This Week in Its Briefs - Granny Pants Edition
1. An Iranian-American student at the University of North Carolina attempted to avenge wrongs on his fellow Muslims around the world by running over as many of his classmates as possible in a Jeep Cherokee. That might have made sense had he rented a tank at Enterprise, as I find my imagination stretched to envision Muslims being crushed right & left by Cherokees. As newsworthy escapades by college students go, we'll have to rate this one a poofty 2. I've seen more inventive bongs, for Christ's sake.
2. South Dakota - hey, the Repressive Era called and it wants its hateful laws toward women and their right to a legal and safe abortion back. (Meanwhile, poor beleagured South Dakotans of common sense heave yet another weary sigh and wonder why no one actually goes to their state willingly.) Way to go there and ignore the last 30 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence by leaving no outlet even for cases of rape and incest.
While we're at it, Missouri could use "Separation of Church & State 101" leaflets strewn from bi-planes, as the state legislature is pondering a bill that would make Christianity the "majority" religion, denying any protections to minority religions, and ensure the majority's, I don't know, right to be the majority? If they're the majority, don't they hold the power anyway? Who knew the majority needed a law to feel secure? I feel sullied and misled by what I've been taught about the genuine meaning of the word majority. I'm sorry Midwest, I know you house many intelligent progressive folks who have no truck with these pathetic initiatives, but you should all be feeling a bit embarassed right about now. (Hey, I have Midwestern roots and I'm appalled.)
3. I missed watching the Academy Awards on Sunday - but really, did I miss that much? And, since I looked it up, Best Picture winner Crash was based on a book by J.G. Ballard, which I read while in college and really can't recommend.
4. Speaking of books, I'm re-reading Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. It was chilling when I originally read it (it was first published in 1986, I believe), but never more so than now. This novel I can certainly recommend.
5. We have an armchair I absolutely hate, yet its handiness can't be denied. It's mostly a clothing depot extraordinaire, and every time I'm tempted to chuck the thing out the window, I do wonder what we'll do with all the clothes that are now draped upon it. They'll have to find a new perch, as they won't find their way to the closet on their own, will they?
6. The Cupcake has been quiet recently, but he did suggest today that the crinkled parchment sheets layered between pages in a set of his absurdly expensive leather photo albums could be ironed. I actually volunteered for that, as I like ironing, but he quickly backpedaled after my eyes lit up at the thought of office ironing and I mentioned what a wonderful episode it would make in my memoirs. (I can't make this stuff up. I know it boggles the ordinary mind, but seriously, Can't.Make.Up.Cupcake.Antics.)
posted by Miliana at 7:14 PM
3 Comments:
Interesting that you mention "A Handmaid's Tale," particularly at this point in time when Neanderthal and paternalistic fanaticism is trying to regress us to the 15th Century. It should be more chilling now, because unless more sensible and strong people begin to fight back, it could be your life.
For a novel just as chilling and just as critical now with all the genetic modifications of our food sources becoming ever more dangerous (particularly corn, and corn, often as corn fructose, is found is some things that would surprise you), I recommend "Sheep Look Up" by John Brunner which has recently be re-issued. If Brunner's environmental disaster fantasy of 30 years ago doesn't ring a couple bells of reality about today, you weren't paying attention.
I'll certainly look up the Brunner book.
And yes, A Handmaid's Tale, on a re-reading, is astonishingly apt and spine-tingling. I remember being stunned when I initially read it.
By the way, I have in my "to read" stash the book by Morris Berman you recommended to me ages ago - Twilight of American Culture. He's also got a new one on the way to be published in April - it's on my wish list at Amazon.
But Stoic, if you'd read between the lines, the only reason I jumped at the chance to iron the Cupcake's photo album was to write about it afterwards...
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