sundries

[rm]

I just want to say that relieving myself of the pressure of having to do sundries every day with the mix of articles and descriptions that makes everyone happy has been really good for me. That said, I'll still do some sometimes (see!) and I'm thinking of doing a "trash day" of links once a week on Letters from Titan. Win/win?

Also on LfT: longer post about the Patty travel thing. Meanwhile, am starting to fill in About and some of the other pages. Also, wow, I can see how people get to the blog. It is.... fascinating at times. Especially the Google searches.

fortysevenbteg nails something I plan to do research on the media coverage side of if the trend continues: large-scale animal kills are probably the shark attack of 2011.

gwyd blogged this great article on claiming butch identity. Tangentally I want to add: there's no one way to be a man, a lesbian, or even butch (as perhaps evidenced by the feedback when I auditioned to play Billy Tipton a few years ago).

D&J meeting on Monday. Novel meeting on Wednesday. People who will be playing along for DW/SJA/TW watching for my chapter research in NYC, expect a scheduling email this weekend. Other people I owe email/planning to: I'm getting there. I have a nasty work backlog that won't be fully cleared until Sunday night.

The return of Fraunces Tavern. Ten years ago, and this would have been our regular bar. But that was another life (one that seems to like trading quips with me on Twitter lately).

The Bearded Dandy of Brooklyn. Make sure you catch the slide show.

Since I recently mentioned Hadley Nagel here and on LfT, I'd be remiss if I didn't link to the WSJ's coverage of the International Debutante Ball.

Drama over a scholarly paper on ESP.

Restoring imaginative play.

Tomorrow: Barn Dance.

Getting it done: just renewed my NCIS and Broad Universe memberships. Yay me.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have an acute, acute aversion the whole Mr./Miss/Mrs./Ms. thing because I hate the idea that a term of respect is gendered / about marital status / can still seem political. I avoid designating one when I can, but I usually can't. I prefer people just use M. or, barring that, Ms. for me. I think Mx. is pure genius and very funny. I may have to pick that up myself.

As to the gender neutral pronouns people keep trying to add to English, I am a shooting-myself-in-the-foot purist, and I hate them all. I only use them when someone asks me to use them in reference to themselves.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

As to the gender neutral pronouns people keep trying to add to English, I am a shooting-myself-in-the-foot purist, and I hate them all. I only use them when someone asks me to use them in reference to themselves.

So much this.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I only use them when someone asks me to use them in reference to themselves.

This is actually precisely the reason I dislike them as a default; because some people do primarily identify this way. Awesome for them, but I don't, so when someone refers to me as hir/sie it feels like they're trying to assign me an identity that isn't mine. Whereas all they implies to me is the person in question doesn't happen to know my gender and isn't assuming, which is fine.

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I've gotten to accept singular they, because even though there's all this debate about whether it's grammatically correct or not (not being a linguist or a grammarian, I don't feel qualified to weigh in on that with an opinion), it has the advantage of using a word that's already in our language. I figure all languages evolve over time, and I see great need for a gender-neutral pronoun that isn't "it."

[moizissimo.livejournal.com]

Yes. This.

I have grown to love the singular they.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I must admit I really like Bond's rationale for 'v' as well. I could get behind that.