Look, even in these tough economics times we can still find the time to be contemptuous of women and their frivolous pursuits
Culture
The milieu through which we swim
I never thought I’d say this
but in some ways we Aussies are fortunate in our public opiners, despite the regularly boggling bloviations of Bolt, Blair, Devine, Albrechtsen et al: at least
Sunday Gardening: Strawberry flowers, rockmelons, butternuts, and native shrubs
An update on our vegetable garden.
The citrus are coming along very nicely, and the pineapple gauva trees seem to have put down their feet. We ended up with a total harvest of around 35 kg of tomatoes before mowing the summer-fried vines under. As well as eating mountains of insalata caprese and fresh salsas and tomato sandwiches, and giving bags of tomatoes away, we’ve frozen large batches for adding to spaghetti sauces and curries, and have jars of tomato relish/chutney stocking the pantry.
Otterday! And Open Thread.
The otter of the week comes from Idahobill2008 on flickr, who has a whole series of great shots of otters and other wildlife.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires.
Friday Hoyden: Yoko Ono
When Tigtog and Lauredhel asked me to introduce Yoko Ono as a Friday Hoyden, I was thrilled. I’m an avid reader of Hoyden About Town, and if anyone deserves hoyden status, I’ve always thought that it should certainly be Yoko.
I was asked to write the introduction because of my recent five-part blog series that analyzed Yoko Ono as cultural phenomenon from a feminist perspective.
Essure-thetics: “What mark will you leave? None.”
Anyone remember “What Cheeses Me Off” on Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday?
No?
Hrm. Nevermind. (This homophobic crapola was about the usual level of it. Largely linked here for the spunky 80s fashion choices of Daryl Somers.)
Anyhow. What cheeses me off today is this advertising for the Essure tubal occlusion system, an alternative to laparoscopic tubal ligation for female sterilisation.
It’s not “sex”, it’s rape.
And today’s doucheplonker of FAIL award goes to… this Sydney Morning Herald reporter, who managed to write this entire article without once mentioning the word “rape” or “assault”. Instead, she repeatedly labelled these violent gang rapes “sex”.
Thursday Cheezburger
more animals
Runner-up: I’m Melting!
That Ms. Cover
As no doubt the editors hoped, this cover for Ms. Magazine’s Special Inaugural Issue has generated a lot of controversy. Many feminists feel that Obama’s feminist credentials are not nearly as strong as they could be, while the cover has generated an escalation in panic-mongering and shrill we-told-you-so’s from the religious right plus a great deal more snark about Obamessianic visions and rainbow unicorns from the neocon right.
Australia Day: “Speak English!”
It’s Australia Day again, so I’m recycling my favourite anecdote from a few years ago.
We had decided to spend a warm Australia Day picnicking on the shores of Lake Monger with friends. Plenty of other people had decided the same thing, and it was a convivial atmosphere. The black swans were noodling around in the background, there plenty of kids playing on the grass, families were chatting with each other
Hoyden About Town 