Notable Quotable

A natural response is to change the word feminist to a word with fewer stigmas attached. But inevitably the same thing will happen to that magical word. Part of the radical connotation of feminism is not due to the word, but to the action. The act of a woman standing up for herself is radical, whether she calls herself a feminist or not.

That was written by Paula Kamen, a fellow Chicago feminist and author of the book I'm currently reading, All In My Head (an epic quest to cure an unrelenting totally unreasonable and only slightly enlightening HEADACHE).

The Virgin Mary appears under the freeway

Finally! It's about time I got to witness a sighting of the Virgin Mary. After all, I'm about to turn forty soon and still had never managed to see an apparition, even though in the past there have been several in areas where I've lived. Either the visitation had disappeared by the time I made it to the site or, like the time She appeared in an office building window in Berkely, Michigan, I just didn't see anything. Perhaps I just wasn't full of grace.

Now all of that has changed. The Virgin Mary has appeared on the wall of a freeway underpass at Fullerton Avenue just east of Western Avenue. I saw the pictures on the internet yesterday and watched the footage on the news last night, so I knew that finally my time had come to witness Her glory!

I decided to leave for work a little early today and stop by the impromptu shrine on my way. It's only a block or so off the bus route I take and it's a beautiful day out, so I thought it was a great idea for a field trip.

The underpass is larger than usual, as it's actually an accident investigation site, so some people actually had their cars parked there to see if they could spot the Virgin in what is basically a stain on the concrete caused by run-off from the freeway. The salt and various chemicals mixed with the water left the stain and a woman driving by one morning decided that the stain looked like Mary and pulled her car over to pray.

Someone called the news (of course) and now there are candles and flowers, as well as a traffic jam near the site. Then there's the stain. As these Yahoo! news pictures show, it takes a hefty imagination to see Our Lady in that hard water stain. Personally, I see something far more dirty.

I'm planning on stopping by again tonight on my way home from work and this time I'm going to bring my camera to take some pictures of my own. I'll post those as soon as I have them

It's only a job

Just keep repeating it, sooner or later, it will sink it. It's only a job, it's only a job, it's not the rest of your life.

I've got to get out of here. I hate everyone today. I just want them all to shut the fuck up. Everyone I work with is so goddamn loud, all of them shouting to be heard over each other's screeching. How can anyone have so much to say about so little?

Finally, a not so horrible day!

Even though my back is killing me, it's been an okay day so far. I can only work until six, since that's when the dealership closes, I got my paycheck today, and while I was at lunch I picked up the brand-new Garbage CD, Bleed Like Me. It also happens to be sunny and somewhat warm outside. Now if only this horrid knot in my lower back would go away, things might go from just okay to rather good. Stay tuned.....

Isn't it ironic?

A disturbing article in today's Guardian by Monty Python's Terry Jones.

Of course, I'm waiting for the White House spin about how malnutrition is actually good for children and that Saddam Hussein was hurting children by allowing them to eat so much.

Better late than never, right?

Like almost everyone else I know, I couldn't resist the temptation of broadcasting my every poisonous thought and hyper-critical opinion out into cyberspace to be read by mostly friends, relatives and crazed stalkers. What could go wrong, right? After all, if I get bored and quit (let's face it - I usually do), I can always just delete the whole thing and pretend it never existed. If only we could do that in all areas of our lives.