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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Contact info:
Email me at wwf@lithic.net
Category Archives: Kids in all their glory
Watching the crazies.
The Not-So-Little Drummer Boy was a cool kid who grew up into a neat adult. He has moved out of New York and now teaches English to kindergartners, which he enjoys, and he has a girlfriend who I have not … Continue reading
You know you’re getting old when 1) your coworkers have to explain what a “Jager bomb”* is and 2) when you get home your children lecture you about how dangerous it is mix alcohol and stimulants. *Red Bull and Jagermeister. … Continue reading
Poor Parenting.
This morning the family and I went to Starbucks. I was not looking my best: the events of the past few days had caught up with me. My hair was not neat, and at the best of times I am … Continue reading
Writing. And the college admissions process (actually unrelated)
I am doing a lot of my writing offline. There is a problem in using Starbucks Wi-Fi, and not just with security: depending upon the Starbucks and the time of day, the network can be horribly slow. I was in … Continue reading
Hello, Kitty is not historically accurate. Who knew.
I love driving my kids crazy, sometimes. For those of you are unfamiliar with the concept, LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) involves running around the woods (or the local park, depending upon your access to a car), usually waving fake … Continue reading
That’s my boy.
I talked to The Red-Headed Menace’s English teacher this evening. She showed me the first paper he turned in this fall, based on Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise. The paper’s title? “Dilemma Me from Evil.” Ah, yes. We … Continue reading
I’m a good mother.
[I wrote this yesterday, but had no Internet.] I am sitting in Woodward Park in Fresno, California. At this point, I have been here a little under an hour and a half. I got up at 3:45, and left the … Continue reading
On my youngest son’s Facebook: On today’s SAT: my blood. Guess who had a nosebleed during the fifth section? Guess who had to say to their proctor “NO I’M FINISHING THIS SECTION, YES I CAN CONTINUE” with three minutes left … Continue reading
What am I going to do with the boy?
I am working my way through the works H.P. Lovecraft. (As I said in a comment to the previous post, I don’t deny my soul might need saving. : ) ) This led to me discovering this afternoon that when … Continue reading
I went to a Straight No Chaser concert last Saturday. A trip on to iTunes to pick up some of their music (no, I didn’t buy all their CDs at the concert — just Under the Influence, the latest) also … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, kid.
Today is Railfan’s nineteenth birthday. It has been a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether for him to get to where he is today. He has weathered struggles in school, teachers who didn’t understand — or care … Continue reading
The best gift I’ve ever given.
The Red-Headed Menace listed “dihydrogen monoxide” on his wish list for Christmas. So I gave him a full liter of the stuff. He loved it.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
Today is the Not-So-Little Drummer Boy’s birthday. For the first time I will not be able to celebrate in person with him. I so wish this were different. The NSLDB was born at seven minutes past midnight, November 20, 1990. … Continue reading
*rimshot*
Yesterday, The Red-Headed Menace said that in his AP American History class they were watching “The Civil War.” He has recently watched “Jazz,” and I just got through watching “The National Parks.” When I suggested that this evening we watch … Continue reading
That’s what I get for signing him up for that philosophy class at the community college last summer.
According to The Red-Headed Menace, “hipsterism is the bastard child of transcendentalism and existentialism.”* *He made sort of a cogent argument for this position, but I was too bemused by the fact that he was trying to determine the philosophical … Continue reading
I struggle with my kids getting older. Partly it is a sense of my own aging, and my changing and uncertain role both in their lives and in the world at large. It can be hard coming to terms with … Continue reading
Railfan graduated this evening. Both of us are in shock. I just want to take this opportunity to say how very proud I am of him. Love you, kid.
More Conversation…
Echidna Boy: So, Mom, what do you think the weaknesses of the Census databases are? Me: a) I don’t know, and b) if I did, I certainly would not tell you. In the subsequent conversation, I learned, among other enlightening … Continue reading
Perspective
Tonight, Echidna Boy and I were playing (what else?) MarioKart. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll choose the exact same Kart as you, so we’ll be identical.” “Oh, so you can say ‘we were exactly alike and I still pwned you?’,” … Continue reading
Note to kid
Dear Echidna Boy: You learned a valuable lesson tonight, to wit: it is extremely inadvisable to take a picture of a young woman playing Twister when she has her butt up in the air. She is likely to react badly. … Continue reading
