Feel Good Friday–The Book of Love

If you watched the last episode of Scrubs, you heard Peter Gabriel’s version: And if you have friends in Colorado you’ve known since you were a kid who you miss a whole lot today for some reason, you’ve heard the original Magnetic Fields version: And if you’re an old fart, you remember this whole different [...]

The Prisonaires

The Prisonaires are one of Nashville’s stranger groups.  They were comprised of, well, men in prison (at the Old State Penitentiary, which should totally give tours, hint hint) who recorded songs and, even though they were incarcerated, travelled around Tennessee performing. This is a picture of them, on the air at WSOK.  And this is [...]

I Have Arrived

There are certain milestones in a feminist blogger’s career–the first time someone “discovers” your real name and blasts it all over the internet; the first time someone comments and says “your fat” or “your gay”; the first time someone tells you that you just need to find a man, but of course, no man will [...]

Mrs. Wigglebottom Still Tickles Me, After All These Years

So, this morning, Mrs. Wigglebottom and I both noticed that one of the peonies is open and the same time and we tried to play it all cool like we didn’t care, but we both ran over and I leaned over to smell it and when I did… boink!… I hit my head on her [...]

Because I Think Some of You Fail to See the Tick Problem

Let me illustrate. The tick bit into me right where my thigh and torso meet up. This is my view of that part of my body: I don’t think I have to spell out for you what mound of flesh was in the way.

Judy Blume? Really?

For the past few Wednesdays, some busybodies have been crowding the sidewalk in front of the Planned Parenthood on my way to work.  I resist the urge to stop and ask them questions. But maybe next week I will stop and ask them if they believe that folks who send death threats to Judy Blume [...]

A Handy Tip Regarding Ticks

Aquanet does not have a high enough alcohol content to make one back out.  And once you have aquanetted your upper thigh, you CANNOT use the match trick. Just go with a gob of toilet paper soaked in rubbing alcohol.  Apply for ten seconds, and that tick will have walked right back out of your [...]

Hmm, Maybe I Should Run for Governor

First of all, over at Pith, I promised that, if I became Governor, I would stop using the word “cooter” and start using the term “vulva.”  That’s sure to please some folks. And second, I am helpful to my neighbors.  When I came home from work today, my neighbor and her friend were struggling to [...]

“Suspicious Bag of Rhubarb”

I have to report that someone in my building just called the cops because someone left a “suspicious bag of rhubarb” on her desk.  My co-worker is now out there trying to convince the police that they could just give the rhubarb to her, since she likes it.  But the police cannot hand the rhubarb [...]

Coincidence, I’m Sure

On International No Diet Day, on the day Kate and them’s book is the best seller at Powell’s, the thing screaming from Yahoo is how Kirstie Alley is fat again, but so, so, so, sorry and ashamed of herself and she will, by god, get skinny again.  P.S. Please love her.

“New” Indian Tribes

So, this is interesting.  The state is moving to recognize six tribes in Tennessee.  This is pretty significant for a lot of reasons. First of all, because we often behave as if the state was pretty empty of people when white folks got here and completely emptied of indigenous people when the Cherokee were relocated.  [...]

I Have Questions

1.  Is Hank Fort still alive? 2.  Cornelia Fort’s sister or cousin? 3.  If we all listen quietly, can we hear the clatter of the keyboards of a hundred angry residents of Columbia, Tennessee writing Microkhan?

Hierarchies Re-establish Themselves

I’ve been around the internet long enough to remember when (and honestly, it may feel like it now, for people who are getting into it for the first time) it felt like some kind of wild frontier where anything was possible and everything was going on and anyone could find a niche and make a [...]

Cool Stuff You Find on the Internet

I continue my quest to convince this guy I know, Michael, to write a book about a history of African American music in Nashville and so this weekend when I saw him I brought it up again and he mentioned that there is only one building that used to be a club back in Jefferson [...]

Ghost Stories

So, I’ve still been thinking about my deep-seated jealousy of the idea of a “traditional” song, that might have a bunch of different versions, but which a lot of folks know, and which a singer can show some prowess and generate good-will with her audience by performing, because the audience knows the song, or knows [...]

Things That Should Raise Questions

So, over at Pith (and, now the I’ve googled it, at every Nashville media outlet), they have this brief story: Lateshia Coleman, a 34-year-old woman whose son died 16 days after his birth in June. He wasn’t here very long because when he was born, police say his mother tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and [...]

Van Gogh News

So, he probably didn’t chop off his ear to give it to a prostitute as a sign of his love, but instead seems to have lost it in a fencing incident.

“Some Letter for Some State. I’m Going to Kill Someone!”

So, my life has been streaked through with Jimmie Rodgers over the last week or so, and I’m driving in my car to work, thinking “Rodgers can’t possibly get me here!!!”  Okay, I wasn’t thinking that.  I was more thinking, is it weird that I drive to work fantasizing about taking a road trip with [...]

Important Announcement

I used to be the kind of girl who would make fun of people for lifting their decrepit dogs into bed at night.  “Why can’t your dog just sleep on the floor?” I would ask, dismissively. I am now the kind of girl who lifts her decrepit dog into bed at night.

Obama: Not that Bad

I was laughing yesterday at reading yet another conservative blogger refer to Obama as the Messiah.  As a liberal, I’m probably alone in this but I don’t think Obama is the greatest thing since sliced cheese. I just think he’s not that bad.  I have, honestly, enjoyed feeling like I don’t have to tune in [...]

Like FanFare Every Day

My Dad tells this story about how his cousin and her husband got banned from Graceland.  This was back in the day and they had taken a motorcycle trip to Memphis and pulled up at the gates of Graceland and were taking pictures, as tourists are wont to do, when all of a sudden the [...]

Canon

I just got home from a lovely time at nm’s.  I had a long talk with her across-the-street neighbor about Abigail Washburn, whose music I have only recently been introduced to, but who is a banjo player with kind of an old-timey feel.  And we were talking about a lot of stuff, but the part [...]

X-Men Origines: Wolverine

So, we went to see the Wolverine movie and I think we both came out of it feeling like it was very satisfying.  It’s not spectacular, but if you like the X-Men movies, it’s worth seeing in the theater.  It’s just nicely done.  It takes a while to get going, but once it does, it’s [...]

I’ve Got My New Shoes On

In Which I Send You on a Quest

If you have never smelled a white iris, you owe it to yourself to find one and stick your face in it. Holy cow!  They are the best smelling iris, ever, like a very tart jellybean.