Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Our 7th wedding anniversary is today, but of course we’ve been together for 10+ years, so to my mind, the 7 year itch (if there ever is one) has come & gone.
But a couple of friends of ours recently got engaged, which thrills us, so a very happy engagement to them on our anniversary!
On hearing about the closing of Indymac Bank, my thoughts went like this:
Which is, in these proto-depression days, something like reassuring. In case you don’t know, the FDIC guarantees accounts up to $100K. So if you have more than that, you need to spread it around if you want it guaranteed. The FDIC was invented after the last runs on banks, after the Great Depression. It’s nice to know, so far, that it’s working, but apparently there’s another 90 banks that are at risk of closing due to this whole mortgage disaster.
Of course, if you just have too much money in the bank, you should feel free to donate any extra you’ve got to the hundreds of organizations that need it.
This financial post brought to you courtesy of my sister Kathy’s birthday, who bugged me & bugged me to take economics courses in colleges & who I thoroughly ignored. (Sorry, Kath. Modernism seemed so much more pressing at the time. Happy Birthday!)
I watch a lot of death shows, as I call them – the forensics, the procedurals, the investiigation shows. I’m a big fan of Cold Case, especially: the premise is that they have to take on a cold case – a case where the leads died, mostly – and solve it. So there’s a kind of historical quality to it, and some of the early shows I saw involved a woman who got an abortion when it was still illegal, and another about a gay bashing. Every episode I’ve seen involving LGBT folks is sympathetic, like the one my mom saw about an FTM, and “Best Friends,” which I saw recently, about an inter-racial lesbian relationship in 1932; Tessa Thompson played the African American half of the couple, and wore some natty suits.
But I find this show’s real appeal is the cultural history & the music: because it’s historical, they play a lot of good shit when they’re recreating a scene in the 1950s, or 60s, or 1978, or 2004. Lo & behold, someone has compiled all of the music from all the different episodes. Like Episode 21, “Torn,” which has music by Bessie Smith and Jelly Roll Morton, or Episode 6, “Static” with Gene Vincent and Little Richard.
Musicheads, do check it out. They show hours & hours of it late at night on TNT.
The new season starts now! & Yes, I’m a fan of the show. You can’t really beat an IRA trained ex-girlfriend and an ex-spy. At least not if that ex-spy is Michael West.
Sheer entertainment, but I think it takes the spy thing to a whole new level. & Yes, I know I’ve been watching way too much TV lately. There’s a reason I didn’t want cable.
This is the singularly funniest dumb news story I think I’ve ever read.
I’m trying to figure out how significantly distanced from your own body you have to be to not notice a living animal in your bra.
Secondarily, what it would be like to have 34FF boobs.
Her consideration of the sleeping critter was kind of heart-warming, though. Or bra-warming. Whichever.
Another trans ally has been attacked defending a few trans teenagers, and right here in Queens, NY.
People often wonder why, as an ally, I get so upset about violence against trans people, but I know that as much as I’d prefer to be the type of person who would run & save myself, I’d be the idiot who got in the transphobic asshole’s way.
But more than that: sometimes people assume New York is some trans mecca. In some ways, it is. But the reality is, it only takes one transphobic asshole to ruin someone’s day.
I hope the folks at Carmen’s Place all recover okay, & that they find somewhere they feel safe.
The National Stonewall Democrats are doing a cool thing: trying to track transpeople’s donations to Barack Obama. The letter they sent out not along ago is reprinted below the break in full, but the basic idea is that, if you’re trans, & you want to donate to Obama’s campaign, you donate through their website, so that the donations can be “counted” as a bloc.
Excellent idea. Go do it.
Courtesy of Veronica, I found a great new blog by a woman who is too damned funny. Between her & some of Calpernia Addams’ recent gigs, we seem to have discovered a sense of humor here on Planet Trans. & Just in time, too.
Dubya & Co. have been in power long enough to pretty much devastate the economy, and in response, women are reporting that they had abortions in the past year precisely because of the bad economy. Women, being imminently practical, and carrying the burden of most childcare, and being the first and hardest hit by dropping wages, can’t afford to have their babies.
An interesting dilemma for Republicans, no? So if you want to prevent abortions, maybe it would be a good idea to quit funding tax cuts for the rich.
