15th Anniversary Edition of Stuck Rubber Baby
June 15th, 2010 | Uncategorized
Check it. Howard Cruse’s groundbreaking graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby has just been reprinted by Vertigo. You can read more about it at Howard’s blog. I got to write the introduction, which was a great honor. Howard has been a big influence on me in my cartooning career—if it weren’t for him, I might have gone to law school or something. If you’re in the NYC area, you can see Howard in person along with dyke cartoonist legend Jennifer Camper, and the amazing Ivan Velez Jr, creator of Tales of the Closet, at the below events.
Serious Funnies
Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, Ivan Velez, Jr.
Slide show, spirited discussion and book signing
Wednesday, June 16 — 8pm
BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
841 Barreto Street, 2nd Floor
Bronx, NY (718) 842-5223
for directions: http://www.BronxAcademyOfArtsAndDance.org
Jim Hanley’s Universe
Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, Ivan Velez, Jr.
Panel moderated by Joan Hilty and book signing
Thursday, June 17 — 6 – 8pm
4 West 33rd St. (opposite The Empire State Bldg.)
(212) 268-7088 http://jhuniverse.blogspot.com/
Queer Comix
Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, Ivan Velez, Jr.
Slide show, spirited discussion and book signing
Friday, June 18 — 7:30 – 9pm
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St (between Stanton and Rivington)
(212) 777-6028 http://bluestockings.com/
119 Responses to “15th Anniversary Edition of Stuck Rubber Baby”
Arrgh!!! You guys have to do book tours in Asia sometime!!!
I suppose my copy of Stuck Rubber Baby with the old cover is worth a little more now. Ka-ching ka-ching. 🙂
[…] dykestowatchoutfor.com » Blog Archive » 15th Anniversary Edition of Stuck Rubber Baby […]
[For those who may not be aware of such things, there are “blog-spam” programs out in the world that automatically search for various words or phases in blog-posts. If it finds one of these key-words, then it assumes that it has found a group of readers interested in a given topic. It then posts “pseudo-comments” to the blog, attempting to look like just another poster while attempting to lure unsuspecting readers to some site, which is usually trying to sell you something. (Also notice how quickly after AB’s original post that this message was sent.)
These posts typically include some random, but very “general-purpose” text like “Yeah, I agree!” meant to look like a real post; or posts like this one, presumably meant to look like some sort of twitter-generated ping-back.
(The problem, of course, is that since these programs are simply mechanically looking for words, and since they operate without any human interaction, sometimes the program can make, well, “bad guesses” about what the post is actually talking about.)
Most of these postings are caught by the spam-filter and quietly sent down the bit-drain. But I thought folks might like this to see this one. Ah, the dangers of machine-search… –Mentor]
This is excellent news! SRB really didn’t get the attention (or acclaim) it deserved the first time around.
And of course I’m looking forward to my original copy growing in value. 😉
More, please, AB, on how Cruse turned you away from the Dark Side.
(Oh, of course we’d love to have you on the Supreme Court. Some lawyers do make a difference in the right way. But… no, sorry, even if you had made that career choice, I don’t think you’d have been nominated. There would just have been too many pictures of you playing softball.)
Huh. I bet someone could write a really good dissertation on people with law degrees who also have careers or vocations in the arts. My next door neighbor is a drummer and sculptor, and has a law degree, and I know a guy who has been a lawyer for many years who plays a mean harmonica, getting paid for it in a band. Last week a numerologist suggested I could make a great lawyer. I am an artist, and have never considered studying the law. I wonder how the two co-exist? Thoughts?
There were copies selling for half price at this year’s Philadelphia Comic Con. The Bush Recession has hit the comics industry hard.
Thanks for the explanation Mentor…that was funny to read.
WaHoo, a new graphic novel to read!!
Hi Alison,
Thank you so much for alerting us to these book signings/discussions: “Stuck Rubber Baby” is a special book, poignant and deep. I don’t usually go to book signings — although I did go to a very early NYC Bunns and Noodle “Fun Home” presentation… –, but I’m happy that I will be able to go to the Thursday event here in Manhattan.
I am glad that SRB is being republished. Perhaps
because of the relatively recent mainstream media acknowledgment of the graphic novel as a serious form it will gain the respect and recognition it deserves.
Very different cover. Less “political?” (There’s a photo of an earlier version on Wikipedia.)
I’ve been meaning to read it and Blankets for a long time. Perhaps now is the time.
Marginally related, they’re discussing Bloomsday and Ulysses over on Nancy Nall’s blog. This is one of the few blogs that I read with great attention, becaus Nancy Nall and the commentators are super smart, just like people here. I cross refernced Fun Home and this blog on nnc.com, too.
[Freed from spam-filter limbo. –Mentor]
[P.S. There was also some problem with URL for the link above, which I tweaked. –Mentor]
Baby buggies, pah. Huge things that take up four places on the bus. Design now apes RVs. Last week I got bumped by one with a special hole in the handle /dashboard for a (disposable, of course) coffee carton. Clamp them, I say.
A musical group called Australian Death Machine (swing era music, I believe), has a song out called Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers ! Check it, indeed!
@12 / Kate L: So I follow the link you provide, and it is to not AUSTRALIAN Death Machine, which oxymoronically seems ludicrous and almost jolly, but AUSTRIAN Death Machine, at which I feel plunged knife scrape against bone, all humour seeping very quickly away. Connotation, connotation, and very odd.
@5 You’re too late. I haven’t been able to chase down an abstract, but I absolutely remember reading a paper published on the juxtaposition of careers and the overwhelming likelihood of various degrees having a secondary non-related artistic career. You’re right, lawyers and mathematicians were likely to be visual artists and musicians (piano specifically).
I’ve also noticed a huge number of healthcare professionals who are fibre artists, in fact, the teaching hospital I was a student at had an annual staff quilt/fibre arts show. For my own part, knitting is my panacea. It helps with concentration, keeps one awake and relaxed and produces something utilitarian and beautiful at the same time (or at least that’s the idea :))
Very cool about SRB. I remember picking up a copy years ago at the NY ComicCon and being impressed. At the time of course, Maus was just about the only (grudgingly) lauded mainstream graphic novel. I can remember many (many!) late night sushi fueled discussions with high-brow friends about the willful ignorance and prejudice of the intelligentsia against the graphic novel as a medium. I used to carry around extra copies of Sandman comics and Watchmen like some demented missionary and thrust them at nay-sayers.
I’m more than a little smug over the about face.
I wish I could get to one of the book talks.
Interesting read about how Bell Telephone used a liberal arts immersion course to broaden the horizons of its up-and-coming executives in the 1950s.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/opinion/16davis.html
Quoting from the column:
—
The capstone of the program, and its most controversial element, came in eight three-hour seminars devoted to “Ulysses.” The novel, published in 1922, had been banned as obscene in the United States until 1933 and its reputation for difficulty outlived the ban. The Bell students “found it a challenging, and often exasperating, experience,” Baltzell wrote.
But, prepared by months of reading that had ranged from the Bhagavad Gita to “Babbitt,” the men rose to the challenge, surprising themselves with the emotional and intellectual resources they brought to bear on Joyce’s novel. It was clear as the students cheered one another through their final reports that reading a book as challenging as “Ulysses” was both a liberating intellectual experience and a measure of how much they had been enriched by their time at the institute.
At the end of the 10-month course, an anonymous questionnaire was circulated among the Bell students; their answers revealed that they were reading more widely than they had before – if they had read at all – and they were more curious about the world around them. At a time when the country was divided by McCarthyism, they tended to see more than one side to any given argument.
What’s more, the graduates were no longer content to let the machinery of business determine the course of their lives. One man told Baltzell that before the program he had been “like a straw floating with the current down the stream” and added: “The stream was the Bell Telephone Company. I don’t think I will ever be that straw again.”
The institute was judged a success by Morris S. Viteles, one of the pioneers of industrial psychology, who evaluated its graduates. But Bell gradually withdrew its support after yet another positive assessment found that while executives came out of the program more confident and more intellectually engaged, they were also less interested in putting the company’s bottom line ahead of their commitments to their families and communities. By 1960, the Institute of Humanistic Studies for Executives was finished.
—
No surprise there… then as now, the corporation values mindless fealty to the organization instead of human enrichment, a balanced life, and responsibility to the community and the world at large. No wonder the typical executive training offered by the corporate world these days is an MBA, devoid of any connection to what makes the world a better place. Feh.
Very short-sighted on the part of TPTB at Bell for business reasons as well; they fell victim to their own boxed-in technocratic training and failed to see how the broader experience and widened mindset of their newly immersed executives could have been used for competitive advantage. It might have given insights to execs that would have resulted in more business or new lines of business. If nothing else, it might have been used to attract and retain a more talented pool of executives and managers.
(… goes back to data crunching for yet another round of stupid PowerPoint slides for today’s net meeting …)
Oops, and as I was running around at work it occurred to me that I hadn’t made a clear delineation between ‘comics’ and ‘graphic novels’. I do know the difference and shouldn’t have just lumped them up together without a segue, sorry 🙂
Welcome back, HOH.
(Sorry, no edibles sandwiches, but here’s a little something.)
UK readers can get it from Medusa.co.uk if they haven’t got a copy already. Although naturally I urge you to order it through your local independent bookshop, if there is one!
I’ve really not read much of Howard Cruse’s work – just bits in collections in anthologies. So I’ll be looking forward to reading this.
NLC (#17)
Loved the inedible CS course description, it’s an endless loop, or as described in The Devil’s DP Dictionary, “a dynamic halt.” As I recall, an endless loop in someone else’s program was called a dynamic halt if it showed up in your own program.
N.B. The Devil’s DP Dictionary is a techie spoof of the Ambrose Bierce classic The Devil’s Dictionary. Checking on Medusa, the original Devils’s DP Dictionary has been updated and renamed The Computer Contradictionary. I guess the lack of a good liberal arts education in the tech curriculum means that too many techies wouldn’t make the connection to Ambrose Bierce, hence the renaming of the book in its updated incarnation.
http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Contradictionary-2nd-Stan-Kelly-Bootle/dp/0262611120
Annie, 16, I just looked in the copyright section of Maus and “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” was originally published in something called Short Order Comix #1. Comics can be serious work about serious subjects. You probably could still draw a contrast with graphic novels, but it’s going to be based on factors like the length of the work. Is that right? If so, thanks for sharing your knowledge about graphic works and I don’t think you need to worry so much about the terminology.
hoh, here’s a belated “welcome back”. I was hoping you had met some sweet thing and were too busy “hiking the Appalachian Trail” to comment here, but no such luck, I guess.
The thing about NLC’s course isn’t that you can’t finish it; it’s that you can’t start. And I sure hope the psychobabblers never get their hands on “dependency resolution”. It’ll wind up deader than “paradigm shift”.
Well, that was fun. I just got back from tonight’s talk/book signing. It was great to hear all four of them talk about their work, how the business of comics/graphic literature has changed (mostly for the worse) in the past 15 years, etc.
Those of you who are planning on attending tomorrow’s event on the Lower East Side, it will include a slideshow, which Jennifer Camper described as “awesome.”
(… goes back to looking for a hiking partner for the Appalachian Trail …)
(Alex K #13) You’re right, it did say Austrian, not Australian. I guess I saw what I preferred to see; sorry to freak anyone out. One wonders what the group was trying to say when they were picking out the name of their band. Or, perhaps we do know. I’ve also just noticed the link to another of their songs, entitled “Killing is My Business, and Business is Good”. I’m not even going there!
(hairball #21) Eastside, westside. All around the town. Or, rather, the City. My family was supposed to take a vacation in New York back in 1965, but dad got sick and vacation was cancelled. Just think, I could have seen old Pennsylvania Station! As it is, I’ve never been there and all I know about New York City today is what I see on the various Law & Order episodes. Based on Law & Order, I assume that the place is just full of wildly attractive women assistant district attorneys!
@Kate L (#22)
Depending on when in 1965 you were scheduled to visit, you might have experienced the first blackout, in November 1965. Then you could have been living the experience of the tourists in Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063801/
The twin abominations known as Madison Square Garden and Penn Station replaced the original Beaux Arts-style Penn Station in the 1960s. The destruction of the original Penn Station is what inspired NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Act. Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a huge supporter and force behind preserving architectural gems and preventing nasty buildings from going up. Alas, they waited until she died to put up the hideous AOL/Time Warner monstrosity at Columbus Circle, she fought the project for years because it would cast a shadow on Central Park. And no, just because it has a pretty nice outpost of Whole Paycheck does not make it a worthwhile addition to the NYC landscape.
As for the current state of affairs of Penn Station, our late besotted Senator Moynihan worked out some kind of deal with the Postal Service for Amtrak to buy the iconic post office across the street from Penn Station and turn it into a railroad station. You know the building, it’s the one with the steps and the frieze which reads, “Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” also designed by McKim, Mead, and White, who designed the original Penn Station.
Quite a few L&O episodes get filmed in my neighborhood, so while you’ll get an accurate glimpse of the landscape from watching L&O, I haven’t seen all those attractive female ADAs you mentioned. Of course, they are all lawyers who might have been great artists had they met Howard Cruse early in life, as AB did.
FYI, when presented with the opportunity to buy a copy of SRB last night and have Cruse sign it, I opted for the original edition (they had a few left) instead of the new one with AB’s intro. I figured the older one would have more collector value, not that I ever sell my books (although I have been thinking about posting stuff on eBay to make room and perhaps a few bucks).
(… goes back to tripping the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York …)
Girls and girls together…
(hairball #23) Our vacation would have been in mid-summer. And, if I recall correctly, we would have arrived in grand fashion by train at old Penn Station. Who knows, I might have been swept up by the bright lights and big City, and decided to move there! Kate Mulgrew (about my age, and who played Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager), a native of Dubuque, Iowa, did exactly that to get into show business when she was a lass! Dubuque is about the same size as my hometown in Kansas.
(Maggie #24) Wow! No furtive, longing messages on the walls of the University of Kansas science library elevator for those City wimmin*! 🙂
* – How wimmin folk in Kansas communicated, ‘way back in the late 20th century.
… I don’t ‘spose anybody ’round here is heading out to the Flint Hills Pride picnic by the lake tomorrow? My car just wouldn’t make it, having been hit by a drunk driver (I’m still seeing about a replacement vehicle). No? Oh, well. Just thought I’d ask! 🙁
HoH, #23: just looked up Penn Station. Wow, what a loss. I remember being so disappointed when I used it in the nineties (they wrote songs about this?).
Same thing happened to Euston in London, but St Pancras was saved, thanks to a trememendous campaign by poet laureate and railway enthusiast John Betjemen (whose statue can be found gazing at the ceiling on the Eurostar platform…) The renovation was finally completed a couple of years ago: St Pancras Station
PS, here’s a crit of a TV programme I saw about the renovation: Telegraph review. My favourite bit: ‘…Claire Carr, a frankly scary engineer. While her colleagues continued to profess their admiration for Lansley [the architect]’s attention to detail, she took the somewhat blunter line that he’s “living in Cloud Cuckoo Land”. As for … Dennis, one of her subcontractors, Claire’s most printable verdicts were “patronising little squirt” and “lying bastard”.’ Go women engineers!
Sorry, what were we talking about?
This is somewhat off-topic but there is an interesting item in today’s Guardian that would never have appeared a few year’s ago:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/20/butch-lesbians-clothes
Oops should have previewed. Year’s. Rogue apostrophe!
@29. Cool concept, and I like that it made the mainstream press and I wish them well. That being said, that’s a really unfortunate photo for a line of bespoke tailored clothing. They could have at least gotten something for her to stand on so you could see the lines of the suit. 🙁 I’d be fuming if that were my press release, though honestly, I’m tempted to support them just because I like the concept.
In fact, I heartily agree with the concept and lack of appealing ready to wear is -precisely- what made me learn to sew and tailor my own clothing.
And fwiw, those prices are insanely good. I can’t imagine they could make any profit unless they’ve got a back room full of illegals working for 29 pence/hour. To give an example, some 15 years ago, I accompanied my best buddy from uni to a Savile row tailor who gave me heart palpitations when the price mentioned was in excess of £4500 ($6000usd).
The minimum I’ve ever heard for a bespoke single breasted jacket is about £1200.
The more I think about it.. the more I really -am- tempted to drop by and have a few shirts made. Thanks for the link!
We’ve had five separate severe thunderstorms move through the area over the weekend. They say that this pattern should continue through Thursday!
Indications show,
a steady low*.
(What movie from 1993 featured that Randy Newman lyric in its opening credits?)
It’s cool and sunny outside, now, but that won’t last. It’s been cool and suny alternating with violent thunderstorms all weekend long. I got drenched a few minutes ago walking to my office. It’s goundhog day, again…
I love this quote from the Riley the clothing designer in #29: “Butches don’t want to be or look like men; we just don’t want to wear female clothing,”
Yep. Of course, the title of the story had something about “women who want to dress like men”. In fairness to the journalist who wrote the story, though,sometimes newspaper editors are the ones who composed an article’s headline.
Btw, since my last post (#33 at 10:30 am prairie time), we’ve gone through another cycle of threatening storm clouds and back to sunshine! It really is groundhog day, again!!! Auntie M ! Aunt A.B.!!!
re the butch clothing company: Aftershave?? Seriously? There are some gorgeous scents created for men, and maybe that’s what she was wearing, but why call it aftershave?? I think the writer was just being obtuse or mean.
@Liza, I totally agree!! The whole ‘reeking’ of aftershave crack sat wrong with me. I have always gravitated toward ‘mannish’ fragrances because screaming white flouncy florals give me a screaming white headache. That being said, I frequent several fragrance foræ where ‘girly’ and ‘manly’ are fightin’ words. One of the most educated and refined perfumistas I know is a guy who continually complains about having to tell the SA’s at Nordstrom that he’s buying particular scents for his mum or Auntie to get them to leave him alone so he can buy ‘womens’ fragrances. C’est la vie.
@Annie: What perfume blogs do you read? Do you ever read Leftcoastnose.com? She hasn’t posted in a while but has had serious discussions about scent and gender. I love perfume blogs. I love perfume.
@38 Liza, I mostly hang out at Perfume of Life and the BPAL.org forum, though I read NowSmellThis, MakeupAlley and basenotes and a few others (including Leftcoastnose, love her sense of humour). I can’t believe I outed myself as a perfume lover to A.B. & co….the most savvy earth-conscious real people on the intarwebs… but it’s true. I’m so shallow and I spend a truly guilt inspiring (for me) amount of my disposable income on perfume of all things. /hangs head. If we’re talking deep dark confessional time, I’m actually guilty of having planned a blitzkrieg London shopping trip to test out perfume (there are a lot of things we just can’t get in Norway)… So now you’re all drawing aside your waistcoats and tails in horror and I’m all alone on the group W bench, I’ll sit in solitude and sniff my wrists ^^
No shame in loving perfume. It’s a wonderful thing, and an artform.
Nothing wrong with liking perfume. What boggles my mind is that blogs exist that are called ‘Now Smell This’, ‘basenotes’ and ‘Leftcoastnose’ that aren’t intentionally satirical.
I can’t say I’m scent-oriented myself. My preferred everyday is the Activist range from the Body Shop and a Sandalwood men’s range from Boots. However, I was given some Hugo Boss that I wear on special occasions that I like very much.
I prefer Eternity for Men, myself. Say, this isn’t as glamorous as perfumes, but has anyone tried Exederin Migrane for relieving their migrane headaches? I find that ibuprofin shuts down my migranes like switcing off a light, but I’m concerned about making a regular habit of taking iboprofin.
Annie (39) I don’t get the perfume thing at all, but points for the Group W Bench reference.
Oh, and another thing. A group of seventh-graders in Mr. Mitchell’s science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, California, have discovered the entrance to a major cave on Mars. No, I’m not making this up! I don’t know what super-villian might currently be using the cave as his lair, but I do know that in the authoritative biography of Kathryn Janeway by her creator, Jerri Taylor, several hundred years from now as a young woman Janeway had to rescue her boyfriend when he became trapped in a martian cave. You see, everything has a Janeway connection!!!
Ah, fukkit, Annie. I wear makeup AND skirts. If anyone has a problem with that, I’ll meet ’em out back. I also love puttanesca and white socks, BTW.
Hey Kate, I’ve used Excedrin Migraine for a while now. Works like a charm for me, usually, as long as I take it early – before the headache gets a real foothold. It doesn’t knock me out like Fiorinal did, either. I use the tablets, so that I can break them in half to get just the right dose. I start with one, and if I don’t feel relief within 10 minutes, then another half. The ibuprofen? Meh. If that doesn’t get ya, something else will. Well, really, if you get headaches that often, you might want to try taking something daily as a preventative instead, like Topamax.
Hm. Too bad you don’t have Dr. Crusher looking after you.
Ginjoint (#45) Thanks for the advice! In my case, about 25 years ago I just happened to take ibuprofin when the aura began replacing my vision field and before the excruciating pain started. A few minutes later, poof! no migraine. I’m ready for a new migrain medication that does not carry warnings about frequent use, though. I actually asked my doctor about taking ibuprofen, and she said that I should be careful not to take it on an empty stomach. Since Excedrin Migrain seems advertised to women, I’m guessing that periodic use is par for the course.Oh, and with my luck, the federation ship’s surgeon would appear and say, “Please state the nature of the medical emergency.” (My apologies to Star Trek:Voyager actor Robert Picardo!) 🙂
Can noise bring on a migraine ?
I find noise, bright sunlight or (ironically) some perfume components are my triggers. If I take acetaminophen + caffeine (Excedrin migraine) when I start to get an aura, it will kick the migraine in the head and the ‘omg shoot me now’ pain never gets a foothold. If it would’ve been a really bad migraine I will still have some tender residual generalised pressure, but the actual killer headache phase gets bypassed. I still have my mum in the states send me sealed bottles of the stuff since we can’t get it here in Norway. For some reason, acetaminophen tabs + diet soda or black tea doesn’t work nearly so well for me, I still get the pain phase, has to be Excedrin.
And thanks for being understanding about my perfume addiction. I do try to be considerate of other people. I once had a GF tack my olfactory obsession onto my list of shortcomings when she broke up with me… ‘not political enough, loves toys, immature, wears perfume, too bookish (is that even possible??)… etc etc’
Kate, I forgot that character said that! (I confess, I didn’t watch Voyager as often as ST:TNG.) Next time you have a headache, go into a cool, dark room and imagine Crusher (or, what the hell, Janeway) giving you a scalp and neck massage. There, didn’t your blood pressure just lower? Well, maybe not.
You could also try Imitrex, which I have used as well. It comes in a nasal spray, injection, or pill. The injection worked best for me, but you’d best have good insurance, because it’s expensive. It definitely killed the headache, but left me with a slight drugged feeling. It wasn’t bad, though, and I was able to function. It’s just the Excedrin is way cheaper. And yeah, Annie, drinking something with caffeine doesn’t work – it has to be the pill.
Only very loud, continuing, drilling sounds have ever given me a headache. My triggers are alcohol (doesn’t stop me, though – I just pop a pill afterwards – I know, I know), sudden drops in barometric pressure, strong scents, bright sunlight for an extended length of time, and I used to get them with my period. Jesus, I’m a delicate flower. (Har!)
@Kate L: Have you tried Aleve (I have no idea how to spell that)? It is naproxin sodium and it kicks any type of pain I ever have…although I do not usually get headaches.
Good to hear from you Ginjoint, and I (speaking only for myself) am quite happy for all the lesbians out there who enjoy skirts and makeup.
Ellen, all the way back at 9, Cruse describes the evolution of the cover art starting here. He presents it as a creative/marketing decision, with no reference to politics.
The new cover, with its klansman and police brutality, strikes me as more political than the old soft cover version, which shows a few faces without giving the context of a protest march. (If you follow my link above and step through three more “next page” links, you’ll find the soft cover version in with several foreign versions. I’d provide a link but want to stay out of the spam trap.) I agree with you that the new one is less political than the old hard cover version, since there’s no suggestion of collective action in the new one. But again, if politics had anything to do with this, Cruse isn’t letting on.
Also, I’m sure Alison’s introduction is very good, but I wonder why they didn’t retain Tony Kushner’s.
Kate, I would echo the suggestion of Imitrex. It has quite literally changed my mother’s life.
She’s had absolutely debilitating migraines for most of her life (even as a child, she would be forced to spend several days at a time in complete darkness). While she she has reported what Ginjoint described (slightly drugged feeling), she has learned that if she takes one right as she feels the migraine coming on, she can head it off at the pass, so to speak.
Otherwise, yes, you need to make sure not to take ibuprofen on an empty stomach, but as far as I know, it’s safer to take on a regular basis than some other drugs (tylenol, for instance).
Getting back to the Martian caves, I’m sure that’s were Dick Cheney’s hiding out on the weekends these days.
I for one will never forget my first dose of ibuprofen. I used to get horrible menstrual cramps and my sister offered me a Motrin. It was like Madeleine Kahn waking up after sex with Frankenstein’s monster in Young Frankenstein. “Ah sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found you!”
AB: Did you feel the earth move?
(..under your feet,
was the sky tumblin’ down, tumblin’ down?
Hope our Canadian friends are ok. I didn’t feel the quake here today, but lots of other folks did.
Last time I felt an earthquake in Manhattan I was sleeping, and in my sleep I thought, “Oh, that’s a subway train,” and then I woke up with a start because there is no subway line near my building (which my sleeping brain figured out in about three seconds).
More amazing things in the world… US won a soccer match, and the Wimbledon match between Isner and Mahut has been going on for over nine hours, and is suspended due to darkness for the second day in a row. The fifth set is tied 59-all.
I sense a marketing opportunity for these two players, no matter who ultimately wins. Every product manufacturer from motor oil to Energizer batteries to Gatorade will be calling with offers to endorse their products by somehow tying the products to epic endurance in a tennis match.
Except of course, for the scoreboard manufacturer, it stopped working at 47 all in the fifth set. They eventually turned it off.
(… goes back to imagining Madeleine Kahn saying the aforementioned line from Young Frankenstein during an earthquake… oh nevermind …)
Ksbel, good to hear from you too! Hope all is well.
A couple of years ago we had an earthquake here in Chicago (5.2 magnitude), and my neighborhood was one that really felt it. Like you, hairball, I was sleeping, but I never fully woke up! I blurrily remember my bed shaking violently, and hearing my neighbor downstairs shouting, but that’s it. Since we don’t get very many earthquakes here, you’d think that would’ve sent me leaping out of bed, but I guess my subconscious had better things to do.
@16 The dichotomy between “comics” or “comic books” and “graphic novels” is a false one. Graphic novel is just a bit more pretentious. There are some terrifically ugly and stupid comics that are given accolades because they are called “graphic novels” and there are truly excellent superhero or other pulp comics, e.g. Watchmen, The Long Halloween(Batman), and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?(Superman). Besides, there are also minicomics where each edition is a self-contained story that may or may not have the same characters or otherwise relate to other issues of the same series — certainly not a united narrative that connotes a novel.
I will see if I can get Stuck Rubber Baby to be purchased by the library.
Another hole in space has been discovered, this one on the Moon! You can even see the cave floor at the bottom of the hole! I’m guessing the mole people live there!!!
This morning, I attended the arraignment of the drunk driver that hit me. He pleaded not guilty (!) I keep thinking about how much more tense the legal procedings would have been if I had reported the miscreant who sexually assaulted me a few years ago. I’ve been called hysteric about that assault as it is.
@Stephen: I love The Long Halloween and Black and White…both are excellent.
Here’s some really terrible news on clitoral mutilation research from my alma mater. Briefly, this guy’s slicing up clits he thinks are too big (“genital normalizing surgery”), then bringing the victims in as young girls and checking repeatedly for sensitivity to prove he hasn’t cut the nerves. Please consider signing the petition if you’re outraged, especially if you have any connection to Cornell. http://www.petitiononline.com/weill123/petition.html
@Jain (#61)
His full name is Dix Phillip Poppas, I just read his CV:
http://www.cornellurology.com/faculty/cv_poppas.pdf
Note that he is on the Cornell/Weill Medical College Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Pediatric Invasive Procedures, so he’s on a committee which gives approval to his own procedures. I wonder if he recuses himself. He lists several research projects in which he is either the Principal Investigator (PI) or co-investigator developing IRB protocols.
Also note that in addition to his research activities on “congenital adrenal hyperplasia”, there’s this interesting project:
“Co-investigator on IRB Protocol: Follow-up of pregnancies, neonatal, and pediatric outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection and in vitro fertilization of three-year-old infants. PI: Gianpiero D. Palermo, M.D”
Am I reading this right? In-vitro fertilization of three-year-old infants? WTF?
I’ve been rushing around doing stuff that I’ve procrastinated on for too long, so haven’t been very regular on this blog. I also haven’t read all the comments on this post, so forgive me if this is stale news, or too far from the subject matter of the post. I read on afterellen that Rachel Maddow has written the introduction to the compilation of Batwoman Detective comics called “Batwoman Elegy”. Link to the DC Comics announcement of this compilation here. If you click on the picture of the cover, a bigger view will pop up where you can clearly see the ‘introduction by Rachel Maddow’ announcement. I’m going to get my hands on that hardcover collection.
@61,62: We had a discussion about this procedure on a friend’s facebook wall. You should know that it isn’t surgery for just anything…it is surgery for congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which means the clitoris really does look like a small penis (google images for those of you who are curious). I’m not saying I agree with the surgery…I do not. But when you see the pictures you will probably understand why some parents do…they want their child to look normal. Of course, I had a total fit about why it is so important for them to not change the body of a child they do not know. It is quite possible that child will end up with a male gender identity and then that tiny penis is going to come in very handy!
@ksbek6 (#64)
I saw Poppas’ CV had several items where he was involved in pediatric surgery for intersex children, and I wondered about the appropriateness of parents/doctors selecting a gender for a child. I’m not well-versed in this issue. Is is possible that the parents/surgeon decide on one gender, but Nature takes a different course during puberty? What if there’s an extra sex chromosome involved (e.g. XXY)?
HoH – it’s possible, and tragically, it happens. Intersex people are campaigning vociferously about it.
@65: Have you ever read Middlesex? It is about this issue exactly.
There are actually some other chromosome mutations: XXX (super female), XXY (usually intersex), XYY (super male…they used to think that these were the fellas that all ended up in prison, but that is not the case). All of these folks generally have some physical differences that lead one to be tested (besides genital differences).
Anyway, they do indeed perform the surgery on very young babies in order to try and force them into one gender or the other (almost always female because it is just easier). Of course, problems arise when the child reaches puberty and their image of themselves does not match their physical body.
Just one more reason that gender should not be determined by genitals. I’m not sure why we have to be in such a hurry about something that has such a profound impact on an individual’s life. And, another example of how genetics plays such an important (yet random) role in gender and probably sexual orientation (I just put this sentence in for Maggie 🙂 ).
One reason to do the surgery on babies is that they regenerate so much better, so they’re more likely to have functional genitals after surgery than if it’s done later.
I’m not saying they’re justified in doing the surgery, I’m saying that’s the reasoning.
You’ve all read Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, right?
oops
I recommend you all read the mission statement of ISNA (Intersex Society of North America) and support them wholly.
http://www.isna.org/
Their founder, Cheryl Chase, put forth the radical idea that gender assignation of a baby does NOT mean “genitals have to match” and surgery should wait until the child can give informed consent, which (in my mind) is some time in their teens, at least. Babies and children ARE the gender which has been selected for them and they have conditioned into, until and unless they change their own minds about it.
Cheryl was born with a micropenis and XY chromosomes, but she’s around my age so medical identification of “gender” was even stupider than it is now. When she was around 3, her panicked parents agreed to surgery making her a “girl” but no one told her about it. In fact, she didn’t find out until she was in her 20s or 30s and recurrent medical problems led her to seek legal release of closed medical records from her early childhood. By that time, she identified as lesbian — but she is a feminist, and in our generation, they often went hand in hand.
Cheryl IS a woman because she claims that identity, and she received some of that childhood conditioning. Therefore, she’s one example of how biology and genes are not what determines self-selected gender identity.
Her time at ISNA saw a lot of pediatricians adopt her viewpoint of “there’s no need to do this surgery until the child can be a part of the decision-making process”, a lot because she bravely put out her own story of the consequences. She has lifelong medical problems related to the sex reassignment surgery. So many of them go default female not because female anatomy is actually “easier” (the fact is, we are more complicated and have more merve endings than males) but because the woman-hating heterosexual definition of female means a vagina which will hold a penis — which is the nuts and bolts of the surgical goal. Sexual responsivness and the ability to maybe have an orgasm would alsso be nice but is not mandatory in this surgery and is a frequent loss. (But then, THEIR definition of female sexuality doesn’t mesh with feminist self-perception, does it?) Certainly future fertility is considered expendable.
Which is all woman-hating of the first degree.
“I am not a hole /
I’m a whole mountain.”
And I read ANYBODY conflating “woman” with “vagina”, I know they are operating with male-identified conditioning about MY identity.
Cheryl during her founding and stewardship of ISNA was also adamant that the condition and rights of intersex people cannot and should not be conflated with transgender identity and theory. You can be either or both independently, just as intersex or trans does not mean lesbian/gay or even friendly to lesbian/gay. One guiding principle of ISNA — that gender conditioning is a preferable choice to medical intervention for a parent raising a child who does not seem to fit the male/female boxes — runs counter to the essentialists among trans activists, i.e., that hormones are necessary to “fix” gender. Of course, there are equal numbers of nonesseentialists in trans activism, they just aren’t getting the air time by our conservative media and backlash-driven queer organizations at the moment.
ISNA maintains (copied from their website):
— Intersexuality is primarily a problem of stigma and trauma, not gender.
— Parents’ distress must not be treated by surgery on the child.
— Professional mental health care is essential.
Honest, complete disclosure is good medicine.
— All children should be assigned as boy or girl, without early surgery.
@Maggie: How does the ISNA recommend assigning “boy or girl”?
(ksbel6 #72) By default, that decision is often made (for better or for worse) by the delivering physician.
I’m sitting here all dressed up in a tweed jacket, waiting to show a new major around campus (that means the guys on the regular faculty were all unavailable). By coincidence, 38 years ago this week I walked into this building for the first time as a prospective geology major to meet the then-chair of this department for my own orientation. Then, I went home and watched the CBS Evening News. I recall Walter Cronkite mentioning some sort of break-in that had happened the previous night at Democratic National Headquarters, located at the Watergate in Washington, DC. He seemed to think that it was a big story!
And ksbel6, you big flirt. Why don’t you and Ginjoint put on skirts and makeup and take me out back to readjust my thinking?
Ksbel6 #72 — Best they can. It’s a crapshoot anyhow (my terms, not ISNA’s.) And GET THE PARENTS COUNSELING so they don’t wipe their fear on the kid. As I heard Cheryl say, when you’re pushing your kid in a stroller and somebody says “Beautiful child, boy or girl?”, they don’t peek inside the diaper to verify your answer.
With so many intersex people coming forward to tell their own stories, and it turning out that you’re just as likely to be happy with whatever gender you’re assigned as not IF you don’t have trauma associated with it, the focus on making “the right choice” is being replaced by “we can all adjust to/change our identities if you get out of our way, big folks”. And, my addition, make it a world where choosing female doesn’t mean second-class citizenship or any set gender role.
I’ve just seen to the enrollment of the new geology major. His parents and I met in the same room where I met the departmental chair back on June 17, 1972, then I took them over to Arts & Sciences and stayed with them for the actual enrollment, helped enormously by the woman on duty in the Arts & Science office over the lunch hour at this busy time of enrolling new students for the Fall semester.* I can’t for the life of me think of a Janeway quote that’s ideal for this situation (a first for me!), but as the 4th Dr. Who (Tom Baker) said shortly before he regenerated into the 5th Doctor, “I’ve come full circle!”.
*- In overcoming a time conflict in selecting an elective for the student, the Arts & Science staffer suggested Women’s Studies 100. Our young scholar just snorted his disdain. A bad omen for the future? As Wonder Woman said on many occasions to male opponents, “You must be taught respect!”.
** – Maggie (#74), ksbel6, Ginjoint… Hey, I look real cute in my tweed business suit! 🙁
@Maggie: You know I’m not going to be wearing any skirts or makeup, but I will confess to flirting with Ginjoint…she’s just so cute when she types her responses.
Also, yes indeed, no second-class citizens would be a fantastic place to live. When you find it, let us know so that we can all come with you!
Completely off topic, there is a new Swell video clip out on youtube. Swell is being performed by the group that wrote Boys Like Her (Ivan E Coyote is a member). It is on tour and looks awesome.
@76 / Kate: You had a chance to do some teaching there, and I hope you took it:
“Young man, to be conversant with what’s taught in women’s studies is a very good thing indeed. A semester in that course and you’ll learn more about women, and more quickly…,”
**scan him up and down, pause meaningfully**
“…than you can hope to, seems to me, with investigations on your own. And that includes learning how to deal professionally with the women who will be among your colleagues and mentors — like me. In short, I recommend it.”
Maggie, I’m wearing a skirt and makeup today.
I am wearing neither skirt nor makeup.
Nor, sadly, garishly-patterned tights.
(Alex K, #78) Before this even happened, and the young man was casting about for electives, I was tempted to recommend Women’s Studies 100. I did not, though. It was the other woman who suggested the class. But I did tell him that a liberal arts education (the young man’s father visibly flinched when I said that particular “L” word) was meant to expand a person’s experience of the world!
I’m back to wearing a SafeZone non-violence t-shirt, now.
Hey folks,
Is anyone in this amazing community a San Francisco area person who’s going to the Dyke March tomorrow? My crew all appear to be other places this year 🙁
@83 I’d go with you Kat, sadly I’m about 5300 miles away. I even have a cool new Indian print skirt that looks (if I dare say so myself) pretty darned spiffy with my hiking boots!
I actually have had a number of enlightening discussions with friends and colleagues about the politics of clothing.
I find skirts are often more comfortable for me to wear than jeans (though I wear pants too). I’m all for people wearing what they want to wear though (Including guys in kilts/dresses/hell, heels,tiara & Princess Di wig).
In celebration of Gay Pride Day, Cecil the Celestial Dragon shall attempt to consume the Moon tonight! Actually, there will be a partial lunar eclipse tonight, made somewhat unusual by it starting in many areas of the globe just after moonrise or just before moonset. Because the Moon looks larger when it is close to the horizon and is near objects of known size, it will look as if the Moon has careened way too close to Earth during the eclipse! The last time this happened, I was driving up a hill when the partially eclipsed Moon came into sight, low on the eastern horizon. For a moment, it looked like I was on final approach to Clavius Base! Oh, and another thing… the reddish color you’ll see in the eclipsed sections of the Moon is from the light refracted through Earth’s atmosphere all around the margin of the Earth as seen from the Moon. The red is literally the color of every sunrise and sunset currently taking place on Earth.
Kate L, 85, I like that image of “every” sunrise and sunset — as if there were some number of distinct sunrises and sunsets taking place at any given time on Earth, all coming together on the moon to paint the place red.
Quick Blogjack: two Sarah Waters sightings this weekend. I just finished Affinity, which was superb, and The Little Stranger is just out in paperback and displayed prominently in my local independent bookstore.
And now back to our blog, which is in most interesting progress…
On the subject of comfortable clothes.
Second Utilikilt siting this year.He was in his 20s,sporting multiple arm tats,a mohawk,tall black boots,and knee socks,and strolling down the street in my neighborhood
First siting of the year was at a March folk music camp. He was in his mid-60s and in decent shape.
Oops,I mean sightings.
I find skirts,culottes,batik rayon pants,and loose cotton dresses most comfortable in the summer and when traveling in developing countries.
… It turns out that the lunar eclipse was early Saturday morning Kate L Standard Time, not early evening! That means while this astronomical phenomenon was going on, I was asleep on my sofa after watching Detective Olivia Benson in Law & Order reruns! Curse you, Cecil the Celestial Dragon! This is the second time this trickster has fooled me about a lunar eclipse!!! I confidently told one of my geology classes a few years ago to watch the skies for a lunar eclipse that evening, but just as the eclipse was about to begin clouds rolled into what had been a perfectly clear sky and totally obscured the show!
ew. just popped in on a lazy saturday night, and now I know the name: Dix Phillip Poppas (to be added to the long list of wrongdoers such as John Money, who injured many). Can we bring this guy down? I hope so!
The redneck country music festival that is the antithesis of a Pride Parade out here on the sun-baked high plains is lurching to its finale. Only two people violently killed out there so far, but there is still one more day to go. A few years ago, the festival organizers did try to open with Dixie Chicks, but they had to be dropped from the venue because the clientele was upset that one of the Chicks had criticized President Bush. No, I’m not making any of this up! Anyway, how was the San Fransisco Pride Parade? I’m guessing that it was like the Kansas State Fair, only fabulous! Save some kettle corn for me!!! 🙂
Has anyone heard from Renee lately? It’s been three weeks since her knee replacement. The Demerol and morphine should have worn off by now (and the hard work of rehab begun).
Other thoughts… Having missed the lunar eclipse, I am now awaiting the next Manhattanhenge on July 12, 2010:
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/resources/starstruck/manhattanhenge/
I’d love to wear a utilikit, but they’re SO fucking expensive! I’m going to a wedding next weekend, and I’ll be wearing a suit that cost less than a Utilikilt and the huge leather belt you have to buy separately.
I just don’t understand spending money on clothes. I’d rather buy books.
Ah,Dr. E.,they’re high quality and last for years. Besides,many women love them.
@Kate E #96: Yikes,how awful about the killings. Sounds like it’s time to take a break from Kansas.
Any vacation plans?
Off to an acoustic folk/blues festival,a ten block walk in my ‘hood,to raise $ for our local indy music store&concert venue,Artichoke. Yep,they have a huge painting inside of a lovely ‘choke. Peaceful folks.
#93…(yawn)…did somebody call my name? I thought I heard you calling, HOH! Just decided to check in, and saw your post! Thanks for waking me up! I have been in a sleepy haze for the last 3 1/2 weeks.
yeah, the rehab therapy has begun. (the therapist, I kid you not, is named Frau Michal Mannheim) I am doing very well, the doc says I’m ahead of the game. I’m walking around the house without a cane, but I still use one when I’m outside. I’m not supposed to be driving yet, but I couldn’t stand sitting around the house waiting for the relative of the day to pick me up and take me to my appointments, so I drove myself to PT yesterday.
I don’t have to go back to work until late August, but I’m hoping I will be feeling more normal soon, so I can enjoy the rest of my summer and get back to guitar building.
I have missed you all. Glad to be back.
Sadly I’m not in NYC to view Manhattanhenge with HOH…
Just catching up on posts here. I read and re-read the Dix Phillip Poppas story and still can’t believe it is permitted. I’d like to think that it wouldn’t get past any ethics committee here in Britain. Although equally disturbing (but different) things have been carried out in the names of weapons research. Surely someone questioned his motivations for such research work?
On a more positive note, I’m really glad to hear you’re recovering well and starting to get around under your own steam Renee S. Very good news.
Hi, Renee! 🙂
Feminista (#96) I’m afraid that my taking a break from Kansas can never be. I’d never make it past the border fence, for one thing! Also, long ago, a fresh-faced farm girl reached a cross-roads in her life. The space-time continuum split, and one version of the girl went to San Francisco, calling herself Maggie. The other stayed home in the midwest, and called herself Kate. Now, I’d go out to S.F. in a New York minute if I could, but I’m afraid that meeting my other self might disrupt the entire space-time continuum! 🙁
Ksbel6 #67 & Jain #69: Middlesex, of course! I’ve been racking my brains trying to remember. What a fabulous book. I read it two or three years ago, and still think of it often.
HoH #93: Manhattanhenge, how cool is that.
@KateL(100): I think the rest of us would be willing to take the risk of space-time disruption if you went to SF. And let’s face it honey, there ain’t no point in waiting for a tornado to take you to Oz. [/campness]
Renee! Hallelujah! Take it slow, girl. (I know you KNOW that, but us itchin’-to-not-be-so-dang-dependent types can tend to rush the healing, if you know what I mean). Summer’s here – time to listen to and play live music!
Yeah Renee! Glad to hear you are getting around and rehabbing. I suppose you could drive with your left foot if this is the right knee, but not if you have to pop a clutch.
(… goes back to cleaning up real hairballs, courtesy of the cat-sit felines …)
Thanks everyone for your well wishes!
RE: Manhattanhenge….I hear that if you hold up an onion bagel at a certain angle with a certain amount of schmear on July 12th, at 8:24 pm, the sun will shine through the middle of the bagel hole directly on a BMT manhole cover (Bagel Manhattan Triangulation). That particular BMT cover is the point at which the Ark of the Covenant is located.
I thought the Ark of the Covenant had turned out to be the goatskin bag in which Miriam stored her menstrual rags each month, symbolizing the fertility and future descendacy of the Jewish people. Gives a completely new interpretation to “crossing the Red Sea.” Based on the novel by Max Dashu. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Rachel Weiss, with Cherry Jones as the secret Canaanite lover.
Renee, that was awesome. And so are you.
Kate, I wish you could get the hell outta Dodge. Only two people killed at the country music festival? Meh. Culling the herd.
Manhattanhenge is quite cool. I wonder if we get that here. Did you get any pictures, HoH?
#106! Maggie! I love it!!!!
Thanks, Ginjoint, I think you’re awesome too….
#106 Maggie,,,in that case, it should be a BMT woman hole cover
Renee S, you set it up, just riffing off ya. And you take it to the next level, OMG, “woman hole cover”.
Just wondering, how many of us have hydrocodone or something similar in our bloodstreams as we write here? Getting an early start on it today. FUCK the learning opportunities and body intimacy afforded by recurrent pain, today I say FUCK THAT SHIT. Can I get an amen?
@Maggie, 112:I’d say you’ve already learned every lesson that shit has to teach you, sister! Fuck that noise, indeed!
Hey Renee, join the club! Bro in law in NYC rehabbing new knee and looking out for Manhattanhenge.
Just another brick in the wall / dot on the visitormap: Greetings from Utrecht! Still light at 2130…
My walk from the train station: First road I encountered, Oh My God THREE HERRINGS STREET. At the end of T.H.S., an Oh My God CANAL. I’m back in Hans Brinker territory, nine years old, ready to win those silver skates…
Since I invoked Max Dashu above, I want to make a pitch for her extraordinary Suppressed Histories Archive, available via FB or on the web at http://www.suppressedhistories.net/
Be sure to check out the Sacra Vulva poster. (It’s not a vagina, it’s a VULVA!)
And Alex K, I too adored Hans Brinker, read it over and over. I always wondered about those children’s books titles that had an “or” in them — why is it Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates instead of “and”?
My favorite part of the story was Hans’ wooden skates. Didn’t he carve the blades or something ? And next after that was his little sister.
Maggie No. 116 — Because “The Silver Skates” is an alternate title, i.e. the title is “[The Adventures of] Hans Brinker” or the title can be “The Silver Skates”
Have you guys heard about the police brutality in Canada during a peaceful protest in Toronto? Terrible.