Archive for Deborah Lipp

Friday Kittenblogging

June 9, 2006 / / 9 comments

In which I amuse you with cat stories

Mingo likes to suck his thumb.

Or would, had he a thumb. (I have no thumb and I must suck.)

Instead, he sucks his paw. He sucks his whole. gorram. paw. slurp…slurp…slurp.

He does this when he’s content. So if you pet him, and you’re all nice and cuddly and yum the cat he warmeth the lap, all of a sudden…slurp…slurp…slurp. Fuckin ew.

I’ve tried to stop him. I’ve put my hand between paw and slurpyface. He persists. He will either prevail, or depart the lap, or (heaven forbid!) suck something else. I fear this last. ‘tother night he started sucking a pearl on my beaded sweater. Suck the paw, fertheluvagawd!

He is, I should tell you, transfixed. Rapt. His eyes get squinty, and I’ve noticed that there’s a pause. A paw pause. He holds the paw up in front of him, and he squints, and slooooowly he approaches the paw, and then slurp…slurp…slurp. Leading me to believe there’s a profound sensuality to the experience, one so deep that he teases and prolongs it. Which is, y’know, a little gross.

slurp…slurp…slurp.

When did we become so harsh?

June 8, 2006 / / 12 comments

As a culture, America has become an astonishingly unforgiving place. The trend towards mandatory minimum sentences was perhaps when I first noticed it. But nowhere are we less forgiving than in regard to sexuality. In Tom’s post about Plan B, a commenter said:

Suck it up. Either have the kid, or have the abortion. Either way, George Bush was not in the bedroom…

Suck it up?

Would she who is without an impulsive moment please cast the first stone?

Plan B offers women a non-invasive, non-surgical means of preventing pregnancy. Our cultural answer seems to be, well fuck that. Can’t have it be easy.

And while perhaps this particular commenter isn’t a Puritan, doesn’t this attitude come from the idea that if we make mistakes we should suffer? If we have a sexually impulsive moment, it’s only right that we should “suck up” the most painful, expensive, and long-term consequences possible? Surely there should be no Get Out of Pregnancy Free cards!

Because none of us nice women have had sex on impulse. Without birth control. Just for fun. (And remember, the woman in this article had sex with her husband. I’m told even Puritans approve of that.)

What if we lived in a world where people sometimes behaved foolishly, smiled ruefully, and moved on? Without losing friends, respect, or having to undergo surgery? What if, when we hear of someone making a mistake, we all paused to reflect on our own mistakes?

I think I’d like that world.

Leavin’ on a Jet Plane

June 7, 2006 / / One comment

I leave for the airport in an hour. I am eager to be home although I have had a wonderful time here.

This internet connection keeps knocking out my WordPress connection although most other stuff is fine. It’s the anti-blog.

Portuguese punctuation is fun. Look what I have on my keyboard here: Ç~ç¨. Of course, I’m always hitting it when I mean to do something else, so…

See you soon!

Monday Movie Review: The Road Warrior

June 6, 2006 / / 2 comments

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) 7/10
Society has broken down due to war. In the “Waste Lands” of Australia, savage gangs kill one another for gasoline. Mad Max (Mel Gibson) wanders this region and encounters a heavily guarded compound with abundant gasoline. Against his better judgment, he helps them against a brutal gang out to kill them all.

I should have taken my friend’s advice and skipped Mad Max. The Road Warrior stands alone as a low budget marvel. » Read more..

Bom dia

June 4, 2006 / / 4 comments

In Brazilian Portuguese, “d” when followed by “i” or “e” is pronounced as a “j”. So “dia” sounds like “jia”.

Now this is interesting. This morning on the elevator someone said “bom dia” and I briefly thought he was French; that he’d said “bonjour”. I never could figure out how “day” was related to “jour”, but I can figure a trajectory from day to dios to dia to jour.

Still not getting the good-to-bon connection, but whatever.

Here I am

June 2, 2006 / / 9 comments

I’m in Brazil. There’s an Internet cafe in the hotel. It’s a bad place from which to post, but I thought I should check up on y’all and make sure Tom isn’t tormenting you. I have been trying odd things like Brazilian chocolate pizza.

Today was a quiet day punctuated by brief moments of victory. When you speak very little of the language, small successes are delightful. I was told most Brazilians speak English, but apparently there’s a huge class divide. This means that service personnel—wait staff, maids, clerks, cashiers—don’t speak English, and these are people with whom I need to communicate. So, ordering a sandwhich, asking the maid to clean my room, and telling a waiter my room number were all delightful (for both of us in each case). I would go mad if unable to communicate, but my what a treasure it is when hard-won.

Liar’s Tarot

June 1, 2006 / / 2 comments

We came up with the coolest ritual. Okay I did. Entirely my invention. So cool.

New moon is a traditional and opportune time for ritual divination, so we decided to experiment with Tarot in the circle. So we’re passing cards around, la la. Anyway, then I said “Let’s play Liar’s Tarot.”

I shuffled the deck and everyone drew a card without looking, and then we all held up the card, facing out, on our foreheads, so that everyone else could see. One at a time, each person read everyone else (so everyone got multiple readings). When everyone had taken a turn reading each other person, we all looked at our cards.

Did I mention cool?

Really, try it.

Heeeeeeeere’s Tom!

May 31, 2006 / / Comments Off on Heeeeeeeere’s Tom!

Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. (shock! alarm!) I depart for Sao Paulo, Brazil. During that time, I have no idea how much, if any, time I will have with a computer. (I hope to at least check my email daily.)

To keep you company in my absence, Tom will be here. Tom is a blogger of great renown. Seriously. I met Tom on a message board in 1999 and I quickly learned that, in a political discussion, the best thing to do was to wait until Tom posted and then post “What he said.” He’s smarter than me and more astute politically.

Tom has many flaws, chief among them that he says disparaging things about the East Coast. Although this makes him a very bad person, I forgive him because he’s really quite loveable. And I think I mentioned smart.

Please welcome him warmly.

What’s a Festival Like?

May 31, 2006 / / 5 comments

Since I go to a lot of Pagan festivals, this is a question that I get asked. Especially by Pagans thinking about going to their first one. Or by non-Pagans wondering why I camp when there’s dirt and bugs and air mattresses and aren’t hotels nicer?

Anyway, via Jason, here’s a fabulous account of Lothlorien Elf Fest. I’ve never attended this particular festival, and each has its own personality, but in terms of what it feels like to be there, this is a perfectly typical, indeed quintessential, description.

Part of my time is spent cruisin’ the strip.
There’s a gravel road that makes a circle through the campground area. I walk this strip, round and round. The merchants are set up on either side of it so I get to see who’s selling what. I get to say hello to the merchants who come back year after year, and see what new things they have and what kind of barter they’re willing to participate in. It’s a lovely walk, too. This also gives me a feel for what the mood of the festival is like. I can kill HOURS doing this, because I nearly always wind up in some deep discussions along the way.

Read the whole thing.

Women’s Magazine

May 31, 2006 / / One comment

This came up in comments. How come a “women’s magazine” (“woman’s magazine”?) means Vogue or Cosmo or Good Housekeeping or Glamour or Marie Clair, but does not mean Ms. or Bitch or On Our Backs?

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