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Apr
17
Collaboration Technology? Women in Business? Race & Gender? Yes I Can!
Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Business, Gender, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics, Race, Social Issues, Voting, Women, Writing | 1 Comment
I swear, the last three years have been years of, “If someone told me 20 years ago that I’d be doing …” years. I’m in shock and awe. Here’s the line-up of events where I’ll be speaking between now and July:
2. 2008 Annual Ohio Business Women’s Conference & Expo
3. BlogHer ’08
Oh – and I forgot – The White House Project Go Run! training in Columbus in June. Gotta get that application in. I’m a speaker there but also hope to be an attendee.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:10 pm April 17th, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, Business, Gender, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics, Race, Social Issues, Voting, Women, Writing | 1 Comment
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Apr
17
Blog for Fair Pay for Women, Friday, April 18
Filed Under Business, Economy, Politics, Social Issues, Women | 2 Comments
It’s going to be one crazy 48 hours between now and when Elijah comes through my door on Saturday night. I’ll be doing procrastination posting I imagine. But I’m making this one a sticky to be sure everyone considers it and considers joining in and blogging about it.
I could give you at least 57 reasons why women deserve fair pay but I recommend this excellent resource list first. It’s embarrassing that anyone makes less than anyone else, doing the same work under the same conditions in the same economic conditions, because of her gender, not to mention his or her color, marital status, size or sexual orientation.
Please consider blogging for Fair Pay for Women.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:25 pm April 17th, 2008 in Business, Economy, Politics, Social Issues, Women | 2 Comments
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Apr
17
Kosher for Passover (Pesadich) Caramel Matzoh Crunch
Filed Under Culture, Jewish, Recipes | 2 Comments
This is another one that is great year round – no, really! I have it from the book but here it is with attribution and everything on the Internet:
Ingredients:
4-6 unsalted matzohs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or unsalted Passover margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup coarsely chopped chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a large (or two smaller) cookie sheet completely with foil. Cover the bottom of the sheet with baking parchment — on top of the foil. This is very important since the mixture becomes sticky during baking.
Line the bottom of the cookie sheet evenly with the matzohs, cutting extra pieces, as required, to fit any spaces.
In a 3-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the butter or margarine and the brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil (about 2 to 4 minutes). Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and pour over the matzoh, covering completely.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 350°. Bake for 15 minutes, checking every few minutes to make sure the mixture is not burning (if it seems to be browning too quickly, remove the pan from the oven, lower the heat to 325°, and replace the pan).
Remove from the oven and sprinkle immediately with the chopped chocolate or chips. Let stand for 5 minutes, then spread the melted chocolate over the matzoh. While still warm, break into squares or odd shapes. Chill, still in the pan, in the freezer until set.
This makes a good gift.
Variation:
You can also use coarsely chopped white chocolate (or a combination of white and dark), and chopped or slivered toasted almonds (sprinkled on top as the chocolate sets). You can also omit the chocolate for a caramel-alone buttercrunch.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:00 pm April 17th, 2008 in Culture, Jewish, Recipes | 2 Comments
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Apr
17
I decided to try to find this recipe online because I didn’t want to copy it out of the book – felt improper. So I did find it, on a site with Martha Stewart’s name on it. But guess what!? She published it without one of the ingredients. Oy.
Here it is with the correct ingredients and a couple of other changes from Joan Nathan’s book’s version of the recipe. I copied it from here.
Makes about 12
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus more for baking sheet
- 1 cup of water (this is what Martha left out!)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup matzah meal
- 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
- 4 eggs
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush a baking sheet with oil; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, bring oil, 1 cup water, and salt to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in matzah meal until sticky, remove from heat and let cool completely.
- Add sugar and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Fill a large bowl with water. Dip your hands in the water and then form dough into a ball about the size of a tennis ball. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat process until all dough has been used. Dip your hands in water before forming each popover.
- Transfer to oven and bake until popovers are puffy, about 15 to 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and continue baking until golden brown, about another 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:55 pm April 17th, 2008 in Culture, Jewish, Recipes | Comments Off
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Apr
17
Kosher for Passover (Pesadich) Rocky Road Brownies
Filed Under Announcements, Culture, Jewish, Recipes, Resources | 5 Comments
When I couldn’t find my ragged original recipe papers for this recipe, I had to go into the annals of ancient emails to find it from an old correspondence I’d sent to someone who wanted the recipe. So, another thing I love about blogs? Memorializing stuff I might otherwise lose. This recipe is incredible and my kids make me make it for their birthday treats for school year round. Do I sound like a Jewish mommy-blogger or what?
I make these without walnuts because no one in my family is huge on nuts in their brownies but I’m sure they’re just as outstanding with the nuts.
ROCKY ROAD BROWNIES
Brownies
4oz (4 squares) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 lb (2 sticks) margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup matzah cake meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
2 cups mini marshmallows, or large marshmallows, cut up (I usually use mini)
1 cup chopped walnuts
Topping
1 cup mini marshmallows, or large marshmallows, cut up
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Place oven rack in center of oven and preheat to 325degreesF. Grease or spray with nonstick spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan (glass or metal – I use metal more often).
TO MAKE BROWNIES: In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and margarine on high (100%) for 1 to 2 minutes, or until melted. Stir well. Stir in sugar and cool slightly. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Stir in cake meal and salt. Stir chocolate chips, marshmallows, and walnuts. Pour into prepared pan. Spread evenly.
TO BAKE: Bake for 30 mins., or until set.
TO TOP: After 30 minutes, sprinkle brownies with marshmallows. Return to oven for 3 to 4 minutes, or until puffed but not browned. Remove from oven. Place chocolate chips in a small, heavy plastic bag (I use regular Ziploc). Microwave on high (100%) for 60-90 seconds, or until melted and smooth when pressed with fingers. Squeeze chocolate into one corner of bag. Cut a small tip off the corner and drizzle chocolate over brownies. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool completely. Cut with a serrated knife into 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 inch bars. (Brownies may be refrigerated up to 4 days or frozen.)
Prep time: 10 mins.
Baking time: 30-35 minutes
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:28 pm April 17th, 2008 in Announcements, Culture, Jewish, Recipes, Resources | 5 Comments
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Apr
17
[update] Yale art student’s art project now called creative fiction hoax
Filed Under Abortion, Blogging, Civil Rights, Health Care, Marketing, Media, Social Issues, Women, Writing | 17 Comments
What. Ever. From the Chicago Tribune:
A Yale University student’s senior art project, which she said documented her bleeding during repeated self-induced abortions, sparked a protest on campus, an outcry on the Internet, and debates over morality, medicine, art and academia.
And — it was all faked. Senior Aliza Shvarts told Yale officials Thursday that she didn’t get pregnant and didn’t have abortions. But that didn’t stop an outpouring of emotion as the story spread.
I swear – like I said before. God – please, do not have one of my kids test my unconditional love for them this way. I’m just not radical enough to say, “You go grrrl – cool.” Call me…whatever.
My original post. I go with the comment about the mental health issues. How did this student get into Yale? Don’t answer that.
From the New York Sun on it being faked:
The Yale Daily News reported this morning that Aliza Shvarts’s senior project, set to go on display next week, included video of her bleeding in her bathtub, as well as plastic sheeting layered with a mixture of Vaseline and the post-abortion blood.
“Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art,” a Yale spokeswoman, Helaine Klasky, said. “She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.”
Ms. Klasky went on to suggest that Yale would not have permitted a project of the sort described in the student newspaper. “Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.”
Hmm – does the fact that she didn’t actually do it make it any less a red flag of serious mental and physical health concerns?
Hattip to this comment for the Sun article.
UPDATE: Feministing blogs about it last night here and points to this Yale Daily News item that has Shvarts sounding rather schizophrenic in the true sense of the word:
“No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,” Shvarts said, “because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties.”
This afternoon, Shvarts showed the News footage from tapes she plans to play at the exhibit. The tapes depict Shvarts — sometimes naked, sometimes clothed — alone in a shower stall bleeding into a cup.
Pia Lindman, Shvarts’s thesis adviser, and Davenport College Dean Craig Harwood could not be reached for comment Thursday. Art Director of Undergraduate Studies Henk van Assen deferred comment to the Yale Office of Public Affairs.
To all who argue that no mental health issue is involved, I completely disagree. Something that needs attention is going on this young woman’s mind and clearly she is trying to find a way to express it – but, IMO? She’s not doing a very good job of it. In art, fiction or oral storytelling of her efforts.
Be sure to read the comments at the Yale article.
Update x2: From the author, via Feministing:
As an intervention into our normative understanding of .the real. and its accompanying politics of convention, this performance piece has numerous conceptual goals. The first is to assert that often, normative understandings of biological function are a mythology imposed on form. It is this mythology that creates the sexist, racist, ableist, nationalist and homophobic perspective, distinguishing what body parts are .meant. to do from their physical capability. The myth that a certain set of functions are .natural. (while all the other potential functions are .unnatural.) undermines that sense of capability, confining lifestyle choices to the bounds of normatively defined narratives.
Just as it is a myth that women are .meant. to be feminine and men masculine, that penises and vaginas are .meant. for penetrative heterosexual sex (or that mouths, anuses, breasts, feet or leather, silicone, vinyl, rubber, or metal implements are not .meant. for sex at all), it is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are .meant. to birth a child.
When considering my own bodily form, I recognize its potential as extending beyond its ability to participate in a normative function. While my organs are capable of engaging with the narrative of reproduction . the time-based linkage of discrete events from conception to birth . the realm of capability extends beyond the bounds of that specific narrative chain. These organs can do other things, can have other purposes, and it is the prerogative of every individual to acknowledge and explore this wide realm of capability.
Here’s the comment I left:
I’m with Kate on this – what other functions is she talking about re: ovaries, fallopian tubes and the uterus?
They give me cysts and cramps? How exactly does a project about a process by which one can get pregnant and then can choose to try to not get pregnant show us how the reproductive organs are inside us for other purposes?
“Wide realm of capability”?
I wish she would enumerate because I’m missing those ideas.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:03 pm April 17th, 2008 in Abortion, Blogging, Civil Rights, Health Care, Marketing, Media, Social Issues, Women, Writing | 17 Comments
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Apr
17
Transcript of Clinton, Obama debate in Philadelphia, 4/16/08
Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Debates, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Primary, WH2008 | Comments Off
From the Council on Foreign Relations, you can relive all the excitement here.
They’re gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:38 pm April 17th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Debates, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Politics, Primary, WH2008 | Comments Off
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Apr
17
[update] Yale art student: Inseminates self, takes abortion drug & videos own miscarriages
Filed Under Abortion, Culture, Social Issues, Women | 9 Comments
Update: The student who created the project says it’s not real, only a creative fiction project.
Please, God. Do not let my kids grow up to be artists like this one. It would really test that unconditional love thing parents are supposed to have for kids.
Some info from the story:
Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.
The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts’ project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock . saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.
…
The display of Schvarts’ project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts’ self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.
Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.
I want to be more radical in many ways, but I just don’t think I can go this way.
Thoughts?
Hattip to this comment by Charlie Stross.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:22 pm April 17th, 2008 in Abortion, Culture, Social Issues, Women | 9 Comments
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Apr
17
[update] From “I Can’t BELIEVE What Some Men Will Do To Bash Women” department
Filed Under Blogging, Civil Rights, Marketing, Media, Women, Writing | 9 Comments
Okay. I just have very little comment here other than to say, I read this post and am just stunned that anyone would write that.
I know, I know. I was stunned when I was directed to white supremicist blogs and when the Columbus police woman thought her anti-Semitic videos were just information and on and on.
And so maybe this will turn out to be a hoax too. But I’m thinking…nah.
The teaser is after the jump. It contains vulgarities that I personally don’t use and don’t normally reprint but really can’t be redacted without impeding the impact: Read more
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:20 pm April 17th, 2008 in Blogging, Civil Rights, Marketing, Media, Women, Writing | 9 Comments
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Apr
17
Carnival of Ohio Politics #113 now posted
Filed Under Announcements, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics, Writing | 1 Comment
Much thanks to Scott of Pho’s Akron Pages for putting together this week’s Carnival of Ohio Politics #113.
And a serious call for comments:
Call for Comments
Finally, we need some help from the Carnival community regarding format. When we were given the Carnival by the estimable Paul Miller, we posted a few guidelines, one of which noted that the topic of the Carnival is Ohio politics. We’ve not enforced the topic and for the most part things people submit have some relationship to Ohio and to Politics, or an least an emanation and penumbra of same.
But every week we get a few posts a little more off topic than on. I think we need to have a bit of a chat about it before the entire heard of horses has escaped from the barn and every worm has squirmed out of the can. I don’t mean to call people out, but just highlight some posts that push the envelope a little more than usual.
So Kyle’s post about The Chief Source now being iPhone compatible is interesting and shows what can be done with a blog. But is it about politics? And do we run the risk of another blogger submitting a post that is simply self-promotion based on the precedent. Tim Russo’s Part 1 of his history with George Nemeth is about Meet the Bloggers, certainly an important development on the 2006 political landscape. But it similarly makes me nervous, not least because I suspect Part 2 doesn’t end well.
And this post by Tim Higgins may be the most enjoyable read of the week, but save my soul, I can’t wedge it into any sort of Ohio politics category. Finally, Tom Blumer submitted a positivity story as his sole contribution and assured me it would be fine if we decided it’s not politics enough.
So we may be at a bit of a watershed. We can start cracking down on format or we can continue to allow drift, each choice carrying risks and benefits. But Jill, Lisa Renee, Ben and I each feel the Carnival isn’t our property so much as it’s a benefit to the blogging community we happen to work on. So we need you all to chime in. Which way should we go?
Please visit the Carnival and tell us your thoughts.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:41 am April 17th, 2008 in Announcements, Carnivals, Ohio, Politics, Writing | 1 Comment
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Apr
17
[updatex2] Newsweek, beautiful mommies & cosmetic surgeon & author, Michael Salzhauer
Filed Under 'Roots News, Blogging, Health Care, Social Issues, Women | 10 Comments
Here’s the original post I saw yesterday and just hadn’t gotten to, from Feministing that details a children’s book called My Beautiful Mommy. It’s all about how gret tummy tucks are. I’m not kidding. That’s for real.
Making the rounds this morning, I read this post on BlogHer (from Backpacking Dad) about how the book is kind of a hoax. So I then went to the original post about how it’s a kind of a hoax on the blog, Making Light.
Well, Making Light includes some excellent information about how the book in question appears to have been published by a vanity publisher. All the links are at Making Light re: what these are and who are the specific players. Many kudos to the blogger there for doing all that.
So – I went a bit further and googled the author of My Beautiful Mommy.
Here’s what I found:
His blog and website called Nip/Talk Radio. I never watched Nip/Tuck but it’s a riff off of that cable program.
Here’s what American Health and Beauty writes about him.
He is in Bal Harbour, Florida. My grandmother lived in Bal Harbour. I spent many vacations with her in Bal Harbour (she died when I was 23). Bal Harbour is a very nice place, or used to be, but I haven’t been there in literally decades. So – it’s just my memory. But I think it’s still more or less like that. I could be wrong.
No surprise to any readers of WLST, a book that is described like this by Newsweek:
“My Beautiful Mommy” is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael (a musclebound superhero type) and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: “You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn’t fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better.” Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.
The text doesn’t mention the breast augmentation, but the illustrations intentionally show Mom’s breasts to be fuller and higher. “I tried to skirt that issue in the text itself,” says Salzhauer. “The tummy lends itself to an easy explanation to the children: extra skin and can’t fit into your clothes. The breasts might be a stretch for a six-year-old.”
The book doesn’t explain exactly why the mother is redoing her nose post-pregnancy. Nonetheless, Mom reassures her little girl that the new nose won’t just look “different, my dear—prettier!”
is going to be a problem for me – on many, many levels.
But – keeping it to the professional level, I wanted to know, as a writer, how did an alleged vanity publication get in the hands of Newsweek? So I wrote the author: Read more
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:36 am April 17th, 2008 in 'Roots News, Blogging, Health Care, Social Issues, Women | 10 Comments
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Apr
17
Digby aka Hullabaloo is Favorite Female Blogger
Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Politics, Women, Writing | 1 Comment
Little doubt existed in my mind that Digby, who blogs at Hullabaloo, would win the Women’s Voices Women Vote contest for favorite female blogger.
I voted for her, after all. (I also voted for myself.)
To those who know that Digby is a woman, she is easily identifiable as a favorite female blogger. But up until June 2007, her identity was unknown and she is a favorite among all bloggers and blog readers, not only women. Watch this wonderful speech that she gave, upon accepting the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award on behalf of the progressive blogosphere at Take Back America 2007/Campaign for America’s Future. The Nation posted her speech (and another link to the video) here.
Thank you very, very much to everyone who voted for me. I was saying to someone yesterday that for as ridiculous as it might sound when an Oscar nominee says, “Oh, I’m so honored just to be nominated with this group of incredibly talented individuals,” let me just repeat: I am so honored just to be in the group of ten who received the most votes in the first phase of WVWV’s contest. Actually – I was shocked. I just don’t have that many valid e-mails in my address book (you should see how many bounced back).
For the record, I believe in World Peace and I know where the United States is on a map (can you believe that there have been more than 24 million views of that?). But I guess that just wasn’t enough this time around.
Please keep an eye on WVWV – they have great materials targeted to unmarried women, but also useful for anyone who is interested in eradicating inequalities that persist as a result of being female.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:51 am April 17th, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, Politics, Women, Writing | 1 Comment
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