Send it to BUST! Deadline is imminent (September 1), but they only want 2,500 words or fewer.

Declare your independence in BUST's upcoming "Independence" issue !
Friday, August 8, 2003 What does independence mean to you? Is it leaving the nest? Leaving a relationship? Leaving an addiction behind? Is independence overrated? If you

Yesterday, some of my friends decided to do a little Sex and the City-style girls' night out (in Minneapolis, not NYC. We did our best. :)). We were fierce!

First we went to this trendy new place that, thankfully, had a buffet, to help offset the horrendous cost of parking. It had framed photographs of celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Cameron Diaz, and Sarah Michelle Gellar on the walls and high-finance, power-suit-wearing happy hour attendees all over the place. Then, we went to another pricey place before deciding on a seafood place for dinner. I had oysters on the half-shell, which I hadn't had for about 20 years. Heaven. Then salmon pasta, yum--and after that, I called it a night...a great night of girl talk and fun. Tomorrow some of us are going downtown again for the sales at Marshall Field's and Neiman-Marcus. I'm still looking for some Doc Martens sandals.

The word "entrepreneur" has been trademarked since 1978, and a recent court decision upholds Entrepreneur Media's ownership of the trademark. Scott Smith, who named his company EntrepreneurPR, had to change the name. He makes this interesting comment:

"It's like being sued for using the word 'golf.' There's 'Golf Magazine,' 'Golf Illustrated,' " Smith said. "Most publishers are not that insane. But these people have this thought that they made the word 'entrepreneur' what it is today."

Do you agree? All I have to say is, if Minority Business Entrepreneur magazine and Female Entrepreneur magazine are affected by this decision, I'm going to be angry.

Link via Paul Cox. Cross-posted at Kairosnews.

Sushi, pie, sandwiches, potato chips...all cute:

I had read about this craftswoman in BUST a long time ago and then couldn't find any of her work for a while. Thanks Sheila Lennon by way of the Ms. blogroll!

Theory.org.uk has an interesting course description generator. Keep clicking "Next" for more. This might come in handy now that it's syllabus time! ;-)

Now I'm on a roll, Elle!! For context: Elle linked to a list of gay characters on TV, saying it is far from complete. Ain't that the truth! I mentioned more in one comment to her blog, and now I'm thinking of more still: Mariel Hemingway's character and Roseanne's boss Leon on Roseanne, Waylon Smithers on The Simpsons, Blanche's brother Clayton who came out to Blanche and Dorothy's friend who had a crush on Rose on The Golden Girls, Stanford Blatch on Sex and the City, hmmm, let me go to Jump the Shark for more jogging of the memory...okay:

Billy, the gay teenager, in One Life to Live

WILLOW AND TARA (and Kennedy) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Ricky Vasquez in My So-Called Life

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. On an unrelated note, I saw Freddy vs. Jason last night. How campy and nostalgic. Makes me want to rent all the Nightmare on Elm St. movies again.

Lesson for the day: Don't ever do a Google search for "golden girls" + lesbian if you're looking for information on THE TV SHOW. Yikes!!!!

Erin O'Connor critiques what she is calling "Activistology," a tailoring of teaching and curriculum development that encourages activism and social change. She considers it all indoctrination, of course, and I knew she'd say that, but when I encounter this kind of teaching and curriculum development, I think of paideia and classical rhetorical pedagogy--preparing students to be thoughtful, socially responsible citizens of the city-state.

Am I ever tired! I got back into town last night after an 11-hour drive that started at 3:00 p.m. At the end there I was using my stay-awake-while-driving-alone strategy: sing along loudly with any song I know that comes on the radio, even if I hate the song. Luckily "Hey Jude" came on toward the end and gave me a second wind. I absolutely love that song. I should really get a Beatles CD one of these days. :-)

As far as the festival is concerned, I think I need to sort everything out before I write about it. For now let it suffice to say that I had a great time, and I participated in the march for trans inclusion.