IS the world about to end?

“Come on, Scully, it will be a nice trip to the forest.”
– Famous last words.

Well, almost.

If we’re all indeed about to be destroyed by a bunch of mad scientists, I honestly have to say they picked a terrible time to waste us. Sure, the economy’s in the crapper and the environment is about to be decimated anyway, so who cares, right? I care. I’m traveling on this day, Wednesday, September 10, 2008. And I hate traveling more than anything in the world.

Getting to spend my last day on earth doing something I hate? When I could be spending it with Boyfriend and a bunch of “X-Files” DVD’s?

*meep*

There are so many things to miss about this world, no matter when it might end. Ivan Bunin said that he would miss the swallows in springtime, and I believe that he does, somewhere, miss swallows in springtime (unless they also have them in the Great Beyond). What will you miss? Let me know.

Well, then! Thank you, o feisty abstinence-only group, for letting me know I should have killed myself when I was seven!

Hey guys! Do me a favour. Look at this list and tell me what doesn’t belong on it:

VCR’s
Diaphragms made of crocodile dung
The Macarena
“Purity at all cost.”

I’ll save you the trouble: it’s that last bit. Why? Because the other three are all out of fashion.

It’s true. An entire abstinence-only education team is dedicated to twelve-year old Maria Goretti, who killed herself when threatened with rape, and later was canonized. Yep, people are still celebrating the death of a young girl in such a manner as to encourage others to follow her example. Continue reading “Well, then! Thank you, o feisty abstinence-only group, for letting me know I should have killed myself when I was seven!”

Yet another reason why I won’t be voting McCain/Palin

So McCain goes on Jim Quinn’s show, to court conservative votes. Who is Jim Quinn? Why, he is the guy who told a journalist to “get an American name.”

Classy, huh?

Now why would immigrants and the children of immigrants vote for this guy after that?

Sex, Immaturity, Britney, Bristol, and Good Old Americana

This post on The Interculturalists reminded me of the one thing that I’ll never get over in regards to the US of A: this tee-hee-omigod-wee-wees-and-hoo-haas attitude toward sex and procreation in our collective public discourse. Now, do I think that all French people couldn’t give a crap about Rachida Dati’s pregnancy (Rachida Dati is unmarried, a politician, and expecting a baby soon)? Well, I’m sure a few Catholics and other religious folk here and there certainly think her a poor example. But the general reaction of the French? As Natacha notes, we have come to expect it to be as chilled-out as usual.

Why can’t we have the same thing happen in America? Why is there a distinctly prurient fascination with, for example, cherubic Bristol Palin’s relationship with that young man of hers? Oh, don’t tell me it isn’t there. That extremely photogenic teenager, surrounded by sweet-talk about marriage and “choosing life”? It’s not just politics. It’s an obsession.

Anyone remember Britney Spears’ naughty virgin phase? Continue reading “Sex, Immaturity, Britney, Bristol, and Good Old Americana”

A Mere Woman

“I am no man.” – Eowyn.

The femininity debate always brings me back to the summer of 1993, spent at my grandparents’ old dacha outside Kiev. As I recall, when we weren’t melting cheese on sticks by an evening fire, or listening to the radio and petting the cat on the veranda as the rain came down, the other children and I were busy reenacting Alexander Dumas classics.

My relative prowess when it came to dueling with sticks and speaking the occasional grammatically incorrect French phrase meant that my desire to be d’Artagnan, a favourite character, went unopposed. Almost. Continue reading “A Mere Woman”