Speaking of murdering abortionists… We were, weren’t we? Victorian England was an interesting place. The sexuality and sexual politics were fascinatingly confusing. In the interests of saving my readers from a dissertation, here are the Cliff notes: A wave of Protestant prudery about all things sexual swept through England in the early 19th century (and [...]
Meet Johnny. Johnny is a normal boy being raised by well-intentioned, loving parents. Who, though, might be a bit odd. Johnny’s parents have taught him that, once a year on the summer solstice, a few little green men from a galaxy far, far away pop into his backyard for a few supplies. If he just [...]
Any frequent reader knows that I detest cleaning. Cleaning is a pointless activity. Entropy always wins; a room you clean today is just going to be cluttered tomorrow. Add to that the wasted hours that could be used to do something, well, useful, and it’s fair to say that I have given up housecleaning as [...]
The entrenched misogyny of the Church in the Middle Ages that we have witnessed (due to the fact that the people in charge: a. were celibate males who were terrified of women who might steal their chastity, and b. were celibate males who knew nothing about women) had a few concerns about midwives. You see, [...]
We’ve all been there: at a school or social function, with other moms and their kids. The moms are all jostling for position, reaching for the ever-ephemeral “perfect mother” title. Competitive parenting. The problem is, no one knows the RULES. It’s hard to win without goal posts. So I offer, free of charge, the very [...]
An article in Psychology Today this weekend was titled, “Why Parenting isn’t Fun.” The most interesting part: When 909 Texas women ranked how pleasurable daily tasks are, parenting was ranked sixteenth, after cooking, watching TV, exercising, shopping, and housework. Wow. We’d rather do housework than parent. Considering how much I hate housework… Hubby came through, noting [...]
Since time immemorial, it seems, women have been viewed as voracious sexual predators. It was taken as a given, since at least the time of Aristotle (who is said to have originated the idea but was probably just writing down the accepted wisdom of the time). Through Aristotle, it became known to the medieval Christian [...]
In some cultures, women simply pick up what they need for that day at the local market. No long term planning is required. This wonderful method requires that: a) one has a local market; and b) your kids don’t run out of food in a single day. In America, most of us are used to [...]
Probably. At least, not if he actually reads your blog. And mine does. You would think, after (nearly) 30 years of marriage, he’d know that pissing me off is a bad idea. It is, at the very least, always expensive. One of our most expensive rows was right after our second baby was born. I [...]
The 1880s were a great time to make a fortune in snake oil. The “patent medicine” business really took off at the end of the 19th century. Let’s face it–conventional medicine had not a whole lot to offer. Bleeding, mercurials, radical surgeries… Can you blame folks for checking out the competition? This is the age [...]
I was so duped. When I was in training, they convinced me that medicine was hard. That it took years of practice to be able to settle on a diagnosis from a presenting list of signs and symptoms. That the only way to get it right was to spend ages learning everything there was to [...]
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