Who I am…
I am a lawyer, former mother of teenagers, and a quixotic seeker after and champion of factual truth.
I make the best damn brownies you have ever had that are not regulated by the federal government.
I love movies, Broadway, and intelligent conversation.
I think in song lyrics and movie and television quotes.
I believe in the use of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar even in text messages. I am willing to debate the use of the Oxford comma, if you know what the Oxford comma is. It also makes me very happy if people use the subjunctive mood when appropriate.
I have been told I intimidate people. I am really just a fluffy-centered teddy bear. Really.
- It's all my fault. No, really. The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and in no way whatsoever represent the views of anyone else, including any past, present, or future employer.
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Words to live by ….
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.
“Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living.” Mary Harris (“Mother Jones”).
“Don’t boo. Vote.” Barack Obama.
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Reinhold Niebuhr.
“No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.” Sir Terry Pratchett.
“Damning facts are still facts.” Steven C. Holtzman.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re tested, they’re not values — they’re hobbies.” Jon Stewart.
“Darkness never sustains, even though it sometimes seems it will.” Doctor Who.
“Writing is a form of mischief.” Stephen Sondheim.
“An idea is not responsible for the people who believe it.” Don Marquis.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell.
“Truth is our strongest ally, our biggest weapon, and our best defense.” Me.
“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Stephen Colbert.
“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” Jonathan Larson.
“We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.
We rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love;
Cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda.“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Emma Goldman.
“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett.
“I believe that the God who made (among other things) light, and space, and number, and time, and the spiral curve of Fibonacci numbers, must be acknowledged to understand more than I do about why there’s pain in the world.” Teresa Neilsen Hayden.
“No, it’s not fair. You’re in the wrong universe for fair.” John Scalzi.
“Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.” Lawrence O’Donnell
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.” Molly Ivins.
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Author Archives: Pat Greene
Speaking of the Internet…
Comment by The Not So Little Drummer Boy about Buzzfeed: “They have the most ridiculous lists — things like “The top ten episodes of Seinfeld as seen from the perspective of Stanley Kubrick.” Um, that’s not actually a list.” I … Continue reading
Still here. Still writing, although not here. (Playing around with Scrivener, hoping to increase my productivity.) Struggling with depression and isolation. Coming to terms with the imminent (as in the next year) of two, possibly all three, of my sons. … Continue reading
R.I.P. Marius — you gave us a lot to think about.
By now you, and most of the connected world, have heard the story of Marius the giraffe killed by the Copenhagen zoo. He was a healthy, surplus teenager, as far as the giraffe world goes. And, as hard as it … Continue reading
I have previously written about lolmythesis.com. I have noticed people starting to add the title of their thesis under their statement of what the thesis is about. The often discord between the two makes them even more amusing. Examples: Imagine … Continue reading
I’m still alive.
I have not been writing frequently, my desires to the contrary notwithstanding. There has not been a lot going on in my life, although there has been too much going on in the world at large. As I wrote earlier, … Continue reading
First world problem.
I am done with Angry Birds. I don’t like the game well enough to pay for it, so I play the free version. I don’t mind the ads; it’s a free game, after all. I understand that Rovio has to … Continue reading
Because we’re us
My younger two sons are having what can only be described as moderately heated discussion about the historical timing of the rise of secularism in Renaissance and Baroque art. They are both right about some things but I refuse to … Continue reading
Embracing the power of “and”
MIT releases its admission decisions on March 14, at 1:59 am. (Just to state the obvious, that would be at 3.14, 1:59.) I can’t decide whether this is endearing or annoyingly smug.
Thoughts about that last post.
1. The title was obnoxious and condescending. Sorry, I was cranky. 2. I was wrong about the financial issues surrounding GMOs: as Sarah Huffman points out, Trader Joe’s does not carry GMO products and they have been in my experience … Continue reading
Logic and nuance are good things.
About the GMO/labeling debates: 1. Organisms that are genetically modified are not all genetically modified the same way. Soybeans genetically modified to be Roundup-resistant are not the same thing at all as golden rice that has been genetically modified to … Continue reading
I am not adventurous. But tonight I am in the audience for an NPR show I have never heard of, Ask Me Another. It sounds like fun, but what sold me? Jonathon Coulton heads the house band, and Adam Savage … Continue reading
Well, that was… educational.
My latest adventure in temporary political outreach has ended. I am no longer employed as a Certified Educator for Covered California. The operative word is “employed.” Once an educator, always an educator: within the past 48 hours I have had … Continue reading
Incompetence hurts.
FML. It turns out that, although I thought I had set my email program to archive emails letters I did not delete, I hadn’t. We changed providers and poof! fifteen years of email gone. I have been trying to recover … Continue reading
Something crappy has happened. In the big scheme of things it matters to no one but me. The fact that I have nothing to blame but my own serious incompetence makes the heartbreak worse. I am not writing more right … Continue reading
It turns out, I am not that good a judge of people.
I am sitting at my breakfast table drinking from my favorite coffee cup. It is an attractive large white mug with a deep blue interior. It holds twice as much as a regular mug, which means I do not have … Continue reading
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