weekend miscellany: honk! festival

13 Tuesday Oct 2009

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Hanna’s parents were in town Sunday (bringing Lionel to stay) and we T-ed out to Porter Square to check out a yarn shop that Hanna’s mom wanted to visit. When we stepped off the T in Porter Square, we walked right into the midst of the Honk! Festival parade. Bostonist has a gallery of photos if you’re interested in seeing some of the great costumes. It was a beautiful day and all the participants looked like they were having lots of fun.

Hanna and I are both recovering from very bad colds (maybe the dreaded H1N1?!) that had us at half-mast — and sometimes much less — for the better part of two weeks . . . so no more substantial posts for the minute. Watch for a report at the Beehive blog over the next couple of days from a brown-bag talk I attended last week, and next week I should have pictures and notes from our weekend in Burlington, attending the New England Historical Association’s fall conference at the University of Vermont. Until then, it’s back to the catch-up “to do” list . . .

from the neighborhood: demonic scooter

05 Monday Oct 2009

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There’s a playground around the corner from our apartment that Hanna and I walk through quite frequently on our daily commute. Therein resides a child’s plastic scooter. We never see any of the numerous children who play in the park actually on the scooter, but whenever we pass by it is in a slightly different location, always looking slightly forelorn. Hanna thinks it’s mostly likely possessed.

links: i’m 100% of the problem edition

02 Friday Oct 2009

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My blog feeder has been overwhelming of late (I walk away for three hours of class and return to find it brimming with 100s of stories!) so this doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a highly subjective collection of stuff I’ve read, remembered to flag for later, and feel moved to pass on.

Hanna’s started blogging again at …fly over me, evil angel… and may soon be blogging for a UK-based project on eBooks (stay tuned for more).

Phyllis Schlafly recently claimed that gay people are responsible for 5% of what’s wrong with America, and feminists responsible for 95%. I asked Hanna if this makes means I can claim to be 100% evil? She says yes.

In the UK, a university administrator has (justifiably!) caused a kerfluffle by suggesting that male university lecturers should enjoy lusting after female students (yes, just the women) as one of the ‘perks’ of their job.

It might just be because I’m in the middle of a project on collective memory and the 19th Amendment, but I find the recurring theme of far right pundits suggesting women shouldn’t have the right to vote bizarre and slightly alarming.

Conservative Christians in America apparently think Jesus wouldn’t want socialized medicine. Except when it’s socialized medicine for them. As my friend Rachel commented, “Nothing makes me more crazy than Christians against HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR. OH MY GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE DID THEY EVER READ THE BIBLE.”

And in other disheartening religious news: the Vatican thinks “but other people do it too” is an excuse for sexual abuse (and once again equates abusive sexual behavior with sexual orientation). Way to be totally immature, guys.

While we’re on the subject of immaturity, reading Playboy will make boys gay (bad? good?). Or, the threat of becoming gay will make boys stop reading Playboy (good? bad?). Or something. Greta Christina explains.

After all of that, please enjoy . . .

Cute kittens: nolan, raven, and minerva.

Cute Boston: here, here, and here.

One of the best anti-censorship letters from a librarian I’ve ever read (via Hanna via Stephen Fry on twitter)

Oh, and the Scotsman definitely has this month’s great headline: Ben Nevis marred by blight of bananas.

Enjoy your weekend, folks! . . . I tried to take a picture of the possessed scooter that lives in the playground near my apartment this morning, but my camera was out of batteries. I promise to be better-prepared next time. More soon!

more vintage video fun: "a date with your family"

29 Tuesday Sep 2009

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Brought to you from mst3k, another educational short (about 10 minutes) demonstrating the proper attitude towards, and behavior at, nightly dinner with one’s family.

My favorite sequence:

Narrator: “First of all, Daughter has changed from school clothes to something more festive.

I know I certainly put on my Sunday best before Hanna and I sit down to supper. Also, it’s creepy that all the characters are referred to by their generic member-of-the-family label, not actual names.

“Dressing a little makes her feel — and consequently look — more charming.”

because it’s all about performance, girls! remember that!

“Mother too changes from her daytime clothes. The women of this family seem to feel that they owe it to the men of the family to look relaxed, rested, and attractive at dinner time.”

In the words of Mike & Co: “So they’re unsuspecting when they kill them!”

aside from the fact it’s about women performing for men, I love the way the emphasis is on appearance: it’s important to “look” relaxed, rested, and attractive . . . never mind that Mother and Daughter are the ones preparing and serving the entire meal!

The whole film, in fact, emphasized the performance of an ideal 1950s family, with the suppression of unpleasant news and discord in favor of harmony and surface-level conversation. The narrator’s script keeps emphasizing this point, as if he’s just begging for us to wonder what evils are lurking in the shadows, unspoken.

. . . “Everyone wants to flee this seething cauldron of angst!”

brown bear comes to stay

28 Monday Sep 2009

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Yesterday, Hanna and I rented a zipcar and drove up to Freeport, Maine, to the L.L. Bean flagship store to purchase winter boots, long underwear, and a few other items to keep us toasty warm this winter. While we were there, Hanna found this little brown bear, made from recycled plastic bottles, who informed her he was tired of hanging around the store and wanted to come home with us. And so she bought him for me.


Here he is, sitting on the bed with Evangeline (the bunny rabbit) and Sebastian (the elder bear). They are getting him acquainted with the ways of our household. He has not yet been forthcoming on the matter of his name; if any of you feel inspired, feel free to chime in via comments!