Chickpeas in Tomato, Ginger and Garlic Sauce

I'm posting this because one of my friends requested curry recipes he could try. I thought others might also be interested so I'm posting it here. It also gives me a chance to plug one of my favorite cookbooks. This is an absolutely no-fail chickpea curry recipe I make quite often. I can usually pull together the ingredients from what's hanging out in my cupboard, it's quite low-fat and high in protein, and it's really tasty. The recipe comes from Vasantha Prasad's Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen. I highly recommend the book. I never would have thought making paneer and nan were possible until I tried the recipes in this book. It makes most dishes seem quite simple and foolproof. I suspect many of the recipes are not quite "authentic," but rather adapted to suite American cupboards, vegetarian diets, and a desire for low-fat dishes. However, I've made dozens of recipes from this book and only one left me disappointed. It's lacking a good Makhani sauce recipe but I've found that elsewhere!

Tomato, Ginger, Garlic Sauce
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Onions, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 green chilies, or less if you'd like it less spicy
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 ripe tomatoes (or one cup canned diced tomatoes)

For the Chickpeas
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Garnish
Extra onion, finely sliced
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 ripe tomato thinly sliced

1. Heat oil in saucepan and saute garlic, chilies, ginger, and onions for about 3 minutes (until onions turn slightly brown).
2. Empty contents of saucepan into blender or foodprocessor. Add tomatoes and blend until it makes a course paste.
3. In same saucepan heat remaining oil and add puree. (be careful. It can splatter). Add chickpeas, chili powder, coriander, cumin, brown sugar, and salt. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Set aside.
4. If you'd like garnish, some crispy carmelized onions taste really yummy on top of this! Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat until very hot. Add finely sliced onions and roast for about ten minutes, stirring constantly, until they turn crisp and golden. You can also add chopped cilantro and thinly sliced tomatoes as garnish but it tastes just dandy without it.

Lounging in La Palma, Canary Islands

In less than a week, Aviva and I will be heading to La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, where we'll be staying with her aunt and uncle. Needless to say, I'm very excited. Although I'll have to slather on the SPF 50 sunblock to keep from burning my pale self to a crisp, I'm looking forward to basking in the sun, reading some mindless books on the beach, and exploring the island a bit. Aviva and her parents have warned me that there's not much to see or do in La Palma but I'm sure we'll find something to entertain us. Until recently, I didn't even know exactly where the Canary Islands were located, only a vague idea of it being off the coast of north Africa. I've since taken a closer look at a map and improved my geographical sense of the islands in general and La Palma in particular. I also browsed through some online photos and it looks really lovely. Now I'll have a visual image in my head to fuel my daydreams as I work up in the attic over the next few days. If you're interested, you can read the Wikipedia entry about the islands. I'm sure there are more comprehensive sources of information out there but this one seems like a good start.

I thought I'd also include this very cool NASA photo of La Palma as it shows the island's volcano, which looks like a big old dimple when seen from space.

The article also includes a shot of the massive walls of Caldera de Taburiente, 2400m above sea level, taken from gallery.world-traveller.org. Apparently, because the island is so far above sea level, it's become home to more than twelve top-notch international observatories, including thethe Isaac Newton and Wiliam Herschel Telescopes.

There's also a rather prescient article about the threat of tsunamis in the area, which was written in August 2001. Perhaps when scientists predicted that a devastating wave might someday build off the Canary Islands before traveling to Brazil and Florida, they simply had the location a bit off target.

Wedding Registries and Wedding Gifts

Today, Aviva and I went out in search of a wedding present for two good friends of ours who are getting married on July 1st. We really wanted to attend the wedding but getting there will be nearly impossible as they've chosen a rather out-of-the-way location for the event: Heckman's Island, Nova Scotia. It would involve either a very long drive or a flight combined with a shorter drive in a rental car. Either method would be an expensive proposition. And, we'll have just returned from visiting Aviva's family in La Palma/Germany and I can't imagine finding someone else to look after our menagerie while we are away for another trip. If we weren't already going to Europe, I would have suggested a road trip, camping along the way with the dog. It would be so nice to travel up the coast, stopping to eat some lobster in Maine, perhaps? And given that I haven't been back to the Maritimes in many years, which is where I was born, it would be nice to visit a few old haunts. Although it may seem like a very unusual choice of location for a Rochester couple's wedding, one of the brides went to school in Halifax and, apparently, she now loves the place. Not surprising. I've heard similar stories from other friends of mine. I'm sure that Bill C-38 also had something to do with the decision to marry in Canada. Anyway, we'll be going to a desert and champagne party tomorrow for all the invitees who won't be able to attend the actual ceremony. We bought them a big basket, which we've filled with kitchen gadgets, some of which were on their registry list. Others were weird things that we thought they'd like and that seemed to fit with the kitchen theme: a beautiful bamboo cutting board, a few OXO tools, a retro double timer, a silly ice-cream scoop, etc, etc. We also threw in a few treats for their pets as they have a zoo that's even larger than ours! The whole concept of wedding gift registries is rather strange, though. I couldn't help but wonder what they would be doing with two sets of kitchen tongs, one 12'' and one 9''. Or, why they would want people to buy them all this cumbersome stuff given that they are moving to start new jobs in the fall. In trying to make our selections from the ever-shrinking gift list, Aviva and I also felt a bit of envy. I mean, really, who wouldn't like to request a Kitchenaide stand mixer in robin's-egg blue or canary yellow? Only weddings really give you an excuse to ask for such useful but indulgent things. In any case, I wish them all the best with the wedding and their impending move to Georgia, where it may be a long time before two women can experience a legally-sanctioned marriage.

In other news, I went on a very long run this evening. I left the house at about 4:50, moving at a slow and steady pace, and returned home at 6:05. It felt really good to run and enjoy the spring air. The sky was overcast but the rain held off and there was enough sun to keep me from getting cold. And perhaps most importantly, I had absolutely no problem maintaining my pace or my enthusiasm. Now what remains to be seen is if I can stick to a regular routine. Now that I've begun to find some nice running routes in the new neighborhood, I think it will be much easier to get my butt out the door! I also wantto enter my name in the NYC marathon once again but it's happening on November 6th and the Modernist Studies Assocation Conference for which I submitted a panel proposal is on from Nov 3-6. Sigh. I don't think it's wise to bank on going directly from an academic conference to a marathon, huh?

Bush Visits Rochester, NY

Yesterday, Texas's most famous village idiot came to visit our fine city and gave a short speech at Greece Athena, a high school in one of Rochester's suburbs. For the most part, this speech focused on selling his plan for privatizing social security, which seems to be enjoying flagging support at best. His typically eloquent statement went something like this: "I fully recognize some in Washington, you know, don't particularly want to address this issue. . . . I recognize some of them say, 'Well, this is, this is a partisan thing. You know, we don't want to make one party look good at the expense of another." Needless to say, I think his plan is a ridiculous attempt to cater to the interests of big business, the wealthy, and Wall Street. Although some newspapers are reporting that Bush won over his [carefully selected] audience with his "geniality," many Rochesterians came out to protest against Bush's war, his privatization plan, and his attempts to stymie equal-rights legislation for gays and lesbians. I really wanted to be there but had committed to sitting on a panel for the pedagogy class being run by the College Writing Center. So, I experienced it vicariously by watching the news reports, reading local protesters' blogs, and reading online news coverage of the protest. About 750 people showed up for the protest, according to the Democrat and Chronicle, and a few people were arrested, including Sister Grace Miller, director of the House of Mercy homeless shelter, and Harry Murray, a Nazareth College professor. Perhaps it's best that I wasn't there as I would likely get into a shouting match with a police officer and find myself arrested, which might cause problems when I attempt to renew my visa next month!

P.S. I got bored with the idea of posting all my running information here. Perhaps I should make a seperate "blog" that functions solely as a running log. Mmm. My guess is I'll just forget to keep it up, but it might be worth a try.

The Effectual Marriage

Someone emailed me to ask about the origins of my blog's title and description, both of which pay homage to the poet and visual artist, Mina Loy. She published her first collection of poems, Lunar Baedecker, in 1923. Since then, these poems have been republished as The Last Lunar Baedeker and The Lost Lunar Baedeker, both edited by Roger L. Conover. The first book, usually described as the "complete collected works of Mina Loy," is quite difficult to come by as it's been out of print for more than twenty years; however, I managed to find a pristine hardover copy on Ebay for about $25. The second text is easy to find through online booksellers. Though it is highly incomplete, it includes several previously unpublished poems and prose works. Both books fail to preserve the order or entire content of Loy's original collection and they both choose to correct the original collection's "misspelled" title. As you can see, I made the same correction when titling my blog, in large part because her texts are now published and most widely known by this corrected title.

Loy is, hands down, my favorite poet. I lover her unorthodox use of language and her willingness to challenge political and poetic conventions. I never tire of reading her work and frequently find myself opening one of the Baedekers and rediscovering some amazing line or image. My blog's description comes from the poem, "The Effectual Marriage or The Insipid Narrative of Gina and Miovanni," written in 1914. This poem also appeared in the often-referenced modernist anthology, Others. In reviewing this anthology for the magazine Future, Ezra Pound "misremembered" the title as "The Ineffectual Marriage," once again exhibiting his tendency to play the role of Modernism's editor-in-chief. As it is a fairly lengthy poem, approximately three pages long, I'll quote only the first two stanzas.

The door was an absurd thing
Yet it was passable
They quotidianly passed through it
It was this shape
Gina and Miovanni     who they were God knows
They knew    it was important to them
This being of who they were
They were themselves
Corporeally   transcendentally    consecutively
conjunctively  and they were quite   complete

In the evening they looked out their two windows
Miovanni out of his library window
Gina from the kitchen window
From among his pots and pans
Where he so kindly kept her
Where she so wisely busied herself
Pots and Pans              she cooked in them
All sorts of sialagogues
Some say that happy women are immaterial

What is Going to Happen to Delia?

Several days ago, Turtlechild posted a meme that originated on librarychick's blog, which gives the following instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.

I've been wanting to try this out for the past several days but I always found myself blogging in a spot where no books were to be found. Really. Like in the middle of my living room while all my books are upstairs in the study, and I knew my selection would hardly be spontaneous if I went upstairs to choose one. Or in the college Writing Center where the only books are composition and rhetoric manuals and I just didn't have the heart to quote grammar and syntax rules on my blog. Anyway, I'm about to leaf through the copy of Janet Flanner's The Cubicle City that I received from ebay and I decided to first check in on a few of my friends' blogs. In doing so, I remembered the meme and thought I'd finally make my contribution. The obscurity of the text makes it seem like I'm cheating but I'm not. It's actually not the most interesting text to quote due to the extensive dialogue that makes little sense when taken out of context. Though this one might leave my readers wondering: What is going to happen to Delia? I'll keep you posted.

"I wasted my breath, wasted my wind." He took out his handkerchief and dried his face, calming and cooling his flesh. "I tried to save you. What's going to happen to you, Delia?"

A series of weekend activities

Yesterday and today were both exhausting but fun days. Yesterday, Aviva was competing in a small horse-jumping competition so I spent a couple of hours sitting in the sun watching the show. She did a great job, winning two first and two second place ribbons. I took some lovely pictures of her on her horse and she looks pretty impressive. Aviva kept insisting that they are "very small jumps," but I'm impressed nonetheless. Mind you, I've only been on a horse a few times in my life so I'm still afraid to stand next to them let alone trust them enough to carry me over jumps.

We also had our BBQ party on Saturday night and that was a big success. About twenty of our friends showed up and we cooked a huge range of stuff: Boca burgers, honey-glazed salmon, grilled vegetables, corn brushed with garlic and rosemary, portabella mushrooms, steak, chicken, you name it. We told everyone to bring their own meat or meat substitute and we kept the grill going for hours. Two of our friends who always come ridiculously prepared for every party brought their own mini-grill, marinated vegetables, Iranian spices, and several different kinds of veggie burgers. I made portabello mushrooms that were marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then stuffed with pine nuts, rosemary, garlic, and Romano slivers. They were delicious and so easy to make. I served them on burger buns with a slice of cheese and each bite tasted a little different because you'd bite into a bit of Romano or garlic, etc. I highly recommend giving them a try next time you fire up the grill.

Today, we spent about four hours in the garden, weeding, sprinkling grass seed, and planting the annuals I bought from the community organization. The flowers were sort of over-priced and I was more-or-less roped into buying them by our next-door neighbor. I tend to be a bit skeptical of the very involved, almost meddlesome tendencies of the neighborhood association but the funds were being used to send inner-city kids to camp so gave in to the pressure. We spent a good portion of our gardening time tearing out this ornamental grass that is literally taking over the lawn and choking out all the other flowers. It has a root system from hell and since we were trying to accomplish the task with nothing more than a set of basic gardening hand tools, it took forever. We both have sore, blistered palms and stiff legs. I enjoyed myself nonetheless. All the neighborhood folks who were coming from the church next door stopped to praise our work and admire the dog, and I must admit, the yard looks really nice now, though the lawn is still recovering from my attempt to kill the dandelions. I used this weed killer that Aviva's father bought last year and I wasn't quite sure how to use it. And even though I followed the instructions to the letter, the stuff killed the weeds (sort of) and the lawn, leaving these horrible yellow spots. It may be the first and last time I use chemicals to kill weeds. I usually resort to the old-fashioned method of pulling dandelions out by the roots but, as you can imagine, that takes a tremendous amount of time! Anyway, once the lawn greens up a bit, I'll have to take some photos to show off all our hard work.

Feeling Mellon Collie

Ever have one of those days when it just feels like one really tiny, annoying thing after another goes wrong until it all snowballs and begins to feel like a giant conspiracy? You get impatient, snappy, sad, and frustrated. If you're a woman, you'll start blaming hormones and be convinced you've turned into one of those women on the commercials who's suffering from "Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder" (PMDD). And even though I know that PMDD is really just a fabricated "illness" to help drug companies re-patent and profit from obsolete drugs like valium whose patents have run out, I begin to wonder if maybe the drug companies are right. How else does one explain this complete explosion of emotion, ranging from total sadness to profound frustration? Regardless, you'll eventually find yourself thinking how stupid it is to be so frustrated and pissed off about all these stupid things, though knowing this won't stop the onslaught of emotions. Well, I'm having one of those days. My writing was frustrating the hell out of me today as I worked all day and only managed to squeeze out about two pages of rather insipid text. I had a million errands to run and none of them got accomplished because unexpected obligations got in the way. I had to contend with several really ridiculous and incompetent drivers while I tried to get my various errands done. Sigh. On days like this, I call myself a "mellon collie," but luckily I know the feeling well enough to realize it'll be more-or-less resolved by tomorrow!

On a good note, Aviva and I put together the grill without incident. We didn't throw tools at each other, no one was cut, scratched, or impaled, and only mild signs of impatience arose from either of use. And best of all, we didn't finish with either too few parts, or parts left over. I would call it a success. Actually, we usually work well on that sort of stuff. She's a stickler for details and always follows the directions to the letter, which prevents me from skipping an important step or throwing away an important "extra" screw. Now, we'll see if we can manage to cook for our friends without burning the burgers. Or Boca burgers.

Grillin n' Chillin

So today Aviva and I went out and bought a grill in anticipation of a little weekend BBQ. Given that we'd already gone ahead and sent out the invitation to about twenty people, we figured it was wise to actually purchase the paraphernalia we'd need for grilling. After considering a rather swank-but-expensive gas grill, we decided on a rather low-tech charcoal kettle grill for $39.95. Hey, all the grill masters use charcoal. I will admit that I was the one looking longing at the gas grill. I love the ease of turning on a switch and having the grill ready in minutes. But Aviva rightfully pointed out that we probably won't be grilling often enough to justify a $120 grill. We also bought the tools for basting, flipping, fire starting, and a little "chimney" to help get the coals started, which should be helpful as that's always been my beef (so to speak) with charcoal grills. They can be a real pain to start and I hate pouring lighter fluid all over the surface upon which I will be placing my food stuffs. So, we are going to test-run the thing on Friday, perhaps with some Boca burgers and some shrimp. We'll save the big guns for Saturday. Now, let's hope the weather cooperates. It's supposed to by sunny and relatively warm--in the low 70s. I'll have to dig out the camera and take a few pictures of the first barbeque of the season.

I also got a belated-but-lovely birthday package from my aunts today and I was so pleased. They somehow manage to find me the best pants, which I can never do even after trying on twenty different styles in three different sizes. Perhaps I overthink the decision! They also gave me a nice white shirt made out of "coolmax" fabric, a fancy water bottle, and some Canadian socks. It's funny how I get all these "proud to be Canadian" gifts now that I'm living in the U.S. They know I like to show my Canadian pride now and then, particularly after the last U.S. election. I'm thinking the shirt and pants will be perfect for our impending trip to La Palma. Which reminds me, I have a million things to do before then!

Running in Mt. Hope Cemetery

I started out my day by taking Fargo on a brief jog in the neighborhood. It's been ages since I took him on a run and I wasn't sure how he'd behave. He was fantastic, sticking by my side, heeling at all the corners, and getting excited but resisting the urge to pull when we encountered two squirrels and one cat. Very nice. I'll have to start running with him again as I suspect it will help build strength in his one leg, which seems to be giving him more trouble these days, though only after he goes on a crazy long run in the park.

I then went to one of Rochester's most well-known landmarks, Mount Hope Cemetery, to complete my workout. Opened in 1836. Mt. Hope is famous for several reasons: its the oldest municipal Victorian cemetery in America, the last resting place for both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas, and it was a product of the ice age, which left it with a truly unique landscape. The oldest part of the cemetery is composed of a series of interconnected hills, some nearly 300 feet high, which pass through the cemetery and continue almost three miles to the east. This collection of oddly shaped hills is what makes this cemetery so spectacular to look at, and challenging for runners. As you run up, down and around the wooded, rolling hills you constantly see new shapes and formations, amazing foliage and flowers, and spectacular trees. The cemetery's Victorian designers were insistent about leaving the terrain in this natural state and landscaped everything accordingly. At a party I attended on Saturday, one of my friends, who's an expert horticulturalist, informed me that during the Victorian period, Rochester had more flower and tree nurseries than the rest of the United States combined, and the largest of these nurseries was located across Mt. Hope Avenue. Dozens of completely unique specimens of trees were planted in the cemetery, and now some of those trees are over 150 years old. It is truly an amazing place to run. In the summer, it's lush and green; in the fall, it bursts into a million colours.

My running log is a very imprecise approximation today as I forgot my watch and don't have a really accurate measurement of the route I took. I wandered through various paths based almost entirely on visual appeal. My logic went something like this: Mmm, there are some pretty flowers down there so I think I'll head that way.

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 35 minutes
Location: Mt. Hope Cemetery
Terrain: gravel, asphalt, some cobble stones, and grass
Weather: clear, crisp, dry
Comments: This one felt really good! Though I didn't exactly run very fast, I felt strong and like I was enjoying running again! There's hope for me yet! Perhaps I'll tackle the canal path this weekend.

The Grapes of Wrath

I had to post this article from the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center because I'm assuming there are many dog owners, including myself until moments ago, who have no idea that grapes and raisins are potentially lethal to dogs. I am freaking out at the thought that I recently tossed a few stray grapes into my dog's bowl. Luckily, he turned his nose up at them and walked away. Anyway, spread the word to any dog owners you know. It sounds like not all dogs are susceptible but who wants to risk it?

Linguistically Thinking

One of my friends posted a link to this quiz on his blog and I saw it as an excellent opportunity to procrastinate. Um, I mean, improve my self-knowledge and learn more about how I think and learn. Yeah. That's it. Anyway, what ever the motivation, the result is the same. Apparently, I am a Linguistic thinker, which means I'm prone to the following behaviors: I tend to think in words, and like to use language to express complex ideas; I am sensative to the sounds and rhythmes of words as well as their meanings. Other linguistic thinkers include William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Anne Frank, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Take the quiz and find out how you fare.

Bush and Film Censorship

So, you all should check out this post from Film Brain's website about the latest attempts by Bush and his cronies to act in the "moral" best interest of the American nation. About two weeks ago, Bush signed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (FECA), which filmbrain describes as "a nefarious and sneaky little document that includes a possibly dangerous precedent about the legality of altering a film." It allows companies to distribute altered versions of films that comply with the moral standards of the FECA, without approval or authorization from the filmmaker. By making them exempt from trademark infringement, this bill allows them to distribute versions of Schindler's List in which all references to Shindler's extramarital affairs are removed, or delete from The Spongebob Squarepants Movie a scene in which a male starfish sings and dances while wearing high heels, because it promotes a homosexual lifestyle. Take a look at his site, if not for his rant about this bill, then for his engaging film critiques and his challenging "screen capture" quizzes. I've not yet been brave enough to pit myself against his crazy-knowledgeable quiz takers, but perhaps I'll give it a try one of these days.

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 26 minutes
Location: outdoor track
Weather: Cool and dry
General Observations: a relatively easy run. completed 7 max heartrate runs up the hill toward Su B. Hall after the run

California Wildflowers

One of Aviva's friends sent her this amazing photo of the landscape near the ranch where she worked last summer. Due to the unusual quantities of rain in northern California, the wildflowers bloomed like crazy. A realy once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these fields full of colour. Anyway, I couldn't resist sharing the photo because I thought the colours were so amazing.

Random Thoughts

I recently submitted a proposal to the Modernist Studies association, proposing a panel for the fall conference in Chicago. It was a rather last-minute proposal as the idea for it came out of a "rejection" from someone else's panel. This guy emailed me and two other submitters, suggesting that we put together our own prosposal. So, I decided to take the ball and run with it. I posted a call for papers (CFP) and received some really great proposals. I was very pleasantly surprised by both the quantity and quality of the responses, particularly given the last-minute nature of my CFP. I was in the lucky position of choosing papers from several really prominent scholars and, though the decision was difficult, I think the final panel will make for a great mix. Now I'm waiting to see whether MSA likes the proposal. I'd sure like to attend, particularly given that I've never been to Chicago. O.K. I've been to O'Hare airport about a dozen times but that doesn't count.

Today was a stressful day as I had to have two meetings with students who did not successfully completed my course. Though I won't go into the details about why they didn't pass, let's just say they were both very difficult conversations. I felt completly exhausted after two hour-long conversations. As I explained before, I'm often too emotionally invested in my students' progress and situations like these ones cause me almost as much anguish as my students.

I also went to the gym today as I"m determined to get back into my running routine. It's so sad how quickly one can lose stamina and speed after only a brief hiatus from running. By the end of last summer, I had built myself up to running one 14-mile long run a week and even my "short" runs were at least 5-6 miles. It felt totally realistic to expect to run the NYC marathon in the fall. Unfortunately, I didn't get picked in the lottery and I lost some of my motivation. I also went off to Cornell to participate in a seminar for 6 weeks and it was almost impossible to keep up my running routine given the grueling schedule of the seminar. I started to run more constantly again in the winter but once my schedule got ridiculously busy at the end of the semester, and I got sick with multiple cases of the flu, I totally abandoned my whole exercise routine. . Well, there are all my excuse and I know they are all lousy. Today I felt winded after 4 miles and that sucks. Running regularly totally helps me manage my stress and my migraines so from here on in I'm going to get back to my routine and list my running/exercise accomplishments at the bottom of my blogs.

Distance: 4.2 miles
Time: 40 minutes
Location: Indoor Track

Research Accidents

I'm currently researching a few early women filmmakers, directors, and screenwriters and I'm discovering all kinds of intersting stuff about these women. If all goes well, I will be contributing to a Women in Silent Film Sourcebook being published by Duke University Press. When I was in London, I met the editor and signed up to work on the entries for four women: Julia Crawford (JC) Ivers, Dorothy (Dot) Farley, Flora Finch, and Agnes Christine Johnson. I chose these people more or less at random as there were only a handful of un-assigned names left on the list from which potential writers could choose. I knew both Dot Farly and Flora Finch as very well known comedians, either comic writers or actors, or both. I also knew Julia Crawford Ivers wrote extensively for William Desmond Taylor, the well-known direct who was killed in 1922 and whose murderer was never found. I hadn't realized, until I started this research, that Ivers was considered by some to be a suspect in the murder. Though it sounds like that theory was short-lived and she was never seriously investigated as a potential suspect, I found that interesting. Again, my choice seems to lead me back to women murderers. I doubt I'll find enough about this potential link to murder to include Ivers in my dissertation but it's still an interesting tidbit of information.

Mission Accomplished

So I finished my Ginger Snaps paper last night and sent it off to the editors. I'm mostly happy with it, though I feel like the last several pages are a bit of a blur. Hopefully it sounds interesting enough for them to want to include it, even if it still needs some revision. If not, I'll have to find somewhere else to send it so that all the work doesn't seem like a waste. Now, I have to finish marking my students' papers and submit my grades. I wanted to have that done a few days ago, but I had to put my work first for a change. I was also hoping one of my students would get back to me before I submitted the grades. Alas, no response from him.

It's a beautiful day in Rochester and I'm going to make the most if it. Perhaps I'll mark outside for a while, though I may save the marking for after sundown and spend the afternoon in the garden. I just spoke with my mother and told her how happy I was to have some time to plant a few flowers and clean up the yard. It will also make me think of her even though I can't take her out for brunch or bring her flowers as I know I get my love of working in the yard from her.

But before I do any of that, I'm going to head out to the store to buy a few cards. I want to send a card or letter to my nephew as it sounds like he could use a little tlc. My mother tells me he's running into trouble at school--doing well in classes but getting into fights or shouting matches with other kids on the playground, swearing, acting out. It's so hard to understand because when he's around me, my family, or his mother's family, we all find him to be so respectful, mature, and a real pleasure to be around. I just wish I could get inside his eleven-year-old brain so I could help him figure this stuff out. I talked to him on the phone a few days ago and he was telling me all this exciting stuff about school: the books he's reading, the report he's writing, the section on "forensics" he's doing in his science class. He obviously likes to learn and talk about learning. I wish I were a rich woman because I'd buy him a plane ticket and take care of him for a few weeks, have a little one-on-one time with him to talk about what's going on in his life, spoil him a bit, take him to places he's never been.

Good News on a Cloudy Day

I just received an email from the Susan B. Institute for Gender Studies in response to a recent grant application I submitted. They're giving me an award to cover the remainder of my expenses for my London trip. Roughly $850. Yippee! I was expecting about $200 or $300 from them, at most--particularly given that they've already given me money for two other conferences. In fact, I almost didn't submit the application because I thought they'd say, "Oh, we've given her money for lousy conferences on two different occassions." Luckily, Aviva convinced me it was worth a try. Now I can make a more substantial dent in my credit card balance.

Emotional Investment

I received my students' final papers yesterday and, for the most part, I'm awfully pleased. A few students appear to have fallen through the cracks and I have to try not to let that bother me too much. It's so tempting to bend over backwards to accommodate them and help them pass the course. On the other hand, there have to be rules and repercussions. Sigh. There's nothing I hate more than seeing a student do good work throughout the semester and then choose not to finish the final paper, or worse, and fail the course as a result. Sigh. What a shame. I'm just not very good at keeping myself sufficiently distanced from their work. I get excited when they submit good work, I"m disappointed when they don't, and I'm sad when they're frustrated or disappointed. But in the end my job is to judge the quality of their writing, not their effort, personality, or enthusiasm. I'm going to sit on the papers for a day and then spend most of tomorrow plowing through them, with the hopes of submitting grades by tomorrow night. That will leave me with four more days to finish my own paper. That's the other problem with being so invested in my students' work--it totally eats into the time and energy I have left for my own writing.

Another completely different kind of emotional investment. About two weeks ago I was looking at my blog stats page and browsing through some of the links by which people ended up at my blog. In the process of that time-wasting activity, I stumbled upon a blog written by this Brooklyn family who are struggling with the birth of a very ill baby. The author is a pastor at a Brooklyn-area church. For some reason that had nothing to do with religion, I found myself becoming awfully interested in this little baby's struggle. Though the evangelical bent of the site made me feel like a total interloper, I've been checking their blog every few days to keep tabs on his progress. After several days of fairly steady progress, yesterday's entry made things sound less hopeful. Today, the blog seems to have disappeared and, inexplicably, I feel very sad. Perhaps it's just a blogger glitch.