A Holiday Hassle: Gifts at Work

Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays, and I love giving and receiving gifts. But after all the hassle my office has just gone through deciding how to give the gifts (yankee swap vs. secret santa), the merry has melted right out of the thing. There are so many rules to [...]

Bettye LaVette

Here’s a holiday recommendation for those with musically Fringey taste. I just got back from a trip to the West Coast that ended up being something of a vinyl binge, and picked up Bettye LaVette’s 2005 album I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise. LaVette is a soul singer who has somehow remained below the [...]

Taking a Bite Out of Rape

South African Sonette Ehlers is taking women’s defense in a new direction – vaginally. The former medical technician has developed Rapex, a version of the female condom that is beefed up with teeth to stop would be rapists, or at least to slow them down enough for intended victims to get away. My [...]

What’s in a Name?

To change, or not to change, that is the question – my last name, that is. I’m getting married, and I am struggling with this decision. I should note before continuing that my fiance is totally on board with whatever I decide (and even has expressed the opinion that maybe I should keep [...]

It’s Banned Books Week!

And we’ve almost missed it, but fortunately Sam Baber, an Emerson grad and good friend who blogs about culture, film, and lit, among other things, didn’t forget. Check out the American Library Association to find out more about what you can do to celebrate intellectual freedom, and see lists of the most challenged books [...]

Good Intentions, Bad Word Choices: Conversations on Women’s Bodies

I love my dad, but sometimes he puts his foot in his mouth. This morning he told me about a conversation he had with my mother, who recently turned 52:
MOM: I got my period again today – I thought I was through with this.
DAD: Well that’s okay – that just means you’re still [...]

A Great Loss – Author Grace Paley Dies

It saddened me greatly to hear that Grace Paley, a talented writer and social activist who championed women and anti-war movements among other things, died yesterday at her home in Vermont at the age of 84.
Ms. Paley’s short stories, for which she won much acclaim, focused on women’s lives – not glamorous portrayals of the [...]

Anti-Feminist Line of the Day

My day job requires that I fill out a lot of forms for college students, including verifications of good student status for insurance companies that have good student discount programs. I rarely read the eligibility specifics past the part that pertains to me, but it was a slow day, so I skimmed through and [...]

Independence Day Musings

At the end of a long, lovely day yesterday, I, my boyfriend, and another couple sat in the yard, remarking on how we’d had the perfect Fourth of July – we’d canoed a river all day, complete with a small American flag stuck to the head of one of the canoes, then headed back to [...]

Fringe Binge 3: The Summer Solstice

That’s right, the summer solstice is upon us (okay, it was yesterday), and what better way to celebrate the longest day of the year than by partying with Fringe Magazine! It’s our annual fundraiser, and this time we’ve upgraded from my house to the fabulous downstairs at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square. The [...]