“Martin Luther King Jr, Birmingham Alabama, 1963,” by Ernst Haas.

One of my favorite photographs of Dr. King. Given the year and the setting (a jail), I think we can be fairly sure this was not just any jail, but a Birmingham one, and that the text being passed was one which included Dr. King’s now canonical letter.

Here are two past Dr. King-themed LD posts: A King among men, and It is the law of love that rules mankind. [Ed note, re: that second link: 'til I can fix it, imagine a photograph of Bayard Rustin in that question mark spot where an image should be. Fixed.]

Certainly you know of the calamity in Haiti. [Constantly updated Wikipedia page here.]

Here’s the whole of Bitch,Ph.D.’s post Help Haiti:

If you are among the many who wish there was something you could do to help Haitians right now, here is some advice in choosing organizations to support. Short version: send $, not stuff, and send it to organizations that were there before the earthquake.

The two easiest ways to donate:

Text YELE to 501501 to donate $5, which will be added to your next cell phone bill. Yele “is a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti while helping to transform the country through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. Yéle’s community service programs include food distribution and mobilizing emergency relief. Grammy-Award winning musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti Wyclef Jean founded Yéle Haiti in 2005.”

Text Haiti to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross, same deal with the $ charged to your bill next month.

In both cases my understanding is that the entire amount goes to the dedicated organization.

Other suggestions:

Continue reading ‘Haiti’

As I quipped on Twitter the other day — and that’s pretty much the main thing you can do on Twitter, quip:

3 kinds of menopause. Angry kind. Weepy kind. And chuck the broccoli over yer shoulder into the kitchen when yer son refuses to eat it kind.

Then I added:

Guess which kind I have.

Really, that was a rhetorical question. Thus the lack of question mark. The kids don’t lose any sleep at night wondering which kind of menopause Baba has, either. What I like to think is that they don’t lose any sleep at night worrying about it either.

Continue reading ‘Greetings from Broccoli, CA’

Weekend morning reading, Berkeley, CA.

For your edification, a few morsels of fairyanna. Where do I get my intel? My daughter, of course, who has recently written a book on the subject. Granted, it’s a very small book. I mean, the pages are about 3″ x 4″.  But they are pages.

Okay maybe it’s more a pamphlet than a book.

My Favorite Disney Fairy Dictionary, like many such works of art, spoke to her. Literally. In a dream. She had a dream about it, and so she had to write it. Fortunately she was able to finish it before dinner. All writers should be so lucky.

Continue reading ‘For the fairy-curious’

The Tonka truck: a holiday gift from his special cousins. (Who?) In it were a clutch of dollies, which, so far, he has given a bit more attention to. Though he loves the truck.

The dress: mooched from his sister for the day. He said it made him look like “Nina,” whoever that is. Off and on he claimed “Nina” was one of the fairies who accompany Tinker Bell on her Pixie Hollow peregrinations. I’m not so sure, but he stuck to that story all day.

Over the course of a busy day, he also found time to (a) listen over and over again to the sweet, tinny sound of the hits from The Wizard of Oz as they emanated from a spiffy kid’s book, also from his special cousins (his fey Grampy sang harmony, and we can only imagine what it might have meant to this man, whose coming out was so hard-won, to sing “Over the Rainbow” to his abundantly loved, dress-wearing grandson), and (b) punch his sister in the gut in the midst of some random, insignificant dispute.  Okay, not so she’d double over, but still. I wouldn’t cross him on the playground. Definitely wouldn’t tell him the empire cut isn’t as good a look for him as a nice little T-length number.

Singer-songwriter, Arnold, CA.

Will I let him go on tour before he’s finished high school? S’pose that depends on whether he’s willing to give Baba the comfy seat on the tour bus.

[At right: recent sunset, as viewed from bedroom window.] As a slow-ramp entry back into posting actual content here, I offer a review of the last year at LD, featuring the most commented-upon posts for each month.

I know, I know, the numbers of comments are quite puny by bloglular standards. To this I say: (A) I am not a numbers gal! Quality, not quantity, people! Also: (B) I require folks to register to comment, which weeds out both the cranky troll-types (happy face emoticon!) and the well-intentioned but either busy or leery of yet another source knowing their email address (sad face emoticon).  And finally: (C) Everyone is off reading delicious other blogs and commenting on them! Who knows?! What do I know?!

Actually (and some of you all have said as much in various surveys) I only sometimes write in an “open” way, about questions everyone shares, inviting of chit-chat. Still, commentary is absolutely a measure of what strikes people, and it’s a measure of the sorts of topics that inspire folks to open up and chit-chat.  That is always, always a good thing.  Reader commentary is the best answer to the question: Why blog? Comments say (or these do, to me): here, let’s walk together a bit, shall we?

January

Desperately seeing Aclaudia: in which my daughter demonstrates her focus and zeal, to questionable effect. By the way, she’s just as focused and zealous, and she has just as many imaginary friends as she did a year ago. Only now she has more real friends, which is quite nice.

February

Maddow Widowers’ Support Group, open for business: in which I relay the sob story of my condition, nightly at 9pm or so, or whenever we get the kids to sleep and are ready to learn of the events of the day, via the world’s second smartest, second most debonair mannish lesbian.  (Right, sweetie? Sweetie?!)

Continue reading ‘A whistle-stop 2009 LD review’