Japanese women are developing new sicknesses after their husbands retire and start hanging around the house full time. The phenomenon RHS mostly afflicts women over 55 who have spent their lives in the traditional role of stay-at-home wives.
Comments especially welcome from middle aged women and those with retired husbands.
Ellen Goodman is usually pretty good at tying up loose ends in her arguments. But in this article about Harriet Miers, she is all over the place. Her peeve is the treatment of Miers as a woman by other women. And she has no good answers.
All of us would find it more satisfying to be plain John or Jane Does rather than hyphenated ones. But gender and group identity games are played by all sides and one side always cries foul. On whom is the onus to jettison the labels? The individual groups themselves or society as a whole? In these so called race/gender blind day and age, we continue to hear people say, "women professor", "Asian doctor", "Jewish lawyer" or "black athlete" without a hint of self consciousness. And all groups do it. In certain rare cases the mention of one’s gender or ethnicity does add value to the story. I would for example, very much like to hear about a " Black woman president of the US", an "Asian leading actor in a major Hollywood production" or a "Jewish sumo wrestler". But women in education, Asians and Jews in science, medicine and law or African Americans in sports are almost the rule rather than exceptions. Yet the unnecessary adjectives are routinely attached in our conversations. As long as this mind set prevails, women in contention for elected or nominated public offices will continue to be grilled about abortion, minorities about civil rights and white males about everything else.
The Houston Astros are headed to the World Series, having beaten the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 in the NLS. This will be the first time that a World Series game will be played in the Lone Star State. Downtown Houston is the venue for one big street party right now. The success of the celebrations will be measured by the number of arrests made.
I came across this story a couple of days ago. The writer mentions several reasons why people assign nicknames to themselves or to others – to describe a person in an aptly complimentary, derogatory of affectionate manner. But what is G.W. Bush’s proclivity for nicknames due to? The writer thinks that he is trying to shake off his image of a privileged member of the elite class and put the average Joe at ease. May be, in some cases. In others, I suspect he is trying to cut another more accomplished person down to size – the message being, "I am the president of the United States and no matter what your credentials are, I can call you what I like."
By the way, the other "unprintable moniker" for Karl Rove that the writer alludes to, is Turd Blossom. Boy George just refuses to grow up!
Why:
In early 2005, my daughter Sanjukta invited me to participate on Dissemination, a weblog created by her friends. I did so with some trepidation since I was unfamiliar with the electronic forum. Sharing my opinions freely with family, friends and perfect strangers on the other hand, is an old habit. Joining the discussions on Dissemination therefore came naturally to me although I had to temper my exuberance a bit because I was talking to a crowd, a majority of which was in my children’s age group. The authors and contributors were a particularly bright lot and the experience was quite interesting. But in the middle of 2005, for reasons yet unknown to me, Dissemination died a gradual and graceful death. That left my blogging fingers itchy because by then I had become quite accustomed to reading and writing comments there. Ethan Leib, one of the main forces behind Dissemination, started blogging on the legal site, Prawfs Blawg and I followed his progress there. I also discovered several other blogs devoted to politics and cultural issues which impressed and interested me. But lacking authorship, I could not express my opinions there without the filter of the judgement of others. I have sent materials which I thought were worthy of publication to Ethan and Brian Leiter who kindly published some of them. It became increasingly clear that if I wanted to say everything that was on my mind, I should get my own soapbox in the crowded halls of the blogosphere. The three people who encouraged me to do so are Sanjukta, Ethan and Menesh Patel. I am also indebted to David Grosz, another Disseminator, who conferred on me my first blog-authorship (which contributed largely to my addiction) and to Anna Levine who taught me how to link to URL’s within the text. But the biggest impetus to blogging arose from the unsettling state of the world that began with the 2000 US presidential election and continued with the string of natural and man-made disasters that have beset us since then.
What:
I had considered several names for my weblog. "Periodic Table" was on the top of my list. This elegantly simple and sophisticated catalogue of chemistry is logical, progressive and prescient. It also packs a lot of information and correlating data within an easy to understand and concise format about all the known elements in nature. My aspirations for the blog were similarly lofty. My son Aditya, a chemist and a realist, pared down my ambitions when I discussed the matter of nomenclature with him. He said that he did not like the name which to some readers, may sound a bit pretentious. Heeding the cautionary words, I decided to change it to something simpler, whose promise may not be so hard to live up to and because in any case, I know that my blog is likely to include a lot of mindless blather. So I have chosen a name more suitable for the cirumstances in which I came to be acquainted with the blogosphere.
How:
I cannot predict the fate of Accidental Blogger and the lasting power of my enthusiasm. Hopefully it will evolve with my ideas and the participation of its readers. I have some preliminary thoughts on what the character of the blog should be. It is to be an open forum for general discussions of matters which interest a lot of people – nothing too technical or esoteric. Some cerebral table talk of the sparkling variety. It will strive to be clever but not rude, humorous not obscene, sometimes solemn but rarely glum, often contentious and never rancorous. Except for an occasional political candidate or author, I don’t intend to promote, sell or endorse any product or person. Interesting news of a personal nature can be shared by readers and the author. I hope to harness the considerable talent pool among friends, family and perhaps erstwhile Disseminators to elevate the level of discussion. I am not looking for a large readership, only a regular one. Although I am the sole author on this blog, this forum is not about me. I want to tell my side of some stories and want to hear yours.
Accidental Blogger 