some of the things...

...that I haven't been ranting about because I've been too busy gallivanting (did I get it right this time, Marti?) around town with my mother & aunt these past two weeks.

POPLINE, in its own words "Your connection to the world's reproductive health literature," recently had a skirmish with abortion. In that they removed the actual term abortion from its search engine. Seriously. Maybe if you search smashmortion, a la Judd Apatow's summer blockbuster Knocked Up, you might be able to actually, you know, research reproductive health issues. POPLINE has since come to its senses. Read specifics here.

This, which I found strangely moving, from the Barnard Library's Zine Collection.

I've been reading Joan Walsh for awhile now, and have been particularly grateful for her discussions on sexism in the presidential race this time around.

This for Paul, marine biologist and NYC-hater extraordinaire: subway cars get a second life.

Timothy Egan, author of The Worst Hard Time among other things, has been a guest blogger for the Times these past months. His recent take on the role of small town America in American politics was a breath of fresh air in the midst of all this hoopla surrounding Obama's "bitter" comments.

A Columbia Business School graduate makes good, inventing a system that may be the salvation of successful recycling throughout the land, or at least in Philadelphia and on Columbia's main campus.

Last, and by far the most disappointing, the Supreme Court is clearly as splintered as the rest of the country when it comes to capital punishment. We've got Justice Stevens (have I said how much I love Justice Stevens? I pretty much love Justice Stevens) admitting that while he's forced to vote to allow lethal injection because of precedent, he actually believes that executions are, as a whole, unconstitutional. We've got Justices Souter and Ginbsurg dissenting outright. And then we've got Justices Scalia and Thomas. Oh God how frightening are Justices Scalia and Thomas? According to them, any execution is just dandy as long as it isn't intended to inflict pain. So why don't we all just go back to using the electric chair? I mean, the intent wasn't to set people on fire, right? What's a little spark every now and again between friends? It seems these two are in agreement with John "It's Not Torture Unless The Pain Is On Par With Organ Failure or Imminent Death" Woo.

It's always hard to jump back into the real world after spending a wonderful week or two visiting with old friends & beloved family, walking through parks and museums, spending hours in coffee shops and yarn shops and being spoiled absolutely rotten by the best mom in the entire known universe.