AND ANOTHER THING: Even when economic needs are taken out of the mix, the question is a lot more complex than “should I work full time outside the home, or should I be a full-time homemaker?” There are all kinds of funky options–part-time work, working from the home, etc. And, as Lisa Powell points out in an aside, this isn’t just a question mothers face; fathers too need to consider their work/career choices in light of their families’ needs. Anyway,... Read more

MAILBAG: Working mothers, and exceptional people. Y’all are in bold, I’m in plain text. For once, both readers get the last word! (Mostly.) From Lisa Powell: Just wanted to add my four cents to the many emails I’m sure you’ll get on this subject. The subject of working vs. stay-at-home mothering is a bag of snakes you may wish to close as quickly as possible, but your comments that some mothers enjoy their work and therefore they are doing no... Read more

SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE: Two ongoing disputes/discussions here in blogland. First, Unqualified Offerings has a lot of interesting stuff about science fiction in general, with passing mentions of its libertarian undercurrents. Second, Pigs & Fishes responds to Charles Murtaugh‘s claim that “the Crucial Flaw of all Science Fiction [is]: there are no children, and no parents.” I haven’t read widely enough to pitch in on this one, but I am interested if Murtaugh posts more on this subject, since the... Read more

Such a little watch A gentle tone of kindness Or written words on paper — can you blog? (for Zorak) AgendaBender: “I would take the fire.” Plus, since they ask nicely: There is no way I will inflict my through-6/1/03 reading lists on you all, but here’s the fall list: The Death and Life of Great American Cities (almost done); The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror (done); Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini; Deconstruction in a Nutshell (this one’s for... Read more

SPAM: THE MYSTERY MEAT!: OK, this one’s actually kind of funny. Kind of “The Spam Witch Project”–the effectiveness comes from what is not shown… I am disposed to write to you in my personal capacity with respect to a business proposal, which revolves around my office. Though we have not met before neither have we talked on any mutual business as the case may be. Suffice it to say that I decided to initiate this correspondence on grounds that should... Read more

POETRY WEDNESDAY: Computer haiku… A file that big? It might be very useful. But now it is gone. First snow, then silence. This thousand dollar screen dies so beautifully. The Web site you seek cannot be located but endless others exist A crash reduces your expensive computer to a simple stone. Hal, open the file Hal, open the damn file, Hal open the, please Hal Yesterday it worked Today it is not working Windows is like that. Read more

“Plants are the most cunning of all life forms!” –Bernard Kates, “Seedpeople” Read more

A PROBLEM WITH “STIGMA”: So a while back, Rich Lowry and Maggie Gallagher (and then Lowry again; his original piece isn’t online) had a dispute about whether mothers who work outside the home should be “stigmatized.” You can go read their pieces; I thought Gallagher clearly had the best of it, but then, I’m biased. Point One is that hello, working outside the home is not a misdeed! In many circumstances, it is best for the children that the mother... Read more

DEEP THOUGHTS! I ran across something last night–a hilarious list of Deep Thoughts, sent to me by The Rat. Here are some that really summarize some aspects of my world…. I wish I would have a real tragic love affair and get so bummed out that I’d just quit my job and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking about doing that anyway. What is it about a beautiful sunny afternoon, with the birds singing and... Read more

“The novel insists on the existence of the part by exhaustively demonstrating the inability of any whole to contain it completely. A creek may have a mean depth of only six inches, yet still contain isolated holes that are, say, ten feet deep. The novel always tells the story of that man who drowned in a stream with a mean depth of six inches.” –Michael Holquist, “The Gaps in Christology,” Dostoyevsky and the Novel I think there’s a lot of... Read more