Click to view

Thank you to Mary Robinette Kowal and Yes, You're A Racist who led me to the video.

So the novel is long, full of intrigue, action, and lots of characters, almost none female. The few that are female arrive late and play stereotypical roles. And then, I'm almost three quarters of the way through when the young, likeable protagonist has a conversation with an older, likeable mentor. They are talking about the protagonist's love ( Read more... )

I spoke to so many people over the phone, last week.

At the end of one of my first conversations, a man told me no one had ever bothered to ask him what he thought about same-sex marriage. “I’ll need to have a long talk with my wife at the kitchen table tonight.” He thanked me as we said goodbye.

That conversation kept me going as the week wore on. ( Read more... )

This week my daughter and I are volunteering at Minnesotans United for All Families in Minneapolis, to work against an amendment to the Minnesota constitution that would ban gay marriage. It has been an exhausting but extremely rewarding experience.

Why, you may ask, would someone from Connecticut, someone from a state where gay marriage is legal, ( Read more... )

I was baking today and listening to They Might Be Giants. Now I have this song stuck in my head.

Charles M. Blow, the New York Times visual Op-Ed columnist, wrote an excellent column today about Americans' perceptions of masculinity, and the corrosive effect it can have on individuals.

[M]asculinity is wide enough and deep enough for all [men] to fit in it. But society in general, and male culture in particular, is constantly working to ( Read more... )

This is very moving.

Click to view

Via Scott McCloud.

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

It's one of the great ironies of the web that when someone says, "Shut up and listen," it generates over 220 comments (and counting).