I’ve recently heard of 9-year-old Martha Payne’s funny blog, NeverSeconds. Martha’s a Scottish schoolgirl and she’s on a campaign for better school lunches, and her blog, just two months old, has topped 1 million hits and has been featured in a number of publications (for example, here.) Martha didn’t happen on her foodie-activism by accident; she lives on a farm where her parents raise sheep and pigs for meat and grow their own vegetables. When my family and I lived... Read more
I highly recommend that you read my friend Ellen Painter Dollar’s recent post on disability and goodness. It’s called”Do I Hate My Life? No. But I Do Hate My Disability.” In the post, Ellen dismantles some of the cultural (and, specifically, Christian-cultural) myths about suffering generally and disabilities specifically. Sometimes I feel troubled by the way certain theologies–including ones I once held–try to insist that ‘whatever happens’ is good and God-intended and meant to be received with gratitude. This world... Read more
Pretty much as soon as I got back from Montana last week, I had to have pizza from my very favorite pizza place in the world, and this reminded me of a post I wrote when this blog was very new…about the pizzas I’ve tasted around the world and the pizza that I love best of all. Last year I moved back to my native land–the greater (i.e. downstate) NY area–after many, many years away. I’ve lived in Philadelphia, Chicago,... Read more
{here’s the beginning…} Recently, HuffPost blogger Lisa Turner offered five religiously inspired rules for eating: 1. Eat mindfully, being aware of the food and your body. 2. Eat for the purpose of nourishing your body; treat your body as a temple. 3. Eat only fresh, clean, light foods, avoiding foods that are processed or canned. 4. Eat only what you need, without overeating or binging on food. 5. Eat for the purpose of bettering yourself spiritually.As a set of rules... Read more
I first made this pie when my husband and I were newlyweds in California, the place where most of the strawberries in the US are grown. Tim grew up partly in California, and this is his favorite kind of pie, which partly explains why he cultivated over 500 strawberry plants in our yard last year. What’s surprising about strawberries is how hardy they really are. The berries themselves are delicate, but the plants are sturdy throughout all kinds of weeds... Read more
They call it the field de calzon — the field of panties —because so many rapes happen there. Last Wednesday, the organization Human Rights Watch released the report Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment. It’s filled with tales that would make Jeremiah, or Amos, or Micah weep: stories of some of the most marginalized, exploited, and impoverished people in the country. HRW talked to 160 farmworkers, growers, law enforcement officials, attorneys... Read more
Well, I finished the book (hope to show you what the cover might look like soon!) and I’m off on a surprise trip to Montana to visit my lovely sister-in-law and her family in Great Falls! {see you soon!} Read more
I’ve written about Amy Frykholm’s lovely new book before (here) and my latest post at the Christianity Today women’s blog explores it in more detail: “Christian mythology,” writes Frykholm, “teaches that Christian sex protects us from heartache”—that if a believer keeps good boundaries and abstains from bad behavior, he or she will never get hurt. While she, acknowledges that rules “can guide people onto solid ground,” Frykholm worries that rules have become almost “the only way that American Christians know... Read more
I’m reading Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History (yes, I know, you wish you had my job) and came across this interesting tidbit: Double-D breasts on skinny women are not all that common in nature. (Barbie’s proportions are naturally found in one out of one hundred thousand women, according to researchers from the University of South Australia; Ken’s bod, by contrasts, is found in one of fifty men.) So…you’re 2,000x more likely to see a real-life man who looks like... Read more
You know that looking at the search terms that land people on this blog are one of my little thrills, right? It’s almost a voyeuristic pleasure, as if I’m getting to see what it is that people are secretly searching for out there on the Internets. Here are 9 from the last 30 days, with my comments. “sweet christian girl” Sorry, definitely wrong blog for that. “cool tattoos for guys arm for a dead dad” I *think* that you’re aiming... Read more
Rachel Marie Stone
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