Author Archives

Unknown's avatar

writer, singer, webwrangler, blogger, comedy tragic | about.me/vivsmythe

  • Friday Furry and Linkfest

    By on • ( 4 )

    A moose gives some cats a winter surprise in Alaska: Image credit: photograph by LizMarie Links harvested from my feedreader this week:

  • Marry, Shag or Chuck off a Cliff: Regency drama edition

    By on • ( 16 )

    I’m stuck in a costume drama mood: largely as escapism from the rest of what I’m reading about, I expect. Who else is up for some escapism? Fitzwilliam Darcy, Horatio Hornblower, Richard Sharpe: what do you do? Elizabeth Bennet, Elinor… Read More ›

  • Ah, that immutable primate heritage

    By on • ( 3 )

    Richie at Crimitism takes on the latest piece of simian research (rhesus monkeys this time) which is being spun as proving something about innate gender tendencies. He details the various ways in which the spin fails to take certain results… Read More ›

  • Prostitution: regulation, exploitation and death

    By on • ( 15 )

    prostitution is literally killing women, by murder more than any other cause, and a whole heap of people simply don’t care.

    No other industry with a comparable mortality rate is unregulated by the state, and in none of those industries would the workers be allowed to sign away their basic health and safety guarantees in order for more pay. Employers who try to coerce miners or firefighters to go into work without adequate safety measures are quite rightly prosecuted and socially condemned, yet the workplace death rate of those professions combined does not match just the homicide rate amongst prostitutes, let alone the death rate once drug overdoses are taken into account.

  • Carping Corner (Historical Drama Division): The Tudors

    By on • ( 17 )

    There are many things for a history nerd to greatly enjoy about the lush 2007 miniseries of The Tudors, the first season of which is currently showing on cable here in Oz…but now the carping must commence!

  • Hurrah for librarians

    By on • ( 4 )

    If you are restricting access to information, they will notice during the course of their normal duties, and they will let the world know, and then you will look like censoring buffoons. In February, in line with various other information-stifling… Read More ›

  • Too depressed to post

    By on • ( 13 )

    I did a lot of catching up on American feminist and political blogs today, and it’s looking more and more like the Democratic Party is allowing the factionalism between the Clinton and Obama camps to piss away electoral goodwill. Look… Read More ›

  • Misogyny hurting men

    By on • ( 9 )

    Here’s an example of misogyny hurting men — because the ultimate put-down of a man is to equate him to a woman. If we fight [for] the idea that being a woman is not something to be sneered at, we… Read More ›

  • Bloody hell

    By on • ( 4 )

    FIRST PRIZE! The first time I have ever won any prize in a school raffle. Of course it was an Easter fundraiser that didn’t announce the winner until a week after Easter. That’s somehow totally apt.

  • And now for another* edition of Name That Tom Lehrer Song

    By on • ( 23 )

    Sunday afternoon in Sydney Park. *OK, strictly speaking there has never been a previous edition of NTTLS. P.S. If you know it please just provide the initials to prolong the suspense for those who don’t.