WHAT SHE SAID: “I SMOKE BECAUSE I’M HOPING FOR AN EARLY DEATH/AND I NEED TO CLING TO SOMETHING….” Out of all the songs on Meat Is Murder this is probably the one with the soundest political philosophy. It is anti-rationalist and it acknowledges that if someone does things you wouldn’t do, she probably doesn’t do them for the reasons you think she does. A surprisingly rare insight. In an extension of my previous post about evo-psych fear of praising gender,... Read more

SOME GIRLS ARE BIGGER THAN OTHERS: I guess what’s so weird to me is that evo-psych explanations expect that their readers prefer equality-first. They often act as if gender is the regrettable fallback; we wish we didn’t have gender, but oh gross, there it is. And I guess I want someone to stand up for Antony. I really want gender differences. I don’t know how art happens without gender. Read more

The best-ever death metal band out of Blogwatch… Real review of, seriously, maybe seven or eight Mountain Goats cds once I’ve finished listening to them. For now you get a blogwatch. “How to Become an Author, In Five Incredibly Difficult Steps.“ The usual Cracked.com disclaimer, but I loved #2 a lot, and the point about needing a huge amount of research in order to write fiction is also really good. #1 should be skipped unless you really, really want to... Read more

“THE TACO IS THE MOST VERSATILE FRUIT.” This series is so funny I actually started crying with laughter. Amazing. Rough language and, well, drunken cookery. Read more

EDGE OF FIFTEEN: On a recommendation from Kindertrauma, I watched the 1969 suspense flick I Start Counting–and found a melancholic, adolescent movie, all elbows and knees and awkward longing for what used to be and what is still to come. The basic story: In a small English town where the old houses are being torn down for redevelopment, a Catholic schoolgirl begins to suspect that her (adoptive? step-?) older brother, on whom she has a severe crush, is the local... Read more

DC VIGIL FOR VICTIMS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS. Organized by GW Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, it looks like; tomorrow, 6/17, 8 – 9 pm in Lafayette Park. Read more

“But in her memory, Jewishness was more a sense of a way of life and of community, rather than anything religious. Or maybe it was just the loss of memory. When people secularize, they don’t really remember.”–quoted in Doubly Chosen Read more

“Sasha [Gelich] had a hard time coming to faith. He was a Jew, a member of the Russian intelligentsia, and the whole idea confused him quite a lot. Zoya proselytized frequently to him, but he could not quite come into the Church. Once, I remember, he had been drinking. He was a great fan of drinking, a beautiful ‘drinking artist.’ Zoya said: ‘Svetik, show Sasha your cross.’ And I showed him the cross. The very next day he went to... Read more

IN THE FUTURE EVERYONE WILL BE A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES. Read more

IF WHISKEY WERE A WOMAN, HOW MUCH WOULD I OWE IN ALIMONY? Also last week, I saw Everything Must Go, now playing at the E Street Cinema and the AFI Silver theater. Will Ferrell gets fired for being an alcoholic mess, and comes home to find his wife gone, the locks changed, and all his possessions on the front lawn. He basically says, “Well to hell with it then,” and lives on the lawn, holding an ongoing yard sale to... Read more