I’d love to do a thorough fisking of this article on “Dating a Banker Anonymous,” and what it says about how society views women, how the New York Times views women, how the New York Times really needs to hire writers who didn’t all go to Dalton and Nightingale, and how these women view themselves (hint: as accessories for rich, powerful men), but I rather feel the need to take a shower.
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Archive for January, 2009
The headline for this video on the front page of Yahoo! is “‘First Grandma,’ a senior Olympian, has independent streak.”
Just think about that for a bit, what it means to say that someone has an “independent streak.” It means that their natural state is presumed to be dependence, and that any attempts to be independent are regarded as a charming eccentricity in someone who hasn’t accepted her uselessness.
Just another example of the way that we infantilize the elderly, and in particular elderly women (often to the detriment of their health). The kicker is that Marian Shields Robinson was born in 1937 — so she’s not yet 72.
UPDATE: Or maybe not.
UPDATE II: Nope, she’s confirmed she’s out. Carry on.
And another political story that doesn’t really wash: Caroline Kennedy is reportedly withdrawing her bid to be named to Hillary Clinton’s recently-vacated Senate seat. Check out the reason given:
The New York Times reported that Kennedy’s decision to withdraw was prompted by concerns about the health of her uncle, Sen. Edwad Kennedy, who was hospitalized after a seizure during an inaugural lunch for Obama on Tuesday.
Hasn’t he been released, though? And since Caroline, from what I’ve read, didn’t actually go to the hospital, how is his hospitalization/health a reason for her to withdraw her bid? You’d think that it would be a reason for her to stick it out, since it’s, like, a law that we have to have a Kennedy in the Senate.
But just like the Dick Cheney “moving boxes” story, this sounds a little fishy. Especially when you consider that earlier in the day, just after Clinton was confirmed as SoS and resigned her Senate seat, I’d read in the Times that Gov. Paterson had pretty much made up his mind on Monday afternoon:
Mr. Paterson, speaking to reporters here shortly after President Obama was sworn in, said he had all but decided on his choice Monday afternoon but planned to mull it over for a few more days.
“I have a good idea now which direction I want to go,” Mr. Paterson said.
Then, explaining why he would wait to reveal his choice, he added: “I thought that with something this serious — that when I came to a point of view — that I wouldn’t react to it immediately. So since I’m going to be here for another couple of days, I thought I would see if it feels the same way when I come back on Wednesday as it did, I guess toward the end of yesterday afternoon, when I think I started to come to a point of view.”
An unnamed “friend” of Paterson’s speculated that he would be swayed by Teddy’s seizure, which seems a really stupid thing to be saying to the press about your friend, lest you make your friend look as idiotic as Blago, if less venal.
But that story appeared in the NY/Region section. The story about Caroline Kennedy’s withdrawal ran in the Politics section, by different reporters. Who put in some interesting stuff about the expectations that Caroline and her backers have, not to mention the spinning they’re doing to the reporters:
Ms. Kennedy believed that the job was hers if she would accept it, the person said, but aides to Mr. Paterson would not comment on whether that was true….
Ms. Kennedy’s decision comes nearly two months after she, along with several members of Congress and leading political officials, began auditioning to replace Mrs. Clinton in the coveted position. She attracted relentless attention and was viewed by many as the most likely choice for Mr. Paterson, given her national stature and ties to the incoming Obama administration….
Ms. Kennedy had gained the support of some powerful backers in the state, including several labor officials and a top aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Kevin Sheekey.
But her pursuit of the seat also set off resistance, with some local Democratic officials suggesting it smacked of entitlement, and polls showing voters preferring Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo for the position….
Some have speculated that with the state facing a $15 billion budget deficit, Mr. Paterson was risking a lot to not select Ms. Kennedy, given her connections to the Obama administration and top Senate Democrats such as Majority Leader Harry Reid. Mr. Paterson appeared to like Ms. Kennedy and saw in her a potential star, but was frustrated and angry by what he saw as efforts by her supporters, especially within Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, to create a sense of inevitability about her candidacy….
A friend of the governor’s [he’s got some chatty friends, doesn’t he?] said on Wednesday afternoon that “I would be totally shocked” if Mr. Paterson did not pick Ms. Kennedy.
“If he doesn’t go with her, how angry is the Democratic leadership going to be with him?” the friend said….
Wow. This clearly shows that the Kennedy machine was spinning, hard, right up until she dropped out, trying to create that inevitability. I mean, she believed the job would be hers if she wanted it! She had powerful backers! “Some people” believed she was the leading candidate! She’s best buds with Obama! The Senate Dems would be really, really angry if he didn’t pick her! Obama will have his revenge on New York if Paterson picks someone from New York who backed his rival, the junior senator from New York! O woe! The New York Democrats will never, ever be able to raise enough money for an incumbent Democrat to hang onto the Senate seat in the bluest of blue states against the terrifying New York Republican Machine, led by… um… who, again?
It’s all such bullshit. Clearly, Paterson made up his mind Monday that he wasn’t going to pick her, sat on it for a bit, let her know and gave her the opportunity to bow out gracefully. She took the “spend time with my family now that my uncle is ill” route and withdrew rather than be passed over publicly when Paterson made his announcement this weekend. Which doesn’t mean that her spinners aren’t out there spinning this as her walking away from the opportunity that was hers for the asking rather than Paterson giving her the boot.
But now the press gets to move onto its next-favorite candidate, Andrew Cuomo, conveniently forgetting that he isn’t the only one under consideration.
That modern novels set in, say, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian London perhaps consider *not* putting the female characters into either the “lady” or the “whore” categories, as if there were no other options? And perhaps not have the male protagonists visit brothels as a character-delineation or plot device, to show how very lonely and alienated and dissolute and ripe for redemption they are?
Because you know what really endears a character to me and makes me want to cheer him on and hope he gets the “good” girl in the end? His sexual exploitation of women in desperate straits.
And is it a coincidence that this usually happens in novels written by men? I think not.
Does anyone else think that this whole “pulled a back muscle moving boxes” story stinks?
I mean, in what universe does the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES schlep boxes around during a move? Especially when he’s had, like, five heart attacks?
Here’s the other thing: the wheelchair. Just doesn’t seem consistent with a lower-back injury, which is the kind that’s going to put you off your feet (and the most likely to happen while moving). I myself slipped a disc while hauling boxes during a move, and let me tell you, the very LAST thing I wanted was to *sit* for any length of time. My options were to stand and pace or to lie flat. Sitting just makes a lower-back injury worse.
So, a couple of theories:
1) He really did hurt himself moving boxes, which he was doing because there was something in those boxes he didn’t want anyone to see. Like maybe those records that historians are worried he’s going to destroy; or
2) As a friend posited, he really is vindictive enough to make up an excuse not to have to stand while Obama and Biden were being sworn in. Which isn’t really a stretch, considering that this is the guy who just gleefully admitted to torture, told Pat Leahy to “go fuck [him]self” on the floor of the Senate, and showed up in a parka, ski hat and snow boots to a gathering of world leaders to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Oh, and shot his friend in the face.
My foray into the world of bifocals/progressive lenses didn’t last long. Tried the monovision thing with the contacts, and it was a disaster — my dominant eye has astigmatism, so that was all blurry, and the undercorrected eye was all blurry, and my vision when reading was terrible. The undercorrected eye was supposed to be for reading, but it was so undercorrected that I had to hold things very close to read them clearly, because if I held them at the distance I usually do, it was too *far* for me to see them clearly. And I just couldn’t get used to the two different fields of vision — I felt like I couldn’t see very well at either distance, and since I wasn’t really having problems with my close-up vision prior to this whole experiment, it made me realize that if I did get the progressives, I’d be worse off than I was before. For a lot of money.
So I called up the optician to cancel the progressives, which were ordered Monday. I got some static from the assistant, who was the person I spoke to, because the lenses had already been ordered and I hadn’t called earlier. I explained that I had been unable to assess the whole monovision thing until Tuesday, because I’d been told to keep my contacts out of my eyes for a few days. She told me that the progressives didn’t work the same way as the monovision contacts. I said, essentially, no duh. I told her she needed to cancel the order for the progressives and I needed to get a regular contact lens for my left eye because not only couldn’t I see, I was getting a bit seasick. She told me that the doctor — who’s only in on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and here it was Wednesday afternoon and it didn’t look like I would be getting back to Brooklyn any time soon — would have to fit me for a lens, because she didn’t have the proper measurements for my left eye. I told her that was ludicrous, because that same doctor had examined me only a few days before, and if she knew how much to undercorrect my left eye, she would have the measurements. This made no impression on the assistant.
I believe I may have made an accusation that I felt I was being pressured into getting these expensive lenses which would make me see worse than previously, and now the assistant was trying to coerce me into taking them because she’d placed the order. This got me a call from the doctor promptly after she came in for the day, during which she took exception to any insinuations of pressure tactics, but fortunately confirmed my suspicion that she did, in fact, know my left eye’s relevant measurements, having collected such information during the exam, and that she could provide me with a new lens so I could see. After another attempt to explain the virtues of progressive lenses preemptively, as in “make the investment now, because your eyes will get worse now that you’re an old bat,” and an unnecessary reminder that the progressive lenses do not work the same way as the monovision contacts — which, again, no duh — she told me that she had ordered a trial pair of the astigmatism-correcting lenses and hoped to have them by Saturday.
I hadn’t anticipated being able to pick up the contact until tomorrow, but I found myself with just enough time to get to Brooklyn between my LIS orientation and another engagement tonight, so I went to pick up the lens and get the refund for the progressives. The optician, who owns the joint, was extremely accommodating about the refund. Which is nice, because I’d gotten a bad impression from the assistant and the optometrist.
Somehow, I never thought I’d be having trouble getting enough calories (and in particular, calories from protein). And yet, here I am, struggling to find enough high-protein plant-based foods to meet my protein-gram target for the days I lift.
And when I eat a high-protein meal (often no more than some tofu and rice-based dish), I don’t really get hungry for a long time, which kind of makes the getting-five-or-six-meals-a-day thing difficult.
Huh.
What is it with all these dudes who think that a worldview that requires the submission and suppression of women (and, in this case, any dissent) in order to lift up men is “edgy,” “cool,” “punk” or in any way transgressive?
Sounds like the regular state of play for about the last 5 million years.
Oh, but this one’s got tattoos! And plays loud music! Must be edgy!
See also Jill from a couple of years back.
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