Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco, who probably make something, but I'm too tired to remember what. Gods take me, but insomnia sucks giant rocks.
Leave comments here that describe an act of teaspooning you encountered or committed. They don't have to be big, world-shaking acts; by definition, a teaspoon is a small thing, but enough of them together can empty the ocean.
If you would like to discuss the teaspoons here reported, or even offer congratulations or your admiration to a fellow Shaker, we ask that you do so over here in the Discussion Thread for today's NQDTR.
Shaker bgk has been kind enough to get a Twitter-pated version out there for you young twittersnappers (and by the way, get off my lawn, you meddling kids! *shakes cane*). You can find the details about the Tweetspoons project right here. That runs all the time, as far as I'm aware (*grumblenewtechnologygrumble*), and we encourage you to let other people know that there's at least one tweetstream talking about just going out and doing good things for the human species.
Teaspoons up, let's hear 'em, Shakers!
ô,ôP
The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report – M100315
NQDTR Discussion Thread – M100315
Hiya, Shakers, time for another Discussion Thread for the Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report!
This is the thread in which you may offer congratulations or admiration for a teaspoon or teaspooner. If you're posting with just congrats or admiration, though, do take a moment and check the thread to see whether other people have said so a number of times already. Remember that no one is required to read here just because they posted over there, so there's no guarantee you'll get a response to a given comment.
News from Shakes Manor
As Iain was preparing his immigration paperwork last week, he showed me his old British passport, which had a picture taken of him when he was 18.
"Whaddaya fink about THAT?" he asked me, one eyebrow jauntily raised.
I replied: "I think you're never gonna give me up, never gonna let me down, never gonna run around, or desert me. Never gonna make me cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt me."
He laughed.
"No seriously," I said. "Did you just Rickroll me with your passport?"
Healthcare Open Thread
The Hill—House Democrats release bill for Budget markup Monday: "House Democrats on Sunday night set into motion what they hope will be the final steps on healthcare reform. The House Budget Committee on Sunday evening released text that will serve as the base legislation for the changes the House will seek to the Senate bill this week."
Washington Post—Democratic leaders say health bill will pass: "Democratic leaders scrambled Sunday to pull together enough support in the House for a make-or-break decision on health-care reform later this week, expressing optimism that a package will soon be signed into law by President Obama despite a lack of firm votes for passage. ... Democratic leaders are struggling to assemble support amid opposition to the Senate legislation from conservative Democrats, who object to abortion-related language in the bill, and from liberals, who are disappointed about the lack of a public insurance option and other measures."
New York Times Editors—More Than Onerous:
After a year of national debate, a handful of House Democrats who oppose abortion may be the ones to decide whether health care reform goes forward or not.Discuss.
We strongly support a woman’s right to choose and are disturbed by the restrictions in both the House and Senate bills on a woman’s ability to buy insurance that covers abortions. But the opportunity to provide coverage for 30 million of the uninsured — and more security for all Americans — is too important to miss.
We are puzzled and dismayed that these legislators are willing to waste that opportunity because they say the onerous anti-abortion provisions in the Senate’s bill are still not onerous enough.
How did a small group get so much power? The answer has to do with the peculiarities of the legislative process and the fact that not a single Republican — for conviction or politics — is willing to vote for reform.
...Abortion is a legal and medically valid procedure that should be covered by insurance — without government interference. Legislators who support abortion rights are the only ones who have given ground in the interests of passing health care reform. Anti-abortion Democrats need to show similar statesmanship and accept the Senate's restrictive provisions. They owe it to all Americans.
A long long time ago...
...I can still remember when.
When I was 15, I ended up one time at a youth conference, or rather a youth adjunct to a conference, in Toronto where I lived. And while there I made many friends, as one will do then, often fleeting friendships, promises of writing never or only briefly fulfilled, and on with one's life.
At this conference, though, I made a friend who made a huge difference, though I wasn't to know it then. There was a dance, and this was 1981, so it was all skinny ties and a lot of hats. So many of us had hats. I had a grey vintage fedora I rather liked and wore often, she had a big black pork-pie. I was thought of as a boy then, by pretty much everyone, including her, and eventually we got to what young people do when they're left alone in a room full of pheromones. But not that weekend. That weekend was one of those magic ones you read about - and indeed you are - the ones where you meet one of those people who will change your life, and in some way you know it, but maybe not up-top. Down deep in the lizardy brainy bits.
We stayed up all night talking, and then again. This, mind, was in the days long before the Intertoobz and its wonders, when it was a long-distance call from my home in the suburbs of Scarborough to her place in Mississauga, at the far end of town. Neither of us could afford a car, or even to visit as much as we'd like.
But we carried on a relationship, and we wrote letters, and took pictures and held them til they faded from creases and greasy fingers and teen tears. It sounds positively Jurassic, really, but it was good. We fell in love. Probably my first true love, past the puppy infatuations, I fell, we fell, hard.
Her mother was cool. They were German immigrants, as we were English immigrants, so we had some commonality there. We went to see Culture Club in concert, we were both big fans, and we scored some weed, and got stoned. Her mother was at the concert, she made sure we got home alright safe enough. Another time we got hold of way too much alcohol for commonsense, and over the course of an evening, ended up crashing parties all over Mississauga in a night I'm sure was mined for the movie 200 Cigarettes. We got home, and in the morning, when I came downstairs horridly hungover, there was her mother, in her underwear, to make me mint tea, and laugh at me when I threw up all over the kitchen. She was a nurse - she didn't much care about the mess, she'd sure seen worse, and told me she never had to tell kids not to drink - anyone with sense could get that message from the first time they overdid it, the question was would I listen to the message?
She was beautiful and bright, her smile lit me - she catches my breath just thinking about it now - and she enjoyed being with me. I'd lucked into what was more or less the ideal partner. And life being what it was, and me the fool that at heart I am, in a moment of infatuated madness, I broke up with her, some many months later, by sending a note to a party I'd been supposed to attend.
Time went by, and we got back in touch, and she wasn't awful to me as I deserved, and we kept in touch some - phone calls now and then, I'd go and visit her family around Christmas, that sort of thing. When I finished undergrad, though, I moved away (to here, actually), and we lost touch.
I've regretted that for many years, and for a long time, I've said if there was one person I could ever find again - if there were someone I'd hire a detective to help me find - I've done searches from time to time online, but their last name is quite common in Germany, and she's a bit of a hippy anyway.
About six months ago, I got a message on my Facebook - which is under a pseudonym, because I don't really want people from my past to find me randomly or easily. It hasn't, as you may imagine, been a basket of happy-smelling roses to have transitioned nearly twenty years ago. I'm not complaining - my life is good, in general, and I couldn't be happier with my choice. But it hasn't always been easy, and a certain degree of distance from my old name and life is important to me (and if I need to say it, this can be different for every transition, so don't judge all trans folk by my example!).
I got this message, and it was from her elder brother. He said they'd been looking for me just as hard as I'd looked the other way, but never managed to find one another til then. And as we talked, he gave me her number.
I've hung on to that number until today, because I wasn't sure whether I was ready to call...to face the possibility that another cherished person from my old life would be unhappy to find me changed. That the old me was what they loved, and not what I knew to be inside. And, well, regular readers won't be surprised to know depression played its part.
Today I finally sucked it up. I called. We talked for two hours, catching up. She never once used my old name. She's a bit of a hippy, I said: she's got no e-mail address right now, as she pointed out. So I'll be writing letters again, as so long ago.
Her brothers both have children, and she does, and I have my stepkids whom I love as my own, as ever. I made her laugh: "Could you ever have imagined, when we were 15, that we'd be sitting here at 43 talking about how I'd become a grandmother before you?"
"No," and she laughed loud and long. "Cait, honey, I didn't think either of us'd see thirty, let alone forty-three and grandmothers."
We've made some plans to meet, when we can suss the details. And we're both pleased, and we both said "I love you" before we hung up.
That's all. No big lessons. Maybe, "Don't lose track of the people who really love you, because that's rarer than you'll think."
But it has a happy ending. :)
Open Thread
Hosted by a Flying Saucer.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by the genius of Ray Harryhausen.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Citizen Iain: The Movie
Background...
[Or at DailyMotion here.]
[Fade into photo of the seal of the Unites States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. Edit. Video of Iain walking into the courtroom and being shown where to sit; he looks for Liss and then grins and waves. Edit.]
Judge: This will be a day to remember for everyone here. A naturalization ceremony is an important event in the life of the country, and this community, as well as in the life of a new citizen.
[Edit.]
DHS Officer: Your Honor, may it please the court: My name is Frank [Inaudible]; I am an immigration services officer with the Chicago District Office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is my privilege today to present before the court 46 applicants for United States citizenship from 21 different countries. [Edit.] Your Honor, I respectfully move that this court confer United States citizenship on each of these applicants for naturalization, upon their taking of the oath of allegiance, as is required by law.
Judge: Thank you, Mr. [Inaudible]. Your motion will be granted. [Edit.] And in just a little bit, you will become Americans—citizens of the United States of America. [Edit.] This country, the United States, is made up of people from every place on the globe. Not just people who were born here, citizens by birth, but people like you—citizens by choice, who bring to this country the gift of variety, the gift of the richness of backgrounds, many things that were good about the culture, the arts, the [inaudible], the religions of the countries from which they came. By bringing these gifts, they created, they helped create, the beautiful mosaic that is America today. [Edit.] But those people who came to our shores brought more than that to make America great, because the people who come to America to become citizens are not ordinary people. They are not timid, or fearful. They are among the bravest and most positive-thinking people on earth. [Edit.] What an act of courage that is. What a statement of hope that is. What a demonstration of determination that is. America is a much greater country because every month, new citizens bring us more courage, more hope, more determination than we had before.
[Edit. Iain is seen, along with other people, from behind, raising their right hands.]
Group of applicants, in unison: I will swear to defend…the Constitution and laws…of the United States of America…against all enemies foreign and domestic…
[Edit. Everyone in the room is standing while the Star Spangled Banner plays.]
Judge: —to those of us who are already citizens before we came into this room this morning, because we leave this room today as citizens of a nation with more hope, more courage, more determination than when we started. So congratulations not just to our new citizens, and congratulations to you, but congratulations to all of us. Thank you. [Applause; edit. Picture of Iain with judge.]
Citizen Iain
On March 15, 2001, Iain and I met online, totally by chance, because of an Oscar Wilde quote. Today, nine years later, almost to the day, and after quite the journey in between, Iain became a United States citizen.
At 9:00am, we walked into the Unites States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, and one naturalization ceremony, one last mountain of paperwork, and several hours later, we walked back out onto the sidewalk, and I turned to Iain and said, "You can totes get arrested now!" And he laughed and high-fived me.
Iain was one of 46 people from 21 different countries who became citizens today. It was a beautifully diverse group; I spoke with people from Asia, Africa, and South America. Before the ceremony started, as friends and family waited in the courtroom while the applicants trickled in slowly after being processed, a white man behind me remarked, "Some of these people don't even look like foreigners!" I laughed into my sleeve.
The judge gave a lovely speech (parts of which are excerpted in the video here), reminding all of us observing that we had something to celebrate, too—because our country is better today than it was yesterday for all the brave and determined and hopeful people who have chosen to make this place their home.
He encouraged the new citizens to vote, to write to their congresspersons, to run for office themselves—and noted that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm are naturalized citizens.
I felt very patriotic. And very much in love with Citizen Iain.
Congratulations, Citizen.
Iain and I both also want to say thank-you, from the bottom of our hearts, to a group of current and former contributors and Shakers who made donations to a Citizenship Fund, to help pay the cost of Iain's citizenship application. Our most profound thanks to Deeky, Misty, Mustang Bobby, Portly, Space Cowboy, Petulant, Oddjob, Chet Scoville, Jeff Fecke, and Litbrit, all of whom were in our thoughts today.
More Discrimination Against Johnny Weir
Via Towleroad, we learn that
Johnny Weir has been "deemed too gay for [a] 'Stars on Ice Tour' Invitation":
Sponsors of the 'Stars on Ice Tour' are refusing to invite Olympian and three-time National Champion figure skater Johnny Weir to perform because he's not "family friendly" enough.
Read: Too gay.
Towleroad links to a report from GLAAD. The GLAAD blog post links a petition to include Weir in the Stars On Ice Tour.
Previous posts about Weir: Johnny Weir Responds to Gender-Conformity Police; Important Announcement
Friday Blogaround
This Blogaround is brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Kraken Krispies cereal. RELEASE THE KRAKEN with new Kraken Krispies!
(Comes with a Ray Harryhausen action figure in every box--only while supplies last!)
Recommended reading:
MissPrism: Compare and Contrast
Scott Bryan Wilson: Mass-market paperback postmodernism (via Scott Esposito)
Elif Batuman will be reading from her new book The Possessed, at McNally Jackson Books in New York City on Monday, March 15. She will also be at Brookline Booksmith in Boston on the 17th. I have not yet read The Possessed, though I have read a couple of the essays collected therein. The first essay in the book, "Babel in California", originally appeared in N+1 magazine back when I used to buy N+1. The piece is poignant, hilarious, and just generally astounding. You can read an interview about the book with Alexandra Alter at The Wall Street Journal online. Batuman's "The murder of Leo Tolstoy: A forensic investigation" appeared in Harper's in February 2009. You can even read it for free!
The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin: See the inside of some of [David Foster] Wallace's books (via Oxford University Press USA blog)
[Trigger Warning] Historiann: The Line: a film by Nancy Schwartzman (This post has an excellent comments thread)
National Patient Advocate Foundation: Patient Advocate Foundation Launches National Underinsured Resource Directory
Two from Sociological Images: The Walmart Barbie Scandal and Welcome, Women, To Your Special Section
Making Latex Clothing: How to make latex ruffles (via Petulant)
The Runaways
The Runaways tells the tale of Joan Jett and Cherie Currie as they rise to stardom, and "chronicles Joan and Cherie's tumultuous relationship on and off stage," whatever that means.
The film stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, Stella Maeve as Sandy West, Scout Taylor-Compton as Lita Ford and Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley.
Based on Cherie Currie's book Neon Angel. In theaters March 19th.
[Cross-posted.]
Woman Attacked After Rejecting Man At Bar
[Trigger Warning.]
I don't have anything insightful to say about this story out of New York, so I'll just open it up to discussion.
A stranger followed a woman into a New York City bar restroom after she rejected his advances early Thursday, savagely beat her in a toilet stall and perhaps tried to sexually assault her, police said.The assailant was captured on video after the attack. Police have released the footage. Here's to hoping justice finds him, and his victim makes a full recovery.
The attack occurred around 2 a.m. at Social, a three-story bar and lounge on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan where the 29-year-old victim, a nurse, had gone with a friend, authorities said.
The woman told police that she had rebuffed attempts by the man to dance with her, said police spokesman Paul Browne. When she went to the women's restroom on the second floor, he followed her and burst into a stall.
The man beat the victim until she was unconscious. Her friend later found her in the stall and called 911, believing she might have fallen.
The woman was hospitalized with a broken eye socket, broken jaw and other injuries. When she regained consciousness, she told hospital workers she had been attacked.
Blog Note
I've got some personal stuff to do this morning, so I won't be around until later today. Happy Friday!
Question of the Day
The logical follow-up to last night's QotD: What's the best TV series of all time?
If you don't already know my answer to this question, you really haven't been paying attention, lol.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!!!11!1!!eleventy!!
[From the 4.16.09 open thread.
