Facets of Our Lives

I'm trying to get back on track with regular entries here, but I am working again, so that has sapped some of my time. Also, some expansion is coming. To the left, you'll see links to my new podcast and my additional work on EmandLo.com , both of which are coming soon. Thanks for sticking with me and reading -- I really appreciate all the feedback, and I hope you'll enjoy the new work to come!

CNN recently aired a special by Anderson Cooper, Bullying: It Stops Here . Despite all the attention paid to the subject in the last year, bullying continues to be a major issue for US schoolchildren. But this special was excellent, and provided a lot of new information in the form of a study they performed using high school students at a particular school on Long Island in New York. I highly recommend you take the time to watch if/when it airs again. One of the key concepts to come from the study were the categories kids fall into: aggressors, victims, and interveners. The first two are self-explanatory, but the last category, interveners, represent bystanders who choose not to be bystanders, and work to diffuse the situation by defending the victim(s) and/or shaming the aggressor(s), among other methods. This topic hits close to home both because of what I went through in school, but because of my teenaged niece and nephew, who are living in the high school environment right now

So I had an idea. I think it's a good idea, but it's also somewhat troubling. I like to cook - that's not a secret. It occurred to me that I could send out care packages this year. I have no idea what it would cost to ship food, only that I could effectively vacuum-seal things and everything would arrive as reasonably tasty as it was when I first made it. Everything could be prepared in the microwave or by putting the sealed bag in a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes. But then it occurred to me how many people might actually not only appreciate the gift, but need the food . And that's just... tragic. So I am contemplating how to make this idea work. I can't commit to feeding 20 people - my finances are stretched thin, too. I could certainly buy a quantity of food and whip up a bunch of things, but there is the shipping cost and special considerations for food. I'm not talking fruitcakes, but things like turkey meatloaf cordon bleu, spinach chicken pa

This week's recipes aren't the healthiest, but I've done my best with them. Croissant dough is available in your refrigerator case in both name brand and store brand varieties, called by the more English sounding "Crescent Rolls". In fairness, these versions, while tasty, are nothing like their French counterparts: definitely more doughy, less flaky, less buttery. However, working with this dough is very easy, and lends itself well to various recipes. I've used the dough to make pockets full of chicken and vegetables, sweet breakfast treats, and of course, dinner rolls. The real problem with the dough are the fat and calories. Even if you buy the reduced fat version, they are 100 calories per crescent, and they're small . So if you're planning to use any kind of filling, you've got to be mindful of what you're using or you could end up with a very high-calorie, high-fat snack. Needless to say, for today's recipes, I have used the r

Happy Labor Day Weekend! I figure since I have slowed down on my posting, I will go ahead and work this Labor Day and give you some recipes. "Americans love their mayo," a friend said to me when we were discussing baguette sandwiches I had enjoyed in Paris. The French do not use mayonnaise, but rather butter or margarine. Interestingly, I saw a program on the Food Network this weekend describing sandwiches that have both . The Dutch (and the Flemish of Belgium) use mayo with their famous french fries, and purchasing patat or frites , you select which fritesaus you'd prefer -- from a specific type of sweet mayo, to a peanut sauce, to a curry mayonnaise, to other local, delicious and diverse options. Ok, so why am I discussing this? Well, I visited my mother last week, and thanks to changes in her diet, she has little use for mayonnaise at the moment. To add further to her disinterest in the product, she purchased a low-fat or non-fat version of mayonnaise, which

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I have been listening to interviews and reading articles about budget crisis. There is a lot of finger-pointing, but essentially, both parties are to blame if you look at the whole situation historically, especially over the last 30 years. So here's my analysis and thoughts on the whole thing. It is a foregone conclusion that the entire system of politics is broken. We are not governed by leaders but by financial interests on both sides of the aisle. Forget the so-called "hard" decisions, people can't or won't make the human decisions because humanity is out of the equation. First, the playing field is not level. Jobs are exported because the labor laws in other countries are weaker and salaries are cheaper. That's it. It's not rocket science. The answer is not dropping taxes in the US, because that just means these corporations pay less money here, not that they create more jobs. Why would they? If you can hire 10 Chinese for the cost of one Americ

I mentioned in my last foodie post that I was going to avoid recipes that included dairy, so I thought I would go ahead and explain my reasoning. The agricultural industry, particularly in the United States, is broken. Thanks to political intervention, nutritionally questionable foods are significantly cheaper than foods that are just as easy or difficult to grow. There have been numerous articles published in recent years comparing the population to the walking dead and the diminishing quality of our food supply. While medical science has improved to extend our lives, we are seeing higher rates of preventable conditions because our priorities are so out of whack. Now, as for dairy, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with milk or cheese, however, despite the USDA pronouncements, dairy is NOT a necessary food group. Humans are the only species that drink milk from another animal, and the cow is not even a close relative. Dairy was included because dairy producers participate

Given the current state of our economy and that the debt ceiling debate has dominated our news for the last week, I am doing my political post a day early and leaving food for Tuesday. But I am not actually going to talk about the "crisis". I am going to talk about how we got here. We can blame party politics, we can blame the patterns in place for the last 30 years of US governance, we can blame the Tea Party. But the blame really rests with ourselves. The table below compares the elections of 2008 and 2010. 1 2008 2010 Total Number of Voters 130 million 82.5 million Liberal 22% (28.6 million) 20% (16.5 million) Moderate 44% (57.2 million) 39% (32.175 million) Conservative 34% (44.2 million) 41% (33.825 million) Ages 18-29 18% (23.4 million) 11% (9.075 million) Ages 65 or older 16% (20.8 million) 23% (18.975 million) White 74% (96.

I'm 38, I have to rush at this point! I mean, really, I'm playing 'beat the clock' nowadays. :/ Rushing is not necessary. I promise you will have the same ability to get pregnant after 40 that you do now. :-) This was a recent exchange I had with a friend on Facebook. A discussion took place later with a different group of friends regarding ageism. The issue has many facets. First, you have the conversation with my friend above. Despite all of the press about "40 is the new 30" and so forth, people living longer and somewhat healthier lives, and the trend toward establishing stability in one's life before marriage, the belief persists that if you reach 40 and you're not married or otherwise partnered, you're somehow doomed. There is the further psychological implication that you are somehow defective and undesirable for being unable to close the permanent deal by 40. Women are worried about their biological clocks, which is certainly releva

Our youngest dog, Buddy, aka Mouth-with-Feet, is a terrier mix of boundless energy. He goes from 0 to 60 in 2.3 seconds, is always eager to eat (his food or yours ), and is always up for attention of any kind. Needless to say, when his behavior changed, it was frightening. His attitude toward food became oh fine, if you insist , which was probably the most disturbing. After a number of standard tests, the vet couldn't find anything wrong. But we may have discovered the culprit. A scorpion . Buddy has a strong prey drive, as most terriers do -- he'll chase just about anything, dig for things, and he's even more intent if his target is smaller than he is. And when it comes to insects or arachnids, he eats them. We will frequently find him staring at something only to discover it to be a moth, a multi-legged insect, or most recently, a scorpion. Even if a scorpion doesn't manage to sting, there is still venom contained within its tail. So our guess is, he success

The internet has changed how friendships work. Through Facebook, other social media, even this blog, I find myself interacting with people I haven't seen, in some cases, in up to 30 years. In other cases, there are people I've never met at all, at least, not in real life. There was a time, when the internet was young, that telling someone you met someone over the internet was a source of embarrassment. Now it's just a matter of course. In my case, there has been a chain of connections, starting with someone I knew, which led to their internet contacts, which in turn led to their internet contacts. Only a small percentage were truly random, out-of-nowhere sorts of connections. I even have business colleagues that I have only ever experienced via e-mail, online chat, and telephone. It's become the nature of the world. So is this intimacy false? Some of the more uncomfortable conversations I have had online have been with old friends. It isn't to say that I am

On Friday, 22nd July 2011, Norway endured coordinated terrorist attacks in the city of Oslo and the nearby island of Utoya. I am writing this post on Saturday, as information is still being discovered, determined, and evaluated. The death toll is currently 93* as of this writing, with the vast majority of the victims being teenagers at a youth camp. The man suspected to be responsible for this chaos has been additionally identified as a Christian fundamentalist, concerned about non-Christians being present in the country. A friend on Facebook wrote, Well when we stop focusing on important issues like banning marriages, smoking, and the right to live as individuals maybe we will find time to stop the hate. My response was, It's not the hate, it's the continued arrogance and ignorance. Do away with those, and the hate goes with it. And it's just that simple. Humanity continues to work under the premise that one group is inherently better than another, and we al

One of my recent food addictions is stuffed jalapeño peppers. Hot peppers of any type, hotter than our usual bell peppers in the US, just didn't agree with me. The heat of peppers comes from organic acids, usually contained in the seeds and more liquid centers of the peppers. Even tomatoes have a certain amount of acidity in their seeds. Having learned that seeded tomatoes do not seem to impact my digestive system, I've tried the same thing with some of the hotter peppers, and a whole new world of flavors has opened up to me. So stuffed jalapeños are just what they sound like. Most fillings tend to be sweet or creamy, but I plan to experiment with different combinations in upcoming weeks. If you ever bought stuffed jalapeños from a restaurant, they tend to be breaded and deep-fried, and filled with cream cheese, possibly other cheeses, and spices. While tasty, there are are definitely healthier alternatives. With luck, this will be the last recipe I provide that includes da

Hello again. I apologize for this period of radio silence. I'd been writing consistently for several weeks, and I needed a break. Mostly because I found myself getting angry, and I just didn't know how to keep this blog from becoming a constant, curmudgeonly rant. You see, I'm just an average, well-educated American. I vote in every election, even my local elections, because it makes me feel like I am part of the process. I also read a lot so that I can be informed about my candidates and the issues, and so I can know what I'm talking about when it comes time to make my opinion known. Even for this blog, I research topics before I write about them -- even if I give an opinion, I try to give a basis for that opinion, or give my readers somewhere else to turn for more information. But lately, I am enormously discouraged. My four core topics are food, politics, sex & relationships, and pets/animals. In the US, we pay subsidies to agro-industries for specific

I feel I have a unique perspective on being an American. For a long time, it wasn't clear to me what it meant to be an American -- I mean, I was born here, and I knew that it described my nationality. I was the grandchild of immigrants, so the idea of "coming to the New World" for a better life was present in my own, tangible history, as well as the prejudices that my grandparents and great-grandparents had to face. I am also descended from original settlers of North America, from Massachusetts to New Jersey, so there is this sense of being an "old" American family -- the group that struck out across the ocean, not knowing what they would find, and then taming the land and building a community. But the first time I can say I truly felt American was when I was outside the country. I lived in Europe in my 20s, and after a while, you grow accustomed to not seeing those ubiquitous symbols like the flag, the currency, even the architecture or those phrases about l

June 2011 has been an important month for change in the United States. June is typically "Pride Month", as cities across North America hold their local Pride celebrations, so perhaps it is fitting that there have been so many strides this month in the fight for marriage equality. On Friday, June 24, New York became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, June 29, Rhode Island became the fifth state to offer same-sex civil unions. The next battles are expected in Minnesota, Maine, and Maryland, and the case against California's Proposition 8, repealing same-sex marriage in that state, continues through the appellate court system, and is expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court before it is all over. But as of July 24, when New York's law becomes effective, more than 1 in 10 people in the U.S. will be able to enter into a same-sex marriage if they so desire. I support marriage equality from the perspective that we are a secular democratic repu

No, this post about dogs. Sex is discussed on Wednesdays. We have three dogs. Two of the dogs weigh more than 50 pounds, but our third dog, the youngest at age 10, is a 15-pound terrier mix named Buddy. We adopted Buddy at age 7, and he was specifically selected by my mother because he was a senior and because of his size, which she believed would make him manageable. But Buddy has problems. As a small dog, Buddy was raised to believe that everything he did was cute - jumping, barking, creatively tearing things apart, begging for food, and he has no idea how to walk on a leash without pulling, since he could never overwhelm a human. By contrast, our larger dogs have been specifically trained not to jump, not to get into things, how to walk on a leash, etc., because they are large enough that without training, we'd have difficulty. But the problem that many dog owners do not understand is that little dogs are simply big dogs in small packages. When Buddy behaves himself, he

Given the uniqueness of my own personality, the bullying I've endured, and just the androgynous nature of my behavior, I believe I've learned to be very open to the diversity of other people. I grew up surrounded by accented English thanks to the immigrant communities in which I lived, so I think I was used to people being different in a variety of ways. My mother likes to tell me the story of when I was 3 or so, and I encountered a toddler with a severe stutter. She tells me I never reacted to it, other than to listen intently until the child got his words out and then respond as if nothing was amiss. She likes to tell me stories like that. I think people are, to paraphrase Gaga, born with certain traits, and accepting them as who they are is a sign of affection to those who are friends and respect to those who are strangers. But then I think of the children being raised by David Stocker and Kathy Witterick in Toronto, Ontario, and I wonder what they are in for. If you ar

I have been trying to identify political topics to discuss for this blog, and I have been enormously discouraged and depressed about what I have found. It isn't just a question of my own personal politics, but the patterns that have emerged from our government and the electorate. The facts are out there, if you can find anyone willing to report them on a larger scale; but even if people are presented with incontrovertible evidence, they continue to vote for the same candidates who successfully manipulate them, usually by pandering to a "hot" issue or worse, simply lying. And no matter how bad things get, people still don't get the message. Obama may have beaten McCain in 2008, but he should have won by a much wider margin, if anyone was paying attention. And the only conclusion I can come to -- as much as I hate to say it, or some might find it cliché -- the electorate is stupid . The men who designed our government were concerned about this, also, but because the