The latest Rolling Stone has an offensive retrospective on Madonna. Although Madonna’s iconic look is always the subject of dispute, lately, the media has treated her like a clown. The only explanation is that she’s over 50. Fifty year old women, they say, shouldn’t prance around on a stage and spread their legs. It’s unbecoming. Rolling Stone frequently participates in this mistreatment even though they’ve helped turn Madonna into an icon.  Many of their pictures deliberately show her in an unflattering light. In this retrospective, they do put a handful of pictures of her in her 50s, but they fill the pages with the youthful,Read More →

There are an amazing amount of student speeches on YouTube. There are not many examples for public speaking students to watch for class, though. I’m looking specifically for examples that don’t have that polished, produced look common to publishers’ supplementary materials. Unfortunately, most of examples seem to be videos of students delivering their speeches to their sofas. Clearly, this is the product of online public speaking classes, something I have mixed feelings about. Ever since I taught an Intro to Women’s Studies class through distance learning about fifteen years ago, I’ve been wary of online teaching. An MSN Money article talks about whether or notRead More →

In my first days of recovery, the hole poem helped me as a meaningful metaphor for rearranging how I wanted to move through the world. I had a conversation with the kid last night about the difference between being a victim and a survivor. I hadn’t had that conversation in a long time. It provided a nice opportunity to take stock of changes. Today, I drift between chapters three, four, and five. There are some holes that are habits, and very hard to change. Sometimes, negotiating the holes on the street has become easier, and for the most part I do take a different street.Read More →

The last three musicians I listened to: 1. Lucinda Williams 2. Neko Case 3. Indigo Girls Last three websites I bookmarked: 1. PBS documentary – Through Deaf Eyes 2. Pie Maven – Pie Idioms (I was looking for the origin of finger in every pie) 3. Retailers Turn Away from Baby Boomers Last three purchases I made: 1. AAA batteries for my .mp3 recorder for school lectures 2. Pecan pralines (bad!) 3. Bottled water Last three things that made me laugh: 1.  27b/6 — Author’s son on school: “I don’t understand why I have to go to school at all, the internet knows more thanRead More →