It’s my mom’s 80th birthday today, & Kate Bornstein is on her way to Lawrence to speak tonight.

I feel very thankful for the strong women who raised me and who continue to challenge and support me.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I know you said we weren’t supposed to do anything, but hopefully this doesn’t count.

For Valentine’s Day, Rufus Wainwright performing “My Funny Valentine” with his late mom, Kate McGarrigle.

Kate Bornstein is coming to Lawrence University on Wednesday, February 17th & Thursday, February 18th. We are very, very pleased.

The listing is on the LU Gender Studies blog, and there is, of course, a Facebook event page.

First, clever Twitter responses to the ridiculous amount of sexism in this year’s Superbowl commercials. One of my favorites:
Posted By: denverlen (February 8, 2010 at 5:19 PM)
This was my fav tweet of the night. Saw a couple of others that were similar as well.
mrbilldempsey: Advertising works. Buying some misogyny first thing tomorrow.

(thanks to Erica for that one)

Weird Superbowl Ad indulges in outworn femme stereotype of a gay couple, but as an Advocate reader points out, in an oddly inclusive sort of way.

An hour of Superbowl watching with Gloria Steinem & Shelby Knox (okay, even I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t).

& As if to summarize, my friend Matty Wegehaupt wrote:
If there is any better evidence than the Super Bowl ads that popular American masculinity is in the throes of a pathetic death spiral, I haven’t seen it. The irony is that even while attacking women as withering harpies, the ads portray the men themselves as even more pathetic: illiterate boors who grunt defiantly at an “unfair” world, yearning for the nourishing respite of crap beer, fast cars, and fake boobs.

Geaux men! Honestly, I find the stereotypes of men in mainstream media horribly offensive – at least as offensive as those idiotic, sexist GoDaddy ads, which is one of the reasons I’ve been very surprised by how well Men of a Certain Age is written, and acted.

Really, it’s F. Scott Fitzgerald, which makes me wonder how Zelda looked in a suit.

(Thanks to Courtney.)

If I’m not mistaken, the President just reprimanded the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Supreme Court, and did all of it with a smile on his face & a reminder of our shared love for this country.

Some thoughts on living in Wisconsin:

• I’m starting to wonder if my years watching Northern Exposure was actually a prep course.
• I try not to be an asshole NYer who is always trying to find the NYC cognate for everything I experience. Also, I try to keep discussions of said cognates to conversations with other people who have also lived in NYC.
• I am regularly amazed at how self-deprecating WI people are about living in WI.
• I am surprised when I am homesick and surprised when I am not.
• It doesn’t take long before you find yourself looking at a 19 degree temp and thinking, “it’s only 19″ instead of “that’s fucking cold.” Because “only 19″ means no long johns; you reserve those for the temps that hover just over or just under 0.
• I regularly feed wild rabbits that live in the lawn next to my house. We buy carrots for them. We probably shouldn’t.
• I read an essay by Daniel Nester about leaving NYC and wonder exactly why I stayed in NY for so long except for the obvious reason that I couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else.
• Every once in a while, we realize that all of our new friends are incredibly smart, mostly geeky, & definitely bookish, and we are very happy about that.
• I’m not sure you’ve ever really been drunk until you’re drunk in a blizzard at a friend’s wedding in an Irish bar in Wisconsin. (Though I’m not sure you’ve ever really been drunk until you’re drunk in a ladies’ room full of drag queens and burlesque stars, either.)

Like this bit by illdoctrine.com a lot – the quotes, the delivery, the idea.

(h/t to Adrien)

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
- Dr. King

It’s always been a favorite of mine.

On a cheerier note: there are a lot of these lists, too, of the major events of 2009, but I thought I’d do my own. It’s an odd mix of public and private, but so is my life.

• Obama’s inauguration
• misuse of both “fisting” and “tea bagging” by right-wingers
• Law & Order’s “Transitions” episode, because it was one of the best treatments of transgender lives on television
• I was chosen as a finalist for the AROHO grant
• getting to teach Gender Variance – and specifically introducing a bunch of students to Truman Capote
• Angie Zapata’s murderer was found guilty
• speaking in Milwaukee at the UW Milwaukee campus & at The Tool Shed
• the TransOhio conference, & specifically, getting to halt my talk for a Kiss-In
• domestic partner protection for WI
• turned 40
• watching the revolution in Iran
• Sims 3 came out
• publication of Bear Bergman’s 2nd book The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (I’m a gender geek like that)
• two weddings of four lovely friends
• Caster Semenya gets to keep her gold medal
• passage of gender-inclusive Federal Hate Crimes Act
• Kalamazoo keeps its rights
• Amanda Simpson hired by Obama Administration
• NYS’s new trans rights policy

So, yours? Are there any events you expected me to list that I didn’t?

Ah, just what every geek needs: a USB-powered eyelash curler!

(via Kate Bornstein)

I got 7/11. You?

Betty & I are off for a brief visit to see friends in Madison, which we haven’t yet seen. We’re both excited, despite the 3-hour drive and the single digit temperatures.

By god is he pretty. & Yes, he is a model.

Wow, what a lovely day of nothing much at all: I’m playing my new Sims 3 World Adventures while Rachel is playing Dragon Age (which means it was an EA Christmas for us!); we’re alternately watching a Criminal Minds marathon, & had pizza for dinner with local friends.

Fantastically relaxing & lovely. Hope all you are having a similar good day.

Blame it on my new friend Kathy, who put it up on her Facebook page. I know it was supposed to inspire thoughts of charity – and it did, at the time – but now it just looks like porn what with all those pretty boys in one room.

• I am 8 years older now than Sting was at the time of the recording. (This is him at the age I am now.)
• Whatever happened to Paul Young?!
• Does Paul Weller ever look healthy?
• Simon LeBon is still a pretentious clod. IMHO, of course.
• Minor players: Marilyn, Jon from Culture Club, the ladies of Bananrama, Jodi Watley. Can anyone name any of the others?
• Actually, I’m amazed at how many of these people still have careers.
• It still makes Betty cry (in a good way).

It’s the NORAD-tracked Santa, with a website & a Twitter feed. Ah, 2010.

Happy Christmas Eve! Check out this amusing post from 2004 about the 10 Least Successful Christmas Specials. Here’s my favorite:

Ayn Rand’s A Selfish Christmas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra to offer Santa cash for his services, acknowledging at last that his genius makes the gifts — and therefore Christmas — possible. Prior to broadcast, Mutual Broadcast System executives raised objections to the radio play, noting that 56 minutes of the hour-long broadcast went to a philosophical manifesto by the elf and of the four remaining minutes, three went to a love scene between Santa and the cold, practical Mrs. Claus that was rendered into radio through the use of grunts and the shattering of several dozen whiskey tumblers. In later letters, Rand sneeringly described these executives as “anti-life.”

More light from here on in, so stay cheerful, eat your bananas to defeat SAD, & get through this holiday season without pulling your hair out.