Various and Sundry, including a G.I.P of an icon *Not* by me:

[capri0mni]

1) This icon is by angevin2, who made it from the the cover art for the newest Penguin edition of The Winter's Tale (the post with all of the icons she made for this set [along with a key to the titles] is here). Now that I know there is a new edition of this play, I may buy it -- it's so much more fun reading single-volume plays than it is to try and haul out the Complete Works tome, trying to hold it on your lap, failing, and dropping it on your foot... I'm just saying.

1.a) On Friday, there was a radio interview with Germaine Greer about her newly-out-in-paperback book, Shakespeare's Wife. From what she was saying (to be fair, I haven't actually read her book yet), I think she was making some pretty big assumptions. But what really annoyed me was that none of the women who were calling in to talk to her wanted to talk about Anne Hathaway or Shakespeare.... They all wanted to talk about "Women Today are Doing Feminism Wrong (or not)."

If I'd been within easy reach of a phone, I would have called in and talked about how I now fantasize about meeting Anne, instead of Will. He wrote such impressive women, so he must have known some impressive women, including his wife and daughters. And to illustrate my point, I would have quoted from The Winter's Tale, and how Shakespeare portrayed the very happy marriage between Lady Paulina (pictured), and Lord Antigonus (Dead; pursued by a bear, because he obeyed the king, instead of listening to his wife). So, yes. If you haven't read (or heard) The Winter's Tale, GET TO IT!!

4) On Sunday Night, I heard a loud boom. It shook my windows and the floor of my house, a bit. I thought it was one of my neighbors, doing a project outside, and maybe dropping a heavy piece of metal machinery into the bed of a truck. It turns out that it might have been Russian Space Junk.

3) YES, I KNOW I AM POSTING OUT OF ORDER. I'm feeling very surreal and non-linear today.

2) I have been slow to work up my summaries of Frontiers of Justice, and for that, I appologize to the people on that filter.

In the meantime, I want you all to think about this point, brought up by someone who's in the gimp_vent community (who shall remain anonymous, because s/he is currently trying to outwit the insurance company), but I'm deciding to pass on this information and related thought, because there needs to be a change. And change will not happen until there is a massive shift in public consciousness. And there will be no shift in consciousness as long as the people who bear the brunt of these policies only talk about them in private.

Private insurance companies base their policies on the Medicare model. Medicare, in turn, will only pay for equipment, and other services (such as aides or treatmet), if it's needed for the Basic Activities of Daily Living" (Wikipedia Article).

Activities on this "Basics" list are:

• Going to the bathroom by yourself


• Feeding yourself


• Dressing yourself


• Bathing yourself


• Getting in and out of bed by yourself

Activities that are considered "optional" or [translation: "gravy,"] or [translation: "How dare you ask for help with this, you greedy, self-centered, parasite?!"] include (but are not limited to):

• Caring for children, or other family members


• Using the telephone, or other communication device


• Getting around in the community, including holding down a job, going to school, or volunteering


• Managing your own finances


• Getting out of the house in case of a fire, or to escape a natural disaster (!!!)


• Cooking your own meals, and cleaning up.

In other words, we "cripples" are only expected to spend our days eating,* sleeping and pooping until we die (and considering that escaping a fire is considered "optional," some people seem to wish we'd hurry up and die, so as to decrease the surplus population).

As much as I'm in favor of a National Health Service for America, if we created one today, and implemented it tomorrow, we'd be using this system, and people with disabilities would still be up Shit Creek without a paddle. From the look of these lists, it's my guess these policies have their roots in the Eugenics movement, when people decided that we shouldn't actually kill those who are "defective" and "undesirable," but we'll do our damnedest to make sure they don't mingle with "normal" people, and risk breeding.

*And good luck with that eating business, if you can't get help shopping for food or cooking it.

5) One reason I love watching the new educational programs on TV for learning how to read is that, every few years, there are new methods for teaching reading and understanding language, so that, every few years, I get a chance to look at words that I've come to take for granted in a new light, and notice again just how nifty they are. When I was in first grade (six years old), I was only told that "Y" had a bunch of different sounds, and it's so complicated that the only thing we could do is learn certain words by rote and drill.

Last night on The Electric Company there was a bit about the letter y, and it was pointed out that:

• When y is the vowel at the end of a one-syllable word, it makes the "I" sound.


• It makes the "EE" sound when it's at the end of two- (or more) syllable words


• It makes the "ih" sound in the middle of words


• and it makes the "yuh" sound only at the beginning of words.

Well, yeah. I thought that syllable pattern was nifty. Give it a try, yourself.

(of course, "gynocology" breaks a couple of Y's "rules". But that's Greek for you).

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

It turns out that it might have been Russian Space Junk.

I vote for it being a meteor. Meteors large enough to produce those effects are UBER cool. I've never experienced one but my brother did once.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

The general consensus of the radio show I was listening to, this lunchtime was: "We don't know what it was, but people should really look up at the night sky more, because the whole thing is Uber Cool!"

I can agree with this. :-)

[nexstarman.livejournal.com]

Oh Cool!

Consensus now is that it likely wasn't the Soyuz upper stage, and it could have been a random bolide. Quite an occurrence!

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

It was Earth-shaking! Literally! ;-)