Archives › 2006 › November
Pregnant or Trying to Be? Avoid Paxil If Possible, OB/GYN Group Warns
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has announced that pregnant women and those who plan to become so should avoid taking the antidepressant Paxil if possible because of a risk of birth defects. They also cautioned against pregnant women taking a number of other related antidepressants, but said cases should be considered on [...]
Travel Guide: Washington, D. C.
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted a travel-guide thread, so here it is. I chose Washington, D. C. because April sent me a great link of Free Things to Do there. Please leave a comment if you have additional ideas for places and events to see in the area, especially, but not exclusively, [...]
LEGOs and Lesbians
LEGO Bricks were one of the favorite toys of my childhood. I can’t wait until my son is old enough for the gear-filled LEGO Technic sets. I therefore enjoyed reading Business Week’s recent article on The Making of a LEGO Brick (thanks, Slashdot), which details the precise production process (“only 18 out of 1 million [...]
History and Geography of the Island of Sodor
As both the mother of a train-obsessed child and a refugee from grad school in history, I was delighted to find a Wikipedia article on the history and geography of the Island of Sodor, home of Thomas the Tank Engine. It’s not quite world-building on the Tolkien scale, but it’s a step in that direction, [...]
National Influenza Vaccination Week
It’s National Influenza Vaccination Week. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), rates of flu infection are highest among children. They recommend vaccination of all children between 6 and 59 months of age, as well as “all children and adults who have certain diseases that put them at risk of serious complications from the [...]
New Asthma and Allergy Standards for Toys and Pillows
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has launched an asthma friendly(R) Certification Program to help identify toys, pillows, bedding, and other products suitable for people with asthma and related allergic sensitivities. I imagine that most parents of children with asthma or allergies (or who have them themselves) are already aware of what to [...]
Money, Marriage, and Happiness
When Nina interviewed me for Queercents a few weeks ago, one of the questions she asked was “Does money buy happiness?” I answered “no,” though admitted that money can sometimes facilitate the things in which one finds happiness. Turns out I was wrong. According to economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, “There is [...]
Seasonal Thoughts on the Evolving Family
Thanksgiving and the pending winter holidays are for most of us a time to be with family. As we enter into this season of love and light and kinship, it seems appropriate to reflect on the changes propagating through society’s traditional view of families. As LGBT parents, we are reminded every day that we must [...]
Olivia on Saturday Night Live
Last weekend’s Saturday Night Live show featured a skit about Olivia Cruises. It’s crude and obvious, revolving around the ship captain’s prurient thoughts regarding lesbians. Still, the women get the final word, and Olivia itself is promoting the skit via its e-mail list. I figure that being made fun of on SNL connotes a certain [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
Speaking at the International Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean said his party needs to work harder to get more LGBT candidates on the ballot. Lambda Legal submitted papers to a California Court of Appeal, urging them to uphold a jury decision that found former Poway High School students were severely [...]
Happy Thanksgiving
A very happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating it today. For my readers outside the U. S., I hope you’re amused by the spectacle of the American part of the blogosphere slowing to a crawl for a day while we gorge ourselves silly. (I posted this in advance so I can keep my day [...]
Thanksgiving Emergency Recovery
Turkey not defrosted in time? Diaper disaster with your toddler means you won’t have time to make stuffing? Hop over to Joe Kissel’s column at Wired News and learn how to Deal With Turkey Day Disasters. Disater or no, my family always uses his trick of baking the stuffing in a pan, not in the [...]
Mombian Shop Relaunch
Just in time for the holidays, I’m relaunching an updated Mombian Shop, chock full of books, music, videos, toys, baby gear, and lots of things for house and home. You’ll find items geared towards children of same-sex parents and items celebrating lesbian culture, but also more general categories of products. We’re a diverse lot, really, [...]
Happy Birthday, Billie Jean King!
Out tennis legend Billie Jean King turns 63 today. How better to celebrate than with a Photoshop pastiche of candles on a tennis ball? King’s accomplishments are too many to list here, but include 71 singles titles, 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 20 Wimbledon titles, and becoming the first female athlete to win more than [...]
Cranbanero Sauce
For the bold and adventurous diner this Thanksgiving, I’m republishing my recipe for Cranbanero Sauce, a fiery version of the classic condiment. If you like hot food, and grandma’s lumpy gravy just isn’t doing it for you, try this. Buy a standard 16-ounce bag of cranberries. Put cranberries, sugar, and water in pot according to [...]
Coffee Time
A publicist for Folgers Coffee contacted me a while ago and asked if I’d be interested in some free samples of their new Folgers Gourmet Selections coffee. All I’d have to do is blog about them. Since they were not paying me to do so, and wanted my honest opinion—good, bad, or ugly—I agreed. I [...]
Justice of the Peace Recommendation
One more wedding-related post and then I’ll stop for a while. I want to make sure and acknowledge our Justice of the Peace, Gayle Smalley, and happily recommend her to anyone considering a marriage in Massachusetts. She not only performed our ceremony on short notice, but helped us through the entire process of creating our [...]
Transgender Day of Remembrance
It’s the seventh annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. I don’t write a lot about trans issues here, because I don’t feel I have the experience or authority to do so. Nevertheless, issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, while they are not identical, [...]
Marital Bliss, IV: Void Where Prohibited
My partner and I are now officially married under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We had a small ceremony in Newton on Saturday, and then spent the night in Cambridge while my parents took our son home with them. It was a nice time for just the two of us, and a chance [...]
LGBT-Friendly Call-ins Needed
Polly at LesbianDad passed on an urgent request to help counter ultra-right callers on a radio show about the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study. Dr. Nanette Gartrell, the principal investigator of the study, will be interviewed this Monday alongside a guest from the Family Research Council. Dr. Gartrell expects that the FRC will organize many [...]
Weekly Political Roundup
PlanetOut speculates that the LGBT community and their supporters were a determining factor in the recent Democratic recapture of the Senate, as they rallied to defeat Virginia’s proposed constitutional same-sex marriage ban. Opponents of the ban also tended to support Democrat James Webb, who won his seat by a slim margin. LGBT-rights advocates in California [...]
Game Recommendation: Hisss
Continuing my occasional series on games for kids: Hisss, a simple color-matching game, has become a recent favorite. Players draw two-color tiles and place them on the table to build snakes. Whoever completes a snake head to tail gets to collect the tiles, and whoever collects the most, wins. The game is marked “four and [...]
Marital Bliss, Part III
Marriage on the brain this week, I’m afraid. My own will be this Saturday, which, by complete coincidence, is also the third anniversary of the Goodridge decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. If we’re lucky, we’ll get the Leonid meteor shower to provide us with some fireworks. Farther afield, the BBC News yesterday highlighted [...]
New Jersey Ruling Solves Birth Certificate Question, but Raises More
The Advocate reports that “two women will be listed as parents on the birth certificate of a baby born this week in New Jersey, one of the first implications of a state supreme court ruling that gives same-sex couples access to the same rights as married couples.” This parentage decision, by a New Jersey family [...]
Save the Date: The L Word Season 4 Premieres January 7
Showtime’s Web site is now stating that the new season of The L Word will premiere January 7, 2007, making me ask once again “Where did the summer go?” Still, I’ll be happy to see the gals soon. I’ve had enough wallowing in LGBT politics and I want some pure escapism, dammit. New cast members [...]
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