I’ve been speaking to Patty every other or every third day. Yesterday she had to run to the grocery while we were on the phone so I got to hear India. There sure are a lot of car horns. I continue to be her own personal news service. She continues to be awesome. I’m looking forward to when I get to think about her coming home (when we have a firm date, you too can join the countdown).
Yesterday I used Living Social to buy some language lessons at half price. If you’re in New York City, you can do the same thing today. And yes, that referral link helps me out, because if three of you sign up, I get my classes for free. You can use the classes any time this year (but you need to register by October) and the choices are French, Spanish, Italian, German, or Arabic (you don’t have to choose now). If I didn’t need German, I’d be all over the Arabic.
Also in the real, of classes, I’ve signed up to take something at Trade School where people barter their expertise. I’ve also signed up to teach a class, so I’ll let you know as soon as it’s on the schedule.
Don’t forget I’ll be reading from Whedonistas, along with Teresa Jusino, NancyKay Shapiro, and Priscilla Spencer on Monday night. We will have books to sell, one day before the official release, but numbers are limited, so get their early.
As I mentioned the other day, I have a lot of things I want to write about, including the marriage equality mess in Maryland and the discussion of victim-blaming regarding a New York Times article. Most of the discussion I’ve seen has been about the Times specifically or rape-culture generally, and I think there’s a useful component missing: which is about journalism systemically. But as ever, my life is deadlines, Japan is getting a lot of focus, both Wisconsin and Libya need to be getting a lot of focus, I’ve got some interview questions to send to a film maker who I’m going to talk to here, and I really need to clean the flat, so it may take a bit.
Right now, I’m out the door, as I want to visit the farmers market (mainly so I can report to Patty on it, it’s her favorite), before I come home and focus on getting stuff done.
Letters from Titan 
I’ve been seeing the assertion in a few places that “the Red Cross denies care to LGBTQI people,” but I can’t seem to run down anything definitive about it. Mostly just blogs where people repeat the assertion. I’ve known about the blood donation issues for many years (been affected by them long-term myself) but in 07 the RC said “yeah, these rules are stupid, they should change,” and that’s the only concrete thing I can find about Red Cross vs. the queers.
Do you know anything more substantive?
The Red Cross is not a religiously affiliated organization, and, while many religiously affiliated organizations do, of course, provide aid to LGBTQI people, some, like The Salvation Army, do not. Without any religious context for The Red Cross or any ability to find any links (reputable or not) to what you describe other than the blood donation issue, which isn’t up to them, it seems like either a rumor based on confusion with The Salvation Army or an erroneous assumption of religious affiliation coupled with the also incorrect presumption of all Christian groups being anti-gay.
That’s what I was thinking too. I know all too well about the SA and will vociferously warn people away from giving to them – I’ve got stories from the inside of some of their programs about how their notorious homophobia affects people they’re supposedly “helping.” But I’d never heard anything like that about the RC.
Might I ask why you need to learn German? I love it – it’s a beautiful language, much lovelier, to my ear, than French. And I’m a sucker for languages with case systems. (Studying Russian, at the moment.)
I do work for an international company with home office in a German-speaking area. While we do our business in English, I encounter a lot of German professionally and it would be good if I could do more than read signs for the train system when I go over to visit.
Off Topic here;
I was reading about a gluten free bakery here in Dallas in the White Rock Lake Weekly. (www.whiterocklakeweekly.com) It’s a mom-daughter operation and they both have Celiac disease. I saw the article and thought you might want FUDGE BROWNIES. I think the article said they do special orders (though I didn’t see anything about special orders on their website) so maybe you could even get COOKIES.
http://www.wholesomefoodsbakery.com/
I was looking at the sweetbreads and noted they put less sugar in them and they have fiber. Hey, gluten free bread with banana and nuts and fiber would practically be a health food, right?
White Rock Lake Weekly is one of those local neighborhood papers.