PinkLogician

Updating, but cheaply...

2006-12-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

A quiz, for your viewing pleasure. (Stolen from Phoebe Gleeson, btw. Click on the Gleeson Bloglomerate link to the right, there.)

Do Gooder- ESTJ

53% Extraversion, 46% Intuition, 53% Thinking, 93% Judging

Rules are rules, right? They are there to be followed and an upstanding citizen like you would not even consider breaking or even bending the laws a little.

That's all very fine and dandy, though it doesn't make you the most fun person to be around. In fact, many would find rolling around naked in a barrel full of drawing pins more fun than being around you.

The word "stiff-necked" comes to mind. You take your responsibilities very seriously and have very little patience for anyone who doesn't.

You can be incredibly demanding and critical, somewhat akin to a teacher who is also incredibly demanding and critical. Oh, and that's another thing. Your imagination is sorely lacking. So much so that it's virtually non-existent. Well, you have no time for creativity with all these rules to follow.

At least, your rigid values ensure that you're always honest... which means you have no qualms telling your wife that, yes, she really does look fat in that dress. Don't expect many relationships to last very long.

So far, we've established that you're bland, inflexible, offensive and no fun at all. Kind of like a bag of salt-lacking potato chips, a year past its expiry date, with a bold phrase insulting your mother printed on the front. But less fun.

Link: The Brutally Honest Personality Test written by UltimateMaster on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Photoblog: Mr. and Mrs. Pinklogician (now with ducks!)

2006-10-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

Yeeeeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaawwwwwwwww!

2006-10-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Mr. PinkLogician became Mr. PinkLogician, PhD!

The defense was less grueling than we both expected, although there was a moment when one of the committee members interrupted Mr. PL's opening remarks with some scary sounding, seemingly project-undermining questions. Mr. PL ably managed those, however, and all of the questions during the actual examination part of the proceedings. I was quite impressed!

I think the coolest thing about the whole process was hearing our professors bring up issues and arguments Mr. PL and I had talked about years ago. In particular, there was some discussion of an argument Mr. PL and I hashed out in a long conversation on the balcony of what would be our first home together (at the time, I had just moved in) just after our engagement.

The best part of the whole thing, though, is that it took all of 30 seconds for the committee to deliberate and pass my husband. Although I know how brilliant he is, it was just super-cool.

Brats!

2006-09-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today is our first home game at Private Midwestern University (where Mr. PL is now attending law school). In honor of this joyous occassion and to help raise money for married student housing, I volunteered to work at said housing's concession stand. I was endlessly amused at the signs being carried about by the kids to drum up business. (And, for the record, Quincy, the boy with the sign, is not a brat at all. He's our downstairs neighbor and very nice.)

Today's hint for freshmen guys hoping to get lucky: don't try to pick up chicks at the FAMILY HOUSING fundraiser. Chances are good that all the cute ones are married.

Moving moving moving...

2006-08-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

Posting will be sparse here (as it has been) while I pack furiously, taking breaks only to extract the MiniLogician from whatever box she has packed herself and her dolly (and probably her purse - her new favorite toy, thanks Uncle Jay and Aunt Sandy!) into. I'm all out of boxes at the moment, so I'm taking advantage of the no-box time to eat an ice cream cone and post this here apology note.

Asleep at the Wheel was awesome, awesome, awesome. The addition of Elizabeth McQueen was a really good move. Her voice has mellowed since I first started going to see her (it's been a few years), but she has more edge than whoever it was who preceded her and that sounds great. Dale Watson didn't seem to be quite back in the swing (I think it was his first show back from wherever he disappeared to last year), but that might just be because my opinion was colored by the extreme amazing fabulousity of the Asleep at the Wheel show that had deafened and delighted me beforehand. It's hard to say.

Oh, how I will miss live music like that. It's not like I go to shows all the time anymore, now that I have a baby, but it's so so nice to be able to get a babysitter whenever and then have so many great options. I'm cheered that at least we might get to see Asleep at the Wheel in Ann Arbor this fall. (I think that Mr. PL kind of identifies with Ray Benson just a little. He might be from Michigan, but Texas has worked its way all the way into his soul. He's gone native, I suppose, and now there's no going back. The heat still gets to him, though.)

Squee squee squee!!!!!!!

2006-07-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

I am the luckiest girl in the world tonight! We got our babysitter for the only date she was available before our impending exile from Texas...Monday night. Well, when I looked to see if there were any good shows Monday night, I was blown away! Asleep at the Wheel! And then, a few lines down on the list, Dale Watson! Eeeeeek!

Since this is our Last Big Texas Hurrah and possibly our last date for a while (and certainly our last date where there is any possibility of killer live music), we're going to try to hit both shows! I just bought the Asleep at the Wheel tickets. Both shows are quite reasonably priced and start two hours apart, so it won't be too unreasonable to try to see a good portion of each.

I am so busting out one of my cowboy hats for the occasion (and if I'm feeling cute enough, I'll post a picture).

Unexpected Pleasures

2006-07-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

I've had two unexpected pleasures lately...

I picked up Calvin Trillin's Tummy Trilogy and it is such a delight. The man loves food and loves the kind of things I think are really at the heart of American cookery. His description of scrapple inspired me to actually make my own (my first adventure cooking pigs' feet and using a meat grinder...it was pretty tasty). He actually mentions a few places I've eaten or have intended to eat at (most of them for years).

Also, I had Amy's frozen cheese enchiladas. (Sometimes we do eat frozen at lunch.) Sooooo good. A close runner up to my mom's (but mom's are flat with a fried egg on top as nature intended).

Mmmmm....

Famvangelism

2006-07-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've fallen victim to a disease that strikes happily married people...I've become a famvangelist. Suddenly, I've found myself hoping that all my single friends get married and that all my married friends have kids/more kids. I've talked up having babies ("No, you don't have to quit being selfish! You just add another person to your selfishness. And people are more accommodating to your selfishness, because now you can claim you're doing it for the baby.") to practically anyone I think might be an adequate candidate for parenthood.

Back when I was a footloose singleton, I could never have imagined myself being quite so pro-marriage/baby-having. Now, I start to wonder if something is wrong with people who don't have kids. (I know, some of you are waiting until you're ready, blah blah blah, but let me assure you that you are never, ever, ever ready. Never. But you do it anyway and it's amazing.)

Fat Pants

2006-07-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

I just have to share a personal triumph with y'all, so here goes: Last night I was laying out my clothes for the morning and decided that, since I've dropped a few pounds lately, I'd try to wear some of my pre-marriage pants, namely my pre-marriage fat pants. (Yes, I mark weight from before and after marriage...the baby weight came off pretty quick, but the happily married weight has been more stubborn!) So, this morning when my cute little alarm clock started shouting "Moo!" and "Bubbles!" and making other general "I'm awake, let's play," noises, I rolled out of bed and went to get dressed as quietly as I could so as not to wake the late-working Mr. PL.

The punchline: my old fat pants are too big. Unwearably too big, in fact. I had to stealthily try to extract some old less-fat pants from the closet just to get dressed.

Woo!

Food Elitism, Again

2006-07-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

I'm glad that Dreher has (again?) taken up the subject of the cost of eating crunchy. So glad, in fact, that I'll even link him! I'm not sure I buy the smaller portions business and I don't (as usual) like Dreher's tone, but the post is worth reading and mulling over.

What aren't worth reading are the comments. Dreher and his commentors are snarky, unpleasant, and (at times) dogmatic. I wanted to jump in, but just could stomach all the iterations of "my way is the right way." So, I'll say my bit here.

Non-crunchies, it's time to admit that Dreher and others are right that processed food IS more expensive than cooking your own from whole ingredients. Does everyone have the time to cook from scratch? No, but the question, as Lydia has pointed out in comments and in her own posts, is why don't people have the time. The answer, as near as I can make out, is that they are working to maintain a lifestyle that excludes things like cooking from scratch from their range of options. Working, in other words, to afford the Hamburger Helper and Oreos that are an inferior substitute for homemade food. But lifestyle choices aren't everyone's problem. For some people, the food budget just is one of the places to squeeze out extra costs that they truly cannot afford, including free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, and local dairy. (The short version: not all poor people are mindless victims of the industrial-food consumer culture!)

Crunchies, it's time to acknowledge the implication of your sacramental view of food: processed/industrial food eaters are bound to feel judged by you when you tell them that their eating choices are a denial of all that is good and holy. Furthermore, even though homecooking is pretty easy, you don't make it sound easy. My experience is that you make it sound as fancy and exotic as possible, maybe because you think it sounds cooler and more appealing when the names are in French and the ingredients are "artisanal."

Look, it really is true that shopping around the outside of the store and cooking yourself will save you money. Sometimes, buying at the farmer's market or the health food store (or Whole Foods, if you've got one, but most of America hasn't got one) is also less expensive. A varied shopping strategy keeps my family's food costs down and we eat "real" food most all of the time. But my husband and I are graduate students with a child that we choose not to put into daycare and so we cannot afford to eat as "pure" as we (or crunchy foodists) would like. I'm happy with our choice and happy with our food.

An Interesting Little Experiment Over at Eat Local

2006-07-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

Here.

I'm glad that the author was below the national average food cost, but I wonder if she would be as satisfied with her costs if she were more serious about keeping her food purchases within a certain budget. Maybe she would; after all, eating local generally involves cooking from scratch and we all know that that is much less expensive overall. I also understand that for some people, the farmer's market is a less-expensive source for their produce. Here, however, it's the pricey, fancy, boutique place for yuppies. (Do I shop there? Heck yeah!) I'm hoping that the farmer's markets will be more affordable in the midwest.

58 ounces (Long live roadside kitsch!)

2006-07-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

That's how much steak my older brother ate Monday at The Big Texan. Alas, no free steak for him! It was impressive, though, and he would have had no problem finishing it if he weren't totally grossed out by steak (qua steak) about 50 ounces in. He more or less couldn't go on after 30 minutes. In other words, he was strong out of the gate, but just couldn't eat that much of one food, regardless of how much time he had.

The MiniLogician got a pink cowboy hat and pink pearl-handled cap pistol (the handle was pink and pearly, that is) and generally had a good time with her cousins, aunts, uncles, nana, and grandpa.

Now, I'm sure someone reading out there is finding it weird that I'm all crunchy about food in the post below, but celebrating my brother's attempt at astounding consumption of (no doubt) genetically-modified beef with pre-fab side dishes. Shouldn't I be cheering him on as he tries to eat 72oz of organic lentils at Veggie Heaven? Uh, no. First of all, my brother wouldn't eat lentils and I can respect that. Second, as nice as Veggie Heaven is, it isn't a Texas icon. I think that The Big Texan is something uniquely Texas, one of those small, local things that I want to preserve, even if it isn't totally in line with all of my culinary values. Is it tacky? Heck, yeah! But it was fun and local and real and quirky. So long live The Big Texan and Ozarkland and Cherokee Trading Post!

Happy Fourth, everybody.

AWOL

2006-07-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

I'm about to disappear for a few days to go celebrate my brother's fortieth birthday. I'm only saying so because I have been known to vanish into the internet-ether for long periods of time without warning. Now, I'm warning you that I'll be back on Friday.

In the mean time, here's something for all the folks still ruminating on the whole home-cooked food thing: I'm starting to get the feeling from Dreher's blog (and the comments there) and from some comments here, that nothing short of gourmet cooking is sufficient to save American culinary civilization. That is, it'll take an America familiar with truffle-infused olive oil to rescue our palates, not just regular gals like me trying to perfect their apple pies or chicken and dumplings. What say you, readers new and old?

You must be from Texas.

2006-06-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Now that we're fixin' to leave Texas, I've been thinking quite a bit about what it means to be a Texan and what it will mean to leave my home state. One memory in particular sums up much of how I see myself as a Texan.

The year before we were married, Mr. PL and I made a trip to Fred's Lounge in Mamou, Louisiana to see the Cajun radio show that's broadcast live there every Saturday morning. The music was wonderful, the beer was cheap, and everyone was friendly. We were chatting with a man who had come to Fred's with his brother to honor the memory of their father, a musician who had played at Fred's many times. He asked me to dance.

While we were on the dance floor, he looked at me and said, "You must be from Texas."

"I am," I replied, "how did you know?"

"Texas girls always smile when they dance."

I think that about says it all.

The best part of that trip was watching the radio show, which was broadcast in French. The show was sponsored by a Piggly Wiggly store and periodically, in the midst of a long string of speedy French, the announcer would say "Piggly Wiggly" with an accent and I would howl with laughter. If you're ever even remotely close, I strongly recommend Fred's, especially if it's near Mardi Gras. Sadly, the restaurant across the street, which served the best gumbo I've ever had, has closed. A local butcher just a couple blocks away is a great place to get some boudin and the walk over is a nice way to take a break from the closed, smoky whirl of people dancing away their Saturday morning.

Crunchy Food

2006-06-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

So, let's start with what I kind of liked about Crunchy Cons. The chapter on food was probably my favorite, mostly because I am (like most people, I think) obsessed with food. Mr. PL can tell you all about the way I go on and on about perfecting my tortilla-making skills, getting my hands on fresh parsnips, or comparing the merits of biscuit-type to noodle-type dumplings. The interviews with local organic farmers are interesting (and it's true of the book in general that the interviews are the best part) and Dreher's critique of industrialized food production is compelling. I guess I just can't whip myself in to a frenzy of despair about the future of American homecooking.

Like Dreher, I was delighted to discover the joys of locally grown produce and am now addicted to the intense, fresh flavor of the fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and meats I can obtain at my local farmers market. Also like Dreher, as I get older, I take cooking and eating much more seriously as both a social activity and an expression of love.

Unlike Dreher, however, who laments the loss of home-cooking knowledge because of his mother's generation's interest in better food through science (where science is just a term for pre-processed, pre-packaged, commercially-made, flavorless slop designed to further the interests of the food industry), I did receive some traditional culinary wisdom from my own mother (and still do from her and my mothers-in-law). My mother cooked her family things that her grandmother made, exotic things (especially for Texans of Austrian descent) like pasties. Sometimes we made homemade jam or ice cream (events that I look back on very fondly and hope to repeat with my own children) and my father grew tomatoes, peppers, and giant pumpkins in our backyard. The vast majority of our meals were home-cooked by one or both of my parents and my family was not exceptional.

I guess this is a problem with anecdotal evidence. Clearly, while growing up Dreher knew a set of people who had abandoned homecooking for the sterilized world of pre-packaged food. Now, I'm a little younger than Dreher (although by his reasoning I should have had even less real food, not more), but I take it we're from the same economic class and pretty much the same part of the country. I don't think that my experience was terribly exceptional. My husband is right between Dreher and I in age and is from (gasp!) the North (okay, the upper Midwest) and his mother and stepmother (not to mention his aunts) are exceptional cooks.

I know that I, for one, have succumbed to the self-congratulation that comes with cooking my own family healthy, delicious, inexpensive meals from local, fresh, socially and environmentally responsible foods. Sometimes I feel like I've discovered a great secret that no one else knows. Then I talk to other people and find out that I'm really not as special as I thought. Sadly, I think this is the difference between Rod Dreher and me - I've realized I'm not as exceptional as all that. Oh, and he wrote a whole chapter in a book about it.

Just a Quick Howler from Crunchy Cons

2006-06-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

I'm pressed for time, so I'll start my Crunchy Cons-mania with this awesome quote from the "Home" chapter:

"To drive down our old street, or almost residential street built in Dallas after the Second World War, is to encounter a monosyllabic pattern language that says the same word, over and over, efficiency."

Oh yeah, baby, there's nothing more monosyllabic than efficiency.

Coming out of hibernation, at last...

2006-06-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

And many thanks to Rod Dreher, whose Crunchy Cons has irritated me enough to get me blogging again. Posts on the book to follow soon. In the meantime, I hear that Mr. Dreher is considering conversion to Orthodoxy. I think that he would do well to take a page (well, yet another page) from the Kirks of Mecosta.

The Kirk family attends mass at the local Catholic parish, St. Michael the Archangel in Remus, Michigan. Now, when I lived in Mecosta, I too attended St. Michael's and it was, hands down, the worst worst WORST parish I have ever attended. Ever. Really. We're talking hand motions with worship songs (songs undeserving of the term "hymn"), an ancient keyboardist whose "instrument" seemed constantly stuck on the Whitesnake-album setting, the ubiquitous smiley risen Jesus replacing the crucifix behind the altar, and the processing of a cross (it wasn't a crucifix, by any means) with a figure on it that my husband and I not-so-affectionately referred to as "tiki-head Jesus" and "Easter Island Jesus" by turns.

When I asked Mrs. Kirk why she stayed there at St. Michael's, why she didn't go down to Grand Rapids for a Latin mass or a visit to one of the nicer ethnic churches, she would usually say "It's gotten much better."

It's gotten much better.

There was, to me, something sad, but impressive and ultimately profoundly good about Mrs. Kirk's persistence. I was saddened to think that St. Michael's had ever been worse, but it was heartening to know that this great woman was sticking it out in her little corner of the Catholic world. It was her parish and no warbling hippies were going to run her off of her duty or her commitment. She took the long view, and gracefully, and I hope to always imitate her.

The scandals of the Church, its awful music, its vacuous homilies, its watery non-enforcement of its own tenets are really just tiny blips in the history of the Church. I don't mean to minimize them. The abuse scandals arose from as horrible a set of happenings as can be imagined and no one detests Marty Haugen more than I do, but the bottom line is that the Catholic Church has lasted twenty centuries, preserved in truth and guided by the Holy Spirit. It will continue to last and will right itself or will be righted by God. This righting is why we should stay, why we must stay. To do otherwise is to refocus our efforts on self-fulfillment, to jump the difficult ship and swim for the waters where "the worship speaks to me" or "my spiritual life isn't plagued by conflict" or "this church is doing things the way I think they should be done." This is not what we are called to as Catholics or Christians.

Granted, I'm saying all of this from my comfortable pew at St. Mary's Cathedral, where the worship does speak to me and my spiritual life isn't plagued by conflict and where the church is doing things the way I think they should be done. But I did my time at St. Michael's and I have no doubt that, as my little family moves around after our degrees are complete, I'll do more time at some other St. Michael's. I'll complain about it, too. But my baptism was a commitment to what I believe to be the true Church, a commitment renewed in my confirmation, my marriage, and the baptism of my child in that Church. I take that commitment to oblige me to fight for truth, even if I must suffer all sorts of indignity to do so.

Happy Mother's Day!

2006-05-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, especially my mom (and moms-in-law)! Real posting will resume here after final exams are graded.

I've been thinking...

2006-03-21T05:17:00.000-08:00

about food lately. (Okay, I think about food all the time.) About buying food, mainly. Via Local Harvest, I've discovered a local organic delivery service that we might try, although I kind of enjoy my weekly trip to the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market, so maybe I'll skip it.

I've also been thinking about getting a Sam's Club membership. Looks like it would pay for itself in diaper savings alone (I know, disposable diapers bad, don't bother lecturing me). Also, Sam's seems to have an excellent selection of meat (and boy, do we like meat). Anyway, if you know anything about either Sam's or Austin Organic Delivery, let me know.

I see London, I see France...

2006-03-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, I really just see Oxford and rural Devon, but who cares! The Logician family has just returned from a long visit to England. The MiniLogician was especially good at traveling (the PinkLogician gets a bit nervous when she's away from home too long) and elicited comments from people everywhere we went about how pretty, friendly, smart, and well-behaved she is. We had read that the English prefer dogs to babies and were expecting people to be annoyed by the MiniL, but quite the opposite was true. Here's a picture of the MiniL being passed around a pub by its proprietress:

Here's the whole family just after having a pint in honor of St. Patrick's day (at 10AM in a 13th century pub):

Finally, here's a good picture of the ladyLogicians riding a bus (not very English-y, but a great picture of both of us):

Overall, I just can't get over how nice everyone we met was (and how hard it was to drive on the left side of the road). The MiniL can't get over all the pigeons she saw everywhere. ("Birdie! Birdie!")

(Addendum: we didn't spend much time in pubs at all...these are pictures of our two pub visits. They just happen to be some of the most fun pictures we got. Just didn't want anyone to think we spent ten days taking our baby out drinking.)

Yay!

2006-03-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

A good day all around today. We recieved our sling and it's great. The MiniL seems bemused at being toted around hands-free. My grading is almost finished (my students did okay) and we made yogurt using this recipe. It worked great! I used the heating pad method and it took about 7 hours of incubation. The yogurt is smooth and mild. Yum!

Walking Boss

2006-03-06T11:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know if this is just an about-to-walk thing, but the MiniL has been crabby and, for lack of a better word, bossy lately. She likes to be carried all the time and likes to tell me (by pointing) where to go and what she wants. Urgh! I'm waiting for our new sling to arrive, so maybe that'll help (my arm at least)!

Geeked

2006-03-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today, I'm totally geeked. I ordered a sling from slinglings.com and it's already winging its way to me! I also picked up a nice used copy of Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food. I've only read a little, but I'm definitely intrigued. Also on the reading list are Home Comforts (the most excellent housekeeping manual I've encountered) and Great Expectations (which I really liked in high school, but haven't read since).

I'm just feeling good, energetic, and excited about my life right now.

Because I'm a bad graduate student...

2006-02-22T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'm posting here rather than working on my dissertation. It's amazing just how many ways there are not to write your dissertation! The universities should offer a degree in it!

So, the new priest (see all the boo-hooing about losing Fr. Albert below) seems pretty good. There's something really familiar about Fr. Patrick, but I just can't put my finger on where I might know him from.

Everywhere I go right now, there's all sorts of buzz about the new Crunchy Cons book. I'm not linking to it and I won't talk too much about it until I've read it, but the whole thing irritates me. Look, we're crunchy cons by every definition (except the ones with Grateful Dead requirements), but this category just seems to be a new gloss on an old phenomenon: paleoconservativism or traditionalist conservativism. Mr. PL and I have talked quite a bit about this lately and it just seems to us to be a category for people who are conservative, but are also desperate to be cool (where cool seems to mean liked by aging hippies). Plus, all the buzz seems a bit artificial, almost as if some bright ad man has started up some conservative internet street teams to get the word out. Not very crunchy, if you ask me.

MiniL, crazy cat lady in training

2006-02-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking...

2006-02-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

But not blogging. Here's a brief rundown of what's been on my mind lately:

My students are currently finishing a unit on diversity/affirmative action. Lately, I've been worrying that, although they might come to the university with diverse viewpoints, they leave with the same relativism-infected, semi-utilitarian, contractualist outlook. I know that many of them need to learn to think broadly while they're in college, but I worry that they may end up so open-minded that it's just lots of wind blowing around between their ears.

Also, I've been thinking more and more about the future of the LogicianFamily. I'd like to have more miniLs (God willing) and a big old house to raise them in, but it isn't totally clear where or how we're going to make our life. Mostly, I just want us to be happy (and also to be healthy and super-cool). (I just realized it might sound like we're in dire need of making a life, but we're comfortable, just not sure where and what we're going to end up.)

Finally, I've been thinking about getting a sling for the miniL to ride around in. Mostly, I'd just like the use of my left arm back and the BabyBjorn is too hard on my back. I need something I can use to hold her on my hip, so if you've got any suggestions, let me know.

Lazy, lazy blogger...

2006-02-02T05:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm not that bad, but I certainly haven't been making this blog a priority lately (or ever). Oh well, at least I'm getting other things done. I finally got around to assembling my dissertation committee, I passed a milestone birthday, and I'm almost done hustling my first group of students through their moot court (trial's today).

Take the bull by the horns

2006-01-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

So, that's what happened to my foot: it took the bull by the horns. Last weekend, Mr. PL and I bought a nice (big) pair of steer horns to adorn the wall about our bookshelves. We didn't have time to hang them up before mass, so Mr. PL laid them out near the dining room table. Sadly, as I was rushing around getting ready for mass, I ran directly into one of the points and tore a gash in my left foot. Instead of mass, we spent about 3 hours in the emergency room downtown (and then about 40 minutes at the Heart Hospital ER, where there was no wait) and I got three stitches.

The ER staff was both impressed and amused by my novel injury.

So, I got to spend the first week back to school be driven as close to my classes as possible by Mr. PL and the MiniL and hobbling from class to class like a giant dork. Blegh.

Flamingo Me

2006-01-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

After an interesting accident (so interesting it gets it's own post later), I've got three stitches and am standing around on one foot (or, mostly, sitting around with my feet up). I feel like a flamingo, but the miniL seems entertained by trying to snatch my foot and pull the bandages off.

ChristmasLogician

2005-12-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

A visitor for the MiniL and other Christmas preparations

2005-12-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry the blogging has been sparse (I guess this apology is mainly for my mom, who is the main person who reads this...so, sorry Mom!). We've had a visitor; Mr. PL's brother Mr. FishBiologist came to visit. A lovely time was had by all, especially the MiniL, who adored her Uncle Fish so much. I've never seen MiniL respond to someone so positively! Every time she'd look at her uncle, she'd giggle and coo and squirm with delight.

We're getting ready to head out to my parents for the holiday and Mr. PL's mom and stepdad will be meeting us there. It's so exciting to have our first Christmas with the baby with so much of our family all together. We'll see if the MiniL understands any of what's going on.

Christmas Spirit

2005-12-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a short break in today's Christmas candy mania to note that the moonbat (see sidebar) is clearly in a festive mood. Be sure to press his buttons and see what he says.

Seems right.

2005-12-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

You scored as New Catholic. The years following the Second Vatican Council was a time of collapse of the Catholic faith and its traditions. But you are a young person who has rediscovered this lost faith, probably due to the evangelization of Pope John Paul II. You are enthusiastic, refreshing, and somewhat traditional, and you may be considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. You reject relativism and the decline in society that you see among your peers. You are seen as being good for the Church.

A possible problem is that you may have a too narrow a view of orthodoxy, and anyway, you are still a youth and not yet mature in your faith.

New Catholic

81%

Traditional Catholic

74%

Neo-Conservative Catholic

50%

Radical Catholic

38%

Lukewarm Catholic

29%

Evangelical Catholic

21%

Liberal Catholic

What is your style of American Catholicism?
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Bummed (Commence Whining)

2005-12-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

Man, am I bummed out. We went to mass this evening (my turn to be lector this week) and, although the MiniL decided that the right time to practice her throaty roar was in the middle of the longest passage with the most commas I've ever had to read, it was a lovely mass.

That is until Fr. Bud announced that Fr. Albert, the assistant pastor and homilist extraordinaire and just really neat person who we've been intending to get to know better, is being reassigned to a parish in Waco. Waaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

I know it's the next step in Fr. Albert becoming pastor of a parish someday and I know that the bishop knows the needs of the parishes and priests better than I do, but waaaaaaahhhhhh anyway. I'm going to miss hearing homilies on the evils of artificial contraception (unless the new priest we're trading him for gives them).

Hmmm. Actually, I can never understand a word of Msgr. M's homilies. Maybe they've all been about contraception.

Waaaaahhhh!

Brk brk brk!

2005-12-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

You are the the Swedish Chef.
You are a talented individual, nobody understands
you. Perhaps it's because you talk funny.

FAVORITE EXPRESSION:
"Brk! Brk! Brk!"
HOBBIES:
Kokin' der yummee-yummers

FAVORITE MOVIE:
"Wild Strawberries...and Creme"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Der Swedish Chef Kokin' Bokin'"

QUOTE:
"Vergoofin der flicke stoobin mit der brk-brk
yubetcha!"

What Muppet are you?
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PrettyL

2005-12-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

About Cowgirls

2005-12-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

Mr. PL and I went out last night for our first real date since we had the MiniL. We ate queso flameado and got bumped into a lot while dancing to Dale Watson and had a lovely grown-up time. Since I had my boots on (and a big ol' beltbuckle), the topic of the attractiveness of cowgirls came up.

Here's the upshot: I think that of all the iconic sexy woman types, the cowgirl stands alone as the only desirable equal. Think about it. Cheerleaders, schoolgirls, and French maids are all lower on the power structure than the men who desire them. Nurses and school teachers are above those men. The cowgirl, however, is a peer and is appealing for her ability to be feminine while doing a man's work.

Seems to me like there's something interesting there. (/half-bakery)

Caught!

2005-12-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

The MiniL was just sitting at my feet being unreasonably quiet. So quiet, in fact, that I looked down to see what she was up to. Usually, when this happens, she's about to lick a supposedly baby-proofed light socket or she's pulling clumps of hair off the poor long-suffering logicat. Today, she was reading a book, her little head bent and her finger pointing at the words on the page.

Now there's some mischief I can live with!

Kinky...

2005-12-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

No, this isn't about the Texas gubernatorial race. I just want to publicly record some of the ways folks have found their way to my little piece of web real estate. The most interesting searches: "wild wife" (um, right) and "housewife 1 on 2" (I don't even want to know).

I'm glad to see that housewives are at least considered sexy, albeit by internet porn-surfing kinkmonsters.

Professor Pinklogician, PhD?

2005-12-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Maybe someday. (Although it looks more like I'd enjoy Housewife PinkLogician, PhD.) In the mean time, there is the dissertation to write. If you're curious about what my dissertation is about, check out these two posts by Max Goss, the superbrilliant editor over at Right Reason. Max gives a very good overview of my theory and the commentors give a pretty good go at the standard objections to it.

Classes and blogging

2005-12-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

I keep thinking maybe I should set up a blog for one of the classes I assist at the University of Logicians. I ran the idea past my students last semester and half of them didn't know what a blog was. (Shocking!) It was a logic class anyway and I'm not sure I wanted to be typing a bunch of symbols into blogger every week.

Next semester, however, is a different matter. I'm assisting philosophy of law with the awesome Rob Koons and it's a class that seems especially amenable to discussion via blog. I think rather than floating the idea past my students first, I'll just do it and give them instructions at the first discussion meeting.

Why blog a class when I already have discussion and office hour? Well, this is the age of email and I get a huge number of emails from my students every semester. Over the course of the semester, I get asked every question several times (and I'm sure that there are students who don't ask some of those questions, but still need to know their answers!). It just seems like having students ask questions about the material via blog would create a nice repository information for students to refer to (and would reduce the overall work I've got to do).

I'll keep ya' posted about how it works.

Back (Seven 7s)

2005-12-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well, that was basically a semester-long break, but I'm back. I've been called out of hibernation by Matthew Mullins to do one of those meme thingees. So, here it is:

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Have more kids.
2. Get a really good hairstyle and keep it forever.
3. Write a novel.
4. Finish my dissertation.
5. Perfect the art of baking cakes.
6. Learn another language (maybe a non-dead one?).
7. Find or make a house I truly love and want to live in forever.

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Whistle
2. Draw
3. Pronounce the words "cement" or "umbrella" like a Yankee
4. Take deconstructionism seriously
5. Start reading a novel and not finish it, even if it stinks (except On the Road, which sucked so hard even I couldn't finish it).
6. Keep houseplants alive.
7. Resist my own chocolate chip cookies.

Seven things that attract me to Mr. PL:
1. His giant pulsating superbrain
2. His sexy smile
3. His incredible kindness
4. Sometimes he even likes my curmudgeonliness
5. His awesome tush
6. His steadfast faith
7. Two words: chest hair

Seven things I say most often:
1. No problem
2. I love you
3. hoo hoo hoo (we make lots of monkey noises in our house right now)
4. Boo-gar! (the logicat)
5. So, what can I do now? (I ask my students this all the time)
6. Any questions? (also for my students)
7. okay

Seven books (or series) I love:
1. The Phantom Tollbooth
2. The Brothers Karamazov
3. The Dubliners
4. The Betty Crocker New Picture Cook Book (1961)
5. Winnie the Pooh/House at Pooh Corner
6. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
7. What's So Great About America (I cried at the end.)

Seven movies I watch over and over again: (Or would watch over and over if I had the time)
1. Barcelona
2. Metropolitan
3. The Graduate
4. The Philadephia Story (Hepburn, Stewart, Grant, please)
5. How to Marry a Millionaire
6. Citizen Kane
7. Sabrina (Bogie...mmmmmmm....)

Seven people I want to join in, too:
I'll admit it, I've got almost no virtual friends (other than Matthew...thank you!)
That sounded bad, so let me clarify by saying that I do have real friends, but not so many online ones.

So, maybe I'll start posting here again and maybe I'll do it regularly. Things are finally starting to calm down on the childrearing front, so I may actually have time to indulge in some hobbies. Amazing.

Also, but of course...

2005-07-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Just made Mr. PL take the Incredibles quiz. The result was, predictably, this:

Which Incredibles Character Are You?
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But of course, dahling!

2005-07-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

You Are Incredibly Logical

(You got 100% of the questions right)

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic

You think rationally, clearly, and quickly.

A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

Dreaming of Derivations

2005-07-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

But of course, dahling!

2005-07-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

Which Incredibles Character Are You?
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Memed!

2005-07-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

I've been memed! And it's a particularly interesting meme, too. I'm still figuring out what all the numbers mean, but looks like politically I'm a bit less conservative (is that possible?) and a bit less authoritarian than Matthew (who tagged me) and psychologically, I'm more of a girl (shocking!). Anyway, here's the info.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overview: This post is a community experiment with two broad purposes. The first is to create publicly accessible data about bloggers' personalities, which may have sociological value in addition to being just plain fun. The second is to track the propagation of this meme through blogspace. Full details and explanation can be found on the original posting: http://pixnaps.blogspot.com/2005/06/meme-worth-spreading.html

Instructions (to join in the experiment):

1) Take the IPIP-NEO personality test and the Political Compass quiz, if you have not done so already.

2) Copy to the clipboard that section of this post that is between the double lines, and paste it into your blog editor. (Blogger users may wish to use 'compose' mode to preserve formatting and hyperlinks. Otherwise, be sure to add hyperlinks as necessary.)

3) Replace the answers in the "survey" section below with your own.

4) Add your blog information to the "track list", in the form: "Linked title - URL - optional GUID".

5) Any additional comments should go outside of the double lines, including the (optional) nomination of bloggers you wish to pass this experimental meme on to.

6) Post it to your blog!

Survey:

Age: 29
Gender: Female
Location: Texas/Michigan
Religion: Catholic
Occupation: Mommy/Graduate Student
Began blogging (dd/mm/yy): 03/04

Political Compass results
Left/Right: 3.13
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -.10

IPIP-NEO results

EXTRAVERSION: 54
Friendliness 62
Gregariousness 47
Assertiveness 67
Activity Level 38
Excitement-Seeking 29
Cheerfulness 71

AGREEABLENESS: 35
Trust 66
Morality 58
Altruism 46
Cooperation 27
Modesty 39
Sympathy 9

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: 85
Self-Efficacy 74
Orderliness 92
Dutifulness 78
Achievement-Striving 25
Self-Discipline 79
Cautiousness 87

NEUROTICISM: 46
Anxiety 55
Anger 31
Depression 44
Self-Consciousness 54
Immoderation 49
Vulnerability 58

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE: 1
Imagination 13
Artistic Interests 29
Emotionality 1
Adventurousness 16
Intellect 75
Liberalism 0

Track List:
1. Philosophy, et cetera - pixnaps.blogspot.com - pixnaps97a2
2. Parableman - parablemania.ektopos.com - p8r8bl9m8n18
3. Matthew Mullins - matthew.ektopos.com - mu11in5
4. PinkLogician - pinklogician.blogspot.com

MiniMilestone

2005-07-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

The miniL has been zooming through baby milestones lately (hence the sparse blogging). We've had teething (although still no teeth, just little gummy bumps), turning over, raspberries, and, last night, for the first time, solid food. Can't say that rice cereal looks all that appealing to me, but the miniL was obviously thrilled to finally get some real food.

Before the big solid-food event, our family had one of those moments I hope I remember forever, Mr. PL, miniL, and I went out to pick black raspberries (they grow wild near our house). Mr. PL and I spread a blanket (made by my grandma) out for the miniL and put her down near us. While we talked and picked berries, the miniL drifted off to sleep. It was just idyllic.

I saw Touchdown Jesus!

2005-06-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

The whole LogicianFamily went to Notre Dame this week for a little visit. (It's just a few hours away from here.) It was quite pleasant there, except when MiniLogician and I got lost and ended up driving all around South Bend's rather extensive ghetto trying to find a nice spot for the MiniL to have her lunch. Everything turned out okay, though, and overall it was a fun little trip.

Notre Dame is neat...not to ostentatiously college-y, but appropriately university-like. (I'm not sure how else to put it.) And subtley Catholic, which was extra neat. There was a crucifix in our hotel room and in the classrooms Mr. PL saw and we discovered the beautiful grotto just in time to see the daily rosary there.

It would be really nice to be in a community that is both academic and committedly Catholic. I guess if I can't find one after we finish our PhDs, I'll have to make one!

Children of the Corn

2005-05-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

My husband is convinced I hate old people. I would like to say, right now, for the record, that I DO NOT hate old people. I think it's important to say that now, since I'm about to complain about (you guessed it) old people. Don't worry, I'll save my social security/AARP rant for another post.

So, as I've mentioned, I was in town on Saturday doing some shopping with the MiniL. One of the items we had been asked to obtain for Mr. PL's Memorial Day barbecue was corn on the cob. Little did I know, the local megastore was having a big sale on corn. Gathered around the sale corn were about five thousand older ladies, all jostling to get to the corn display (which comfortably accomodated about 3 people). So, like a good little shopper, I hopped in line and waited my turn. As I waited, the amount of corn in the bins swiftly decreased and the ladies around me began audible grumbling about the quality of the corn.

"It's all picked over!" they said. (Why, yes it is, I thought, you just witnessed the picking!)

"Why don't they bring out more?" they whined. (Perhaps because the giant crowd of bargain hunting old ladies has blocked any possibility of the store's staff being able to see how much corn is in the bins, much less access said bins for refilling?)

After quite a bit of this unpleasant grumbling and quite a bit of equally unpleasant grumbling from my formerly sleeping MiniLogician, I decided to scrap the sale corn idea and just shell out the extra dollar for pre-shucked corn in plastic wrap. Sadly, to get to the pricey corn, I still had to muscle my way through the throng of cranky old biddies griping about the produce management. I screwed up my courage (okay, the crying baby screwed it up for me) and pushed through the crowd and grabbed the first pack of corn my hand touched. Mission accomplished!

Accomplished, but not, apparently, to the satisfaction of the biddy corps. Not a few gave me nasty looks, as if I had broken the grocery shoppers' bylaws or something. No doubt the prepacked corn made me a wastrel, wasting my hard earned money on fancy pants plastic coated corn cobs.

Well, dang it, I am not a wastrel, and, I dare say, in their zeal to save thirty cents on corn, it was the members of the biddy corps who were being wasteful. Spending 20 minuted in line to save even $1 on corn translates to a payrate of only $3 per hour. Would I work for $3 an hour? No way! And certainly not with a crying baby and better things to do with myself.

So take that, old people! And quit ignoring stop signs!

The Femullet

2005-05-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday I was reminded of a people-watching game that I heard mentioned by a comedienne some time back: Lesbian or Midwesterner? It's a holiday weekend and so when I went into town with the MiniL two excellent people-watching conditions obtained:

1. Lots of traffic in downtown "Small River" (the nearest place to the conservative compound we live at this year that has any shopping to speak of). This means I spent lots of time sitting at lights watching the world go by.

2. Fine weather here, so everyone was out and about and available for my watching.

Anyway, one of the things that has really struck me here in Michigan is how different women here look (on average) than women back home in Texas look (on average). Now the Lesbian-or-Midwesterner? game makes sense! There is a whole class of women who apparently appear regularly in public in some variation on a plaid shirt, tapered jeans, and fancy hiking boot ensemble. I can only hope that the look they are going for is "I'm-outdoorsy-and-hearty" and not "don't-try-it-'cuz-my-girlfriend-will-mess-you-up." And they all have the same hairdo, the femullet.

The femullet is just about as unflattering as a woman's hairdo can get and I'm constantly mystified that hairdressers are willing to do this to women foolish enough to ask for it (although have seen hairdressers with this 'do....eek!). Short on top, shorter still on the sides, and longish, but still kind of short, in the back, it's just the cut to make a girl look as much like a monkey as possible. A male monkey.

I just don't get it. I realize that Southern women (and Texas women, in particular) are know for their attention to their looks, but I can't get over the seeming inattention of the women here. I mean, you don't have to dress up to go to the grocery store, but many of the women I saw Saturday were out with their (I presume) husband or boyfriend obviously having a day on the town! Sure that merits a smear of mascara and some tinted moisturizer! What is it about this place that makes women so casual about their appearances?

Again, I'm not advocating a change to Lubbock-big hair nationwide, nor the abandonment of an apparent sporty ideal for the gals of Northern Michigan. It just seems like the women here are unnecessarily unappealing.

Germ-free

2005-05-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we all survived our first cold. I'm impressed with how chipper the MiniL was, considering that she can't take medicine for it and she can't yet blow her nose. More proof that my baby is the best ever. (I should create a "Proof-that-my-baby-is-the-best" category for these postings.)

On a completely unrelated note, I was happy to see Sergio Mora win the million on The Contender last night. Someday soon I'll stop watching so much TV and not care about stuff like this, but if you're mostly housebound and mentally half-there, The Contender was about as high quality as entertainment gets.

More kids, coming soon...

2005-05-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

Although this time someone else has given birth to them!

The fall semester is rapidly approaching and so my mind is turning to the class I'll be assisting: Very Introductory Logic. Now, let me say that I love logic and I love these intro classes (and I love working for the fabulous Fred Kronz, a nice man and excellent teacher), but I have, in the past, been known to mother my students just a little bit. It's going to be interesting to see if I will this semester, given that I have an outlet for mothering at home now who sucks up lots of my time and energy.

Anyway, expecting interesting stories from the frontlines of the American university soon. Maybe I'll write a few posts this summer detailing my usual classroom style just to get all three of my readers ready and to avoid long explanations later (my classes are a tiny bit unorthodox).

Germs!

2005-05-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Poor little MiniLogician has a cold. I pretty sure I'm more upset about it than she is (she's mostly just sleepier and snortier than usual at this point), but I guess that's life as a mom.

Anyone have a baby cold home remedy to share?

Who are your heroes?

2005-05-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Had an intersting chat this morning with Mr. PinkLogician. It started like this:

Mr. PinkLogician: I blogged about one of your heroes this morning.

Me: Fonzie?

Mr. PL: No.

Me: Mr. Spock?

Mr. PL: No. It rhymes with Fonzie.

Me: Johnny Fever?

Mr. PL: No. Don't you have any heroes that are women?

Me: Dolly Parton?

Mr. PL: It doesn't really rhyme with Fonzie, actually. Maybe you should just read it.

Anyway, turns out he was referring to Condoleezza Rice, who I think totally rocks, but who doesn't pop to mind (yet) when I'm making a list of heroes. Here's Mr. PL's blog post.

Weird

2005-05-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

The MiniLogician has suddenly switched to being a southpaw. She now sucks her left thumb and swats at things with her left hand.

Abso-freakin'-lutely!

2005-05-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Fr. Jim Tucker has an excellent post on Latin in the mass. Contrary to popular belief, parishes do not need special permission to say the mass in Latin and the documents of Vatican II actually have very nice things to say about the coolest language ever!

Those who know me know my love of all things Latin. I wouldt have named the blog PinkLatinist, but it doesn't sound nearly as cool as PinkLogician (and logic's what they pay me for).

Eeeeeek!

2005-05-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

This stuff just weirds me out. I know the Episcopalians can do whatever they want (and they certainly seem to do just that!), but I can't believe people are pushing for female clergy in the Catholic Church. Hmph.

Speaking of, I went to an Episcopalian funeral recently that was presided over by two female priests. I found it incredibly distracting. I spent a good deal of the service thinking about what you call female priests and how I should address them. (I decided "lady-priest" was nicer than "priestess" and that I would just call them "ma'am", as "Father" was certainly out and "Reverend" seemed a bit weird.) Anyway, it was interesting.

Going through the motions...

2005-05-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Yeeeeeeee-arrrrrrrgh!
I went to the Saturday vigil mass for the first time this weekend at St. Mike's. Oh my goodness! I've never seen anything like it...it was the youth mass, I assume, as there was a crowd of youngsters in the front row in matching t-shirts doing hand motions, hand motions!, to the tunes knocked out by a mixture of aging hippies and young whippersnappers in the musicians' nook. It was truly horrific.

One young gentleman, who was both a lector and a hand-motioner, served communion in his French's mustard yellow t-shirt. I was relieved when I saw him on the other side of the aisle from me, but had to keep reminding myself that it was communion whether it was given to me by Fr. Charlie or some young punk in a Jesus t-shirt. I'll be glad to return to Texas, where this kind of this thing is, in my experience, much less common.

Come on, surely the Lord deserves a necktie from someone so involved in the mass.

Check Me Out! Part Dos

2005-04-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Just heard from a friend this morning that our First Things review is on the front page over at Catholicity.com. Neat-o! We're famous.

It's the little things...

2005-04-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

My daughter has figured out how to suck her thumb. I know it seems pretty goofy to announce this to the world (or at least all three of my readers), but it constantly amazes me how quickly the MiniLogician is developing. It's weird to think that at the beginning of last month she wasn't even born yet and now she can smile and squeal and suck her thumb.

She was baptised Sunday before last and was positively perfect for the whole thing, even the watery parts (she slept all the way through mass, actually). She even smiled at all the people passing her around at the reception! Just goes to show that my baby is, in fact, the best baby ever.

Souped Up Moonbattage

2005-04-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Moonbat in the sidebar has, thanks to his creator Sean Gleeson, discovered a love of books. Be sure to make him rant to find out what he's reading.

(I swear, I come to my own blog just to play with the moonbat almost every day! And Mr. Gleeson seems to add new stuff all the time!)

Check Me Out!

2005-04-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

My husband has a post over at Right Reason about a review we co-authored for First Things on the recent collection of Justice Scalia's opinions, Scalia Dissents. (How's that for a complex sentence?)

The great thing about reading the post (as opposed to just reading the First Things article) is that you get to see our original introduction which has a fabulous quote from Whit Stillman's Barcelona in it. I'm planning to use some of that dialogue in my dissertation as it perfectly expresses a good deal of what compels me to write this dissertation.

Now I just have to go respond to a few of the sillier comments!

This is so cool!

2005-04-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Via A Saintly Salmagundi, the story of a priest in Mexico who funded his orphanage by secretly working as a professional wrestler. You can see a picture of his wrestling mask over at In Hoc Signo Vinces just as soon as I can get it posted!

Well shoot!

2005-04-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

I never wanted to be one of those bloggers that peters out after a week or so and I assure you I am not one. I just had an insanely busy week! The upside was visiting my parents (who live far away from my temporary home in Michigan); the downside was my grandma-in-law's funeral (which was lovely, but would have been lovelier ten years in the future). In the midst of all that, I even managed to take the MiniLogician to the grocery store by myself. She was very good.

More on kids behaving in Church

2005-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago, I was thinking about why children raised in a traditional Catholic church might be less inclined to be well behaved when visiting a more "progressive" parish. My mom had a suggestion and I think she's right:

"We used to dress to the nines - hat, gloves, suit, tie, etc. - and children knew they had to behave in their good clothes. Now almost no one dresses up for church, me included. Maybe kids would behave better and/or parents would insist on it if we dressed up."

You know, Mom had us dress up for church as kids and the habit pretty much stuck with me. I'm amazed to look at old Easter morning photos of our family and see that my mother and sister and I are all wearing corsages and nice dresses. Now, only the oldest of ladies in the most old-fashioned of parishes do that. What a shame! In addition to putting us all on our best behavior, it also seems to suggest that we're saving our best fashion efforts, even our best outfits (as trivial as it may seem), for God.

Some Thoughts on Catholic/Protestant Dialogue

2005-04-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

A Saintly Salamagundi has an interesting post on Catholic apologetics. Fr. Sibley seems pretty dubious about the whole enterprise. I'm beginning to share his feelings (see the exchange with David Bayly on this post).

Sunday with the Smurfs

2005-04-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

As usual, mass this Sunday was laced with a hodgepodge of ridiculous music. The opening "sung prayer" (I notice they don't call it a hymn) was especially funny as it seemed to be a reworking of the theme song from the 80's children's cartoon "The Smurfs." It was "Join in the Dance" by Dan Schutte (the man responsible for the ubiquitous and slightly schizophrenic "Here I am Lord).

At least we were spared the ridiculous responsorial psalm the music director has been using lately. It features one of the classical hallmarks of bad choral music...a single syllable of a word extended across several notes (not bad by itself) with those notes in a complex rhythm. The congregation invariably ends up singing "ha-a-a-ss" instead of "has" and "i-i-i-n" instead of "in." Kind of sounds like my baby when she fusses.

New Toy!

2005-04-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

See the sidebar if you want to play!

Thanks so much to the Gleeson Blogomerate!

(I like exclamation points!)

Mmmmm....Waffles.

2005-04-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

In the "I'm Missing Texas" category...Here are a couple of other bloggers offering tribute to the wonderful, wistful Waffle House. First, from the always excellent Gleeson blog, a bit of info about the wild and wacky Waffle House songs (and where you can hear them online). And, from Sharp as a Marble, an interesting Waffle House waitress experience. In my experience, he's pretty much right about Waffle House waitresses, but neglects to mention that they are almost always really happy, friendly people (I keep thinking it must be a good place to work since every time I go to a Waffle House, all the employees are smiling) and often refer to their customers as "Honey" or "Shug" or "Baby." Usually this bothers me, but at the Waffle House, I don't mind.

This post brought to you by the letter "W."

The Apprentice

2005-04-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

At last! Angie is gone! Her hair alone was reason for termination (so unprofessional!). Then again, the guy doing the firing has hair that I think is cause for termination.

I can't believe I like a show with Donald Trump, but I'm hooked.

It's always the people you don't know

2005-04-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

I've been noticing an interesting trend among some Evangelical Protestants discussing the death of the Pope. Naturally, this is an ideal opportunity for them to mention all of the things they think are wrong about Roman Catholicism. Often, however, a particularly "open-minded" Protestant will say something like this:

Well, my Catholic friends would never presume that someone is going to heaven/actually worship a statue/consider Mary to be above Jesus, but I understand from others that they are unusual. (Okay, I actually saw someone say this in a comment over at the World blogs.)

or this:

Well, American Catholics aren't idolaters generally, but they aren't like Catholics in the Southern Hemisphere, who are idolatrous and who the Church doesn't even bother to correct. (You can see this argument in action toward the end of this post.)

The theme, of course, is that it's never the Catholics around here who do all that crazy stuff and some of them are even Christians (particularly the ones the speaker knows).

I noticed the same phenomenon among my most extremely liberal friends and colleagues after the election: those idiotic, fundamentalist, pure evil red-staters elected Bush and all the Republicans are drooling morons, except the ones I know who are just freak exceptions and nothing like other conservatives.

I just wonder if it has occurred to any of these people that their Catholic (or conservative) friends aren't the exception, that, in fact, people here (wherever here is) tend to be a lot like people there (wherever there is). Yes, sometimes there are reasons not to make generalizations based on the people one knows, but the sort of claims I refer to here are never, in my experience, accompanied by real reasons why the people around here are so darn special.

Why The Music Matters

2005-04-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

Regular readers of IHSV will be familiar with my ongoing crankiness over bad music in some sectors of the Catholic Church. This Sunday I discovered yet another reason why the quality and kind of music matters for Catholics (and, I imagine, for all Christians).

This Sunday at our Michigan parish, Saint Michael's, my husband, daughter, and I sat with a very large family that we're friends with who have children ranging in age from infant to college freshman. Ordinarily, this family attends mass at another parish, Saint Joseph's, much farther from their home, because (as I understand it) St. Joe's appeals more to their aesthetic sensibilities (old church, traditional music, crucifix in front, etc.) and is in some ways more orthodox. Now, Saint Michael's appears to be a parish where the modernizing spirit that gripped many Catholics in the 1970's and 80's did quit a lot of damage. The old 19th century church was torn down and replaced with a brick bunker in the classic public school style, the organ was replaced by a tinny upright piano (which never gets used) and a massive electronic keyboard (right out of a Yes album), and the crucifix was replaced by what appears to be a tiki head nailed to a cross (which Max affectionately refers to as "Easter Island Jesus).

After mass, Max complimented our friends on how well behaved their children were, especially considering that both parents had had to spend quite a bit of time back in the cry room with fussy babies and toddlers. The mom, however, was not impressed with her kids. "They were awful!" she exclaimed, "Every time we come here, they turn into a bunch of little heathens!" Dad and eldest daughter nodded in agreement.

The truth hit Max and me at the same time: these children were less well-behaved than usual because of the atmosphere. The casually dressed congregants, the institutional architecture, the conspicuous absence of most of the paraphernalia Catholics used to expect in their churches, and, most of all, the carnival-music being belched forth by the aging progressive behind the electronic monstrosity converged to make St. Mike's a place kids from a traditional church would find unworthy of the effort required for good behavior, much less the effort at actual worship.

Music, candles, statues, incense, and architecture are secondary to the Eucharist and the Bible, of course, but they still matter. Some kinds of aesthetic choices can be of tremendous help to worshipers of all ages in obtaining the focus required for mass and other aesthetic choices can actually impede this focus. The hootenanny style of worship at Saint Michael's stands in the way of respect for God, the Church, and even parental authority. It's a shame that so much of the American Church has yet to throw off this failed liturgical experimentation and it's nasty results.

The pope died today.

2005-04-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

The only pope I can remember and a really great pope at that. (Sigh.)

Logic Spotting

2005-04-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

Now that my prolactin flooded brain is worthless for dissertation writing and I'm mostly stuck at home, I watch a lot of TV. I mean a LOT of TV (at least by my standards). So imagine how thrilled I was when I saw a commercial for CBS's NUMB3RS with the line "It's not math. It's logic." Woo! Logic on TV and on a show I actually like!

UPDATE: Um, maybe not. There was indeed a tiny bit of logic, but there was also a ridiculous digression about Schroedinger's cat and lots of arcane looking symbols half in focus.

An Appropriate Tribute

2005-03-31T19:27:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, while in the car, I was tuned in to WUPS, a local classic rock station, when I heard something like this:

"Today, Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of a legal dispute, passed away, thirteen days after her feeding tube was removed. That said, I think this is only appropriate..." And then the DJ played an electric guitar version of "Amazing Grace."

My first thought was "this is nice, but kind of tacky." Thinking about it more, though, it seemed like an appropriate tribute for the employees and, especially, the audience of a classic rock station to offer and I'm pretty impressed by the understated announcement.

The Big PC Dance

2005-03-31T16:31:00.000-08:00

Winner: U. Illinois.

Chief Illiniwek will not be going to Saint Louis for the Final Four. Apparently, it's okay for Michigan State to have a Greek mascot and for (even more amazing) Notre Dame to have a drunken, pugilistic leprechaun as it's mascot, but the implication that Indian chiefs might be good warriors is just too much for the sports-watching public and the U of I administration to handle.

OMG: What if I'm the Deontological Mom?

2005-03-30T11:13:00.000-08:00

Long ago, when my department still made me teach ethics classes, I used to have a hard time getting students to see the differences between different ethical theories. To get them to see the difference between deontological and virtue ethical theories, I used this example:

Let's say there are two mothers. Both mothers love their children and all that, but one (the virtuous mother) enjoys being a mother and her care for her kids flows out of her sheer love of being their mom. She doesn't think about what she's doing, really, she just expresses her love through good parenting. The other (deontological) mother does not like being a mom, but gives the same tender, attentive care to her children from a sense of duty. She does it because she is their mom and that's what mothers have to do. Which mother is the better mother?

Not the most perfect example, I admit, but enough to get freshmen thinking. And what do freshmen think? That the first mom is good and the second is bad. Period, end of story. You have to really work on them to get them to grant that there's anything admirable about the second mother at all (and this after you've convinced them the week before that they're all Kantian deontologists).

Now, here I am, a mom, and I love my child very much and I think I'm doing an okay job of being a mom so far, but honestly, I'm not enjoying it as much as I think I should. I miss bathing and brushing my teeth and leaving the house and having smaller boobs than Pamela Anderson. Alot.