Public Service Message about the Snow

Tax class was cancelled tonight on account of the Nor'easter/foot of snow that they were/are expecting. It's a nice way to ease into the week. But it reminds me of something I've been meaning to write about: the snow, and Philadelphians response to shoveling it.

Many of Philadelphia's communities depend on on-street parking; there are not driveways or garages. This is a hassle to varying degrees, depending on where you live in Philly and the ratio of cars to parking available. When I lived in Queen Village, a neighborhood in Center City, it was a huge hassle. Not much on-street parking and even less when I got home from school at 10 pm. Ugh.

Now, I live in Mt. Airy, a suburban-like enclave with plenty o' parking. And yet, in both places, Philadelphians deal with snow in the same way. You see, they shovel their cars out of the snow, but leave a pile of it in front of their car, and a pile of it in back of their car. And then, they pull their car out of the little spot they have created, and put some sort of marker (a beach chair, a garbage can, an orange cone, a container of laundry detergent... they are a very creative bunch) to "save" their spot while they are gone.

This process is absurd for two reasons. One, it's a public street. You cannot save spots on a public street. This is not your driveway. This is not your garage. This is not your front yard. This is a public street. Shoveling your own car out of the snow does not entitle you to that spot for the next 3 weeks while the snow melts. The second reason is that if everyone shoveled their car out entirely, this would generally not be an issue. The street would be generally clear of snow and people could fend for their parking spots in the way they usually do. It strikes me as particularly un-neighborly out here in Mt. Airy, where people generally know each other, and often pride themselves on being part of a stable, friendly community, as opposed to the more transient and anonymous Center City neighborhoods. It seems more acceptable in Center City, in part because there's less space to actually put the snow when you're shoveling. But here in Mt. Airy, there's lots of grass to throw it onto when you're shoveling.

Do people in Boston or Seattle or New York or Cleveland do this, or is this another example of Philadelphia's unique, err, culture, like the courtroom they put in the Eagles' football stadium to deal with unruly fans? I'm thinking about un-saving all of the spots on my street, though I don't think that will help me win friends or influence people. Maybe a nice letter to the editor or flyer instead? All thoughts and ideas welcome.

Television Abstinence Update, Part Deux

I just flipped on my TV to see if TiVo had taped what it was supposed to and found out that Tony Danza had his own show. He was singing in a sort of Lawrence Welk-meets-Who's-the-Boss way. Totally weird.

Tony aside, my kiss-off to TV has gone so well that I'll be continuing it. That, and the fact that, in a money-saving we're-still-in-school-have-no-money frenzy, we had all of the cable stations cancelled except for basic broadcast. (Our hate for Comcast, home of the cable monopoly, also helped this process along.)

Basic cable suprisingly leaves us with lots of channels, except that instead of TNT, Lifetime, Bravo and ESPN, we get, umm, lots of Educational Access. And PBS. Which I am learning to love more and more every day.

The latest tally of television watching is something like 10 hours for the week; everything I had planned on watching, plus the Oscars and a little miscellaneous stuff (a la Tony Danza) thrown in.

But that doesn't mean I haven't already fried my television-watching brain.

Last night, during The L Word, I had a distinct memory of having already met (like, in real person) Sandra Bernhard. I was positive of it. But I haven't. Never. Not once.

As my best friend pointed out, I was thinking of the Will & Grace episode where they met Sandra Bernhard. On television. In a sit-com. Made-up. Not real. She's so cool and fun to hang out with that they put a bid in to buy her apartment (which they can't afford) because they want to be friends with her. Them. Not me. Me? I've never met Sandra Bernhard.

Television has fried my brain.

Post-It Note Holders

I never knew I needed something to hold my Post-It notes until a package arrived in the mail yesterday from Westlaw. It was a big, square, silver, clunky Westlaw paperweight thingamajig that holds yellow Post-It notes. All this time, I thought they were just fine in my desk drawer. Now, it's like they just got a promotion. Congratulations, Post-Its, for doing a good job all these years. We've promoted you to the desktop. Keep up the good work.

Law Student Guinea Pig

I was talking to the administrative assistant in the undergraduate department where I'm a TA, and she told me about her second job at Schlesinger Associates, a market research firm. (Temple salaries notoriously suck, particularly for admin-level positions.) They do focus groups. She told me her sister made $75 in a 2-hour focus group, and my ears perked up.

Bar expenses are coming up ($500 each for NJ and PA = $1,000 + BarBri @ ~$2,300 = $3,300+), and well, I'm feeling a little poor. So I signed up on their database. They ask a bunch of questions, and you can choose which ones you want to answer.

The questions are wide ranging: drinking habits, sexual orientation, technology used, medications taken, diseases, religion, hobbies, household income. I decided to answer only those questions I would answer if I were talking to someone I had just met for the first time. (i.e., No disclosure of income, diseases or medications, but they do know I play tennis, go to the theatre, and use a cable modem for Internet access.) Afterwards, I did feel a little nervous after reading this part of their privacy policy:

All Personal Information obtained shall not be disclosed to any client other than for lawful research purposes.

Ummm, shouldn't that be the bare minimum?

I'll let you know what happens if they call.

The L Word: The New Facts of Life?

My best friend told me this morning that she thinks The L Word is "the new Facts of Life." Now, granted, this comes from the woman who used to belong to the Nancy McKeon Fan Club. But still, I think she's on to something.

For those of us who grew up in the '80s, the Facts of Life was the show. (I'm guessing that this really only applies to women; I don't know of any boys I grew up with who watched. My brothers were more of the Buck Rogers type. But if you're a guy, and you did watch FoL, I'd love to hear from you.) I mean, who didn't want to go to Eastland, the boarding school the show was set at, so they could be closer to Natalie, Jo, Blair and Tootie? So they could hang out at night, having pillow fights or studying for finals or sneaking out to go to the town bar, only to be almost expelled? Who didn't want a Mrs. Garett in their life, to give them advice, a quick scolding or knowing nod, or just wipe away tears? Who didn't secretly like the Eastland uniform, especially when Jo wore it, all casual with the tie loosened? (And who among us pre-lawyers didn't follow Blair studying for the LSAT, or going to Langley Law School?)

And, among us budding lesbians, who didn't have a huge crush on Blair or Jo? I didn't know it at the time, but Jo was my first crush. (Wait, strike that. Kristy McNichols in Little Darlings, circa 1980, was my first crush. But Jo was a close second.)

I know at least one other lesbian who loved Blair, who sadly (for me, at least, apparently not her) has turned into a radical Christian fundamentalist. She lists the virulently anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-non-Christian Focus on the Family group as an "Internet Favorite" on her website. (It's under the "My Story/My Favorites link.)

Sigh. Lisa, where did we go wrong? Was there not enough love? Was your mother overbearing? Your father absent?

Anyway, as for the L Word v. Facts of Life: the bottom line is, we used to want to go to Eastland so Natalie, Jo, Blair, Tootie and Mrs. G. would be our friends and we could have cool adventures. Now we want to go to L.A. so Shane, Bette, Tina, Alice and Dana can be our, err, friends, and we can have cool, err, adventures.

Best Thinking in the Shower

I have no idea why this is true, but it is: I do my best thinking in the shower. During finals, I've been known to shower 4 or 5 times a day, just to clear my head and get some legal concept straight. Standing there, it's like I'm in some alternate universe, where thoughts that don't ever occur to me come down like manna from heaven. Oddly (or maybe not) lots of people seem to do their best thinking there, if this Google search is any indication.

I vaguely remember a research study about this, something about how there is scientific evidence of something happening in your brain in the shower that facilitates thinking. If you remember anything about it, let me know and I'll post it.

Given the popularity of thinking in the shower, you would think that someone would develop a useful product, like a waterproof notepad, to help the process along. It sure would beat Soap-on-a-Rope.

News from the Front Lines of A Judicial Clerkship

Considering grabbing the brass ring of law students everywhere, a federal clerkship?

A law student friend of mine is doing a federal clerkship internship for the year. She just sent me this email from work:

Very bored. Haven't read for tax. Trying not to fall asleep.
Suit's too tight.

It made me laugh out loud.

Television Abstinence Update

Monday: I couldn't go without TV for a day, so decided on moderation, rather than complete abstinence. (My own faith-based initiative.)

I watched one episode of Friends (the one about the male nanny).

Total: 22 minutes (it was Tivo-ed)

Tuesday: Feeling crummy from my almost-allnighter (see below), I collapsed in front of the TV for 15 minutes of the One Day at a Time Reunion Special. It was all I could take. This might be the worst TV reunion since A Very Brady Christmas. Sometimes, TV execs should, in the words of Nancy Reagan, "Just Say No."

I also stayed up for Judging Amy (43 minutes, also Tivo-ed).

Total: 58 minutes

All Night Long

I am not a morning person. I do like the mornings, though, especially as a time to read The New York Times over a cup of coffee. Happily for me, morning is a relative term in our house, because, my partner (a PhD candidate) is even less of a morning person than I am.

I also need 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Without that much, I get sick, really quickly. I first found this out when I was 8 and in my small-town-New-Jersey's production of Cinderella. I got so sick from the late-night rehearsals that I missed the play.

I learned it again when I was 13 and stayed up too late working on a class project. I came down with mono the day before I was supposed to go to my first rock concert, Hall & Oates. (Stop laughing.)

So you might wonder why I took a job last year as a Teaching Assistant for an undergraduate class that requires me to be at school (a 30-minute commute) on Tuesdays by 7:45 a.m (but preferably 7:30 a.m.). This is compounded by my schedule on Mondays; I have Tax class until 8:45 p.m.

I kept the job this year, in part because I really like teaching and working with students, and I like the professor, and in part because the compensation is great the second year (tuition remission + stipend + health insurance=less debt). So I was stuck with my once-a-week crack-of-dawn extravaganza.

(Yes, I do realize that my BIGLAW employer next year will expect me to roll in before 11. For now, I am savoring the days.)

Anyway, the sensible thing would be to get home on Monday night, settle in, have a cup of tea/cocoa/warm milk/some other hot beverage designed to induce sleepiness, and call it a night. Instead, I am perhaps at my most productive on Monday nights. Bills to pay? Papers to grade? Reading to do? Blogging to blog? Monday night is the time for it. I have some sort of weird energy spurt induced by the anxiety of the early morning alarm.

This all makes Tuesday's a very special treat. Last night, I got about 3.5 hours of sleep.

Today, I felt just awful. All chilly and sick-like, which according to this study, is typical of the sleep deprived. Augh. I might have to go to bed and TiVo Judging Amy.

In the Navy

Cool article in The New York Times today about how, five years after Britain lifted its ban on gay men and women in the military, the Royal Navy is now actively encouraging gay soldiers to enlist and taking steps to make life easier on them:

Gays in Britain have benefited from a number of new laws, including one that makes it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of workers' sexuality.

Last year, Parliament passed the Civil Partnership Act, which gives marriage-style rights to British gays who have registered as couples. The entire military is subject to the legislation, and starting in the fall, gay couples in the military who have registered under the act will be allowed to apply for housing in quarters previously reserved for married couples.

The new effort continues a pattern of changing official attitudes in the navy - once derided as running on rum, sodomy and the lash, in a phrase usually attributed to Winston Churchill. And while most European militaries have lifted bans on gays, none have been as active as the Royal Navy in encouraging their service.

Until a European court ruled in 1999 that Britain's ban on gays in the military violated European human-rights laws, the navy, along with the rest of the country's military, followed a no-exceptions policy of dismissing service men and women who were found to be gay, often after long and intrusive investigations.

For the rest of the article, click here.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., we continue to discharge gay and lesbian soldiers under the extraordinarily ill-conceived Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that President Clinton signed into law (lest we now overstate the contributions he made to fighting discrimination against LGBT people). According to the Department of Defense, 653 servicemembers were discharged in Fiscal Year 2004. Twenty of those discharged were Arabic-speaking translators, who are in short supply, particularly now in the Age o' Terror. (For more on the military's gay ban, see the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network website. They have several reports detailing its effects.)

While I believe that this war was ill-conceived, and that the soldiers in Iraq were sent there only to protect U.S. oil interests (Halliburton, anyone?), "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" stops LGBT people from ever becoming full citizens. Not only do we not get the full privileges of citizenship (Social Security benefits for our spouses, equal protection under the law, etc.) but we are also denied the opportunity to serve our country honestly and openly. Britain understands that. Why doesn't the United States?

Virtual Cookies

As I mentioned in my profile, I bake cookies. (I find it relaxing.) Anyway, I wanted to share them with you. Here are the cookies that I made yesterday. They're a traditional Tollhouse chocolate chip recipe. I hope that you enjoy them. (Sorry I don't have any milk.)

TV Anonymous

I've decided that I watch too much TV, and it's wasting my brain. I think that I might watch about 10-15 hours of television a week (or potentially, much more -- I don't have a good handle on this). And since I am still only averaging, on a good day, about 20-30 minutes of preparation for each class, I thought it was time to make a change, in the words of (ahem) Michael Jackson.

It's possible that I might be much more "productive" if I watch less TV. It's also possible that I will just find a new hobby to entertain myself. So this week, I am doing an experiment and am weaning myself. I have committted myself to only watching the following shows:

Monday: None
Tuesday: Judging Amy (1 hour)
Wednesday: Jack & Bobby, Law & Order (2 hours)
Thursday: The Apprentice (1 hour)
Friday: Joan of Arcadia (1 hour)
Saturday: None
Sunday: The L Word (1 hour)

That brings me to 6 hours a week -- less, actually, since I usually TiVo shows before I watch them, cutting an hour-long show down to a mere 43 minutes.

Since, according to TV-Turnoff Network, the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV a day, I figure I'm in good shape. Wow. That's more than 28 hours a week. That's almost like a full-time job. In any case, I'm just gearing up for TV-Turnoff Week, which, if you're wondering, will be held April 25-May 1.

I'll let you know if I become more productive, or just find something new (umm, blogging, anyone? ) to take up the slack.

An L Word Convert

I resisted The L Word thing as it was sweeping the (Lesbian) Nation last year. I thought it would be just another stereotypical representation of lesbians on television -- that they'd all be crazy or kill themselves at the end. Or that it wouldn't look like us or any of the lesbians I knew. My partner and I didn't watch a single episode -- not on Showtime, not on DVD, not on VHS. And not only didn't we watch the show, but we also grumbled about it. Whose life were they portraying? I mean, the lesbians we know just aren't that hot.

So when we found ourselves introduced to the show's creator and executive producer, Ilene Chaiken, at last summer's Provincetown fundraiser for the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, well, it was a little awkward.

Our friend introduced us and told Ilene about some of the work we were doing at the time, which included making t-shirts for our new organization, Lesbians for a Better America. Ilene was there because NGLTF was honoring her with an award. Yet, we couldn't think of a damn thing to say to her. We stood there, in silence, staring at each other. I think I might have asked her how long she would be in town, or how she was enjoying Provincetown. It was that bad.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when my best friend lends us the DVDs of the first season. After the first couple episodes, I was hooked. My partner was hooked. I mean, the women are hot, the storylines interesting, and well, they were real. Not real like my life, or really, like the life of anyone I know. But real because it was a show about lesbians. We watched the whole season -- 14 episodes, each about an hour -- in, umm, about 2 days.

And now, I really regret that whole Ilene Chaiken interaction, and am trying to figure out how I can re-meet her so I can do it right. Because here's what I'd say:

Ilene, thanks for creating a show about my life. Not "my life," exactly -- I mean, I'm a law student in Philadelphia and the women here aren't anywhere as hot or hip as on your show (except that one time that Chrissy Gephardt came to do a Get Out the Vote event when we were a swing state). But every time I watch an episode, I see something that approximates my life. Women in relationships with other women and trying to figure out how to make it all work: relationships and sexuality and friends and family and work. And dealing with (at least more than any other television show I have ever seen) homophobia and hatred and race and gender.

And best of all, not doing it in the all too frequent, Bad Lesbian Cinema Claire-of-the-Moon way.

So thanks for that. I get so happy watching your show. It makes my night. Thanks for giving me a place where I can see myself, a place that feels like my own. I never realized how much I needed it.

Cool Band Name

I think that there should be a band called "The Moody Bitches." You know, an all-girl, kind-of-like Betty band. Doesn't that sound funny? But I don't have any desire whatsoever to start a band, at least of the rock band variety. (My band would play polkas or Barry Manilow covers.) So, if you do, feel free to steal the name. Just send me a note and tell me so. I promise not to sue, unless you become really, really, big. In which case I will.

Choose Your Own Adventure (and Tell It to Howard Dean)

I was on the DNC's web site today, and the home page has a message from new chair Howard Dean. He asked, "What can we do together to make the Democratic Party a force for change where you live?'

Take a minute and tell him what kind of Democratic Party you want. The right-wingers of the party are using the losses in the election as a reason to push a more conservative agenda for Dems. In particular, there's momentum toward moving away from a pro-choice platform. (See this article in The New York Times today for a good article about the response of Emily's List, NARAL, etc.) Don't like it? Not the Democratic Party you want? Tell Dean.

Anyway, here's my two cents:

Support and cultivate progressive candidates, particularly women and people of color. Call out the Bush administration for its unethical behavior, for its lying, for its double-talk. Be bold. Be unafraid. Speak out against the Constitutional atrocities being committed by this administration. Speak out against the extraordinary disregard for civil liberties. Do something about the rampant poverty and death of our cities. Stop discriminating against same-sex couples and their children and start supporting them. Speak out against hate. Speak out against the war. FIX HEALTH CARE! Do something so that ALL working people are paid a fair, living wage. Build a broad, tent-of-a-party that we can all work under. EMBRACE CHANGE.

Dr. Dean, I'm counting on you. Please don't let me down.

More Love is Better

I'm not typically a fan of the Human Rights Campaign. Among other things, they focus too much on lobbying on the national level, and not enough supporting local organizations and fighting local anti-gay initiatives. And I think they have an exceedingly narrow view of what it means to be an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

That said, I do like their Love Rocks campaign. God knows we can use more love these days, amidst the onslaught of anti-gay, anti-human, anti-environment, anti-poor, anti-Constitution initiatives that G.W. and his cronies are trying to pass. Plus, it's fun to see lots of pictures of smiling same-sex couples and families.

Happy Valentine's Day. Show a little love.

Writing is Good for You

Turns out filling up all those journals with my daily angst is good for me. (Maybe not as good as following the new USDA food pyramid and its mandated 9 servings of fruit and veggies a day, but, hey, I'll take what I can get.)

Two Temple University psychologists just released a study that says poouring out your emotions on paper is good for you:

[W]riting about a traumatic event in your life, in the right setting, can have a significant impact on both your emotional and physical health, according to researchers at Temple University. Clinical psychologists Denise Sloan and Brian Marx have studied close to 500 trauma survivors and found that people who write about their experience are sick less, visit the doctor less and exhibit marked increases in cortisol, an important stress hormone associated with better adaptive functioning. ...

"Overall, written disclosure does seem to work. And emotional expression in the writing exercise does seem to be the key," said Sloan, principal investigator in a host of studies on emotional expression and written disclosure.

... In Sloan and Marx' written disclosure studies, participants are asked to use as much emotion as possible as they write about their most traumatic experience. They're left alone in a quiet room, located on the eighth floor of Temple's Weiss Hall, and write-in longhand-for 20 minutes. The process is repeated over three consecutive days, each for 20 minutes per session. The control groups in the study are instructed to write matter-of-factly about how they spent their time that day.

The full release about the study can be found here.

Snapshots in Time

I've always been one of those people who saves letters, though over the years, I've tried to purge the habit as I've moved from place to place. So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I also save e-mails.

I have had my email account through law school for a little more than 2.5 years, and I have almost 5,000 emails -- which is the school's limit. If they gave me more space, no doubt I'd have more. Every once in a while, I make some lame attempt to get rid of them (usually when I get the "Over Quota" message from the system administrator), but here's the thing: I like having them all. They're like little snapshots in time.

For example, I just found one from my partner, written a few years ago when I was away on a family cruise (without her). It was kind of mushy and lovey. What a fun sweet surprise! THAT's why I save my 5,000 emails (which are not all, by the way, from my partner). They give me sweet surprises on rainy Mondays.

"Pay More Attention to Boys"

First Lady Laura Bush announced a new initiative today: to pay more attention to boys. Seriously. I heard it on NPR's All Things Considered on my drive to school; click here for the story.

Why? Because too many girls are becoming President? Too many girl Senators? Too many girl Fortune 500 CEOs? Because the wage gap between men and women is not big enough?
Because white boys don't have enough privilege in the United States?

We face real challenges in educating and raising our children in this country, particularly poor children who are being raised in blighted urban areas with underfunded school systems by single mothers struggling to feed their families. Why not focus on them? Why not focus on African-American boys, 1/4 of whom currently end up in the criminal justice system? Why not focus on providing all workers with a living wage so that those single parents can afford to spend more time with their children, helping them with their homework, rather than holding down 2 or 3 jobs?

But the catch-all "Focus on Boys" initiative seems naive at best, and at worst, another policy put in place by the Bush Administration to provide those with privilege -- in this case, upper-middle class, white boys -- with more privilege, time and attention. Because we need to create the next generation of little George W.'s.

Post -Superbowl Blues

Everyone's a little subdued today. Stunned, like they can't believe that the Eagles lost. I can't believe they lost, and I'm not really even a fan. I just expected them to win.

My favorite post-game show was Fox, which had cameras positioned throughout the city, waiting for fans to break out into a riot. A close second was NBC, whose commentator was interviewing drunk fans at a local bar. Slurred words, glassy eyes, unsteady balance... the whole package.

These are proud moments for newscasters. And Philadelphians. It almost beats the snow coverage.

The Future of a Free Press

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, head of The Shalom Center, recently went to Washington, D.C. to participate in what ABC News Nightline billed as a "town meeting." But when he got there, he found that the producers skewed the audience to be "pro-military" and quashed questions with dissenting views. The result was a rah-rah puff piece that reinforced the rightness of the Iraqi occupation without exploring the dissent coming from many parts of the country. Read his (and others') disturbing account of events here. Is this what passes for free speech in wartime, under the Bush regime?

Upset about what you've read? Tell ABC News here.

No on Gonzales

I join all of the bloggers against torture speaking out against the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the position of Attorney General:

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions. In this case, we, the undersigned bloggers, have decided to speak as one and collectively author a document of opposition. We oppose the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the position of Attorney General of the United States, and we urge every United States Senator to vote against him.

Read the full text of the letter here, reposted from Daily Kos, the most well-informed, thoughtful website out there on reforming the Democratic Party. Daily Kos also has lots more information on why a vote for Gonzales as AG is a vote to legitimize torture.

Depressing Find of the Day

My tax prof tells me that low-income taxpayers with children who are claiming the Earned Income Credit are at the biggest audit risk. Now that makes sense: let's try and sqeeze poor people for their last dimes. Who decided that that was a good use of the IRS' limited administrative resources? When are we going to stop seeing poverty as a personal failure and start seeing it as an institutional one?

When the Eagles Are in the Superbowl

So, the Birds finally made it. And, to commemorate the occasion, the Dean of Students sent out a memo, excerpted below:

To All Temple University Students:

The Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots will compete in Super Bowl XXXIX on Sunday, February 6. It has been 24 years since the Eagles have competed in a Super Bowl.

Unfortunately in recent years, post-game championship celebrations have occasionally gotten out of hand. In cities like Boston, Los Angeles, and Detroit innocent bystanders have been severely injured, even resulting in fatalities... Therefore, we want to remind all students that:

-City and state-wide celebrations may follow an Eagles victory in the Super Bowl; therefore, there will be ample opportunities for us to celebrate responsibly.

-You are from a proud tradition of Temple University students who are known for community service, civility and respect for their neighbors and one another.

-Win or lose the University will be open and operate on a normal schedule Monday, February 7.

-You are a leader in this community, state and nation. Act responsibly while you have fun.

We need everyone's help in assuring that the Temple community, including all of our students and their neighbors enjoy this moment in our city's history.

Sincerely,

Dean of Students

Because we all need to be reminded not to turn over cars or set things on fire.

I bet Harvard didn't get a memo like this.

And, about that "Temple civility?" In 2003, one former student shot another in the dorms. Proud tradition indeed.