Two cute videos from teh internetz. Kids being kids and doing cute kids stuff, occasionally with help from adults acting like kids.
This one was shared with me by my friend David Coral, an actor who works every year down at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota. Eva and Anna explain A Midsummer Night’s Dream – with help from the GRSF actors.
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger
In this installment, Ellen reveals the answer to last week’s Pareidolia Play Along. Here’s the image she teased us with:
I have a pair of hip waders. Nothing fancy. Not your hootsie tootsie high-end Orvis sort of hip waders. I’d taken an aquatic entomology class (Say Didymops three times fast!) and the smallest size of wader available for use was two sizes too big for me. I did what I could by wearing extra socks to make my feet fit somewhat more securely in the boots, but it didn’t help much. I had to walk into streams and rivers to do kick samples and the rocks were slippery. If the current was running fast, it was tricky. I did not like sliding around inside the boots, thank you very much. So I went out and bought myself a cheap pair of waders.
Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Serious.
From Erin and Mom in Carbondale, Illinois:
Serious dogs are serious. Ivan (Erin’s dog) and Peabody (Mom’s dog) say “This bus better not be stopping at the vet’s office.”
From me in Minneapolis, Minnesota:
Serious bed-head.
After President Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994, protesters have been limited in their ability to interfere with people who visit abortion clinics. For example, they’re no longer allowed to physically block the entrances to clinics. But they still do their damnedest to convince clients to not to go through those doors on their own. And so there are clinic escorts.
Clinic escorts give clients the strength to walk past the protesters, to ignore the offensive, lie-filled literature that is thrust at them. We make it okay for them to avert their eyes from the little plastic fetuses, the swinging rosaries, the gory pictures that are held up as they walk by or are posted in their line of sight. We give them an excuse to not listen to the prayers, the hymns, the questions and accusations that are thrown at them. We are a psychological barrier between the clients and the protesters.
On Saturday I was escorting at Whole Women’s Health in downtown Minneapolis. When I showed up there were 13 protesters lining the narrow sidewalk that leads up to the clinic entrance. Two were active protesters (antis who rush up to heckle the clients) and the rest were passively praying, singing, touching the beads on their rosaries, and walking up and down the sidewalk. This later group had four kids who looked to be under the age of 12 with them. It always makes me sad to see kids with the protesters.
I will definitely cheer for the hometown team for this one!
Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe posted an open letter defending gay marriage and the right of free speech. It contains a fantastically entertaining mix of logical arguments and a buttload of vulgarity.
See, this other football player, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, is a long-time supporter of legalizing same-sex marriage and he said some stuff about that. And then some state delegate from Maryland was all like – and this is paraphrased here, but I think I captured the essence of the letter -Waaaaa! You can’t say that! Hey, you – Ravens owner – your employee supports same-sex marriage and, like, you should make him stop saying that stuff! Here I wrote it on my official letterhead so you know I’m totes credible!”
Continue reading “Chris Kluwe's Letter to Maryland Delegate”
I will definitely cheer for the hometown team for this one!
Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe posted an open letter defending gay marriage and the right of free speech. It contains a fantastically entertaining mix of logical arguments and a buttload of vulgarity.
See, this other football player, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, is a long-time supporter of legalizing same-sex marriage and he said some stuff about that. And then some state delegate from Maryland was all like – and this is paraphrased here, but I think I captured the essence of the letter -Waaaaa! You can’t say that! Hey, you – Ravens owner – your employee supports same-sex marriage and, like, you should make him stop saying that stuff! Here I wrote it on my official letterhead so you know I’m totes credible!”
Continue reading “Chris Kluwe’s Letter to Maryland Delegate”
It was with a combination of rage and helplessness that I read Jen McCreight’s post about how she’s taking a prolonged break from blogging. There was some sadness too, but above all else was anger and disgust. Well, and there was a good bit of relief that she’s taking time to care for herself.
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger.
Wanted: Painters, Poets, Potters, Dancers, Filmmakers, Textile Artists, Musicians, Landscape Designers, Novelists, Printmakers, Songwriters, Sculptors, Animators, Actors and Architects…
A lot of atheists like to keep their heads down. Historically, it’s been that or lose ‘em. Recently that has changed and to some it must seem like every atheist in the world is screaming from the rooftops.
Not hardly. Not no how. For every out atheist I know personally, I know a dozen cryptic ones. These are people who don’t want to make ripples, people who don’t want the attention. Their atheism isn’t necessarily a big secret. They simply aren’t given to PDA, public displays of atheism.
Artists have a reputation for being extroverts, but that is not always the case. In fact, I’m not even sure that extroverts are in the majority in arts communities. Yet even shy artists want their work to be seen.
I suspect that the majority of artists would rather just go about making art and don’t much care for the business of promoting their work. Never you mind me, I’ll be in the studio. But they suck it up and go out to get their art in the public eye.
Do you see what I’m getting at here? I’m looking for those of you who live in the overlap of art and atheism.
We’d like to know about your art.
If you are an artist, and you are an atheist, I’d like to learn about the art you are doing. I’d like to know to what extent your atheism influences your art and your life. And I’d like to share your art here on Biodork at Freethought Blogs. My gmail address is Atheists.Artists@ and I’m waiting to hear from you.
This is a post by guest blogger Ellen Bulger.
Light up some incense, if that helps. Crank up some new age music. Break out the wind chimes. Lay out some crystals. Surely you must have a geological souvenir from the gift shop of a children’s museum? No? Well, hell, how about rock candy? Table sugar is a crystal. Sprinkle some of that around. Just set the mood, will ya?
Comfy? Got your mind wide open with the breeze blowing over all those meaty lobes? Good.
Now what do you see?
Seen over at Le Cafe Witteveen
So nice, those religious people praying for Obama, right? Let’s find out what Psalms 109:8 is, shall we? *flips through the internet* …Let’s see…the general consensus seems to be along the lines of:
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Nice. I see what you did there you sneaky bastards. You’re not praying for President Obama, you’re praying against him. Asking God to intervene, to choose your side. The bible as weapon – whoda thunk it?
Oh Mary, I disagree. The bible is used a weapon allllll over the place.
