botany, shoes, books, and justice
From Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body
Frank had the body of a bull, an image he intensified by wearing great gold hoops through his nipples. Unfortunately, he had joined the hoops with a chain of heavy gold links. The effect should have been deeply butch but in fact in looked rather like the handle of a Chanel shopping bag.
So I need to start taking a certain medication again. I was on this drug for quite some time several years ago, then off it for the past few. I was hoping I’d never have to take it again, but my body has other ideas.
The only health insurance I can afford is through the school ($1500/year), and it doesn’t have prescription drug coverage. Unfortunately, the medication I need to take is between $200 and $300/month. That’s between $2400 and $3600/year. And I cannot afford that no matter how I try to make the numbers work.
I wonder how soon Obama’s going to get universal healthcare off the ground?
From Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body
My job was to go into the urinals wearing one of Inge’s stockings over my head. That in itself might not have attracted much attention, men’s toilets are fairly liberal places, but then I had to warn the row of guys that they were in danger of having their balls blown off unless they left at once. A typical occassion would be to find five of them, cocks in hand, staring at the brown-streaked porcelain as though it were the Holy Grail. Why do men like doing everything together? I said (quoting Inge), ‘This urinal is a symbol of patriarchy and must be destroyed.’ Then (in my own voice), ‘My girlfriend has just wired up the Semtex, would you mind finishing off?’
Dear mathematicians publishing in journals,
Saying “clearly” and “obviously” does not make your work any more clear or obvious.
Sincerely,
A confused reader
I’ve been tagged by Eugenie again! I feel a little like I’m passing notes in middle school 🙂
Rules
-Complete meme and post.
-Email the person who tagged you to let them know it’s up.
-Tag 5 others and email/comment to tell them so.
1) Being in middle school.
2) Competing with MathCounts. Yes, that does mean I was a Mathlete.
3) Nursing a huge crush – softball player, popular, and nice to nerdy me.
4) Going to the symphony with my cool math teacher.
5) Taking care of the hogs.
1) Read through the rest of Mo Udall’s speeches and jot down a few essay ideas. Time for scholarship applications again!
2) Outline a paper on the evolutionary history and relationships of Sphenophyta.
3) Get caught up on lecture material from my ecology class
4) Write my section of my group’s paper on applications of the Catalan numbers. I’m focusing on phylogenetic analysis.
5) Work on my research prospectus.
1) Dark chocolate – esp with almonds or citrus.
2) Popcorn
3) Trail mix – I make it myself so I can control the chocolate proportion.
4) Leftovers, esp soup.
5) Carrots
1) Buy lots of pretty shoes
2) Pay for my and my siblings’ education
3) Travel to all the world’s arid regions.
4) Get good health insurance.
5) Buy my mom pretty things.
1) Rural North Carolina
2) Triangle area of NC
3) Benxi, China
4) A biological station in Michigan
5) Northern Arizona
1) Administrative assistant to a real estate appraiser
2) Tech support at two universities
3) Library assistant in 3 different branches of a university library – including the microfilms department.
4) English teacher in China
5) Undergraduate researcher
1) Liz – even though she didn’t play last time
2) Karina – even though she’s probably far too busy.
You know that $700 billion bailout? Did you know the Federal Reserve gave $2 TRILLION in emergency loans? And they won’t say who that money went to? That’s your money.
Google is better than the CDC at following flu epidemics.
PZ writes about Mormon support for Prop 8 in CA.
Obama includes gender identity in his employment non-discrimination policy for his administration.