Browsing all posts in March, 2010.

Peacocks R’ Us

When karma blessed this feminist idealist with four boys, I decided that my new goal was to raise four good men. Four guys who had the total package. Four good potential husbands. I have had some success. All four can at least feed themselves, and a couple are competent cooks. They can all do their [...]

Guaranteed Weight Loss Program

I have a new weight loss system. It works like a charm, and I’m willing to share it with my readers. For the low, low price of … Not convinced yet? You’ve heard all this before? Never works out quite the way you hoped (if at all)? Don’t worry. I’ll even let you try it, [...]

Whigs, Tories, Forceps and Crisis

Once the secret of the forceps was out, everybody could use them. But not everybody did. The older, established gentry among the man-midwives (medical degree or no) noted that there were occasional bad outcomes from the forceps–crushed skulls to the fetus, massive tearing to the mothers. The more conservative simply did not use them. William [...]

The Last Supper

Quick! What’s wrong with this picture?              How about this one? If you guessed that there’s bread on the table (during PASSOVER), you win. But that’s not the  answer that’s been running around the science news. A recent analysis of Last Supper paintings from the last millennium (who knew they have had the Last Supper [...]

A or F?

Last week, a fascinating study came out: Students taking an exam were given a test paper that had either an ‘A’ or an ‘F’ marked on the top of the paper (a control group had a non-significant letter at the top of the paper –like ‘J’). They were asked to copy this “exam code” onto [...]

The Family Business of the Forceps

Before the seventeenth century, when a baby wouldn’t come out, your choices were limited. Since antiquity, the preferred method of dealing with a stalled labor was podalic version. Most midwives, we think, could perform podalic version, in which the baby was turned from head-down to foot-down. This gave the deliverer something to grab onto. Various [...]

History is Written by the Victor (or the Idiots)

History is written by the victor. It’s a phenomenon that keeps historians on their toes, as they sift through ancient documents that often contain far more propaganda than truth. The history books would look very different, say, if Germany had won WWII. We’d probably be reading about how our hero cleansed the world of those [...]

Beatrice de Planissoles Tells it All

In the year of our Lord, 1320, Beatrice de Planissoles was called to confess before the Inquisition in Pamiers, in the Midi-Pyrenees department of France (that’s 1320 CE, for those of you who care about that stuff). Her crime was heresy. We don’t know for sure how the Inquisition knew that Beatrice was a heretic, [...]

Sensitive or Capable?

Years of pop psychology have convinced us that the goal of a parent is to raise a sensitive child. We want empathy, sympathy, caring. We are told that children who display these gifts are endearing, fun, interesting. And as long as their environment is totally stable, apparently, they do just great. But a new study [...]

Those Pieces of Paper Used to Mean Something

For those of you who don’t already know, I have a few degrees on my wall. Well, in a closet, since my office space is too full of bookshelves to find room for diplomas. But still. I mention this because, apparently, my children have forgotten this. I don’t mind so much with the Engineer, since [...]