's, that I would be parenting teenagers right now.
At first, the list-making on Right Wing News was a cute link-generating gimmick -- polling bloggers as to the greatest movies, figures in American history, sports heroes.
And the controversies resulting -- such as complaints about scarcity of women on the lists were harmless and sparked some interesting discussion.
But this last one either reflects total cluelessness and insensitivity, or it is a blatant play to stir up trouble and controversy. (If it's the second, then I'm playing into its hands I suppose.)
Here's the premise:
Out of all the gangsters, serial killers, mass murders, incompetent & crooked politicians, spies, traitors, and ultra left-wing kooks in all of American history -- have you ever wondered who the worst of the worst were? Well, we here at RWN wondered about that too and that's why we decided to email more than a hundred bloggers to get their opinions & 39 replied.
And the resulting lists -- the poll list and his own -- freely mixes people who have committed horrible murders with those whose great crime is expressing opinions or taking actions with which he disagrees strongly. You can hate Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson and Noam Chomsky all you want, but do they truly deserve to be on a list with Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh and John Wilkes Booth? I don't believe that even the most committed conservative -- if they are a thinking and mature adult -- would think so.
UPDATE: I must be right, because Dean and Michele both agree with me.
