letter to the editor

in response to the commercial appeal's solicitation for letters on the county's proposed non-discrimination ordinance (which would prevent the county & its contractors from discriminating against LGBTQ folks in employment and services):

Of course the Shelby County Commission should pass the Non-Discrimination Ordinance. Although sexual orientation and gender identity are not federally protected categories (yet), virtually every other American metropolitan area of Memphis' size has enacted similar municipal ordinances. Some might argue that sexual orientation and gender identity should not be protected because these are matters of "personal choice;" although I would dispute that claim, I'll remind those who buy into that argument that other matters of "choice," like religion and family status, have been protected by similar statutes for years. Hiring, retention, promotion, and access to county services should be determined by relevant factors. One's sexual orientation or gender identity could never count among these factors.

send your letter, along with your full name, address, and daytime & evening phone numbers, to hotbutton@commercialappeal.com by may 13. they've asked us to limit our responses to 4-5 lines.

finally, someone made sense of "opposite marriage!"

i'm like, at least a week late to the perez hilton/miss california debacle, but i'll make up for my tardiness with this awesome video (via douglitas). promise!

como hacer un bebe

a spanish couple made this charming little video!

"time is what turns kittens into cats"

salinger, my alpha and omega (cat), turns 8 today.


i grew up in a house with dogs; sal was my first cat. i got him just after i moved out at age 18, at least in part as a rebellion against my parents' preference for canines. my family was skeptical of him on the basis of species at first, but he won them over to such an extent that my sister and parents are now exclusively cat owners! sal's been with me through thick and thin; he's lived everywhere that i've lived in my adult life, with all the roommates, family members, and other animals. he's known by many as a fickle and whiny creature with an insatiable appetite for wet food, but he's known by me as the only cat i've had who will let me take him under my arm like a teddy bear for an afternoon nap.



apparently, 8 in cat years is 48 in human years, at least according to this informative chart. kinda weird that cat years aren't evenly distributed among human years. also, it's kinda weird that my other cat, mapache, will soon be the equivalent of 32 in human years in spite of the fact that she has the personality of a human four-year-old. it's totally believable that sal's nearly twice my age: even as a kitten, he had an "old soul." heh, a crotchety old soul.



happy birthday, sweet boy! um, 'cos i know you read my blog...

butter bean & greens soup

another sinus infection and another bout of chilly weather (well, it was chilly) has me thinking about soup. here's a recipe for a very hearty vegetarian soup my friend and fellow philosopher, cigdem, invented a few weeks ago. i'm going to make my own batch today.

1. in a large pot, boil salted water with red potatoes and carrots until both are mostly cooked
2. in a separate pan, sauté 1/2 to 1 white onion and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil
3. once onions start to become transparent, add greens (kale/collard/mustard/etc.) and sauté until wilted
4. if there's a lot of excess water in the potatoes/carrots mixture, drain a little off. the remaining water will become the base of the broth.
5. add the sauteed mixture to the potatoes/carrots.
6. add other vegetables of your choice to the pot (snap peas, can of tomatoes, zucchini, etc.). continue to gently boil on medium heat until these veggies are cooked.
7. add a 1-2 cans of butter beans and 1/2-1 cup of lemon or grapefruit juice. leave mixture on medium heat for an additional 4-5 minutes.

voilà! a hearty vegetarian soup that will allow you to put all of those fresh veggies in your fridge to use before you leave town for a long weekend!

never check your email again!

the miracle of google analytics: it's no longer necessary to check your gmail account because google can do it better than you can, anyway! they've just launched google autopilot, a service that will reply to all future email automatically based on its assessment of your email history.












now, if only google could write my nietzsche presentation before seminar this afternoon....

igoogle thememaker

finally, google has developed a (fairly) easy-to-use utility for creating your own igoogle themes! no xml required.

igoogle thememaker

a few tips for those of you considering making your own themes:

1. create an image that is 1200 x 175 pixels. do NOT bother with the crappy image editing interface that google provides.
2. do not include ANY spaces in your theme name, creator name, or description. although they don't tell you this, the thememaker will reject your theme if you have any spaces!
3. only check the box that appears with the EULA if you want to make your theme available to all of google's users!

here's a screenshot of my first attempt:


cute, huh?