Clancy's blog

As you know if you read this previous post, I just read From Housewife to Heretic by Sonia Johnson, who fought and fasted for the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And as you know, I've been despondent thinking about the state of the world and of feminism since. I've been thinking of feminism as similar to that movie Awakenings starring Robert DeNiro. If you haven't seen it, his character has Parkinson's disease. The scientists come up with this great new drug to treat the disease, and for a while DeNiro's character (who at the beginning of the movie was in a catatonic state) comes back to life, enjoys himself, etc. That only lasts for about 3-6 months, though, and he gradually starts getting worse again. It's a freaking sad movie. Anyway, I was thinking that there was a feminist awakening, and where is it now?

A few weeks ago, I went to the local Pride festival and put my name on the Minnesota NOW mailing list. The other day, they sent me a summer schedule. Thursday night, I went to the meeting. In attendance were 22 energetic, beautiful women of all ages. The first item on the agenda?

[drumroll]

"We have to get back to work on passing the Equal Rights Amendment."

I got such a rush! One woman in her 50s said that women in their 70s and 80s who fought for the ERA back in the 1970s want to see the ERA get passed before they die (IT NEVER PASSED, just for the record. Many people are surprised to learn that.). Before they die. We have to do this.

In the meeting, they also mentioned the Constitutional Equality Amendment, which is like the ERA but more specific. I'll have to do more reading about it.

Recently, Scott made this comment to one of my earlier posts. He makes some really good points, and presents a valid challenge: "If your privacy is so valuable that you fear exposing it, maybe you shouldn't blog. Or maybe you should consider why you blog in the first place."

I've been thinking about the real me and my blog persona. Maybe some people who know me well would say that the two are continuous, but most wouldn't, I bet. I think that revealing personal information on my blog is, for me, an ongoing process. I just need time, I guess. If CultureCat were a topic-driven, filter-style blog, saying nothing about my personal life would be expected, but I can only assume that you who come here and read my posts do so because you maybe think we have something(s) in common. I need to put myself out there more...and face the fear of being judged.

Cindy, of making contact, is back after two weeks at Cape Cod.

Sigh. Yesterday I finally finished From Housewife to Heretic by Sonia Johnson. I took a long break in the middle of it, but yesterday I read the last 150 pages. This book was published in 1981 and written in 1980. Now that I'm finished, I'm bummed...not because it was a good book and I hate to see it end, even though that's true too. I'm sad because Johnson ends the book on such a positive note--saying that women need to get angry, to be "all on fire" for women. I agree. She ended the book on such a hopeful note that the Equal Rights Amendment would pass. It didn't, even though she and many others fasted for 37 days in Illinois--fought SO HARD--were willing to die for women's rights. For this sentence: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." That was twenty-one years ago. I'm just learning about all the things that happened in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and I can't let any of it go. I won't. I feel like some kind of quaint relic; it would seem strange to bring this up in casual conversation. But maybe I should anyway!

Eh, so much for pleasure reading. Now I'm on to reading for my fall classes.

Cross-posted at Blog Sisters.

The other day, I bought a Demeter Fragrance. I have a couple already--Wet Garden and Green Tomato, but this time I got New Zealand. I thought, hey, I've always wanted to go there; I can at least smell it for now. I'll be getting a free Dirt candle too, yay. I like the smell of dirt. I wanted to take some of the Alabama red dirt back with me here to Minnesota, but then I thought about all the microorganisms living in that dirt, and what might potentially hatch. I decided against it.

Besides the New Zealand fragrance, I finally got around to buying those Jean Ritchie CDs I've been meaning to buy for a while now. I got the double album None But One / High Hills and Mountains, which is a collaboration of Ritchie and a lot of other folks. I also got Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City because it has the song "What'll I Do with the Baby-o?," and I like it.

WHY are plane tickets to Toronto so bloody expensive?!?! I cannot find one lower than $598.00, and I've searched CheapTickets, Hotfares, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and even that place that won't tell you the time of the flight until after you pay for it, so you might get all redeye flights. Should I just forget it or what? I really want to go to the AoIR conference and present my paper, but that's an outrageous price to pay.

Why will Winamp not generate playlists from my mp3 files? When I go to Misc --> Misc Options --> Generate HTML playlist, it gives me this browser window that says "unknown." Paul is always generating random playlists, and it's cool to see the eclectic mixes that come up. I want to play too!

Whenever I look at the URL for Phlebas, which is "phlebas.blog-city," I sing the URL to the tune of "Detroit Rock City" by KISS. Just had to get that off my chest. :-)

AKMA has some thoughtful words on members of the clergy who blog. The whole post is great--I especially like how he stresses the need for good writing and communication skills among seminary students, because he's right to say that clergy are professional communicators. But this final thought is especially apt:

Blogging doesn

My friend Cristina told me about an old Romanian saying--she said it in Romanian, and then said that the English translation isn't exact, but loosely is "Out of poo, you can make a whip." Hahaha! Too bad we don't have sayings that good in English.

I received a link to this white paper today. I'm so happy that blogging is being taken seriously at the University of Minnesota. Shane Nackerud is trying to get an initiative going that would have weblog hosting on the University of Minnesota's server, looking to Harvard's model. I hope it works out.

And, on a totally unrelated note, Adrianne, the tomboy, won America's Next Top Model. Yes, you may throw rotten eggs at me now for watching trash TV. I do it to unwind! :-P