sundries

We're back from the shore and I'm back at my desk and very, very busy since we leave for Chicago on Wednesday night.

I received a very unclear bill from the hospital re: my kidney stone for about $85. If this is the only bill (still waiting for the ambulance thing to sort out), I will be very grateful, but since there are no details on it, I can't tell what's up.

Prop 8-related matters could wind up in front of the Supreme Court as early as this week. The very idea of equal marriage rights being so alarming as to cause the Prop 8 proponents to seek an emergency stay makes me queasy.

Judith Dunnington Peabody was from a world that, even now, still exists in New York City. She attended Miss Hewitt’s Classes (yes, yes, where I went so much later), the Ethel Walker School, and Bryn Mawr. She was a member of the Junior League (as I have also been, and that's a story for another time because it is unpleasant to tell). And "she 'was introduced to society,' ... at the Piping Rock Club, Locust Valley, N.Y., in 1947."

She was also did what was in 1985, unthinkable, volunteering to be a hands on care-giver to AIDS patients. Please read this Op-Ed, which is about her; her mother-in-law who was a part of the Civil Rights Movement; Prop 8; our confused, screwed up, scared nation; and Tony Kushner's Angels in America.

I've had a lot of cause lately to be all old, and cranky, and people were dying and you weren't here and you don't get it -- well, this might make it make some sense. And if you haven't read or seen Angels in America, you probably should.

Note, this piece does draw parallels between the Civil Rights Movement and issues related to civil rights for LGBT Americans. While these two struggles totally have things to say to each other, there are a lot of fundamental differences involved, and I think it's important to remember that to respect both African-American and LGBT history in the US.

SALGA was allowed into New York's India Day parade over the weekend. In recent years they've been banned and have protested the parade instead.

"Why girly jobs don't pay well" - I dunno? misogyny and "cute" headlines?

I said it on Twitter last night, but I still think it's clever as hell: True Blood is so over the top it's starting to feel like Baz Luhrmann does opera about vampires.

Speaking of Twitter: it's slightly weird when celebrities/creators I follow and had no idea knew each other start tweeting at each other about making social plans with each other. That is all. Actually, there's an extra weird side bonus in one of those recent incidents, but it's a long story that won't quite make sense yet. Twitter, in short, is so weird. But hey, as long as Russell Tovey keeps posting random pics of himself writing notes to Twitter while half naked, am I complaining? No I am not.

Hey, what's with this new Nikita show I keep seeing ads for? Is this another bad made-for-TV adaptation of the completely awesome film La Femme Nikita which is arguably, for what is essentially not a SF/F film at all, one of the most cyberpunk films ever made? Cranky cranky.

[TW fic] The Use of Bones (Jack; PG-13)

Title: The Use of Bones
Characters: Jack, Jack's family, Gwen, Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Written for writerinadrawer 4.09. I wrote this on a train two hours before the deadline. I like it a lot for a quickie, but egads, that was a scary plan-free sort of experience. I have made some corrections from the original posting of this. This story was largely inspired by this post about antibiotic availability in 1943 from jonquil.

( Sitting by sick beds is one of those things Jack gets used to as a child. )