This recipe was posted on a board I frequent and it's oh-so-delish. This is also an easy-yet-impressive dish that would be fabulous to have for company--or Thanksgiving!
Bavarian Apple Torte
1/2 cup butter 1/2 tsp vanilla 1/3 cup sugar 1 cup all purpose flour
--Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Blend in flour. Spread dough on bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan.
Shaker Jeff just emailed me: "Saw your [blog round-up] on CrooksandLiars, and followed the story link to the local paper article, and noticed something.... According to the story, the Creation Museum claims 250,000 visitors in the first five months... That would be 50,000 visitors a month....or an average daily visitor count of one thousand SIX HUNDRED SIXTY SIX!… THAT'S A '1' FOLLOWED BY '666'! Holy Jebus! The creation museum has attracted the MARK OF THE BEAST! Where's Bill Donahue when you need him?!"
Tigtog has the most amazing series of pictures of rescuing of a cicada with a stuck wing. The images are as beautiful as they are fascinating.
Also, I just love the idea of Tig and Co. languidly hanging out with a cicada, giving it a little help and documenting the experience. I think there are people who just intuitively get that experience, and people who never will. I'm naturally a cicada-helper, if you know what I mean; I like evidence of my kin.
Over at Big Fat Deal, they're discussing a Gawker thread about "curvy" women that I really, really don't recommend reading -- but I couldn't resist posting about one of Mo Pie's observations on it:
Marilyn Monroe’s name is dropped. Maybe there should be a Monroe’s corollary to Godwin’s Law.
Oh, lord, YES THERE SHOULD. As an online discussion about fat women grows longer, the probability of a mention of Marilyn Monroe's dress size approaches one.
Y'all. Seriously. I know Shapelings aren't likely to pull the "Marilyn Monroe wore a size 16" argument, but for the benefit of the whole entire internet, I need to say this: STOP IT.
Marilyn Monroe was not ever, ever fat -- or anything close to it -- let alone plus-sized. At times, she was slightly heavier than today's ingenues, but so are a lot of fifth-graders. As for the dress size, you can check out Snopes for the full treatment, or you can just digest these facts:
Sizing has changed. I usually wear a size 16 now. In the fifties, I probably would have worn a 20 or 22, minimum.
The "Marilyn Monroe wore a size 16" myth might also come from a dress of hers being auctioned as a contemporary British size 16, which is roughly a U.S. 12. And that was only an estimate.
She was 5'5 1/2", and the highest recorded weight for her is 140 lbs. The highest recorded waist size is 23 inches. Even if those numbers were fudged (and they might very well have been), she would have had to weigh nearly 20 pounds more than her highest recorded weight to have the same BMI as this woman.
Once again, I am a contemporary U.S. size 16 (more or less). I'm 5'2" and 185 lbs., and I have a 34-inch waist. I do not look like Marilyn Monroe.
Even if Marilyn Monroe at one time owned a dress with a size 16 label in it? She was, for most of her adult life, clearly not a fifties size 16, let alone a contemporary one. How do I know this? I HAVE EYES.
I tried to represent a range of different sizes there since, like most women, Marilyn wasn't exactly the same size throughout her short life. In a couple of those photos, yeah, sure, she would be considered "Hollywood fat." But, setting aside the fact that "Hollywood fat" is FUCKING INSANE, the more interesting point is that she doesn't necessarily look too fat to get work today in all of them. That last photo, and the Seven Year Itch one? Are, like, Scarlett Johansson/Catherine Zeta-Jones/Salma Hayek-style "curvy" (which is to say, "not emaciated"). She's not even America Ferrera "fat," for fuck's sake. And speaking of which, if you Photoshopped the shit out of the pink bathing suit shot -- which is exactly what would happen if she were a contemporary starlet? She'd be ready for the cover of FHM.
The other three were the "fattest" pictures I could find of her on Google. And the woman in those photos is not going to be opening a Lane Bryant charge account any time soon, I'll tell you what.
I have no idea why the "Marilyn Monroe was a size 16!" myth has gained so much goddamned traction, but it needs to stop. Because it only reinforces a more damaging myth, that fat people are too stupid to realize we're fat. That somehow, our eyes and brains and mirrors don't work the same as thin people's, so we delusionally believe we're not fat -- we're just the same as Marilyn Monroe! -- which is the only possible explanation for why we still are fat. 'Cause if we knew, we'd have stopped it already, right? We'd have put down the tray of donuts and taken up running, which everyone knows are the keys to making any fat person thin.
Marilyn Monroe was a beautiful, curvaceous woman. But she was not remotely fat. And she was certainly not ever a contemporary size 16.
All of the fat women I know are well aware of those facts. It would be awesome if the internet stopped acting like we aren't.
The female condom, which never really caught on in its original incarnation, has been redesigned in the hope that it will be more appealing to women.
I've never even noticed female condoms for sale, or I would have tried them just out of curiosity. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for the revamped version.
Has anyone ever used a female condom? Did you like it? Not like it?
McCain compares himself to Reagan; declares we're winning in Iraq; preemptively blames defeatists for the losing we're not doing; introduces press corps to his pet unicorn Stinky:
Sen. John McCain told supporters in South Carolina on Monday that if elected president he would lead America out of its "tough times" in the same way President Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s.
…McCain declared — as he does at most campaign stops — that "we are winning" in Iraq. He invoked Reagan's trademark optimism and said he would refuse to let the war efforts in Iraq succumb to domestic discontent, as was the case with the war in Vietnam. … "We lost it not because of our courage and bravery on the battlefield. It was because they won the war in the United States."
…Our best days are ahead of us," he said. "America is the greatest nation in the world. I am asking for your support in order to lead it."
McCain then introduced his pet unicorn—which appeared to be invisible, likely nonexistent—and gave him a warm hug.
Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.
Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.
President Ahmadinejad, questioned by students in New York two months ago about the executions, dodged the issue by suggesting that there were no gays in his country.
[...]
A series of reported executions of gays, including two underage boys whose public hanging was posted on the internet, has alarmed human rights campaigners.
The Pet Shop Boys dedicated Fundamental, their Grammy-nominated album, to Mahmoud Asqari and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged in Justice Square in Mashhad in 2005. Graphic photographs of the execution of the youths, who were under 18 when arrested, were released by the Iranian Students News Agency.
[...]
Minutes taken by an official describe a meeting between British and Iranian MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a peace body, in May. When the Britons raised the hangings of Asqari and Marhouni, the leader of the Iranian delegation, Mr Yahyavi, a member of his parliament’s energy committee, was unflinching. He “explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted”, the record states. “He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.”
Once again religion rears its ugly head. I've heard several prominent Christianists make the same suggestion, so it doesn't matter if you're a Jesus-freak or Islamofascist: killing queers in the name of God is acceptable to some of these nutballs.
It makes you wonder if the chicken hawks will use this as another reason to rattle the saber to go to war in Iran; after all, they'd be saving the queers, and that goes against their nature to to anything that might be considered gay-friendly.
The former North Carolina senator on Tuesday will propose spending $2 billion a year to help states create family leave programs that offer workers at least eight weeks of paid time off to care for a newborn or ill family member.
…Edwards also would set a national goal of eight weeks of paid leave for all by 2014.
"Only 8 percent of American workers have access to paid family leave," he said in remarks prepared for delivery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. "The vast majority of countries in the world offer paid leave — it is long past the time that America made sure that paid leave is there for every worker."
…Edwards also would require all businesses to offer their workers a minimum of seven paid sick days a year.
My god, it's been a long damn time since there were proposals for programs to help Americans in profound ways. What a breath of fresh air.
Recently, NASA published audio recordings collected by a space probe as it explored the Saturnian system, and, as Wired notes, the "eerie, whistling, epic whooshing and warbling echoes collected by the probe's instruments sound as though they could have been lifted directly from '50s sci-fi classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Forbidden Planet."
This story is one of the most awful things I've read in awhile. Really, read the whole thing. If you've got kids online ... if you've ever left a comment in haste that you regretted ... if you've ever felt cyber-bullied or been a bully yourself ... just read it.
We did this one before, but it's been over a year and it was trés fun the first time around, so here we go again: With no requirement to give it, of course, should you prefer to remain anonymous, do you like your first name? Do you use a name other than the one you were given? If you were forced to pick a new name for yourself, what would you choose?
I like Melissa. It suits me well enough, and I like its meaning—it's Greek for honey bee. I've never gone by anything else, except shortened versions of Melissa, usually Lissa or Liss, and never Missy.
If I had to choose a new name, I'd probably be really boring and pick something that was close to Melissa, like Miranda, because I like the rhythm of my name and the alliteration: Melissa McEwan. It feels like a good name for me.
U.S. President George W. Bush (C) watches the color guard march past during the Fallen Soldiers Memorial ceremony at the American Legion Post 121 in Waco, Texas November 11, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)
"I have experienced a few situations where a little cold, calculated retaliation seemed appropriate. For instance, I once purposefully puked on some homophobic boys on a boat. This probably wasn't the healthiest approach, but I considered it a political tactic more than a revenge per se, and it was certainly effective! Even in that situation, I'd still say the question—to puke, or not to puke?—was up for debate, but it did give me an instant feeling of relief, and I can't say I've ever regretted it."—Beth Ditto, on revenge.
Conveniently overlooking the reasons they have to not endorse him, the National Right to Life Committee has decided to endorse Fred Thompson in the GOP primary. And why not—given that he's now endorsing overturning Roe, making it his "goal" and "priority."
Asked about his record of having previously lobbied on behalf of a pro-choice group, Thompson replied:
Women are sleeping in the bush, risking exposure, malaria, and other life-threatening ailments, because "They still loot but if they can't find us they can't rape us."
So, like the broken record I am, I keep saying boring stuff about how sexist/homophobic jokes and rape jokes and disembodied boob gags and women-as-toilet gags are the most effective means of conveying the rules of the patriarchy, because such "humor" reinforces those rules while also bonding the men who perpetuate them, and necessarily marginalizes the men and women who don't find such "humor" amusing. And you've probably noticed that there are some otherwise good, generally egalitarian guys who wouldn't for a moment defend:
Men are superior to women.
…but will spend hours of their time and hundreds of comments duking it out over their finding funny jokes that express precisely the same idea, while maintaining they're not sexists. It's a rather dizzying hypocrisy for onlookers, the belligerent unwillingness of some otherwise progressive men to let go of their pussy and fag jokes—but of course the jokesters don't see it that way, since they routinely insist they "aren't convinced" there's any connection between sexist humor and institutionalized sexism.
Jokes about female drivers and dumb blondes may be told in good fun, but they can promote discrimination against women, researchers say.
Why, I never would have guessed.
Psychologist Thomas Ford of Western Carolina University and several of his graduate students conducted two experiments to test how sexist jokes affected the attitudes of male participants toward women.
In the first experiment, the participants were asked to imagine they were members of a work group in an organization. They then either read sexist jokes, comparable non-humorous sexist statements or neutral (non-sexist) jokes. They were then asked to say how much money they would be willing to donate to help a women's organization.
"We found that men with a high level of sexism were less likely to donate to the women’s organization after reading sexist jokes, but not after reading either sexist statements or neutral jokes," Ford said.
In other words, sexist jokes make sexist men more operationally biased against women. Or: Every time you make a sexist joke, Dick Cheney shoots women in the face.
In the second experiment, men were shown video clips of sexist or non-sexist comedy skits and were then asked to participate in a project designed to determine how funding cuts should be allocated amongst select student organizations.
"We found that, upon exposure to sexist humor, men higher in sexism discriminated against women by allocating larger funding cuts to a women’s organization than they did to other organizations," Ford said.
"We also found that, in the presence of sexist humor, participants believed the other participants would approve of the funding cuts to women’s organizations," he said. "We believe this shows that humorous disparagement creates the perception of a shared standard of tolerance of discrimination that may guide behavior when people believe others feel the same way."
Gee, and if there were a strongincentive to appear to find that sort of "humorous" discrimination funny, that could really be troublesome for women!
This is one of the best parodies I've seen on YouTube—and the joke is carried through brilliantly in the video description: "Unearthed for the first time in 43 years and lovingly restored at Maxischermo Studios Milan, this rare theatrical trailer for the 1964 Italian classic 'Italian Spiderman' is a real treat. Featuring Franco Franchetti of 'Mondo Sexo' fame in his last ever role before being killed in a spear fishing accident in 1965. Director, Gianfranco Gatti, reminisces on 'Italian Spiderman'; 'I have made some mistakes in my life...bad, bad mistakes'."
Burke, known for his habit of pissing in the Corn Flakes of others, has threatened to excommunicate the women for being ordained into the priesthood of an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. He's also threatened to take his ball and go home in regards to any local interfaith events that would include members of Central Reform Congregation (where the ordination took place).
But my favorite part of this story is that Burke plans to excommunicate the women priests for "causing a schism". Jesus, I just adore those two words! Schism and Excommunicate. For some reason they make a bitch think of pea green vomit and spinning heads (wink).
But how exactly does the ordination of two women into a Womenpriesthood not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church through a ceremony performed in a Synagogue cause a schism within the Roman Catholic faith? I mean honestly, if the sex abuse scandals didn’t schis the faithful out...well, ummm...cough.
Anyhoo, I don't recall a rash of excommunications when those scandals hit the fan.
Fuck it, a bitch sees a greeting card opportunity in all of this drama.
Congratulations on your schism causing ordination!
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Holy Jebus! The creation museum has attracted the MARK OF THE BEAST! Where's Bill Donahue when you need him?!"
